precalc highest math in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend's kid took precalc in 11th and AP Stats in 12th with no Calc. Accepted into the IRL school at Cornell. Large [underfunded] public school, no hooks.

DP: This was my kid, who got into every school they applied to (most selective had 20% acceptance rate). DCUM says taking Calc senior year is important, but my kids college counselor said AP Stats was a perfectly fine substitute for a humanities or social science major.

I’m the PP. AP Calc BC is the highest math at my DC’s high school. Most non STEM kids top out at AP Calc AB. I worried that it would hurt my DC not to take Calculus, but obviously it didn’t. No hooks of any sort at any of the colleges DC applied. DC was in the top 10% of their class.

[Anonymous]

Looked into taking non AP Calc, if your school has it.

My humanities DC struggled in AP Pre-Calc and Math is not their strong suit, but is doing "Applied Calculus" in 12th. Has an A in it, (partly because the teacher is awesome). It is less intense than AP but still is a Calculus class.

[Anonymous]

High schools really need to stop offering calc and pre-calc altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High schools really need to stop offering calc and pre-calc altogether.

+1

[Anonymous]

My sister landed at Yale as a fine arts major without even getting to precalc. Her brain has never been able to do math, but she writes beautifully and creates amazing art.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High schools really need to stop offering calc and pre-calc altogether.

They used not to. Kids who finished the high school curriculum would just go to college.

[Anonymous]

My daughter got into LSA at Michigan with pre calculus being her highest math. They do offer BC at her school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High schools really need to stop offering calc and pre-calc altogether.

I'm so confused by this. I thought all kids needed to take calc to get into the highest colleges and now people are saying pre-calc shouldn't even be a high school class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schools really need to stop offering calc and pre-calc altogether.

I'm so confused by this. I thought all kids needed to take calc to get into the highest colleges and now people are saying pre-calc shouldn't even be a high school class?

I think they’re two different issues. The first is whether pre-calculus or calculus provide any useful knowledge for non-STEM kids. The second is what colleges require for admission.

Lots of brilliant and talented humanities kids will never ever use pre-calculus or calculus in their life.

Statistics is actually a very useful course for STEM and non-STEM students alike. Colleges seem to recognize that it is an acceptable substitute for calculus for humanities majors.

I will note that I think taking AP Stats it’s probably a safer substitute for AP Calc than non-AP courses. It’s AP status means that it’s most likely seen as a similar level of difficulty to AP Calc (at least that’s what our college counselor told us).

[Anonymous]

DC accepted to Johns Hopkins taking precalc junior year and AP Stats senior year. Went elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schools really need to stop offering calc and pre-calc altogether.

I'm so confused by this. I thought all kids needed to take calc to get into the highest colleges and now people are saying pre-calc shouldn't even be a high school class?

Its recommended for stem. Their kids aren't math kids so they don't want it offered to make their kids more competative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC accepted to Johns Hopkins taking precalc junior year and AP Stats senior year. Went elsewhere.

The major makes a difference. If its stem, doubtful. If its something else ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schools really need to stop offering calc and pre-calc altogether.

I'm so confused by this. I thought all kids needed to take calc to get into the highest colleges and now people are saying pre-calc shouldn't even be a high school class?

No one needs to take math beyond what’s offered at their high school. This creates a perverse situation where it’s bad for the students if their high school offers more math. So the PP is saying that, given those perverse incentives, high schools that want to help their students with college admissions should offer less math.

(In reality, colleges seem to be solving this problem from their end by putting less emphasis on the math progression.)

[Anonymous]

School peer group matters. If you are applying to T50 schools and coming from a competetive high school where the majority of kids get to calculus, and your child will be one of the few kids not getting there it will be a disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC accepted to Johns Hopkins taking precalc junior year and AP Stats senior year. Went elsewhere.

The major makes a difference. If its stem, doubtful. If its something else ok.

Absolutely. Any STEM needs calc. She's a humanities kid.