So I’m a junior who’ve decided to drop out of pre caclculus and join this class called consumer math. (I’m an international student btw and also, our school doesn’t offer ap or honors classes for core subject such as math and science at all just for reference purposes.) At the same time, I’m a very accomplished marathon runner who’ve competed in a variety of different races and won. I’m planning to join the upcoming Chicago and Boston marathon as well. The reason I’ve dropped precalc is that I’m just generally not good at math and studying for the class just takes up so much of my time in order to catch up. Whereas if I spend that time running, since I genuinely like the sport, I feel like I can get much better compared how much I would improve at math. I know junior year’s like the year where people take the most challenging classes and all that, but I feel like all the time that I have to spend in order to get a max grade of like B isn’t increasing my chances of getting into Princeton. In addition, I know colleges prefer students who are devoted to one specific thing and are really good at it versus students who are well rounded. Math is the only subject that I really struggle with, but otherwise, I’m a straight A student. I’m obviously not planning to major in anything that’s math related at all. Did I make the right decision to drop out? Any thoughts?
You dropped a core academic subject that serves as a basis for all future higher level math to instead use that time for something non-acedemic because precalc s too much work. And you want to apply to Princeton. Does that about sum it up?
No
No.
You’re taking a vocational class that is likely to block you from many 4- year colleges. Re-enroll in Precalculus and go to tutoring to understand it better. Plan to take AP statistics next year if possible, statistics otherwise.
Princeton is out of the picture at this point. It’s not just about a 4.0, it’s a high GPA with the strongest curriculum rigor.
That means 4 years of English and history/social science; math through Precalculus or calculus; foreign language through level 4 or AP; bio, chem, physics and one of those at the AP level or APES; personal picks where you excel.