What is "social studies"?

[momofkhm]

DD and I sat down at collegeboard.com and did the college search. (Yes, she's only 8th grade but I figure I can peek at what she'll need.) So then I looked at how many years each of these schools required of certain subjects. English, math, science, foreign language I understand. But what does it mean by social studies? History was listed separately. And are "electives" just any elective?

Thanks! I'm trying to make sure my ducks are in a row.

[Moni]

Who wants to see Social Studies? I would ask them the question.

Otherwise, it's geography, history, government, economics sometimes.

I'd also suggest a call to top private high schools in the area.
Ask whether they offer "social studies" because you... I'm not what you were looking at, but if you think colleges want "social studies" you can tell them that when inquire what their students take or can take for social studies..

[momofkhm]

Out of 16 colleges that the search popped out, all of them require at least 1 year of social studies. I actually have a syllabus type from the closest private school. I'll look at that again.

[Sharon in MD]

Most of the colleges we looked at wanted three Social Studies courses....one US history, but the other two social studies courses were not specified.

According to my oversight group, we could fulfill our social studies requirements with 1 mandatory US history and the others could include courses in economics, government, political science (like comparative governments), anthropology, geography, world history and so on. It is a pretty broad brush, so you can generally pick something you like beyond the basic US requirement.

[mcconnellboys]

Most colleges lump history, civics, government, and geography into the "social studies" category.