Hello, I have one of those darling 2020 High School graduates, and I have one in freshmen year of college. However they are two totally different children.
@Darlene101 Arenāt they all? Welcome! I have a DD high schoolclass of 2016 at OU thatās likely graduating in December, My college Freshman is at UTD and my 2020 is a totally different beast but still plans to attend UTD like his brother. Go figureā¦
@AlwaysLearn the AC Hotel in Worcester is brand new and very nice; modern and sophisticated. Itās downtown where a lot of the new development in Worcester is happening. Beechwood Hotel on Shrewsbury St is another good option, not as modern but nice, and lots of good restaurants on Shrewsbury St (esp Via). Worcester is going through a lot of positive changes right now; check out the Canal District if you have time. Enjoy!
Those of us in the Boston area would very much appreciate it if any other city/region could win a major sports championship. These Duckboat Victory parades are seriously cutting into my kidās school attendance!! 
:-*
@Happy4u think my daughterās school should have just cancelled today. My friendās poor son a senior had to go because last week he stayed home on a questionable sick day and she told him if he did and there was a parade he would miss it. (He went to the Red Sox one in the fall so already had a day out). Fast forward to today he was one of four kids in his homeroom. All alone at lunch and no classes as teachers were not teaching for 2-4 kids. He was told he could go home if he wanted. My friend was feeling like the ultimate bad mom. This is the first ( and last )such day for my daughter. In the end I am glad I let her go. Maybe it will become a good college essay topic ?
D20 is planning on taking AP Chemistry and AP Calculus AB next year. But some advisor mentioned to a group of students that AP Stats was helpful for AP Chemistry. Should she take Stats instead of AP Calculus? I took Stats in college and donāt remember it being very difficult or helpful. Seems like Calculus would look better?
@chb088 my personal opinion (and take that for what it is worth) is that if she can handle calc, she should take it. Have you looked at the recommendations/requirements for the colleges she is interested in applying to?
Edit to add that our HS recommends Alg 2 before Chem AP so most kids at our HS take Chem AP soph or junior year.
No - you do not need stats at all for AP chem. S19 is taking DE Calc 1 and 2 and AP stats this year. He took AP Chem last year and I got a 5 on the test. S20 is in AP chem now - highest grade in the class and again no stats.
Thanks. That confirms my instincts. Sheās a great student and I think the colleges sheās looking at would definitely prefer Calc over Stats. She took Honors Chem and Honors Algebra 2 as a sophomore and aced both. She loves Chemistry and is thinking it might be her college major. And sheās possibly interested in going pre-Dental.
@Itisatruth Reed was a huge hit. The trip overall really helped to clarify some priorities for D20, which is what I was hoping. She didnāt like Oregon State - thought it was too spread out and too much sports-oriented. In contrast she did actually like U of Oregon, probably because we got the personal tour with friends, and even though itās also a big state school the central campus feels more compact. But then we got to Reed and it was like realizing what a college experience could be that was tailored to kids like herā¦ not just, āI can find my people here amongst the bigger groupā but āthese people are all kind of like meā. Iām in favor of the location - Oregon is a lot easier to get to from CA than New York or Boston.
@chb088 D20ās high school - which admits quite a few kids to tippy top colleges - advises students to take AP Cal if they want to major in STEM fields. If not, choose whichever one they want but donāt choose one or the other because it will ālook goodā on a transcript. They go on to say that there are many majors in which stat is preferred. They would advise a child who loves chemistry and is interested in pre-dental to take AP Cal.
My D20 took AP Stats Sophomore year and will be taking Calc AB and BC next year. She is going into nursing where Stats will be used and calc will not. I am actually trying to convince her than there is no need to take at least calc BC.
My DD20 took college prep Calc this year rather than AP Calc AB to free up time to focus on her 3 other APs, 4th year of FL and Honors Physics. Physics has several team projects and takes A LOT of time outside of class. She will sign up for senior classes soon and I think is opting for AP stats. It feels more valuable to her as an aspiring research scientist and it means she gets to avoid the teacher that thinks all STEM students MUST be engineers. That teacher has very few female students. It is a shame but our house is much less stress filled than when DD had that same teacher for Pre-Calc.
I teach AP Chem and calculus (or rather, a really solid understanding of precalc) is much more helpful with it than Stats would be - however, theyāre both great courses I think.
4071. I haven't heard anyone taking AP stats sophomore year. I know you can but nobody does. It's generally seniors who have taken BC or multivariable. There's 3 other juniors in her class and they are taking BC concurrently. Mine is the oddball case that had BC last year and was done with Calculus. As for AP chemistry no one I know of has taken it before senior year. It's somewhat common to tale AP chemistry and AP biology senior year.
@Nicki20
Actually AP stats is offered as a 10-12 grades elective in our school, like @WasIDreminās DD, DS20 took it in sophomore year, it is not calc-based stats and DS took it along with Pre-cal honor and got 5/A in the ap exam/class. It is considered one of the easy APs. DS really enjoyed the class.
@chb088
At the least, AP calc AB will be considered more rigorous than AP stat all things else being equal.
Typically kids at our school donāt take it as an elective till jr sr year. Kids can take it though. They might take an AP comp science class, (A or principle.) instead.
Our school offers āadvanced statsā but you have to take AP Stats first so many kids here take AP Stats in 11th grade same with AP CAL BC, they take it in 11th grade so the can take Multi/Variable in 12th grade and finish the math the advanced high school math track.
@WasIDremin Getting into nursing programs is very competitive. Although she might use stats more in her profession, what do the colleges want prospective applicants to take prior to admission? They might not say that they want calculus over stats but would taking calculus make a candidate more competitive over someone who took stats?