How to Choose CSEC & CAPE Subjects with College On Your Mind

One of the number one challenges Caribbean students face is misalignment of their own subject choices with US university expectations and preferences. US colleges expect incoming students to be prepared with what we call "core subjects" of English, Math, Social Science, Natural Science, and Foreign Language.

Unlike the US system, the Caribbean education system allows students to choose subjects in 3rd form and the US college prep core is not mandatory. Any subject area outside of core subjects is considered an "elective". Subject areas like Management of Business (MOB), Principles of Accounting (POA) and even Information Technology (IT) are not considered core subjects in the US college process, because these are all subject areas that will be more or less taught from scratch at the collegiate level.

We've seen students, with dreams of studying in the US and receiving a scholarship to do so, who have only done 2 of the 5 core (English and Math) and have stacked themselves with up to 6 electives including business, accounts, IT, EDPM, etc.

The truth simply is that US colleges don't expect high school students to come to them knowing business or computer science or sociology (and there is no undergrad Law in the US) if you want to major in any of those areas. Nothing is wrong with a few electives, but not at the expense of core subjects if you're trying to create a competitive application for US universities.

For CSEC, CAPE and IB the advice still stands – try to stick to the core as much as possible!

One bonus of this is that many colleges provide credit for students who do well in the CAPE and IB exams, which can shave up to a year and a half off the time it takes to complete the 4 year degree.