<p>What is the advantage of taking an AP class such Calculus where I might get an A- or B+ as opposed to PreCalculus where I'm going to get an A for sure? Would it be better to take PreCalculus for GPA since colleges don't care about AP's in admission. I would still take AP Calculus as senior if I don't take it. So are there any advantages in taking AP Calculus as a junior?</p>
<p>Who said colleges don’t care about APs in admission? Colleges take into account whether or not you’re taking all of the classes available to you at your school. Btw, precalculus is a lot harder than calculus for a lot of people.</p>
<p>Yeah but GPA-wise, there is no advantage. Colleges don’t look much at AP’s (or so I’ve heard) but I’m more worried about GPA</p>
<p>Colleges, for sure, look at APs. Honestly, it’s better to take more APs and take a slight hit (emphasis on “slight”) to your GPA than to take easier classes and have a 4.0. The APs really do matter in admissions. Plus, it would be great to have some credit hours going into college (if the college accepts AP credit). But in your case, if you were to take AP Calc as a junior and wouldn’t have another AP class to fill in for your math credit senior year, then go ahead and take it senior year.</p>
<p>Whoever has told you that APs don’t matter to colleges, stop listening to their advice about college admissions. The above post is absolutely correct.</p>
<p>Top colleges want you to have a high GPA in difficult courses, and even that isn’t enough most of the time. </p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure about less selective colleges, but I assume they mostly look at the unweighted GPA but also consider whether you took honors classes. (At some of the Common Data Sets I’ve looked at for less selective public schools, course rigor is secondary to GPA.)</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that a lot of colleges will recalculate your GPA according to their own scale. They will also look at your class rank and school profile to determine how good your GPA is at your school. Some schools have grade deflation and a 3.0 would result in a very high class rank. At others, there are a ton of people with 4.0s.</p>
<p>What colleges are you looking at? I would suggest looking at their Common Data Sets to see if they value GPA over course rigor or if they’re valued equally. </p>
<p>In general, GPA is more important than course rigor, but they’re both very important. Try and keep your unweighted GPA above 3.7 or 3.8 while still taking the most challenging courses you can.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For the record, calculus is not inherently an AP class. My school has non-AP calculus. And you would never be choosing between pre-calc and calculus, because you take one before the other.
But the benefits to taking harder classes are that you get to learn more and challenge yourself.</p>