I have an issue with my junior year courses. I have to decide if I want to take honors or advanced lit. For the past two years, I have been taking honors. Now this year I have my courses are not fitting and the main issue is my lit class.
If I take honors, then I cannot take Spanish 4 and will have two extra classes (electives). If I take advanced, I can take Spanish 4 and have one extra class.
What do you suggest? I mean, I wish to go for top colleges and I know I need more than 3 years of foreign language (took Spanish 1 in 8th grade which is not highschool). Will taking advanced lit hurt my chances?
Spanish 1 will count in those 3 years, because colleges count “levels” rather than years. I would recommend, IMO, taking honors lit however (I don’t know your school so I don’t know the difference in difficulty), and taking Spanish, because it doesn’t look too good to drop one of your core subjects in junior year.
Four consecutive years of a foreign language is much more attractive to top colleges than upgrading an English course level that is is barely different from its lower level. I don’t know what your school is like, but I can’t imagine advanced lit having a huge difference between honors lit. It won’t make or break your application if you take either, but having that extra year of a foreign language will give you a huge advantage against every other applicant and will make you stick out. I recommend you take Spanish 4. If you decide to take this and feel comfortable enough with your skills and are non-native, take the Spanish Subject Test towards the end of junior year.
Unless you want to be an English major, just take advanced lit. If you are worried it might hurt your chances, leave a note about the circumstances of your schedule conflict on the common app when you get ready to apply to colleges.
Before we make flat statements, what IS the possible major? When an applicant has a schedule conflict, rigor can trump the 4 years of language- depending on the major. Happens (usually with higher level math.)
So I’d say, unless you want a Spanish or IR (or some others that expect lang strengths) major, go for the rigor and what that shows to adcoms.
@lookingforward There still can’t be a huge difference between both lit courses, so I don’t think it matters so much on taking either. I think an additional year of foreign language much more appealing (and competitive) than the rigor of one singular class. In most cases, consecutive years are needed for any required foreign language credits. Also, OP might lose a lot of their Spanish skills if they skip a year. I can barely retain what I learned the first half of the year after winter break.
@lookingforward I don’t need to work for an Ivy League admissions committee to know that top colleges like seeing foreign language on a transcript.
I don’t know what you mean by this. I’ve been in the FL public school system my whole life and since sixth grade all my counselors have told me that at least two consecutive years of foreign language are needed to be admitted to a FL public university. [url=http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7764/urlt/0084250-1415freshmenflyer.pdf]This[/url] states the same (second page, top right chart). Even if consecutive years aren’t required, there is still the matter of OP forgetting material from the past three years.
It won’t really matter if OP takes one lit class or the other. Even if the difference were as big as a regular lit class and AP Lit it wouldn’t matter a whole lot to colleges, but an additional year of foreign language gives OP a lead over the other 30,000 applicants that want to get in. If OP feels better taking Spanish 4 in senior year then they can do that, but I don’t think it would go well for them if they don’t consistently practice/refresh their Spanish skills over the year. If they want to skip out on a fourth year all together then that’s fine, too, but four years is appealing to top colleges.
While true in most cases, FL is a “use it or lose it” skill. OP will find it difficult to adjust after a year’s absence, IMO.
Again, while true, I see no difference in the rigor between the 2 scenarios. However, the GC makes the final determination, so perhaps OP should ask GC if either schedule will put the “most rigorous” rating in jeopardy.
@skieurope I do usually agree lang is best taken consecutively, for several reasons. But we don’t know about her high school or her abilities. Nor her interests. Waiting to see if we hear more. In some high schools, especially those that don’t send a high percent off to 4 year colleges, “advanced” isn’t the equivalent to honors. Let’s see.
@lookingforward Agreed. Also, I need to add some texture to another one of your comments:
There are schedule conflicts, and then there are what a student incorrectly calls “schedule conflicts.” From another thread of the OP:
IMO, a conflict caused by doubling up on another core subject is not a schedule conflict - it’s a conscious decision made by the student. Whether the doubling up on sciences caused the issue as posted in this thread is also something the OP needs to clarify.
Yes, but conscious decisions can be favorable. It all has to make sense to adcoms- and if she’s STEM, the double science jr year may make sense. It may open senior year for higher classes or mean the opening for AP chem. Or the senior schedule may be cluttered with some nutty district requirements.
This may be different than those kids who mess around with schedules just to get in a higher AP count and short their foreign language. Or humanities kids who stuff in sociology and macro, thinking it shows interest, but miss the AP cores.
This could also be a quirk at that high school. But this is an OP who hasn’t laid out her situation, courses taken and those planned for sr year, GPA, etc, in the way many do. Frankly, I’m wondering how she isn’t in an AP English class. And maybe she was just wildly noodling about maybe an Ivy.
And if she comes back and says she wants an IR major, sure, she should take Spanish. Or drop back on one of the AP sci and fit in AP English. Who knows.
Ok I shall reply to all the questions.
I was planning to take AP English first of all, but I realized the rigor is too tough for me (22 essays in a year and it’s 10 points lower than honors lit - kids told me). And I was never strong in English - I always was best in science, then math. So, I thought honors lit was best, but it didn’t fit. Advanced lit would show to people I degraded and I am kinda worried about the company. In all of this, I had the grade requirement for AP English, honors lit, and advanced.
But if I doubled science, it would make up for a lower English. I think AP physics 1 is a tough science, so that should work. It was not schedule conflict for the science; it was more of I couldn’t decide between chem 2 and AP physics 1. But now I did.
Another thing - I wish to take a SAT 2 test in Spanish, which means I should take Spanish 4 junior year.
I wish to major in a sciences. I think maybe I could be a doctor because I am really good at bio.
There is around 80 kids in my future junior year. About 20 kids are taking Spanish 4 (juniors and seniors combined).
In senior year, I am opting for AP Chem and maybe AP calc. I am not sure for AP physics C mechanics (want to see how well I do in AP physics 1.) There are no IB courses at my school. I want to take honors lit, advanced history (I just can’t stand history and there is no honors offered), AP/honors calc, Spanish 4/5, ap chem.