The high school courses students need for college

Bruce Vinik via Valerie Strauss:

It's that time of year again. Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training and high school students are puzzling over which classes to take next fall. The choices students make do matter. Outside of grades, nothing is more important in college admissions than the classes kids take in high school. "Strength of Program" is a big deal.

Let's start with the basics. Colleges expect students to take at least five core academic subjects every year of high school -- English, social studies, science, math and foreign language.

In a perfect world, students would take each core subject every year. But the world isn't perfect and colleges don't expect kids to be. As long as students take each core subject through eleventh grade, they should feel free to pursue their particular academic interests in greater depth during twelfth grade. There's nothing wrong with dropping social studies senior year in order to double up on science.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 24, 2010 4:23 AM
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