Hey just a quick question. For my senior year of highschool should I be taking AP Stats or AP Calc AB if I plan in majoring in economics? I know they’re both going to be used down the road in college, but for my senior year, which class should I go for to up my chances in a good school? Thanks a lot!
Better to take calculus. It is required for many college econ courses.
Calculus. It is part of the core math sequence, whereas AP stats is an elective. It is generally viewed as more rigorous than AP stats. It is a prerequisite for calc-based stats and for econometrics. Not taking calc AB would mean taking a year off the sequence, forgetting precalc, making it that much more challenging to get started in calc at college. Success in calc AB may let you advance to calc 2 at college, whereas success in AP stats is unlikely to get you anything at college, where the econ department will have its own required stats courses.
Calculus.
Statistics.
Calculus, because
- next step in the sequence
- seen as more rigorous
- good introduction to a required class
- most students in your business calculus1 class will have taken it so not taking it will place you at a competitive disadvantage
- AP statistics is typically different from college business statistics
Statistics because:
- Research
- Data analysis
- Decompress math sequence – should do better in Calc 1 as long as you don’t forget Algebra 2 material
- Makes Calculus easier
- Another year of growth for study skills before Calc 2, which is a cut class at a lot of universities
Ideally though I would take Honors Calc and AP Stats if you’re sticking to your high school
What? How would stats make calc 1 easier? I took both at the same time in high school and I do not recall any overlap.
If you don’t take calc in high school, you come into college calc not having had the same background as many of your peers AND not having used precalc in over a year. People forget what they don’t use. That’s a recipe for disaster.
My guess is that you’ll need both somewhere along the way. So it’s pretty much up to you, though @bodangles does make a good argument for Calc.
@bodangles Aptitude in dealing with applied problems and graphing skills
Calc in itself is easy, applying it to six variables and modeling makes it hard
“Easy” is in the eye of the beholder. Just look at all the posts lately from kids failing AP Calc.
And Calc II is a whole lot harder when you can’t remember that Calc I, regardless of how easy it you may have found it at the time.
From someone that has had a lot of Econ, Calc without a doubt.
Either is useful for future economics majors, so the questions are really
- which will be well-taught at your high school? (Is there data telling you how students do on the AP Stats and AP Calc exams?)
- which will fit in your schedule?
- if you have a tentative college list, which does admissions like to see? (For more competitive schools, calculus is considered the more rigorous option.)
And the other day you said high school math isn’t “real math.” Your perspective may be very advanced, but most high school students are on the normal track, so your advice will be more helpful if you come at the questions from that angle, not the one that disparages high school courses and says higher-level math is easy.
Good economics programs typically require calculus and (often calculus-based) statistics; some of the strongest ones require or have an option to take economics courses requiring more advanced math like multivariable calculus and/or linear algebra. PhD programs in economics expect students to have had even more advanced math like real analysis and higher level calculus-based probability theory.
You may want to check the economics majors at colleges of possible interest (including your state universities) to see what they require in math and statistics, and which AP credit may be accepted for advanced placement.