Agree with the above, take it now if for no other reason than to not have to take it in college.
Calc BC is a “signaling device” at the colleges with very low admit rates. If you come from a HS that doesn’t offer it, that helps the HS evaluate your achievements in context (i.e. a strong math and/or science student despite what the curriculum couldn’t offer). If you come from a HS that DOES offer it and you don’t take it, that tells a different story- either not that interested in the “most rigorous” math track (which is, of course, perfectly fine) or had other academic priorities (again, perfectly fine).
If your kid isn’t interested in these kinds of colleges, than he should take whatever he likes. If he is, or may be interested, I think what his counselor is trying to tell him is that it will be out there on his transcript. It may or may not matter, but if most kids from this HS DO take BC calc, then your son should give it another think before deciding no.
I encouraged my kids to take it (and they did, and loved it) for three reasons:
The top kids from their HS (regardless of where their interests were) all took it;
My kids loved math so there was no reason not to take it… they took stats in college which is comparatively MUCH easier for a mathy kind of kid;
When I was in HS only “genius” type kids took Calc, and I don’t think a single girl in my HS class took Calc (even the really, really strong math students). When I finally took Calc before starting a grad program I realized there was no reason why a respectable math student couldn’t take and do well in Calc. So I wanted to make sure my kids didn’t channel themselves out of a math track in college- if that’s what they ended up wanting to do.
Hope this is helpful context. At my kids HS (not a magnet program, but has a solid math and science reputation) it would be very unusual for someone with your son’s profile to be encouraged to take statistics. Even the AP class is not that rigorous.
“A student majoring in either subject will likely have to take a full year of college calculus if not exempt with AP credit. I.e. the student will either have to learn calculus in high school, or learn it in college”
- This is just an assumption, this is NOT the fact. Calculus may not be required at all. In fact, my kid had only one semester of Calculus at HS (not BC) and one semester of college Stats to satisfy her major requirement (Zoology).
While calculus has nothing to do with Biology, it also has nothing to do with CS, although it may be required for the major. In fact, calculus is practically a must for engineering and majors like Physics and Math. While Bio and CS majors at certain schools may require calc., this is just it, just to fulfill a requirement of the major. Biology majors are not required take calc. based Physics, unless they want to (as one example). I have been writing software for over 30 years, not ones I had to use any math, let alone calculus. I actually wish, I would, I love math.
Any math is pretty easy in American k - 12. But if kid does not want to focus on math, but rather has different interests where he wants to learn more, why do it? Not wanting to do more math does not mean at all that math is hard for a person, a person simply has different interests. I know as it has been the case with my D. who also was much more into Bio, which was much harder for her than any math.
Each school and major have different requirement. Saying it is not required or required for both biology and CS major are just as inaccurate (although ucbalumnus only said it is likely while MiamiDAP put it in a more definite way). You can always find examples for one way or the other. There is no point to make a generalization argument on it. I was a biology major decades ago. It did require Calculus OR Physics for graduation. I didn’t think either one is useful for biology major (except for biophysics that I did get into many years later). Go figure. One may also argue foreign language is useless for many major, but it is also required for graduation at many school.
Note there is a difference between
and
Personally, I think people should take Calculus because it’s the equivalent of being well-read. It’s kind of like skipping Shakespeare IMO.
Calculus is required to major in urban planning,political science, linguistics, music AND biology at MIT. All students take the same core classes in order to graduate, regardless of the major. To state that a bio major doesn’t need calculus is not accurate.
Other than the first is a double negative? 
I don’t know anything about Biology, but wouldn’t there be phenomena in Biology that require calculus to explain? Like how bacteria populations grow and shrink or something?
FYI. Here are what I found Calculus for Biology:
http://www.brynmawr.edu/math/people/vandiver/BiologicalapplicationstoincorporateintoCalculus.htm
http://www.quora.com/Why-is-calculus-required-for-biology-majors
There are even textbooks for “Calculus for Biology and Medicine” and “Calculus for the Life Sciences”.
A lot of good info here (and also some bad).
One of the best reasons to take a full college year of Calculus in HS (ie AP BC) is because it gives you flexibility once in college. 1)You can schedule classes that rely on Calc as a prereq (eg Physics), 2)If you are comfortable, you can move on more advanced classes and 3) if you aren’t comfortable you can retake calculus as a review and (hopefully) be in line to get a good grade.
The precalc-BC path is a much better option than the precalc-AB path - especially when both paths are available. When both are available, the AB class tends to get watered down with the kids that struggled in precalc and for anyone talented it math, it can move very slowly.
Calculus is a very important part of a good CS program. There are numerous courses that deal with developing and implementing computational models that require calculus.
As of a 2005 study 49% of 4 year biology programs required Calculus. Calculus is required for any good statistics class. I’d be surprised if most biology majors didn’t need stats.
Some biology majors may get away with no calculus, and probably many biologists never use it, but I think most rigorous biology programs are going to require it. Harvard has a million flavors of biology majors, but Molecular biology requires Calc 1 and 2 plus either more Calc, a statistics course or a comp sci course while evolutionary bio requires one semester of calculus and three semester of other math which may or may not include more calculus, and neurobiology requires Calc 2 plus another math.
I’m pretty sure my biologist husband has used calculus. He used to study the rotation of the flagella of bacteria and now is more concerned with motility of cancer cells.
On that, I remembered this article https://fliptomato.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2007/03/19/medical-researcher-discovers-integration-gets-75-citations/
A nice artifact of calc bc is its worth 8 units at UC. APUSH also counts for eight. Stats AP only counts as four units. If youre leaning toward public university having credits makes it easier/more likely to graduate in four years.
Some top stem schools will accept no or very little ap credit. Take a look at the policy at the schools he wants most
^ Wow! 8 credits for APUSH?! That is high. It is only 4 credits at UMich while Calc BC is 4-8 credits depending on school and score.
Those are quarter system credits at UC. 8 quarter system credits is 5.3 semester system credits.
He may be bored in Calc AB. My son, who is good in math, but not gifted in it, was bored with AB, and still scored a 5 on the test. However, I am all in favor of a balanced curriculum no matter where you’re applying to college. If art makes him happy, then go with the AB and take an art class. One of my son’s classmates got into MIT with only Calc AB and stats under his belt.
Almost all schools, even those very stingy with AP credit will give credit for Calculus BC. Even MIT, one of the stingiest with AP credit give credit for a 5 on BC (no credit for AB).