I love the arts and humanities, so I took a lot of rigorous classes in these subjects. However, after taking AP Environmental Science, I’ve considered maybe majoring in Ecology or something of the sort. Business is also an option I’m thinking about. The problem is, I want to apply to very rigorous schools, (the Ivies, etc.) and I’m not taking any science classes or calculus classes in my senior year. Here is my schedule
Health/gym (required)
Financial Lit (required)
Fine arts
AP Euro
AP Spanish
AP Art History
AP Stats
AP Lit
I opted out of AP Calc AB for AP Stats because I heard AP Stats was a good class. Plus, I was less concerned about the rigor by itself (I’m good at math) and more concerned about taking Calc AB on top of having four other AP classes, time-consuming extra-curriculars, and college applications.
As for the sciences, I took bio, chem, AP Physics B (we had a option of taking the double period AP class without taking regular physics), and AP Environmental Science.
I probably won’t change my schedule, other than maybe trading AP Stats for Calc AB. I’m still worried though; how will it look?
Looks like you have all three of the main sciences covered.
Biological science majors tend to need or find useful both calculus and statistics. But now, calculus is probably more helpful, since you may have to take a calculus-based statistics course later.
Oh, I see. I had no idea. I thought Calculus was only needed to the hard sciences.
I’ll consider taking Calc AB then. Still not too sure about it because I don’t know what I want to become. Do you know how it would look if I just take AP Stats with no science though?
Calculus is necessary, especially for the prestigious places. No science at all doesn’t look good for a science major. If you love the arts and humanities and don’t want to take science in senior year, are you sure you want to major in the STEM field?
You should AP biology since its closely related to ecology and environmental science.
I’d like to take AP Bio, but it’s not practical. They do an insane amount of work in that class. If I drop two of my AP classes, I can do it, but then I’d also have to take some insignificant elective class that doesn’t reflect what I want in order to even out the rigor. I AM willing to take AP Calc AB though. Hopefully I can take the workload.
I’ve just recently thought of majoring in Ecology, so I really am not too sure.
I do think what I will learn in these classes will be important no matter who or what I become, which is one of the reasons why I am so unwilling to drop a lot of these classes.
I know I sound fickle - I am. That’s why I’m here and thinking through my options carefully.
And no, I don’t want to go to an art school. I’m taking AP Art History because it’s one of the best classes my school has to offer. As for fine arts, this will be the last and only real art class I’ll have before I drop art as a hobby altogether.
I’d take Calc AB. If you take calc in college (which you will if you do science or business) you will find that most everyone in the class already had calc in HS and you will be behind if you didn’t.
Business majors are usually required to take an easier calculus for business majors course to learn the basic concepts for use in intermediate economics and finance courses.
Business majors are required to learn calculus because calculus is, simply put, the study of both rates of change and accumulation. These are very important concepts in business. If one wants to figure out what exactly the rate of change of a profit margin was at a given time, they will use calculus. If one wishes to find average profit margins across a span of time when the profit margins are varying constantly with respect to time, one will use calculus. It has applications in quantifying the elasticity of supply and demand, and many other applications. Business majors typically do not take the entire calculus sequence unless they want to take it. They would typically take a single semester of calculus for business and the social sciences. It covers a more brief introduction to calculus, and involves material from calculus 1, 2, and 3, and often includes a very basic introduction to some of the simplest types of differential equations. A business major will typically also take some statistics.
You seem to be trying to avoid the “insane amount of work” in AP bio. What do you think college science courses will be like? College science courses cover same material in one semester that a typical high school course will cover in one year. High school science courses, even AP courses, are really quite basic and simplified in comparison to college science courses. It’s simply the nature of the level at which one is learning the material.
Thank you for the information. That was really helpful.
I don’t have room in my schedule to take every class I want. If I have to pick between them and the rewards are the same, I’ll sacrifice the harder class.