RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COLLEGE PREPARATION

From 9th - 12th grades, Students should take a minimum of*:

English -- 4 years (40 credit hours)

Some colleges do not allow Speech and Humanities to count toward the 4 years of English

Social Studies -- 3 years (30 credit hours)

Poudre School District requires 35 credit hours for graduation

Foreign Language -- 2 - 3 years (20-30 credit hours)

All years/credit must be earned in the same language

Mathematics – 3 – 4 years (30-40 credit hours)

Most colleges require a full year of each of the following:

Int. 1, Int. 2, Int. 3, and possibly either Adv. Alg. w/Trig., or Statistics or Pre-Calc.

Science -- 3 years (30 credit hours)

Biology, ICP, Chemistry or Physics —or— Biology, 10 cr. Phys. Sci., 10 cr. Adv. Biology courses

All of the above should be included in a minimum of 150-170 academic credit hours.

Academic courses include:

English, Social Studies, Foreign Language, Mathematics and Science

Two-year college and vocational schools:

Admission usually requires only a high school diploma. Some vocational schools may recommend or require that certain courses be taken.

*These are recommendations only. To ensure that college admissions requirements are met, it is critical that all college bound students and their parents thoroughly research each college’s admissions requirements. Depending upon the college, some Poudre High School courses will count toward admissions requirements and some will not. For example: Some colleges will not accept Humanities and Speech as part of the English requirement for admission (to be safe, students may want to take 4 year-long English courses in grades 9-12); and, some colleges will require one semester to one year of fine, visual, and/or performing arts in addition to the generally recommended coursework listed above. If you have questions, see your Guidance Counselor.

See following page for IMPORTANT changes in Colorado's public college and university admission requirements.

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