DC is getting a C+ in Advanced Calculus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very risky move to take Advanced Cal in junior, which is equivalent to AP Cal BC or even harder. We had a senior taking it who was admitted to Princeton, she pulled a C. Luckily the offer was not rescinded. Had she taken that course in Junior, she would be going to Rochester this Fall!

She doesn't sound like Princeton material if she can only get a C in Calc BC as a senior. What kind of school are you going to with that high grade inflation? My public school kid took it as a sophmore with an A but they also were in tutoring as the teacher wasn't strong.

Advanced calc is NOT calc BC. Advanced calc is a much harder and comes after BC.

What is Advanced Calculus in high school? This is not a standard high school class name. I've never heard of it, and no one on DCUM has mentioned it in the past several years.
Some.universities have a class with that name.

I assume OP is talking about a non-AP private school honors calculus class.

Not even Phillips Academy, the most mathematically rigorous high school outside of Proof School and Davidson (which I know you all are not talking about), has a class called "Advanced Calculus".

How many different posters are talking about knowing it without saying what it is, but just assuming they are all talking about the same class?

I have a guess about what they are thinking, but any parent whose kid was in that class would know that 99% of anonymous strangers who have no idea what it is, so wouldn't ask about it casually like OP.

Multivariable? That’s what comes after BC at our high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


Exactly. Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Hopkins do not care about calculus. Take Algebra I, II, Geo/trig. Take precalculus as a senior. That checks the most rigorous box so no need for further.


No, it doesn't! Unless you are DEI.

You have a point here. Lacrosse, horseback riding, squash and crew crowd with trust funds!

[Anonymous]

The problem with today’s parent is that they believe their kids are all near “4.0” perfect. The irony, neither they, nor their 17 year-old progeny are perfect.

[Anonymous]

“Colleges ceaselessly repeat the mantra that students should take the “most rigorous courses available to them.” Some students, parents, and even counselors are naive enough to trust them.”

This does not literally taking courses and flunking out or performing miserably. It appears students and teachers need to understand where their “challenge” edge is. Each student has their own subject matter edge. Find it, and operate there. Forget trying to impress with fancy course titles like advance AP BC calculus. If this is beyond your sweet spot edge delay the course until ready. If not, be accountable.

[Anonymous]

I’m coming on here 9 pages late to say my kid is finishing up junior year with Alg 2 and I’m really proud of him. He got an A in Alg 2 and had to work hard for it. He will not take Calculus in HS. He will have his choice of colleges, as will your kid. Obviously, they are not applying to the same colleges. 9 pages of many posters implying this junior getting a C in Calc won’t have many options. - HS teacher who writes colleges recommendations every year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a sad statement of the world today (I'm not blaming you - I feel awful for you). One bad grade should not ruin a kid. I'm pretty sure I had multiple final grades of B or so (but still finished in the top few % of my class at a good public HS) and got into multiple Ivy+ schools in the 90s. A's weren't handed out like candy and any SAT score over 1400 was great. The process is just so awful. But I don't know the answer.

This isn't the 90s.

In the era of grade inflation, a C+ might as well be a D. Now, if the OP isn't obsessed with T10 schools like most DCUMers and puts a reasonable college list together, he/she will avoid some admissions pain.

Rigorous schools do not have grade inflation.

A C+ at a "rigorous " school still sucks, so there's that.

Well, most kids don’t make it past calc BC either, and especially not an a junior. If he did well though BC I think he is fine

The kids at our school admitted to the highest ranked colleges did not take the hardest math classes offered. I don't know where people got the idea that this was needed. It has never been the case at our high school.

Exactly. Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Hopkins do not care about calculus. Take Algebra I, II, Geo/trig. Take precalculus as a senior. That checks the most rigorous box so no need for further.

That would be a year behind the standard math progression at DC’s private school, and my understanding of most private schools in the DMV. Stand is to have geometry in 9, algebra 2 (with or without trig) in 10, precalc in 11, and some level of Calc in 12. Yes, there is a track a year behind that many kids are on, but it’s essentially remedial and would not “check the most rigorous box.” And of course there are honors/AP sections of the standard progression, and there are also kids a year or two advanced who take Calc in 11th or even 10th and then take a year or two of post-Calc math.

I was assuming the “advanced calculus” that OP mentions was an honors non-AP class or the equivalent of an AP class in a school that doesn’t offer APs, but others seem to think it’s actually post-AP. It would be helpful for OP to explain what it actually is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very risky move to take Advanced Cal in junior, which is equivalent to AP Cal BC or even harder. We had a senior taking it who was admitted to Princeton, she pulled a C. Luckily the offer was not rescinded. Had she taken that course in Junior, she would be going to Rochester this Fall!

She doesn't sound like Princeton material if she can only get a C in Calc BC as a senior. What kind of school are you going to with that high grade inflation? My public school kid took it as a sophmore with an A but they also were in tutoring as the teacher wasn't strong.

Advanced calc is NOT calc BC. Advanced calc is a much harder and comes after BC.

What is Advanced Calculus in high school? This is not a standard high school class name. I've never heard of it, and no one on DCUM has mentioned it in the past several years.
Some.universities have a class with that name.

I assume OP is talking about a non-AP private school honors calculus class.

Not even Phillips Academy, the most mathematically rigorous high school outside of Proof School and Davidson (which I know you all are not talking about), has a class called "Advanced Calculus".

How many different posters are talking about knowing it without saying what it is, but just assuming they are all talking about the same class?

I have a guess about what they are thinking, but any parent whose kid was in that class would know that 99% of anonymous strangers who have no idea what it is, so wouldn't ask about it casually like OP.

Multivariable? That’s what comes after BC at our high school.

It could mean ab, bc, Mv or something else. They disappeared and will not clarify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a sad statement of the world today (I'm not blaming you - I feel awful for you). One bad grade should not ruin a kid. I'm pretty sure I had multiple final grades of B or so (but still finished in the top few % of my class at a good public HS) and got into multiple Ivy+ schools in the 90s. A's weren't handed out like candy and any SAT score over 1400 was great. The process is just so awful. But I don't know the answer.

This isn't the 90s.

In the era of grade inflation, a C+ might as well be a D. Now, if the OP isn't obsessed with T10 schools like most DCUMers and puts a reasonable college list together, he/she will avoid some admissions pain.

Rigorous schools do not have grade inflation.

A C+ at a "rigorous " school still sucks, so there's that.

Well, most kids don’t make it past calc BC either, and especially not an a junior. If he did well though BC I think he is fine

The kids at our school admitted to the highest ranked colleges did not take the hardest math classes offered. I don't know where people got the idea that this was needed. It has never been the case at our high school.

Exactly. Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Hopkins do not care about calculus. Take Algebra I, II, Geo/trig. Take precalculus as a senior. That checks the most rigorous box so no need for further.

That would be a year behind the standard math progression at DC’s private school, and my understanding of most private schools in the DMV. Stand is to have geometry in 9, algebra 2 (with or without trig) in 10, precalc in 11, and some level of Calc in 12. Yes, there is a track a year behind that many kids are on, but it’s essentially remedial and would not “check the most rigorous box.” And of course there are honors/AP sections of the standard progression, and there are also kids a year or two advanced who take Calc in 11th or even 10th and then take a year or two of post-Calc math.

I was assuming the “advanced calculus” that OP mentions was an honors non-AP class or the equivalent of an AP class in a school that doesn’t offer APs, but others seem to think it’s actually post-AP. It would be helpful for OP to explain what it actually is.

And, depending on the child and track that’s very behind public. I find it strange too privates water things down so much especially when they encourage redshirting. Between older kids and getting the brightest they all should be able to handle more.

[Anonymous]

Of note, part of assessment of intellectual capacity, performed by college admission officers is common sense and judgement. Students who do not appreciate their limitations and subject matter edge and take courses ( to impress) in which they perform miserably may repeat this approach in the real world, on the job, where results count. It’s an important experience and lesson we all learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids at Blair, RM, Wootton, and Churchill public schools routinely have taken such high advanced Calculus courses and differential equations prior to 11 th grade in the area public schools. I know a couple on the math USAMO teams. What’s the big deal here? All those power hitting high GPA kids are no longer deserving?

Same. Multi, linear eq, diff eq by junior year. Common at our public.

Good for them. Won't help. Up to BC with good grades is all the good schools want. Anything more can also be a negative if they are not involved in a lot of activities especially varsity sports showing they are well rounded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids at Blair, RM, Wootton, and Churchill public schools routinely have taken such high advanced Calculus courses and differential equations prior to 11 th grade in the area public schools. I know a couple on the math USAMO teams. What’s the big deal here? All those power hitting high GPA kids are no longer deserving?

Same. Multi, linear eq, diff eq by junior year. Common at our public.

Good for them. Won't help. Up to BC with good grades is all the good schools want. Anything more can also be a negative if they are not involved in a lot of activities especially varsity sports showing they are well rounded.

Source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of note, part of assessment of intellectual capacity, performed by college admission officers is common sense and judgement. Students who do not appreciate their limitations and subject matter edge and take courses ( to impress) in which they perform miserably may repeat this approach in the real world, on the job, where results count. It’s an important experience and lesson we all learn.

Great rationalization. I expect way more from privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids at Blair, RM, Wootton, and Churchill public schools routinely have taken such high advanced Calculus courses and differential equations prior to 11 th grade in the area public schools. I know a couple on the math USAMO teams. What’s the big deal here? All those power hitting high GPA kids are no longer deserving?

Same. Multi, linear eq, diff eq by junior year. Common at our public.

Good for them. Won't help. Up to BC with good grades is all the good schools want. Anything more can also be a negative if they are not involved in a lot of activities especially varsity sports showing they are well rounded.

Y kid applied to an engineering camp. They absolutely wanted higher math. They were declined as not enough engineering stuff. Sports and arts was not enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids at Blair, RM, Wootton, and Churchill public schools routinely have taken such high advanced Calculus courses and differential equations prior to 11 th grade in the area public schools. I know a couple on the math USAMO teams. What’s the big deal here? All those power hitting high GPA kids are no longer deserving?

Same. Multi, linear eq, diff eq by junior year. Common at our public.

Good for them. Won't help. Up to BC with good grades is all the good schools want. Anything more can also be a negative if they are not involved in a lot of activities especially varsity sports showing they are well rounded.

Y kid applied to an engineering camp. They absolutely wanted higher math. They were declined as not enough engineering stuff. Sports and arts was not enough.

Summer camps nowadays are DEI camps. They are rejected because they are not FGLI, not because they didn’t take higher math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids at Blair, RM, Wootton, and Churchill public schools routinely have taken such high advanced Calculus courses and differential equations prior to 11 th grade in the area public schools. I know a couple on the math USAMO teams. What’s the big deal here? All those power hitting high GPA kids are no longer deserving?

Same. Multi, linear eq, diff eq by junior year. Common at our public.

Good for them. Won't help. Up to BC with good grades is all the good schools want. Anything more can also be a negative if they are not involved in a lot of activities especially varsity sports showing they are well rounded.

Y kid applied to an engineering camp. They absolutely wanted higher math. They were declined as not enough engineering stuff. Sports and arts was not enough.

And this is all guesses.