High School Counselor in Boulder, Colorado

As a high school student, you may be starting to select your high school classes for next year. It is important to understand that your high school course requirements may or can be different from what colleges want to see when you apply for admission.
Here are some suggestions to consider prior to selecting classes….
  1. Review your high school graduation requirements. You want to pay attention to the academic core classes (English, Math, Sciences, World Languages, and Social Studies). Most U.S. high schools will have a pretty standard list of course requirements. For example, you may see something like four years of English, three years of Math, two to three years of Social Studies, World Language, and Science.
  2. If you already have a few colleges in mind, go onto each college’s “Undergraduate Admissions” website and review the high school classes they want to see. Many colleges will give you an idea of their high school course requirements or preferences.
  3. For admission to US colleges and universities, five academic core classes each year and each semester are important. If you don’t want to take all of the traditional five academic core classes in your senior year, then you can double up in an academic subject. For example, if you want to drop science, then consider taking two social studies, English, or math classes. You want to make sure that there are five academic core classes each semester in the senior year.
  4. Despite the selectivity of the school, across the board, I see most U.S. colleges and universities want the following number of core academic core classes…
Most Ideal High School Schedule–
  • 4 years of English
  • 4 years of Math
  • 4 years of Social Studies
  • 4 years of Sciences (3 lab sciences in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics)
  • 4 years of World Language
  • 1 year of a Fine or Performing arts subject (California state college/university requirement, for example, Pottery 1 and 2 or Choir full year, etc)
An Alternative–
  • 4 years of English
  • 4 years of Math
  • 3 years of Social Studies
  • 3 years of Sciences (2 of the 3 lab sciences in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics)
  • 3 years of World Languages**
*If you drop of academic core subject, then double up in another academic core
Side note with World Languages–
  • Some colleges will not accept American Sign Language or a non-Modern Language, however, most will be flexible. Make sure to find out the language requirement for each of the colleges on your list.
  • If you are a Native speaker of a language other than English, some US colleges will prefer that you take a new language in high school rather than taking classes in your Native language. Most colleges will be flexible, but it is important to find out.
  • Colleges will count the number of years you took of a language in high school (not middle school) rather than the level you went up to. Of course getting to the higher levels of a language looks impressive to colleges and they want to see that you are sticking with a language through junior year.
There are some exceptions to the course selection process and The Best U College Counseling team would be happy to meet with you to discuss your specific high school course selection process. We like to start with a free introductory call to learn more about your admissions needs and then we dive into a counseling meeting to discuss course selection in detail. Feel free to book a free call by going to thebestu.net.
Watch the video to Plan The Right High School Classes To Strengthen Your Admission Profile

Location: Colorado, USA

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