I’ve seen recommendations on college websites for 3-4 years of history. Some of them say 3 years of history and 3 years of social studies. What is the difference. My daughter, so far, has taken World Cultures, AP WH, AP USH and she is a junior.
Generally speaking, “history” refers only to a course with the word “history” in it, while social studies refers to all social studies classes, including history. For example, these are the AP history courses: AP World, AP Euro, and APUSH. Social studied include those three, but could also include: AP Econ (micro/macro), AP Gov (US/comp.), and possibly even AP Human Geo and AP Psych.
I would recommend emailing colleges if you’re worried about classification, but as a hesitant guess I’d say your daughter has taken two history and one general social studies class (although if World Cultures is history based, it could be counted as such). I hope you figure this out, as I’m also struggling to understand college requirements!
APWH and APUSH would be histories. Social studies include government, economics, psychology, geography, and history. So World Cultures would count as a social studies course. Most colleges, when they talk about social studies/history in general, mostly refer to the subject as social studies. You could ask each college the exact definition of the wording but I think history and social studies might be interchangeable. Besides taking AP Euro, colleges should be able to understand that taking 3 years of history isn’t as attainable as it is to take 3 years of social studies.
So your daughter should be fine with her three years but if you have any concerns, contact HSLDA or the individual colleges. Worst comes to worst, they will ask for a course description of the World Cultures class. As a homeschooler, I’m familiar with the different texts and if it was probably just a course about literally world cultures and geography, you should be fine. That’s just my personal opinion; nothing in stone. So again, any concerns or questions, you should take them to HSLDA or the individual colleges.