Course Selection Advice - Senior Year

Cville24

Cville24

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Joined
Oct 13, 2022
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Good afternoon, all. It's that time of year again! I'm currently in the process of adjusting and finalizing my courses for senior year and I have 2 questions, both of which I'll be reaching out to my AO about as well, but I'd love to get some second opinions here on SAF.

First off, I'll provide my current course list for this year for context.

Just to cover all my bases, our school system organizes courses into 4 levels-- in order of rigor: standard, honors, GT, and AP.

AP Economics (Macro/Micro)
AP English Literature & Composition
Honors Statistics and Probability
GT Wind Ensemble
AP Environmental Science
AP Human Geography
AP Psychology
PLTW Engineering Design & Development (GT-level course)

With that in mind, here's my first question: I have the opportunity to be an aide to my band director, who I very much enjoy working with and am close with. In order to do that, though, I'd need to drop a class. The course I would be dropping would be AP Psych-- my main concern here is whether or not I would be hurting my competitiveness by dropping an AP course to be an aide. Thoughts on that?

Secondly, I'm considering changing Honors Stat to AP. I had the teacher I'm currently scheduled to take stat with this year for trig, and while I didn't dislike him personally, his teaching style did not work for me at all. I constantly felt lost in class, and I don't want a repeat of that for stat. While my ideal scenario is to transfer to another teacher for honors stat instead of moving up to AP, I believe that my currently-scheduled teacher may be the only one teaching honors-level statistics this year. Do you think it's advisable to move up to AP Stat in this situation? From what I've heard about stat courses generally (and AP stat particularly) I believe I'll do better in stat than in previous math courses, so I think I could handle the move up to AP, but this is already the heaviest AP load I've taken, which gives me some pause.

Thanks!
 
A1Janitor said:
Have you taken calculus and physics already?
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I took physics last year (as well as chemistry) but I have not taken calculus. Math is not my strongest subject, and I don't think that I would perform especially well in that class. I'd rather take a math class that I can perform well in than one that I would struggle through for the entire year and likely get poor grades in. I absolutely believe in taking the most challenging class that one can take, but I think that calculus is just beyond my limit for this year.
 
I would advise my son in this position to take calculus and drop economics or one of the other AP sciences. And work hard to learn the material.
 
Well you'll be taking Calc at the academy, and you'll have considerably less time on your hands when you do. I would tackle that one now rather than have to explain your choice of the grades over difficulty in an interview.

And like @A1Janitor, I'd be comfortable dropping any of the softer AP social science classes. When my DD ran into a hard corner like this her senior year she came down to a choice of JROTC or Spanish. I told her to call admissions and see what they thought about three years of language. "We're a STEM school, so make your best schedule for that purpose. You've probably got all the language we need right now." Go ahead and ask them too, but my guess is they'd likely tell you Calc is more useful than Stats and either beat out Psych or Human Geo or whatever (unless you need them to meet local reqs to graduate.) Don't hesitate to contact admissions with these questions.

EDIT: Assisting the band director shows leadership, and band is usually a class of passion so don't toss that overboard.
 
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StPaulDad said:
Well you'll be taking Calc at the academy, and you'll have considerably less time on your hands when you do. I would tackle that one now rather than have to explain your choice of the grades over difficulty in an interview.

And like @A1Janitor, I'd be comfortable dropping any of the softer AP social science classes. When my DD ran into a hard corner like this her senior year she came down to a choice of JROTC or Spanish. I told her to call admissions and see what they thought about three years of language. "We're a STEM school, so make your best schedule for that purpose. You've probably got all the language we need right now." Go ahead and ask them too, but my guess is they'd likely tell you Calc is more useful than Stats and either beat out Psych or Human Geo or whatever (unless you need them to meet local reqs to graduate.) Don't hesitate to contact admissions with these questions.
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From DD’s experience, can confirm that Calc is preferred (at least for West Point). Was registered for AP Stats this year (AP Calc AB last year, 5 on the exam), and was told she needed to take BC.
 
Agree with the posters above that you should try to tackle high school Calculus. My son, a current 2C at the CG Academy, took classes up to AP Calc AB in high school and got As in all his high school math classes without a lot of effort. He felt that Calc 1 and 2 at the Academy were challenging. Pretty sure he got a B+ in Calc 1 and an A in Calc 2. He said that the second class way way harder than the first, but he'd learned much better study habits by then (high school classes came pretty easy to him). I think going into the Academy without any Calculus background is not a great recipe for success if you can avoid it. Are you in a position to get a tutor right from the start to help with the math? My non-academy son, who went to a state school majoring in Construction Management, had to take a Business Calc class as a requirement to graduate. It didn't fit into his schedule well and he waited until his very last semester to take it. By that point, he hadn't taken a math class (aside from Stats) in four years. He (and mom!) were both worried that he might tank the class and then not be able to graduate. I found him a great tutor right from the start of the school year and set up twice a month sessions to keep him on track. He ended up with a high B (cancelled a few of the appointments I'd made with the tutor) in the class. Going into the final knowing it was at that point mathmatically impossible for him to fail the class was such a relief to him. Definitely dump the AP Psych to make room for more important classes.
 
RJB1690 said:
Agree with the posters above that you should try to tackle high school Calculus. My son, a current 2C at the CG Academy, took classes up to AP Calc AB in high school and got As in all his high school math classes without a lot of effort. He felt that Calc 1 and 2 at the Academy were challenging. Pretty sure he got a B+ in Calc 1 and an A in Calc 2. He said that the second class way way harder than the first, but he'd learned much better study habits by then (high school classes came pretty easy to him). I think going into the Academy without any Calculus background is not a great recipe for success if you can avoid it. Are you in a position to get a tutor right from the start to help with the math? My non-academy son, who went to a state school majoring in Construction Management, had to take a Business Calc class as a requirement to graduate. It didn't fit into his schedule well and he waited until his very last semester to take it. By that point, he hadn't taken a math class (aside from Stats) in four years. He (and mom!) were both worried that he might tank the class and then not be able to graduate. I found him a great tutor right from the start of the school year and set up twice a month sessions to keep him on track. He ended up with a high B (cancelled a few of the appointments I'd made with the tutor) in the class. Going into the final knowing it was at that point mathmatically impossible for him to fail the class was such a relief to him. Definitely dump the AP Psych to make room for more important classes.
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You know, I might be thinking of what he said about Physics 1 and 2, not Calc... So disregard the grades part, but I still stand by the recommendation to take Calc and utilize a tutor if you are able.
 
Cville24 said:
I took physics last year (as well as chemistry) but I have not taken calculus. Math is not my strongest subject, and I don't think that I would perform especially well in that class. I'd rather take a math class that I can perform well in than one that I would struggle through for the entire year and likely get poor grades in. I absolutely believe in taking the most challenging class that one can take, but I think that calculus is just beyond my limit for this year.
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If you indicated the highest math class you've taken somewhere here, I missed it, but remember Pre-Calc is the MINIMUM to be considered for admission. So he sure to take at least Precalc if you haven't already.

I'm sure calculus is preferred, but my daughter received an early action appointment for class of 2027 with an A in Honors Precalc in High school.

She also took AP Stat and got an A in that as well.

Every application is unique though!
 
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The standards will vary a bit depending on what your school offers. You can't be penalized for not taking a class that isn't offered, but if it is you may have to explain why you didn't push to the end of the curriculum.
 
Thank you all for your advice! I called my admissions officer and he echoed the resounding sentiment here that calculus would be the better path. I'll be discussing this with my school counselor on Monday and we'll see where we get from there.
 
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