Is Pre Calc necessary for Top 20?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am a junior, and I need help choosing a math route for my high school career.
I am a student in a competitive public high school. I have a 3.7 GPA and in the top 10% of my class. However, my worst grades are in math, and taking Pre Calc is not making me confident in getting a high grade in the class.
I would like to get into Top 20 colleges, as I feel I am a very strong applicant with great EC's, test scores, AP courses, etc., but my decision of taking Pre Calc or not is crucial to my schedule.
Would my chances for Top 20 colleges decrease significantly if I don't take Pre Calc? If I don't take the class, I will be taking Advanced Functions and Modeling, which is a standard class (not Honors unlike Pre Calc), and then AP Statistics in my senior year. If I take Pre Calc now, I can either take AP Stat or AP Calc AB during my senior year.
Please advise, and I thank you for spending your time reading this.</p>

2

<p>Ap cal BC is a whole year at my school. And you can take any kind of math that you like after advance modeling and function:) </p>

3

<p>What exactly is Advanced Functions and Modeling? Is it a math class/academic class or an elective?</p>

4

<p>yes</p>

5

<p>I think you should worry more about your GPA. If taking the pre-Calc route may not help you to bring up the GPA, you should re-consider it. Also, why do you want to apply to top 20 colleges? What specific major(s) are you looking at? Schools in the top 20 can be very different. Being top 10% in class is perhaps the minimal requirement as most high schools do not have 10% graduates going to top 20 colleges.</p>