Handling a Great Books or integrated humanities sequence on the transcript?

[yvonne]

If your student followed/is following a Great Books or integrated humanities sequence (WTM, Omnibus, Great Books Tutorial/Escondido, Schola Tutorial, Alexandria Tutorial), how did you/how do you plan to handle that on the student's transcript?

 

I imagine that, on the transcript itself, one would use the actual title of the course....  "Great Books x" ?  And in the course description, one would list the texts used and the period studied?

 

But .... it seems colleges look specifically for a year of "World History," "US History," and, sometimes "Government/Econ."  Even Patrick Henry College, which seems like one of the most home school and classical education friendly colleges out there (which is the only reason I mention it specifically) requires:
 

• History: Minimum of two courses, which must include at least one comprehensive course in U. S. history and one comprehensive course in world history.
• Government: Minimum of one course. The course should cover material on local, state, and federal government.

 

Does not having a specific "World History" or a "US History" class listed on the transcript have a negative impact?  

 

My oldest did Omni I and II online in 7th & 8th. When they hit high school, I had an incredibly stupid crisis of confidence, so they followed what the local b&m high schools do & didn't do any Great Books or history in 9th. Looking at 10th-12th, they could go the usual World Hist, US Hist, Gov/Econ route. Or they could pick back up with Great Books for 10th-12th.

 

I went the usual route in high school, but I honestly don't think it did much, if anything, for me. Given the general feeling that Americans know little about history, I tend to think those courses don't do much for the majority of students. The advantage of a Great Books sequence is, I think, that the student reads and wrestles with the historical writings himself, rather than reading a textbook containing someone else's reading and understanding of history. It seems like the advantage of a Great Books sequence would be obvious. How does one not only cover the standard check boxes but also convey the advantage of a Great  Books study on college applications, though?

 

Thanks for any thoughts. I'd be especially interested to hear about how college applications went if your student did follow a Great Books approach (and how--on your own, through an online program, etc.)

 

yvonne

[Pronghorn]

I am eager to hear any answers you get. I am planning American History next year (freshman year) to get it out of the way. Then my daughter will be doing the great books program by Roman Roads Media, which is supposed to be one credit in History and one in Literature each year. Perhaps I'll also invent something to cover government later on. However, I am more attracted to a comparative government class that looks at different political systems than one that just focuses on the United States. My daughter came originally from another country and has a very international outlook that I want to honor and encourage.

[regentrude]

We did some integrated history and literature. The courses on DD's transcript are titled:

 

Ancient History , Medieval and Renaissance History , US History in World Context 1500-1900, US History in World Context 20th Century

World Literature: Ancients,  World Literature: Medieval/Renaissance,  World Literature: 1800- Modern

 

None of the colleges raised any questions.

 

ETA: I explained our approach in detail in the homeschool profile and the course descriptions.

[Liza Q]

I used the WTM approach. Years 1 and 2 were easy - Ancient History and World History 500-1500.

 

Years 3 and 4 I did a little differently.

3: .5 credit of World History 1500-1850 and .5 credit of U.S. History to 1850.

4: .5 credit of World History 1850-2000 and .5 credit of U.S. History 1850-2000.

 

I treated Government and Economics like electives. They are required here in NY so I made sure that they were clear on the transcript!

 

For English, I just listed English 1, 2, 3, 4 and included a book list with the application. If I could not have added the book list, which I set up by school year, I would have labeled the classes the way regentrude did, I guess. I chose not to because we did more than literature for English, kwim? And I could not come up with a way to phrase it that was not wordy.

 

A few of the colleges my oldest applied to were a little confused by homeschooling/my approach to homeschooling, so I included a list of the materials/books I used each year for each class. I have to send this info to the Board of Ed here every year, so I just sent copies of those letters. She got some excellent scholarship offers from those schools!

 

[SilverMoon]

We've done Great Book lit correlated to our history thus far, but I haven't graduated anyone yet. We don't plan to adhere to just this method for all of high school though. I prefer my teens to have freedom to choose their own path through the typical requirements.

 

DS did ancients history/lit combo in 9th, middle ages for 10th, plans on American for 11th, and gov/econ in 12th with a homegrown lit course. I was planning on listing this as English 1-4 w/ literature in the course description. This will easily satisfy the one credit each of world, American, and gov/econ requirement of the colleges he's looking at. He's also done a meaty mythology elective for 9th (Classical Mythology) and 10th (Euro mythology, inspiration of Tolkien, how stories evolve over time).

 

DD did American for 9th, plans on world history survey/geography with Brit lit for 10th, gov/econ for 11th with something quirky (possibly history of steampunk literature), and left 12th open on purpose, tbd. This will also satisfy the typical requirements.

[Karenciavo]

If you are completing a course with enough credit for literature and history then simply title your history course accordingly. 

 

e.g. Literature of the Western World III  

18th and 19th century World and US History

[Karenciavo]

Umm, no idea how I came across this dead thread.  :-)