<p>What would you suggest for me if I want to go to a top school?</p>
<p>I have 6 courses for senior year. 1 is taken up by physical education.
- Honors Pre-Calculus
- Honors Physics
- Honors English IV
- Russian III
- AP Macroeconomics (2 AP tests)
- Honors We The People (A constitution class)</p>
<p>The only things I can change are 1, 2, and 6. For 1, I can spend 100+ hours this summer (Which is hard) to teach myself Pre Calculus and hopefully waiver into Calc BC. For 2, I can take any class really. For 6, I can take any class, but also at the expense of a good recommendation.</p>
<p>What would you suggest?</p>
<p>The most rigorous course load you want. Don’t take a schedule just for a top school. Take what you want, to your level of rigor.</p>
<p>The problem with that is I don’t care. I’m a guy who loves to learn. You name a class and I’ll enjoy it. I’d prefer to enjoy classes that help me though :)</p>
<p>not to be condescending, but if you are taking precalculus in senior year, your shot at many “top schools” is greatly diminished.</p>
<p>almost all top schools require mathematics through calculus</p>
<p>hell, at a school near mine, the mathematics sequence is as followed:</p>
<p>Advanced Analysis 1, Advanced Analysis 2, AP Calculus BC, Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equations (freshman -> sophomore -> junior -> senior)</p>
<p>there are no “honors” classes at that school because everything is harder than honors level, they send 30-40% of the graduating class to ivies and the rest to highly respected schools (MIT, Stanford, Harvey Mudd, Emory)</p>
<p>my school is:</p>
<p>Honors Geometry -> Honors Algebra II -> Honors Math Analysis -> AP Calculus BC</p>
<p>I second MIT, that has always been my philosophy on which classes to take.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend that you do whatever you can to skip to AP Calculus. You’ll be at a disadvantage if you don’t. To a lesser extent, this is true for science. If your school offers AP Physics, try to take that instead. If they don’t, then take another AP science class (unless you’re really interested in Physics). If your school offers AP Lit, go for that as well, instead of English Honors.</p>
<p>Your school doesn’t have Calculus AB? I don’t think that you might be ready for BC just yet.</p>
<p>Does it truly matter what kind of mathematics a school offers, as long as you’re taking the top of it? I mean, if you self study to do BC then even better, but it’s not really the student’s fault that they didn’t attend a good school.</p>
<p>but yeah, skip to calc because that self studying will make you look GREAT.</p>
<p>tuffliepuff, we do have calc AB, but its for the kids that arn’t as good as math. their sequence goes:</p>
<p>honors geometry -> honors algebra II -> regular math analysis -> AP Calc AB</p>
<hr>
<p>the top mathematics kids at my school follow the sequence outline above, however</p>
<hr>
<p>there are a bunch of math sequences for really bad kids too:</p>
<p>CP Algebra I -> CP Geometry -> CP Algebra II -> CP Analysis</p>
<p>and there are even sequences for those kids that are extremely bad</p>
<p>Basic Algebra -> etc.</p>
<hr>
<p>and most people don’t take AB before BC… the college board even says so.</p>
<p>^ i was talking to the OP</p>
<p>OP is currently confused 
So much was just said with so little information being given. I did get one thing though. I am going to self-teach PreCalc this summer. Other than that, thanks for the effort everyone 
Anything else I should know?</p>
<p>Agggggh, you take Russian?! Have you ever read Woe from Wit?</p>
<p>You should know that you should self-study PreCalculus only if you can take an AP Calculus class in your school next year. Otherwise it’s pretty pointless.</p>
<p>@ Millancad
I have not heard of that. Could you explain what it is and why it’s good? Thanks</p>
<p>@ ryanxing
My school offers AP Calc with a placement test. Not sure about BC</p>