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I am currently a junior in highschool, I've taken spanish as my foreign language from 6th grade to sophomore year. So technically, colleges would only count me taking 2 years of one language in high school so far. This year, I decided to take Latin 1 to prepare for the SAT's. However, I do not know if I should stick with beginner Latin all of this year or take 3+ years of Spanish. Mostly, I am wondering what looks more impressive. 3+ years of a language or a good SAT score on my college applications. Please help!!! (also, i dont really want to take any language class senior year. i hate spanish and this would be the only year fitting enough to take latin.)
Latin isn't worth taking for the SAT, trust me. Stick with Spanish. WHATEVER YOU DO, take atleast 3 years of a language consecutively. This means you should be taking Spanish your Freshman, Sophomore, AND Junior year. You want to know what looks great for colleges? Taking the highest level of Spanish your senior year. Not Latin. Latin only looks good if you took it your Freshman year and stuck with it till your Junior/Senior year.
In other words, it's too late to take Latin now. If you wish to do well on your SAT, get the books dedicated to revising for it. Like Princeton Review and all that cal. SAT is really just a system you have to crack. It's nothing complicated, just mind numbing, really. Standardized tests like the SAT are testing you more for your ability to adapt to their ways. Just suck it up and obey their ways. You can do this best by buying those review books I mentioned earlier. And once you buy them, you really, really have to be dedicated with them. You can't put it off and expect to do it in one week and expect to score well.
What looks best is good grades in 3+ years of a language AND a good SAT score. You can have both without even looking at Latin. When people say Latin is good for the SAT, it's mostly for the reading portion of the exam, and it's just to identify words from their origin. You can pick this up by yourself.
Having gone through the college admissions process recently myself, I can tell you that most schools (even the top ones) do not care past the point having 3 or 4 consecutive years of a language- and doing well in said language. That being said, it is preferred if you stick with a language rather than switch out. Most adcoms wouldn't look positively at switching languages late in the game.
As far as SATs go, FutureTown summarized it well. It's just a standardized test that you have to cater your studying towards. Also, since the SAT has changed to include less esoteric vocabulary, I doubt that latin would be of much use.
Regardless of SAT's or colleges, take Spanish. You will need it when you get a career to communicate. I know I wish IO had taken it instead of Latin. Heck, to this day I speak more Spanish than I do Latin, even though I took six years of Latin, since Spanish is so commonly spoken and necessary to understand and speak.
Latin is pretty much a waste of time. I took it for two years in HS. It's a dead language for a reason. Stick with a language you can use in real life.
Regardless of SAT's or colleges, take Spanish. You will need it when you get a career to communicate. I know I wish IO had taken it instead of Latin. Heck, to this day I speak more Spanish than I do Latin, even though I took six years of Latin, since Spanish is so commonly spoken and necessary to understand and speak.
Regardless of SAT's or colleges, should take Chinese.
It's not available in every school system. It's definitely expanding, but it's not close to being everywhere.
When I was in high school -- graduated 1989, Japanese was offered, because back then everyone thought Japan would be taking over the world Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Hebrew were the other foreign languages offered at my school. This was a NYC public H.S. I took French 6th thru 9th grade, and then Italian 10th thru 12th grade and for one year in college.
Last edited by Lalalally; 09-06-2014 at 07:42 PM..
Having gone through the college admissions process recently myself, I can tell you that most schools (even the top ones) do not care past the point having 3 or 4 consecutive years of a language- and doing well in said language. That being said, it is preferred if you stick with a language rather than switch out. Most adcoms wouldn't look positively at switching languages late in the game.
I work in a top university and can tell you this is absolutely not true. We expect at LEAST 4 years of a single foreign language in high school), preferably to level 5 or more (meaning you have been taking that language since middle school or are able to double up due to block scheduling). It is an exception to accept students who did not complete 4 years of high school level foreign language if that was offered by their high school. Those exceptions typically had a good reason - like taking advanced (beyond AP Calculus) math, dual enrollment in a local college, etc. This might not hold as true for schools outside of the top 40.
Spanish has Latin root words, which is helpful for the SATs. Taking higher level Spanish and getting more advanced vocabulary in is going to benefit more than taking basic Latin which likely will simply be a review of many of the same root words as you already know in Spanish (at least as far as SAT prep is concerned).
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Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Hebrew were the other foreign languages offered at my school. This was a NYC public H.S. I took French 6th thru 9th grade, and then Italian 10th thru 12th grade and for one year in college.
