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[00:00:06] BT: Hey, everyone. It's Brooke and Becca back with another minisode of College Admissions Insider. Today, we're diving into something that every high schooler needs to know: minimum requirements for college. Becca, this is something that you try to inform students and parents on as often as possible. So, can you tell me a little bit about what minimum requirements even are, why colleges require them? Get into it.

[00:00:31] BHA: Absolutely, Brooke. When we're opening up an application to review for a student, the first thing we need to know is whether that student is academically prepared to be successful in the classroom at Bucknell and ultimately thrive here. Minimum requirements help us know that a student has the preparation throughout high school to really do well here, whether that's a math trajectory that's set them up for success in STEM or in a math field, or whether that's the artistic skill and talent to pursue the arts. We need to know that a student is prepared to be successful academically.

[00:01:06] BT: For the high schoolers listening who are just hearing about this for the first time, are minimum requirements something that they're going to have to actively pursue? Or is it something that's baked into high school curriculum that most students will graduate with by default?

[00:01:16] BHA: It's a little bit of both. Most universities, Bucknell being one of them, have some kind of minimum requirements across the board that all students entering their university need. At Bucknell, it's four years of English or language arts, and then three years of math, science, history or social studies, and two years of a foreign language.

For lots of high schools, those might already represent your graduation requirements, so you may already be well on your way. But let's take our foreign language requirement, for instance. We require two years of a foreign language in the same language. So, if you're a student who decided to change languages in high school, stop taking languages after your sophomore year, or if your school allowed a credit from your language that you took in middle school to count as your high school credit, you might not actually meet that requirement, so making sure that your high school coursework has set you up for success to meet the minimum requirements for the schools that you're considering.

Said differently, each year throughout high school, hopefully, you get to work with your counselor and pick some of the courses you'd like to take. Some schools offer tons of different elective classes that are probably really exciting and really interesting. We hope to see that our students have four core classes each year to help them meet the minimum requirements that I've described.

[00:02:40] BT: Okay. What you're saying is making sense, but a question I have is whether minimum requirements are the same for the university itself as it is for maybe the different programs within the university. Say an applicant wants to go into engineering at Bucknell. Will the College of Engineering have different minimum requirements than, say, a student going into the College of Arts and Sciences — or maybe an undecided student who meets the minimum requirements for the University as a whole?

[00:03:06] BHA: Yes, and that's why looking at a school's minimum requirements is so important. At Bucknell, in the College of Engineering, for instance, we want to see that students have taken a minimum of pre-calculus, ideally calculus. Knowing that before applying is really important because if you haven't taken pre-calculus yet, you're not going to meet those minimum qualifications.

For engineers, we're also looking for at least one year of chemistry or physics, but ideally both. So, making sure that you're picking classes throughout high school to help you get to that level of math — to help you take those chemistry and physics classes — will really help set you up for success as an applicant.

You used engineering as an example, Brooke, which I think is a great one. Let’s hone in on math for a second. At Bucknell, there are a number of majors that require pre-calc as a minimum requirement. Math, science, engineering, accounting, also our business analytics and our economics programs are all required to have at least one year of pre-calculus — preferably calculus.

Again, our students should be paying close attention to these when they're applying. It's really hard for me as an application reader to see a fabulous applicant with strengths in academic and extracurricular areas, but they've chosen to apply for a major which they're not meeting the minimum requirements for. It makes it really hard, if not impossible, for us to be able to admit them into their chosen program.

[00:04:38] BT: While minimum requirements are required, different schools are different. Different students might have various access to different classes. Are there exceptions for students who might not have access to a particular required class at their high school? What does that look like, Becca?

[00:04:56] BHA: Definitely. Whenever we read a student's application, we're reading it in the context of the high school that they attend. Oftentimes, counselors travel to those high schools, are familiar with the curriculum at those high schools. So, we know what your school does and doesn't offer.

We also know that for lots of reasons, including learning differences, some of these classes don't work for all students. There are students with learning differences that aren't able to take a foreign language, or other reasons in course sequencing or teacher availability. Or maybe the class that you've been trying to get into has been full, and you haven't been able to get into that class in your high school. Those are all pieces of context that we'll consider and we'll review.

If you are applying to a school and you know you don't meet one of the minimum requirements, it would be really helpful for you to help us understand why that might be and help us understand that context. That could show up in Additional Information, a section of your application where you can tell us a few sentences about maybe why you don't have a second year of a foreign language, or why you didn't take physics even though your school does offer it. It would also be a place where your school counselor who writes your letter of recommendation can reference if there's an extenuating circumstance that prevented you from taking the course, even though you wanted to.

As far as exceptions, yes, those do absolutely exist. Then there are also programs at colleges and universities to help bridge those gaps. We have a program here at Bucknell for engineers who may have had limited exposure to engineering or math courses beyond pre-calculus. That program helps to set them up for success and help them transition successfully from high school to college with a little extra academic support.

[00:06:43] BT: Yeah, Becca. One circumstance I can see a student not having quite a streamlined path through high school is moving. I moved high schools a couple of times because my family moved from place to place. It was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to make sure that I was on the right track and taking the right classes, and not missing anything in that trajectory. Take advantage of programs like the one Becca just mentioned to help boost your skills in certain areas if you need that.

Becca, you mentioned elective courses earlier. Can we return to that and talk about how those factor in, if at all?

[00:07:15] BHA: Definitely. One example I can give is if you're hoping to major in accounting at Bucknell and your school offers an accounting elective, that might seem like a perfect match, right? You're going to take this accounting elective to help expose you to accounting and help you understand whether that's something you might want to major in in college. That's a great decision, but not at the expense of using that accounting elective to replace another core class. While electives can be great if they fit in your schedule, we want you really focused on those core academic requirements, and electives are just an added bonus.

[00:07:52] BT: Now that we know what classes a student should be pursuing and maybe some others that they shouldn't be filling their whole schedule with, what about rigor? Are there different levels of different classes? That is to say, are some classes harder than others that a university would make a distinction between?

[00:08:06] BHA: It's definitely possible. Because we're reading within the context and, again, understanding what your school offers, we know that some schools do offer things like AP classes, IB classes, dual enrollment classes, honors-level classes and beyond. There's a million different ways that a school could offer a progression of more challenging classes. What's important to us is that you've challenged yourself year over year.

If you're finding challenge in that standard-level class, or that college prep-level class, or that honors-level class, that's great. But if you're coasting in those classes and your school does offer the option for you to push the envelope a little bit by challenging your curriculum, we hope that you're taking advantage of that challenge within the context of what your school offers.

[00:08:59] BT: You know, Becca, a great place where our listeners can learn a lot more about academic rigor and choosing their high school classes is Episode 20 of our podcast, where we brought a senior associate dean of admissions on to talk about that exact thing. Go check that out if you haven't.

Becca, as we reach the end of this really, really great minisode, I do want to ask about what a student should do if they're worried about their trajectory. Say, they reached junior year and they realize, “Oh, no. I don't have a second year of a foreign language,” or, “I haven't taken that math or science course.” What should they do?

[00:09:36] BHA: That's a great question. The goal of this minisode is not to cause panic, right? The goal of this minisode is to be transparent and communicative, and help our students really understand what they need to be the most successful applicant to any of the schools that they're thinking of, but also specifically what Bucknell's minimum requirements are. If we did inadvertently cause a little worry here, your school counselor is the one to help you navigate this process. They know your academic trajectory best. They know what courses you've taken in 9th, 10th, 11th and on to 12th grade. They know how to best work within what your school offers, when they can offer it, how they can offer it.

You're not going to change your curriculum overnight, right? You should not go knocking down your college counselor or your school counselor's door in order to try to change your class schedule. What I would encourage to do is to ask thoughtful questions, be patient and know that your school counselor has your best interests in mind. They are an expert in this stuff, and so trust them in this process.

[00:10:42] BT: You can always reach out to the admissions counselors at the schools that you're interested in to ask more detailed questions about minimum requirements. And even get in touch with professors in programs that you might want to go into so that you can learn more about what skills and experience you're going to need to excel in those areas.

Well, thanks, Becca, for giving us insight into this really, really important topic.

[00:11:02] BHA: Thanks, Brooke, for taking some time to chat with me about it.

[00:11:05] BT: Thanks to everyone out there who's listening. If you're a fan of the podcast, take a moment to rate, subscribe and share this episode with the students and families in your life.

[00:11:12] BHA: We'll be back with a new episode in a few weeks. In the meantime, send your questions, comments, and episode ideas to podcast@bucknell.edu. If you like this minisode format, let us know.

[00:11:22] BT: You're also invited to follow @bucknellu on Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, and TikTok. You can also follow our student-run Instagram account which is @iamraybucknell.

[00:11:32] BHA: Until next time, keep reaching for your dreams and your dream school.

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