My HS offers AP Cal AB, AP Cal BC, and Cal 2 & Cal 3 (as a full year course). I took AP Cal AB for personal reason in 10th grade. I would like to pick the Cal 2&3 in my junior year and skip the AP Cal BC.
I will apply STEM majors. Will this math selection be a red flag to AOs in top 20 colleges? My HS transcript will not have AP Cal BC as a course. I do plan to take the AP Cal BC exam though.
Talk to your math teacher and guidance counselor and follow their advice. In general, I’d advise against skipping a math class as the subject builds on prior knowledge. You are already ahead if the normal math progression.
Ability wise, I think taking AP Cal BC will be boring. I won’t be able to concentrate in class. I just wonder the impact on my HS transcript. Cal 2 has a big overlap with Cal BC, but has some new contents.
If calculus 2 and calculus 3 (assuming you mean multivariable calculus) are college or dual enrollment courses where each is a semester long, that indicates a faster pace of covering material than a calculus BC course that starts where calculus AB ended. Calculus 2 and calculus 3 college courses should put you at a more advanced level in math than calculus BC will.
However, if they are college courses, check how they will be transferred for subject credit and advanced placement at colleges you are interested in attending after high school.
If they are not college courses (i.e. non-dual-enrollment high school courses), then colleges are unlikely to accept them for subject credit or advanced placement, although some may offer their own math placement tests.
As far as college admissions goes, you will be very advanced in math regardless of which of the options you choose.
If it is a normal progression at your HS to do AB, Calc 2, and then Calc 3, where Calc 3 is MVC, I would not worry about this being a red flag for colleges. It should be explained in your school profile.
What would you plan to do for Math in your senior year?
I was on most advanced math path along with the top tier kids, which means Cal BC for 10th grade. I had to take Cal AB due to my own schedule, but I’ve already self-studied Cal BC this year.
If I take Cal BC in Junior year, I will be behind top math kids in my school. That’s why I want to take Cal 2 & 3 (offered at my HS) to go back on track. I worry Cal 2&3 on my senior year transcript will put me at disadvantage comparing with others since admission officers will only see Cal 2 for Senior Year Fall semester.
There’s another math class after Cal 2 &3 in my HS for math kids. I just want to go back on track, however that means I have to skip Cal BC.
Since BC is such a cornerstone course in HS, I wonder if that will raise questions in the admission process.
No, it’s not the normal path. The normal path is Cal 1 → Cal BC → Cal 2 & 3. I unfortunately did Cal 1 → Cal AB so far. That’s why I want to skip Cal BC and go directly to Cal 2 & 3 to go back on track
That seems odd. Can you list the topics covered in each of calculus 1, 2, and 3?
The normal semi-equivalencies in content:
| High school | College |
|---|---|
| AP calculus AB | (single variable) calculus 1 |
| AP calculus BC (if starting at the end of AB) | (single variable) calculus 2 |
| AP calculus BC (including AB material) | (single variable) calculus 1 and 2 |
| (none) | (multivariable) calculus 3 |
Typical progressions would be, depending on the high school:
The path of Cal 1 → Cal BC → Cal 2 & 3 is specific to my school. Cal 2 & 3 is offered at my school, very difficult and teaches college-level content.
Any calculus is considered college level content, so that would not be unique to your school. What does seem unique to your school is the non-standard sequencing which is slower paced than what students reaching calculus in 10th grade (+3 math track) should be able to handle. A student good enough in math to be three grade levels ahead should be able to go from precalculus (9th) → AP calculus BC (including AB material) (10th) → multivariable calculus (one semester) (11th).
What track are you getting back on?
You’ve either covered the material in BC (either self-study or in a class) or you haven’t. If you haven’t, YOUR track is to take BC. If you have, ask your current math teacher and guidance counselor if skipping BC is appropriate in your situation.
This “track” business is irrelevant for you. You’re already advanced- just make sure you’ve mastered the material before you skip ahead. Colleges will see your transcript- nobody is going through your application and announcing “This kid never took BC Calc, OMG, everyone else from his HS has”.
I definitely do not think this is something you should be concerned about. Colleges will understand that Calc 2 and Calc 3 come after BC in your high school’s standard Math sequence.
I note I agree the normal assumption is Calc AB + BC or just Pre-Calc + BC take you through what is conventionally called Calc 2 in college. So it is also a little odd to me your HS teaches something called Calc 2 after BC, rather than having you do Calc 3 (MVC) next. But in any event, Calc AB (usually seen as equivalent to Calc 1) + Calc 2 + Calc 3 is if anything more, not less, normal than your high school’s standard sequence.
THIS, however, is the actual concern I would have. It sounds like your Calc 2 is taught assuming kids have already taken BC. If your Math teachers are OK with you going straight to Calc 2 anyway, then fine. But I would only do it if they gave you the go ahead, because you don’t want to risk being unprepared to do your best.
My concern would be that this is something you should be asking of your math teacher and your guidance counselor. They know how your HS district requirements meet your State requirements for a diploma.
I get that you are STEM-focused and are impatient to do every math course available, but is it at the expense of another course that is required to meet your high school graduation requirements for your college entry requirements?
Not only did I work at our district high schools in town, but I also happened to work at the high school where my children attended.
My son was on a sports team with the “intended” valedictorian. One day, nearing graduation, the parent of this student came running into my office.
She asked me if my son has been made valedictorian. I said I didn’t think so.
Then she explained that her son had a unique schedule that both she and her son “created” and the counselor had just informed her that her son did not meet the high school graduation requirements because he bypassed a course. She had come to the high school because she was receiving emails from the colleges that he lacked biology on his transcript.
Apparently, he was supposed to have taken a biology course in 9th or 10th grade and the parent planned to have him take it in a semester course at the community college. I guess she forgot and he forgot to do that. The Counselor explained that it was nowhere on his transcript. They were supposed to send the CC transcript to the high school. The mother was asking me (panicked yelling!) if my son had become valedictorian to confirm that her son was no longer in the running and could not receive his diploma.
When I walked over to the counselor’s office, later, the counselor knew exactly why I was coming.
She told me that they had sent repeated emails to the parents about the lack of the CC transcript. The family didn’t comply or didn’t understand the email.
The student Was not receiving college freshman orientation information because his application was incomplete and was unable to take a place in the freshman class of the schools where he was accepted.
He had to take a summer school course and had to delay acceptance to his school.
So long story is follow whatever the guidance counselor told you that’s going to be on record to meet your diploma requirements.
And get used to having boring classes because when you go to college you will be In classes where some professors aren’t good teachers.
Thank you. Yes, I asked the teacher and took the Cal BC final paper and got 85%. I also took five sets of FRQs from past AP Cal BC exams and averaged 83%. I think I can handle Cal 2 and Cal 3 next year.
You answered my concern about the transcript missing a course of Cal BC. It seems everyone has it, and it’s the most quoted HS math course when we talk about highly selective colleges.
Whatever may be relevant in the context of many students and many high schools may not be applicable to you, due to the odd way your high school does calculus (that no one else here really understands and which you have not given enough detail about). Given the oddity of your high school’s calculus courses, you should not rely on people here to guess what your math options really mean.
Just for context, long ago there was established a progressive sequence of math topics, meaning that it makes sense to do them a certain order so as to always be well-prepared for the next step in the sequence. This is sometimes known as the main math sequence, core math sequence, or something similar.
OK, then there are some conventional names for the courses that line up with the main math sequence, derived from what usually makes sense to do in a full year in middle school or HS, or alternatively a semester in college.
At the end, this sequence in college goes Calc 1, Calc 2, Calc 3 (MVC), and sometimes people include Differential Equations and Linear Algebra. Beyond that, advanced math branches in too many different directions for there to still be plausibly just one sequence, and some people would say that has really already happened once you get to Diffy Q and LA.
OK, then in HS, the Advanced Placement system wanted it to be possible for advanced math students to place out of the first year of college math, which would usually be Calc 1 and 2. But because it can be a challenge to fit a semester of college math into just a semester of HS, they set it up so you can do a year for Calc 1 (this is AB), and a year for Calc 2 (this is BC).
However, they also recognized that sufficiently advanced math students could maybe do it all in a HS year. So you can also take BC without taking AB first, and then take an AP exam that covers both.
OK, so because the core sequence is so well established in math, this all works quite well, and therefore it makes a lot of sense for high schools with enough advanced math students to offer at least AB, and often BC too. Not all high schools do, of course, and some only offer AB. But many “college prep” high schools offer through BC.
And so lots of kids who are advanced in math take through BC, because that completes the first year of college math, and their HS offered it.
But it doesn’t have to stop there. Some high schools go ahead and offer Calc 3 (MVC), Diffy Q, LA, and maybe even more advanced math. This is getting into the second or even third year of college math sometimes, but some high schools have enough kids interested in that to make it worth their while.
OK, but by far the more typical stopping point is Calc BC (if it is not earlier). Hence why you hear so much about it.
But if you are attending one of those relatively rare high schools which goes farther, then it really loses any special status, it is just another step along the way. Of course it can be nice to get credit, but that is not an admissions issue.
This makes sense. Yes, Cal BC is not the last class in our school. We have Cal 1, 2, 3. Each one is one semester and structured as college-pace classes. We also have AP Cal AB and AP Cal BC, each one is a full-year class.
I took Cal 1 in the Spring of 9th grade. I did get a A, but I pretty much spent nearly all my study time on math. I completely gave up other extracurriculars from March to May. The school put me on Cal BC for 10th grade, but my parents disagreed and thought the math path was unnecessarily aggressive. They don’t trust that I can continue on to Cal BC and Cal 2/3 afterwards with good grades. They made me redo AP Cal AB this entire year.
If calculus 1, 2, 3 are like the usual ones in college, then calculus AB after calculus 1 looks like a repeated course (this may not look good from a college admission standpoint). You should have taken calculus BC or calculus 2 after earning an A in calculus 1.
After calculus AB, the next course should be calculus BC or calculus 2. If you know the material in calculus BC or calculus 2, then calculus 3 should be the next course.
Do you not think that an AO notices if a student takes, and does well in, multiple post- calculus BC classes as a HS student (even if classes aren’t DE)?
So there is a lot to your story which I am in no position to assess. But I will say as a general rule there is a reason HS math progressions are normally spread out more than when you get to college. There is typically a lot going on in the life of a HS kid, and it really doesn’t make sense to rush–there will be plenty of time for more math.
So I would be concerned about what you said about Cal 1 causing you to study so much and giving up extracurriculars. Again I am in no position to say whether the right next move was to do AB, which does seem like a repeat to me. But going forward, I would just suggest you seriously consider whether Cal 2 and 3 are actually the right move for you now.
Like, would they also require you to study so much? Give up extracurriculars? That would not be a good outcome in my view–not for you, and not for college applications either.
In the end people closer to you are going to understand all this better. But just based on what you told us, I would strongly consider not risking that.