Parents of collage kids, how important is a HS foreign language?

[summerblue]

Also, many colleges will accept American Sign Language as a foreign language credit, especially if dealing with a person that as dyslexia or other educational studies..

 

[Andtototoo]

My dd was waived out of her college language requirement because she had taken 4 years of high school French. If she'd taken 3 years, she would have had to take 2 semesters of a foreign language in college. She goes to a state university.

I would guess it depends upon the specific college your kid wants to attend, but I'd doubt that only one year of high school foreign language is going to suffice.

 

[CPT Tripss]

I don't have kids going to college--just want to say that I work with international peers on a weekly basis--several "world languages"--mainly Spanish and Portugese but as our company moves to more and more countries, the more international peers we will have. (We are in European and Asian countries also, I just don't work directly with them.)

I know that when large companies are hiring, the more fluent you are in world language, the more desired you are.

The inability of most Americans to speak any language other than English is an embarrassment. Travel to other countries and you are more likely to find a lower level employee in a hotel, restaurant or shop who speaks English than you are to find an American born college graduate who speaks a language other than English.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

My dd was waived out of her college language requirement because she had taken 4 years of high school French. If she'd taken 3 years, she would have had to take 2 semesters of a foreign language in college. She goes to a state university.

I would guess it depends upon the specific college your kid wants to attend, but I'd doubt that only one year of high school foreign language is going to suffice.

Exact same thing happened to me. I was so mad when my parents insisted I take 4 years of Spanish in high school. When I got to college and found out I didn't have to take 2 more years of FL like everyone else, I called my parents and thanked them! Because of my own experience both my high school kids are taking up to Spanish 4. DS, a junior, is actually in Spanish 5 now. DD, a freshman, is in Spanish 3. They both completed Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school.

 

[TLuvsD]

for applying to college, minimum of 2 years, many prefer 3 years of the same language.

In college, it depends on the degree....

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

The 3 colleges my son applied to required a minimum of 2 years of a foreign language.

One of his friends tried to get into 2 of those colleges and was turned down because he didn't have the 2 years of foreign language.

So depending on the colleges your kids might be interested in it could be very important.

 

[keiraliz]

I'm not a parent, but I'm a current college student. When I applied to the school I'm now attending, I was required to have two years of a foreign language at the high school level. If I didn't have two years, I would have been required to take some foreign language classes through my college. Other schools I had looked at required the same thing. My major also requires a foreign language up to the intermediate level (though I could have tested out of the elementary level, but I wasn't fluent enough), which is four semesters/twelve credits worth.

It really depends on the college and the major your child is interested in.

 

[shortbun]

I've not seen a college app that didn't require language credits. I'm sure they're out there. DS took 3 years Spanish and a year Latin. I think Ohio requires a language to graduate.

 

[tina.tina]

From when my dad was in high school 40 years ago through now, the school in our town has different diplomas depending on a person's career track- vocational or college bound.

To the op who posted that their HS would not accept college credits, I would take that to the school board as a suggestion for change. I live in a poor rural area and MANY students are graduating HS with an Associates degrees.

I had 21 college credits when I graduated high school 22 years ago.

 

[scrapquitler]

College professor here; my institution requires proficiency at the 200 (intermediate) level. Students can test out if they have a good high school foreign language background, and if they do it's a HUGE timesaver that can allow them to add an additional minor or emphasis sometimes. Students with low foreign language ability or who are beginning a new language have to take 4 semesters of FL.

For admission, we require at least two years of foreign language.

Same at the university my daughter will be attending next year. It's a problem for her, because she took three years of Latin, and Latin is not one of the languages that they test for proficiency at that University. So she is going to be required to take four semesters of a language, which is going to be hard for her to fit in with a double major. She'll probably end up taking the language classes during summer sessions.

 

[MSSANDRA]

I think every college DS applied to required at least two credits of the same language courses and some three. Some colleges would accept four credits in the same language to satisfy the collage FL requirement. One good option I have not seen, though may have misses it, is to take two credits of FL at a local community college. Check with her university first but most would accept that.
It is really strange to me which majors require FL in college and which do not. DS started out as a computer major and that required a FL. Switched to social work major which did not require it! We have a huge Spanish population in our area.

 

[StitchFanZ]

Same at the university my daughter will be attending next year. It's a problem for her, because she took three years of Latin, and Latin is not one of the languages that they test for proficiency at that University. So she is going to be required to take four semesters of a language, which is going to be hard for her to fit in with a double major. She'll probably end up taking the language classes during summer sessions.

Will her university accept a SAT subject test showing proficiency. I seem to remember there being one for Latin. Some schools will give college credit if she has a high enough score on the subject test.

 

[marcyinPA]

The PA state school my DS attends does not have a foreign language requirement for acceptance. They recommend three years of a high school level language but it is not required. However, depending on the major, one may have to take credits in one. My DS just switched majors at the end of last semester, so he now may need to take a language.

He took three years of French. French 1 in 8th grade, French 2 & 3 in 9th and 10th grades. He dropped French 4 in 11 th grade when he realized that four years were not required to graduate and he opted to take psychology as an elective instead. Being a band/ chorus kid, he did not have a lot of room in his schedule for electives.

 

[scrapquitler]

Will her university accept a SAT subject test showing proficiency. I seem to remember there being one for Latin. Some schools will give college credit if she has a high enough score on the subject test.

Hmm...I'll have to look into that.

 

[Bluestars]

My son's high school requires 2 years of a foreign language. I thought all high school students took at least 2 years. I remember taking 2 years back when I was in high school. My son has taken 3 years.

 

[mhsjax]

Not sure about colleges around here, but it must be a requirement. My kid's high school (public school) requires it for graduation from high school.

 

[leebee]

Usually credits earned in middle school will not be accepted by colleges and universities, even if the credits were for high school classes. When the say "classes taken in high school," the mean IN high school. Several of DD's friends ran into trouble with college admissions. Requirement was "four years of high school math." Kids who took algebra 1 or geometry 1 while in eighth grade were short on math credits for college admission because they didn't take the classes while IN high school.

 

[Asherry25]

I'm a high school guidance counselor and former college admission counselor - you want your kid to have 2-4 years of the same foreign language in high school. There are schools that don't require foreign language at all, but your child will be limiting their options very early in high school by discontinuing after just a year. High school course selection should be about keeping those options open as long as possible. If it doesn't fit, I would look at alternative methods of getting high school credit or taking courses at a local college.

Also, in a similar vein, four years of math is pretty much a necessity now regardless of major- I can tick off more than 10 states on the east coast that require four years of math for acceptance to public university.

 

[TLuvsD]

Some (many) colleges want fluency in a spoken world language--which is a problem with Latin. No country uses Latin. One of my D's classmates will be taking 4 semesters of world language because she took Latin in high school. Our D took Spanish, and was able to test out of the first 3 semesters. Huge time saver, critical since she wants to double major.

I strongly agree with the earlier poster--keep as many doors open to as many colleges as possible for as long as possible. For kids who want a strong academic college, that means 4 years of math, english, science, social studies, and at least 3 of a world language. See how the MS studies apply in your area...here the two years of MS Spanish fulfilled the Spanish 1 course, so our D could go through Spanish 4 by Junior year. That made space for Visual and Performing Arts (required for Univ of Calif). Since she was in a very demanding IB program, having that space made her life easier, she didn't have to do a year with 7 classes (6 is typical here).