Our high school will indeed show that S19 took the equivalent of French 1 in middle school on his transcript. Haven’t the foggiest idea if any given college would think taking French through French 4 and stopping after junior year counts as four years. Again, it would depend on the school and how competitive the applicants are. For the best students at our high school, our counselors even warn against doubling up on math or science to the detriment of leaving off a foreign language or social studies. The top schools want kids who do well across the board.
the OP didn’t say what kinds of colleges she has on her list. That’s also why I suggested she look at each school and find their FL requirements. It’s usually clear on the websites. Depending on her list, it may be just fine to skip AP French. I just didn’t want the OP to get stuck having to take French in college because she couldn’t score high enough on a placement test if her college gives one.