I’m currently a junior and am unsure as to which math course(s) I should take my senior year.
My school is primarily an IB school, and I took IB Math SL (the highest offered at the time) my sophomore year and did very well (A+). This year, I am in AP Calc AB (BC is not offered) and am getting essentially the same grade (borderline A/A+). We’ve started doing course selections, and it appears that my options are essentially as follows:
OPTION 0: No math. The school requires only three years. I don’t like this one at all and don’t even plan on considering it.
OPTION 1: AP Stats (independent study). I would be able to handle this since I did two years independently learning math in middle school (Alg 1 and Geometry) and am currently self-studying two APs (Spanish Literature and Microeconomics).
OPTION 2: AP Calc BC (semi-independent). This would be largely an independent study, but I would also have some instruction from the head of the Math Department, who is also my IB Physics teacher. He estimates it would only take a few months to do in one piece or could be spread out over the whole school year.
OPTION 3: AP Stats and AP Calc BC. This is just Options 1 and 2 combined.
For what it’s worth, I plan on studying History, Economics and/or Political Science in college and am looking to go to a top school (Yale is my first choice; I won’t post my full profile here but I have a Chance Me post I recently submitted that leads me to believe I’d be a competitive applicant).
My courses for next year are:
IB Physics HL
IB World History HL
IB English A HL
IB Spanish B HL
IB World Religions SL
IB TOK (semester)
Honors Band
AP Macroeconomics (self-study)
(Possibly) AP Gov (self-study)
Seems like your IB school is relatively weak in math if the highest IB math is SL and the highest non-IB math is calculus AB that goes only a little further.
Is there any option to take calculus 2 at a local college?
Your school doesn’t offer any math beyond AP Calc BC & IB SL? that is pretty surprising. I agree with @ucbalumnus- taking a math at a local college is a good option. But, even for a top school, if you have topped out on the math options, it won’t be held against you if you can’t go any further in math.
You are putting a lot of work on to your senior year. Autumn will be full on with college apps and leadership positions in your ECs. IMO, the self-studies are not a good use of time. You won’t get any bonus points in your applications from them, and if you end up at a super-selective, you won’t get to transfer many credits (and imo, USGOV is one of the least useful APs from any pov -credits, exemption from a pre-req, or actual material learned).
I don’t think that a HS not offering math beyond Calc BC is odd. It’s pretty standard around here. Is MV/Linear typical HS offerings in other parts of the country?
OP, BC is a “better” course, IMHO, for college admissions and college coursework/career preparations. A solid math student should be able to get through it via guided self-study, especially with AB completed.
If a local CC offers it in person, and the logistics are feasible, in-person may be preferable. But that’s often hard to make work in terms of travel.
The OP’s school only offers up to AB (and SL but not HL in IB), with BC being mostly self study with some help from a teacher.
While not having beyond AB is not rare in the US, it seems odd for an IB school, since IB schools claim to be highly rigorous and advanced compared to typical US high schools, and claim to cater to top end students, with a greater concentration of those who are likely to want BC or HL.
I should clarify this. We transitioned to IB not too long ago and implemented a two-year HL class beginning this school year. Because I took Alg 2 as a freshman, though, I was eligible for IB Math before we had HL (and before we knew there would be HL the next year).