<p>My highschool sophomore (jr next year) is looking for online options to continue her Mandarin studies. She just completed Chinese 3 through Michigan Virtual High School but that is the highest level offered. Trying to sort out the options and welcome any new ideas:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>CTY online class, cost $950 less school co-pay of $250?
plus: accredited so she can take it as a class period at school
minus: need for a qualifying SAT score which she has not tested for, still leaves us with next year undetermined</p></li>
<li><p>Virtual Virginia online class, cost $650<br>
plus: Chinese 4 and AP Chinese offered
minus: not accredited so she cant list it as a class on transcript and can’t take it during school hours</p></li>
<li><p>Oakland University course, cost?
plus: actual face-to-face class, goes on her transcript
minus: schedule - offered twice a week in the morning - she misses 2 periods of school in the middle of the day and I have to drive her there until she gets her license in October - then 3 days a week she has a 2 period gap. </p></li>
<li><p>Macomb Community college course
plus: face-to-face class
minus: Evening class, not on transcript, unsure if class is advanced enough</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My questions:
Does it matter if the class is accredited? How important is it to have the class on her transcript vs. listing it separately on her application? Does anyone have experience with Virtual Virginia? Which option looks best on an application?<br>
It’s important for my daughter to continue Chinese - we lived in China for 5 years and her spoken Chinese is quite good - she plans to at least minor in Chinese in college. Cost is not really an issue.</p>
<p>Is that the only way to qualify for the CTY class? I would contact them and discuss her language background and eagerness to continue in the language.</p>
<p>For option 4, she should make an appointment with the instructors who would be teaching that course. It won’t take long for them to figure out if it would be an appropriate level for her. Even a five or ten minute conversation would probably do.</p>
<p>Your daughter can demonstrate her proficiency level in Chinese in many ways including SAT II and AP exam scores. She doesn’t have to record it on her HS transcript for it to count. If she takes it at any other institution she will need to provide that transcript with her college applications.</p>
<p>How about Option 5: Independent Study with her HS teacher (Happykid has done this for two years for her theater tech. work)
or
Option 6: Teacher’s Assistant for Chinese 1 (Niece3 did this one year with her French teacher). Teaching is almost guaranteed to help her really understand and consolidated the language.</p>
<p>Hey, sorry to hijack this thread, but does anyone know of any college programs that offer completely online Spanish programs that are transferrable?</p>
<p>I can tell you that my D took 2 years of Arabic through the JHU CTY program & we were very pleased with it (she starts college this fall, current plans are to double major in IR & Arabic). </p>
<p>Our district did not accept it for credit – what a cluster* – the only online courses they accept for credit are remedial courses. The district gifted specialist and I pushed on it for awhile and then I gave up. The classes were live online and the instructor made herself readily available for 1:1 work as well. It’s a small group so I would assume the same level of attention from the Chinese instructors. Don’t know if there’s any other way to qualify in other than SAT scores – D had been doing CTY programs since middle school.</p>
<p>Although it didn’t show up on her school transcripts, CTY will send their own official transcripts to whatever colleges you want them to. I felt that in some ways that was a plus because it showed that she took the initiative to do academic work that was above and beyond the standard school curriculum.</p>
<p>D had similar problems and spent a lot of time doing self-study until we moved. </p>
<p>I have no idea if you can find something like this in your neck of the woods, but where we currently live we came across a weekend Chinese School which offered grades 1-12. It caters to American born Chinese students and adoptees. She was one of two or three non-Chinese students. Obviously, it didn’t show on her H.S. transcripts, nor did she get school credit for it, but it was fully recognized by admissions officers. Plus, she was able to show proficiency through her tests and interviews with faculty. She also received personal recommendation from her teachers and the school’s Principal. As a result, she will start Chinese language classes in college at the more advanced levels.</p>
<p>I was thinking that it would be important to have 4 years of a foreign language as a class on her transcript vs. just demonstrating proficiency with an exam. She would not take an additional academic class in place of Chinese. So from an admission standpoint (not placment) I thought it would be better to have it on her transcript - would admissions look at outside classes the same way? And what about non-accredited classes like the Virtual Virginia program? </p>
<p>I did look into the weekend Chinese school when we moved here in the summer but the idea of spending every Saturday morning there was not very appealing to my d or to us since we’d have to be the drivers. Plus they had a pretty strict attendance policy and we knew she would have to miss more than they would allow. I know that she would learn more and keep her verbal skills better with Chinese school but the online class she took this year worked well for her - unfortunately Michigan Virtual High School only goes to Chinese 3. </p>
<p>No option 5 or 6 above since the school does not offer any Chinese. Even her online class local mentor knew nothing about Chinese. </p>
<p>CTY looks like the best option right now unless we find another state’s online class that is accredited. CTY will accept her as a student based on a projected PSAT score for the fall - not sure what happens if she doesnt meet the target of a 61 verbal score? Surely they wouldnt kick her out of the class…</p>