AP Computer Science vs. 3rd year of lang

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Bonanza501

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Hello! This is my first post on the forums, and I'm so grateful for this resource! My DD is a freshman in high school and plans to apply to service academies. We're choosing her courses now for next year, and we're having a hard time choosing her final elective (she gets 3, and one will be AP Bio and the other is her sport). I've read that 3 years of a foreign language is important, but her school is offering AP Computer Science as a trial run next year. If she chooses the AP course, she will only get in 2 years of a language. Any advice?
 
Let her pick what she is passionate about. Neither option will likely affect any college decision when the time comes.
 
Bonanza501 said:
Hello! This is my first post on the forums, and I'm so grateful for this resource! My DD is a freshman in high school and plans to apply to service academies. We're choosing her courses now for next year, and we're having a hard time choosing her final elective (she gets 3, and one will be AP Bio and the other is her sport). I've read that 3 years of a foreign language is important, but her school is offering AP Computer Science as a trial run next year. If she chooses the AP course, she will only get in 2 years of a language. Any advice?
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+1 @USMA 1994 - FYI, https://westpoint.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/ADMISSIONS/Start Young to Gain Admission Brochure.pdf is indicating two years of foreign language. You also may want to consider her current choice of careers (e.g. aviation, armor, cyber, intelligence) when choosing between additional language and CS.
 
BlueBulldog said:
if she's a freshman now, how would she only get two years of language?
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Because if she doesn't do Spanish I as a sophomore next year in order to take the computer class, she will have to wait to take it her junior year and then take Spanish II her senior year.
 
USMA 1994 said:
Let her pick what she is passionate about. Neither option will likely affect any college decision when the time comes.
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That would definitely be the computer class! I think I just started worrying about it when I saw so many folks talking about it being a good idea to take 3 languages on other threads.
 
Bonanza501 said:
USMA 1994 said:
Let her pick what she is passionate about. Neither option will likely affect any college decision when the time comes.
Click to expand...
That would definitely be the computer class! I think I just started worrying about it when I saw so many folks talking about it being a good idea to take 3 languages on other threads.
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Don't believe everything you read on the internet.
 
Bonanza501 said:
We're choosing her courses now for next year, and we're having a hard time choosing her final elective
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Best advice I’ve seen for positioning yourself well for an appointment is this: Take the hardest classes your school has to offer, especially in STEM, and do well in them.

Beyond that, take electives that you’re really interested in, not ones that you think will look good in the eyes of an SA. Your high school career will be that much more fulfilling.

Attending an SA is a great goal, but you’ll also need to have a Plan B, C, D... Remember that you’ll be applying to multiple colleges, not just SAs, so don’t be overly focused to a fault.
 
Assuming your DD is planning on applying to other colleges (and she better) then it might be wise to double check their language requirements too. I'm confident there are outliers that want more than 2 years, but I'm just guessing. I'd at least double check the in-state colleges on this. I expect it's not an issue but we don't want to get tunnel vision either.
 
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