Senior Year Schedule- should I take multivariable calculus?

Hi! I’m an upcoming senior (class of 2018) vying for admission in top universities such as Yale, Stanford, Duke, Brown, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia University. I am planning on pursuing a psychology major with a minor in music to hopefully go into law school. As I was finalizing my senior schedule, however, I noticed it seemed particularly heavy. I want to challenge myself this year but not so much as to overwork myself, especially if it is not necessary as I also do have a job and will probably be spending a good chunk of time preparing for college supplemental music tapes and applications.

Here is how my senior year schedule looks so far:

AP Biology
AP Psychology
AP US Government
AP Literature and Composition
AP Spanish Language
Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra
Orchestra

I was originally not planning on taking a math course as I have already exhausted all of the math course options at my school (all the way through AP Statistics- sophomore year and AP Calculus BC-junior year). Furthermore, math never particularly interested me, and although I ended AP Calculus BC with a sold A all four quarters and a four on the exam, I always had to study hard for the class last year. However, when I presented this to my counselor, she told me that I had to have a math senior year (and AP Computer Science A is already filled at our school so there are no other math course options) because most colleges would prefer that. But I spoke to the Multivariable teacher at our school about it, and he said there was really no point in taking it unless I was going into the engineering field (which I am, for sure, definitely not going into).

When I looked into the college websites about this as well, they all stated that they’d prefer students to have math all four years of high school. I was originally planning on replacing Multivariable Calculus with Korean 3, as I had received two credits with a placement exam for the language last year and my strengths are in the language arts, not math or science.

For further information, the other AP Classes I have taken in the past include AP Human Geography, AP World History, AP Statistics, AP US History, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Music Theory, AP Language and Composition, AP Calculus BC.

I want to enjoy my senior year but not so much so it looks like I’m slacking!

They’re both right: yes, adcoms do look for senior year math or at least a math heavy subject like CS or physics, and no, a psychologist doesn’t need multivariable calculus.

Try to beg your way into computer science at the AP or pre-AP level.