Reply to Half of Ivy League math majors took MV Calc and Linear Algebra in high school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is crazy. My DH went has two engineering degrees from a top STEM university.  He went to TJ for high school and the highest math he took there was calculus BC. His parents didn't want him accelerated and it wasn't the norm back then (late 90s).  He didn't even know anyone who prepped for TJ admission or did summer courses. I don't see how this produces better outcomes in the long run (meaning over the course of one's career). The people in the top management jobs in tech in middle age are usually the ones who have strong social skills in addition to good tech skills. Kids need to develop those and spending nights, weekends, and summer doing a ton of math is not the way to do it.[/quote]

Your husband was an engineering major not a math major and there is a difference. Telling some math kids not to go beyond what classes are available is like telling a future English lit major not to read too many novels.[/quote]

Not really a great analogy. Notably, we don’t see kids accelerating 3-4 grade levels ahead in ELA. 
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I suspect most of the people here do not have kids who are into math enough to major in it. I don’t know if you all saw the thread about how impractical a pure math major is vs applied math or cs or engineering. It’s not the best major if you are thinking about ROI.

All the kids I know who naturally love math that much are so ready for higher level math that it would be insane to hold them back. The adult I know who majored in math at MIT was finished with calculus before high school and then took cc classes after that because he wanted to, not because he was pushed. The two kids I currently know who may one day want to major in math self-studied calculus while sitting in algebra II class in middle school because that’s the highest math the school will allow, but they already knew the material and were bored. I am not even talking about kids who are aiming for Ivy League. State schools have such kids. I’ll bet if you looked at state school math majors you would also find many who were advanced. I’m not saying you have to be advanced early to cut it as a math major, but math is one of those areas where high natural ability often  emerges early. This is very unlike high ability in literary analysis or writing, which often takes time to mature.[/quote]

I don't think you know how bloated schools are with math majors now. This is no longer a devoted, self-selected group. Was talking with a professor at one of the top producers of math degrees (~300/yr) who said the top five students are as good as anyone in the country, but most students are very needy. They email to explain how long they've worked on a problem, as if that's useful information, or something to be addressed. It's not lack of intelligence or prerequisites, just drive--students who think math is khan academy problem sets and pats on the head. Knowing the MV/LA curriculums that CC are using, this is not surprising.[/quote]
Exactly. Math has become the backup CS major/practical Liberal arts major. one of the top major at almost every liberal arts college is math. Kinda hard for it to not be this way when all we tell kids is STEM STEM STEM![/quote]

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