Question: How poorly would it reflect to small, LACs if I did not take AP Calculus AB as a prospective French or English major?
I’m a junior right now. I am thinking of applying to schools such as Hamilton, Skidmore, Connecticut, Gettysburg and Mount Holyoke.
I am not interested in any Ivy Leagues. I am only interested in small LACs like the ones listed above.
I’ve taken so far: AP English Lang, AP Studio Art: Drawing, AP US History, and AP Computer Science A. Non-APs include French and Creative Writing.
My prospective schedule is this:
AP US Gov
AP Micro
AP Psych
AP Bio
AP English Lit.
Health (half-year credit)
We do not have AP French or even French V so I am compensating for that with a study abroad program this summer and a potential course at the local community college.
I am currently enrolled in Honors Pre-Calculus. The reasons why I don’t want to take AP Calculus are because:
(1) the teacher is the same as the one I have this year and is terrible at teaching,
(2) the teacher picks favorites,
(3) the teacher is unreasonably harsh in the way he grades (most people are getting around 70s on his quizzes, save for the favorites).
(4) I do not want to have to drop any of the courses above just for this one course that will probably drop my average
and (5) I am just not interested in math (even though I’m in APCS, but I chose to do this course instead of AP Enviro to compensate for the absence of an AP STEM course this year. I view this as more logic-based rather than math-based anyway).
One of the major factors of most small LACs is “Rigor of Secondary Course Load” (obviously important for any college but that’s besides the point). I am afraid that my schedule will not reflect this. I honestly do think that the courses I’ve taken are sufficiently rigorous in their own respects, but I realize Psych, USGov, and Micro are usually considered “easy.” But Bio and English Lit are supposed to be extremely demanding at my school. I do varsity sports year-round as well and am president of several clubs. I’d say that my schedule is already fairly demanding, but what do you all think: is my prospective schedule sufficiently “rigorous” or will colleges view it as otherwise?
Possible solutions I’ve thought of to the absence of calculus:
(1) study calculus independently. Maybe even take the AP exam or a CLEP exam ( I don’t know anything about CLEP so don’t hold this one against me).
(2) take a college-level statistics class (not AP but college-level).
Sorry for the novel. Tl;dr - would it reflect poorly to small LACs if I don’t have AP Calc but am a French/English major?