Language Requirement in High school

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
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I am looking for advise for foreign language requirement for admission to Stanford. I know officially it is three or more years of the same world language.

My S26 took Spanish 2 in 9th grade at high school and in Spanish 3 in 10th grade in Community college(CC). He went CC route as the quality of the Spanish 3 teacher was really bad at our high school. We are in the process of course selection for junior year now. We have an option to take the Spanish 4 honors in high school or Spanish 4 equivalent in community college (which is much easier than school). We are wondering if Stanford is stringent about taking Spanish in high school versus community college. Does taking Spanish 4 and higher(AP Spanish) give him an advantage at Stanford admission ?

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Stanford says

We want to emphasize that these are just curriculum recommendations, not strict guidelines. Our admission process allows—and indeed encourages—the flexibility of a high school to design the most appropriate curricular offerings and opportunities for its students.

Put another way, they will look at all courses taken. They are not going to nitpick course by course.

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Typically, the most important thing is that the student gets through level 4 in a language, if offered. Which level 4? I think that HS honors or AP courses are probably better than CC courses, which many people assume are easier.

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Spanish4 in CC will be fine but it may help to plan on taking AP Spanish in the 12th grade.

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