If your dc did not take pre-calc..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Without precalc, my kid was accepted at Indiana and Arizona - not at MD and not at Skidmore. The rest of the application was strong and the student was hooked.

What was their highest math?

Their highest math was Algebra II.

I do think it influenced admissions - my kid would have loved to attend Skidmore or even UMd - but I could not get my daughter to take a higher math. She was brilliant in languages, English and literature - but had a block with math.

I think other schools were admissions are possible include most of the SUNY schools, maybe Florida State, U of Iowa, and Univ of Kansas, to name a few. I personally think a student with a varied profile like this can get more out of a big research university than a small college because at a big university, they can excel in their strengths while they may end up at a small lac or regional school that is not as competitive in their area of strength because they are limited by their math.

Based on IU's website it doesn't seem possible to stop at Algebra 2.

7 credits (semesters) of mathematics, including:
4 credits of algebra and 2 credits of geometry (or an equivalent 6 credits of integrated algebra and geometry)
1 credit of precalculus, trigonometry, statistics, finite, or calculus, or an alternative course demonstrating advanced math preparation

https://www.iu.edu/admissions/admissions-standards.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Without precalc, my kid was accepted at Indiana and Arizona - not at MD and not at Skidmore. The rest of the application was strong and the student was hooked.

What was their highest math?

Their highest math was Algebra II.

I do think it influenced admissions - my kid would have loved to attend Skidmore or even UMd - but I could not get my daughter to take a higher math. She was brilliant in languages, English and literature - but had a block with math.

I think other schools were admissions are possible include most of the SUNY schools, maybe Florida State, U of Iowa, and Univ of Kansas, to name a few. I personally think a student with a varied profile like this can get more out of a big research university than a small college because at a big university, they can excel in their strengths while they may end up at a small lac or regional school that is not as competitive in their area of strength because they are limited by their math.

Based on IU's website it doesn't seem possible to stop at Algebra 2.

7 credits (semesters) of mathematics, including:
4 credits of algebra and 2 credits of geometry (or an equivalent 6 credits of integrated algebra and geometry)
1 credit of precalculus, trigonometry, statistics, finite, or calculus, or an alternative course demonstrating advanced math preparation

https://www.iu.edu/admissions/admissions-standards.html

You are correct. That link says applicants need a semester or precalc but my daughter didn’t have it. She also wasn’t accepted conditionally - she was offered a small scholarship.

[Anonymous]

^^ a semester *of* precalc …

[Anonymous]

Same parent here - looking at that page, it also says admissions are holistic. My daughter did have 8 semesters of math - just nothing past Algebra 2. She also had APs and a lot of significant community service, which they say matters. (I won’t say what she did exactly because that would out her but it was a LOT of time and she was recognized for it.) She applied to IU specifically because her guidance counselor recommended it and the counselor did send a recommendation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The more important question is will the student be prepared for college without pre-calc. Any stem or business field is going to build upon calc, so entering college without having pre-calc would be detrimental. Even a humanities or art student will need to take a general college level math course. The bottom line is not taking pre-calc in high school is setting up for math failure in college.

Yes, I agree that if they are going into STEM, some aspects of Business (though marketing and the like at a non-selective school isn't going to build on calc) or many Social Sciences (Econ, Psych, Sociology all have quant focus in their research) or if they are going to a selective school. But for a general math credit, they can take statistics or something like that and usually schools have options for pass/fail in a non-major math class. Once you step outside of the selective college realm, there's a lot more options. I would still encourage a kid to take Pre-Calc (Calc actually too!), but she's not doomed if she doesn't.

My kid’s statistics class used a fair amount of calculus. It wasn’t technically required, but it was clearly how the prof’s mind worked because the explanations of lessons that relied on calculus were clear, but the “non-calc” alternatives were really hard to follow. I know b/c DC asked me to explain a lot of the material that he wasn’t understanding.