Need advice: AP Stat vs AP Calc AB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, kids who are truly focused on the humanities (not just pretending to be for an edge) are so rare that I think it's hard to make generalizations about them. If you are applying to colleges with sub-10 percent admissions rates, it is almost certainly safer to take calculus. I doubt taking stats instead would get an application "thrown out" on its own, but the very high percentage of admitted students taking calculus at Harvard and Princeton speaks for itself. That said, my humanities kid who is applying to reasonably selective schools is taking AP Stats and not worrying much about that choice.

I agree with this take. Taking Calc is like "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" back in the day. But not taking it doesnt mean a student is out. A student interested in Classical studies that took AP Latin (only about 4,500 do so) and continued to advanced Latin and Attic Greek (even fewer do this) with the only 'blemish' AP Stats and no Calc - I would think would be in the running.

Why on earth should Calc matter in the situation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got into UVA with AP stat. No intensified math track and no Calc.

Congrats !
Would you mind sharing rest of his stats ? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD took AP Calc (AB). She applied to a college where we found out after the fact that for her major, they would "only consider applicants taking AP Calc (BC)", but this ended up not true, had zero baring in her case and they offered her a place on that major.

So even when it's in writing there's not always a hard and fast rule about it, especially if they are looking at various other aspects of your application.

Which school and major requires AP Calc BC?

Plenty. University of British Columbia for one.

No, it doesn’t? For American students, even the engineering major only requires precalc. https://you.ubc.ca/applying-ubc/requirements/international-high-schools/#united-states

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD took AP Calc (AB). She applied to a college where we found out after the fact that for her major, they would "only consider applicants taking AP Calc (BC)", but this ended up not true, had zero baring in her case and they offered her a place on that major.

So even when it's in writing there's not always a hard and fast rule about it, especially if they are looking at various other aspects of your application.

Which school and major requires AP Calc BC?

Plenty. University of British Columbia for one.

No, it doesn’t? For American students, even the engineering major only requires precalc. https://you.ubc.ca/applying-ubc/requirements/international-high-schools/#united-states

1. What engineering major
2. what are you attempting to link here? it failed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About half of humanities admits at Princeton did not take any Calculus.

About half of US high schools don't offer it, though. So the question is whether there is an admissions hit if your HS offers it but you don't take it.

I think AP Stat is acceptable for a humanities degree seeker. It is actually more relevant.

If the college major does not require calculus, at the specific institution, that's a decent signal.

Economics (social science) and business often recommend calculus. In that case, I recommend taking calculus to assist with college adaptation. It's typically much more difficult at the college level. Pre-exposure to the material could help.

This 100%! If your desired major will require some type of calculus, then take it in HS if you can/are able. Otherwise, AP Stats is an easier and much more useful class for most humanities kids. However, many humanities majors will require calc and then some calc based stats courses in college, so it's ideal to take both if you can.