Course Selection for Daughter

My daughter 23 (current high school junior) will be applying to universities this fall with an undergrad business school as a business major and as an economics major at universities without an undergrad business school. She is shooting for a T20 university. She has the grades and resume. No test scores yet.

She is on track to take AP Calculus AB as a senior. Taking regular Non-AP Calculus would be unusual and a downgrade to her current expected path.

Her school also offers AP statistics and AP Micro/Macroeconomics. She will be taking several other tough classes like AP Biology and an advanced English seminar. It would be very difficult but not impossible for her to take all 3 APs … calculus, statistics and economics.

Which of these proposed schedules for her senior year would you recommend?

AP Calculus AB
AP Micro/Macroeconomics
(No AP Statistics)

AP Calculus AB
AP Statistics
(No AP Micro/Macroeconomics)

Regular Calculus
AP Micro/Macroeconomics
AP Statistics

AP Calculus AB
AP Micro/Macroeconomics
AP Statistics
(This schedule would be very difficult with her other tough courses, college applications and ECs)

I appreciate everyone’s opinion, thanks

Top colleges want to see each core subject area represented every year. Without taking macro/micro, will she have another class that would count for social studies? If not, I would opt for Calc AB and Econ.

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I would highly recommend taking AB at a minimum. I can’t speak to micro/macro as our school doesn’t offer it. AP stat is also likely very doable for her as my 22 took AB as junior and taking stat now (yes a slight downgrade but making up for it with AP Physics C E&M and Mechanics)

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Yes, without AP Economics she would have other social studies options - all of them easier than AP Economics.

According to both my son and daughter, AP Economics is considered the hardest class at their school, and that includes AP Calculus and Post-Calculus Vectors. More than 50% of seniors at their school take AP Economics.

It just seems to me that applying to an undergrad business school, if your high school offers AP Economics, they would definitely prefer if you had taken it. But to complicate things, I think my daughters #1-10 favorite college choice options do not have a dedicated undergrad business school, so maybe lack of AP Economics would not be the end of the world. I’m guessing about 75% of the colleges she will apply to do not have undergrad business schools, and 25% do.

And AP statistics at their school is considered very difficult as well. My senior son 22 has AP Statistics now and it is his hardest class. He is a smart kid with multiple other AP classes, so if he says it is hard I believe him.

I’d skip stats and take Calc AB and AP Econ.

You definitely want the counselor recommendation to say that her courseload was in the “most rigorous” category. So, that should be the first filter - would any of her schedule options take her out of that category? (I’m thinking especially of AP Econ, as it seems like it’s the norm for college-bound students at her school to take that class - when she has to take a social studies class anyway, why downgrade it?)

Stats typically isn’t considered as rigorous as Calc. If Stats is actually extra-hard at her school, she’d be incurring that burden without necessarily getting credit for an extra-hard class in the eyes of AO’s. Also, a lot of colleges don’t give anything but general elective credit for AP Stats. Calc and Econ are higher priority, and there’s no need to double up on math.

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Similar for my D. She finished her BC, Multivar and Linear in junior year and now she’s in Stats. Was planning on taking DE but dropped the idea. E&M and her Engineering course are somewhat balancing the math rigor.

I like the first and second option . She can always self-study and take the AP Macro exam if she’s enrolled into AP Calc and stats. But what math class is she planning to take in her senior year? Most colleges like to see 4 years of uninterrupted math track.

Thanks for your input. She is currently a junior. These options would be for her senior year.

Yes thank you, I agree with your comments. I have read many times that AP Statistics is usually not particularly rigorous compared to other AP courses, yet at my daughter’s school it is.

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I’d do option one, skipping stats. I don’t think adding stats is going to make much difference for admissions so I’d only take it if she’s interested or if the GC wants it there for rigor.

She’ll get a more comprehensive stats class in college, likely calc-based, if she goes the Econ route (which she might decide against after taking micro and macro).

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Thank you. And I agree that taking Economics in high school may help her decide if it is the best college major option for her.

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This is the best combination for a prospective economics or business major. If she is aiming for a highly selective university, be aware that while calculus, economics, and statistics are all likely to be required, some such universities require calculus-based statistics (which AP statistics is not).

It is best to take AP economics now to confirm interest in the subject early before getting closer to committing to a college schedule and major. Because of the above, AP calculus is more likely to be of value than AP statistics, so if one of the three has to be dropped, AP statistics would be the one. But it really would be desirable for a prospective economics or business major to take all three if available to the student.

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Our HS does not have AP Econ, but I would be inclined to eliminate that choice if she is not going to take all three. Yes, it might give her insight into whether she will like Econ., but I would expect most schools would require an Econ. major take their own Econ. series (yes, they may require their own calc and stats as well, but I think the AP for those are more building blocks). And for those schools where her major would be Econ, that is likely in the “main” school where other majors would be readily available if she found she didn’t like Econ. Further, I may get pushback on this, but liking micro and macro isn’t necessarily representative of liking the major - meaning econometrics, game theory, corp. fin, marketing, international trade, policy etc. or other requirements might be appealing even if micro and macro aren’t. (personal experience from an Econ. major undergrad and business major grad fwiw).

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Good info … thank you.

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Thank you - this is helpful.

Absolutely agree! Take all 3 , given the aim for T20 and the econ/business interest, drop Stat if you have to. If applying to top schools as a serious candidate, rigor and challenge should come first.

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Excellent, thank you.

Gotcha. I think going Calc AB/BC route will be nice IMHO.

Has she maxed out on History (US and Euro?) I don’t think stats is the way to go given what you’ve posted, and there is no substitute for a thorough grounding in the basic academic subjects regardless of what your D ends up majoring in- which at most HS’s is English, History, Math, Foreign Language, Lab science. Don’t take econ if it means eliminating one of the core subjects; same logic for stats. And as the poster above noted- disliking micro and macro in no way means your D wouldn’t LOVE college level econ. It’s a still-evolving field with plenty of stimulating subjects… but like anything else, you have to get the basics out of the way first. Someone can love genetics but find HS bio a bore, right?

Thank you - in addition to these 3 courses we are discussing she will have other courses, including a history course which will be 2 history electives, one fall semester and one spring semester. She has fulfilled all of her schools history requirements: US, Euro etc. and is currently taking AP government.

Doing all 3 of these courses or doing just 2 won’t affect the remainder of her schedule. Regardless, she will also have AP Biology, English, history and a journalism elective. She has completed foreign language requirements - she is in AP Spanish now.

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@ChancellorGH - Absolutely take AP CALC AB. After that, I would have her take the one that she has more interest in. As a side note I was reading the William and Mary Strategic Plan and it outlined an expanded focus in Data Science and integrating DS requirements into all majors. I would say that a strong foundation in Statistics would provide a great foundation for any student entering college

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