My school offers AP Calc but it is too rigorous for me. I received C’s in Honors Precalculus, so it isn’t an option. I want to major in business but I don’t think I will declare it as a major on the application for most colleges. I think I could fair quite well in either class, but which is better for admission? Would a college reject me for taking AP Stats instead of a calculus course? Does taking a regular “math” course (non-honors/AP) look bad?
If you want to go into business the AP stat would be a better course to take either way. Also though colleges wouldn’t dislike that you took a non-AP calc class the AP that comes with stat makes it look better. Also if you do well on the AP exam for stat that would look good as well. As far as the regular math courses they don’t look bad if they are higher level math (calc and above) simply because that is when math actually starts to get hard and colleges will know that not everyone can learn the equivalent of calc 1 and 2 within 2 semesters which is why lots of schools offer yearlong versions of the courses (the AP equivalents).
As a business major, you will eventually need to take calculus and statistics, although business majors may be allowed to take an easier version of calculus for business majors.
Note, however, that AP calculus AB in high school covers material at a slower pace than college calculus courses.
You may want to try these on-line quizzes to see what you may need to review from precalculus:
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/rur/rurci3.cgi
http://math.tntech.edu/e-math/placement/index.html
https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/placement-exam
Thanks to the both of you for responding. I should’ve mentioned before that I will be a senior, so I cannot place my AP score on my application. I really don’t have a problem with math skills; I scored a 35 on ACT math and hope to get an 800 on the Math 2 Subject Test. My school pushes kids beyond their limits and the AP Calc teacher loves to advertise that 96% of his students get 5’s on the exam. For that reason, I think the regular calculus class would be super easy.
Last year, my teacher said that everyone in Honors Precalculus should either go into AP Calculus or AP Stats because regular calculus is too easy. My teacher also said that taking Stats interrupts the “normal math progression” and it may be hard to get back into it when I would have to take Calculus in college. I want to make the decision that looks best for my application and worry about the credits later. Thoughts? Thanks!
If you wait until college to take calculus, you will have to take it at the same pace as a high school BC course.
If you are that good at math, why the C grades?
If you are that good at math, why be afraid of calculus?
Given your math teacher’s comments I would talk to your guidance counselor or your last year math teacher to find out more about the particulars of non-AP calculus in your HS. You need to be sure it won’t just be a re-hash of your per-calculus course (or else Stat would be the better choice)… I
n general, if you are planning to go into a school or a major where calculus will be a required course I’d suggest taking calculus (assuming it is a rigorous enough course to be useful) in HS even if it is not at the AP level. My S didn’t take calculus in HS and then had a very hard time with calculus in college as virtually everyone else in the class had the material in HS and it was all new to him . Admittedly his situation was not helped by the fact that the professor was awful but the fact remains that many people going to a good college will take some level of calculus in HS.
ucbalumnus, It truly is ridiculous that I was given C’s. I was not the only one given terrible grades, and most kids bailed and went down to the non-honors class. My district should do an evaluation on the math dept and it wouldn’t be hard to figure out that grades in math classes are so much worse than in any other subject.
As you can probably tell, it is very frustrating from my standpoint. It looks like regular calc would be the better option to be better prepared for college, but AP Stats may (or maybe not) look better on a transcript.
If you believe that you are that good at math and that the precalculus teacher was an unnecessarily low grader (but you know the material well as shown by the quizzes in reply #2), why not just take AP calculus (BC if available) if you are concerned about how rigorous your schedule looks to colleges?
If it weren’t for grades, I would take AP Calc. It isn’t just my teacher who grades low; it’s the whole department. I knew many (more than a couple) who had F’s going into the final exam last year.
But wouldn’t the less rigorous options also result in worse grades since it is the same math department?
No, I should’ve been more clear. It is the honors/advanced classes that are difficult. They are different teachers.