I plan to apply to Holy Cross, Tufts, Bowdoin, American, George Washington and Providence College. I plan to major in history and have excellent AP US History, AP Euro History, AP Art History, AP Music Theory grades and AP test scores (all 5s). I am taking Senior year AP Govt, AP Environmental Science, AP Psychology. I also have a theatrical resume that is very strong. I want to major in History and I do not want to take Math Senior Year!!!
Should I just suck it up or make the decision to drop Calculus?
For highly selective colleges, it is a good idea for students who complete precalculus in 11th grade or earlier to take calculus if available.
If you eventually need to do statistical analysis in social science, you may find it useful to know calculus to better understand statistics.
D20 really had issues with math. I remember being with her at an open house event at a college she was considering. She walked up to a member of the admissions staff and asked them how much her chances would be hurt by not taking math her senior year. The woman practically laughed in her face. D didn’t end up applying there because she didn’t like the woman’s attitude but she did end up taking an IB math class her senior year because AP Calc and Stats caused schedule conflicts. She is at a T20 LAC now. YMMV.
Take stats. Much easier than Calc, it’s math, it won’t shine a light on your schdule. AND you will find it super helpful if you take econ (a must for history majors IMHO), poli sci, anything policy related.
Among the schools you listed, two require and all recommend 4 years of math, according to their CDS. And “recommend” usually means “you really need a good reason not to”.
Do you have statistics, or even “personal finance”, “data science” or similar courses (From our HS) in the math department? AP Stats would be the best option, if available - an algebra-based AP course that should be easier than Calc.
You don’t need to take Calculus, but you should take a math class. AP Statistics would be the most competitive choice, but you could take another sort of math if need be. There has to be some sort of math you can take.
What level did you reach in foreign language? It’s super important for history (you’ll need to go to grad school and you’ll need one very strong, 6th college semester or semester abroad level, and one at AP reading level for the area you’ll specialize in).
What other classes are you taking?
Note that high school calculus AB will be a slower gentler introduction to calculus than calculus in college if you ever need to take it for something like intermediate economics or calculus-based statistics (that may be useful in the various social sciences).
History requires zero math except for those specializing in quantitative history and it’s a very small subset of graduate program offerings. Most history majors would likely take some form of math for humanities majors (Math and elections, Art&geometry, etc…) as long as they satisfy a placement test for either Algebra2 (typical) or precalculus (highly selective universities) AND have completed Precalculus/Precalc Honors in HS.
So, if this student doesn’t want to take calculus, we’d need to know
1° what classes s/he’s taking senior year
2° what level of math has been reached already
3° what are all the math offerings that are available to a senior at this particular HS
Lol, I was the kid who dropped hs math and regretted it, as a social sci major. Did I really, truly need it? No. (And this was ages ago.) But imo you prepare yourself, one way or another, for the times when it does factor (I later took 2 sessions of summer school stats at a big U and found it very interesting.) I ended up in a field where several jobs did make use of my understanding of stats, et al. Life’s funny like that.