Course Planning Advice

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

Hey CC,

I am currently a junior in high school. My situation is I have a low GPA, and average ACT (33). I can also speak 3 languages, and understand 5. I am also of East Asian descent. I am currently taking AP Calculus, AP Statistics, Physics Honors, AP Biology, English, and History. If I drop, I will still have a math class, and I will take AP Calculus over the summer at my local college. For senior year, I plan to take more programming classes at my local college rather than take math, or I could take BC Calculus senior year at my college as well. I skipped a grade in math (8th grade), but last year, got a C in the honors math class I was in, so I dropped to a lower lane. I am also getting a C in AB Calculus, which I can predict to get a C in next semester. I want to pursue software engineering, and have a couple topics that will give me material to write some really passionate essays on my major. I’m aware that computer science majors need a strong math background, but to get into software, I need to go through that. I am also female, which I heard that for programming, female applicants are admitted much more easily than males because of diversity.

If I keep AB and get C’s both semesters, I will have a low cumulative GPA of 3.43 UW (freshman 3.46, soph 3.38, junior 3.45), but if I drop AB and add an extra class that I know I can get an A in, I will have a 3.49 UW (freshman 3.46, soph 3.38, junior 3.64). For weighted GPA, if I don’t drop I will have a 3.72 W (freshman 3.63, sophomore 3.63, junior 3.91), but if I do, I will have a 3.75 (freshman 3.63, sophomore 3.63, junior 4.0). Our school only sent weighted GPAs this year, so we do not know if they are planning to send weighted GPAs next year. I am unsure whether this 0.6 difference is worth dropping, because the AB Calculus record will be on my transcript for 3 semesters, then will show that I dropped it. How will this affect how colleges view me?

I am also working for a math tutoring place (7 hours a week, 10/hr), and had an internship at a reputable programming company last summer where I have released iOS apps on the app store, as well as being the organizer of a hackathon. I also have varsity badminton (4 years, 4+ club experience years), violin (3 years El Camino Youth Symphony, senior symphony, 6+ violin experience years), piano (10 years experience), a Photography Honorable Mention award in Scholastic Arts, am a teacher assistant for a Programming class (3 years), have 1 science olympiad (4th place) award, am the founder of a nonprofit organization, and have received 2 awards from my badminton team (League Awards - limited amount of people within school selected). I have also applied for NCWIT, a scholarship program for female coders. My concern with my ECs is that if I can’t get past the initial GPA screening, colleges won’t even look at my ECs, and my essay won’t make much of an impact.

Main Questions:

  1. Should I drop AP AB Calculus, and how will this affect how colleges view me?
  2. If I drop AP Calculus, would it be more advantageous to take programming classes senior year or take BC Calculus senior year?
2

If you drop Calc AB, you MUST take Calc 1 at a college… and it’ll go double or triple the pace of Calc AB (depending on whether you take it over a regular semester or over the summer in a compressed format.) So, if you’re getting a C right now, it’ll be really hard for you to keep up after a while at a college, and if you end up with a C or a D it’ll look bad to colleges, especially for engineering. So, dropping is risky.
However, if you think that by taking just one class you can focus on it more and do better, despite the greatly accelerated pace, then take it in the summer to avoid the C.
In addition, I’d recommend you take Calculus 2 at the same college, since they’re usually taught in sequence - it’ll follow better than if you go to Calc BC. You need as strong a background in calculus as possible since for engineering you’ll have to take several semesters of it and it’s often a weeder for students. Even if you end up majoring in CS, a strong math background (Calc 1, 2, 3 + discrete math) is expected. So, senior year, I’d suggest you take Calc 2 at your community college in the Fall (after Calc 1 in the summer or completing AB over junior year) and take Discrete math in the Spring OR take Calc BC in HS, PLUS a programming or CS class at the local college.