I am currently in Honors Math 2. (Honors Sophomore math) as a sophmore and doing really well. I will be taking honors junior math (Math 3 STEM) next year but I won’t be able to take AP Calculus AB as a senior because I need to complete Honors senior math (Honors Math 4) first.
I really want to somehow take AP Calculus AB as a senior because I will be majoring in Computer Science at a mid-tier/top university. I am afraid not taking Calculus in high school is going to kill me during college application.
I asked my math teacher if I could take honors math 4 over the summer but highly suggests not to as taking math online is probably a bad idea. As far as I know, that is my only way to AP Calculus AB.
OK I went through a similar situation. So basically I moved around all my life before coming to my high school. My high school is really great/highly ranked in Maine, so when I came I was kind of behind. The school had an advanced math program in Middle School so kids would take Algebra 1 in the 8th grade, then Geometry, then Algebra 2, Advanced Math (PreCalc), then AP Calc BC senior year (those on the AP/honors track at least). Because of my situation, I had to take Algebra I CP (school didn’t offer honors) freshman year. I really wanted to take AP Calc BC senior year, so against all odds I came up with a plan for myself–my math department wasn’t super supportive either. But I was determined to take AP Calc! I did end up taking Algebra II the summer between sophomore and junior year. It was a lot of work but it was worth it! I am now taking AP Calculus BC and it’s going great! You can definitely do math over the summer! Advocate for yourself, don’t let others sway your decisions if you really want to take calculus. I did summer math through the American Correspondence School, but reach out to your math department and see if they offer summer classes for advancement or meet with them to find an equivalent online/independent course to do over the summer. Good luck!
one option if your school approves and offers it at your school would be to take dual enrollment math senior year - I’m guessing math 4 honors is precalculus. First semester senior year take a college precalculus then 2nd semester take Calculus 1. However it is fine to end high school in advanced math/precalculus. My nephew who is a computer science major at Brown said there were plenty of kids he met that had only had precalculus in high school.
You should discuss with the colleges you’re interested in how much not having calculus will hurt you. You may be worried over nothing. At any rate, clearly opting to take stats or skip senior math to avoid calculus looks really bad. Taking four years of rigorous math at the appropriate level for you, even if that’s not calculus, is not going to look like slacking or anything.
Also consider other paths to demonstrating your interest by taking computer science classes or joining a programming club or activity.
All techy colleges don’t assume you had Calc 1 already…they start the curriculum with Calc 1.
However, it might be good to double up on math (which ideally would have been done Sophomore year) or take a math over the summer so you can take Calc senior year.
@bopper The course titles (Math 1, Math 2, …) make it sound like the OP’s school does “integrated math” rather than topic-based math. That means that geometry (and all other topics) would be taught over all four years rather than in one specific class. That makes it harder to “double up” or to find an appropriate summer class that covers the exact same topics needed to jump ahead a year in the school’s curriculum.