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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Anyone have kids accepted to selective colleges without AP Calculus?

DC is a strong applicant, but math has been a weakness. I would prefer DC take AP Stats senior year as a humanities major. He has strong ECs and awards in his area of interest. He is definitely not studying STEM. The drop deadline is coming up soon so wanted to ask here. [/quote]

Every student will be considered in the context of their peers. So if this is a good school where most of the college bound students are taking Calculus AB or Calculus BC or Multivariable, the student taking Stats is going to be at a distinct disadvantage at selective colleges. Rigor is a big thing that colleges look at. And Stats are weak rigor, which is going to hurt even for likely humanities students.

Most selective colleges do not admit by major. Likely Art History majors don't just waltz into Princeton. At schools like Princeton, the only students that didn't take Calculus BC - the most popular AP class taken by Princeton students - would be students from private schools that don't offer AP classes, as well as students, usually FGLI, from crappy public high schools that also don't offer AP level math. That's it. An unhooked student from a well-resourced high school that chooses Stats while most of their peers take Calculus has effectively zero chance of admission to a T20 school today. [b]At this level, a likely humanities major can get by with Calculus AB, but refusing to take Calculus all together is a very quick journey to the rejection pile.[/b]      [/quote]

Agreed that colleges consistently speak of rigor in the context of the students high school is of paramount importance.  But we also have to note that it is in the context of assessing if the student will be successful at the institution and demonstrating fit with their curriculum.   While yes, if there are a couple of competitive students vying for a spot and all else is equal *perhaps* this will tip the scale in favor of the student that took Calc.  But all else equal is generally not the case.  If the student without calc had characteristics or qualities the college seeks, ECs that demontrate grit, compassion, leadership or otherwise.  I could see this easily tip the scales in Stat students direction.

But your note of school context is important.  The challenge this student might face is they are up against several high-flyers in their school.  Some of which may do it all. AP Calc BC, Physics C, Chem AND AP Lang, Lit, French, Euro, US History, etc AND have great ECs AND.... When comes down to a game of inches, little things become differentiators[/quote]

Anecdotally, I’ve seen this at our high school. 20-30 applicants for one college, and the one unhooked kid who gets in has a couple Bs and stopped at AB Calc, when I’m assuming by school data the other kids had BC and beyond and all As.

The one kid to another Ivy is talented in the arts and schedule might not be as rigorous (but still “most rigorous”) as the other 30 applicants.

It’s important to have the most rigorous box checked… then they move onto the rest of the application.

Maybe state schools do it differently. But looking at the UC acceptances at our school, it’s holistic after you pass the basic rigor test, which doesn’t necessarily include Calc or even APUSH, [/quote]

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