<p>I’m a native Chinese speaker. I’m Chinese, have a Chinese last name, and constantly hear the language in my home. Theoretically speaking, which is more impressive: taking AP Chinese and IB Chinese and becoming the valedictorian, or taking another language (say, Spanish or French), starting from the very beginning (Spanish/French I, Spanish French II, all the way up to AP Spanish French) and not becoming valedictorian? Is there a large gap between these two scenarios in terms of getting into the college of your choice? Which one is better for me?</p>
<p>Taking AP/IB Chinese would be like a native English-speaker taking AP English Lit - which is something that your monolingual friends do all the time without questioning whether or not they should. Personally I would advise that you take the highest level of Chinese that you can. In the future you will have solid evidence that you have not only speaking skills, but also reading and writing skills in that language. Many students your age are barely literate in their home languages. Full literacy in your second language can mean the all difference when it comes time to apply for work.</p>
<p>Thanks, happymomof1! But in terms of college admissions, I’m afraid that an admissions officer would look at my schedule and think, “This person is a native Chinese speaker and is enrolled in a Chinese class? Really? She totally took the easy way out.”</p>
<p>Plus, since I live in the US, where, obviously, English is the official language, I’m pretty sure that AP English is written for native English speakers, whereas other AP languages such as Chinese, Spanish, French, Japanese, etc. are written both as an easy way out for natives and a challenging test for learners. Colleges want to see that you’ve challenged yourself to the fullest extent, right?</p>
<p>While I agree with happymom’s points, I don’t see why you can’t do AP Chinese and AP Spanish (screw French, more people speak Spanish). </p>
<p>As for being valedictorian … don’t count on or stress about it. Plenty of kids that placed in the top 10 of their high school classes are going to higher ranked schools than the Valedictorian. And ultimately college is more about what you do there then where you went.</p>
<p>AP Chinese is a waste of time for natives. You could consider IB Chinese though.</p>
<p>I second what happymomof1 said. I know a guy in the same situation as you, though with a different language – he’s at MIT.</p>
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<p>Is AP Chinese comparable to AP English Literature? </p>
<p>Is AP Chinese comparable to AP Spanish or AP French? </p>
<p>Anyone who can answer those questions with knowledge and integrity will also know the answer to the OP question. Fwiw, a native speaker taking the AP Chinese is more like a well prepared US student taking the TOEFL without time limits. Some people found it easier than the SATII that was testing an elementary school knowledge of Chinese. It is good to remember that those tests are meant to be taken by non-native speakers. Making it difficult would make the test impossible for American students. Most native speakers ace the AP Chinese with no preparation. It is a joke! </p>
<p>For the rest, it is always smart to maximize your GPA and it cannot hurt you to be valedictorian. Take the IB classes for boosting your GPA … isn’t that one of the main reasons why the IB is successful in the US. Take Chinese for individual or family reasons? Absolutely. For colleges? You’d hope they do NOT notice.</p>
<p>As far as a native Chinese getting brownies for taking the AP Chinese, it will entirely depend on the depth of the holistic review. A college that actually evaluates more than the basic scores will weigh it appropriately. And the answer would hardly please you.</p>
<p>I heard differently.</p>
<p>The AP Chinese is not the same as AP English by a long shot.
Remember this is America, it is not China. If you are in China taking a test of Chinese, that will be the equivalent of taking AP English. Here in America, taking AP Chinese to a native Chinese is a piece of cake, since it is only at conversational level. ANY grade school level Native Chinese can get a full credit on it.</p>
<p>Lots of native Chinese kids took SAT II Chinese and got 800 on it, in fact my friend’s son who went to Cal two years ago, he did not want to take that test because if you get any thing less than 800 you will be almost at the 50% level. He is fluent in Chinese but not good enough to compete with Native born Chinese.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that English is not the official language of the U.S. 
There is no national official language.</p>
<p>Smorgasbord: Please tell me more about this guy. Did he just take the AP/IB classes for his native language, or did he learn a new language? </p>
<p>Xiggi: Thanks for the response! I fear that if colleges knew I was a Chinese native (born in China) it would be more than apparent that I’m taking AP/IB Chinese classes solely for GPA, college and credit. I’m interested in Ivies, like UPenn, Columbia, Cornell, etc… How would taking AP/IB Chinese affect my acceptance rate into these colleges? Would colleges like these evaluate more than basic scores?</p>
<p>Personally, I would take the Chinese SAT II to show my skills (and forgo a foreign language requirement or look good on app) and take another foreign language. The more under your belt, the better. Now, if this means getting a C in any other language, that then would probably not be a good idea (starts to affect rank and GPA).</p>
<p>It really depends on what you mean by difficulty. In itself, written Chinese is an amalgam of ideograms, sound hinting characters, and sometimes simplified forms that culminate into thousands of unique characters. In addition, you have Pinyin and ZhuYin FuZhao (Bopomofo) that are two popular, different pronunciation tools that are often used (and on the SAT II at least, if not on the AP exam).</p>
<p>Spanish and French on the other hand use an alphabet with a set amount of letters and accents (</p>
<p>Competitive colleges specifically say they are looking at “course rigor” when they evaluate applicants. </p>
<p>Which would look like you challenged yourself more–mastering your native language or mastering a truly foreign language? </p>
<p>As noted by a previous poster–it (taking AP Chinese) would be like an American or Brit taking the TOEFL test–a great score would be expected, not impressive.</p>
<p>AP Spanish Lang and AP Spanish Lit are roughly comparable to AP English Lang and AP English Lit (I have this from an AP Spanish teacher who is native, and who taught those levels in her home country before moving to the US). I expect that given there is only one level of AP Chinese, it would be roughly comparable to AP Lang.</p>
<p>AP Spanish Lang and AP Spanish Lit are tougher exams than CLEP Spanish, which is a tougher exam than SATII Spanish. The toughest exam of all would be the IB HL. Those courses are designed for native speakers and for students with native-like fluency.</p>
<p>One difficulty that people with a non-English home language face, is validating their language skills in the home language. That is why I recommend the OP take the AP Chinese course. He/she may even be able to place into it as early as 9th grade (Happykid placed into Spanish Lang then). Chinese (Mandarin) will be the big language of the 21st century. Hard evidence of literacy and fluency is something that the OP can put in his/her pocket for future use. In addition, a good score on the AP exam can eliminate a foreign language requirement at most colleges and universities. This would free up time in the student’s schedule. Most colleges and universities will give credit/placement to native speakers for their home languages, because they count English as a second/foreign language for students for whom it is indeed a second/foreign language.</p>
<p>College admissions is not the end of your life.
Do you want to become fluent in another language?
This is your best opportunity to get on that track.
There was a time when I lost a job opportunity because I was not fluent in spanish.</p>
<p>but do you care?</p>
<p>While not ignoring short term ramifications altogether, I would suggest for the most part do what you want, based on what you want to accomplish for yourself and in your life in the long run. How evaluators will consider it is unknowable in any event. so screw them, do what is best in your own evaluation, to you.</p>
<p>If it means you go to school A instead of school B , again that is not the end of your life it is but the beginning. And who knows whether it means that anyway.</p>
<p>Let me iterate. I’m a native Chinese speaker, living in China; I’ve taken SAT II Chinese and have numerous friends who took AP Chinese. And let me just say that AP Chinese is NOT equivalent with AP Spanish Language, and definitely not equivalent with AP English Language. The only reason you might take it is if you have no way of proving that you are a native Chinese speaker AND that your dream colleges do not have any language placement tests - in which case, taking the test might place you out of any language requirements. This is highly unlikely. And even in this case, take only the exam but not the course - colleges want you to challenge yourself, and AP Chinese is not a challenge for native speakers.</p>
<p>IB Chinese, on the other hand, is much more advanced and does contain elements of literature. It’s a possible choice. But I think you should choose another language, both for admissions and for your future career.</p>
<p>I’m also in the same situation, but my native language is cantonese instead of mandarin. Would that make an exception in college?</p>
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<p>He only took the AP for his native language, and since it was senior year and his school had a language requirement to graduate, I’m guessing he started from level 3 and progressed.</p>
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<p>happymomof1, while the part about Spanish is more or less true, your statement about the Chinese AP is not. Perhaps, I should pay more attention to what you actually write, namely that you’d EXPECT the tests to be comparable to AP Lang. That is fine but it is also shows that you do NOT know what the AP Chinese test is supposed to test and what the level of difficulty is. </p>
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<p>Again, this is not correct. None of those tests are DESIGNED for native speakers. It so happens that native speakers take them for … obvious reasons. Because of the number of Spanish speakers who are native speakers, the test makers have increased the difficulty of the tests. The test are NOT designed for native speakers. Fwiw, you should also consider that there are various degrees of fluency for native speakers. For instance, many Hispanics do have a high level of SPOKEN fluency but a substandard level of written fluency. In so many words, they do well on listening tests, might do well on comprehension tests, but perform poorly on test that require a minimum knowledge of grammar. </p>
<p>Please do a minimum of fact checking on this issue.</p>
<p>Here’s a good start. Ask one of your chinese friends to explain the difficulty of this test. </p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/AP-Chinese-Exam-Overview.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;
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<p>Couldn’t one argue that for the other AP language tests, i.e. French, German?</p>
<p>"Couldn’t one argue that for the other AP language tests, i.e. French, German? "</p>
<p>Absolutely. And that is why native speakers have variable results on different tests. For some, the tests that rely more on spoken and written knowledge will be easier, especially if spelling is not the most important element.</p>