Seems that this is the season where high school students and parents frequently ask high school college prep curriculum questions. Often, these are asked in isolation (“should I take [class 1] or [class 2]?”) without context of the student’s overall course selections. It may be better to consider such questions in the context of building a solid high school college prep curriculum, looking at both college admission and preparation for college academic work.
Suggested solid high school college prep curriculum:
- English: 4 years.
- Math: through precalculus and trigonometry. If precalculus and trigonometry are completed before 12th grade, calculus is desirable.
- Foreign language: through level 3, but level 4 or higher is preferred for the most selective colleges, and the higher level one completes, the higher placement in college foreign language courses one may get (which can help in fulfilling foreign language graduation requirements at many colleges).
- Science: 3 years, including all of biology, chemistry, and physics. 4 years including one at an advanced (e.g. AP) level may be preferred by the most selective colleges.
- History and social studies: 3 years, including US history and US government. 4 years may be preferred by the most selective colleges.
- Art and/or music: 1 year.
- Academic electives: Choose additional academic courses based on interest. For specialty colleges (e.g. engineering-focused schools and music conservatories), certain types of academic electives beyond the minimum described above may be expected (and the student interested in such a college will typically choose such academic electives).
- AP, IB HL, college, or other advanced level courses: for the most selective colleges, such courses in several of the above categories may be preferable if available. However, at high schools which offer large numbers of such courses, there is no need to try to take every single one, nor take as many as possible in a way that compromises the solid high school college prep curriculum (e.g. taking AP statistics instead of precalculus and trigonometry, taking AP environmental science instead of physics, or taking AP human geography instead of foreign language level 3 or 4 is not generally a good idea).