Question: Is a fourth year of foreign language a significant leg up for elite admissions?
While a fourth year of a language is surely a plus, it’s so prevalent among elite-college applicants that it’s not going to be a leg up at decision time, and certainly not a “significant†leg up, as you suggest. In fact, it’s not uncommon for candidates to have five years of one language on their transcripts because they begin high-school level language study in eighth grade. Many applicants have four years plus A.P., and some exhaust their high school offerings and elect foreign language classes on college campuses.
<p>You will, however, get some extra brownie points if the foreign language in question is one not typically studied by high school studentsâ€"Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Greek, even Russian, etc. (but if you’re a native speaker then you lose that “hook†as well!).</p>
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