Is there a chance I could get into a college without all the required HS coursework?
I'm planning to major in music composition, and a lot of the colleges I'm looking at require 2 years of foreign language. I have 1.5 years of Mandarin from my freshman and beginning of sophomore year. I'm not able to finish my 2nd year my junior year because it doesn't fit into my schedule. Should I be worried about making it up my senior year? Is it possible for me to still get in without it? If it is possible, how likely is it?
Edit for more context:
If it makes any difference, I have a weighted GPA of 4.2 and an unweighted GPA of 3.82, my PSAT 10 score was 1300, and I've gotten fours on the AP HuG, AP Sem, and APUSH tests. I've been heavily involved in the music and theatre programs at my school and am currently a member of NHS. I am currently the Student Director of my schools Jazz Choir and I feel that I have a very strong profile aside from the missing 0.5 credit. I'm just wondering how much it'll hurt me and if it's worth trying to fit into my schedule along with my other graduation requirements and my music classes.
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1 answer
Hello @Spencer08 ! First of all, welcome to the community.
Now to cut to the chase to answer your question:
Short Answer: It depends on what your school uses.
For example, in my school there are 8-11 levels/years of foreign language per foreign language (1, 2, (Honors 2 = 2+), 3, (Honors 3 = 3+), AP (Lang, 3.5), 4, [AP Lit, 4+], 5, 6, Hyper-advanced)
In my school:
1. For 1 to 6 (+APs), those are actual classes that takes periods. You cannot go back a level [excluding APs which can be taken at any time, it's just that 1-6 are sequential]
2. For hyper-advanced (also called 7 sometimes), it is an after school club at my school with the prerequisite of currently taking 6 or already took 6) which counts as a foreign language credit. Perhaps you could get a Mandarin teacher to help you start a club for credit purposes?
3. In addition, for those who attended my school in 7th and 8th grade and took foreign language classes for two years straight (since only the beginning of 7th) will get a free high school language credit (except for English, but allows Japanese).
I plan to take 4 years of English (9 (=1), Honors 10 (=2+), 11 (=3), AP Lit [after summer] (=4+)) and 3 years of Japanese (MS, 5 [9th grade], AP Japanese Lang [after summer]) [Despite Japanese being the main language here, it's only mandatory up to 9th grade]. Which fulfills the 4 years English and 3 years foreign language credits that most universities need.
In addition, as long as you take something like AP English (any) + foreign language proficiency letter of recommendation from teacher and principal for APID [AP International Diploma] (and fulfill the rest of the requirements), that can be used for an additional foreign language credit. That is also another way to relieve you out of having to spend class time for it.
Therefore, there are plenty of ways to obtain your foreign language credits. The ones I listed are all examples I listed that you could do to gain foreign language credits.
So well, you should gain foreign language credits, but they don't all have to be class based or all in high school depending on the system ;).
Hope this helps,
SilverDragon (11th-rising 12th, Class of 2025, from Japan)
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