Hello! I’m currently an 11th grade student who has his heart set on Emory. Both the primary Emory campus and Oxford campus are fine with me, I have just been eyeing this university for a long long time. I would say I’m a competitive applicant, as my GPA is above the Emory average, and I have plenty of ECs and a very rigorous schedule. My only concern is the math class I’m taking senior year. I was in honors math in 7th grade, however due to my parents having a divorce, I truly stopped caring for a short while, and halfway through the year I dropped the class. That put me off track of taking AP Calculus senior year like many people at my school do, so next year I’d be put into honors pre-calc. Would this have a significant impact on my chances of admission? I will be taking 5 AP classes next year, and graduating with a total of 10 AP classes (excluding self-studied tests). I don’t want colleges to think I’ve been taking the easy way out in terms of math rigor, but at this point it’ll be hard to change into either AP Calc AB or BC because the “last” day to change course selections was a week ago. I plan on majoring in biology and going to medical school, if that helps in your response. Thank you!!
It doesn’t matter, since you’re not an engineering major. You have enough rigor already.
Your course rigor should be fine. But a couple of unsolicited comments…
- You seem to be a competitive indicate for Emory but it is a mistake to have your heart set on any one school. Open your horizons and find other schools you would be happy and proud to attend.
- If you are pre-med you will be at a disadvantage when you take calc in college as you will find that most of your classmates have had the course in HS.
The answer to your question is no. If you don’t geti, it won’t be becasue of your ten APs, one of them wasn’t AP Calc.
Only an issue at Caltech.
If your previous high school math courses show you in the sequence leading to precalculus in 12th grade, that is likely not too much of an issue, compared to if your previous high school math courses show you a year advanced to reach calculus in 12th grade, but you chose not to take it when offered.
Only a very few schools (Caltech, Harvey Mudd, WUStL engineering, Cornell engineering, Penn engineering or business) require or heavily recommend calculus taken in high school.
TooOld4School, I think the OP mentioned Emory and Oxford not Caltech.
Don’t worry about calc for Emory. I got in regular decision to Emory and to Oxford with a scholarship without taking calc (I’m currently taking stats). As long as you take four years of math they don’t care.
I know some people who skipped pre-calc and just went straight to AP Calc BC.