I’m planning to major computer science in college. Here are some of the colleges I want to apply to:
-UC Berkeley
-Georgia Inst of Tech
-U of IL Urbana-Champaign
-Rensselaer Polytech Inst
-Washington Univ in St Louis
-U of Washington
-U Mich
Do these colleges care if I take Calc AB vs Calc BC next year? It’s worth noting that I think I’ll get around a B+ (maybe A- if I’m lucky) in Calc BC versus an A in Calc AB, judging from other students’ experiences.
Current ACT score is 34, working on getting a 35.
Variant of the “A in less hard course versus B in harder course?” question.
The answer is that colleges like to see “A in harder course.”
I’d be curious to hear what other posters tell you. At my D’s school they’ve never seemed to quite get AB right and kids in AB are getting substantially lower grades than the kids in BC. I feel like AB isn’t necessarily easier, just that you cover less ground so it’s less time intensive. I think you should really ask the Seniors at your school to see what the difference between AB and BC is at your HS.
After taking both AB and BC (concurrently as a junior) I don’t think the courses are significantly different in difficulty. Bus as @melvin123 said, asking students at your school that have taken the course about the differences would be very helpful.
Short answer, no. Longer answer, it depends upon the rest of your schedule. If it’s sufficiently rigorous that it still warrants the GC checking the “most rigorous” box, then it really does not matter.
Another thing that likely will not matter: getting a B+. Personally, I’d take BC if you can handle it. If you can’t then take AB.
My nephew got accepted into RPI for computer science with AP Calculus AB. He also got into ivy league. He got rejected by Tufts.
Yes, It matters. BC is the more rigorous Math class. For Berkeley CS, they will want to see the BC Calc course taken.
@musicmeister22’s point that they didn’t notice much difference in difficulty is one of the things I thought too. It’s just that if you take BC it will be more work. My concern with AB was that people would mistakenly think it’s easier so they’d think “what a B in AB this person must not be that great at math” whereas a B in BC would be viewed as “oh a B, but that’s a really hard class”.
But I will say that if you take BC just because of college admissions you will not be happy next Spring after all your apps are in and you’re taking a class you don’t like.
I think most Berkeley CS students need to take Math 100, and BC is much better preparation.
That difference is probably due to self-selection – out of the students in the +1 or higher math track, the stronger ones are likely to choose BC. The same pattern can be seen in the AP exam score distributions released by the College Board – BC has a higher score distribution than AB. A similar phenomenon can be seen in the SAT subject tests math level 2 versus 1.
There is no Math 100 at Berkeley. For both EECS and L&S CS, Math 1A and 1B (among others) are required, but a 5 score on BC allows exemption from both courses (lesser passing scores or AB allow exemption from 1A only).