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What exactly is "social studies"?


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We were checking college requirements and most of the colleges dd is interested in require 2 credits of history and 3 credits of social studies. In general, what classes would be considered social studies classes? I always thought that was a term used for elementary school studies that grouped history/geography/social skills/etc. into one class.

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I had U.S. Government penciled in under history - can that be either or is it usually considered social studies? DD is also planning to take Ethics and Humanities I and II at the CC, would any of these be social studies or are they considered electives?

 

Thanks!

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Traditionally, three years of social studies is required for college. World Geography (9th), World History (10th), US History (11th), and a semester of each of Government and Economics (12th). You can do one or the other of the 9th or 10th requirements. (We chose to do both).

 

This is the current path, and one that colleges will understand well. I'm not sure about "traditional" since I graduated in the 1970s and this wasn't the path we had to follow... but we were a weird generation :)

 

Social Studies is another name for the "social sciences." The other branch is the "natural sciences" which we call "science classes" today. Social sciences can include a wide range of things, from anthropology to psychology to economics. But the big 4 in high schools these days are the ones Susan has mentioned. Does the school mean 5 semester credits or 5 year-long credits? I've not seen a 5th year required before.

 

Humanities is usually in the art/literature category, and the arts are not considered part of the "sciences." Ethics is pretty broad, and is included in almost all fields -- it's possibly you could lean it towards the political/legal sciences?

 

Julie

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Thanks for the help. I'm afraid we haven't really ever considered social studies. :glare:

We were looking up the requirements/recommendations for University of Miami and they would like 2 History and 3 Social Studies credits. Then we checked Cornell University and the site says 3 History and 3 Social Studies! I'm sure these are full year credits so we are going to have to shift our plans a bit and perhaps add a geography class for high school. We are just working on a broad plan right now. In a couple of years dd will contact the colleges she is most interested in and see what they would like to see for 'social studies.' I just hadn't realized it was a category different from history. Thanks again.

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The school my older son currently attends requires one year of world history, one year of U.S. history, and one year of government to fulfill the three year ss requirement.... Other schools in our area have slightly different requirements.

 

Like an earlier poster stated, I had to take a half year of government and a half year of economics to fulfill my third year requirement when I was in school.

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Thanks for the help. I'm afraid we haven't really ever considered social studies. :glare:

We were looking up the requirements/recommendations for University of Miami and they would like 2 History and 3 Social Studies credits. Then we checked Cornell University and the site says 3 History and 3 Social Studies! I'm sure these are full year credits so we are going to have to shift our plans a bit and perhaps add a geography class for high school. We are just working on a broad plan right now. In a couple of years dd will contact the colleges she is most interested in and see what they would like to see for 'social studies.' I just hadn't realized it was a category different from history. Thanks again.

 

I would contact those schools and ask what they mean by social studies. Schools I've looked at count history as part of the "social studies" requirement.

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Are you sure that they don't mean "three credits of social studies including two credits of history?" I'd email them and ask before I planned out a course schedule specifically to meet those requirements.

 

This is what I had always thought too - that social studies and history were 'in essence' the same category. We recieved our original information from Collegeboard.com's college search. We couldn't find the high school requirements on the U of Miami website, but the college board website had them. I just went and checked Cornell's website and they only have 3 credits of social studies listed (and suggest two history courses within the social studies category.) So, I think you are right and that makes much more sense to me! We will definitely contact the colleges directly at a later time, but it is a relief to know I don't likely have to consider adding sociology or geography classes to an already full schedule!

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I had U.S. Government penciled in under history - can that be either or is it usually considered social studies? DD is also planning to take Ethics and Humanities I and II at the CC, would any of these be social studies or are they considered electives?

 

Thanks!

U.S. government would be social studies. I don't know about the others; I don't think it matters for high school, although it is common for high school social studies to include world history and American history, as well as U.S. government.

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From the World Book Encyclopedia online, the typical course of study for the 4 high school years include the following under social studies:

 

Major Topics

history

geography

government

comparative religions

 

Minor Topics

economics

citizenship

psychology

conservation

ethnic groups/culture/history/relations

women's studies

family economics/management

 

 

Here is the Wikipedia definition:

 

"Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the National Council for the Social Studies ... At the elementary school level, social studies generally focuses first on the local community and family. By middle and high school, the social studies curriculum ... includes ... sociology, history, political science, economics, religion, geography, and anthropology."

 

 

Somewhere, I once came up with a huge online list of social studies subjects, but, alas, can no longer find it. It included loads of specific unit topics, such as Civil Rights, Environmentalism, etc.

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