what looks better: spanish third yar and getting a C or elective and getting an A

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>What would look better:</p>

<p>taking Spanish year 3 and getting a C and small chance of getting a B while working really hard and having a bad teacher.</p>

<p>Electve like graphic design with 95% of getting an A. easy goig class, can do homework in this class. fun. learn a skill.</p>

<p>don’t say stuff like best option is getting an A in spanish. or do spanish but work hard. just tell me of those 2 which would be better. cus i did one, and my friend did one, and we are trying to figure out who was smarter. hahaha did the graphic design option. </p>

<p>so let me know!</p>

<p>and not for super competitive colleges or anything, just like UCSC and equivalent college to get into is what we are both looking at. thanks!!</p>

<p>so which option was better? and how important is having a 3rd year of Spanish?</p>

<p>more info:</p>

<p>fresh: span 1 A / A
soph: span 2 honors B / C
jr: nothing
sr: spanish 3 or elective?</p>

<p>my friend did exactly what i did and got same grades fresh soph in spanish and took span 5/6, and just got semster grades back and got a C working really hard, while i got an A in an elective. and now im considering takeing span 3 sr year.</p>

<p>but yeah, im not shooting for like UCLA. reach is ucsb. match is ucsc. stuff in that range.</p>

<p>if i dont take spanish, im gonna still take like 3 APs sr year. if i did i would probably do 2.</p>

<p>haha</p>

<p>and yeah, i was gonna do AP Econ and AP Gov (2 histories)
but i also wasn’t going to take math did geo in 8th, adv alg, 9th, pre calc, 10th (did bad), stats jr, and now i have nothing sr year. Any suggestions abaout math?? Like something at community college? Haha thanks!!</p>

2

<p>It’s hard to know what the content of a course like graphic design is, but unless you’re an art major it will likely be disregarded by the Ad Com’s or given light credit similar to chorus or band. Your real better alternative would be substituting an obviously substantive course for 3rd year spanish like an AP or Honors course or even an additional regular math course and getting at least a B in it. Sorry I don’t think that is the answer you wanted to hear.</p>

3

<p>I notice the Spanish was taken a year ago with only average grades- you will likely have trouble given your lack of mastery of level 2 and the time away from it. As above, do a different academic course instead of one colleges may not even use to calculate your academic gpa.</p>

4

<p>If you are thinking about doubling up on a subject, maybe an extra English would help. Perhaps your school offers multiple English department electives to make up 11th and 12th grade English credits?</p>

5

<p>Spanish 3 and get a B-. Many colleges and universities consider any third year language an honors level course and weight it accordingly, even if your school does not. Any selective college or U will figure out a core subject GPA that includes only academic classes with weighting, and leaves off the electives. And three years of a language will look good. I say go for it, work hard, and get a B-. And take College Algebra at community college. Taking a language senior year and a math shows strength of schedule and you will probably need it anyway.</p>

6

<p>Many colleges are looking for three and preferably four years of a language, but if those schools aren’t on your list, skipping Spanish shouldn’t hurt you. Not taking an academic course however might hurt you. As others have said, you may be better off taking something colleges will judge more favorably.</p>

7

<p>I think you should take Spanish. Many universities will require three years to graduate if not for admission, ( including public schools) and if you take a year off, are you going to be ready to take the third semester of Spanish in college?</p>

<p>There are so many ways to reinforce a language , if you have dyslexia, which makes language learning much more difficult, then you should be tested and could get a waiver, but otherwise, it is a valuable skill to have- nowdays I would say critical to your education.</p>

8

<p>If you were my kid, I’d tell you to take the third year of Spanish and take the hit on the GPA and do everything in your power to get the B-</p>

9

<p>GPA matters. Take the elective, get the A. Like the previous poster mentioned, if you can get the Spanish up to B, then do that. No way would I take a C in anything and have that on a transcript if at all possible.</p>

10

<p>most selective colleges require 3 years language.</p>

<p>bite the bullet and take the class and work your tail off for a possible B and you’re done.</p>

11

<p>If it was my child, I’d recommend taking Spanish and getting the C (or preferably the B). Many schools (not just the super competitive ones) like to see at least 3 years of a foreign language. Your high school GPA will be higher if you take graphic design, but many colleges wouldn’t count that A anyway when they recompute GPA. The exception to this would be for a child who had no interest whatsoever in language but was considering a career for which graphic design would be helpful. If my child truly hated Spanish and the teacher was bad, I’d have her take another core course instead of the elective.</p>

12

<p>Do whichever you enjoy more. If you are debating on taking a 3rd year of a subject, it means you don’t have enough passion for it.</p>

13

<p>Many schools throw out weighting done by a HS- never heard of a 3rd year of a language counted as honors- maybe the 5th year… Good point about schools, including flagship public U’s requiring 3 years of a foreign language- if not required most students applying will have that.</p>

14

<p>UCs require 2 years of a same language, 3 recommended. So you don’t HAVE to take any more Spanish. </p>

<p>Also, there is a GPA requirement for the UCs. But the UC Gpa is based on the a-g subjects (basically college prep), not on every class you have taken. You may want to check with your counselor as to whether the drafting class counts as an a-g class. Each CA school sends a list of classes to UC every year and the UC system designates which classes count as a-g and which will get extra weighting for gpa purposes, so your counselors will know (or could look up on the internet–or YOU could look up on the internet).</p>

<p>I’d read the UC requirements really carefully. If you can fulfill the minimum requirements, you can most likely get into ucsc, riverside or merced. But you do have to meet those minimum requirements.</p>

15

<p>S2 took Spanish 2 in his sr. yr (long story). He had finished up his math reqs. in jr. yr so did not take a math sr. yr.</p>

<p>To compensate for that he took an extra honors sci. class and two comm. college courses during sr. yr. Our state u. system requires a min. of two yrs. of same foreign Lang. He knew he was not applying to Flagship U. He applied to two directional state u’s and was admitted to both and is happy at the one he chose.</p>

16

<p>I echo what Ellemenope said and add this: Some graphic design classes will be considered an A-G by the UC’s, most will not–check out your particular class. Also, do not underestimate the difficulty of admittance to any UC; DD is a freshman at Berkeley and was rejected by SC.</p>

17

<p>^Rejected by UCSC and accepted by Berkeley?! Whoa…</p>