What to do if you are taking AP French in Sophomore Year?

I finished AP French by 11th grade and decided that the best thing to do to get into an Ivy was not to continue with more French unless I wanted to major in French in college, which I had no interest in doing. I did however think and still think that I would be nice to do a semester or year abroad in France while I'm at Columbia University.

Unless you are keenly interested in majoring in French or linguistics, I don't think taking more languages will help you very much. Since I had 5 years of French, I felt that more than satisfied even Harvard's recommended standard for foreign language.

One thing that most college blogs and guidebooks don't talk or guide HS through is something called "Intellectual Vitality" or "Intellectual Curiosity". I know for sure Stanford, Harvard and most of the Ivy's have this criteria and actually give you a IV/IC score between 1 through 5. You want to get either a 2 or 3 here. Getting a 1 in nearly impossible and limited to applicants that have patented some revolutionary device, system or research they created. Or someone who has won the "Fields Medal" in Math which is 1 in billion.

A "spike" activity can be a IV/IC one, but it doesn't have to be. You can in theory have both a "spike" activity like being a professional Ballerina, and having an a high IV/IC score like being able to articulate and explain the physics of professional ballet dancing in a published research paper. Or something specific, like 3-D printing your own orthotic shanks for your ballet point shoes based on your own research what the optimal spring back needs to be for your body type and physiology. You see where I'm going with this right?

So as it becomes more and more difficult to compete with IVY bound applicants, you can't rely on just grades and course rigor. More is not always better. What is better is showing evidence that you used your time effectively to explore and challenge your brain with real world problems that intrigued you. You applied yourself so something meaningful and worthwhile to you because you are passionate about this activity.

So while other respondents will disagree, I do believe that standing out in the crowd of 40, 50 or 60 thousand applications requires you do have something special that the others do not. Think about, in 8 out of 8 Ivys, the avg. admit rate is just around 5%+.

So for every 100 applicants, they are only taking 3, 4 or 5. And 1 is going to be a recruited athlete, legacy or dev.candidate. And 1 is going to be a hook applicant, So if you are neither a hook or ALDC, you need to stand out to get picked. Of the 95 that get rejected, you know that there are many Valedictorians, 4.0 GPAs and Perfect Test Score applicants. They are all wondering why they didn't get picked since they checked off all the right boxes on their application and followed directions perfectly.

So if you are a 9th, 10th, 11th grader reading this, pay attention. Ivy's, Elites and Top Liberal arts colleges like Pomona, Swarthmore can pick whomever they want. For every 5 that matriculate there are at least another 50-100 that are dying to get in. So it's like a Hollywood Casting Call. Have ability, talent, a track record and come to the audition with something pizzazz.

Good luck.

Greetings khemami,

First, I recommend reading this article if you haven't already: https://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-get-into-harvard-and-the-ivy-league-by-a-harvard-alum

That said, find what you're passionate about and develop a spike. Ivy Leagues savor early interest or feats that take extended dedication, like flight school. Figure out what that could be for you and then pursue that. That's a surefire way to increase your chances of becoming accepted into an Ivy League.

I recommend this approach:

Take classes specifically related to your passion (AP, IB, or community college) and pursue a French course outside of school. If you are truly passionate about French, maybe budget a trip to France over the summer so that you can use the language. That shows dedication right there.

Regards,

Eric B.

Hi, I myself am not qualified enough to answer this so I'll answer this like my brother who attends rice would, starting a new language from scratch is probably not a great idea admission-wise. He would recommend seeing if you could also take french courses over the summer to finish the "highest form" of french as early as possible and have room for other electives.

ex: soph year - french 1

summer of soph year - french 2

junior year - french 3

summer of junior year - french 4

I'm not sure how accessible dual credit is as your school though, so if that's not an option just stick to french.