<p>Child is finishing soph year with all honors classes, but no APs. For Jr year will take English honors, APUSH, physics, Spanish III, elective etc. Normal math track would be precalc honors, then choose between AP Stat or AP Calc in senior year. Student does not want to pursue math/science in college, so is more interested in AP Stat than AP Calc. Would it be better to take AP Stat in Jr year then precalc honors senior year to strengthen applications by showing 2 APs Jr year rather than just one? OR would it be better to take the precalc honors Jr year and add AP Stat to senior year schedule to show you took some calc already? Not looking to apply to Ivys, but USNWR top 50 types. Thanks for all advice.</p>
<p>Well, the order doesn’t matter because the colleges will see both anyway, so the best advice I could give you would be for your child to choose base on which order he/she prefers. Which one would your child find more interesting? Junior year is generally a busy year for a lot of people, but I’ve found senior year to be difficult as well. Your child might want to consider that as well.</p>
<p>But if one were applying early action, would it be better to show success having already taken pre-calc honors, or success having taken AP Stat? They would see the other in your listing of senior courses, but in the early rounds wouldn’t know how you did yet.</p>
<p>If your son/daughter wants to attend a top tier school (above the 50 mark), then he/she could maximize his/her chances by taking both pre-calculus and AP Statistics junior year. Even though he/she is not interested in pursuing math and science in college, applicants to the top tier schools typically have universal strengths. Follow up pre-calculus and AP Statistics junior year with AP Calculus AB during senior year, and I believe that your child would improve his/her odds a great deal. If AP Calculus is available, then the adcoms are going to wonder why your child did not take it.</p>
<p>I don’t think whether your child takes AP Stat or pre-calc matters at all. What matters is that your child is challenging him/herself and that he/she is doing reasonably well in it. I don’t think it’s necessary at all to have taken calculus before college, nor will it be of any help.</p>
<p>If you’re looking at competitive colleges then maximize your chances. I hate math, but still I took AP Calc because I knew it would look good. I mean you have to do what will utimately help you get in, not just what would make you happy. Adcom’s are looking for hollistic applicants who are well rounded in a variety of subjects. I don’t like math and really I am not good at it, but that’s not what they will see when they see my transcripts.</p>
<p>I vote for honors precalculus–this would allow the flexibility to defer a decision on AP Calculus versus AP Stats until senior year–you would be prepared to take either depending on selectivity of schools where you ultimately choose to apply. I certainly don’t think it’s necessary for a non math/science type to double up on either math or science junior year.</p>
<p>ap stats is an easy class compared to other aps, its lots of writing and analysis rather than pure math so if your kid is not so good at the straight-up math, then he/she should take ap stats</p>
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<p>I agree with this completely. If it’s an option I’d recommend AP Stats and honors precalc junior year and AP calc senior year. AP or other rigorous classes are important, especially to top 50.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that with AP classes, you can earn college credit. Especially if your student hates math, it’s better to spend $85 (iirc) on an AP calc test than hundreds of dollars on a college calc class. Calculus is a very common general requirement (as far as I’ve seen anyway).</p>
<p>Outside of the top 20 colleges, it probably doesn’t matter as much. But, precalc will give your S the maximum flexibility. Many social science majors (like psych, soc, econ, etc) require/recommend Calc lite, i.e., calc for social science or health science majors (unlike the Calc taken by math and engineering types). If he is doing well in HS math, taking Calc is HS is a whole LOT easier than taking it in college (assuming decent teacher) – there is more time for the material and the curve is not as competitive (think premeds).</p>
<p>Stats is a great course, and is more useful to everyone, but the analytical ability required to do well is only Algebra 1 – yeah, I know some HS require a kid to take Alg II first, but it ain’t necessary from a curricular perspective.</p>
<p>Everyone,
Thank you so much for bringing up so many great points that we hadn’t considered. Your input has been very helpful as we decide in the coming weeks. Your thoughtful replies are the reason the cc community is so great!</p>