I am a high-school sophomore, taking honors pre-calculus. I have no desire to study stem in college. I am thinking about majoring in humanities. What if I take AP Stats in my junior year and no math in my senior year - would colleges look down on that? I would be taking all AP / Honors classes (English, history, foreign language, etc.). What if I want to go to law school after college?
Do you mean moderately selective colleges, who will likely be satisfied with precalculus (or even just algebra 2) for a humanities major, or highly selective colleges, who are more likely to want to see higher levels of achievement in all high school academic subjects, regardless of major?
Law does require logical thinking, which is math-adjacent (remember the logic and proofs in geometry?).
Depends on the “where” you are interested in attending.
Note you can get to even the top law schools from any college.
That said, you don’t want to be seen as running away from challenges in life - but yes, you’d still have plenty of college opportunities with your plan.
Good luck.
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It is not about running away from challenges but focusing my attention to things that I care more about: writing, debate, sports, etc. My brother who is a senior just got into tons of colleges for engineering. He did not take history in his senior year because he did not care for it and thought it would not make a difference as an engineering applicant. I am trying to decide whether this is the very same thing for humanities students. I am interested in selective colleges.
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Again - school dependent.
Define selective - that means different things to everyone - and check with that school recommends.
I didn’t say you are running away - I said you don’t want to be seen as running away. One can’t know for sure what others will think.
Harvard may, likely will look at rigor differently than say, Denver. Many would consider both “selective” - that’s a word that means different things to different people. Harvard may want you to pursue the strongest path in each core area while a Villanova may give more leeway, etc.
Think of a tennis player who runs around the backhand to hit a forehand. They may (or may not) see you like that.
That said, you can go to law from anywhere - Harvard is represented by 147 schools - schools like Montclair State, U of Kansas, The College of NJ, Drake, etc. - so you’ll have options to attend a top rated law school regardless of where you go.
I think - if you truly don’t want to keep on the math track, that your plan works fine - and you’ll have great opportunities - I just don’t know if they’ll be the ones you want (as I don’t know what those are and anything about you). As long as you develop a well rounded list, you’ll be fine.
Best of luck.
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You will have to take at least one math class in college most likely, if not more. Having a break for a year or more can be hard. 4 years of math and 3 years of social studies is a norm in some parts of the country, so no ss senior year is usually ok.
Look at what DE math classes some colleges may accept that you could take senior year. That could help in college with scheduling, too.
AP stats is good for Junior year.
What else did you take in 9th and 10th? Algebra II and PreCalc? So Algebra 1 and geometry were in middle school or you doubled up in 9th or had block scheduling?
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The answer is…it depends. One of my kids never even took precalc…took stats his senior year instead. But he was a musician. Didn’t need that math. And wasn’t required to take it in college.
My second kid took precalc senior year, but that kid was a stem major so math on college was a given.
I think a lot depends on the colleges you choose.
Law schools do not care about an applicant’s undergraduate school.
The practice of law does not require any advanced math whatsoever.
Can you give us a list of colleges you are looking at so we can better tell you if we think you need math every year or not? It really depends on the selectivity.
As for law school, it does not matter if you take math or not at the HS level.
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It solely depends on the college or university you are planning to attend. Most selective colleges would like to see 4 years of math. As said already, look at what DE math options there are. AP stats is a great option for senior year:) If it is less selective colleges you are applying to then the three years of math with AP stats is fine.
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I might have a slightly skewed point of view as a former math major…
I think that this might be okay, but it does make me nervous.
Selective universities like to see that you have challenged yourself. Also, some top schools such as (if I have this right) Harvard and Stanford do not admit by major. Admittedly they admit many students who are exceptional in one direction and less strong in another direction.
Another issue that I see is that there is always the possibility of changing majors. As an example, one daughter started university as a languages major and then changed to be a STEM major (specifically a biology major).
I know several lawyers. I just got off a call with a couple of them. One thing that I noticed: They are just as strong if not stronger at logic compared to the engineers that were on the same call. They just apply their use of logic to legal issues rather than engineering issues. Studying math forces a person to exercise their logical thinking skills.
And I think that this is true also.
Skipping math for a year may be entirely fine. It however makes me nervous.
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If you do not want to take a calculus course next year, AP Statistics is a great option. I think, however, that it is too soon to be deciding whether or not to take a math course senior year. At this time next year you should be clearer on which colleges interest you. Use their recommendations to guide your senior year course selection.
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Take math.
Maybe you’ll decide on a joint mba/JD program which will have a quant focus. Maybe you’ll work representing venture capital and private equity firms (they use a LOT of legal services) where being math savvy is your competitive advantage. Maybe you develop another interest in college and not having math will hold you back.
Or just take math because competitive colleges expect you to challenge yourself with the traditional HS curriculum…math, science, foreign language etc even if you don’t love all your classes.
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In the context of the most selective schools, wouldn’t “less strong” in math commonly be something like calculus AB (instead of calculus BC or higher)?
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It really depends on where you go, what the core curriculum is like, and your major. My daughter, who attends a selective LAC (and did not take Calc), satisfied her quantitative requirement with her AP Stats score. Her college has a fairly flexible and minimal set of core requirements. Had she not used the AP score, she could have satisfied the requirement with stats or even a particular philosophy class that focuses on logic, and then would have had to take nothing more that was math-related. She, like OP, is a humanities person – this wouldn’t have worked with a STEM major.
So it can be done, and at quite a few schools, too, including selective schools with open curricula. Many selective schools do want to see four years of math in HS, though, so if you don’t want to take Calc AB, you might consider other math electives for your senior year, if available. Fair warning - some will want to see Calc AB. But many just want four years of math.
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Does your school offer honors calculus rather than aP calc? If it doesn’t or it would be too much added to the rest of your Humanities-heavy schedule, what about classes loie financial math, or math for Humanities?
What would you take for Science (bio/chem/physics at any level + AP Environmental would be the minimum expected).
I would recommend investigating Humanities/Social Sciences at a nearby CC: philosophy, cultural anthropology, specific history courses (NOT surveys)…
At many colleges, the math or quantitative reasoning requirement can be satisfied by an introductory statistics course similar in content to high school AP statistics, or some other course with similar prerequisite knowledge (high school algebra 2 at most).
However, a pre-law student may want to consider the importance of logical reasoning in law and the LSAT, so taking math or philosophy logic courses may be worth considering to practice that.
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