I’m wondering if I should take AB or BC Calc. My goal school is Georgetown. During a Penn tour, I was told that they did not care if I took AB or BC calc and I was wondering if this is true for all schools. I just finished my junior year and completed precalc with a 97. My teacher recommended me for BC calc, but I would rather take AB calc. I am in 5 AP classes, so I already have a very rigorous schedule and the AB teacher is writing one of my recommendations (not sure if that makes a difference). My intended major is International Business.
Take BC. If you got a 97 in pre-Calc, you will destroy BC. I wanted to take AB, but decided against it when my brother said “are you crazy?? You did great in precalc??” And it was the best advice ever. I destroyed the class and the Ap test. Challenge yourself. Take BC. Also, I’m sure your AB teacher will like that you challenge yourself.
I agree with @czebos. Take BC. Right now you want to be a business major, which I assume is not as math intensive as say engineering, but you never know what you’ll want in the future. You may change your mind and decide to study economics, finance, or even something like physics. Whatever you choose, you’ll be thankful you have a solid math background when you get to college. Plus, BC might place you out of more math classes than AB. Of course, check with Georgetown and any other colleges your planning on applying to.
I would recommend AP Calculus BC because it gets you more credit towards Calculus. As of what you told us, such as you want to go to Georgetown (a great school), and you got a 97 in Pre-Calculus, it would look very good on your application. Also, since you want to go into business, business requires a lot of extensive math. I recommend BC.
Hope this helped and have a good day!
Yes.
While I agree with the above posters that your track record indicates that you would do well in BC, I would be cautious about taking 5 AP classes in total (without knowing what the other 4 are). The overall workload could be daunting, and at least for the Fall, you will also have that hidden class - College Apps and Essays, which Seniors always underestimate how much time will be involved.
But bottom line, it really won’t matter if you take AB or BC.
I agree with skieurope. Great answer!
For your intended major I think either AB or BC would be fine (if you wanted to go into a STEM field I’d encourage BC). But keep in mind that the top colleges look for students who have taken the most challenging program available at their HS – therefore before making a final decision, I would ask your guidance counselor if he/she would check off that you took the most rigorous HS program available if you take Calc AB instead of BC.
Go with the class you feel you will excel in. Clearly you have a lot of skill in math, so I believe you would be fine in either class. But skieurope makes a good point- you’re a senior, so you will have to spend a lot of time on applications- and since colleges look at first semester grades, you don’t want your GPA to suffer because you added another difficult class. My advice is to make the decision by taking into account the amount of time your other AP classes will take.
Things to consider:
**What is your major? ** For international business Calc AB would be fine.
**How many other APs will you take? ** Keeping up your GPA is very important.
**How busy will you be this year? **What ECs do you have?
**Can you get a head start on Apps so you won’t be so busy next fall ? /b
**How susceptible will you be to senioritis in the spring? ** Are you pretty focused or getting tired of school? Because you need to keep up with Calc BC the whole way through the year
**How useful will it be for you to get AP credit for classes (possibly saving you $$ in college) **
**How have you done on AP tests before? ** If you have gotten 5’s in STEM APs then BC may be the way to go
**What is your Math SAT score? ** Are you a strong math student?
Georgetown’s AP credit list is at https://college.georgetown.edu/guide-to-prereg-AP-IB
4 or 5 on BC = MATH 035 and 036 (calculus 1 and 2; fulfills math/science core requirement)
4 or 5 on AB or AB subscore on BC = MATH 035 (calculus 1; fulfills half of math/science core requirement)
Depends. I did really well in PreCalc but took AB and was glad that I did, although much of first semester was review. But if you feel confident, then go for it as you will most likely whiz through AB during the first few weeks of BC as we did. Good Luck!
What are the other AP 's you’re taking?
For international business, it doesn’t matter if you take AB or BC.
It doesn’t matter to admissions either .
So, really, it depends on your schedule 's intensity. Can you drop one of the other AP 's ?