I didn’t take AP Calc. How will this affect me?

WILL it hurt you, or COULD it hurt you?

It depends upon what colleges are assessing you and what other attributes you have. You aren’t as good academically as many of those who are applying for spots at the most selective schools. A lot of them have taken AP Calc, the hard sciences , some AP even and excelled in them and you avoided those courses. Absolutely, you get dinged for that, all other things equal. If you have Olympic trial swim times, are a phenomenal rower or top rate football pick, no it wouldn’t matter. It also wouldn’t matter at the vast majority of colleges out there. But for the most selective ones, yes it would

@lookingforward I definitely appreciate your insight and advice. I have taken every non-stem AP available at my school, if that’s any consolation. Please let me ask you this. Would this concern be expelled if I took pre-calc my senior year? Or at the very least, how much would it be mitigated?

Could mitigate a LOT. You wouldn’t be the kid who stopped core math after whatever it was, geometry? And in its own subtle way, it will show you recognize the importance.

AU and GW will be much more forgiving of your coures issues and like the 790/770. I don’t know if you need fin aid. But that tier will like much of the combo you offer, if you manage activities, the CA essay, and supp writing well. There’s just too much competition for tippy tops and they get fussy. I can’t speak to whether Irvine or UW will be matches. It’s so worth it to take a breath right now and learn more about the right targets.

Taking precalc is not good enough for the very top schools when Calc was right there to take. Too many kids take the AP calc AND have your grades and test scores.

“AU and GW will be much more forgiving of your coures issues and like the 790/770.”
l/f - Would those schools look at those scores and wonder why she didn’t challenge herself in math?

"if I took pre-calc my senior year? Or at the very least, how much would it be mitigated? "

Take pre-calc, it will mitigate some, but you will be dinged for taking stats when calc was available.

I think any competitive college can wonder, @theloniusmonk. Not based on the scores, but the transcript, not finding higher math courses. But in the run to be a finalist, the tippy tops can just be the toughest reviewers. Plus what else is missing.

OP has some interesting bits and strengths, including an internship with a Congressperson (so many poli sci wannabes have nothing but school clubs/teams.) But it isn’t the extent or weight of activities a TT can expect. And there’s huge competition just from the Bay Area.

So it becomes, imo, that much more important to tackle the gaps and find the right targets. AND know the targets as well as possible, to understand what matters, overall, so you can offer your best, somewhat calculated, self presentation. Adv Data Analysis isn’t it. And other blanks.

It’s STEM kids who need to reach the very furthest with their math. It’s impressive when humanities kids do well in AP calc. And the numbers of those humanities kids who do, is growing.

Since you had the opportunity to take precalculus and calculus in high school (i.e. you finished algebra 2 and geometry by 10th grade), then the presumed order of preference by college admissions readers at more selective colleges would be:

  • Take precalculus and calculus.
  • Take precalculus, but not calculus.
  • Take neither precalculus nor calculus.

Then you should definitely take PreCalc, not necessarily for admissions per se, but for your future college coursework. College has hundreds of courses that you have probably never thought of. You might take an Intro to one and become enamored with it; for example IR, which requires college-level Econ (not the intro to intro course that you take in HS-- sorry, not a fan of AP Econ).

Not taking a strong HS math curriculum could eliminate many college courses since you won’t have the prerequisite. You mention Data Analysis – Big Data is huge nowadays, even in social sciences, but it requires strong quant skills.

Absolutely, without a doubt, take precalculus. Or it will hurt your app.

Without calc, don’t apply for data analysis.
For IR do take precalculus. Even regular. It’ll address the fact you didn’t take it junior year and will make your HS sequence stand along the “regular word sequences”, not “lacking/lazy sequences” (algebra2->stats=> Precalculus. IS done at several HS). If data analysis covers advanced applied statistics you can even up the ante and take both Data analysis AND Precalculus.