My son took both APCalc AB and APStats during his junior year in high school and got 5s on both tests. He is planning to apply to college for some kind of quantitative social science major so he probably should have some math course for his senior year.
There seem to be three options and are not sure which is best.
Online intro stats class at the local university (he can’t get back and forth easily so will have to be online). The problem with this is that he got a 5 on the AP Stats exam so he should have placed out of the intro class and into a higher class but the higher classes are in person only.
Online Calc second semester at a non-local university. We don’t know anything about these programs and how well they are run and we would have to pay (the local university class is free).
Take Calc BC through the Virtual High School. My son has taken several courses in middle school and high school through the VHS high school and doesn’t want to do this. I am also confused about whether students typically take both APCALCAB and APCALC BC. Is that typical? I don’t know if this will look like my son did not stretch himself enough in math.
For context the rest of the schedule is APPhysics, APBIO, APLit, APUS, Spanish 5 (no AP option), the mandatory senior seminar, and tutoring in Math (He is currently signed up for APENV SCI but is thinking of switching to math tutoring during that period). It seems like Math is a big hole in the schedule and he needs to figure out a course to fill it with.
He has a mix but is applying to some very selective schools. He has taken the most advanced courses at his high school and doubled up on math last year. He was hoping to take a year of math at the local university but given his sport, he can only take online classes there and so is limited.
You are judged by your school. Not others per se. Saying this some kids go beyond. I would look into the BC course. Can he get help at his school if he needs it? Can you afford a tutor if he needs it?
Many schools do pre Calc then AB then BC. Some like my sons did Pre Calc then you were placed into either AB or BC.
Thank you. He has a pretty full schedule of courses and his school does not offer any math beyond CalcAB, That being said, he is targeting highly selective schools and he will put down math as an area of interest so it seems to me that he will need to go beyond the high school curriculum. I believe I found an online accredited calc course that he could take and get credit for. Unfortunately, we would have to pay for it but it seems to fit the bill otherwise. I think if he was not putting down math as an area of interest than just taking CalcAB and AP Stats would be enough. Not sure what he will do though as it is ultimately up to him if he wants to take it.
My daughter took BC senior year, but it was offered by her high school. She’s an economics major who wants to go into actuarial science. She took AP stat in sophomore year along with precalculus. She did get out of freshman year math in college.
No point in retaking introductory statistics that covers the same material as AP statistics that he already got a 5 on. (More advanced statistics courses are calculus-based.)
The next obvious course after AP calculus AB is the remainder of AP calculus BC or the second semester of college single variable calculus.
Intro to Stats at the local university would be useless, effectively repeating a class.
The best choice, since he wants to go into a quantitative field, would be to take Calc BC. Typically, BC will either include a review of AB (“B”) or will start right after the content covered by AB.
Could he take Calc 2 at the university, in person, spring semester? That would “count” for colleges and his sport may be done by then?
Basically, his choices are either Virtual High School Calc BC or Calc 2 Spring semester in person, unless you can find an inexpensive Calc 2 online course from a community college.