AP vs Community College Class?

Hi all! I will be a high school senior this fall. I was planning on taking AP statistics during the school year, but am considering taking statistics at a local community college over the summer to make room in my schedule for other classes (e.g. psychology, which I am considering majoring in). According to my counselor, the community college class would be added to my transcript, but would not be weighted. On a college app, would this look bad? I can’t help but think it might seem like I just tried to “bypass” a fourth year of math. Any advice?

Colleges want to see math all 4 years. Taking a community college class over the summer is great, as long as you’re still continuing all 5 core subjects during the school year (math, social studies, english, science, and foreign language). If you want to take some psych classes, see if you can take some at the community college instead of statistics.

What math have you completed so far?

What other courses are you planning to take?

Colleges do their own weighing calculation, they don’t rely on what the HS says. So this can’t be true in general. Perhaps your counselor is talking about your state system and knows how they weigh classes?

Depending on how competitive the colleges you are considering are, they may want to see math all 4 years. Discuss this with your counselor.

One other thing to keep in mind is that if take a CC class it will permanently become part of your college record. You’ll have to report it if you apply to grad school. So be sure to understand the drop and withdrawal deadlines, and if you’re not doing well in the class as you hope then officially leave. Sometimes HS kids think “it’s just an inexpensive summer class at the local CC, I don’t like it anymore” and stop going to class, something they later regret as that F stays with them.

So far, I have completed math up to Calculus AB as well as IB math SL. I wouldn’t be taking any traditional math during senior year if I took stats at the community college, but would replace it with an IB psychology class. I would also be taking an IB computer science class(which my school counts as a math course).

@mikemac So far, I have completed math up to Calculus AB as well as IB math SL. I wouldn’t be taking any traditional math during senior year if I took stats at the community college, but would replace it with an IB psychology class. I would also be taking an IB computer science class(which my school counts as a math course).

Seems odd to have taken both calculus AB and IB math SL, due to substantial duplication of material.