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25% of the school year is already over and it's time already to look at classes. My daughter is a sophomore taking Calculus BC. She is trying to decide between AP Stats and Multivariable Calculus. She say (as of now) to be interested in becoming a Psychologist. Which class do you think she should take?

I agree with you and so does my daughter. Her situation at school is different than most others its a senior year year. She does have the advantage of possibly taking it senior year. Also it sounds weird since the Stats class is supposedly easier class. The only disadvantage I see is having 4 AP classes junior year and SAT testing in the Spring.

If your daughter is taking BC as a sophomore I would think it means she is very good at math and my understanding is that AP Stats is not a very challenging course for kids that are mathy. Not sure about the rest of her courses but going from BC to Stats would not be seen as a rigorous course load.

My son is a freshman taking BC and he will take Multivariable next year. He plans to take Stats at some stage but he does not really consider it a math course.

If she wants a rigorous enough stats course for it to be valuable for data analysis as a psychologist, she may well want to wait until college, and take the STEM version of stats. I can tell you from experience that grad-level stats for social sciences was far less rigorous than the incidental stats I picked up in STEM coursework.

She should do whatever makes the most sense to her and you for her future goals, but do so knowing the relative level of challenge of the courses.

I read recently that the more selective colleges expect students to take the most challenging courses their high school offers. If that is the type of school your daughter is considering for undergrad, Multivariable should be in her transcript at some point, even though Stats is more applicable to her major. Also, she may change her mind (many students at some point want to major in psych).

As Portia pointed out stats kind of goes with almost all majors though. She is good in math but doesn't want to be in a math related field. I suspect, and she has admitted, BC is harder than math last year. Kind of funny you mentioned your son doesn't consider it a math because my daughter has a senior friend that takes both classes and doesn't consider it a math either. Since she had algebra 2 in 8th grade at the high school she will have the three year math requirement done. Although this year she has another math AP computer science principles which she has found easy so far.
The rest of the courses she needs to take next year is the dilemma. There are two AP physics classes to choose from. One is a period and the other a period and a half with two possible AP exams. I was wrong earlier she could actually have 5 AP. The others are English and US History. Also she is debating on quitting band and that would leave an open period. Although I can't imagine what class she might take in its place. She won't want a free period unless it's the last period of the day.

Can she take dual enrollment classes and take the stats class there instead of AP?

Thank you all for your posts

aeh- I have only slightly looked what college classes she would need fo a psychology major. I have no doubt you are correct in your assessment. I think the AP Stats in high school is more for college credit or the ability to be placed in a higher class. It looks like to me she would need to take a stat class in college like the one you suggested.

NotherBen- I agree multi variable would look better on a college transcript. As to the Psych major comment I totally agree with . I could of picked 50 majors before guessing psych. I wouldn't be shocked if it changed

Frannie- i didn't see any thing for stats but for 300 dollars you can get college credit for multivariable at U of I.

I would recommend multivariable calculus if that is the most rigorous option available. Is it? It is quite confusing because different districts have different curriculum even when it is the same name. I find our Algebra 2 a joke but our students then catch up with one year of Pre-Calculus and two years of Calculus ( AB for one year followed by BC for one year) so that multivariable is already covered in Calculus BC. Our accelerated students who complete BC before senior year would take Differential Equations or Linear Algebra at either the CC or a local uni unless they want to take it easy with AP Stats. It is my understanding that AP Stats is rather light-weight so may be a good option for seniors who would be submitting college apps and transcripts already. The rule of thumb is to go for the most rigorous so your child can get the best education and be the most competitive for scholarships. If your child also is looking at elite universities, keep in mind that she will be compared to students beyond her locale who may have different graduation requirements. For example, DS (9th) who is currently taking Calculus AB would have to take either Differential Equations or Linear Algebra even if he opted to take AP Stats because he has to take four years of math during high school in order to graduate. Our curriculum also covers a ton of stats by the time students complete Pre-Calculus so that may also contribute to AP Stats not being particularly useful.

My thoughts from a strategic perspective:

1) If she wants to take multivariable calc in high school, she should think about taking it next year. It's very easy to forget math if you don't use it, and she probably won't want to spend a summer reviewing limits and the chain rule, on top of all the other summer homework she's likely to have. Also, multivariable is one of those subjects (for me at least) that have a way of making it all come together. By this I mean that I started to see how a lot of ideas in mathematics fit together after being exposed to multivariable calc. Biochemistry had the same effect in the biological sciences.

2) My understanding is that a year or more of statistics is typically required for a psychology degree. So if she wants to major in this subject, IMO, she'd do better to take first semester stats in her senior year. If she wants to enroll in a second-semester stats course in college, again, she'd make things easier on herself if the information from the first semester course was fresh in her mind.

Basic stats is not the hardest class on the planet --- especially after two years of calculus. If she's going to be devoting a lot of time to college applications, having an easier math course in her schedule might help reduce stress.