Will Low Grades in Spanish Hurt Admission Odds?

Archive Ask The Dean Archive
1

<p>Question: My son is a junior. He is doing well (grades in 90s) in all classes except Spanish (low 80s). He would like to apply to engineering schools. Forget MIT or Stanford, but will schools like RPI or Case Western hold it against him that he can’t seem to learn Spanish very well? Your son […]</p>

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2

<p>No. Spanish is typically an elective. Since it’s not a course that’s part of the core curriculum it will likely be looked over. However, if it’s hurting his GPA encourage him to bring it up. Low 80’s is not terribly bad.</p>

3

<p>You need to view a low grade in the context to a competing applicant. If another applicant has the same grades, test scores, etc. but has a higher grade in this one class it does matter.</p>

4

<p>I got a C+ in Spanish 2. This is good news for me. However it did hurt my GPA by a lot.</p>

5

<p>If you’re planning on majoring in physics, math, chemistry or something along those lines…it’s not going to matter quite as much. A students grades in math and science classes are going to be much more relevant. If you’re planning on majoring in international relations and foreign language…then yes, it’s going to hurt. </p>

<p>Even for the science major, it could make a difference. As already mentioned, if two applicants are equivalent elsewhere, but one of them has better grades in Spanish, it could be the point that gives that applicant the edge. </p>