<p>I'm going to be a Senior this fall & I can't decide which class to take.</p>
<p>I know I struggled a little in my Pre-Calc class junior year and I'm not sure if I can handle AP Calculus. I'm thinking about taking AP Statistics instead. I'm interested in maybe taking a business major.</p>
<p>Which class is better suited to prepare me for college? What do universities prefer I take? When you compare them, which one would you say is harder?</p>
<p>AP Statistics would be better for someone who didn’t do relatively well (all Bs and As) on PreCalc. I’ve heard that universities prefer APCalc but if you don’t think you can handle it don’t take it. Good luck :)</p>
<p>Okay thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. :)</p>
<p>Most serious colleges don’t consider AP Stats much at all. Indeed some programs won’t even give you credit for anything if you achieve a 5 on the AP Stats exam. What does that tell you? I agree with what Marissa says – but I think you’d serve yourself better taking AP Calc. In college, your quantitative classes don’t get any easier. GL to you</p>
<p>Potential major? Which schools are you looking at? What did your math teacher recommend you take? Grades in junior year math?</p>
<p>If you can answer those questions, we can give a much better answer.</p>
<p>If you’re looking at selective colleges, AP Calculus looks better on a college app. Don’t let your precalculus grade deter you from taking the class; I received a grade in the high 80’s in honors trigonometry and wasn’t recommended for calculus but I took it anyway and did pretty well in the class. I don’t know how similar precalculus and trig are, but calculus was very different from trig.
I haven’t taken AP Statistics yet (I’m taking it next fall!) but from what I’ve heard it is easier than calculus. Good luck with whatever you choose to take 
</p>
<p>At my HS AP Stats is considered relatively easily. I took it last year with PreCal and many seniors took it with AP Calc</p>
<p>I took both my junior year and according to me, both were very easy-- and this is coming from someone who did not do so well in Pre-Calculus (struggled a bit but ended up with an A- second semester). AP Calc is very concept centric and everything just builds off of a few main lessons, namely derivatives and integrals. AP Statistics I found, surprisingly, to be a bit harder, especially the second half of the course. It’s a bit more abstract than Calc and is very calculator heavy, making it prone to a lot of careless mistakes. But overall, both were fun and I would recommend either of them. But of course, you have to take into consideration the fact that Calculus IS viewed as more prestigious by universities. </p>
<p>Business majors typically need to take both calculus (although often an easier version of business majors is offered) and statistics.</p>
<p>Common AP equivalencies:</p>
<p>AP statistics = non-calculus introductory statistics course (1 semester)
AP calculus AB = first semester frosh calculus
AP calculus BC = first and second semester frosh calculus</p>
<p>Regardless of your intended major, you should take AP Calculus. Do not buy into the “I am just bad at math/pre-calculus” garbage. Almost anyone can succeed in introductory calculus. It is mostly memorizing easy rules for differentiation/integration.</p>
<p>Put in the work, and you will definitely do well. The top schools want to see that you have taken the most challenging courses available to you.</p>
<p>B in calculus > A in statistics</p>
<p>At my school AP Stats is just a way to get out of Calculus. I tell all my friends that they should take Calculus even if they struggled in Pre-Cal because it really helps improve your overall math skills and problem solving. I have friends who hated pre-cal and ended up loving calculus. I would recommend taking Calculus AB though if you did struggle.</p>
<p>I think people really look down upon AP Stats for no reason. Yeah, statistics is generally easier to grasp, but calculus is not for everyone. If you are going to be a business major, or a political science major, you shouldn’t be in Calc. No college admissions officer is going to say “Oh, well this student didn’t challenge themselves by taking AP Calculus.” It is an advanced placement class and it will be viewed as such. That’s like saying that you shouldn’t take APES because colleges only care about Bio. It is an AP class and it will be viewed as such. You are fine taking either one. Also, it depends on who is teaching it. Stats can be taught by a harsh teacher who goes above and beyond the college board requirements. And Calc can be talk to a very basic level when students just answer problems instead of understanding it conceptually. If you feel like you will struggle in Calc, don’t take it. </p>
<p>B in AP Calc is NOT better than an A in Stats</p>
<p>How about an A in AP Calc is what a college would rather see and if you can’t do it, don’t take it.</p>
<p>Here’s one math teacher’s opinion: <a href=“Why Calculus still belongs at the top | Random Walks”>http://mrchasemath.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2012/12/20/why-calculus-still-belongs-at-the-top/</a></p>
<p>
I suspect, many college admissions offices feel the same way!</p>
<p>^I doubt that many college admissions officers feel the same way, since most college admissions officers don’t understand statistics enough to know that calculus is the basis of statistics. Furthermore, I don’t get the math teacher’s grind about this. I mean I agree with him on a certain level, actually - I’ve taught non-calculus-based statistics and the students DO think it’s magic to a certain extent. I mean, they eventually understand the concepts as taught - but no, most of them never put two and two together that what they’re doing is essentially integration. And yes, I do agree with him that calculus is better at teaching students to think mathematically; not only that, but it’s the basis for most of the higher-level math in college.</p>
<p>But the simple fact is most college-level introductory statistics classes are non-calculus-based. The ones all the social science majors are going to take, the ones that most of the business majors are going to take, and - at many schools - the ones that the biology majors take are not calculus-based. And to take that a step further, most of the statistical analysis used by non-statisticians at work - so market research analysts, social science researchers, research associates - doesn’t require an understanding of calculus.</p>
<p>(And to be honest, I am a quantitative social scientist with an understanding of calculus and statistics and I couldn’t give you the function rule for a normal distribution, not off the top of my head, anyway. But who cares about that? When I see the function, I can tell you what its component parts mean; more importantly, I know why the theory is important to the analysis that I do. I also can’t do a correlation by hand without looking up the formula, but again…who cares? Nobody is going to ask me to do that when I get paid to consult with them on analysis.)</p>
<p>That said, though, my vote is still for AP Calculus. Mostly because I agree that calculus is better at teaching students to think mathematically AND because it is the basis for higher-level math, and you never know what you may decide to take up. And on a practical level, yeah, I think it probably looks better to admissions committees. It is harder than AP Statistics. But I think I also got a B in pre-calc and got a high A in AP Calc because I loved it. @pinkcake, you may fall in love with business analytics or finance, and both of those will require some understanding of calculus.</p>
<p>BUT I ALSO agree with @AnnieBeats when she says that I think people are unnecessarily harsh on AP Stats, and that if you really want to take AP Stats - or you think you won’t do well in AP Calc - that you should take AP Stats. And I agree with her that I don’t think a B in AP Calc AB is “better than” an A in AP Stats.</p>
<p>My son chose to take AP Stats instead of Calculus. I doubt that it made any difference whatsoever in his admissions. He will take Calculus as a freshman, because he figured out that it will be a prerequisite for some higher-level Economics classes he’d like to take in college. He probably earned better grades in Statistics than he would have in AP or IB Calculus, and he had the same teacher for AP Stats that he had for the IB/SL “Math Studies,” and so she was the perfect choice for one of his recommendations. His senior schedule was tough enough with other IB classes, Student Council, Model UN, Debate/JSA, applications, et al., and - as I said - I doubt if any of the three outright rejections he received would have been acceptances had he taken Calculus instead. </p>
<p>My potential major would be something in business or art. I’m looking at NYU, UCR, Azusa Pacific University, etc.</p>
<p>calc is as enlightening as religion is supposed to be</p>