3 years of history?

[daijobu]

My dd wants to go into a STEM field and does not want to take history her senior year.  Here's her history progression:

9th: Ancient Greek and Romans (taught badly by me)

10th: Renaissance and Early Modern World (WTMA)

11th: APUSH (PAH)

Will she be okay with 3 years of history, or should I press her to add on an easy self-study history class?  

[kokotg]

What about government and/or economics instead? I think 4 years of history is actually pretty unusual for a typical high school course of study, but a lot of places require Econ and or government for graduation. It really just depends on where she's hoping to go to college, though. 

[RootAnn]

Any ideas where she's going to apply to college? I'd check their admission requirements.

DD#1 will only have three years of science (hopefully - if we can get the local college class to work out in the fall). Separately, she will end up with no world history on her transcript. Luckily, none of the places she's looking at care about world history - only US history (and some govern/econ).

[Julie of KY]

Requirements for state graduation are different than requirement for college entrance.

I wouldn't have any problem having my STEM child only do 3 years of history.

I would look up the requirement of some colleges near you or that you think might be possibilities and check their requirements. All the ones we cared about only required three years.

[Lori D.]

You'll want to consider both total amount of Social Studies credits for college admissions -- AND the specific KIND of credits required for college admissions.

Most colleges want 2-4 credits (depends on the school, and depends on the intended major), with many many colleges requiring 1 credit of Social Studies as American History. Some also want 1 credit World Geography/History (your Ancients or Medieval would cover that), and some want 0.5 credit each of Gov't and Econ. Most colleges also accept things like Anthropology, Archeology, Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, etc. as meeting their Social Studies credit requirements. Social Studies is the one academic subject that colleges tend to be pretty flexible about, so even if you don't have what is specifically required (say, the Gov't. and Econ.), but DO meet the minimum total amount of Social Studies credits, the college may work with you and flex about not meeting their exact requirement.

BUT... research, research, research, and get it in writing if a college is willing to waive the requirement or substitute a different type of Social Studies credit! And, be aware that some colleges might NOT flex, so think ahead about how you want to handle that -- so if you end up not doing APUSH, maybe self-study one summer and have DD take a CLEP test in American History, for example, if the college accepts a specific American History CLEP.

BEST of luck as you plan for high school! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Roadrunner]

I wonder if there is going to be an issue not having a survey history course and having more focused ones? If a university says "one year of world history," are they assuming it's a survey course? Obviously I have no answers, but that could be something. 

[Lori D.]

4 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

I wonder if there is going to be an issue not having a survey history course and having more focused ones? If a university says "one year of world history," are they assuming it's a survey course? Obviously I have no answers, but that could be something. 

Esp. if you entitle the course something like: "World History: Ancients" or "World History: Medieval", it probably would pass unnoticed. ;)

I have not heard anyone say that this was a problem, but always good to check with the potential future college. :) 

[Momto6inIN]

Oldest DS is going to be a STEM major next year and he did 1 year of Ancient World History, 1 year of Medieval and Renaissance World History, got bored out of his mind with the 4 year history cycle ;) and did a year of US Government and Economics which he enjoyed and then held his nose and did a get 'er done US History program to cover the rest of his requirements.

[mytwomonkeys]

I think that’s totally fine.

My daughter attends public HS. They do American History, World History & American Govt/Economics - so 3 years total.  That’s all that is required here in FL. She will dual enroll for American Govt & Economics.

My son is homeschooled, but we will follow the same college prep requirements that my daughter does.  

[EKS]

The short answer is that I think three years of history is just fine.

The longer answer is that I think it's important to have modern world history prior to (or concurrently with) American so that what's going on in the US is properly situated in a global context.  

[Kareni]

We came to homeschooling late and began in 7th grade.  We allowed my daughter the decision of whether or not to homeschool each year, so we took things on a year by year basis.  I'd describe our homeschooling as WTM inspired; however, I elected to do a three year run through world history.

In 7th grade, my daughter covered Pre-history to about AD500.
In 8th grade, my daughter studied the time period AD500 to about AD1700.
In 9th, she did an at home WTM inspired world history study of the time period from 1700 to 2000.  

Ninth grade was the last year she did history at home.

In 10th, she took an out of the home AP US History class which used Bailey's American Pageant.

In 11th grade, my daughter had an out of the home AP Comparative Gov't and Politics class.

Her interests in high school led her to emphasize foreign languages at the expense of history; there were only so many hours in a day! Her high school record looked like this:

9th: World History from 1700 to 2000 (at home, the third year of her chronological sweep through history)
10th: AP US History (out of the home class)
11th: AP Comparative Politics and Government (out of the home class)

You might not classify it as history, but she also did

12th: Art History (quarter long class at the community college)

We had access to excellent AP teachers at a free homeschooling resource center, and that was part of what decided our history choices during the high school years.

She was ultimately accepted to eight of the ten colleges to which she applied.

Regards,
Kareni

[Corraleno]

Has she considered Econ, either AP (usually it's half a year each of Micro & Macro) or DIY at home (possibly with CLEP tests if the target colleges accept them)? Econ often appeals to mathy kids, and it fills the history/social science slot.

[linders]

I would encourage a half credit of Government and a half of Econ. Even STEM majors need to be literate in current affairs.

[daijobu]

Thank you.  These are all great suggestions and I will suggest them to her.  

[JanetC]

Three years of history is often enough for college admissions. However, a government course is usually a standard part of high school that many colleges are used to seeing. Many of the other suggested social science topics are often interesting and fun as well.

Feel free to use any social science, not just history. Economics, sociology, gender studies, psychology, geography, political science, and so on.

My daughter did a class on globalization as a DE student thaf combined history, geography, and economics and loved it. Climate change would lend itself to that sort of approach as well. She's now taking a geography class on the history and practice of mapmaking.