<p>Hey CC, I have been playing the violin since 4th grade and I have been in my school's symphonic orchestra all through high school. I'm going to be a senior this year and there is only one class for Calculus BC and it is during the same period as Orchestra. I could do Calculus AB (different period) and take Orchestra but I want to be an engineer so Calculus BC seems like it would be the better decision.</p>
<p>I really don't want to give up orchestra but I think not taking Calculus BC would negatively affect me in admissions to engineering programs.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this comes down to you. What do you think is more important? Is your happiness (Orchestra) or getting into the college you want (Calculus BC) more important? Some people would pick their happiness in high school, and some people would pick getting into the college of their dreams (though they still might not make it in). It’s a very personal choice, so I can’t give you much advice.</p>
<p>Many colleges offer calculus in summer for credit. If getting calculus under your belt before starting college next fall is important to you and you don’t have time for it during the school year, think about taking summer school during the summer after you graduate. Once you are accepted and you decide what college you will attend, talk to that school about where you might get transferrable calculus credit over the summer.</p>
<p>If you choose orchestra, make sure you explain in your applications that this is why you are taking AB. You may also want to ask your guidance counselor to mention it in your application.</p>
<p>if your school’s orchestra is good, it will definitely look very good on college apps for you to take orchestra. So it’s okay if you take AB instead of BC</p>
<p>I don’t know much about BC, but I think you should take AB first! I heard that BC is a faster version of AB plus more material.</p>
<p>If you really want to make the Ivy leagues and do engineering then I’d say drop orchestra and do Calc BC. If not, take AB. <em>I’m also a senior in orchestra, violin since 1st grade</em></p>
<p>If you have an outside youth orchestra (like CYSO for example) then you don’t need to take orchestra in high school. I have been playing violin since 2nd grade and I ditched my orchestra after freshmen year and just stayed with my youth orchestra (which was much better than my school orchestra). </p>
<p>Most people at my school skip AB and just take BC because about 50-60% of BC is AB material. Ultimately, you make the decision.</p>
<p>^My situation is pretty much just like the above poster’s. I ditched our school orchestra after 1 year (so that I fulfilled my fine art requirement for the UC A-G course stuff) and just stuck with CYMO (in SoCal), which is so much better than my school orchestra.</p>
<p>But, Calculus AB and BC are not that far apart in prestige. It’s really up to you.</p>
<p>I ended up taking Calc BC
My schools orchestra is not prestigious + I have no distinctions in orchestra
My orchestra involvement was pretty insignificant.
Orchestra was just something I did for fun so I dropped it.</p>
<p>Anybody who told you to take BC is an idiot. The right move would have been AB + Orchestra + explain in your comments section of each of your apps about scheduling conflicts you had.</p>
<p>yea I still play my violin every once in a while. To be honest, I feel like it was time to let go of orchestra. I wouldn’t say it was one of my passions, just something I sort of did. I didn’t even put it on my college apps.</p>