History/social sciences - spin-off of world language thread
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Anonymous
| DCPS doesn’t teach European history on principle. And kids go to Harvard every year. (Yes, including white kids.) |
Anonymous
Unfortunately, no. DC’s school requires that all 9-11th graders take a history or social science, so DC must choose now between Euro and Econ for next year. |
Anonymous
Different situation, as that decision is out of student hands and therefore colleges would not hold it against them. DC’s school DOES offer Euro. |
Anonymous
I guess I was wondering if Euro could be taken in 12th grade if need be. |
Anonymous
Yes, but given that the school only requires 3 years of History/Social Sciences, DC has zero interest in making it 4 at the expense of maxing out STEM offerings instead. |
Anonymous
Where did your DC go to college? |
Anonymous
Sounds like Econ is the right call, I don't think this would make or break their application. What would they take senior year? My DC doubled up in STEM but still continued with a fourth year of everything else, so there might still be room for more social science. If they make it to Harvard, they might still end up in Gov 50. My kid really liked AP.Comp Gov't! |
Anonymous
He needs a third history if he wants to be a credible candidate at ANY top school. I would also recommend he take Econ especially if he is interested in applied math. Econ is not a history course and most math/stem kids really enjoy it. I actually think taking Econ helps support his interest in applied math. |
Anonymous
| Our high school doesn’t even offer “European” history. |
Anonymous
| Handwringing over your kid's schedule is wasted effort. Discuss with your school counselor to make sure your kid is taking the courses they need for their transcript to be marked "most rigorous". Harvard isn't going to care about AP History over AP Econ. If you are worried about this, you are a step behind and don't get it. Your time is best spent choosing classes and extracurriculars so you can package your kid and create a strong narrative in their application. It's probably worth discussing this with a private college counselor. |
Anonymous
Yeah, my kid two years of "World" history, American history junior year, and then an AP Gov't class senior year. |
Anonymous
All of the above already done. DC is at the nitpicking stage at this point. |
Anonymous
School ranked in the T30/35---got into several in the 30-50 range. Did not get into their T10/ED and got WL one just below 30. So, perhaps taking the APUSH/ENG might have helped with admission, but probably not (when admission rates are 5-10% it is still a crap shoot). IMO what you have to weigh is: would my kid still be happy with their choice if they do NOT get into a T10 school because of it. And to me, a future Applied Math major could use AP Econ---so why not push themselves with a topic that's interesting to THEM and will be beneficial for their future. The parent indicates that their son would rather take AP Econ---at some point you have to start allowing your kids to make their own decisions--with the caveat that you help the kid understand that this "might" hurt their admission chances at T10/20 schools slightly ( I say slightly because their odds of admission is still slim, thousands of kids have the "perfect resume"/"perfect course list with perfect grades" and still get denied admission. My kid is a full year ahead in Calc, chem (taking Orgo freshman year), 1 semester of Physics credit, 1 Semester of CS credit (intro class for Majors/minors). Interestingly, their college does NOT give credit for history, English, etc. if it's not in your major---so no AP credit for their version of "core curriculum". So my kid would have only been taking it for "enrichment" and possibly to help with college admissions. Instead, my kid focused on the STEM courses that actually matter for their future, learned alot (got 5s on everything and is doing extremely well at a top university in those sophomore level courses their freshman year). Sure my kid could have completed APUSH/AP Eng 11th, but they would have been miserable---it would have meant an extra 10-15 hours of work per week at a minimum. My kid wanted to focus on their EC/Sport that requires 15-25+ hours/week of commitment. We chose to let them do that and preserve their mental health. Instead they took honor Eng/History, had a much lower time commitment, and still got into a great university. Most importantly, they did not overextend themselves---it is NOT healthy to get only 2-3 hours of sleep per night, and that's what would happen when you go to school 8-3, attend dance from 4-10pm M-Th, another 4-6 hours on Sat, and in the fall you have Nutcracker that consumes every waking moment for almost 1 month (with run thrus, dress rehearsals, 10 performances, etc) and then it's on to competition season with Friday's from 3pm until Sunday at 7pm often consuming your weekends every 2-3 weeks. Sure my kid could have done it, but would it be healthy? Or should we let them focus on top classes that apply to their future and they ENJOY, and focus on an EC that makes them happy. I'll pick that anyday. |
Anonymous
| My DC applied to all ivies except Cornell. Got rejected by only one (it wasn’t Harvard). The only AP social studies they took was APUSH and AP Psych. No AP language. No AP English. Took AP Physics 1&2, AP Bio and BC Calculus. Wasn’t sure if wanted to go STEM route or Humanities. |
Anonymous
Cool! Where did they end and what did they decide to study there? |