Dual Enrollment Vs AP

I am planning to take Dual enrollment classes over the summer and I am trying to decide if I should take a dual enrollment math class. Without Dual Enrollment At my school the Highest you can get in math is AP Calculus AB. If I take dual Enrollment I can Take Calc. 3 my senior year. I could also do dual enrollment and only get up to Calc 2. Should i take up to Calc 2/3 instead of stopping at Calc AB? WIll taking up to Calc 3 Look better on college applications?

Here is the schedule i would have for Dual Enrollment(Calc. 3) and for taking AP(Calc. AB)

DUAL ENROLLMENT
9th Grade- (Pre-AP)Geometry
10th Grade- (Pre-AP)Algebra 2 W. Trig
Summer(2020)- Pre-Calculus
11th Grade- AP Calculus AB
Summer(2021)- Calculus 2
12th Grade- Calculus 3

AP
9th Grade- (Pre-AP)Geometry
10th Grade- (Pre-AP)Algebra 2 W. Trig
11th Grade- (Pre-AP) Pre-Calculus
12th Grade- (AP) Calculus AB

Calculus 2 and Multivariable Calculus are popular DE classes. Multivariable calculus in particular, because many students get the Calc 2 material in AP Calculus BC. But your path will also look good on college applications.

  1. APs are well known by colleges. You can look at a college’s website and see what credit you could get.
  2. DEs are not as well known. You don’t know if they will be accepted.
  3. DEs count for you college GPA. If you don’t do well, they are still in your GPA for grad school, etc
  4. DEs can allow you to take courses not offered at your HS.
  5. Why be in a hurry to get to Multivariable calculus? It is known to be difficult. Then when you are a freshman you are starting in Differential Equations.
  6. Most All Engineering curriculum’s assume you start with Calc 1.
  7. Some top STEM colleges have many students who are advanced in math.
  8. Do you want to do other things during the summer like work?

Either path will look good; one will not look “better” than the other. In fact, to @bopper’ s point, there is something to be said to doing something productive over the summer, particularly 2 consecutive summers, other than more academics.

I’ll also add, depending on where you finally do go to college, you may not get credit for DE math, particularly for private colleges and OOS publics, although the college may allow you to bypass MVC or offer an honors version of MVC. Potentially, if your ultimate college does not give credit, you could take the Calc BC exam, if the college offers AP credit.

Personally, I’d opt for schedule 2, particularly if you can do something rewarding during the summers. My second choice would be:

9th Grade- (Pre-AP)Geometry
10th Grade- (Pre-AP)Algebra 2 W. Trig
Summer(2020)- Pre-Calculus
11th Grade- AP Calculus AB
12th Grade- DE Calculus 2 & Calc 3 if each is a semester class or just calc 2 if it’s a year-long class.

All this assumes that you are a current sophomore and are getting 95%+ grades in current/past math classes.

“WIll taking up to Calc 3 Look better on college applications?”

No. Take the dual enrollment math if you enjoy math and want to challenge yourself, but not because you think it would look better on a college application. Even tippy top colleges are happy with great math scores on the SAT, SAT Math II, or ACT, none of which require calculus. Taking a year of calculus can help make you a competitive STEM applicant, but the only reason to go beyond calculus 1 or 2 would be if you were extremely advanced in math all along (e.g. started high school with pre-calculus, and need to show four years of math classes).

Is the DE Calc 2 actually a year class? Most are a semester around here, so if you really wanted to you could take both Calc 2 and Calc 3 senior year and still have the summer before senior year open for other activities.

Where I live DE is the most productive thing you can do without spending a ton of money. there are no big projects/community service projects that I can do in a roughly 200-mile radius of where I live(That I know of). A lot of people(who apply to top colleges) do Lab internships or do something in a big city or county over-seas, I can’t do that because none of the colleges near me offer summer programs for High school students(Other than Dual Enrollment) and my parents can’t afford to pay like 5000 dollars for me to go do something overseas(My parents are teachers so they dont make a ton of money).

If you have any ideas or know if any programs in the South East(Alabama, Florida Panhandle, and Georgia) i would love to know about it.

This is a good point. College Calc 2 and Calc 3 (multivariate) are almost always single semester. You can take both your senior year without having to take a class over the summer.

The OP might not have the option of doing each in a semester if the DE courses are taught in school. My daughter’s school offers them as year long courses, although the teacher finishes the required curriculum in roughly half the year and spends the rest teaching them extra stuff (concepts not required but that the kids might find interesting, things they may see if they continue with math in college, etc).

OP how about a summer job? That’s also a productive way to spend summer!

Mom2twogirls
For some reason, my parents kinda “Block” the idea of getting a job. I think they do it because they think that taking classes over the summer will look better on a college application then a kid from a Middle Class family working a job.

And the Calc. Classes are semester classes.

My school Doesn’t offer Calc. BC, do you think that if a take Calc. 2 i would be prepared for the test?

It should. But you can look at past exams.
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-calculus-bc/exam
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-calculus-bc/exam/past-exam-questions

I disagree with your parents.You could always volunteer. But few schools are looking for 2-dimensional applicants who spend their timeout of HS doing more academics.

probably. Is the college you plan to take this quarter-based or semester-based?

If your school offers Calc AB, do note that you also have the option to self-study for the BC portion and take the BC test. Other than Taylor series, there really isn’t that much more in BC than AB, assuming you have a traditional AB class (traditional means that it covers Calc 1 and Calc 2 at a typical quarter-based university).