<p>What would look better to a liberal arts college? I'm a high school senior and I'm not sure which one I should take. I would like to major in Psychology or Economics</p>
<p>I look at it like Calculus is a core math class, statistics is an elective. It doesn’t really matter what your major is going to be.</p>
<p>Calculus. Stats will help if ou can squeeze it in.</p>
<p>Calculus.</p>
<p>To do statistics in any depth you need calculus. If you major in econ you will need to take advanced calculus in college, and statistics courses that require that course.</p>
<p>Calculus is generally seen as more rigorous.</p>
<p>is it okay to take ap statistics instead of multivariable calculus/linear algebra after taking ap calculus bc ?</p>
<p>While Statistics is a pre-req for each of those two majors at my school, Calculus is not. Statistics is definitely vital for Econ, as a lot of what you do is crunching numbers. Statistics also plays an integral role in psychological research, where you do a lot of data analysis. For instance, one of my friends who is doing his thesis in psychology has spent the last three weeks figuring out how to use MATLAB so he can do his data analysis. </p>
<p>However, whether you should take Calculus to gain a solid foundation in high school and then take a Statistics course in college or whether you should take a Statistics course in high school to give you a solid foundation upon which to build your statistics knowledge in college (through another Statistics course) is another question entirely. That requires some foresight by you on specific requirements for the schools you’re looking at and whether you think Calculus would play an important role in your future classes. That is, in one of the above choices, you would be learning calculus (which is useful knowledge to have, but I don’t know if you would use it in the future) and then starting Statistics in college, which might make the Stats class a little harder. Or, on the other hand, you could be taking Stats in high school and making your future transition to college Stats easier, but then you would have no knowledge of Calculus (which, depending on whether you decide on another major or want to take certain other classes, might be an obstruction).</p>
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<p>Huh? (MAT175 - Calc – surely is a prereq for Econ majors.)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/economics/undergraduate/pdf/Process%20for%20Declaring%20an%20Economics%20Major%20-%20Class%20of%202015.pdf[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/economics/undergraduate/pdf/Process%20for%20Declaring%20an%20Economics%20Major%20-%20Class%20of%202015.pdf</a></p>
<p>And anyone interested in future research/grad school should take Calc. Yeah, I get that stats (and MATLAB) is more meaningful, but grad schools like to see Calc.</p>
<p>Short answer, take both if you can. Otherwise, Calc.</p>
<p>^Yes, but OP is still in high school. She is still a looooonng way from grad school and it’s not one or the other here, permanently. I am interested in why you say “grad schools like to see Calc.” I’m just interested because it seems like a strange requirement for a Psych major (perhaps not Econ). The math tested on the GRE does not require knowledge of calculus. If they wanted people to know calc, wouldn’t it make more sense to include calc in the quantitative reasoning part of the GRE? </p>
<p>I’m sorry, I did not see MAT 175 the first time, I apologize. Calc is a pre-req, but essentially, you’re taking MAT 103 (differential calc) and then an accelerated, washed-down version of integral and multivariate calc in MAT 175. So I’m guessing the amount of calculus you need for the major is minimal. The normal calc sequence to me was always 103-104-201, which was what I took. </p>
<p>She has the option of taking Calc in high school or college. She also has the option of taking Stats in high school or college. It really is a matter of individual choice but I really see no point in taking calculus if she’s not gonna use it in the future. Check for your specific school. Some programs require calc and some don’t. While it’s a good thing to know, it’s also not for everyone, especially if you don’t like math. </p>
<p>Here’s another thread that discusses the topic a little bit: </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/1186319-do-you-need-take-calculus-psychology.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/1186319-do-you-need-take-calculus-psychology.html</a></p>
<p>Calculus. Calculus. Calculus. It is way more important and used so much more in everything INCLUDING liberal arts like economics. Well I guess stats could be used for economics, but anyway, calculus.</p>
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<p>AP Statistics replicates a 1 semester college class over the course of a year. It’s slower and easier than it would be in college. It’s a great class for someone that never wants to take math again and would like to place out of it in college. </p>
<p>BC Calc represents 2 semesters of calculus at most top colleges, and 3 semesters and not so top ones. </p>
<p>If you did well in BC Calculus, you might not find AP Stats all that challenging. </p>
<p>My D refused to take AP Stats and did the MVCalc and LinAlg</p>
<p>Is it okay to take AP Stats? Who is to say.</p>
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<p>OK, first of all, I agree that this particular poster, who’s considering a major in economics, should take calculus.</p>
<p>But after that, you lose me. I can’t agree that calculus is “way more important and used so much more in everything.” If you need calculus, you really need it, but if you don’t need calculus, you really don’t. You don’t need to be able to apply the second derivative test, or calculate the area under the curve y=ln(x) for 1<x<e^2, or use the Divergence Theorem to evaluate a surface integral in order to read The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal. But a basic understanding of statistics will sometimes be helpful.</p>
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<p>I’m sure all of the life-science majors at Wall Street wannabes at Pton would be enthused with your terminology. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>Exactly my point. Much better to take the more rigorous class in HS, in a small class, without the massive competition at the college level. (where all of those premeds will be retaking Calc after scoring a 5 in BC)</p>
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<p>Also the point. Why make college life harder, should the OP decide to go the research route?</p>
<p>But in our HS, students generally take AP Stats along with pre-calc/trig as a Jr and BC as a senior.</p>
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<p>Facts not in evidence. (The OP did not state whether s/he liked or disliked math.)</p>
<p>Okay so I think I’ll stick with Calculus. I forgot to mention that my school let’s us take Statistics and Calculus at the same time. For anyone who has taken either of those classes, would it be smart to take them together?</p>
<p>My daughter took both BC Calc and AP Statistics last year. She found both were extremely helpful when she sat in a college Economics class last month. Statistics is used a lot in psychology too. If you have room in your schedule, take both.</p>
<p>Well, what do you expect from a one-semester sequence of a class that is normally taught in two semesters? And those aren’t two semesters where you go slow, either. Even if OP goes the research route in college, OP may very well not need calculus anyway - my friend is a Psych major here and no calculus is required at all and he’s going into medical research. So, OP would not need to take Calc in college anyway, so your point that not taking calculus in high school would make college life harder does not make sense. Also, last statement was a general statement, not specifically aimed at the OP. The “you” was universal. If you prefer, I’ll rephrase: It’s not for everyone, especially for those who do not like math.</p>
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<p>If your major in college uses multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations and also requires statistics, it will likely require a calculus-based statistics course, so AP statistics will not be as useful in this case.</p>