More senior year scheduling -- Multivariable Calc and AP Gov

SpreadsheetMom
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 21:06:06 +0000

For senior year, D22 will have AP Lit, AP Bio and AP Latin for sure.

Then, a semester of psychology (school doesn’t offer AP) and a semester of World Religions or Global Justice (required).

She’ll have a year of Chamber Singers – it’ll be her fourth year, and chorus is her passion.

So she has two slots left. She needs a math, and she’s in AP Calc BC now and doing well. Should she take Multivariable Calc, which only a couple of kids at her school take – it’s definitely considered the highest level and most difficult course? Or should she take AP Stats, which should be a lot easier for her, but not considered as high level?

And in the final slot, she’s deciding between a year of AP Gov or a semester of gov (minimum required to graduate) and a semester of something fun she wants to take, like Honors Music Theory.

She’s planning to apply to fairly selective schools like Emory, Rice, WashU, Duke, some small LACs – and who knows, perhaps also some Ivies and U Chicago. Her grades are very high, possibly ranked 1 in her class, and her test scores are perfect.
But ECs are meh, no state or national awards, no real community service, no “wow” factor (although possibly she could submit a research paper for publication this year, and she’s interviewing for a selective/prestigious summer program in our state).

Oh, and she plans to study some combo of linguistics, psychology and neuroscience.

So based on those stats, how important is it that she take the Multivariable Calc as opposed to AP Stats?

And, how important is it to take AP Gov as opposed to a semester of gov and a semester of something fluffier?

Will schools of this caliber count the sheer number of AP courses, even if they’re not in the student’s area of interest? She doesn’t mind taking Multivariable Calc – especially since the same fast-tracked math kids have been together in classes since 7th grade, so the others will mock her if she wimps out with the easier course, LOL.

But she really has zero interest in taking AP Gov, even though the class itself doesn’t seem too hard.