I am currently in AP Calculus AB and IB Business Management HL 1. I plan on majoring in finance and marketing. I have one spot left for a class for my senior year. It is between AP Calculus BC and AP Macroeconomics. Which one would look better if I want to do finance/investment banking?
In my opinion, you should take AP Macroecon. AP AB calc is basically the first semester of BC calc (at least at our school), so might feel like you are wasting your time. Taking Macroecon would be a great way to test out the waters of basic economic principles, which would look to be very useful in your case since you are thinking about finance/iBanking. I would personally recommend that you also self study Microecon, if you have time-- the two exams complement each other nicely.
At some colleges, introductory micro and macro economics are combined into one course, so you may need both AP economics exams to get credit or placement.
AP Calc BC is much more challenging and recognized as such by Admissions Departments.
Does your school offer the AP Calculus classes as a sequence?
In some schools, students take EITHER AB or BC, but not both. Other schools are set up so that students are meant to take AB and then BC. You should check with your guidance counselor.
No matter your school’s math setup, 4 years of math is pretty much a must at top colleges, so I suggest AP Calc BC. Macro is easy to self study anyway.
The key to a finance major is a strong background in math, including Calculus, so here, Calc BC would be more important than AP Econ.
The way AP Calc BC is arranged varies from school to school. Some school may have a prereq to take AP Calc AB first if they do not have overlapping. In either case, it would be easy for you to continue with AP Calc BC and score well in the test. Check the AP credit policy of your target schools. Usually you can get more credits with AP Calc BC than AP Econ.
Rather than this, I’d ask “which one would better prepare me for college with a planned finance/marketing major and a potential career in finance or investment banking?”
To me, the answer to either question is Calc BC.