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What does "one credit world history" actually mean?


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Inspired by conversation with a good friend, I want to know exactly what "one credit world history" means. My state only requires that we have 3 credits of "social studies," and for homeschoolers, it specifies that "world history" and "US/state history" must be taught sometime between 7th and 12th grade but puts no official requirement on time periods, countries, or hours spent on those subjects. In addition, I looked at both Penn State's and Messiah College's requirements, and they only require 2-3 credits of social science, but no more specifics otherwise. So, very vague requirements here.

 

I hear that's not the case with other colleges though, that they want to see a specific credit of US history and a specific credit of world history. So, what's "world history?" Does that mean any credit of history, any time period, that encompasses multiple countries other than the US? (For instance, a year of ancient history, or a year of European history from the fall of Rome through the twenty-first century, or a year of world history from 1600-1850.). Or does it truly mean a year of something like "from the Sumerians to the Internet and terrorism?"

 

Trying to decide whether I'm covering my bases appropriately or way overthinking. . . (And that's without even thinking about government and economics requirements -- I'm not there yet!)

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...So, what's "world history?" Does that mean any credit of history, any time period, that encompasses multiple countries other than the US? (For instance, a year of ancient history, or a year of European history from the fall of Rome through the twenty-first century, or a year of world history from 1600-1850.). Or does it truly mean a year of something like "from the Sumerians to the Internet and terrorism?" ...

 

I want to know exactly what "one credit world history" means. My state only requires that we have 3 credits of "social studies," and for homeschoolers, it specifies that "world history" and "US/state history" must be taught sometime between 7th and 12th grade but puts no official requirement on time periods, countries, or hours spent on those subjects.

 

 

Yes. :)

 

What works best for your family, and fits in best with your student's interests? Go with that.

 

The main thing that college admission offices are looking for is that the student spent a year studying some part of the world other than the U.S., in addition to the year spent studying the History and Gov't of the U.S.

 

 

...I want to know exactly what "one credit world history" means. My state only requires that we have 3 credits of "social studies," â€¦ but puts no official requirement on time periods, countries, or hours spent on those subjects….

 

As far as counting credit…

 

Colleges frequently only accept credits earned in the four years prior to high school graduation (in other words, they don't count high school credits earned in middle school), so you'll want to make sure that your 3 credits of Social Sciences happen in 9th-12th grades so they will count towards college admission requirements (i.e., don't do your credits of World History, American History, Gov't, or Econ in 7th or 8th grade).

 

As for "what makes a credit"… If you go with a textbook or program, just complete all or most of it, and that takes care of your credit. Or, if you are making your own History studies, then it can be helpful to track hours towards completing a credit. Here's a helpful "credit hours" chart:

. . . . . . . . . . . .lite . . . average . . rigorous

1.00 credit = 120 . . . 150 . . . 180

0.75 credit =   90 . . . 110 . . . 135

0.66 credit =   80 . . . 100 . . . 120

0.50 credit =   60 . . . . 75 . . . . 90

0.33 credit =   40 . . . . 50 . . . . 60

0.25 credit =   30 . . . . 35 . . . . 45

 

Science (due to labs) and History and Literature (due to the extra time needed for reading and writing), tend to fall in the average to rigorous range. So if your History studies end up taking you between 135-165 hours, you've got a solid History credit. (If your studies fall over 180 hours -- say, you spent 200-225 hours on History in one year, then to be fair to your student, you need to award additional credit -- 1.33 credits for 200 hours; 1.5 credits for 225 hours, for example.)

 

If you are making your own History, you can include lots of resources for "input" -- textbooks, primary source documents, "living books" (non-fiction history), documentaries, video lecture series or live lectures, Coursera or other MOOC material, community presentation, etc. For output, you can choose among many things: quizzes, tests, oral discussion, written discussion question answers, research paper, power point presentation, creation of a short documentary video, creation of historical clothing or objects, participation in formal history recreation event, etc.

Edited by Lori D.
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We interpreted that to mean a broad study of the ancient civilizations through modern day.  Of course that's a lot to cover so you mostly just do the highlights, work with timelines, and have a general understanding of the advancement of humanity over time.  We spent quite a bit of time on the ancient civilizations though.  Later, I let my kids pick a specific time period in history that they wanted to cover, or a particular country or culture throughout history, and they did a semester on that alone.  So, that was a specific history class on top of the "World History."  For example, one daughter chose Chinese history, with most of it covering the ancient Chinese civilizations.  Another daughter chose World War II.

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We are doing 1 credit of "Ancient and Medieval World History" that covers the ancients up to the 1700s. Then we are doing "USH in World Context I and II" for 2 credits over 2 years, which will cover the North American Explorers through Civil War/Reconstruction and Westward Expansion through the Present respectively and which will also cover events and people from all over the world as they intersect with US History. I borrowed the course name from regentrude on these boards and I love it! :)

 

My goal is to show on a transcript that we did cover the whole span of world history at a high school level, just not all in 1 year, and with a specific focus on US History.

 

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The main thing that college admission offices are looking for is that the student spent a year studying some part of the world other than the U.S., in addition to the year spent studying the History and Gov't of the U.S.

 

I agree, you can do a broad overview of all world history, or a shorter time frame. My oldest did 2 years of World History (he likes history) that spanned from Ad 0 to modern times.

 

My youngest had done world history up to about 1700 in 8th grade and doesn't really care for history, so she just did 1700 to modern times for high school. 

 

We always aim for 150-180 hours for a history credit, with a combo of reading, tests, discussions, summaries/notes, and usually a short research paper or two.

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My 9th grader is doing World History in a year. We used K-12s World History: Our Human Story. I supplement and use test questions from Spielvogel's World History. It is literally a drive by snapshot of world history in 36 weeks. We have studied all of the pieces, some of them a few times using the 4 year history cycle in the 1st-8th grade years, so I wanted a cohesive year that brought together the entire story of history succinctly.

 

Like MerryAtHope, we have used a combination of materials to get a solid 150-180 hours. We are closer to the 180 hours, most likely more. We have used readings, document based history assessments, Crash Course history, tests, some quizzes, summaries/notes, discussions, weekly short answer questions and lecture. We started history earlier in mid August, so we will finish before we officially wrap up the year. The last couple weeks will be spent writing a short research paper. I am still trying to determine topic (give me ideas, people! Please!), but I feel like it has been a very solid year of history with a strong overview of the big picture.

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We're doing a credit in modern US history (US history since the Civil War is the specific title) this year and she will likely do a modern world civ class through dual enrollment in 11th or 12th grade. Additional social studies credits my daughter has done are a half credit in civics and a credit in intro to social sciences (sociology and psychology). I may have her do a macroeconomics class culminating in a CLEP as well, depending on how the schedule works out. We've done two rounds of world and US history WTM-style (but switching to a US history curriculum as the spine the second two years of each cycle, making modern world history a supplemental source), so she was more than ready to stick to more modern times.

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I know you adore Medieval history and are going to spend this year on that.  If it turns out that you realize, "Uh oh!  I need to do World History!  And American!  And economics and government!" there's no need to panic. 

 

You can do a full year of Medieval history this year, and then do World History next year, from Sumerians to today.  Only, next year SKIP the medieval bits.  Or review them super fast to bridge ancient to renaissance. You'd be taking 2 years for "World History."  Perhaps call "World history, with a concentration in Medieval History" and give it 2 credits. It could be pretty cool--you would be able to take longer than most people have on ancients, renaissance and modern history. 

 

For your 3rd and 4th year, you still have time for American history and then Economics and Govt (those last two are done as 1/2 year courses.)

 

Or, after reading this thread, you might decide to do something entirely differently, but by doing Medieval this year, you aren't shutting any doors for future courses.  You still have plenty of time to get everything done. 

 

And don't forget that there is wiggle room with electives.  You could do two history programs in a year, if one fills the elective slot.  We're doing World History for our Social Studies this year, but also Ancient Egypt for a 1/2 year elective.

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The more I look at admission pages for random colleges, they don't ask for those specific things: "World and American and Government and Economics." 

 

Earlier this year when I started googling, "High school social studies" those four topics are what come up over and over to define "Social Studies" in high school.  So, it could be that's what's standard, but if you do something different, then colleges don't really care, as long as what you're doing seems to make some sort of sense and is at the high school level.

 

Virginia Tech (randomly chosen because I have a friend who went there) says this about admission credits:

 

* two units of social science (one must be history)​

 

It doesn't say anything about world history or American or anything. Neither does UMBC.  Neither does Goucher.

 

But this is a page about what makes up high school social studies :  http://712educators.about.com/od/socialstudies/a/ss_planofstudy.htm

 

 

Edited by Garga
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The last couple weeks will be spent writing a short research paper. I am still trying to determine topic (give me ideas, people! Please!), but I feel like it has been a very solid year of history with a strong overview of the big picture.

 

I used to tell my kids it was coming and to be thinking about an interesting person or event they would like to write about. In other words, I had them pick the topic. 

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The more I look at admission pages for random colleges, they don't ask for those specific things: "World and American and Government and Economics." 

 

Earlier this year when I started googling, "High school social studies" those four topics are what come up over and over to define "Social Studies" in high school.  So, it could be that's what's standard, but if you do something different, then colleges don't really care, as long as what you're doing seems to make some sort of sense and is at the high school level.

 

Virginia Tech (randomly chosen because I have a friend who went there) says this about admission credits:

 

* two units of social science (one must be history)​

 

It doesn't say anything about world history or American or anything. Neither does UMBC.  Neither does Goucher.

 

But this is a page about what makes up high school social studies :  http://712educators.about.com/od/socialstudies/a/ss_planofstudy.htm

 

Interesting. Thanks for posting that, Garga.

 

In contrast, in all of the schools I've looked at (predominantly west of the Mississippi), the one Social Science credit that virtually all colleges either require or strongly recommend is 1 credit of American History. After that, most schools just want another 1-2 credits of Social Sciences in the student's choice of area (and often list things that they are okay with, like Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, etc.). A few do specify they also prefer 1 credit of World History or Geography; a few others recommend (which is not the same as require) Government and Economics.

 

As usual, it always seems to boil down to "check with the specific school you are interested in" to know for sure what your student needs! :)

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Interesting. Thanks for posting that, Garga.

 

In contrast, in all of the schools I've looked at (predominantly west of the Mississippi), the one Social Science credit that virtually all colleges either require or strongly recommend is 1 credit of American History. After that, most schools just want another 1-2 credits of Social Sciences in the student's choice of area (and often list things that they are okay with, like Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, etc.). A few do specify they also prefer 1 credit of World History or Geography; a few others recommend (which is not the same as require) Government and Economics.

 

As usual, it always seems to boil down to "check with the specific school you are interested in" to know for sure what your student needs! :)

 

To give some additional info from east of the Mississippi:

 

The University of NC system minimum requirements say "two units of social science, including United States history"

 

University of South Carolina: "Must include one unit of US history. One-half unit of economics and one-half unit of government are strongly recommended." 

 

University of Georgia wants one US, one world, and one of student's choice

 

Univ of Tennessee " 1 unit of American history, 1 unit of European history, world history, or world geography"

 

Wake Forest has a minimum of two in history and social studies, no specifics. Duke wants three, but no specifics lilsted.

 

So, it's all over the board, and doesn't seem to have a pattern related to the level of selectivity. It's this variation that's driving me a bit batty trying to figure out the best strategy, since my daughter doesn't have even a really narrowed down list yet. 

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