<p>hey guys my bro is currently a junior and he's trying to fill out next year's schedule. he wants to go to some pretty selective schools (top 20 and such) so what would look better, AP stats or pre-cal (which is very hard at our school)? oh and he's also thinking about doing either economics or business in college.</p>
<p>as a senior right now, i'm taking pre-cal but it's soooo hard and he'd rather take stats but to me it kinda looks like he's slacking off.</p>
<p>but hmmmm you need calculus for economics, and stats is really good for business...ap stats isn't really slacking off...but it's not a hard class</p>
<p>i did both at the same time, it wasn't hard</p>
<p>I would suggest both, really. Generally, the higher level of HS math one takes, the better, so precalc would look good. I'm not taking AP Stats, but many people have told me that it's pretty easy.</p>
<ol>
<li>He's planning to do business, stat will most likely be more beneficial</li>
<li>Colleges may not be aware that precal is a difficult course, but respect students taking AP Stat, since they know what that course entails and its general difficulty. Taking AP Stat by no means signifies that he is slacking off.</li>
<li>Its easier--he'll get better grades</li>
<li>Its senior year, he'll be swamped with other homework and applications</li>
</ol>
He's planning to do business, stat will most likely be more beneficial
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I doubt this. Everything up to calculus is a-must mathematics for anyone planning to get college education, especially if it's not humanities major. The quote sounds like:</p>
<ol>
<li>It's business, learning how to add is more important than knowing how to multiply.</li>
</ol>
<p>PS. What I'm saying is that he wouldn't be ablet to choose between pre-calc or stats in college, so choice here is not affecting his path majorly -- OP will (have to) learn both anyway.</p>
<p>PPS. Some colleges don't have pre-calc, starting with calculus right away.</p>
<p>I took AP stat and pre-calc sophmore year. You need pre-calc. That is a must have, no exceptions, especially if you are doing business or econ at college. The more APs you can add to your schedule, great, but you need pre-calc before any APs.</p>
<p>Honestly, since the student was a senior applying to top twenty schools and the course was said to be "really hard", I just assumed Precal was some exotic math course I didn't know about. Retrospectively, that was a dumb inference!</p>
<p>He should absolutely take pre-calc. If he doesn't have pre-calc it'll be this big blank space on his application...especially if he applies to top 20 schools -- they expect him to have taken pre-calc and preferably calculus.
He can always self-study stats, especially if he's a good, precise writer.</p>
<p>Mr. Chipset you didn't skip it, I bet you're doing it now. Just like you said you went from ESOL English Freshmen year to AP English Language Sophmore year. </p>
<p>Do both or take Precalculus over the summer. It depends how far you want to expand into the math academic.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Mr. Chipset you didn't skip it, I bet you're doing it now. Just like you said you went from ESOL English Freshmen year to AP English Language Sophmore year.