What courses should I take to best prepare myself for my actuarial science major at UIUC. I would love to know what you all think before I decide on what courses to take at registration.
I have 5 in AP Chinese, 4 in AP Macroecon, Microecon,World History, 3 in AP Literature. I feel like I did pretty well this year on AP Human Geo and AP US History, so probably 4 on those two subjects too. Failed miserably in AP Calculus and AP Computer though. My ALEKS says I need Pre-calculus for first semester. I wonder if these background information help.
As to what you should take, you should contact your UIUC academic advisor and discuss the issue. As to what is possibly indicated from the info you provide:
Despite having had Calculus, your ALEKS is indicating you need pre-calculus (Math 115 at UIUC) before you can even begin calculus at UIUC. That places you at a disadvantage for actuarial science where the expectation is that you would be able to start no lower than Calculus 1 as a freshman since for many of the required courses as an actuarial science major, you need calculus courses as a prerequisite (go here for required courses for an actuarial science degree http://catalog.illinois.edu/undergraduate/las/academic-units/math/actuarial/ and click on any required course to see a pop-up window that tells you the prerequisites for the course). In any event, math ability is critical to acturial science and if you really cannot start with calculus, you should not try to do so because the Calculus 1 course at UIUC is no peice of cake.
It appears you can get AP credit for Econ 102 and 103 and thus have part of your prerequisites for the required upper level Econ courses (calculus is also required before taking those) and for taking accounting 201 followed by 202, or alternatively 200, which are needed as prerequisites for taking the finance courses required for actuarial science. Your AP scores also indicate you have credit for the entire four semester general education language requirement, the entire 6 hour social studies requirement with credit for Econ 102 and 103, and possibly for the 3 hour western cultural requirement if you do well in AP US History, but not anything for the 6 hour humanties requirement because your lit AP score in literature is too low, the 3 hour non-western cultures requirement, or the 6 hour natural sciences requirement.
In other words, with your ALEKS test and AP scores, it looks like your schedule should include math 115 and accounting 201 (or 200). Do not know your your SAT or ACT scores and thus do not know if you can avoid the first freshman composition (rhetoric) course required as a general eduacation requirement so you may have to take that. You might be able to take Computer Science 105 or 125 but that is not clear from ALEKS score and you possibly want to hold off until at least second semester before taking a CS course. You should also study the general education requirements and list of complying courses to possibly add courses needed toward gen ed requirements in Natural Sciences, Humanies and Arts, or Non Western cultures, see http://www.las.illinois.edu/students/requirements/gened/ and https://courses.illinois.edu/gened/DEFAULT/DEFAULT Again, you should discuss the matter with your academuc advisor before actually registering.