My son is currently in 11th grade and is taking AP Calculus BC. He has enough math after this year for graduation requirements. His academic interests are in social studies and language, and he wants to major in international relations. He would prefer to take AP Gov’t (US and Comp) in 12th grade instead of math. Are there any negative impacts to not taking math in 12th grade in his situation? He is interested in more competitive colleges such as Brown, Penn, Georgetown and Tufts. If he has to take math, he would take AP Stats and a semester of on-level US Gov’t over the summer (required for graduation). His other courses would be AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Econ (Micro and Macro), Band, and Physics.
Completing calculus BC two grade levels ahead should be fine. Statistics may be useful as a social studies major, but he may want to take it in college (perhaps as a calculus-based course).
You should check with your HS guidance counselor. I’d guess that taking AP Stats is fine.
He heard from his school counselor, and she thought it would be fine to take AP Gov’t and not take math, given his academic interests. Has anyone had a similar situation to this taking AP Calc BC as a junior and no math as a senior? Any college admission impacts?
Correlation does not imply causation.
If the GC is OK with it, the only thing any of us can offer is opinions, not facts. 
Taking math up to AP Calculus BC should be fine for your son’s desired major and academic interests, especially since he’s taking two AP social sciences.
if he gets fives on his bc exam, he’ll most likely done with math in college as well considering his major. There should be no harm in not taking a math class since he’s continuing to challenge himself and pursue his interests.
They’ll notice no math sr year, then notice BC as a junior, look at the grade and score. So, ok. Now pay attention to his activities. If he’s interested in IR, what (beyond classes) shows some broader perspective? I know there are posters who will disagree, but you named competitive schools and they like to see how a kid pursued this interest or some piece of it.
Why not take the math class and drop the econ class
I don’t think he needs to take AP Stats - he’d be better off taking a calculus based stats course in college. AP Econ is a nice introduction to the field. I think his proposed schedule is fine.
AP Stats is not typically considered one of the more rigorous APs, so it’s unlikely that even the pickiest schools would consider his schedule less rigorous without it. They take plenty of STEM majors who only got through BC (at schools where the math curriculum leads to Calc in Senior year and Stats is either an elective or alternative to the kids who don’t want to take Calc at all). My kid is taking AP Gov next year as well; I think it will be an interesting experience to have that class during a presidential election year.
I was asking for opinions and maybe examples of students in similar situations.
He does need a semester of econ to graduate.
Check your state education regs to make sure he’ll meet graduation requirements. I read our state regs on the state education website, not the condensed version on our district website.
There’s a current thread by a student from DE whose GC told her she didn’t need math her senior year because she had enough credits. However, Delaware requires math to be taken senior year, so even if a student has enough credits they won’t graduate unless they meet that requirement. Now she’s scrambling to make up the credit so she can graduate. She may lose her valedictorian status, which is important to her, and is unsure if her college acceptances will be rescinded.
Good friend has a senior son at a very competitive school outside Chicago who did BC in Junior year. He was a STEM kid who went on to multivariable calculus, but the non-STEM kids moved on to other non-math things in Senior year rather than add Stats as an extra math.
I’ve seen it. He’s not stem. He’s made it through BC.