Hi! I was wondering what everyone’s opinions were on whether to take calculus or not in high school if I will be applying to nursing school. From what I have heard so far, it seems important to take statistics. Does it matter whether I take calculus or not? Thanks!
I’m pretty sure most nursing majors take stats for math, on UMich’s nursing school’s website it even says “for high school students choosing between Calculus or Statistics, Statistics is a good choice for preparation for our curriculum.”
It also depends on what a college requires for math when you apply. My daughter had been looking at schools that require 4 years of math and statistics was considered an elective. She ended up taking calculus just to keep her options open. She also took physics as it was required at UCONN to apply to the nursing program and calculus is better aligned with that class than stats.
I actually took AP Calc rather statstics in high school and it worked out quite well for me. My nyrsingschool requires a math class (anything from college algebra to calc 2) to graduate, and it’s based off your placement test score. However once I got my AP score back that requirement was taken care of, so I didn’t need to take a math. Calc was never required for nursing specifically, but I would’ve had to take Calc based off my placement score, a 5 times a week class. Comapre that to statistics, a 2 or 3 days a week class. I much prefered taking statistics in college :P. But it depends on your schools requirements and your personal preference.
Statistics is definitely useful to have for nursing, but see if your nursing program or school requires a math as well.
Statistics is part of the curriculum of most nursing programs, and calculus is not. It is always easier to take a college class if you have been taken the subject matter in high school.
Depends on your college, my school required a Stats course so AP calc wouldn’t cancel it out. Also college stats can be pretty confusing but I took a class in high school and I’m doing really well.
Look into the curriculum of the nursing programs you’re looking to get into though.
What’s your long term goal? If you think grad school, that stats course may need to be within 5 years of enrolling. 4 years of college and 1-2 years of work and you may find yourself in need of a refresher. Take the most advanced math you can in high school. Math teaches a particular way of thinking. Calculus may also keep more options open, just in case you want to explore other options. Besides, your nursing program will include time for stats. In other words, you can do both!
If you don’t like math and find it challenging, skip Calc. Otherwise it certainly won’t hurt to take it.
I told both my kids to not take calc in high school, and instead take AP stats. That worked out very well for my daughter in nursing school - she was able to put much of her energy into AP bio, which was extremely useful.
My son (who is not in nursing school) had to take a required advanced stats class in college that required calc as a pre-req, so he needed to take it in college after all. The irritating thing was that that class never actually used calc.
Like others have already mentioned, stats is more useful than calc for nursing but you need to check the entry requirements for each school. Some programs require 3 or 4 years of math so if you started out at a higher math, calc may be your only option to get the required number of math classes.
I suggested stats for my dd but she took AP calc. SO, she listened more to the teachers at school that said AP Calc looks good on your transcript. I think stats is best for nursing. She also did AP physics. Uconn required it but then again she got into UConn but not in nursing program. They actually give priority to Conn. residents so competing for any other spots is prob very competitive.
@RyanG1207
Why do you say that stats does not count as math requirement? Do college specific say that? Our hs has 4 year math requirement and stats is one of them. A lot of our students take geometry, algebra 2, precalc and stats. Now I am confused.
Hi @am9799
Let me clarify what I said. Some kids will have to take Calc if you started out at a higher math level coming in to high school. My daughter, for example, will be taking Calc as a junior because she started high school with Algebra II and there are no other math classes left for her to take. She is taking stats and pre-Calc this year so if she needs to have 4 years of math, she has no choice but to take calculus. Does that make sense?
You might ask whether the school could offer an online intermediate stats class instead of being forced into calc. For most non-engineering students, calc is a waste of brainpower.
@RyanG1207
Yes, that makes sense. Thanks.