Bad for students, who apply for CS or engineering, to take AP Calc AB and then BC?

[Anonymous]

A thread on another board brought me here to ask: Do college admissions look down on kids, who apply for CS or engineering, that took AP Calc AB and then AP Calc BC?

I understand that those who skip AB and jump right to BC will be looked upon more favorably. But my question is, is it bad or a red flag for a student who wants to major in CS or engineering to do AB junior year and BC senior year? I'm not asking from an MIT or Ivy perspective, but what about good school like UVA? VA Tech? What about schools good schools not as highly ranked as those, like JMU, VCU, or GMU?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A thread on another board brought me here to ask: Do college admissions look down on kids, who apply for CS or engineering, that took AP Calc AB and then AP Calc BC?

I understand that those who skip AB and jump right to BC will be looked upon more favorably. But my question is, is it bad or a red flag for a student who wants to major in CS or engineering to do AB junior year and BC senior year? I'm not asking from an MIT or Ivy perspective, but what about good school like UVA? VA Tech? What about schools good schools not as highly ranked as those, like JMU, VCU, or GMU?

JMU, VCU, or GMU Could be ok,
In our school, only humanities kids take Calc AB

[Anonymous]

It's totally fine to do AB+BC, that's the most common path for advanced math students at DS's HS and I know several admitted UVA and VT for engineering last year. DS also did that and is at VT in a math-heavy major. IMO, it's better to do that than jump to BC. No reason to rush through calculus vs. learning it at a slower and more thorough pace.

[Anonymous]

Yes stem kids take Calc BC only, same for physics, kids jump right to AP physics C

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's totally fine to do AB+BC, that's the most common path for advanced math students at DS's HS and I know several admitted UVA and VT for engineering last year. DS also did that and is at VT in a math-heavy major. IMO, it's better to do that than jump to BC. No reason to rush through calculus vs. learning it at a slower and more thorough pace.

And you want your engineers and physicists to be fluent in math. My kid (a billion APs, high GPA, 1550+ SAT) is going into a stem field and I insisted she take AB and then BC. I wasn’t convinced that pre-calc was firm because of COVID even though she did fine in the class. I thought that the fundamentals need to be strong so she can really use math as a tool well into the future. Oh and I taught math heavy grad classes as a prof. It’s better that kids really understand this stuff rather than trying to show off to some college counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's totally fine to do AB+BC, that's the most common path for advanced math students at DS's HS and I know several admitted UVA and VT for engineering last year. DS also did that and is at VT in a math-heavy major. IMO, it's better to do that than jump to BC. No reason to rush through calculus vs. learning it at a slower and more thorough pace.

And you want your engineers and physicists to be fluent in math. My kid (a billion APs, high GPA, 1550+ SAT) is going into a stem field and I insisted she take AB and then BC. I wasn’t convinced that pre-calc was firm because of COVID even though she did fine in the class. I thought that the fundamentals need to be strong so she can really use math as a tool well into the future. Oh and I taught math heavy grad classes as a prof. It’s better that kids really understand this stuff rather than trying to show off to some college counselor.

This is my mindset too, but is it the mindset of people in college admissions at non-MIT/Ivy type schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's totally fine to do AB+BC, that's the most common path for advanced math students at DS's HS and I know several admitted UVA and VT for engineering last year. DS also did that and is at VT in a math-heavy major. IMO, it's better to do that than jump to BC. No reason to rush through calculus vs. learning it at a slower and more thorough pace.

I know kids at TJ that did this as well.. AB in 10th, BC in 11th, multivar in 12th, etc. and are at top CS schools like UIUC and Michigan.

[Anonymous]

Why would it be bad? Mine did AB/BC the same time in one year and Multi senior. Accepted to engineering last year.

[Anonymous]

In another thread (and here) people said strong math students don't do that sequence. They cut out Calc AB. And colleges would look at that sequence as weak and not rigorous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In another thread (and here) people said strong math students don't do that sequence. They cut out Calc AB. And colleges would look at that sequence as weak and not rigorous.

Like most course selection questions a lot of it comes down to what is offered and typical at your particular school. I was surprised when the math teacher said DS (a very strong math student, now majoring in data science) should do the AB-BC sequence since I though BC was an alternative to AB but at our school they recommend doing both and teach it that way for students ready to take calculus in junior year. Only a handful of students each year skip AB.

I don't know that skipping it and doing BC in 11th just to be able to take linear algebra/multivariable calc would have benefited DS since his college policy was to not give credit for Calc 2 regardless of AP score. They wanted them to take it on campus, followed by linear/multivariable. I'm glad he got a thorough grounding in calculus. He's gotten As in all his college math classes so far and was glad that his first semester Calc 2 was not the 1st time he was seeing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A thread on another board brought me here to ask: Do college admissions look down on kids, who apply for CS or engineering, that took AP Calc AB and then AP Calc BC?

I understand that those who skip AB and jump right to BC will be looked upon more favorably. But my question is, is it bad or a red flag for a student who wants to major in CS or engineering to do AB junior year and BC senior year? I'm not asking from an MIT or Ivy perspective, but what about good school like UVA? VA Tech? What about schools good schools not as highly ranked as those, like JMU, VCU, or GMU?

No. Why would they. AB is a semester of college calc, BC is the 2nd semester of college calc, with the first semester crammed into 4-5 weeks at the start. These kids are in HS, so the proper progression for most is to do AB then BC. If you are in CS or engineering you actually need to learn the material---BC is incredibly fast paced to take first, unless you have had a full year of regular calculus first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's totally fine to do AB+BC, that's the most common path for advanced math students at DS's HS and I know several admitted UVA and VT for engineering last year. DS also did that and is at VT in a math-heavy major. IMO, it's better to do that than jump to BC. No reason to rush through calculus vs. learning it at a slower and more thorough pace.

+1

if in Engineering/CS, your kid actually needs to learn the material in calculus 1 &2 for future courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's totally fine to do AB+BC, that's the most common path for advanced math students at DS's HS and I know several admitted UVA and VT for engineering last year. DS also did that and is at VT in a math-heavy major. IMO, it's better to do that than jump to BC. No reason to rush through calculus vs. learning it at a slower and more thorough pace.

And you want your engineers and physicists to be fluent in math. My kid (a billion APs, high GPA, 1550+ SAT) is going into a stem field and I insisted she take AB and then BC. I wasn’t convinced that pre-calc was firm because of COVID even though she did fine in the class. I thought that the fundamentals need to be strong so she can really use math as a tool well into the future. Oh and I taught math heavy grad classes as a prof. It’s better that kids really understand this stuff rather than trying to show off to some college counselor.

This 1000x!

I never understood the rush to advance kids in math at a crazy rate. My kid did AB in 11 and BC in 12. That's how our HS does it, except for the rare kid who took algebra in 6th grade and does calc AB in 10 (or BC if incredibly smart). My kid did AB and then BC, got 5s on both, and did really well in Calc 3 (except for the fact of no curve, as half the class already did multivariable calc and was just taking it in college to get credit, so no curve). They were prepared for the class and that's good because as a chem eng, they will actually use this stuff. A weak foundation would mean they'd struggle with the higher level courses and that's not useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In another thread (and here) people said strong math students don't do that sequence. They cut out Calc AB. And colleges would look at that sequence as weak and not rigorous.

oh dear god---they do not see that as weak. These are college level courses---I've lived-in 3 top ranked districts with kids in HS, and they all recommended AB then BC progression (or regular calculus if not sure then onto BC if a kid did really well in reg calc). We are really doing majority of kids a disservice by pushing them so fast at such a young age. Take AB then BC and you have 1 full year of college calculus. I'd say starting college in calc 3 is extremely advance and fine for 99.999% of kids, especially if they have a strong foundation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for asking OP. Mine is a jR taking AB now—her freshman math class was so bad during the pandemic that she really felt like she needed to show down and get some redundancy. I took calc BC 30 years ago and was appalled that two years after taking it, I had forgotten ALL of it (got a 5 on the AP too!). But I don’t know what the admissions officers think.