More senior year scheduling -- Multivariable Calc and AP Gov

Pre-College Issues
1

For senior year, D22 will have AP Lit, AP Bio and AP Latin for sure.

Then, a semester of psychology (school doesn’t offer AP) and a semester of World Religions or Global Justice (required).

She’ll have a year of Chamber Singers – it’ll be her fourth year, and chorus is her passion.

So she has two slots left. She needs a math, and she’s in AP Calc BC now and doing well. Should she take Multivariable Calc, which only a couple of kids at her school take – it’s definitely considered the highest level and most difficult course? Or should she take AP Stats, which should be a lot easier for her, but not considered as high level?

And in the final slot, she’s deciding between a year of AP Gov or a semester of gov (minimum required to graduate) and a semester of something fun she wants to take, like Honors Music Theory.

She’s planning to apply to fairly selective schools like Emory, Rice, WashU, Duke, some small LACs – and who knows, perhaps also some Ivies and U Chicago. Her grades are very high, possibly ranked 1 in her class, and her test scores are perfect.
But ECs are meh, no state or national awards, no real community service, no “wow” factor (although possibly she could submit a research paper for publication this year, and she’s interviewing for a selective/prestigious summer program in our state).

Oh, and she plans to study some combo of linguistics, psychology and neuroscience.

So based on those stats, how important is it that she take the Multivariable Calc as opposed to AP Stats?

And, how important is it to take AP Gov as opposed to a semester of gov and a semester of something fluffier?

Will schools of this caliber count the sheer number of AP courses, even if they’re not in the student’s area of interest? She doesn’t mind taking Multivariable Calc – especially since the same fast-tracked math kids have been together in classes since 7th grade, so the others will mock her if she wimps out with the easier course, LOL.

But she really has zero interest in taking AP Gov, even though the class itself doesn’t seem too hard.

2

Assuming the GC rates her schedule as “most demading” whatever she chooses:

With 4 other AP or post-AP classes, AP Gov is not needed.

MVC vs AP Stats really depends on career interest. MVC is more rigorous for sure.

1 Like
3

Since she doesn’t mind MVC but does mind AP gov, the solution seems to be MVC + regular Gov+fun elective. A fun elective senior year is good to have in any case :slight_smile:
To answer your more direct question: no, adcoms will not mind her not having AP Gov. It’s not a core Ap and there’s no expectation students will take every AP their school offers as long as their schedule is rigorous and makes sense, which hers does.

2 Likes
4

Her apparent interests (linguistics, psychology, neuroscience) suggest that statistics will be more useful – but calculus and possibly multivariable calculus can be helpful for taking more in-depth calculus-based statistics course(s) in college that may be more useful than AP statistics.

1 Like
5

If you’re trying to decide what class to maximize her chances of admissions, then there is no need for MV based on her interests.

If you had instead wrote “physics, math, econ, CS etc.,” my answer would be different.

1 Like
6

Thank you, all – I appreciate the advice!

She’s decided to skip AP Gov but take MV Calc as someone suggested earlier.

She doesn’t really need it based on what she wants to study in school, but she really wants to stay with the same math cohort and not drop down to the “easier” class. Plus, she already knows and likes the teacher (has her currently for BC Calc), so hopefully there won’t be any surprises.

And it can’t hurt in terms of showing rigor, especially since she’s opting out of AP Gov.

Thank you again!