Will not taking calc hurt my chances at T50 Schools?Answered
Course Selection is coming up and I have to choose between 5.0 Calc or AP Stats. I'm a current sophomore and I am two years ahead in math, but my grades have been B's for the past two years. I want to go into international relations and maybe law. If I choose to take AP Stat as my last math course for high school, will colleges look down on me?
Other information: I'm in honors precalc currently and I have very high grades in my gifted English class.
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2 answers
If you are talking about schools like UPitt, Syracuse, Univesity of Washington, then I'm not sure if you need to have Calculus to get accepted into these schools.
The one good thing about taking AP Calculus as a HS student is that for the most part, you don't have to ever take another math class if you do well and get say a 4 or 5 on your AP exam which will qualify you for college credit at a T50 school. If you stop at Pre-Calc or Stats, it's certainly possible that some of these schools will have you take a Math assessment when you matriculate and place you in a some sort of math class as part of fulfilling a core requirement.
Sometimes its better to bite the bullet and get it over with. I'm glad I took Calc in HS because I don't have to take another math course again, unless I want to.
Good luck with your decision.
For the degree tracks you are interested in, you won't need to come in with calculus knowledge to do well. AP Stats would be more applicable to these fields - to international relations especially, as the course work often involves reading data-heavy reports about economics, demographics, and political trends.
Colleges will not look down on you for choosing either class - what they will care about is your overall grade in the class, and to a lesser extent, your AP exam score. I recommend choosing AP Stats if you feel that you'll do better in it. Hope this helps!
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