How badly will not taking a math class my senior year hurt me?

Applying to College
1

<p>It's not too late to change my senior schedule around, but long story short I have NEVER been a math person. I did poorly in my Trig class last year and chose not to continue onto Precalc as a senior- graduating with 3 years of math. Instead, I doubled up on science (anatomy and physics) and I'm taking 2 APs- English and US Government. My GPA is a 3.5 and I got an 1810 on the SAT, a 27 on the ACT. My ECs are good but nothing special and I'm applying to Penn State, Rutgers, UDel, Temple U, James Madison, Elon, Fairfield University, Fordham University, Loyola Maryland, and the University of South Carolina. </p>

<p>I have a pretty good shot and some of these schools, according to my schools' Naviance anyway, and I'd take any advice given to me really seriously. Should I fit Precalc into my schedule or take it online for four years of math? Or, should I forget about it and stick to my original schedule?</p>

<p>Any and all advice is really appreciated. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Will you be ready to take freshman calculus when you enter university as a freshman? That is the normal expectation.</p>

<p>Having to take precalculus in university is costly (in both tuition and using up your limited schedule space during your four years at university) compared to having taken it cheaply in high school or community college.</p>

3

<p>I want to major in Speech Pathology. Would I even need to take Calculus as a freshmen?</p>

4

<p>Taking math in high school is good for a number of reasons.
One, it shows you’re serious about your education. Two, math is involved in all aspects of life (think where we’d be if we couldn’t count money or measure pieces of wood for construction), so it’s never a bad thing to understand math well. Three, despite the “I’ll never use this” or “It’s not what I wanna do as a job” complaints, the reality is that many colleges still require you to complete a calculus or other math class as part of their graduation requirements (meaning you have to take precalc, then calc, wasting two classes instead of one). So yeah, it will probably hurt you.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for your input. Now, I’m considering online precalc or dropping my foreign language (Latin) to take the class normally.</p>

6

<p>Another option: Can you take statistics instead? Lots of people who don’t like math, enjoy statistics because it’s so applied. Consider taking it on-line or at a community college if your school doesn’t offer it.</p>