Is statistics or data science a possible major? If so, then a taste of statistics in high school may help determine that interest, even if there is no advanced placement that can be gotten.
Note that economics research can make heavy use of statistics as well.
If those courses are not offered in the HS, AP Stats is often considered acceptable – students are not expected to take classes not offered in their HS. However, note that my reply did have the caveat that if the student is looking at hyper-competitive schools and is a potential STEM major then a discussion with the guidance counselor is in order.
In any event, the student seems to be going into junior year and unsure if they will pursue a STEM major.
The student went beyond high school calc so it’s far out of sequence - was my thinking.
It’s a rabid case of taking the foot off the gas pedal.
Otherwise I’d have less issue.
Yeah the genesis of my OP kinda got lost from the tread it started in. But this has been very helpful
I’d guess, likely no. Econ maybe. Finance maybe. Chem/Biochem/Bio maybe. She tends to be very good at many subjects, a good student, a good writer, very analytical, but not excellent at anything just yet. Her strength is likely she is very personable and expresses herself very well. Not like in a debate manner, but in the soft skills of dealing with people and making everyone feel good about it.
This year she has Honors Chem, AP Physics, AP Precalc, Honors Spanish 4, AP Euro, Honors Chamber Orchestra (and plays in one of the main local youth Orchestras) and Honors Eng. We should get some idea on science this year. Next year she will continue Orchestra and AP Spanish, AP Calc likely BC, AP Eng, maybe AP chem or bio if science goes well this year. Then it’s not certain yet. She is thinking AP Econ to see if she likes it, or AP Phyc, or AP Music Theory, maybe a business class. There are a lot of classes she is interest in but not enough time.
I would take things one year at a time.
I suggested my S27 take a dual-enrollment Calc III class rather than AP stats his senior year after taking Calc BC. He’s a prospective engineering student, and I was honestly worried that if he took a year off of Calc, he would be super rusty on Calc by the time he got to college. The dual-enrolled class isn’t amazing – it gives 5 cr from the local CC and does the course over a year that would normally be done in a semester. But theoretically this class still transfers to his two most likely destinations for college. If he needs stats for his engineering degree, it’s probably calc based stats anyway.
My oldest D22 did the less rigorous path of Pre-Calc → AP stats, but she was intent on a major where no calc was required, and it did get her out of 1 of 2 stats classes with her degree program in college.
S25 took AP Stats while also in an advanced calculus program offered to high schoolers thru our state flagship university, but he mostly took it for fun. He’s now taken calc based stats in college and likes it so much he is adding statistics as his second major (first major is applied math…it sort of sounds like two majors in the same thing even though I know it is really not!).
So as other posters have said, there’s a lot of nuance. Students’ intended plans/major after h.s. grad could make a big difference.
Taking stats “for fun” is something LOL. Thanks for the examples. I know kids can change pathways and majors. I’m just trying to give her as uch guidance as I can. Her HS counselor really is overworked with little time to actually advise her. But a few of her teachers are pretty good at discussing options.
Yeah…you know you have a true math lover when in the summer break after Freshman year in college (when you know they didn’t sign up for any summer courses) you see them working problems in a Stats textbook. When I asked S25 what he was doing, he said, “Well, we didn’t cover all the chapters in the textbook last semester and I was really curious about the other topics so I am self studying these chapters to learn more!”. 
That’s HUGE rigor. I think going from Calc to stats won’t harm her, especially given the interests.
If it did, you’d never know. Maybe at the highest level of colleges but if she applied to one and didn’t get in, you wouldn’t know why. And if her list is not that selective you’d have zero issue.
Is it better to have a broader base of classes for Jr/Sr year, or a more focused set of classes? It seems she wants to have a broader set and explore, and that seems like a good idea to help her find her path. But I read so much that you need to find a focus. It was easier for my S25 who was a clear chem kid since 8th or 9th grade.
We just started thinking about colleges, and of course she has many of the big names on there. I see her more as an LAC kid, but who knows. My son’s view on colleges changed significantly from jr year visits to actually picking a school.
You do ?
I don’t.
She should, if striving for a highly selective school have an English, math, social science, foreign language and lab science. If she has extra time, then an elective of choice it needn’t be rigorous. Mine took nutrition. If she’s not seeking the highest level, she can back off a year on science, social science and foreign language.
These are kids. Not robots. What you presented already was over the top.
No one at 15/16 needs to know what they want to do. Even when kids graduate college they often don’t know what’s next.
Too much pressure…she’s a kid. And she’s doing beyond very well.
A huge major in college is undecided. Then there’s other colleges where you don’t even pick a major for two years. No focus is needed now.
The usual expectation is a broad base; if there is elective space, adding academic electives in areas of potential interest is helpful.
Definitely a lot of nuance in sequence and rigor with math classes. My D22 completed AP Calc BC her junior year, and she planned to be a humanities major and wouldn’t really need math at all in college, so she debated taking AP Stats as a senior.
However, her school offered Multivariable Calculus as a class for the handful of students who had finished BC Calc before senior year, and they all but forbade her to forgo Multivariable (in which she had zero interest) in favor of AP Stats.
Ironically, she later decided to pursue speech-language pathology in grad school – for which she needed a Stats course. So she ended up taking Calc-based stats in college. If she had taken AP Stats in high school, that would have counted. 
But then, she thinks it’s possible she wouldn’t have gotten into her top 20 school if she had skipped Multivariable in favor of AP Stats (humanities major or not).
My D22 does this, but not with math – instead, she does things like translate Latin and Greek versions of Bible verses to English and then compares them, just out of curiosity. Or she watches her favorite indie musicals and writes out scripts (and then comes up with better blocking), just for fun. Or she learns all 1,025 Pokemon so that she can list them from memory in under 30 minutes. Party trick? Who knows.
Rice kids gonna Rice!
Assuming this student will have four years each of math, sciences, social studies, English and up to at least level 3 of the same foreign language, it is my opinion that senior year is a nice time to take those elective courses the student would like to take.
I’m once again struct by the differences in HS structure around our country.
For better or worse, anyone gunning for competitive colleges was highly encourage by our in school college counselors to NOT take their foot off the gas senior year. The entire four year curriculum was designed to show increase rigor from 9th - 12th. Hence why AP stats was not considered a senior year class for the top two deciles of the class.
In our current district, the public school top students are taking calc III and diff e q, with the uber accelerated kids taking diff e q and linear (all offered as a 1st period class at the local university and bussing provided so the school does make it easy).
Ultimately I think OP needs to talk to the school guidance counselor and better understand their track record for acceptances and to see if there is even any wiggle room to flip flop the sequence. If there isn’t the option to switch, or the school has a great track record of acceptances, just do what the school recommends. The school profile will go with the common app to the colleges anyway.
Most definitely. Students in high school that opt not to take a math subject senior year are the ones that struggle with college mathematics the most during the first year of college - and not just the higher ability students, also students that take a regular sequence - like algebra, geometry, and algebra II, and then no math senior year. Four full years of mathematics should be required to graduate from high school in all U.S. states. Same thing with English/Language Arts IMO.
Our kids can take whatever classes they want so long as they meet the pre-reqs. So, she could take BC junior year and then a DE Calc class as a Sr, if we can make the schedule work. Or take Stats Jr year, or Stats and BC jr year or not take Stats at all. Entirely up to us, based on what my kids interests and goals are. Right now she is gunning for a top school but we already started to discuss having tiers of schools to target beyond the dream list.
She will definitely have 4 years of math, social studies, English and science (actually she is doubled on science this year). She will also have 4 years of chamber orchestra and technically she is in Spanish 4 now having taking Spanish 1 and 2 in 7th/8th grade, and planning AP Spanish in Jr year. But, as of now she is contemplating AP Spanish Lit as a Sr, in part because she wants to be fluent in Spanish and Spanish Lit at our school is basically a TA for AP Spanish Lang along with self directed lit work. But that is open to change as I’m not sure it’s worth taking.
She is also debating taking Gov in the summer to get it out of the way versus taking AP Gov as Jr. Regular Gov is a one semester class and easily doable over a summer. AP obviously is a full year and would have an AP grade boost, but costs a class period she could use to explore something else. She was going to take Precalc this last summer, but that didn’t work out.