Would it be bad to take Calc AB instead of BC?

<p>I'm a junior this year and not sure which one I should take for senior year. I have a 99 in Precalc right now, but the AP Calc teacher in my school is retiring so it will be a new person teaching both classes. I have heard horrible things about the new BC teacher so I feel like I most likely won't get credit and it will be a lot more work than AB. However, I will be applying to competitive colleges like Ivies (with some safeties as well obvs :)). </p>

<p>I will be taking 5 APs next year: AP Gov, AP Bio, AP Spanish, AP Lit and either AP Calc AB or BC. This year I doubled AP sciences along with AP US and AP Lang and honestly I feel really burnt out even though I've maintained great grades in all of my classes (APs on the otherhand... haha I guess I'll find out in a couple months). I'm concerned that colleges will think my schedule isn't rigorous enough and even if I can handle it I'm afraid I'll be so burnt out that I won't want to work as hard in college.</p>

<p>I've also been going to bed SUPER late every night and falling asleep in classes but then going home and studying whatever I we learned when I fell asleep. </p>

<p>Do you think taking calc AB instead of BC will lower my admissions chances significantly? I've been going back and forth about this for a while. I'd love to have an "easy"(ish) senior year but at the same time I want to get into a great school, to have my horrible year that I've had this year pay off.</p>

<p>SORRY THAT WAS REALLY LONG HAHA</p>

<p>if you are not planning to do anything math related, like engineering, take AB. However, if you enjoy the challenge, take BC. BC is just an accelerated AB course, to be honest. If you are doing so well in precalc, you will probably do well in both.</p>

<p>Oh by the way Calc BC is an extra period every other day in my school. My biggest problem this year is lack of a lunch period so an extra half of a free in there would be heaven!</p>

<p>Bad? Probably not. Pointless? Probably. Acting like a little weenie? I couldn’t possibly comment.</p>

<p>@ThisCouldBeHeavn, if the new teacher is horrible for BC (AB has a different teacher) and I most likely won’t do well on the AP, how would not taking it be pointless? It seems more pointless to put in a lot of extra work for the same or worse outcome. And okay fine… maybe I am a weenie according to YOUR standards.</p>

<p>If you want to major in math, science, or engineering, do BC. If you want to major in humanities, do AB.</p>

<p>To be honest, it seems as though your mind is made up. Take AB.</p>

<p>Wartsandall… yea it kind of is but I guess I want to make sure I’m not making a stupid decision which it kind of seems I am.</p>

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<p>Taking a class because it has less content and an easier teacher . . . hmm. Why don’t you just embrace it? Colleges are full of weenies.</p>

<p>ThiscouldBeHeavn, I never said EASIER TEACHER. I said teacher who will get better results on the AP. HUGE difference.</p>

<p>That’s true. Which teacher is easier is a pretty cut and dry distinction. Which teacher will get you a better score on the (mostly meaningless) AP exam is lulzy guesswork. As you said, HUGE difference.</p>

<p>rainbow, what is your intended major?</p>

<p>Same as what others said: I would take BC if I were interested in math/science, but AB if my focus is on humanities. If you’re THAT against BC, just take the other class. I took AB instead of BC because of scheduling issues and got into most of the colleges I applied to anyway. AND I even put down a science major on my application.</p>

<p>If you’re worried about failing the AP exam, then seriously, stop worrying about it. It’s your senior year next year. You’re not going to care about APs or about school in general anymore after those midyear reports go out. In fact, the college I’m going to don’t even take AP credits. If you want to skip the introductory level courses, you can take placement exams instead in most cases.</p>

<p>P.S. - I feel like this is at least the twentieth time this question has been asked in the past week. <em>sigh</em></p>

<p>Some helpful past threads on this topic:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-institute-technology/98732-bad-if-i-havent-taken-calc-bc.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-institute-technology/98732-bad-if-i-havent-taken-calc-bc.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/807370-anyone-take-ap-calc-ab-senior-year-gets-into-mit-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/807370-anyone-take-ap-calc-ab-senior-year-gets-into-mit-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;