<p>My brother is a sophomore in high school, and he wants to go to a top-tier school. (I think his number one choice is Dartmouth right now, although of course that could change.) Because of the way his high school's schedule works, he has to pick between one of these three course options: </p>
<p>Three years of Latin and four years of Spanish
Three years of Latin, three years of Spanish and AP Calculus
Two years of Latin, four years of Spanish and AP Calculus</p>
<p>All other things being equal, which option is his best bet? Does it depend on what he wants his major to be, or what level of AP Calc he takes, or some other factor? And do different top-tier schools have different preferences on this? </p>
<p>A little extra info, in case it matters: he's leaning towards sociology or possibly philosophy as a major, and he's more interested in languages than in math (so he's leaning towards Option #1 right now). Also, his Spanish program is not very competitive; if he takes three years of Spanish he'll only have advanced through Honors Spanish II.</p>
<p>Sociology majors will likely find statistics useful; it may be worthwhile to know calculus in order to take a more in-depth statistics course in college (though an AP statistics level course is certainly better than nothing). Knowing additional modern languages like Spanish will be helpful as well.</p>
<p>Philosophy majors will need to take logic courses and apply logic in their other courses. In high school, math courses are probably the best mental exercise to prepare for such courses, although preparation will be better if the math courses emphasize proofs.</p>
<p>Based on that, going for the highest possible level of Spanish plus calculus is likely the best preparation.</p>
<p>Will he have a full slate of other subjects like English / literature, history / social studies, the three main sciences, art / music?</p>
<p>He’s already planning to take AP Statistics - and yes, he’ll have a full slate of English, history/social studies, and music. No non-music art classes, unfortunately. But he’ll be able to take AP US History, AP Gov & Politics and AP Literature & Composition. And if by the three main sciences you mean biology, chemistry and physics, yes, he’ll have taken all of those, as well as AP Environmental Science. </p>
<p>Would it be better for him to drop AP Environmental Science for Calculus, if it comes to that? His high school schedule really doesn’t leave him much room for extra courses.</p>
<p>Calculus will be more useful as a prerequisite for college courses (statistics, math, physics, etc.) than environmental science. While the philosophy department’s logic course will not list calculus as a prerequisite, having more mental exercise in math will be better preparation for such a course.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is one of the few colleges (that I know of) that specifically states that they would like to see Calc (if offered at the HS).</p>
<p>And yes, between APES and AP Calc, the latter is a no-brainer to demonstrate course rigor. (APES is a so-called “AP Lite”, and not much more detailed than what is taught in AP Bio.)</p>
<p>Would it be more advantageous for him to take AP Calc and only three years of science than it would be to take APES and no AP Calc, but thus have four years of science? I’m not surprised that APES is held in lower regard than Calc, but I can see some Ivies looking askance at a student who is enrolled in no science classes during his senior year.</p>