Hello, I am in high school and am on a math track that will only lead up to AP Calculus AB by the time I graduate. Below is my math plan
Freshmen: Integrated Math 1
Sophomore: Integrated Math 2 Honors
Dual enrollment (over summer) Elementary Statistics
Junior: Integrated Math 3 Honors
Dual enrollment (over summer) College Alegbra
Senior: AP Calculus BC
Do you think skipping Calculus AB and going straight to BC would be a viable option based on the math courses that I am going to take? I am planning to major in computer science and and planning to apply to UC’s like UCLA and Berkley, I am in state by the way.
Depends if the BC course gives fill treatment to the AB topics as part of the BC class or simply covers the BC topics
Fwiw, Berkeley and UCLA don’t give more brownie points for BC vs AB. And it certainly doesn’t help if your grade tanks because you lacked preparation.
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Does your school offer a sequence where AB is 1 level and BC the next level, or does it offer 2 different classes, one where AB is a full year and one where BC has AB 1st semester and BC 2nd semester so that AB is not a pre-req for BC?
As long as you end with Calc senior year and AB is the highest your school offers, no problem. You’ll be evaluated in the context of what your Hs offers.
Do not take precalculus over the summer. IM2 is likely the easiest to take over the summer. See if your Hs offers it as a summer class. =>
Can you take Integrated math 2 over the summer, IM3 during the year, then precalculus and calculus (AB or BC)?
The teacher that teaches the class teaches both AB and BC, and on my school website it looks like both calculus’s are clumped together, by the way will Berkley and ucla choose someone who takes calc bc over ab for cs?
Calculus AB and BC are two completley differnet classes, they are taught my the same teacher though, my schools doesn’t offer math classes over the summer.
That won’t be the determining factor
what if they are both from the same high school, like both have the same opportunities, I am scared that I will be disadvantaged by only taking calc ab instead of bc.
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The teacher teaches both AB and BC = they teach 2 different classes? Or they teach ABC as one yearlong course?
You’ll be compared to your school only and your school’s limit should appear in the school profile. You can request it to see whether it’ll be clear.
If you were placed on a track that ends in Calc AB, you will not be penalized as long as you get As.
Do not focus on UCBerkeley: odds are, you will be rejected regardless, because 19 out of 20 applicants, all the best in their school, will be. Odds are thus overwhelming.
However you won’t make a difference by twisting yourselt into a pretzel with summer courses. Use your summer to DO something CS or iT related.
My answer doesn’t change. You can’t make the “all else being equal” argument because no two applicants are equal.
Yes my teacher teaches both ab and bc, however they are two different classes.
yes I understand, by being equal I meant going to the same high school
I think that you should ask your math teacher. You will likely need to wait until at least the end of your sophomore year to get an answer. The math teacher(s) will need to see how you do in math up to that point.
However, I would not skip any prerequisite for calculus and would be very cautious about skipping any calculus class. The only students who could do this are students who are very strong in math, and these are exactly the same students who in the future are likely to be using calculus specifically and math in general a LOT.
I personally attended a high school that did not offer calculus as an option at all. My high school class in pre-calculus was the smallest class that I ever had up to that point (I think that there were 12 students in the class, if I am remembering properly). That did not stop me from attending MIT and majoring in math.
The point is not to jump ahead. The point is to do very well in whatever math classes you take in high school.
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Okay, I will do well for the remainder, I finished first semester with a 102 percent and currently have a 101.4 percent, I am just scared that by not taking AP Calculus BC in my senior year will my high school does offer will hurt me in college applications especially for the big cs names like berkley.
Does BC require AB as a prerequisite, or does BC require precalculus as a prerequisite?
College algebra in a college is usually precalculus without trigonometry, so it may be insufficient preparation for calculus that includes calculus of trigonometric functions (like AP calculus in high school).
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Yes, to take BC you need to take AB, BC and AB technically do not require pre-calculus as a prerequisite, this is due to the fact that after taking integrated math 3 honors you can skip pre calculus and go straight to ap calculus ab, I was thinking of taking college alegbra and elementary statistics to supplement me not taking calc bc.
So it looks like your high school has this sequence of prerequisites:
IM 1 → IM 2 honors → IM 3 honors → AP calculus AB → AP calculus BC
In this case, college algebra would only repeat some of what you learned in the IM courses and would be a waste of time if you are really an A+ student in math. But taking BC without AB would not be a good decision.
Just take AP calculus AB after IM 3 honors.
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Okay, thank you, would taking elementary statistics as dual enrollment next year during the summer before junior year supplement me not taking calc bc?
I second taking IM3H-> Calc AB and NOT skipping the first level in calculus.
Nobody can fault you for taking the advanced sequence at your school.
You will NOT be judged by other schools’ measure - BTW many offer the same advanced sequence as yours.
Statistics would be an elective. Stats/data science majors would require calc based statistics but the elementary, algebra-based course is valuable, especially if it presents real-life issues.
Better yet, do something over the summer that would show your aptitude and interest in CS (activity, club, volunteering, project…)
What other classes would you be taking Jr&Sr year?
Instead of focusing on reaches (which are nice to dream about but are easy to find) start thinking of colleges that would interest you, have an environment of interest to you, and would be likely for CS (ie., non impacted CSUs or non-CS impacted, WUE universities, private universities that meet need or offer merit outside CA…)
Take it if you want to get an idea of what statistics is like if you may consider a major in statistics, data science, or statistics-heavy subject like economics in college. An elementary statistics (or high school AP statistics) may not give significant advanced placement in college for a math-heavy major (typically, such majors require calculus-based statistics if they require statistics).
Also, such courses usually list intermediate algebra or high school algebra 2 as a prerequisite. Taking it before IM 3 may mean not having all of the prerequisite knowledge.
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Okay, thank you I am currently thinking of majoring in computer science or data science in college,