Should I take online, or at school?

kiterunner18
Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:05:38 +0000

I posted this in the college admissions thread. . . wanted some more opinions. . .

So, I’m kind of in a dilemma here. I’m a rising senior, and my school doesn’t offer a TON of AP courses. Our state offers a state-funded program called MOVIP that allows students to take an AP course for free if the student is enrolled in an academic lab that hour. Next year, I’m already planning on taking AP Art History online through this program.

My real issue comes down to calculus. My schedule didn’t work out junior year, and I ultimately had to choose between honors precalc and AP Chemistry. Chemistry was my passion, so I decided to enroll in AP Chemistry, and replace honors precalc with AP Statistics. After having a meeting with my counselor, I was given permission to skip honors precalc and advance to calculus. My only qualm with calculus at my school is that it’s offered only as college credit, not AP. Also, the teacher is notoriously terrible. I was thinking about enrolling in the MOVIP class because they offer AP calculus, and it’s more independent. If I did this, I would have to enroll in a second academic lab. I’m worried because HPC won’t show on my transcript (even though I was allowed to bypass), I’ll look like I didn’t challenge myself enough (even though I took AP Calc online).

I’m sorry if this is a really disorganized question. It’s kind of hard to explain. My ultimate questions are - Should I take calculus online? Will it look bad to the ivies that I didn’t have HPC on my transcript, even though I had permission to bypass it? Or should I just take it at school at audit the class?