Hi. Currently, I am at the end of freshman year in high school and wanted to get an idea of the courses I should take in the upcoming years. Although I will be taking foreign language next year too, I was wondering whether it would be required by top colleges after that. Not doing Spanish after that will allow me to take a computer science course at Princeton in my senior year, which I really want to do. In order to get to that, however, I have to complete other courses such as AP Comp Sci A and Principles, and taking Spanish beyond sophomore year will seriously make it much more difficult for me to achieve this. I know that a lot of the top colleges recommend 3 years, but I have taken a year of Spanish in middle school also, so technically I will have taken up till Spanish 3 if I pursue this route.
Will this be sufficient for some of the top schools, if I am 100% sure that I will major in Computer Science?
Check the web sites of colleges of interest to see what level they prefer to see. Many of the more selective colleges prefer to see foreign language up to level 4 or AP level.
But also check the graduation requirements of your colleges of interest. Completing a higher level in high school may mean needing fewer or no college courses to complete the college’s foreign language graduation requirement.
Reaching level 3 meets the basics but level 4 would be expected.
I doubt the Princeton CS class requires Cs principles - it may certainly require CS A but CS principles is a general introduction for people who aren’t sure they are interested in CS and thus would not apply to you.
The amount of foreign language needed varies from school to school. Most just need you to be at Level 3 at the bare minimum, which in your case you would accomplish at the end of your sophomore year. However, some schools require Level 4. A few schools require 3 actual HS years of a language. A few schools may even require 4 actual HS years. I would call different University admissions that you have interest in and find out. Websites are often nebulous with the wording.
You should google the common data set of college you might be interested in applying to and see what level of foreign language is recommended/required. When a college says 3 years they mean to level 3 so you would be fine for those. However, if you are interested in a group of colleges that want 4 years then you would be putting yourself at a disadvantage by not taking Spanish 4.
Note that you may want to consider taking Spanish 4 over the summer, at a CC, with an accredited online program to meet the requirements and still have room to take the class you want. This is an option you might discuss with your guidance counselor next year.
High school credits don’t transfer to college. AP classes often don’t transfer either. As far as a university is concerned, it makes no difference to them as long as your grades and scores are competitive. Just take whatever makes you happy
@coolguy40 Nobody is focused on having credits count for college. The point is that most colleges have a definitive set of required/recommended HS coursework that they want to see every applicant take. These classes are clearly set forth in each schools’ common data set (which can be googled easily) and often on the schools’ website as well. If the OP chooses to replace required/recommended courses with an elective, it could negatively impact his/her applications – especially to the top tier colleges which already have such low acceptance rates.
I’ve looked at this question, as my rising 9th grade son is similarly STEM focused. Here’s some information on foreign language requirements that I found:
@coolguy40 this is misinformation, plain and simple. Sure, there are colleges and universities that will take only two high school years, but OP mentioned TOP COLLEGES. My state’s flagship, for example is a very solid school but probably not considered a top university, yet it REQUIRES three years, and prefers four years of FL. Just taking “whatever makes you happy” may or may not get you wherever you want to go. We’re really not clear whether OP’s middle school Spanish will count.
While that may be true, colleges often have their own foreign language placement procedures or tests so that someone with some knowledge of the language from high school starts in the appropriate level. So completing level 4 instead of level 3 in high school may result in higher placement in college, and therefore fewer courses needed to reach a given level that may be a graduation requirement.
The main question is whether Years = Level or not.
At UC-Berkeley for example, they make pretty clear that your foreign language requirement is at a minimum, at Level 3. Which is important because a ton of students at my kid’s HS start at a level higher than Level 1 and only go 2 years.
When a college says 3 years they mean taking level 3.
The group of colleges my D wanted to attend looked for 3 years of foreign language – she took one year of HS level Spanish in middle school (that did appear on her HS transcript) and two years in HS. She stopped Spanish after she completed level 3 to take academic electives she preferred. Stopping foreign language at level 3 after sophomore year did seem to cause any problem with her college outcome.
There is a pinned thread on the top of this forum with faqs about foreign language which you may choose to read through as well.
