I’m planning on applying to T40 schools for biomedical engineering but am taking AB calculus instead of BC due to receiving a B+ in precalc (since COVID didn’t allow me to improve 3rd and 4th quarter, my teacher was horrible, and BC calculus was extremely overfilled). Will my math grades and course selection be detrimental to my college acceptances?
Detrimental? At a T40 school, sure. They are looking for the cream of the engineering applicants and they will see your school offers it from the profile but you didn’t take it.
As a side note, blaming a “horrible” teacher for your grade is not a mature way to view things. Whatever you do, don’t dig the whole deeper by trying to “explain” your grade in an interview or essay by blaming the teacher. Adcoms know there are a whole host of resources such as Khan Academy, online precalc websites, as well as your fellow students from which you can learn. Presumably some kids managed to get A’s in this class and learn the material despite this “horrible” teacher. Colleges are looking for students that take ownership of their learning; a T40 engineering school expects students can learn math pretty readily.
My daughter’s school didn’t offer BC and she did just fine with engineering acceptances. Work hard to get an A senior year in calc so colleges see that grade.
previously the OP wrote
So another blame the teacher story.
I’d add that compared to the classes engineers take in college, HS physics is a walk in the park. You have 40 weeks and 200 hours of class instruction. The UC system gives 4 units of credit for this AP class, meaning the exact same material would be covered in 10 weeks with less than 30 hours of instruction. If you don’t feel confident you’d get an A in this HS class then perhaps you might want to give more thought about what you’re signing up for as an engineering major.
Often not the exact same material, since may of the campuses give only elective credit for either or both AP physics C scores, indicating that they are not fully equivalent to the college calculus-based physics courses (which makes sense, especially for E&M, due to the higher level of math used in college calculus-based physics courses).
Yes, you’re right about that. I shouldn’t blame the horrible teacher. His teaching was okay but the way he graded tests and set up final school marks made even the best in all of our grade get below an A. Getting one question wrong on a test would get you a 94 or 92 and anything more than that would be in the B range. The entire situation was just frustrating and made it extremely difficult to do well despite knowing the material