I’m about to be a high school senior. I’m thinking about taking AP statistic so I won’t have to take stat in college. However, I’m a little bit afraid that grad school would prefer students to actually take the course in college. I want to major in psych. Also would taking that introductory course in college prepare me better for the future ? I read somewhere that those intro courses in college are better than AP classes.
Any opinion ?
Thanks
As a rule, AP courses are not as good as college courses. So if you are looking to attend a grad school for psych in the future, you should look whether there are classes that you will need for grad school, that they will want you to have taken in college.
It also depends on where you will do your undergrad.
So, AP Calc BC will probably be OK for your math requirements, but I would recommend that you tale stats again in college. For a student who is good at math, AP stats is a pretty easy course. Furthermore, stats is extremely important for psychology, so taking stats in high school and repeating it is college will be beneficial to you.
So I would recommend that you take AP Stats, and then, in college, take the intro stats class that is offered by the social sciences or the Psych department. My kid, who is a neuroscience major did that, took AP Stats in high school, and then Psych stats as a sophomore in college, and said that it really helped her understanding of stats.
Taking AP Psych in high school would also be a good idea, since it will allow you, in some colleges, to jump right into 200-level psych classes. Also, no grad school will have a problem with a student who has 40 credits in 200, 300, and 400 level courses in Psychology, because they didn’t take Psych 101 in their undergrad.
And again, even if you need to take Psych 101 again, taking AP psychology will be a good idea for any student who is interested in psychology, since it will give you an introduction to what psychology is all about.
In short, I think that you should take both AP Stats and AP Psych, repeat stats in college, or better, take a Psych stats course, and see if the college will take AP psych as a prerequisite for 200 level Psych classes.
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Thank you for your advice it is very helpful. Also do you know what high school math is enough for college psych? (beside stat) I’ve had finished precal and I’m not that good at math.Is calculus needed in college ?
Calculus as a requirement for a Psychology degree is dependent upon the College and their Psych Program.
I am familiar with the UC (University of California) system and for a BS in Psychology, you are looking at around 3-4 quarters (2 semesters) of required Calculus courses. For a BA in Psychology available at some of the UC’s, only a College level Calc based stats course is required.
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I needed to take two semesters of calc and two semesters of calc based stats courses for my psych degree back in the stone ages.
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