Not taking math senior year?

College Search & Selection
1

(Forgive me if I put this in the wrong forum topic, I wasn’t 100% sure where to post it)!

I’m a bit curious about whether or not taking math senior year (of high school) has a large effect on your chances of getting into college. I’ve heard different sides, some saying that it’s very important, others saying that it doesn’t matter very much.

All of my grades range from 90-99, except for math. For whatever reason, math has always been my Achilles heel, and despite having a tutor, I still have not improved much at it. It always brings my overall quarterly and yearly averages down from a 94/93 to an 89 (yes, my math score is that bad that it can bring my average down 4/5 points). Next year, I have the opportunity not to take math, and as much as I don’t want to take it, I don’t know if it’s a wise decision not to. My course load is so far looking like it will be be: AP English 2, AP Gov, AP Bio, AP Spanish, and a few electives. At the end of this year, I will have completed 3 years of HS math, and as far as I heard, that’s apparently the requirement for most colleges? I’m not looking to apply to any Ivy or ivy-like schools simply because the grades on my transcript do not necessarily represent what I’m capable of (once again, mostly because of math), I’m looking more at smaller liberal arts schools. If it helps to know, I’m looking to major in psychology and minor in biology or marine biology. Either I don’t take math next year at all, or I struggle through a pre-calc or college algebra class (which I’d rather not do, as my math grades consistently hover around the 70-78 range).

I’d appreciate any advice/input!

2

It depends on the math level you reached in your junior year. It doesn’t matter whether you take math in your senior year specifically (for example, it’s okay to take calculus as a junior and nothing as a senior), but many colleges will want you to have pre-calculus.

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Just check carefully as you select colleges to apply to. Some do require 4 years of math.

4

Actually, some high schools require that you take one math class per year (4 total) and some school districts require 4-years of math to graduate.

5

If you do not complete precalculus in high school, you may have to take precalculus as a remedial course in college if your major needs calculus, or if the college has a general education requirement of that nature.

Psychology may require calculus, and will require statistics or a major-specific quantitative methods courses. Biology typically requires calculus and often requires or recommends statistics. If you look at research papers in social and biological sciences, you will see that statistics is frequently used. A stronger math background (including calculus) will help in understanding statistics.