<p>So in high school, my schedules were messed up by the guidance a little bit. I basically had to take regular classes instead of the accelerated ones all because the guidance counselors "made a mistake." Thankfully, my Math and English teachers from last year realized that and quickly recommended me to be put in the accelerated classes. So far during my junior year, and i have gone through 2 honors math classes and i earned a B+ and an A in both of them. I also have an A+ average for my honors english class and an A+ (99) in my Chemistry class. The problem is that i am bound to get AP Lit next year, but AP Calculus is not looking so sure. The problem is that for me to be able to get AP Calculus, i must attend summer school for 3 weeks to take some topics on Pre-Calculus. It is not that i don't want to go, but i was accepted into a really prestigious program (barely 3% acceptance rate) and it involves me going to study in DC this summer. It is probably going to be an opportunity of a lifetime, and it also pays me a lot of money. I have also heard that it looks good on college apps, and the past people who got into the program were able to receive ALOT of scholarship money because of it. If i was majoring in something that doesn't have to do with STEM, i probably won't be worried that much. But i'm looking into going to college for ECE, and i'm scared that not taking AP Calculus can hurt my chances of getting into a good engineering school. Or even getting into any. A lot of people are telling me to do the summer program instead, but i'm asking you guys on here because someone might have a little more information for me to use in making my decisions.</p>
<p>Help please!!!</p>
<p>It does matter. Many students take AP Calculus in senior year and the acceptance of schools are often based on the classes you registered in senior year. If one gone accepted by a school, the student must first find out if it is okay for the admission office to drop a class. Even if it may not be absolutely required for school application, it definitely will hurt your chance in applying to engineering programs, same for computer science too.</p>
<p>What was the prestigious program that involved studying in DC? Maybe give me the name?</p>
<p>It’s Bank of America’s Student Leader’s Program. It is basically a program that brings students from all over the country and the UK together. Like approximately 225 students since they only pick 5 students from each state. A paid internship is also involved and you get to learn about different aspects of business, community aspects, and non profits from famous writers and educators. It also involves meeting politicians and famous people too. About over 8,000 people applied this year which makes the acceptance really low to get in. It is opportunity of a lifetime and i worked really hard to get it… But then there’s AP Calculus that might screw me over on the other hand</p>
<p>[Bank</a> of America | Student Leaders®](<a href=“About Bank of America - Our People, Our Passion, Our Purpose”>About Bank of America - Our People, Our Passion, Our Purpose)</p>
<p>That’s the link to the program</p>
<p>Do you have time to get a tutor, or take the subject on line, in the other part of the summer?</p>
<p>Depends where you want to attend engineering school? The more difficult engineering programs want to see a good grade and that you have taken AP Calculus already. Think about it this way, you want to be as competitive as possible because the other applicants may ALL have AP Calc. You want to at least match that. Try to find another way around getting the PreCalc prep and attend that program if you can but I recommend definitely taking AP Calc, especially since you have done well in Honors level classes.</p>
<p>Why do you need to take the 3 week pre-calc program in the summer? I feel like it won’t do much for you. Can’t you just study out of a book or is it a pre-requisite for AP Calculus.</p>
<p>As for college applications, I think it depends which schools you’re applying for. I’m currently in engineering now and I only went up to Honors Pre-Calc in High school. Big engineering schools like Michigan and UIUC accepted me, but I got waitlisted by CMU and UC Berkeley. Whether or not that was because I didn’t take AP Calc, I’m not so sure. A few schools like Cooper Union or most of the Ivies REQUIRE calculus as one of the course requirements though.</p>
<p>My advice is to take the Math2 SAT subject test. I got a 780 when I was only a few months into pre-calculus.</p>
<p>I took Calc I the first semester of college, and they pretty much retaught everything from limits to derivatives and integrals anyways. I did do some self-study from an AP review book over the summer, but I don’t think it was necessary.</p>
<p>Kevycanuck brings up a good point as to why this 3 week prep for PreCalc is needed. I am assuming it is some high school math department requirement? </p>
<p>Also a good example that you do NOT ‘need’ AP Calc to get into an engineering program but since we don’t know which ones you are applying to, it is good to air in the side of caution.</p>
<p>Was your last math class an integrated math class or was it PreCalc? Because if you haven’t taken PreCalc yet, I would recommend doing that.</p>
<p>I read a book about college application which has a joke about a disqualified high school counselor in it. It seems you have seen one in real life.</p>
<p>I’m not really shooting for anything crazy when it comes to engineering schools. My list of prospective colleges right now are:</p>
<p>Purdue
UMich
UIUC
NJIT
MSOES
Rose-Hulman
Olin
Georgia Tech (should probably take that off soon)
Poly of NYU
Clemson</p>
<p>Still trying to narrow down that list but that’s about it for now. I’m also seriously considering the 3/2 Engineering programs but yeah.</p>
<p>I think Olin and NYU-Poly have Calculus requirements. I got into Purdue, UMich, and UIUC, which were the only ones I applied to on that list.</p>
<p>My GPA was around a 94 with a couple of AP courses and an SAT score of 2210 if you wanted a comparison.</p>
<p>I’m sure it won’t hurt you, considering all your other classes. Note however that a lot of colleges take into account that this class was available to you but you didn’t take it, so they know. If you get an interview with any of them, be sure to explain this and they won’t be too harsh on ya. </p>
<p>Chance me? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1505003-chances-stanford-will-return-favor.html#post15950613[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1505003-chances-stanford-will-return-favor.html#post15950613</a></p>
<p>@kevycanuck Did you take AP Calculus in HS? and which school did you decide to go to?</p>
<p>Can you take an on line course for it? Yes, not taking AP Calc could be a problem for engineering.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse I don’t think that i can take an online course for it. I was thinking about enrolling in a calculus class at a community college during my summer before college. But that won’t really make any difference since colleges only want to see what i did during senior year.</p>
<p>What is your test score? There are some very good engineer schools on the list.</p>
<p>As mentioned in my earlier post, I did not take AP Calculus or even grade 12 calculus. I currently go to University of Toronto, which DID require calculus, but after e-mailing the admissions office, they confirmed that I could meet that requirement with the Math II SAT Subject Test (which doesn’t even have calculus on it).</p>
<p>I believe that I sent my Math II scores to UIUC, Michigan and Purdue as well, even though they didn’t require calculus at all.</p>
<p>@billcsho I’m still waiting on my test scores from earlier this month to come back next week. I’m also planning to take the SATs at least two more times.</p>
<p>@kevycanuck I think i’m just going to take the Math II SAT Subject Test too.</p>
<p>I know that is a tough decision. If you have great scores, this may be less an issue. You would not leave any chance for the admission office to put down your file. I don’t think taking Calculus is absolutely required, although it may help the application for engineering programs. Nevertheless, your other opportunity may give you more chance in college application. Perhaps you should go with that. If you can self study pre-cal, there may be a placement test to waive the pre-requisite for Calculus.</p>
<p>@billcsho I went to my guidance counselor today and all she told me was to look at schools that don’t require Calculus as must have, and she also said that i should go ahead and make whatever choices. I hate making big boy decisions :(</p>