Pre-Calc, College Statisitcs or AP Calc?

I’m planning on going to Lehigh University to study Finance and Economics and was wondering whether It would be better to take Pre Calculus, College Statistics or AP Calculus or a mix of the both

Check with your school, but fro what I’ve seen, students typically have to take Pre-Calc before AP Calc, unless they test out of it.

If i take AP Calc id take online pre calc this summer

Alright, if you have the time this summer to do that, it’s what I’d recommend. AP Stats has a reputation for being the easy math AP, and Calc is more respected.

Are you very good at math? If you want to try for AP Calc, you can. If I might ask, is it AB or BC. BC should have a bit more content, though not too much if your instructor is good. Both Calc and Statistics would be good for Finance/Econ.

I don’t think you will be required to take beyond the first level of statistics. Make sure with Lehigh and your other schools that the College statistics will transfer; this usually means that it is taught on college campus by a regular professor with other college students. If this is not the case, I know at least my university and probably yours do not take it. If this checks out, it really is up to you. If it doesn’t, 100% go for Calc. By the way, are you a senior?

BTW: Off topic, but be sure to cast your net wide. Lehigh is a bit selective, and there are many great schools like it that are awesome with Econ/Finance/Biz.

Yeah i have a bunch of schools but I’m applying ED to lehigh and it would be AB calc and lehigh doesn’t accept any of the college transfer credits and I’m good at math but not great going into my senior year, and I was thinking about maybe both because even though I know it won’t transfer i could build a foundation in statistics and take it freshman year and ace it

You could do both, as you say, but you say that you’re good and not great. College stats is relatively easy, but not much of a joke class, and I know some teachers can make it much more difficult that it has to be. Just be sure that it doesn’t hit your GPA; you’ll need it.

In the end of the day, it’s your choice. There are a lot of free AP Calc study things online that can accompany your Pre-Calc summer pathway if you’re not confident (I’d recommend looking at EDX; I know their MIT content is great). Going into senior year, I would definitely try to get AP Calc; you’ll have a chance of skipping or getting really good at some essential Econ stuff.

A summary of my suggestion: Take AP Calc 99%. If you think you can handle it without overloading yourself or lowering your GPA, you can do AP Stats; it will help and (if taught right) has a lot of important parts that may help you in answer formation when you get into harder topics and even when you go to take the AP Calc exam.

As an economics or finance major, you are likely to need both calculus and (possibly calculus-based) statistics.

So completing at least precalculus by high school graduation is essential to be ready for calculus.

A few comments:

  1. I would speak to your guidance counselor and a calculus teacher in the math dept. at your HS. Try to see if the summer pre-calc class would sufficiently prepare you for calculus at your HS.
  2. If it is feasible it would be advantageous to take calculus in HS as most students going to Lehigh (or a similar school) would have had HS calculus.
  3. The risk is if you skip to calculus and are not properly prepared and don’t do well then it could hurt you in the college application process.
  4. Most business schools require calculus and statistics.