<p>Apparently at my school taking College Precalculus only allows you to take AP Calculus AB as a 12th grader, which I didn't know. There was another class you were supposed to take if you wanted to take AP Calculus BC, so now I'm stuck in a class that is way too easy for me (I have over a 100 average while people in my class are failing). </p>
<p>I want to be a chemical engineer. I'm taking AP Chem (again, over 100 average), AP Bio, AP Literature, AP Calculus AB. Have I ruined my chances by taking Calc AB? I'm self studying Calc BC this year, but MIT won't know that. I got an 800 on the SAT math section (2230 total: 800M, 770W, 660CR) and will be getting back Chem and Math II SAT II results soon (expecting 790-800 on both). Also, I submitted my Siemens research paper (getting results back Friday) and will be submitting my paper to Intel eventually also.</p>
<p>It's not the end of the world if I can't get in, although I would love to. I don't know if I should even bother applying now though.</p>
<p>I’m sure there’ll be a chorus of people with the same sentiments, but I’ll be the first.</p>
<p>YES, you should apply.</p>
<p>If you want, you can make a small point that you couldn’t take the AP calc BC because of a prereq you didn’t know about. But don’t sound obsessive about it. They probably wouldn’t care either way, seriously. But sounding like you are super obsessive about a small thing like this may hurt your chances.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are seriously unchallenged. Have you thought about a correspondance class of some kind? There are quite a few out there.</p>
<p>@collegealum314: Thanks for the advice. I was actually expecting most people to say I have no chance at MIT. By correspondence classes are you referring to math classes at the local college? I have a pretty hectic schedule, so I’m not sure if I could fit those in my day.</p>
<p>It may hard to schedule something like that at this point. If that isn’t possible, I would suggest something on-line. Stanford offers something like that; I think it’s called EPGY. I’m sure there are others.</p>
They will know if you tell them. Many MIT applicants self-study for APs that their schools don’t offer or won’t allow them to take. You can put this information in the box that asks for “any additional information”, or you can work it in elsewhere, but there’s no reason not to mention that you’re self-studying BC if you are.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, taking AB only isn’t a problem for MIT admission in and of itself. Plenty of people get into MIT each year only having taken AB, and some get in without having taken calculus at all.</p>
<p>Like me! When I got to junior year and was told I could only enroll in Calc AB, I found out that a bunch of kids in my class had taken summer courses in order to me in the math track that was able to take Calc BC. To this day I think it’s kind of bogus that a) no one told me this, and b) you needed to pay to take extra classes over the summer just to be able to take Calc BC at my nationally ranked magnet math and science school, but that’s the way it is. (I graduated from MIT last year, so it all worked out in the end.)</p>
<p>BC is only about 20% more material than AB. I took AB my junior year and BC my senior year. I went to class less than 25 times, did no homework, and got a 5 on the exam. Self study the BC topics and ask to take the BC exam at the end of the year. That will show initiative and dedication</p>