AB vs BC Calculus to prepare for college

[Anonymous]

I was just trying to be helpful using my own experience and did not intend to have any "tone." I was not trying to indicate that I am the only parent with top 25 college experience. Writing hurriedly between doing other things. I am very sorry, I certainly did not mean to offend. I suspect if we had been speaking in person it would have been clear that I only had friendly intent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I was just trying to be helpful using my own experience and did not intend to have any "tone." I was not trying to indicate that I am the only parent with top 25 college experience. Writing hurriedly between doing other things. I am very sorry, I certainly did not mean to offend. I suspect if we had been speaking in person it would have been clear that I only had friendly intent.

Well, I would certainly hope you wouldn't call people ignoramus to their face as a sign of "friendly intent."

[Anonymous]

That tone problem doesn't seem to be going away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you we please keep the dumb ivy debating to the quarantine thread?

Happy to. But we do need to somehow educate that ignoramus that we don't all have to admissions officers to provide credible advice on DCUM.

Yep, real toned down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I was just trying to be helpful using my own experience and did not intend to have any "tone." I was not trying to indicate that I am the only parent with top 25 college experience. Writing hurriedly between doing other things. I am very sorry, I certainly did not mean to offend. I suspect if we had been speaking in person it would have been clear that I only had friendly intent.

Well, I would certainly hope you wouldn't call people ignoramus to their face as a sign of "friendly intent."

Hmm, I was not involved with the posts about Ivy League colleges that included the word "ignoramous." I was responding to the following:

yes, many of us have experience with top 25 colleges, have children who are in college, even UVA. It was your tone pp

.

Which was referring to a post I made about whether or not to take BC Calc.

I guess that's the danger of not using the quote post function.

[Anonymous]

Oh for goodness sakes! Do I really have to do this? I guess so. The issue at hand is the bona fides of all the good people who have posted their opinions on AP Calc AB/BC. The question is: should we only listen to those who identify themselves as Admissions Officers? Or do those of us with college-age kids, at Top 25! or Top Ivy! or Top Whatever! schools also have valuable experience to share?

For the record, here's the ur-post that got the ball rolling. This poster says she only wants to listen to admissions people and high school counselors, and that everybody else posting on a thread about AP Calc AB/BC is just a "pretender" offering "speculation."

Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing some interesting opinions that I would assume admissions people would make the final decisions. Is there actually anyone posting who is indeed an admissions person for a college/university? Or at the least a college counselor in a high school? No pretenders.

Otherwise, it's just speculation.

Then another PP comes on and gives her bona fides as having a kid in a "top ivy." Which prompts this gem from the first skeptic, or maybe her twin:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who uses the term "top ivy" has no experience with this kind of school and is BSing you. It doesn't even make any sense. What is a "bottom ivy"? Cornell or UPenn? Dartmouth?

And it goes downhill from there.... Yes, I have too much time on my hands. But this forum sure changed for the worse when that handful of aggressive posters migrated here from the Political forum.

[Anonymous]

I've been a Harvard interviewer for a while. In my expertience, it would generally be expected that a math/science kid at a school that offered Calc BC would take it, and would also have some kind of independent research project going on. In this area, it is not uncommon to see kids who have taken Linear Algebra/Multivariate Calculus, but no one would be held to that standard if his/her high school didn't offer it.

I have seen kids get in with Calc AB. It was usually a GPA preserving move, and was recognized as such. Those kids usually were admitted on the basis of considerable strengths in other areas.

[Anonymous]

I've been a Harvard interviewer for a while. In my expertience, it would generally be expected that a math/science kid at a school that offered Calc BC would take it, and would also have some kind of independent research project going on. In this area, it is not uncommon to see kids who have taken Linear Algebra/Multivariate Calculus, but no one would be held to that standard if his/her high school didn't offer it.

I have seen kids get in with Calc AB. It was usually a GPA preserving move, and was recognized as such. Those kids usually were admitted on the basis of considerable strengths in other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing some interesting opinions that I would assume admissions people would make the final decisions. Is there actually anyone posting who is indeed an admissions person for a college/university? Or at the least a college counselor in a high school? No pretenders.

Otherwise, it's just speculation.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing some interesting opinions that I would assume admissions people would make the final decisions. Is there actually anyone posting who is indeed an admissions person for a college/university? Or at the least a college counselor in a high school? No pretenders.

Otherwise, it's just speculation.

+1

+2. The recent opinion of the Harvard interviewer carries significant weight. But I can definitely appreciate the experiences of posters with their experiences of their own child. However, the Harvard interviewer sees volumes and volumes of applications. I found his comment about GPA preservation to be serious food for thought as we are weighing the possibility of limiting a course because of an ongoing EC that will definitely play a key role in the application. Thanks, Harvard interviewer, for your insightful remarks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been a Harvard interviewer for a while. In my expertience, it would generally be expected that a math/science kid at a school that offered Calc BC would take it, and would also have some kind of independent research project going on. In this area, it is not uncommon to see kids who have taken Linear Algebra/Multivariate Calculus, but no one would be held to that standard if his/her high school didn't offer it.

I have seen kids get in with Calc AB. It was usually a GPA preserving move, and was recognized as such. Those kids usually were admitted on the basis of considerable strengths in other areas.

Could you elaborate on this? When you speak of an independent research, are you talking about a capstone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been a Harvard interviewer for a while. In my expertience, it would generally be expected that a math/science kid at a school that offered Calc BC would take it, and would also have some kind of independent research project going on. In this area, it is not uncommon to see kids who have taken Linear Algebra/Multivariate Calculus, but no one would be held to that standard if his/her high school didn't offer it.

I have seen kids get in with Calc AB. It was usually a GPA preserving move, and was recognized as such. Those kids usually were admitted on the basis of considerable strengths in other areas.

Could you elaborate on this? When you speak of an independent research, are you talking about a capstone?

When I say an independent research project, I generally mean a project such as one might submit to the Intel or Siemens competitions. We also see kids do projects via internships at NIH etc. I suppose the latter are less independent.

When I say " strengths in other areas", I mean that the kid is a great writer or a fabulous Latin scholar etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing some interesting opinions that I would assume admissions people would make the final decisions. Is there actually anyone posting who is indeed an admissions person for a college/university? Or at the least a college counselor in a high school? No pretenders.

Otherwise, it's just speculation.

+1

+2. The recent opinion of the Harvard interviewer carries significant weight. But I can definitely appreciate the experiences of posters with their experiences of their own child. However, the Harvard interviewer sees volumes and volumes of applications. I found his comment about GPA preservation to be serious food for thought as we are weighing the possibility of limiting a course because of an ongoing EC that will definitely play a key role in the application. Thanks, Harvard interviewer, for your insightful remarks.

The Harvard interviewer sees no applications. She meets with applicants and provides a write up to the admissions office that probably carries no real weight. My DC did 8 alum interviews this year. The only info they had on him was his name and email address, and that he had submitted an application. He did provide a resume to each one, but apparently that was unusual since several commented positively on that. None of them asked if he was taking AB vs BC calc. I am not sure his GPA even came up in the interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing some interesting opinions that I would assume admissions people would make the final decisions. Is there actually anyone posting who is indeed an admissions person for a college/university? Or at the least a college counselor in a high school? No pretenders.

Otherwise, it's just speculation.

+1

+2. The recent opinion of the Harvard interviewer carries significant weight. But I can definitely appreciate the experiences of posters with their experiences of their own child. However, the Harvard interviewer sees volumes and volumes of applications. I found his comment about GPA preservation to be serious food for thought as we are weighing the possibility of limiting a course because of an ongoing EC that will definitely play a key role in the application. Thanks, Harvard interviewer, for your insightful remarks.

The Harvard interviewer sees no applications. She meets with applicants and provides a write up to the admissions office that probably carries no real weight. My DC did 8 alum interviews this year. The only info they had on him was his name and email address, and that he had submitted an application. He did provide a resume to each one, but apparently that was unusual since several commented positively on that. None of them asked if he was taking AB vs BC calc. I am not sure his GPA even came up in the interview.

I think that the Harvard interviewer who has commented here has been quite insightful. I think you do him/her a disservice to assume what his activities are without inquiring. I appreciate your thoughts but I think I'll keep reading and see what other tidbits of real information he might offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been a Harvard interviewer for a while. In my expertience, it would generally be expected that a math/science kid at a school that offered Calc BC would take it, and would also have some kind of independent research project going on. In this area, it is not uncommon to see kids who have taken Linear Algebra/Multivariate Calculus, but no one would be held to that standard if his/her high school didn't offer it.

I have seen kids get in with Calc AB. It was usually a GPA preserving move, and was recognized as such. Those kids usually were admitted on the basis of considerable strengths in other areas.

Could you elaborate on this? When you speak of an independent research, are you talking about a capstone?

When I say an independent research project, I generally mean a project such as one might submit to the Intel or Siemens competitions. We also see kids do projects via internships at NIH etc. I suppose the latter are less independent.

When I say " strengths in other areas", I mean that the kid is a great writer or a fabulous Latin scholar etc.

Have you eve seen other projects that weren't STEM related that warranted serious consideration from the college?