If you had to choose - College Alg. OR Stats

[BakersDozen]

Which would you choose for a most definitely NOT STEM major? Do I just flip a coin at this point? Part of me wants to put oldest dd in AP Stats simply because of what I've heard about it. Then I realize dd will already have quite a course load next year so would that be too much? She's a good student but really not interested in pursuing an intense academic career, particularly in math - meaning if she could just be done with math at both the high school and college level, she'd be very happy. :)

 

I'm leaning toward just flipping a coin...

[FloridaLisa]

I was not a STEM major and chose to take stats as one of my 2 university required math courses. So, i would choose stats if she's ready for that level of math. What college algebra are you thinking of using? A home grown course or dual enrollment? AP Stats might be a bit heavier load than either of the former two options and should be considered if her other classes are particularly heavy.

 

Lisa

[BakersDozen]

Considering Saxon for Advanced Math or Chalk Dust College Algebra. We are not doing dual enrollment, however dd's goal is to CLEP out of College Algebra. I thought Statistics would be interesting for her - something different.

[regentrude]

I do not know enough about the course requirements for non-STEM majors, but I would urge you to check with the colleges she is interested in and find out whether her degree program might require college algebra (for a STEM major, college algebra would not even give credit towards her major in most disciplines).

 

ETA: I do not think I would have a student who is not interested in math take an AP math course where credit solely hinges on high performance in a single exam. For a student who just wants math get done and over, I would much prefer dual enrollment where credit is earned through cumulative performance over the course of a semester.

[Julie of KY]

I'm not sure I'd put your child in AP stats. However, in real life, I think stats is a more important topic that is not understood by too many people in many professions. I'm not sure you need the level of AP stats, but basic statistics is a useful topic to understand.

[creekland]

You could flip a coin. Kids heading to college (non-STEM) choose between the two classes at my high school. You could also let her flip through the books (or whatever is available on websites) to see which she would prefer.