The accelerated math track for my high school is:
grade 9 - geometry
grade 10 - Advanced Algebra II H
grade 11 - Advanced Precalc H
grade 12 - AP Calc AB
My school also plans to offer AP stats as an extra math class next year that one can take as an elective next year
The thing is I am in the honors math track for my school. However, I am a bit concerned that even this isn’t good enough because I have friends who took math over the summer and skipped into AP Calc for junior year. (They plan on taking Stats for senior year, while I take AP Calc) Will this end up hurting me in the admissions process? Obviously AP Calc is a harder math class than Precalc H but will colleges still understand that I took the highest class offered for 11th grade?
When you say friends do you mean classmates? Did your high school offer Algebra 2 over the summer between 9th and 10th grade? If so then it will probably be in your School’s Profile.
That is the way it is at my daughters school. The school offers Algebra 2 online during the summer and a few kids do that so they can take Calc as a junior.
Each HS typically sends a profile such as this: https://professionals.collegeboard.org/guidance/counseling/profile/sample So probably they will know.
A bit of advice. You should be talking to your GC about questions like this. Not only will you find out what your HS actually does instead of relying on a guess from the internet, you’ll be getting the message across to your counselor that you’re the kind of kid looking to really challenge her/himself, good for them to be thinking when they write the counselor rec some schools require. And who knows, maybe you’ll learn some non-obvious requirement your school has to get the “taken toughest curriculum” box checked.
Thanks for your reply! Yes, I mean classmates, and no, my school offers no such thing. My classmates chose to get tutored over the summer. Will colleges take the fact that skipping math is not a school offered thing into consideration?
You can also check with your guidance counselor to see if he/she will check that you have taken the most rigorous courseload available on the recommendation form. Colleges don’t expect students to get tutored over the summer and skip levels of a sequential class.
"Colleges expect students to get tutored over the summer and skip levels of a sequential class. "
This is not consistent with anything I ever heard when I took my pups on the college tours - we toured all the elite colleges.
Perhaps for some privileged high schools this may be true, especially if there has been a pattern of other students doing this over the years from your same high school. But I don’t think colleges generally expect kids to take summer classes - especially where there are financial considerations.
Colleges want kids who have challenged themselves, and do well. They don’t fault the kids who have no AP’s if there school doesn’t offer them at all, but they do fault the kid with only 2 AP’s when their school often has kids who graduate with a dozen or more.
@3puppies I corrected my post above. (I left out a pretty important word - apologies)
It isn’t a race.
It is not a race, more like a casino game where the house won’t tell you the rules, and some players get extra cards/chips, but lots of people still want to play.