<p>My d, currently a sophomore, placed into both AP statistics and AP Calc BC for junior year. Because those courses are both so difficult, her guidance counselors suggested that she might want to take AB calc instead of BC, but said it was up to her. </p>
<p>She would definitely ace AB calc, whereas she might struggle in BC. My question is, which will look better on her transcript--an A in AB calc or a B in BC calc? </p>
<p>She says she wants the challenge and I totally support that. But she's a lopsided kid (in a good way), with Bs in most courses but As in English and math--right now her weighted GPA is 4.2 (unweighted 3.5). So getting that GPA up seems important too. </p>
<p>Final question: she also placed into AP chem and she's already in AP US history. Am I right in telling her that AP BC, AP chem, AP stats and AP US are too much for one year?</p>
<p>What are her options for senior year? If she does AB this year, will she do BC next year? Alternatively, if she does BC this year, will she not do math at all next year? In that case, spread it out over 2 years. Note that in our school at least, AB covered Ch 1-7 in the book and BC added 8-10 (Parts A,B, and C each being about 3 chapters worth) so BC is not 2x work of AB.</p>
<p>Does she have aptitude for math? I know that AB was not all that challenging for DS and he would have been bored doing AB one year and BC the next (no BC offered at our school).</p>
<p>AP Stats was not at all difficult or time consuming from what I could see. </p>
<p>I don’t think colleges look too much at AB vs BC. Also depends on colleges she is interested in and whether a higher GPA would be important or not in her admission.</p>
<p>Also should look at potential college credits. 4 in BC generally seems to get as much credit as 5 in AB.</p>
<p>One thought might be to suggest either AP Chem or BC and see what she thinks. Might give you an idea about how important taking BC is to her.</p>
<p>In most schools AP Stats is not a demanding course. (In ours it is because the teacher completes the AP Curriculum in November and spends the rest of the year teaching real stats.) It sounds like she has the apptitude for math - she’ll get a lot of brownie points for taking a beyond Calc BC class as a senior. So I’d lean towards taking BC. Neither my math kid nor my non-math kid found BC too onerous, though my non-math kid got a B.</p>
<p>Thanks! Our school offers Calc 3 after BC, and a couple of other advanced options as well. So she would have challenging courses to take senior year if she took BC this year. </p>
<p>She would definitely choose Calc BC over Chem AP–chem AP is a double course at our school (2 periods/day) and she’s already said she would opt out if it meant she couldn’t take an elective (statistics is an elective at our school). </p>
<p>Her GPA is the weak point in her college resume, though, and she would be less likely to get an A in BC. </p>
<p>ARE there colleges where GPA is less important in admission?</p>
<p>Some of this depends on what she thinks she may major in (likely unknown at this point) and what courses she may want AP credit for in college. </p>
<p>Does she have the option of taking the AP Chem next year? That does appear to be a challenging junior year schedule (plus she’ll have the SAT/ACT testing, ECs, her life … )</p>
<p>During his jr year, my S took Linear Algebra (online class), AP Physics C, AP English Language, AP US HIstory, Photography (for UC required arts) and Aquatics (water polo and swim team.) His time management skills for the online class were poor but when he sat down and did it, he did it very well. He’s now a freshman at Northwestern in the Integrated Science Program.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t suggest AP Calc AB followed by AP Calc BC. It’s too much repetition. My S’s AP Calc teacher suggested that for students going into STEM areas, AP Stats was probably not rigorous enough for their needs and desires.</p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t if she were my daughter. D2 took the PSAT and had 800 easily without prepping. She’s pretty good in math and rarely study for the final but she’s consitently the top 3 math students in the class. However, what she found out this year is that she spent more time on subject that she either does not like nor has an aptitute for(like AP Euro for example). She ended up 1st semester with a high A on most classes and A+ on math, french and english.</p>
<p>In a school that offers AB and BC separately, taking AB instead of BC signals a weaker math student. If she wants to be seen as a math/science kid, she should take BC as recommended.</p>
<p>Yes, 2 years to cover one year of calculus.
My point is colleges don’t consider students taking BC without taking AB are better in math. My son took AB before going to HS (without taking the exam) and was forced to repeat AB (of course he was bored, however he loved his AB teacher).</p>
<p>“My son took AB before going to HS (without taking the exam) and was forced to repeat AB”
Forcing him to repeat that class was probably a placement decision made by the HS. Perhaps they did not give him credit for a class taken outside of school, since he did not take the corresponding AP test and could show that he had mastered the material. I’m guessing there was no math placement testing done by the HS before he started?</p>
<p>"My point is colleges don’t consider students taking BC without taking AB are better in math. "
Your sons’ experience is not proof of this. Correlation does not equal causation.
Many top students go straight to BC because they can handle the faster pace of instruction. Taking BC instead of AB, [ if both are offered by the HS] and doing well in the class, meaning earning an A and a 5 on the AP test, shows the student has more advanced math skills- something many top colleges[ MIT, Cal Tech for example] look for or expect.</p>
<p>Well, that may be due to other factors. I thought that you had some insight into the college decision-making process specific to calculus scores.</p>
<p>Even some non-STEM majors require a calculus-based statistics course, which AP Statistics is not. For example, at UC Berkeley, the Economics and Business Administration majors require a calculus-based statistics course.</p>
<p>If the OP’s daughter is good enough at math to be getting A grades in math two grade levels ahead of the standard sequence, Calculus BC should not be much of a risk of a lower grade.</p>
<p>Actually I do have some insight. Selective colleges that look for math talents don’t consider Cal BC score and SAT math score are absolute indicator of strong math aptitude. They also look at other math activities like math competitions, self-study,… This is reflected on the MIT forum.</p>
<p>This is true but I assumed that we were in the “all other things being equal” department for our discussion. Introducing other variables makes it harder to singularly discuss the matter at hand. I would guess that many students going to places like MIT have quite a bit of math beyond Calc BC.</p>
<p>My son took Calc BC his junior year and Stats his senior year. When he was a sophomore his math class was Honors Precalc which covered Calc A. The kids that took regular precalc took Calc AB. Math is his strength (had a 5 on his AP Calc test) and in college he went directly to Calc 3 with no problems (engineering major).</p>