I completed a World History course in 9th grade and I am technically taking one now. However, my class last year barely touched World History (it was mostly an English course on how to interpret historic texts) and my current History teacher only teaches us about European History. She admitted herself that it is a European History course with the name of World History. This already looks bad on my transcript for taking World History twice, but I would like to take an actual World History course in preparation for the subject SAT because I want to study a related field in Harvard. Do you suggest I take an online course without putting it on my transcript? Or should I have three years of World History? I just don’t know what to do. I didn’t learn anything about World History in either of my courses.
You don’t need a world history Subject Test to study world history at Harvard (or any other US college). If that’s your only reason, I’d suggest just moving on to another topic in history/social science. Usually, a US history course more closely aligns with the Subject Test anyway.
Assuming this is standard for your HS, and the two courses have different names (even if the only difference is the suffix, I vs II or 9 vs 10) it won’t “look bad.”
I plan to study Asian Studies. I chose the World History subject test because I am very interested in world history over American or European history, and I would like to impress colleges with something I am already passionate about. Thank you for your advice! I will consider taking the American history subject test.
While I commend you for that, Subject Tests scores impress nobody. Also, Harvard is a longshot for almost everybody, so make sure you have matches and safeties. That said, Harvard does not admit by major, so your plan of study does not need to align 100% with your standardized tests.Good luck.