You can get into a top college, unhooked from a private high school (even for STEM) if you don't take the absolute highest level of math that the school offers.
What is FAR more important is getting As.

My kids go to a top private that offers multivariable calculus and are plenty of kids attending Ivies that didn't take the course and maxed out in AP Calculus (BC or even AB).

What the Ivy kids uniformly did was get an A in this AP Calculus course.

You don’t need a geometry course that gives “credit”

You need your kid to learn geometry well enough to be able to pass a placement test after they get into the private school.

You’ll need to get into a school, then the spring and summer before ninth grade, you need to do khan Academy, or some sort of geometry course.

As soon as you get into the school, and before you make a final decision, you will have reached out to the head of the math department at the schools you are considering to ask what is the process for testing into a higher level math, and what exactly are their expectations of geometry knowledge/skill

If your kid is applying to college without the the benefit of athletics, you are correct in that they are supposed to take the highest level classes they are able to. Some private schools will end with BC calculus senior year, which assumes ninth grade geometry, but some private schools will have the AP calculus option in the junior year and those will require geometry to have been completed before high school.

Anonymous wrote:

I have concerns about my DD's potential math track and what I'm hearing about college counselors checking/not checking the "highest rigor" course selection assessment on college applications.
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"Highest rigor" means "highest rigor available to you". Your child meets that condition even if they stay on current track. But if they do, your kid should put serious effort in, and learn the material better than the kids who jumped ahead.

If your child is bored and miserable in math class, of course you should talk to the school about getting an appropriate math course placement.

Most of these comments are irrelevant. What matters for OP is how the specific high schools in question deal with math progression and determining what qualifies as most rigorous, not what random other high schools do or kids that a poster is familiar with (again, very likely at different high schools) managed to do.

I know a lot of kids with great outcomes who didn’t get beyond calculus senior year. I know a lot of kids who completed calculus earlier who did not get into their top schools even though they were hyper-accelerated. There is no guaranteed path despite what DCUM and competitive parents would have you believe. Don’t overthink it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What high school expects all kids to take geometry in 8th grade? That seems unrealistic.

Yeah, I think the schools have been misrepresented to OP. No HS expects all or even most kids to take geometry in 8th.

Our k-8 did offer geometry, and between a fifth and a third of the 8th graders took it in any given year (grade size averaging about 30-35 kids). It’s not *uncommon*, but it’s not the norm, either.

OP. I didn’t say that the Hs expects all entering freshman to have taken geometry, but rather that those who enter having not taken it have been warned by the college counseling office that their courseload won’t be categorized as highest possible rigor on their college applications. This matters at a private school since students are being compared by colleges to their classmates first and the rest of applicants after that.

This is correct. Only way I can see that you can figure this out is to ask the school directly, as well as what the options are for kids in your situation (presumably your kid is not the first).

If your DC switches to public high school, yes, it will matter that she didn’t take geometry in 8th. If your daughter goes to a local private school, geometry in 9th leading to calculus in 12th is absolutely considered “highest rigor.”