How to Confirm a Prereq will Apply?

[Z03]

Hi everyone! I’d love some advice about prereqs - for context, I’m a non-traditional applicant with a liberal arts degree, now in the process of taking classes to fulfill requirements before applying in this upcoming cycle.

How do you know if a particular class will fulfill a given requirement? Some are straightforward but as I’m looking at my past transcripts I’m less clear on some of the humanities-oriented requirements in particular. I took plenty of English, social science, etc. for my BA but my grades were uneven and I’m afraid that if I don't confirm everything before I apply I’ll end up hurting myself with a technicality (these are made-up examples but things like, “actually, a poetry class doesn’t count as English composition” or “that history class is really considered social science so you’ll have to select the other one that you did poorly in”).

I know you can ask the schools but I'd rather not contact 10-20+ schools trying to explain a bunch of courses I took at multiple different schools over an extended period of time if I can possibly avoid it at this point! Thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[battie]

Honestly, your best bet is actually contacting the schools directly. Write a generic email with the list of courses you're unsure will fit, and then email that one email to each admissions department. You don't need to explain more than that; just the course name and the institution you took it at. As an example:

"HIST 408: History of the US 1850 and Beyond" at Small Liberal Arts College; will this course apply for the 4 credit humanities requirement?

Yes, it's a hassel. But for these unclear courses, you want to be absolutely sure as schools *will not* give you the benefit of the doubt if you don't fulfill the pre-req requirements.

 

[britzen]

I had to do this because one of my English composition requirements in undergrad was fulfilled by a writing-intensive history class. Like battie said, I just emailed the schools I was thinking about applying to where I needed it and made sure that class would count as an English pre-req. I also included the blurb from our student handbook that said how our school counted composition requirements since it wasn't clear from the transcript or the name of the class that it counted for that purpose.

For English pre-reqs, schools have a variety of requirements. Some just want general English credits, some want a specific break down that can include composition or speech, some waive it if you have a BA/BS. They can want anywhere from 0-9 credits. Make a list of schools you actually intend on applying to (are you really thinking about apply to 20+ schools?). Once you've got a list of your top schools sorted out, email them if it's not clear that your English classes meet their pre-req requirements based on their website. My guess is you won't need to contact more than a few.

For the humanities / social sciences thing, don't stress about that at all. Seriously.

The only schools that care about the difference between humanities and social sciences seem to be Michigan State and Tufts - everybody else just lumps them together into one pre-req category. Both are very specific about what subjects count for each category. If you have an A in 6 credits that are indisputably humanities and an A in 6 credits that are indisputably social sciences for both Tufts and MSU, just use those for every school and never think about it again.