Sophia has been busy adding and developing a lot of new courses and new partner colleges. If you’re thinking about using Sophia courses in your homeschool, I’ve created this planning guide so you’ll know what to take (and what not to take) in 2023-2024.
Sophia courses are “ACE Credits” that are guaranteed to transfer to Sophia partner colleges. They are NOT guaranteed to transfer to other colleges outside the partnership. Read more about ACE credit here.
When to pick a Partner College?
It’s not important that you have a target college picked out if your teen is taking a few Sophia (ACE) courses. A partner college in high school doesn’t matter, because your teen won’t enroll at the partner college until AFTER high school. But, it becomes increasingly important to consider partner colleges if they start to accumulate a lot of alternative college credit and approach the end of high school because you’ll run out of time to plan credits that WILL help them achieve a degree. Alternative college credit doesn’t transfer well outside of partnerships, so if you hope to use it (and save HUGE $$$$) I recommend picking a target partner college when your teen is within 2 years of high school graduation AND has accumulated at least 15 college credits.
Bundles for High School
These courses are bundled for meeting high school graduation requirements (if applicable) and not necessarily indicative of where they’ll be used in a college degree. Even though Sophia has partner colleges, not all partner colleges take all Sophia courses or apply them exactly the same way. Use these bundles as your high school guide, and when you get ready to pick a target college, you should reclassify them based on what your target college does.
Bundle #1: Do Not Take
Courses in this group are not worth college credit at most partner colleges. You could use them for high school credit, but burn valuable time and money.
- Foundations of English Composition
- Foundations of Statistics
Bundle #2: Language Arts
- English Composition I
- English Composition II
- Public Speaking (Speech)
Bundle #3: Natural Science
- Environmental Science (nontraditional college prep subject)
- Human Biology (with or without Lab)
- Introduction to Chemistry (with or without Lab)
- Introduction to Nutrition (nontraditional college prep subject)
Bundle #4: Mathematics
- Introduction to College Mathematics (anytime after high school Algebra 1)
- College Algebra (take after high school Algebra 2)
- Precalculus (take after College Algebra)
- Calculus I (take after Precalculus)
- Introduction to Statistics (anytime after high school Algebra 1)
Bundle #5: Social Studies & History
- US History I (part 1 of 2-part US History sequence)
- US History II (part 2 of 2-part US History sequence)
- Macroeconomics (part 1 of 2-part Economics sequence)
- Microeconomics (part 2 of 2-part Economics sequence)
Bundle #6: World Language
- Spanish I
- Spanish II
Bundle #7: Technology
- Introduction to Information Technology
- Introduction to Java Programming
- Introduction to Python Programming
- Introduction to Relational Databases
- Introduction to Web Development
Bundle #8: Electives
College & Career Exploration
- Introduction to Career Readiness (short course)
- IT Career Exploration (short course)
- Career Readiness (full course)
- College Readiness (full course)
The Arts
- Art History I (part 1 of a 2-part Art History Sequence)
- Art History II (part 2 of a 2-part Art History Sequence)
- Visual Communications
HUMANITIES
- Ancient Greek Philosophers
- Approaches to Studying Religions
- Critical Thinking
Business
- Business Communication
- Business Law
- Conflict Resolution
- Developing Effective Teams (short course)
- Financial Accounting
- Introduction to Business
- Principles of Finance
- Principles of Management
- Project Management
- The Essentials of Managing Conflict (short course)
- Workplace Communications
- Workplace Writing I
- Workplace Writing II
Behavioral Science
- Introduction to Psychology
- Introduction to Sociology
