<p>S is a junior and is taking AP Calculus BC, which is the hardest course his high school's math department offers. He is planning to do dual-enrollment for math (Calculus III) at our state university during his senior year. The problem is the schedule: his high school is on trimester, block schedule, which doesn't line up with the semister schedule of our state university. His GC said that he will leave the last block of the last two semisters of S's senior schedule blank, so he could do the dual-enrollment. S won't have a chance to start the dual-enrollment until Janurary for the winter semister at the university. As it currently stands, when my S sends his EA or RD applications in, there won't be any MATH course/grade at all in his transcript for senior year. Even through he is challenging himself by doing dual-enrollment, my concern is that this might actually hurt him, because it seems he is "winding down" academically, at least on paper, or not even measure up with his peers; I believe most of his peers would rather take AP statistics at school than dual enrollment. I wonder if he is better off just taking AP statistics at school. Please advise. Thanks!</p>
<p>I think enrolling in a more advanced calculus at a state college sounds much more impressive and interesting than taking AP statistics. I would ask your son to raise this issue with the guidance counselor, and if he or she also thinks this is a good idea, have him mention this issue in the recommendation.</p>
<p>“As it currently stands, when my S sends his EA or RD applications in, there won’t be any MATH course/grade at all in his transcript for senior year.”</p>
<p>My school is on a two semester system, so when I sent in my college application for early action, there was no grade for any of my senior year classes. However, on at least the common app there was a section where it asks you to list your senior year classes, and that’s where I would put down the math course in your son’s case, even if I do not yet have a grade in the course.</p>
<p>Also, I guess every school’s transcript looks different, but mine listed the names of all the courses I was taking in the beginning of senior year even though I didn’t have a grade for any of them. Hope that helped.</p>
<p>I think either choice would be fine. It should be easy to find a place in any college ap to note that he is taking calc 3 at a local university. On the other hand, AP stat is a solid course and will serve him well. He may find he has to retake calc 3 and/or may not get credit/placement, depending on where he is going as well.</p>