Should I take AP French Language and Culture my senior year WITHOUT the AP exam in order to satisfy the 4-year criteria?

Answered

To answer this question, I first want to point out that there is only one T20 college that requires (unless not possible) four years of foreign language (Princeton). The rest may recommend four years of foreign language, but do not require it. In addition, many T20 schools don't even recommend four years of foreign language. As such, not taking a fourth year of foreign language would not earn an automatic rejection of your application at most schools (including T20s). For more information, see this article: https://blog.collegevine.com/foreign-language-requirements-for-college-admissions/

That said, I think the answer to your question is based largely on what major you are interested in pursuing and what class you would take in place of AP French Language and Culture. For example, foreign language is going to be less relevant for a student pursuing a degree in electrical engineering than for one pursuing a degree in international business. For the electrical engineering student, a college may rather that the student took AP Physics in high school, as opposed to AP French Language and Culture. However, for the internal business student, the same college may rather that the student took the AP French Language and Culture class. That is not to say that the AP French Language and Culture class is not going to look favorable for the electric engineering student; instead, it is to say that there may be a better class for that student to take.