Reply to Taking Statistics in 12th grade instead of Calculus

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.  DD is a strong humanities and English student (good GPA because of her non-STEM classes with Math being the lowest and anomalous grade) so she will be targeting top 25 schools and UMich, UVA, and maybe UCLA.  She will not be applying to any Ivies.  We're just concerned whether Statistics vs. calculus will be viewed as a negative by strong schools because they believe it indicates that the student was not willing to push themselves within the offered curriculum?  Or do the top schools not care about the Math track because the student is clearly a history/English/humanities and foreign langauge kid.   [/quote]

OP let me first say that I absolutely think (as others have said) that for your kid, taking Statistics is absolutely the best plan. If she's struggling with the pre-Calc now, it will only be harder to do Calc next year, and she'll have her other advanced senior-level coursework to content with as well. Statistics is an extremely valuable thing to know, and she will definitely be able to use it in college and beyond, whereas based on her interests it is highly unlikely given her strengths and interests that Calculus will be useful.

Having said all of that... I do think you need to recognize that top 25 schools are going to be a "reach" for her, because most of those are attracting most advanced-level students.
This came up on another thread, so I'm going to paste it below. I think you'll find it particularly relevant, since it's talking about UVA, which is one of the schools you mentioned.

[quote]There are some colleges (University of Virginia, for example) that indicate they want to see students taking most rigorous courses in all core areas. They say this is their preference over a student that gets too specialized in one particular subject.
I'm not sure if that description applies in your instance, if the 3 lab sciences are advanced/ accelerated.
Again, often just helpful to start doing some online research at some of the colleges your student is interested in, and they should provide information about what they are looking for in their applicants.

Found their explanation. http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2019/10/course-...r-and-curriculum-strength.html[/quote]

By all means, DD can still apply to schools like UVA, but I think it is also important for you to help her come up with a list of schools that will be more firmly in the "match" category for her.
Again, I don't think you should read this stuff and conclude that your daughter MUST take Calc, because it's the only way she'll get into the top 25 schools. It's not going to improve her chances to sign up for Calculus and then get low grades. Again, long term she'd be better off with Stats.
There is a great college out there for your daughter. Good luck![/quote]

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