<p>I’ll be a senior next year, and people keep on telling me i should take Ap calc so i wont have to take it in college. But why would I have to i I am going to major in Theater/Performing Arts? Will I have to take calculus for a semester? I really don’t want to take AP calc because i know it will be too hard for me. Colleges I am looking into is UCLA, UC Irivine, USC, UC berkeley, & AMDA.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure AMDA will not require you to take calculus. ;)</p>
<p>Your best bet is to look at the curriculum of the schools and see what classes they require. For sure not at AMDA, as GH said!!!</p>
<p>Are you looking at any schools that require it for admission?</p>
<p>If you change your mind about a major, would you end up in a program that does require calculus for entrance or for the major?</p>
<p>Will you have general education requirements that would or could include calculus?</p>
<p>If not, then you should be safe without it. You also could choose a non-AP calculus class if your high school offers it.</p>
<p>Very few BFA programs have a math requirement. They certainly don’t have calculus. Fordham-Lincoln Center is an auditioned BA major, and they require math and science, but i think it’s a single semester, and isn’t necessarily calculus. My son did not take Math (it would not have been AP Calculus, either) his senior year in high school, so that he could take a full year of Stagecraft. I had to grant my permission, because the college counselor said it might harm his chances. Rutgers School of Arts & Sciences contacted the school to check on his math background, just to be sure that he had fulfilled their requirements - he had, and they accepted him shortly thereafter. The UCs might prefer Calculus on your transcript (especially Berkeley), but I doubt they require it. Lots of liberal arts colleges have some sort of math requirement, but it can be fulfilled with a variety of courses. It really depends on whether you think that being able to place out of a possible math requirement is more valuable than taking the classes you want during your senior year.</p>
<p>All I know is that my son keeps referring to his senior calculus class as “the last math class I’ll ever have to take!”, because he is going into a BFA program. I’m sure he actually asked that question of the college, because he HATES math (and is totally tanking the calculus and it is not an honors or AP class).</p>
<p>I was being facetious about AMDA, but the straight answer is that you should check yourself, don’t rely on us to answer for your. Unless you are going into engineering or sciences you don’t need calculus. Plenty of kids are accepted to Ivies without calc. For BA schools that have core requirements, you can take non-calc math and sciences that do not require calc if you plan to major in humanities or theater. But don’t take my word for it-- go look it up.</p>
<p>I am “encouraging” my DS to take Calc next year even though he will most likely be going into a BFA program. He really doesn’t like math, but he is somewhat ok at it… and I think his GC would freak out.</p>
<p>My D took calculus as a senior, but I really don’t know why. I think it was because the teacher is a nice guy, and the group of kids were fun and smart. She did decline to take the AP exam, especially when the college she picked (a BFA, but with significant gen ed requirements) did not require math. She wishes she’d scored higher on her Bio AP exam, because they do require two semesters of lab science. But the fun part of college is that she can take much more interesting classes in lab science than were available in HS, and she’s enjoying them more than she thought she would.</p>
<p>I do think in general that as a potential arts, Humanities or Social Sciences majors, once you’ve taken the minimum of math and science most colleges really don’t mind if you opt out senior year. Another thing to watch for is foreign language requirements - my D probably would have been better off taking 4-5 years of Spanish, so she could have placed out of the college’s 2-year, very time-consuming requirement more easily.</p>
<p>I second that-- my theater daughter avoided foreign languages as much as possible in high school (she has a hearing problem that affects her ability to understand speech, and languages are really hard for.) Now she is stuck with four semesters of Italian which, while probably good for her in the long run, are driving her crazy. If she’d ended up in a different school there might not have been a requirement. Ah, but you don’t know these things in advance. As EmmyBet says, if the calculus class if full of fun, smart kids and you think you will enjoy it, why not take it? Otherwise, don’t.</p>
<p>A recent issue in public education is that many districts (like mine) do not require FL to graduate from HS. Yet most colleges require even as many as 3 years, so it’s a disservice not to let kids know it could make a huge difference in their ability to finish their degree (and in their tuition costs). My D knew she was going to need FL almost everywhere she went, but honestly she didn’t like taking Spanish and wanted to start over in college with a new language. However, she’s seeing now that a BFA + FL + everything else she wants to do is hard to schedule. But, it’s a live and learn thing. She’ll figure it out.</p>
<p>S is BFA acting at USC. No math required. He chose to take more theatre courses during his senior year at his performing arts HS instead of calculus.</p>
<p>My son did not have to take any math classes at NYU and boy was he happy about that!</p>
<p>I don’t think Emerson even HAS a math department.</p>
<p>I have a BA (with honors) and a JD (with distinction).</p>
<p>I have NEVER taken Calculus.</p>
<p>There are many many different paths, you just have to find the one that works for you.</p>
<p>I am a math teacher. I have a daughter who’s now a freshman in college. She’s never taken calculus, and I assume she never will.</p>
<p>When she was in high school, she was sure (and I was sure) she would not be going into math, science or technology. She was sure (and I was pretty sure) she’d settle on some kind of social studies major. I encouraged her not to take calculus, but to take statistics instead. She could have learned some calculus reasonably well, but I didn’t see a lot of point in her doing so. </p>
<p>There are some career paths for which studying calculus is important. There are arguably a couple of concepts in differential calculus that are reasonably valuable to somebody outside those careers, but you can learn those concepts without taking an entire calculus class. But there are thousands upon thousands of ways for a person to lead a happy, successful adult life with no knowledge of calculus. Without a doubt, the dramatic arts are one such way.</p>
<p>Sikorsky…well put! Thank you…</p>
<p>My D and I had this argument last year when she was registering for her junior year classes. I said she should take regular level Calculus, as it was the next level math on the sequence. Then her senior year she could take Calc 2. She insisted she wanted to take the highest level class possible because she prefers that peer group.
My thinking was that AP Calc was not going to help her get into a BFA acting program, and AP Calc is a very time consuming class to take. She is in a lot of shows and has lots of dance classes. There are only so many hours in the day. Why spend time doing AP Calc when it doesn’t meet the end goal? But she insisted. Now, she wishes she had taken the lower level calculus. She can do the ap Calc, but she finds it boring and tedious and it is time consuming.
We have now visited most of the schools my D plans to apply to, and there are a few schools where she maybe able to use a good score on the AP Calc exam to get out of math entirely in college. But it is not all of the schools. Some schools require no math at all and they said she could use the math score to get out of any gen Ed requirement which would leave her an elective she can take in the theatre school. In that way it is useful but any AP will do; it doesn’t have to be Calc.
To sum up, I think she will be able to use the class to get out of something in college but she really is regretting taking the class because it is time consuming.
(My older son is a freshman in college, studying chem engineering, and he took both AP Calc’s, did well, and will be finished his math requirements by the end of this year. Just so no one thinks we are down on math in our house! Of course math is SO important for many students. But once you are at the point of going to acting school, there are more important classes out there)</p>
<p>thank you all for your great answers! I was just really worried because my school doesnt have a regular calculus or honors, so it would basically be like i was being forced to take a level a math i know i’m not ready for if it meant I would be behind in college. A tutor who is in college at my school told me i needed to take calculus in high school because it’s required now in colleges, and high school calc would help prepare me. That really worried me so I came here! I seriously doubted that I would have to take Calculus to complete a bachelor degree in Theater. I’m going to take regular Stats then, because I’m also involved in a lot of plays and activities so it would be a lot easier to not have 3 AP Classes like this year, which was a mistake. Thanks again for all of your great answers (:</p>
<p>My daughter, who is in theater, took honors Stat and Accounting her senior year instead of Calc. The course was much less stressful-- and actually interesting in a real-world kind of way.</p>