Reply to Does taking AP Calc freshmen year in HS give enough "bonus" points to make it worth it?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a prof at a top 10 school with a very strong engineering program (not Princeton). I advise engineering students and I can say that of the about 150+ students I have advised in the past 10 years, I have seen maybe 2-3 that have something like that math path.  One from TJ (I think the only TJ advisee I have seen) and others were international. My advisees are randomly assigned to faculty so I see all types in my engineering major.

I don't think calc in 9th grade on its own is a huge bonus, as students with advanced math often even retake a more rigorous version in college.  Realistically these days most students I see are "interesting" and have broad ideas and community service, and aren't necessarily academic hyperachievers like this, but that's another thread.

I do think it would be important to take math all 4 years in high school in some form and to continue to challenge yourself and of course, excel in what you do take.  Your DC should do what they are excited about.
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This correlates to our experience. Mine is studying Engineering at one of the ivies in the top 10 and it is rare to have Calc in 9th. My kid knows 1 in her Engineering advisee group of 30 kids and they are international . She knows 4 more including herself who did AP Calc in 10th in HS, but they were each the only one in their HS to do that, and only because the HS moved them up and had multiple post-BC-calc math levels. They placed out of BC but repeated Multivariable and linear algebra as the college level was much more in depth than high school or local college/dual enrollment . 9th grade Calculus only makes sense if there are advanced courses for the student to do later on, and they still may benefit from repeating the post-BC classes. With BC in 9th they may not remember it enough and need to repeat it which seems counterproductive. 
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Sounds like your advanced kid stood out enough to get into a top Ivy for college.  Taking AP Calc in 10th sounds like where it kicks in for most.[/quote]

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