[Bamagirl]

One of my biggest educational regrets is not becoming fluent in a second language—French, specifically. I very much wanted to learn French. I took French classes in high school as well as college, and even took a night course. I also bought “teach yourself French” books. I tried my hand at writing poetry in a French. All this gave me a good basis, but unfortunately I never built on it. If I had it to do over, I’d definitely still take the school courses, but I’d also figure out a way to practice speaking it regularly with native speakers, even if a long term stay in France or another French-speaking country was not possible. Nowadays, there are various online sites where you can do face-to-face conversational language practice with native speakers, for example.
But in the meantime, my feeling is that taking this class is well worth it for you. Only you know how the commute will affect your life and schedule, though, so of course you need to factor that into it. If it turns out to be impractical to take this particular class, I encourage you to still seriously considering finding a way to add learning French to your education.
You are so obviously a bright person. You write well and seem to be interested in many things. A second language will add enormous depth to your knowledge. French, in particular, is a beautiful language with a very rich collection of great literature.
If you do take this class, please have realistic expectations. It is very unlikely that you will become fluent in French by taking classes. But it should give you a good, solid foundation to build on—and my opinion is that this could be a very important part of your overall education. It will enrich your life.
So...those are my thoughts!