I was surprised to see that UA requires 4 units of social sciences in high school as part of their freshman admission requirements. We are OOS from Illinois and my S 17 will have completed 3 units by the end of junior year this year. S was not planning on taking a social science class next year as a senior. We have started researching schools for him and most schools we’ve looked at require 2 or 3 years although they sometimes suggest 4. I am glad we caught this while there is still time for him to change his schedule for senior year. Did this catch anyone else off guard, or do most kids take 4 years of social science?
Contact admissions with your Q. Some states only require 3 years and Bama often accepts that. So, get an answer in writing from Bama if taking 3 will be ok.
@Itsabeautifulday I had this discussion with UA admissions because we are also from IL. They count up to two years Foreign Language as part of the four years. If your son has three years of Social Science and two years of Foreign Language, he should be good.
Check with them to be sure. That is how I remember it.
Yeah, IL grad requirements are rather dolt-ish, and only require 2 years of SS and 2 years of Science!, when most colleges require much more than that. Unbelievable. For those students who have done college prep courses, UA will (as stated above) allow other credits to count. Don’t forgot that Psych, Econ, Sociology…all count, along with the more common Government, History, Geography. If you’re really struggling, you can take a semester of on-line courses through IL Virtual School, like the Government or Econ class. I can recommend that your senior student seriously consider taking that (easy, 1 semester) AP Psych course, if possible, tho. Good luck!
My D is taking AP Psych and hardly studies at all. Good thing is if she gets a 3 on the exam, she gets credit for a SB class at UA. Very nice!
Thank you all for the suggestions. S is finishing up his 3rd year of Foreign Language this year. I will contact UA and ask if that will meet the requirement along with his 3 years of Social Science. He does have room in his schedule next year to add Psychology (school doesn’t offer AP Psych) and Sociology which are 1 semester classes. His friends are telling him they are interesting so I think he is going to add them. Thanks again!
Coming from California our son only had 3 years of social science so we were nervous when he applied. We raised the question during our first visit to Bama and the response was that it was not a big issue. They just look at the other subjects taken, such as the third year of a foreign language, and apply that to the requirement instead.
I only took three and was accepted, also from IL
We just ran into this problem too. S’s application was flagged for the “deficiency” in the portal. Called admissions and were told that when it was reviewed they would just take the extra year of foreign language to satisfy the req.
Now we wait I guess? No hint as to when or how often someone reviews the apps in limbo. :\
We are from Georgia and our requirement is 3. DS was accepted. I never even looked at the SS requirement. I’m kind of surprised they ask for 4.
I never looked either. I just always assume public schools have pretty generic requirements! It was reassuring to come here and find this thread though. If your S got accepted already maybe that means we wont have to wait much longer? I wish we knew more.
Alabama public high school system requires 4 years of social science. That’s probably why.
Georgia requires 3 SS. But the also require 1 Econ so that brings us to 4 because Econ counts as an SS class.
Not a our public school in Georgia they take World history in 10th ,US history in 11th and Govt/Economics in 12th. The Govt/Economics is one class. So it’s still just 3 years of SS classes.
@MichiganGeorgia what classes do they take in 9th grade?
@sensation723 - They take PE/Health. They only have 6 periods in a day so 9th is Math,Biology,English,Foreign Lang,PE/Health and a fine arts class.
As noted by @Belle315 above, the Alabama public university admissions requirements conform with the state high school graduation requirements, so that’s why 4 years of social studies are required. But they also recognize that 4 years is not the norm in many (most?) other states, so they are more flexible with out-of-state students.
Many California schools have a SS sequence exactly as @MichiganGeorgia described in posts 13 and 15.
And of course as soon as UA agrees to take 3 years instead of 4, we find out there’s only 2.5 years on his official transcript. The school dropped him from next semester’s SS class sometime during the 3 week span between when I got a transcript and when the school mailed transcripts. So glad I could find out from UA!
D filled out her UA app by herself so I didn’t get a chance to see…but do they have a place to list your senior year classes?
They flagged her app as deficient for a 4th year of English. D had to go to the GC and have the GC email with a copy of her senior year schedule.
Seems like a problem that could be avoided by asking for senior year courses on the app?