My junior daughter took 2 history classes so far (Euro History and AP US History). She will take AP US Government and AP Art History in 12th grade. Will this meet the 3 years of history minimum recommendation. Or should she take another history class next year instead of taking the 5th year English class (AP Lit) or 5th year French class (AP French)?
Thanks.
AP government is not a history class, but is part of the broader social sciences. Assuming that it is a full year course, then yes, it will meet the requirements of any college that requests/requires 3 years history/social science
AP Art History generally falls under fine arts.
Did she not have to take World History I and II? Or maybe 20th century? The first two are required where we live. 20th C is an elective.
AP Gov is considered a social science like history so it should cover that area for colleges, unless they are specifically looking for history. I would ask an admissions counselor or college counselor about that to be sure. Art history falls under fine arts as mentioned above.
Let’s not conflate HS graduation requirements with a college’s recommended preparation. Usually when a college recommends world history, they mean something other than US. (e.g. for UC’s, Euro meets the world history requirement).
I rarely see a college recommend/require more than 2 years of history, specifically, although they may recommend more that 2 years of history/social sciences. But when in doubt, check with the target colleges.
Pretty much every honors kid at our high school (not doing IB) only takes AP Euro and AP US History for history classes. Many also take AP hug, overnment and econ but as pointed out above those are social sciences not history.
They get in to all sorts of colleges. What college is recommending more than 2 years of hostory?
Our district in California requires 3 years of social science for graduation, but APs are not required. One year of world history (or AP European Civilization) in 10th grade, one year of US history (or APUSH) in 11th grade, and one year of civics/economics (or AP Government). There is no room in 9th grade for social science since they have to take year long freshman P.E.
Which colleges require 3 years of history:
https://collegiatescholars.uchicago.edu/page/suggested-courses
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/preparing-college/choosing-courses
NYU requires 3-4 years of history/social sciences:
I would guess the vast majority of high schools do not offer another advanced history class. 4 years of Social Studies is pretty standard.for honors kids in our high school but not 3 years of History.
APHUG
APEuro
APUSH
1 Semester each of AP Gov and Micro or Macro Econ (D20 will take 3 semesters)
That seems like more than enough social studies to me!
I certainly hope US Government is not history yet. 
Please be careful when talking about colleges that recommend AP classes. It might freak out parents and students who are in high schools that have limited numbers of AP classes (or even none like mine - a rural area in the midwest). No college will tell you that a specific AP class is required in their official requirement list. They probably won’t even tell you that specific ones are recommended, although they may make a remark that the more AP classes the better (or something like that). Every college’s Common Data Set will tell you exactly what is required for that school. If you don’t know what that is, go to the main college web site, then just search for “common data set.” That will almost always bring up the correct results.
@billcsho - very funny. 
It is not unusual in our district for kids to APHUGE, APEURO,APWorld, and APUSH. ApGovt and Econ is also taken one semester each. history and govt are all part of Social Studies
https://collegiatescholars.uchicago.edu/page/suggested-courses
Let’s not freak people out needlessly @coolweather . This is not UChicago’s recommended HS preparation. The Collegiate Scholars program is a very specific subset which is only available to Chicago Public School students. The UChicago recommendation for the rest of the world is:
https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/preparing-for-college
As for Harvard, well, that’s a reach for everyone, regardless, and there is no indication that Harvard is on OP’s kid’s list. Additionally, Harvard’s list is recommended, not required. There is at least one moderator on this site that was accepted without meeting all of Harvard’s recommendations. 
Agreed. Colleges will evaluate in context; they know one cannot take that which is not offered.
We are in a very good school district with 4 high schools. Each offers only World or Euro at the AP level, not both. I cannot imagine even Harvard penalizing a kid for that.
They wouldn’t. Even Harvard does not “recommend” specific AP courses; they only recommend advanced classes in some cases, which could be AP, IB, or an honors course above the intro level.
Agree we shouldn’t overreact to this. I know quite a few kids that got into Chicago and Harvard from bay area where they only took three years of social sciences with only two years history. They took nothing in 9th, World History in 10th, APUSH in 11th and APGov/econ as a senior. And econ was not AP, so only 1.5 AP classes in social science. And as I’ve been saying all along as long as that one is apush (a gold standard for adcoms), you’re fine.
@InfoQuestMom -Wait. What??? My school required both. How does this sit with parents/the school board?
Not uncommon. Some others don’t allow foreign language study until sophomore year for the same reason. Their school - their rules. But again, colleges understand when its “recommendations” do not align to HS requirements/rules.
Many high schools have no social science freshman year. Ours has only 6 periods in a day and a normal college prep freshman takes:
Foreign Language 1 or 2 depending on if they started in middle school
Math at whatever level
Biology
Language Arts 1
PE
Health/College and Careers
AP/IB track kids take health over one summer and careers over another to fit in HUG
But that still leaves 3 years of social studies in 10/11/12
While two years may be the minimum requirement for a number of schools (the UCs for example), I think that many of the more selective schools expect 3 years of history or social sciences at a minimum. Among those should be a World Cultures/World History (preferably AP World or AP Euro), and a US History (preferably APUSH). Much as I would discourage a student to quit a foreign language after two years (even if some schools don’t require more than that),
Your daughter should be fine with without another history class if she’s taking AP Gov and AP Art History, esp. given her literature/language classes.