<p>"The more selective colleges want to see English, Math, and Science taken each year. Anything less, do at your own risk."</p>
<p>OK I would not take such a foreboding tone here though. Science, definitely can be done without. English, yes four years. Math -- think about it, so many kids take AP Calculus BC junior year, then don't do any more math...OK maybe statistics, but not even everyone does that. </p>
<p>I finished AP Calc + Statistics, and went on to do a ton more math later...how many people followed my model? VERY few. Would it have mattered if I'd not had four <em>official</em> years of math in high school? I'd argue in no way...none of my friends was penalized, it seems. </p>
<p>That said, AP Calculus is a very good idea, because I think it's fundamental material that can end up being very useful. EVERYONE uses a little calculus if they're not in a major that requires nothing but reading and writing essays...and honestly, even my most decided polisci major friend took some math past precalculus.</p>
<p>Core subjects should be taken all for years of h.s. in order to get into the top schools--they are looking for the best, most well-rounded applicants. Could your D take a college class in those subjects? In our area it's called 'dual enrollment'. That might cover some bases for prospective colleges. Would encourage her to avoid fluff, even senior year if she intends to apply to top schools. She'd probably be OK at state U's/flagship U's...</p>
<p>"Core subjects should be taken all for years of h.s. in order to get into the top schools--they are looking for the best, most well-rounded applicants."</p>
<p>I'm a little unsure of this. If "top schools" include those like Ivies and Stanford, I think they're looking more for people with some indicators of success other than pure well-roundedness, though success in several AP type courses is supposed to be a plus point. I do not think, though, that the focus should be on grinding out and entering EVERY SINGLE subject one could manage</p>
<p>Rather, if you want a top school like these, especially the harder to get into Ivies and Stanford, the name of the game is to both have something special about you (whether essays or whatever) and have pretty good grades. After discussion with someone who seems to know a lot about the admissions process at these schools, spoken to many admissions officers, it seems only a fraction of these schools will be taken based on pure academic inclination, due to several studies that the schools have made on who ends up where after having so and so profile. </p>
<p>This fits with my experience. I know personally the profiles of those who applied to and were admitted by Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford in my school, and DEFINITELY not all of them had strong calculus background. The one admitted to the first two of these schools had no calculus background whatsoever, but was very involved in speech competitions and had great success. </p>
<p>Not a chance that AP Calculus is really going to make the cut or matter that much when you consider top schools. HOWEVER, I think it's a mistake to avoid such core material anyway, so I'd still recommend taking it...but not with the attitude other posters suggest.</p>
<p>That should read "only a fraction of <em>applicants</em> to these schools.."</p>