My daughter (in 10th grade) is looking for some advice. She’s currently scheduled to take Honors Spanish 4 next term, but she’s thinking of switching to regular Physics instead and moving Spanish 4 to her senior year. From a college application perspective, would that be okay/? There will be a significant gap from Spanish 3 to Spanish 4.
As with everything … it depends!
In general, schools love to see 4 years of all 5 academic subjects - English, math, social studies, science, foreign language. And in science they like to see bio, chem & physics.
How you fit courses over the 4 years is, I believe, less of a concern. Although colleges like to see a student progressively challenging themselves.
Also important to consider—what is your kid’s likely focus in college and what type of college are they considering?
Here are my life examples, my D22 was a STEM girl interested in highly rejectives. She did only 3 years of social studies, but did 6 years of math. Attends a highly rejective LAC for comp sci.
My S24 dropped a foreign language after year 3 to have more room for business electives. At that time, we checked the requirements at the big universities on his radar. Most required only 3 years of language to avoid taking more language in college (which he did not want to do). He attends a Big 10 school for business, and he was glad he’d had some accounting before he got there.
My S28 wants to study music (likely music ed). We are currently trying to figure out what he can whittle off of the 4x5 requirements to take more music classes. The school is really only set up for 1 or 2 electives a year, and he wants 3. 
What is making your daughter want to add physics now? My gut says the year off Spanish is fine (although she may need some extra review the summer before she gives back in).
2 Likes
Speaking less from the college application perspective and more from a language learning perspective, going from having her last Spanish class in December 2025 and then not having it again until August 2027 or January 2028 is a LONG gap, especially for people who are not yet at the fluency stage. From the foreign language perspective, I’d consider it inadvisable.
In terms of college admissions, it likely depends on what type of college your kid is interested in and in how much Spanish your school offers (i.e. is Spanish 4 the last class offered, or do they offer more?). If your kid is looking at schools with low admit rates, then those schools are probably going to want a foreign language every year, if it’s available. At schools that aren’t very selective, it may not make much of a difference one way or the other as to when she takes Spanish 4.
2 Likes
First time poster with a D28. She is tiptoeing into thinking about college and considering her priorities. We have visited two strong in-state options already for unofficial tours with friends already at each, and plan at least a few more low key visits this year to schools within an hour or two to continue to see different types of schools (large/small, urban/suburban and so on).
I am doing a lot of the initial research both on colleges to potentially explore and on the process generally. Her high school’s counseling department is good but around here lots of families also hire private counselors. If I can save that $5K I will, so right now I’m a lot more immersed in CC, books and podcasts learning about the big picture.
5 Likes
Welcome to CC, @DogMom72! I love that you’ve started with low-key visits of nearby colleges. There are lots of knowledgeable folks on the board who are happy to give advice and share what they know. All you need to do is ask!
1 Like
Welcome! I think starting local, or in places you already are makes sense! We did that with S26. S28 has seen a lot of colleges because he’s the youngest and gets dragged along.
Are other people choosing classes? Junior year is the first year they have much choice at S28’s school.
I live in rural Alaska, on the internet to learn this stuff since it’s been a long time since I went to college, and have no one in person to ask. Kids both homeschooled, but officially public school students (it’s an AK thing). My oldest is class of 27, but I have a 28 just behind her who is watching older sister and I trying to plan, and just starting to think about colleges. D28 is probably a great liberal arts type kid, and toying with the idea of a women only school. Might want to major in English or Biology, also likes art and art history, is taking both Spanish and French, and would love to get close to fluent in both in high school if she can. May or may not get to visit anywhere – it’s expensive and far.
3 Likes
Not until spring, but already has a pretty good idea of what she will take next year.
AP Latin
AP English
APUSH
AP Calculus A/B
Honors Physics or AP Bio
Honors Chorus
Theology (mandatory)
Chorus obviously helps her GPA less than another academic course but she loves it so since she already has a massive load, it will be fine. It looks brutal but based on her current grades in a mix of honors and AP classes, and college expectations of max rigor there really isn’t another choice. PE requirement satisfied via varsity sports, and this summer she will take a .5 credit course in digital branding to satisfy the technology requirement it’s virtual and two weeks long Fairly easy is our understanding
As a homeschooler, we can choose classes up until the very last minute (or even switch within the semester if we really need to). That said, I know it’s important to try and have a couple live online classes junior year to get recommendations from, and those fill up. So I’ll probably try to find a good AP English one for her when they open up in the spring, and probably some kind of live social studies as well (she still needs a world history credit, not sure whether she wants to go AP for that or not). Otherwise, she’ll probably do AP French, Spanish 4, Anatomy and Physiology, Precalculus, and some other elective that might be online DE
At the colleges that request/require two teacher recommendations, they usually want one from the humanities/social sciences and one from math/science, so you may want to make sure she gets signed up for live online classes in those two different buckets.
1 Like
Is that true for liberal arts schools too? I have seen that for STEM schools my oldest is looking at (like MIT), because I assume they want to know the kid can write something other than problem sets. But I didn’t know that a liberal arts school might require the same thing from a potential English major.
My understanding is that it is generally recommended for any school that requires two teacher recommendations, whether it’s a liberal arts college or a STEM-heavy school. Perhaps @Mwfan1921 or @Lindagaf have more insight to share?
Who else’s kid is picking classes?
At my kid’s school, junior year is when they start to really have choices. My kid has finished his foreign language and fine arts requirements, although he could take more of both if he chooses.
Right now he’s thinking
Linear Algebra
English 3
Biology
US History
A second science, depending on what fits, this might be environmental science or organic chemistry
A semester of technical theater, and a semester of computer science.
You might want to see how many years of foriegn language target schools like to see before dropping it from the schedule.
Hi college counselor thinks he’ll be OK. There is only one more year of Spanish for him to take, and he’s planning to take it senior year. If he doesn’t get into one of his first choice classes, then he’ll revisit the question.
Taking junior year off of a language was discussed up thread. I think the one concern voiced was that it might be tricky to pick the language up after a year off. So maybe plan for some review time at the end of next summer to get back up to speed?
I’m curious … is there a reason to take the extra science in the junior year, rather than waiting for senior year? (The more common progression would be to max out the school’s language before doubling up on science. But just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s right for your kid.)
If you are at a school that teaches linear algebra and organic chemistry, my guess is your school is used to placing students at excellent colleges. In which case I would trust whatever your school counselor says. And if they say you’re fine, then you are!
1 Like
My kid is homeschooled, so we always get to pick classes, but we are thinking about it now because some of the good online classes for homeschoolers open registration around now and fill fast (we will probably do a few of these and others at home or online at the college). She will likely do
AP English Lang
AP French
Spanish 4
Anatomy and Physiology or maybe Environmental Science
Precalculus
World History (not sure what level or style she’ll do this one, maybe AP, maybe not)
Something else. She could get one of her last few requirements out of the way by doing a semester of government, but easy enough to do that senior year, so she could just take something entirely different she finds interesting, maybe at the college, maybe not
I completely forgot that I already posted about course registration. Sorry to be redundant!
His school is complicated, because they only have 5 periods, plus one that can only be used for electives. In our public school system, they have 7 periods, and by junior year most kids have taken all their PE/Health/Art/Tech requirements, so they can take a course in each of the 5 disciplines, and still add an extra science, or an extra math or whatever. I think this is common in most public school districts.
His counselor, who has a lot of experience getting kids into good schools, says that college know that the public and private schools are different, and that the courses are more intense to make up for fewer classes. He says not to worry, that he’ll be fine with 3 years of Spanish in HS, given that he’ll have taken both AP’s and gotten through the top level.
The reason for skipping this year, instead of next, is because he really wants 6 sciences, and taking 3 in senior year seems like a lot. He uses Spanish a lot outside of school. His summer job last year was in Spanish. He reads for pleasure in Spanish, if he watches sports or TV it’s in Spanish. We have family members and friends who are bilingual and he uses Spanish with them. In fact, you could say, he’s kind of obsessed with Spanish. So, I’m not worried he’ll lose his Spanish, the way I would be for his older brother.
1 Like
I actually did not remember that it was you–just that someone had talked about taking a language break. Honestly, scheduling has been taking up a ton of space in my brain right now, so I love that you brought it up again!
Oh wow–3 science at once would be intense for senior year! I think breaking it up to two each in junior and senior year sounds great.
My kiddo is going the opposite way in course selection. We joke that he’s majoring in electives. What he really did was front load his 5 academic areas into the first 2 years and 2 summers of high school. Our high school is a little weird in that science (with lab) takes 2 periods out of the 8. With mandatory 4 year PE, there is basically room for 1 other class every year. (But there’s at least one other state required class to squeeze in too, that often doesn’t fall into the 5 core academic areas.) So if you want to take more than 1 science a year (like my D22 did, and your S28 does), it requires crazy planning. Or if like my S28 you want extra electives, you have to find a way to compress everything else.
My S28 wants to major in music, likely music ed. So he is prioritizing curricular music experiences. We confirmed based on historic data from our high school that the colleges he is interested in accept students with profiles like his (based on the number and type of academic core classes). Our large public sends about 95% of the kids on to 4 year colleges, and the data they slice and dice is fantastic. So we feel comfortable with his schedule even though he will not be taking 4 years of each of the 5 core subjects.