<p>I was checking the common data sets of some possible colleges and there is a recommended number of courses for history and the same for social studies. How do you tell which category a course belongs in?</p>
<p>Social studies usually includes history and other stuff like economics, geography, government, etc. You need a certain number of social studies classes, and some fraction of those need to be history classes specifically. </p>
<p>A history course is a course that is focused on the study of history - American history, World history, European history. A social studies course is a course focused on the study of some aspect of society - including history - so a social studies course may include US History, Sociology, Political Science, World Religions, Anthropology - etc. </p>