17 yo DS is about to start his senior year in high school, with a 4.0 unweighted and a 4.2 weighted. He took AP Calculus BC his junior year, got an A in the class both semesters, got a 5 on the AP exam, and also got a 5 on the Calculus AB subscore. At his school, there’s a math class offered that teaches Multivariable Calculus 1st semester and Linear Algebra 2nd semester, which he’s obviously eligible to take. However, he signed up for AP statistics at the end of his junior year and is still set on taking that, despite me having tried to talk him continuously into taking Multi/Linear.
I understand that since most high schools don’t offer post-calculus classes, students who take Calculus BC their junior year generally take AP stats their senior year. However, I can’t help but feel that not taking a post-calculus course when his school offered it will look bad to colleges. They’ll wonder why he didn’t want to continue onto higher math when he had a clear opportunity to. He wants to double-major in biology and computer science, and having a strong mathematics foundation is, I feel, essential for that, and I’m worried about him starting college when it will have been over a year since he’d studied anything calculus-related.
His reason for taking AP Stats is because he wants the AP credits, which he won’t get if he takes Multi/Linear, as it’s not an AP class. He already has almost a year of college credit, and if all goes well this year, he’ll have more than a year. Am I doing the right thing, or should I just let him take AP Stats?
For my own kid, my rule of thumb is that she gets to make her own decisions, and I get to provide information. I got lucky, in that she ended up entirely indifferent to class rank, GPA, or what looks good to colleges - so the information I’ve provided has been things like, “refusing to take any foreign language at all will limit your choices” and “AP History generally entails a lot of reading.”
Personally, I disagree with both of you. If he’s aiming for a school where not taking MVC would “look bad,” AP credits are unlikely to be of significant benefit. He could get appropriate placement without them, and is enormously unlikely to graduate early regardless of the quantity of them. If he’s aiming for a school where he could graduate in three years due to having sufficient APs, they aren’t going to care one bit about not having MVC.
The most math intensive majors are unlikely to accept AP statistics for subject credit (if statistics is needed, calculus based statistics will likely be required).
However, high school multivariable calculus and linear algebra will not be accepted either, although they will make those courses easier in college.
They may only wonder this if the counselor does not check the “most rigorous schedule” on the app. Have your son ask if this affects what the counselor will say about him.
Anecdotes are not data, but the kid at our school who took AP Stats instead of MVC after Calc BC and didn’t get into Berkeley engineering, blamed that decision because the kid who did get in there had done MVC senior year.
Of course it probably had nothing to do with that but people will obviously second guess themselves if things don’t work out the way they wanted. Having said that he did fine (ended up at an Ivy instead).
Your son seems more focused on college credit than getting in in the first place. So the obvious question is what school does he want to attend, because as @allyphoe points out, a highly competitive school may not give him much credit for the APs anyway. One of the few high ranking places I could see general AP credit making a big difference is UVA where an Echols scholarship exempts you from their core classes (if you really do want to graduate in three years).
Insufficient AP credit is IMHO enormously unlikely to be a reason for not completing a double major, regardless of the school. Ease of double majoring is extremely school dependent, and ranges from common to practically impossible. You’d really need a Goldilocks situation for one AP class to make or break it, particularly when the one AP class is stats and he already has two semesters of math credit from BC Calc.
That said, the thing that lets you make good life choices is experience, and the way you get experience is by making poor life choices.
If he took MVC and linear Algebra. It be useless because he’ll have to retake them again in college. Although, if it’s a dual enrollment class then yes I would consider talking to him. What’s his major?
Taking MV and LA would impress colleges more than Statistics, so it just depends on which colleges he is aiming for. My sons’ high school offered all of those math classes, but they only chose to go as high as Calc AB. Both were accepted into UCLA for Computer Science, but with Berkeley, one got in and the other only got waitlisted. At the UCs, neither one got credit towards their major for the college Statistics they took during high school.
Compare to calc BC for example, colleges seem to be less willing to accept credits for AP stats as it’s regarded to be not as challenging. Also a pre-exposure to MVC and linear algebra will be good for computer science, especially when it comes to numerical algorithms and optimization. Taking a one year break from calculus while taking stats might also be not be a good thing if one intends to build upon the calc AP class when getting to college. Unless the student feels overwhelmed with math I would recommend pushing ahead with MVC. Good luck
Also, IF he gets credits for AP stats it won’t be for college statistics since as a stem major he’ll be expected to take calculus-based statistics. He can use AP stats as a light preview to the concepts he’ll see, as he would for MVC/LA (which would preview two courses).
He must be careful because going “back” to algebra based math may make placement harder to predict, especially if base on a summer test.
As stated what schools is he looking at? My sons school offered multivariate Calc 3 after Calc bc. Most of the higher end kids take this when it is offered. . Stats is pretty easy and colleges know this. He is competing against kids that took multivariate Calc for the college seats regardless what your school offers. He is a top student. This shows rigor. Don’t downplay rigor for senior year if applying to top schools. As stated he will have to retake it in college. My son just found out that math in general is harder in college as everything else is also. It will give him a foundation to build on. Most competitive schools will discount stats and not give credit anyway. Because of this my son took a year of Stats in 3 weeks at Northwestern in the summer of junior year. He really wanted stats but would never give up a higher level Calc class for it. He said he couldn’t imagine taking it during the school year. Just to slow and non challenging but a fun math class. He liked the discussion. He is at Michigan OOS entering his sophomore year in engineering.
My kid faced more or less the same exact choice as a 12th grader (5 on Calc BC as an 11th grader) and wound up taking the AP Stats route along with most of his friends. He didn’t do MVC at his CC though, because of a conflict in time schedule teaching a class, plus he was already taking a couple of classes at CC and taking 6 APs. In retrospect he probably should have taken the MVC class at CC in the spring, but he didn’t either. He got into his #1 school UC-Berkeley as a Comp Sci-intent major and is taking the very difficult Linear Algebra equivalent class this first semester as a freshman, so I don’t think the OP’s kid will miss out on much if he doesn’t take MVC and/or Linear Algebra in 12th. Taking a good Python or C++ class instead is probably more useful.
Oh, and Berkeley gives you null unassigned credits for the AP Stats with a 3+ so it doesn’t help you with much but at least you get credits. My kid’s roommate is an EECS guy and he didn’t take MVC either in HS, taking it now.
I think there is value in taking the higher level math courses in high school if offered. Even if they need to be retaken, the pace and depth in college is different and it could make for a much easier transition for your son.
That said, I agree with the other that unless he’s gunning for MIT, Caltech or the like, AP stats isn’t going to keep him out of a top school.
Unless the OP was unclear, I got the impression that MVC/LA was offered through the HS, not at the CC. In any event, while yes, MVC/LA is a “stronger” option than AP Stats, there are valid reasons for not taking it, like scheduling issues.
I don’t think that one versus the other is a deal-breaker for college admissions, though, unless it impacts the GC’s rigor rating. But as others have said, college credit issues aside, the kid may end up having to take both in college anyway, depending on the college he attends.
My D18 had the same situation and took AP Stats in 12th grade. But she also took MVC as Dual enrollment at a local university. The MVC was not all that challenging but it was nice to get an introduction to the topic. She did not submit her MVC grade or transcript when she applied to colleges (she got an A). She actually really enjoyed AP stats and found it interesting. I don’t think the colleges that she applied to cared all that much this path she took for math in 12th grade. She was accepted to all 5 colleges she applied to including SCEA at Harvard.
What else is he taking? Is he taking AP Physics C? If so, he’ll still be using the Calculus he learned in BC, so I wouldn’t worry about "taking a year off. Either class will help prepare him for further study in college. It’s important to look at this decision in the context of the rest of his schedule. If he’s already taking AP English, an AP Science, and AP History, and maybe an AP Language, taking Stats might free up some of his time for those classes. Depending on his school, even if those reviewing his application are aware that the school offers MVC, unless the counselor marks something less than a most rigorous schedule, they may also assume that MVC didn’t fit his schedule. That’s not the type of class that will be offered 3 or 4 different times.