My daughter took Alg I & II in middle school and Geo in 9th, & honors Pre-Calc in 10th. She found pre-calc really hard and decided to take AP Stats instead of Calc AB or BC. I didn’t think it would be a problem at the time but now I’m wondering how bad that looks when she applies to college? I appreciate your thoughts. Also, she has the choice to take college Alg er senior year or should she take a calc class? Thanks.
What kinds of schools is she fixing to apply to?
She is actually an artist and is considering an art school. We live in Florida and she will be looking at Florida State and University of Florida. If she is able to get an art scholarship she is looking at possibly Kenyon, Pratt, BU. We like Washington University-St. Louis but I don’t think she will get in. Her GPA currently is a 4.0 weighted but will be going up this year.
I forgot to mention based on her practice test I believe she will get around a 30 for the ACT.
How selective are the schools she’ll likely be interested in applying to?
Also, what area of study is she likely to be pursuing?
If she’s a history major, they might not care too much what level of math she made it to, as long as she is showing some rigor in her humanities choices, for example.
In general, not knowing the answers to the above, I would definitely recommend Calc over another year of algebra. If there is a Calc class available that is not AP, that might be just right.
crossposted
Kenyon says they want to see “4 years of Math, ideally up to Calc”
BU says “3-4 years (precalc/calc recommended)”
They obviously allow for some variation, but they can’t know that your daughter will stay an art major, so they are likely to prefer to see the Calc on her transcript, especially since she had two years to take it.
Thanks for your response. She is a excellent artist and considering a BFA with possibly a double undecided major. We are hopeful she will get into a selective school. We will be visiting Florida State University and the University of Florida soon. We would like to also visit some smaller liberal art schools but don’t believe I’ll be able to afford them unless she gets a merit/art scholarship. AP Calc AB or BC are the only Calc classes available. There is also a class called Math for College Readiness.
Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, we have had zero guidance from her guidance counselor which may have been helpful so I very much appreciate you taking the time to give me your thoughts. It looks like AP Calc AB will be on her schedule next year. Hopefully it won’t look bad that she waited until her senior year.
I would absolutely not worry about it ‘looking bad’. Most kids don’t take Calc until senior year, and she took math every year. I might consider encouraging a bit of pre-calc review at some point, to refresh her memory/skills since it will have been a year. Maybe a math teacher she likes could suggest/provide some review material.
Thank you!!