Senior Year Schedule Advice (tripling up on history at the expense of spanish and science?)

[skieurope]

For Columbia, e.g. its clear they want to see AP in a language, regardless of major.

Actually, no, it’s not clear at all - certainly not to me. Nowhere does Columbia say that they want to see an AP in any subject. @ucbalumnus quoted their suggested HS preparation.

The selective colleges (as the Columbia AO confirmed) want to see four years of language taken in the HS, ever year, as long as the HS offers them or you’ve taken the AP language earlier.

The Columbia AO can only speak for Columbia. If s/he said that, it’s contrary to what its website states and contrary to what they told me.

AP Spanish is the fourth year of language at the HS,

At which HS? Not the OP’s, since s/he never mentioned the name of the HS. Let’s not assume facts not in evidence. Apparently for the OP, it’s the fifth. Usually, but not always, AP Spanish is the 4th year class, but I have seen many examples where the school has Spanish IV as a prereq for AP Spanish. As an example (which is not the OP’s HS):
https://www.ncps-k12.org/Page/2738

No college, absolutely none, will ding an applicant because of how his/her HS structures its curriculum. Regardless, Columbia was not a school that the OP mentioned. S/he can, of course, confirm his/her target colleges’ expectations with them.