<p>Do you think that it would be possible for someone to be accepted at Penn without taking anything higher thatn Algebra II</p>
<p>honestly, no. most of the seniors that are applying to penn will have completed ap calculus bc/ab this year, and it would put you at a huge disadvantage. sorry to break it to you man</p>
<p>While it may be true that many or even most applicants have finished AP Calculus courses, it is most certainly not required. </p>
<p>That said, your only real excuse for not taking the high level courses in all subjects would be that your HS doesn't offer them. If that is the case, then don't worry about it - the adcom takes your HS's offerings into account when evaluating your app.</p>
<p>If that's not the case you would want to be extremely strong in some other area, e.g. languages. And by extremely, I mean something like taking multiple HS languages with upper level college courses on the side.</p>
<p>But take the math anyway, it will make you a better person.</p>
<p>It would help but it isn't essential. There are math classes before 104 such as 103, etc, for students with little to no exposure to calculus. A lot of people who took Calc AB in high school go on to Math 104, which assumes 100% proficiency in trig and basic calc (usub, chain rule, int.by.parts, limits, derivatives, integrals, graphing, etc). Even with no exposure to calculus you will still be able to take the next step at Penn. I don't know what it would mean for you in terms of admissions, however.</p>