I’m looking at selecting my second semester courses and was deciding between a couple. The first is AP Statistics, because a couple of my top colleges and corresponding degrees require an introductory Statistics credit. The second is a course through the local College that is of more interest to myself (i.e. anthropology or constitutional law), and these courses are not offered frequently. If I were to select one of the college courses and decided to self-study Ap Statistics, would the lack of a “course credit” for statistics despite a passing AP score, effect my Admissions or ability to succeed in upper level classes?
No. AFAIK, no college requires statistics for admissions. Some majors in college require statistics for the degree, but you can take those classes in college. If you somehow have found the Easter Egg college that requires statistics in HS, passing the AP exam would suffice.
My daughter self-studied AP psych and got a 5 on the exam. She is majoring in psychology, and decided she should take psych 101 in college. She is glad she did. It was a tough class, and though she had a solid background in psychology, she would have been off to a very rocky start if she had gone right into psych 102. A survey of one, but based on my daughter’s experience, if you are planning a major involving that choice of AP, taking a class in high school is preferable.
Also keep in mind that if stats is a prereq for a program you plan for grad school, many programs will require college level stats and not AP.