Although admission requirements differ for different schools, almost all universities and colleges will expect to see that candidates have obtained a standard core curriculum. When picking your classes in high school, ensure that these courses are top on the list. Students without the knowledge of these courses are at risk of not getting admitted even at open-admission colleges or they may be admitted temporarily and have to take remedial classes in order to be fully prepared for college.

Basic Requirement for College

Normally, a conventional high school core syllabus/curriculum looks like this:

•             English – 4 years

•             Mathematics – 3 years

•             Foreign Language – 2 to 3 years

•             Science – 2 to 3 years, lab science inclusive

•             Art – 1 year

•             Social Studies & History – 2 to 3 years

Be informed that the required courses for admission are different from the recommended courses. For you to be a competitive candidate in some universities and colleges, you need to have extra years of studying science, language and math.

Requirements for High School and College Admission

When colleges compute your scores on the basis of admission, the GPA on your transcript is usually overlooked, and they pay attention to your grades in these primary courses. Grades for subjects like music, physical education and other secondary courses become less helpful for deciding how prepared you are for college, compared to the core subjects. However, this does not indicate that electives are insignificant but just that they are not enough to show a child’s ability to deal with difficult college courses.

Primary course requirements vary for different states, and most of the very choosy colleges will expect to see an all-round, remarkable high school academic record. IB, Honours and Advanced Placement courses are the major requirements to have a better chance of getting into these selective schools. Most times, the most competitive applicants to highly selective colleges are those with four years of a foreign language, science, mathematics – calculus inclusive.

If foreign language courses or calculus are not offered in your high school, the admission team will confirm this from your counselor’s report, and they won’t hold this against you. The admission board wants to see that you have studied the most difficult courses available to you. However, different high schools offer different types of challenging courses.

It is important to note that most colleges with holistic admissions do not have distinct requirements for admission. For instance, the admissions website for Yale University states that the university does not have any distinct admission requirement (Yale does not require any foreign language course). But they still expect to see students who have taken a balanced set of challenging courses available to them. In general, every student should attempt to take courses in subjects like social sciences, math, foreign language, science and English every year.

Without a basic core curriculum, applicants will have a difficult time getting admission into Ivy League Schools. Colleges want to accept students who have better chances of succeeding, and candidates without adequate core courses in high school usually have a hard time in college.

College Requirements Sample for Admission

Below is a table that displays various types of selective colleges and their minimum course requirements for admission. Note that having the minimum requirements just means that you won’t be disqualified instantly. Whereas applicants likely to be admitted usually have above the minimum requirements.

Generally, meeting these requirements is not so hard if you put a little effort into planning your high school courses with the help of your guidance counselor. Students applying to highly selective schools face greater challenges as these schools want to see high school records above minimum core requirements.

Keep in mind that your high school record is the most crucial part of your college application. So, when choosing high school courses, bear in mind that you could be putting yourself at a disadvantage for college admission if you go for the easy route.

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