Hi,
Is Calc in high school necessary for Wharton. Is it necessary for a major in economics at Penn?
Thanks.
Wharton likes to see Calc BC on your transcript. However, it is not necessary to get in.
@letsgomets37 Penn in general likes to see that you’ve taken as rigorous (or almost as rigorous) as possible of a schedule that you can given your high school’s offerings. If your high school offers calculus, then take it (it’s okay to do AB if you don’t think you’d be comfortable taking BC or if your high school doesn’t offer it). If your high school doesn’t offer calculus courses, that’s fine (you won’t be punished for that or anything like that). Penn has MATH 103 (an intro calc class that’s the equivalent of Calc AB) for a reason.
Thanks! Would this senior year schedule be considered rigorous at competitive schools such as Penn.
Speech Communications
AP Macro
AP Micro
AP Human Geography
AP Statistics
College Level Marketing
(Do I need calc in there?)
@letsgomets37 Would that be your full schedule? No English class (unless that’s Speech Communications - if so, is that a difficult class) or science class? I would take calculus instead of statistics if you are taking precalc in 11th grade.
@WhartonPenn2017. I also need to fulfill my health requirement. Speech communications is my English and it’s not difficult per se, yet it’s important. I’m taking pre calc. If I take calc should it be AB? How come calc instead of stat?
Thanks
“What Penn Looks For (Wharton): We would like to see a strong preparation in mathematics, particularly calculus.”
http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/whatpennlooksfor/hsprep
Doesn’t get any clearer than that. If they look for calculus, and you don’t have calculus, well then…
Calculus definitely over Stats unless you are going pre-med. Calculus AB is sufficient, but elite schools want you to take the most rigorous courseload possible, especially in math and science. If you are bent on taking Stats then consider dropping AP Micro/Macro or Human Geography and take Calc AB instead.
@letsgomets37 Normally calc is considered part of the mathematics sequence (algebra, geometry, trig, pre calc, calc - this can vary a bit by school and state I guess), whereas AP Stat and AP CS are considered to be elective classes that you’d take in addition to the other classes (both are great classes to take in my opinion). Does your school offer AP English Literature or any other higher level English class than Speech Communications? That class kind of stood out to me when I was reading through the list.
What are your thoughts on dropping micro for calc AB. I’m going to keep speech communications as it’s extremely facisnating to me.
If your school offer calc BC, you should take it instead of AB. Wharton called some high schools asking why some the students did not take BC.
Don’t most schools require Calc AB before BC? That is a requirement where we live and thought it was common for most schools.
@northstarfx No, I know some schools require it, but I think most do not. I never understood why a school would, since the majority of BC is just AB material (i.e. at least in my high school, AB and BC used the same textbook and ch 1 through 7 was AB and BC was ch 1 - 10). I don’t get why someone would retake a whole course to just learn 3 more chapters. At my school, I know only one kid who took both (and that was only so he can get AP National Scholar after junior year by taking AB instead of precalc in sophomore year), but most students would only take AB if they were a senior who had taken pre calc as a junior. If you took pre calc as a sophomore or earlier, the common path was to take BC and then multivariable calculus (some kids who were very advanced would then take more math at a local university, as my high school did not offer anything past multi).
@letsgomets37 I think taking economics is very valuable, especially when entering a program like Wharton. Maybe you can drop human geography for calculus (whether it’s AB or BC). Still though, no science class? Is it normal at your high school to only take 6 classes for the year?
I think statistics and economics are valuable to take because if you score a 5 on the ap exam you won’t have to take the beginning stat and econ courses at Wharton.
@lslmom what if that means taking those classes instead of calculus? Can I take a beginning calc at penn?
If you take calc BC and score a 5 on the ap exam you would get 1 credit for math 104 at penn. For ap statistics and economics, the begininng course would be waived but you wouldn’t get a credit like you would for calc bc with a 5 on the ap exam. I really don’t know what courses are best to take for admissions but here is a link with the credit you would get for ap courses if you attend penn: http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/freshman-admission/precollegecredit. Sorry this isn’t really answering your question.
Can I take a beginning calc at penn?
You can certainly do that. But you need to get in first. Wharton is highly selective. If they said they want to see calculus, you’d better have it.