<p>My son is an excellent student ( top 5% of his class of 350 students) and is planning on applying to top level LAC's such as Middlebury. He is also looking at a few larger schools such as Georgetown and BC.
His strength is in the Humanities and although he has taken honors classes in sciences and math, he does not plan on pursuing math or science classes in college. ( other then core curriculum).
He currently is taking 4 AP's for his senior year, but is NOT taking AP Calc. He took 3 AP's last year scoring 5's on all the exams. His ACT is a 32. He is in a regular calculus class as he felt the AP Calc would be too difficult and his teacher agreed. My question is, will the lack of AP Calc hurt my son who is planning on a humanities major and has taken plenty of AP's in this area?</p>
<p>He is a senior and applying to colleges now…ask his GC at your hs what they think about the list of colleges and the apps he is working on. They can give you an idea based on your HS’s profile and his scores what his app will look like compared to the others in the pool. Hope that helps</p>
<p>Only about four schools design their curricula with the expectation of entering freshman having had calculus: MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, WUStL (for engineering majors only). It does not seem likely that these would apply to a humanities major (although one can major in humanities at MIT).</p>
<p>However, it is possible that when applying to a highly selective school, not taking the “most rigorous available” course selections in all core subjects including math may not look as good as another applicant who has done so.</p>
<p>Still, even a humanities major may want to eventually take a course in calculus, a course in statistics, and a course in logic (philosophy, or math with proofs) in order to better understand subjects where these concepts come into play.</p>
<p>He’s taking Calc, just not AP Calc. I think he’ll be fine. While some schools might prefer an AP Calc course, I can’t imagine any school seriously thinking 4 APs senior year isn’t rigorous enough. Every admissions officer I heard talk at our school about APs did emphasize that they don’t expect you to take every AP or to be equally good at everything. Of course there are enough kids that do take every AP and are good at everything that you have to realize that sometimes at least those kids will get chosen over yours.</p>
<p>I think regular Calc is fine, too. S2 (humanities guy) took AB and Stat with the expectation that they would serve as a good foundation for whatever math he needs to take in college – not so much for credit. He is taking an Econ Stat course this semester and finds that the AP Stat and bit of calc he did have has proved to be good foundational knowledge. </p>
<p>And as a humanities guy, he has come to the conclusion that having some strong math tools (esp. stat) will be useful to him in the future. That said, he left the analysis and DiffEq to his math major brother. :)</p>
<p>UCB - I believe some higher ranked engineering schools require AP Calculus.</p>
<p>UTexas engineering school requires entering students to have completed and scored at least a 3 in AB or BC.</p>
<p>At my son’s boarding school, hardly any students took APs across the board. The classes were all very rigorous, and students focused APs on the areas of strength and interest. Many opted to not take AP math and science, but did take English and history. I know at some public schools kids take a full slate of APs, but that is not the case at many privates. In fact, there has been a movement away from even offering designated AP courses at a lot of private schools.</p>
<p>Your son should be fine without AP calc. My kid went to an Ivy and took regular calc and regular physics, by the way.</p>
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<p>At my D’s school, not a private but a highly selective residential math and science public school, there are no AP courses. The AB Calc and BC Calc started as AP courses many years ago and bear those names as legacies of that history, but long ago were expanded to bring in material not covered on the AP exam.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, most students take multiple AP exams and do very well on them.</p>
<p>My son felt he needed the AP Calc, because he only had taken 3 other AP courses, but he didn’t take AP Bio, even though it was offered, and he still got into every school he applied to including Pomona, Carleton, Vassar, etc. If the rest of your son’s app is strong, I don’t think the lack of that one AP will hurt him.</p>
<p>My son took no AP classes at his private school (and there were a few offered) and the only advanced class he took was physics at the community college and all the kids who took physics took it there. He got into a top 25 LAC (and all the other 8 schools he applied to) so the lack of AP’s obviously had no effect on him.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the encouraging and thoughtful replies. I did speak to my son’s college counselor this afternoon. He told me he felt the lack of AP Calc would hurt my son’s chances at top schools, who, IHO want to see AP Calc. I guess we will just have to take our chances and hope for the best!</p>
<p>Let us know how it turns out, I’m always curious whether the school GC’s know what they are talking about. Neither of my kids took AP or even honors English senior year over the protests of their GC’s. They didn’t get into every school they applied to, but they both got into top colleges and universities.</p>
<p>My D got into a top school without taking AP calc. Like your son, she opted for an easier calc class. She did take AP Stat and Chem. She had similar stats to your son’s and got into her first choice ED.</p>
<p>At this point, you can’t change things, so I wouldn’t worry about it. Focus on the things your son can still control and make sure he writes great essays. I would also have him apply to a few less selective schools in case the GC is right.</p>
<p>There are lots of kids out there who have gone way past AP Calc and taken 2nd and 3rd year college level classes who still get turned down by top colleges. If AP Calculus guaranteed their admission, they have all taken it but it has not helped.</p>
<p>Are parents better off with GCs they can’t reach versus those who give bad advice and keep parents up at night?</p>
<p>Our school does not offer AP Calc. They have a Calc class but not AP. Out of a class of under 200 last year one went to Harvard and one went to MIT (most of the top kids go to our in-state UofM). We actually don’t have enough AP classes I believe for kids to take 3 or 4 for two years straight. AP is a brand, not all schools offer a huge array. Most of the top 10% take 3 or 4 total.</p>
<p>I know of a friend’s son who applied to a very similar set of schools. He was told that he should take AP calc. But he also had slightly fewer APs overall. It would , however, be a mistake to take it and not do well. Now - he also did not have the option of a non-AP calc. I think things will be just fine. And, as a note, if he does very well in calc, he should be able to take the AP exam anyway</p>
<p>I would never say that AP Calc is a “requirement” for top level schools, but I’m also of the mind that “every little bit helps,” because we really never fully know how various elements of the application are considered. All things being equal, I would say that he should take the class because no one should be complacent. If it’s just a stretch and a bit more work, he should make the effort, but if he’d be truly miserable, than no, it’s not worth it. </p>
<p>I do worry in this case, though, that his GC thinks he should take it - isn’t this the same person who has the authority to check the “most rigorous” box on the application? You should talk to the GC and make sure that you have a good understanding about rigor.</p>
<p>Hi I’m not a parent but I’d like to ask for your opinions on my situation:
I’m in the top 10% of my school, and so I’m not some genius, but I am applying to top level schools (rank between 1~20 national)- obviously reach.</p>
<p>I started off with Calc BC this year, and it’s getting to be really stressful. Last term I had a C average. I know I need to drop this class because it’s just killing my GPA.
I now have 2 options - and I need to decide ASAP:
- go down to Calc Honors
- go down to Calc AB
I was leaning towards the AB choice, but my BC teacher recommends that I take Honors. </p>
<p>How bad would it look to those top level colleges (and really, any college in general) if I dropped to Honors instead of AB?? Would they consider me not smart enough?
and I’m planning to major in the sciences/math :(</p>
<p>Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s really too late to do anything about it now, and you’ll find out in a few months. I’m not sure what you would do with an answer either way from here.</p>
<p>We had a super genius girl in my kids school, that school is a private prep school and she had perfect sat’s, took 5 ap’s jr year, 6 ap’s senior yr, volunteered, musically gifted, worked at the library, teachers had her tutoring everyone. And a delightful, personable girl all around. And of course valedictorian with A+'s in every class. </p>
<p>She didn’t get into Middlebury. She got into a bunch of others and in hindsight is at a better school for her. </p>
<p>I just think everyone can’t be that perfect, yet she didn’t get in. I’m sure people with lesser stats got in. </p>
<p>I would think it would be worse to struggle in the ap, possible affecting the other classes just to say you took it.</p>