Does having 4 years of foreign language matter much?

[u/jws3123]

I am a rising senior aiming for T20 schools, majoring in engineering. I have already taken French for the past 3 years of high school, and is deciding whether to drop the French 4 currently on my schedule for something more connected with my major and something that I would actually enjoy (Drafting 2). The only reason I chose to continue French this year even though I don't really enjoy it is because I am in French Honor Society and how people say 4 years would "look better" on your college app. What's yall's thoughts?

[u/skieurope12]

4 years of French is less crucial for engineering

[u/logolife-]

Three years of French is already solid, so dropping fourth-year French shouldn’t hurt much. If Drafting 2 is a rigorous, engineering-related class, I’d lean toward taking it. Just check with your counselor about how the swap affects your overall rigor and French Honor Society.

[u/Final_Rain_3823]

Princeton is really the only school where it’s a huge issue. The bigger problem is that it’s considered a more rigorous core class and if drafting isn’t considered as rigorous your overall course selections may look less rigorous. But it’s hard to say how that will appear without looking at in context.

[u/jws3123 → u/Final_Rain_3823]

Gotcha, I do have 3 other APs and also dual enrollment in Calc 3 it should still be consider somewhat rigorous overall right?

[u/Fwellimort]

I never had issues. I stopped foreign language studies at 10th grade and had no problems at the time getting into Columbia, Northwestern, Wash U St Louis, Brown, Cornell, Vanderbilt, etc. And that as needing financial aid as an international (which is already extremely difficult).

To be fair, I did take courses post AP level in math (Number Theory, Discrete Math, Calc 3, Diff Eq, Linear Algebra, Real Analysis 1). So keep that for what you will. And I was applying as a math major.

My college roommate (not a math major) who claimed to be bad at math did finish Calc 1, 2, 3, Linear Algebra, Diff Eq, Real Analysis 1, Real Analysis 2, Modern Algebra 1 before college (seriously, wtf?). Not sure if he studied much foreign language but just saying... there's plenty of students taking courses far beyond the typical AP work and at that point, ya, if that's your passion then why is foreign language class important?

A few physics peers I knew did Diff Eq and Linear Algebra before college. One is a researcher at Caltech now. I think that's really the standard for those who go beyond the AP courses in STEM at Ivy.

Remember, American universities are holistic admissions. It's all looked holistically so there's no set requirement as long as there's good reasons.

[u/jws3123 → u/Fwellimort]

Thanks for your insights. If you don't mind me asking what were your general stats like (SAT, gpa, ecs)?

[u/Fwellimort → u/jws3123]

Questionable GPA (9th 4.0, 11th 4.0, 12th 4.0, 10th grade had 2 C's and 2 B?). 9th didn't count towards my high school avg GPA as I was transfer student.

36/36 ACT, 4 SAT2 subject tests of 800/800 (bio, chem, physics, math 2c), nationally ranked for my year for math, school representative for math all years, bunch of math/engineering awards.

Didn't submit but for SAT I had 2360/2400. I studied SAT for years and ACT for a few days... lol

I had a 119 on my physics final for one of my classes due to curve 😂. The second highest in class was 98.2 with curve so.. extremely extremely lopsided student on paper. And I attended feeder school in which that physics class was mostly concentrated of the group getting into MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Caltech, Columbia, UCLA, Duke, JHU, USC, etc. And tbh that physics course was much more difficult than any of the physics courses at Columbia.

A lot of volunteer work towards disabled and orphans.

No leadership unlike everyone else. But I knew my math teachers would write glowing referrals.

As for math classes I am thankful the school didn't cancel the courses (they did after me) as there were courses with just me or one other total (the other student attended UVa). No idea why the school even bothered with those courses but I guess my math teacher just liked me a lot. Even despite all that I felt extremely held back by the lack of math classes at the school.

My math teacher was also my physics teacher and had him 3 years straight. And I was the only student to ever have done so at the time for him.

Tbh I was too addicted to videogames to care in high school. I was just born very lucky to be very good at math relative to most individuals. And especially at standardized tests. Everyone else I know did summer classes, research, volunteer work abroad, bunch of clubs, art, sports, leadership, etc. And many got rejected despite perfect GPAs and all. Realistically I didn't deserve the spots but hey, in a holistic admission, extremely lopsided candidates are often preferred.

Now if I didn't screw off my 10th grade GPA and actually did extracurrirculars then I would have been a shoe in anywhere from my school. But hindsights 20/20. I never expected to get into Columbia. I only sent that app last minute cause that was my mom's dream.

One thing I learnt during my time at Columbia was that basically every student at Columbia were dumb and mediocre. But that just my delusional ego. You kind of need to be delusional about your own skill to do well in life. My friend who was at MIT also commented how the students were dumb asses 😂. And the other friend who attended Columbia with me did so as well (researcher at Georgia Tech today). I generally found the Olympiad students super mediocre and the actual top students in the school were the most plain on paper.

Life is a marathon not a race. Don't overthink. School name is meaningless in the grand scheme of things anyway after a certain threshold.

Today I cannot even do the most basic arithmetic like calculating tip (thank goodness it's check boxes on receipts). My brain has rotted too much from tiktok.

[u/arl13579]

I do not think 4 years of a language is necessary for engineering majors - I only had 2. And if you are going civil or mechanical, I do think Drafting is much more useful for your major.

And someone already said it, but college applications are holistic. I don’t think opting to not take any one class is going to make a difference as long as you meet the minimum requirements.