Fulfilling Foreign Language 'recommendation' outside of High School

Our high school offers couple of foreign languages. All of them are ‘standard’ courses not ‘honors’. Foreign languages are not a requirement to for high school graduation. We can fulfill all district/high school requirements for graduation by selecting all Honors/AP courses which will increase weighted GPA/School rank.

We understand that it is a strong ‘recommendation’ to take 2-4 years of foreign language for selective schools. If we take them at school, weighted GPA/rank are affected.

Can we fulfill the ‘recommendation’ by taking the foreign language outside (online/community) college, and taking SAT/AP tests? How will the admissions committees view this?

If you’re intent on applying to selective schools, gaming your GPA/Class rank by avoiding in-school foreign language classes is silly. I don’t see how you can get 3-4 years outside to make the inconvenience meaningful. Trust me, selective colleges know that there are high-ranked kids supremely weak transcripts. They’ll search for students who push the envelope and eschew the GPA race – they will fair fine.

Thanks for quick response.

In 9th grade 1st semester, my son took all ‘Honors’, except an elective Project Lead the way which was a Standard weighted course. With 'A’s in all courses, the weighted GPA was 5.57 on 5 scale but I was shocked to see the Class rank was 15.

We don’t intend to avoid foreign language. Is Independent Study of Foreign Language at places such as CTD North Western Gifted Learning Links (offers Latin I, II, III, IV) , in addition to taking Challenging AP Courses at School, help/hurt?

Quite some time ago, colleges required two to four years HS foreign language for admission (according to my guidance counselor, anyway). My schedule was already too full, so I fulfilled that requirement by taking one year of foreign language at the university when I was a HS Junior.

When I continued on with that language in college, I was able to transition to the second year of study while most students who had 3 and 4 years in HS dropped back to take first year again.

So, it seems like the take home lesson is that one year of study at the college level might be exchangeable for several at the HS level.

However, I did receive grades for the college-level study while in HS which continued to be considered in future graduate-level applications even though HS coursework no longer was.

Having been in your shoes - I was a rather naive mom when my only kid hit high school - my sincere advice is not to buy into the gaming of the system. Your kid should build the schedule he wants and achieve his best. There a handful of seniors at my kids school (including my little peanut) who have maintained straight A’s. A couple of them (and their parents) have seriously made sneaky choices to inflate their weighted GPA. I got upset in sophomore year and advocated that the school offer honors level of some core classes every year so that all kids would have the same opportunity to earn weighted GPA points (school had previously offered honors level only some years and those parents in the know had pled with the principal to skip prerequisites or otherwise get them in when they knew an “honors year” was occuring so they would have a GPA advantage). When other kids got retrospective honors points for standard courses because “they worked hard”, I quit caring about class rank.

All these kids are bright. Some are focusing their energy on a rather insignificant measure (high school rank). I would rather my kid focus on challenging herself, expanding her horizons by taking art, and taking the foreign language that she loves. I am convinced, and her GC has told me her opinion as well, that my kid is on a more successful path. Despite her #3 or 4 class rank. The GC calmed me down at that tense meeting sophomore year by telling me how important it is in the application that the GC indicates “most challenging curriculum” and that she would explain class rank etc in the narrative.

Don’t make your kid into a “professional student”.

Encourage your kid to keep up the straight A’s. If he does that, his rank should rise as some kids get a B second semester 9th, sophomore year etc. I would not take on 4 years of outside foreign language in addition to the “all AP” curriculum he has mapped out - its going to get tougher as he gets into more advanced classes with tons of homework (AP histories for example)

Best wishes. You have a long road ahead of you. Keep your child’s long term goals and best interest at heart and let the trivial stuff (like weighted GPA games) go by the wayside.

Also I think being in the top 5% is the most important thing…more than being Val or Sal.

The importance of class rank does vary depending on college. For example, it is highly important (particularly at the thresholds of top 7% and top 10%) in Texas public universities. But the importance is much lower or nonexistent at many other schools.

Some colleges create incentives to play class rank games by awarding large scholarships that only valedictorians are eligible for.

While visiting 20+ schools over the last 2 years, we were surprised by how many applicants come from high schools which don’t rank at all. Others seem to have gone to a decile system so being in the top 10% is the goal for getting into selective colleges. Our school is considering dropping ranking. Wish it happened before my 2 started HS - I am so disappointed that schools give out rank starting after 1st semester - it creates a very unhealthy environment among peers (and sometimes twins!) and can possibly lead to passing up on some great classes because they are “only” standard.

Many colleges also mentioned that they use the unweighted gpa and then add their own weight for the core classes. So A’s in standard non-core (foreign language, music,art, business) still help the unweighted gpa. In my home, tw2 had a higher unweighted gpa, but tw1 had a higher weighted gpa and thus higher rank. But both took the classes they wanted to take and have ended up flipped within a fraction of each other and of everyone else in the top 10 %.

Look at the admissions websites for some of the schools you think your child might be interested in - for most there are many more important factors than ranking. Enjoy HS - it goes by way too quickly!

I didn’t go to high school in this country. All of it is very new for us. Just now I read that, our school may abandon the school rank as well, not sure when.

Leaving GPA/Rank out of discussion for now, is studying foreign language outside of school, still a good idea? Northwestern CTD/GLL costs ~1000 per year so 4000 for four years. What other ‘good’ online options available? Given that we already missed one year, we would like to catch up if possible.

Taking courses at a local college will get her to a higher level of proficiency faster than taking high school courses. For example, a year of beginning college foreign language courses often counts as two to four years of high school foreign language courses (depending on the college and high school).

If she knows another language from home or other non-school learning, some colleges may accept proven proficiency (AP, SAT subject, or college placement test in that language). Others may still expect additional foreign language study in a non-native/heritage language other than English.

Core classes are English, Math, Science, Social Science, and Foreign Language. 4 years are expected for all of these for elite school admissions. The exception to this is Math and Foreign Language, where what matters most is level reached.
The first semester of college language roughly covers 2 years of HS foreign language; the second semester, depending on the HS and the college, would cover 1 to 2 years of HS language; the third semester is either equivalent to Level4 or AP in a foreign language.
I don’t see this as circumventing the HS’s requirements, but actually as having more rigorous classes (since “standard” foreign language classes are unlikely to be the most rigorous - I’ve seen some where 3 years of “standard” HS language covered 1 strong college semester!!) If your child can take 3 semesters of foreign language at a local college, s/he’d be fine for good colleges; taking a 4th semester would help him/her stand out. However, because the pace of that first semester often is brutal and most students have already taken a foreign language when they take that Level1, a good compromise could be to take Level1 at the high school, then Level1 at the college, then continue on to Level 2 and 3 (perhaps up to level4, depending on what college your child is aiming for). If taking up to Level3 only, taking the SAT Subject in that language and/or the AP exam would be a way to “certify” knowledge externally
Finally, as UCBAlum said above, if your child speaks a language from heritage or natively, s/he can take the SAT subject test or even the AP test in it, if available, at any point. However, indeed, “top” colleges would expect your child to study an actual foreign language in addition to that. Having both a high “heritage language” score and a good/high “foreign language” score is considered very positively by elite colleges or any good IR program.

Thank you all for the great insights.

We will looked at the local community college that offers 2 semesters during summer, rigorous daily 3 hours classes. Much cheaper than CTD/GLL and also it is with ‘real’ teacher as opposed to self learning. Hope the quality is good. Our ‘heritage’ language is not one of AP/SAT languages, although he is very good at it.

Is the heritage language taught in any local colleges? Perhaps he can show proficiency by taking a college placement test showing placement into a high level course (and perhaps actually taking the high level course) in the language. This may be a bonus to many colleges, even if it has to be in addition to another non-heritage language.

Community college can be good but the summer introductions are very intense.
If there is no AP/SAT test for your heritage language, is there a “cultural center” that would offer testing or certifications?