AP Calculus AB or Regular Statistics?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

We just finished registration not too long ago and during that time frame to think of what classes to pick, for math, I decided to take normal Stats over AP Calc AB (only 2 of those I can pick). Many of my friends are saying I’m taking the “easy route” in math which is sorta true because I’m average in math, not super smart in it. Also, I heard taking an AP class and getting a low grade in it (C or low) wouldn’t be as impressive to college admissions as it would also make your GPA drop. And of course, most of my friends currently that are taking AP Calc have C’s and are super intelligent in math. For me, probably would be a C or lower too. Plus, it’s senior year and I wouldn’t want to screw up my GPA or make my life a mess with 3 hours of pure math homework per night and in the end getting 2/10 on these tests that are worth 90% of my overall class grade and not being able to pass the AP Exam, and I’m being honest… only a a few of the kids that take AP Calc scored a 5 while everybody else got a 1.

Other classes I chose:
AP government/economics
Spanish 4
Arts 1 (needed)
AP physics (may change to AP Bio)
Regular English 4
Regular stats (as mentioned ^)

Overall gpa: 4.13 (W); 3.8 (UW); SAT: 1300+

Intended college major: undecided

College interests:
All Universities of California (UC’s)
Some CalStates

2

What I would do is think about:
What majors am I possibly interested in and do they require Calculus?
If the answer is possibly yes, I would take Calculus even if you don’t get a 5 on the test because then you will have more background in Calculus. Many others in your college Calc class will have taken Calc before.

Also colleges take into account the rigor of your coursework.

But your friends that are super intelligent in math…do they read the book? Do the homework? go to teacher office hours if necessary? Get a tutor?

I would go for Calc if you want to major in business, STEM or pre-med.

3

^ is true, it strongly depends on your major

4

Also, you should take honors English if you want the UC 's.