Does My Situation Complete College Foreign Language Requirements?
Hello!
I am currently a junior and I am concerned about college language requirements. One example, Harvard, wants four years of a foreign language. I am confused as to whether they want four years in high school of a foreign language or if they would accept three years in high school and one year in middle school.
For me, I took Spanish 1 in 8th grade, Spanish 2 in freshman year, Spanish 3 in sophomore year, and am currently taking Spanish 4 for my junior year.
Does this satisfy the four-year language requirement? Or will I have to take AP Spanish my senior year?
Thank you!
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2 answers
Since no parts of your middle school transcript are considered in the college admissions process, Harvard will want to see you take four years of Spanish in high school. Taking AP Spanish will be your best way to satisfy their language requirement. Hope this helps!
Hi @amallios
The way most people would interpret this HS requirements passage for Harvard is that they consider HS as the 4-year period between 9th and 12th grades, not 6th-12th or something in between. Therefore, Harvard's minimum requirement would be for the 4 years 9th-12th and nothing else.
"There is no single academic path we expect all students to follow, but the strongest applicants take the most rigorous secondary school curricula available to them. An ideal four-year preparatory program includes four years of English, with extensive practice in writing; four years of math; four years of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and an advanced course in one of these subjects; three years of history, including American and European history; and four years of one foreign language."
I know people who took Algebra/Geometry in middle school or French 1 and 2 in Middle school but they still took a full 4 more years of math and language in HS.
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Thank you! If I decided to not take AP Spanish, do you think that would affect my application given as I would have already taken Spanish classes up to Spanish 4?