<p>Dd is a junior. She took 2 APs as a sophmore, is taking 3 as a junior and will take 4-5 as a senior. Her gpa is about a 3.6uw <em>however</em> in order to be in the top 10%, you need a 4.5 weighted. Kids who are in IB have a HUGE advantage because all their courses-- even art-- are weighted an extra point. Dd does not want to do IB. (She is actually too advanced in her foreign language.)</p>
<p>Anyway, questions:
1- Dd took Honors History fresh year, AP Govt soph year and is considering taking no social studies junior year. (Instead, she would take art this year and Honors or AP social studies senior year.) Would only 3 years of social studies look bad to colleges?</p>
<p>2- Dd is taking Precalc <em>but</em> the school says that, since it's not honors, she is unprepared for AP Calc next year. Next year, she could either take: 1-a Calculus class which is non-honors and non-AP, or 2-AP Statistics. She wants to major in sciences so she needs to take Calculus in college. Taking the non-AP course will hurt her weighted average but, it seems to me, will prepare her better for college. What would you do? </p>
<p>(Just an aside... She will also take at least 1 other non-AP course senior year: Physics. But she is planning on doubling up in sciences senior year: Honors Physics and either AP Bio or AP Chem.)</p>
<p>Does your school offer AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC? Seems as though decent grades (and decent instruction) in Alg II and PreCalc would adequately prepare a student for AP Calc AB whether the Alg II/PreCalc classes are honors or not. (BC is a bear...clips along at a pretty quick pace.)</p>
<p>Yes, they offer both-- but the curriculum is apparently different for honors pre-calc and non-honors and the sequence for non-honors is non-honors Calculus. Parents at the school have a yahoo group and I tried to find out if anyone has successfully gone from non-honors pre-calc to AP and no one had. One parent said their child had taken non-honors calc and had taken Calc I and II in college with success. Another said he had made his son go from non-honors pre-calc to BC Calc and, even with a tutor, the boy barely passed. I had hoped to move her from pre-calc to Calc AB but it's not recommended and I could find no one who had tried.</p>
<p>Most science majors will require two semesters of calculus. Depending on the major (or if she's pre-med), two semesters of calculus-based physics may be required. Add in intro chem and possibly organic chem, and your schedule gets quite full without AP credit. College-level calculus can be difficult even for those with a calculus background, so it's best to test out if one can. Taking the AP Calcs, if she can, would be a very good thing.</p>
<p>Thanks warblersrule86. I agree and you're close-- she is pre-dental. Unfortunately, taking AP Calc is not an option. That's why I'm wondering what would be 2nd-best: AP Statistics or Calculus with Applications (as it's called). </p>
<p>And any opinions on 3 years of Social Studies vs. 4 years?</p>
<p>Our honors pre-calc course starts in on the calculus curriculum in about April (we have school to the end of June.) It may be the poster has a similar problem.</p>
<p>Even Harvard only suggests three years of history, so I'm guessing your daughter would be okay as long as she's taking a full load. (I think two science senior year counts.)</p>
<p>To answer your first question, requirement of four years of social studies really depends on specific college and school. Generally, I don't think that would be a major hole in application if she would've taken full courseload.</p>
<p>What to say on second question. I'd personally go with Calculus and then took AP test with some self-study, depending on rigour of calculus course. However, statistics might be more attractive for some people.</p>
<p>If your d is going to end up with 9-10 APs by graduation, I don't know if I'd worry too much about the number of APs she has. That aspect of her application will look great. If the concern is that she absolutely has to have the extra weighting of that 10th AP class to retain her rank, then the answer seems clear; take the AP-Stat and protect rank. But...if her rank will hold in the competitive range without that additional AP, imho the non-honors Calculus would be very beneficial in preparing her for college Calculus. This is important too because success in her college courses and a competitive GPA is necessary for grad school admissions.</p>
<p>Re: Calc BC. I can corroborate what your Yahoo group has said. My d took all honors math courses in the GT program (Alg II, PreCalc included) and made straight As without drama. The drama began with BC. She ended up with an extremely low B as her final grade, but had to show a 79 on her mid-term grades which hurt her in some of her admissions decisions I believe. I think the combination of the extremely fast pace, the fact that she was tending to four other AP classes and an eccentric teaching method may have been the problem. My d regrets taking the class...says she should have taken AB. But she is doing very well so far in her college calc class, so there was some benefit to all that torture. Bottom line, I wouldn't recommend taking BC if you feel your d's prerequisite math classes won't adequately prepare her or even if she will have a heavy courseload that year.</p>