<p>My friend and I are both currently in AP Stats next year (our senior year). She wants to take AP Calc because she wants to be competitive for Cal, UCSD, etc. and her pre-cal teacher told her Uc's look down on AP Stats after pre-cal as taking the easy way out. While our advisor (an idiot, mind you) told her it didn't matter either way.
Do you have any advice, specifically regarding Berkeley admissions preferences?</p>
<p>Well I know that many of my math teachers have said the same thing about taking stats after pre-cal...they didn't mention these schools specifically but they did say that it is looked down upon by admissions officers. But I say screw them and do whatever you want...it's you that has to take the class, not them. :)</p>
<p>In general, Calc is better than Stats, because Calc is a math class. Stats is a statistics class. In college, they are two different departments. Usually, only stats majors need stats classes. if you like stats, take it. however, i believe you would be better off doing work at a local univ in calc II.</p>
<p>I took both this year...it wasn't that difficult having both at the same time.</p>
<p>stats warrants no math credit in college. it is truly a god-awful waste of time.</p>
<p>Actually, many majors require at least a semester of Statistics.</p>
<p>I do know that most colleges require some form of a math credit. Maybe stats would fall into that category also.</p>
<p>as said above.. stats is different than math in college</p>
<p>Statistics will probably be much more useful in college as it's used in multiple majors. Many of the sciences and social sciences require it. Calculus is usually required for the Physics -> Engineering route.</p>
<p>I don't see why calc is ranked higher than statistics. They're two very different things. Depending on your strengths, Statistics might be even more difficult. Algebra 2 is more difficult than Calculus.</p>
<p>Algebra 2 is no way more difficult than Calculus. I took Calc AB in junior year and got burnt out but I passed the AP test with a 3. I took Stats and Calc BC this year and I'm fairly confident I passed both. I found Stats to be a breeze. Calc BC was easier than AB only because most of the material was review from AB.</p>
<p>IMO...if your goal is to be considered for admissions to top tier UCs, then to be competitive you should reconsider taking AP Cal over AP Stats if your school offers both.</p>
<p>There is so little material covered in Calculus. Algebra 2's systems of equations, gauss-jordan matrices, intersection of conics, rational root theorem, etc...is much more difficult than most Calculus concepts. Other than substitution for integration and maybe some related-rates problems, Calculus is a joke. We have about a 100% 5 rate for that class at our school. It's like the AP Psych of math/sciences.</p>
<p>Mmm...most people in my school thinks stats is actually harder than calc. Teacher is pretty bad though.</p>
<p>another thing for your consideration, the statistics you learn in AP stats is a very reduced and simplifyed form of any statistics you would learn in college. If you are majoring in engineering/sciences, they will probably require you to take a different type of statistics class. Finally, as far as the sciences goes, calculus opens up a lot of doors for you. Alot, if not the majority of the scientific concepts we have today that are math related have their foundations in calculus. </p>
<p>Also, statistics homework SUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS, it makes me want to do terrible things, like kick puppies. It is the most boring, tedious thing you will ever do. You spend lots of time just collecting numbers. It is mostly writing repetitive boring hypothesis tests and explaining why you do things. Take calculus, please.</p>
<p>AP Statistics is suppose to be the easiest AP class. I took both BC calc and Stat in my junior year, and I did pretty well.
My Stat teacher is ridiculously bad and I learned everything on my own. You should be able handle both classes.
Calc is definitely more useful than Stat, but Stat is not useless. If you want to be a science person, you need Stat to analyze your data. You would have a better understanding your result.</p>
<p>I hated stats (hence my 3). I would never take it. Take Calc. Calc is fun and it looks better than stats. I think that Calc has more applications than stats does.</p>
<p>Well, it depends on two things - how the rest of your resume looks like, and what you plan on doing in college. If the latter is anything having to do with science, math, or engineering, you need that high school calc background. If an admission committee member looking at your application would look and say 'hmm, this seems to be a strong math/science student but not as strong a humanities student' then you need to take AP Calc. But if you are the humanities student, you should feel confident taking AP Stats. This is because of holistic admissions.</p>
<p>(An ordinary white guy with no sob story (me) got into Cal having taken neither.)</p>
<p>^^disagree with bartleby. A way to stand out from the humanities crowd is to take an advanced, rigorous math class, and that would be calc. Strength of senior year is particularly important to Cal adn UCLA.</p>
<p>why aren't you taking linear algebra by now. they'll definitely look down on you now.</p>