To ensure that students at Stanford OHS participate fully in the intellectual life of the school, we require all diploma-seeking high school students to take a Core course during each year of enrollment in high school. Although these philosophy-based courses don’t fit easily into standard categories, they count for Natural Science, Social Science, or English credit. The Core constitutes the following ordered sequence:

• Methodology of Science – Biology (Natural Science)
• History and Philosophy of Science (Social Science)
• Democracy, Freedom, and the Rule of Law (Social Science)
• Critical Reading and Argumentation (English)

Students must take a minimum of one year-long (10 units) Stanford OHS course at or above the Advanced Placement (AP) level in each of the following subject areas:  

• Social Sciences
• English 
• Natural Science or Mathematics

To earn a Stanford OHS diploma, students must be enrolled full-time in their final two years of high school. In addition, they must take a minimum number of Stanford OHS courses as follows:

• Students entering in 11th grade will, by virtue of their full-time enrollment, receive credit for a minimum of 8 Stanford OHS classes (80 units) over the course of two years (including two Core classes)
• Students entering in 10th grade must, over the course of three years, receive credit for a minimum of 11 Stanford OHS classes (110 units, including three Core courses)
• Students entering in 9th grade must, over the course of four years, receive credit for a minimum of 14 Stanford OHS classes (140 units, including all four Core courses at the high school level)

• Wellness Program (4 semesters)
• Health (1 semester)

The Wellness Program offers a broad-based curriculum to support students’ social and emotional development, physical wellbeing, time management, and engagement in the school community. Students are required to complete four semesters in the program, typically with two semesters of Wellness I in their first full-time year and two semesters of Wellness II in their second year.

The Health requirement can be met by taking the Stanford OHS AP Biology class (OB010), Unity & Diversity of Biological Systems (OB010A), Interdisciplinary Approaches to Sex and Sexuality (OWIAS), or the directed-study course, Health (OB001A).