I’m currently a junior in high school. I moved schools at the beginning of the year, and my old school had a different sequence of history, where I took Gov/Econ and Honors US History my freshman and sophomore years. The problem is that my new school has an integrated English/history class, and juniors are supposed to take US history, so I was originally told that I had to just do US History all over again. This also meant that I had to take World History online to fulfill the credit, as that is a sophomore class at my new school. I took both semesters of World History at once last semester (1st semester junior year).
It appears that they have become more lax on the integrated English/history, and I might be able to just take English now (no US history). I really don’t want to take US History anymore. I’m planning on majoring in STEM, and US History just doesn’t interest me that much, especially when I’m taking it for the second time. It’s taking time away from other classes, and I already have a lot of responsibilities. It’s even lowering my GPA because it’s not a weighted course.
Overall, my main question is: if I drop US History for 2nd semester junior year, will that look bad to colleges? If it does, I don’t suuuuper mind sticking with it, but I would much prefer to drop it.
talk to your guidance counselor - if they will send a letter explaining that they were able to work it out so you only needed the English part and they send it to colleges I think your fine as long as credit wise your fine’
Whatever you do, just make sure you take 4 unites of history in high school (one for each year). Despite what admissions requirements might be for individual colleges it is best to show 4 years of history and 4 years of English.
I do like the idea of the integrated English and History class. That makes a lot of sense to me.
OP, you wouldn’t be asking this question if you’d looked into what your college targets want to see. The more competitive the college, the more they want it all.
I agree with posters that you should take a full 4 years of social studies in high school.
Did you change states when you moved? Some states have a graduation requirement to pass a US history test (usually as part of a US History class)…so make sure you also fulfill your new school’s (and state’s if applicable) graduation requirements.
Hi everyone! Thanks for all your responses. Let me just make it clear that I have credits for Gov/Econ (both were semester long), Honors US History, and World History already. I stayed in the same state (California), and the minimum years required is three, so I’ve fulfilled all the credits. I already decided to stay in the US history class because there’s no other history class I could switch into, since all the history/English classes are still very integrated besides mine. I also didn’t want to make it look like I was dropping a class or that I couldn’t handle my schedule.
I could take one online AP class next year to get that 4th year credit. I would be most interested in AP Psych. Does that sound like a good plan and does it count for social studies credit? Then I would have 4 years worth of social studies, although I would still have to retake US History this year and Gov/Econ next year for the integrated English.
