College Requirements for Homeschool History and Social Science

You may have wondered at one point or another, as a homeschool parent, what the difference is between social sciences and history. Well, they are actually interchangeable terms for most colleges. When a college says they require four years of “social studies” or four years of “history” it probably means the same thing. While they are often interchangeable social studies or social sciences are actually a broader term having to do with human social interaction. Therefore it can include lots of subjects like history, government, economics, psychology, sociology, and other “ologies”.

The common “social studies” or “history” requirement for most colleges are American History, American Government, Economics, and World History. Of course you are not limited to these and I would even encourage you to explore more subjects and topics! My sons loved random social sciences; one of my sons in particular was enamored with Russian History so I let him study it! All learning is somehow beneficial and especially when they find joy in learning about it! I am a huge advocate of delight directed learning.

Of course, some social science courses can travel a little “off the beaten path” and when that happens just list them as electives on your student’s homeschool transcript. You don’t have to list specialized classes under the “history” or “social science” category; you can just call them electives. Calling a class an elective is always a safe bet when you aren’t sure what subject it should fall under. Take a course like, Marketing, or Anthropology, or Russian History; those are best categorized as electives.

If you have a student who struggles to find history “interesting” consider designing a course that is specific to one of their deepest interests. My brother in law is a teacher at a public high school and he taught “The History of Baseball” as a social studies class. When I was in public high school, my teacher loved going to Hawaii, so he developed a course about Hawaii and Polynesia. And these courses were offered in PUBLIC high school so don’t feel bad for specializing a course and don’t be afraid to get creative!

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