<p>My school is quite possibly the only upper-middle-class NYS school that doesn't offer AP classes. We can't pick what classes to take other than electives, which means that I won't be able to take PreCalc and Calc 1 (an advanced course in our school. Normal seniors just take PreCalc) until my senior year. Is there anyone else (post-applications or pre-applications) in a similar situation? I just feel like I'm the only Ivy-hopeful (Cornell, baby) who didn't take AP Calc BC as a soph or junior. </p>
<p>And yes, I am a neurotic white girl whose biggest problems are college admissions. :)</p>
<p>I'm taking Calc AB as a senior. I don't think they would care if your school doesn't offer it earlier. I got into Chicago EA and someone in my class got into Cornell ED so I'd imagine you wouldn't be at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>My son is taking calculus this year as a senior. </p>
<p>They wouldn't let him take AP calc at the high school because he wasn't on the right "track" - ridiculous bureaucracy had him take one pre-calc class as a junior and then wanted him to take a different pre-calc as a senior. Totally stupid. So he is taking calculus at the local univ. instead - getting all A's. </p>
<p>He got accepted to Amherst ED, so it didn't hurt him evidently.</p>
<p>My d is in CalcAB as a senior...In our district, the only way you can "jump" (and end up in BC senior year) is by taking pre-calc honors over the previous summer before junior year....not exactly her idea of a fun summer (can't blame her).....Many schools start Algebra I in 7th grade; that is the best way to structure it; not here, however.....</p>
<p>What is more interesting here is that unless you have been accelerated since 6th grade math, you will never even get to calculus: college prep, honors or AP....IMO, this greatly affects our college admissions.....</p>
<p>I'm in honors calculus as a senior. However, I was only in pre-algebra as a freshman because I was "dumb" in elementary school, so just getting that far so quickly is being seen as an enormous plus by colleges. Even with only Calculus (and two "C" grades in honors bio and honors physics) I'm getting scholarships at New College of Florida and the university of Miami. Upward trends rock.</p>
<p>I'm with hec2008 - taking any sort of Calc, whether AP or not, is done in your senior year unless you are a crazy math genius. I wouldn't worry about it too much - plenty of kids from my school go to the Ivies and other great schools around the country!</p>
<p>I go to an nys school as well. "Normal" juniors take pre-calc, and the only upper level class after that is AP Calc (don't know if ab or bc). But many, many seniors don't take it at my school because it is pretty difficult so we just either don't take a math or we go to a lower class...</p>
<p>I'm taking Calc my senior year, this year. Ours isn't AP but I'm grateful for that because there's no cramming for the impossible exam and we still get credit through the University of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>I won't be taking Calc until I'm a senior.. But my GC didn't want me to take it at all.. He almost refused to let me double up last year so I could take Calc.. No one at all has ever taken Calc before their Senior year at my school</p>
<p>I'm actually in the same situation as the OP. My school is tiny and supposedly advanced, so everyone takes the same level courses, except in math where there are two separate classes - honors and college prep. I am in the honors class, but we still are only taking calculus as seniors. We don't have any APs either. It is kind of annoying, but hopefully colleges truly do look at you in the context of your school.</p>
<p>Back in the day, I didn't take calculus at all in high school. (Only about 1 percent of our graduating class did.) </p>
<p>My son took a course that is ROUGHLY like the C part of AP calculus BC for the first semester of ninth grade, after taking roughly the AB part during eighth grade. But that course wasn't exactly designed for the AP syllabus. The second semester of ninth grade was a pretty good linear algebra course, now being applied in the tenth grade multivariable calculus course. By contrast to my high school studies, my son is "behind" in foreign languages--that seems to be the change in emphasis between generations.</p>
<p>I'm a senior who's in AP Calc BC right now, and I got into MIT EA. So there is hope. I will be the first to argue that it really does depend on context, though- I grew up going to Catholic schools, which (at least in my area) are notoriously strict about requirements and scheduling and such. All through grade school, I would pay attention the first 5 minutes of math class and then would be allowed to pull out a book and read the rest of class. It resulted in my getting through some serious classics before I could really appreciate them (To Kill a Mockingbird in 3rd grade, for instance, which I have now read too many times for my own good), but it also set me up for the math track I and the other smart kids from grade school ended up in which spits us out in Calc by senior year.</p>
<p>That was a long post. But you get the whole context idea.</p>
<p>Taking BC right now. Half of my class is composed of juniors. It really doesn't matter when it comes to college admission though, seniors in my calc class are getting into ivies and really good schools.</p>
<p>S took AP Calc BC his senior year, the usual college-prep schedule at our CA public h.s. Just to reassure you, he was accepted RD to Cornell CAS.</p>
<p>our HS district strongly discourages kids from advancing math in middle school, so ~dozen kids (out of 550) take Calc prior to Senior Year, whereas BC is taken by 33% of the senior class.</p>
<p>I think the reason it's different in NYS could be because we have the A curriculum, which takes a year and a half, then the B curriculum, which takes two years. In my school, students on the normal math track are finishing math b halfway through senior year and only are able to take pre calc afterwards. Students on the advanced track start math A a year early and so we get to pre calc the second half of junior year and then AB calc in senior year. It shocks me that so many people in other schools have taken AB as juniors, that would NEVER happen here.</p>