Ditto my son. His school subsequently changed though to offer AB or BC, and added MVC. Had the option been available, he certainly would have taken the latter and thrived.
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Yes, our school requires AB before BC. Each is a full year course. I have heard in another thread of a school that offered BC as a double period course. It covered both AB and BC in a year.
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This thread is such a great example of why nobody can extrapolate from their own HS and assume that represents the universe. My kidâs HS- you either took AB ( a full year course) or BC (ditto). Not in sequence. The math department would not allow a kid to take AB first and then BC.
OP- not sure what the issue is here. The school tracked your D into AB. You agree thatâs the right place for her. She challenged the placement and the school said no.
What recourse do you have (plus you think AB is the right class)?
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That doesnât sound like a very well structured program. If the school requires AB before BC, it should structure BC so that it doesnât repeat the same material that has already been covered in AB.
itâd be interesting if colleges posted the level of math taken by percentage. Iâm sure at every school - from Cornell to Colorado State, youâd have students with BC. And with AB.
Cornell, for example, requires this of their engineering applicants:
- 4 units of mathematics, including 1 of calculus
- 1 unit of physics
- 1 unit of chemistry
Taking AB should not impact your application strategy at all. I think itâs being over thought (personally). If you get rejected and itâs likely a far majority of kids applying to these schools will regardless of what math they take, youâll never know why. Iâd assume personally, if the rest of the app is strong, it wouldnât be because of this - and yes, AB is strong too. The rejection will be - because they are rejecting 90% plus of everyone who applies (for varying reasons).
If you had a 92% at precalc honors, thereâs a chance give the pace of BC and regardless of if the overall schedule is lighter, that you might not get an A - and Iâd say an A in AB is better than a B in BC. My opinion anyway - and AB still shows rigor.
Good luck - anyway, the situation is made and your daughter will find a wonderful engineering program, whether itâs an elite school like you list above or others that are also fantastic.
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The first step I would take if I were your D would be to speak to my current teacher and get her opinion. If the teacher feels she is not qualified to take BC ask if there are any topics she can work on over the summer to be sure she is ready for BC. It is no fun at all (and likely damaging to her GPA) to be in a class that would be over her head.
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Talk to the teacher /principal. If not a go then just do the best you can. Engineering schools assume you are taking Calc 1. Your inline for that.
As an aside at my kids school teachers invite you to Ab vs BC but many kids take a 5 week accelerated Pre Calc in the summer. It sells out every year so the kids are ready for BC in the fall.
The OP might want to brush up on Pre Calc this summer through many free sites and maybe if itâs too easy they can move you to BC or take some test before the class starts to see where your at. Persistence usually pays off. Keep in mind though. You want to do well in BC and not just take it becauseâŠ
âThat doesnât sound like a very well structured program. If the school requires AB before BC, it should structure BC so that it doesnât repeat the same material that has already been covered in AB.â
Ours does it tooâBC is not a repeat in these schools that require a year ofAB first. AB is one semester of college calc spread out over a year, BC is âcalc 2â â2nd semester college calc spread out over a year. Ours covers far more than the AP curriculum in the BC course so that one is less boring /slow than AB but it is still not a college paced course.
There is a whole math track thread somewhere that interested folks can read.
OP: let us know what the update is, if you were able to get more information from the school on why they said No.
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Is AB a yearlong or semester course in your school? Some schools offer both options. In which, case take AB in first semester and then BC in the second semester.
Another option is to self-study for BC.
However, if the school is recommending AB then that is likely based on statistical data.
I understand why this might be important. If BC is offered in your school and your daughter does not take it then I am pretty sure the schools you are interested in would like to know why. Generally speaking, for top engineering programs, one should take the highest math course available and do well.
Some factors Iâd use to consider AB v. BC for those engineering schools.
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Does the OP has a baseline PSAT/SAT/ACT math score? AP Math scores? That will tell you a lot regarding where you are compared to other students nationally. If not, how does the student rank in terms of math within his/her high school?
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Itâs always hard to find the right math balance for a kid whoâs strong in math. Iâd have the student meet with the current teacher and next years teacher (math head), if possible and discuss AB or BC.
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Is 92 struggling? It depends. No, by definition. Yes by comparison to other applicants who take these math classes nationally/internationally. JHU, CMU and MIT have very very high stats kids. So Iâd personally suggest a better grouping. But if the Pre-Calc class was a bump in the road for some reason and it was a couple of bad tests but the rests were strong thatâs another matter. 92 means you missed 8% of the material. Thatâs a lot.
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That total set of schools would be very aggresssive in my opinion for engineering. Hopefully there are some safeties and matches in the group as well. I would say the same thing whether the student took AB or BC and whether they got an A- or an A+.
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My sonâs HS posted their stats a few days ago. For the most recent year:
Regular (non-AP or accel) Calc: 131
AP AB: 73
AP BC: 105
Multi/Linear: 52
Note that this would include a mix of grades, so the two APâs would be a healthy mix of juniors and seniors (with the occasional Sophomore or rare Freshman), etc. Each grade is about 475 students, for perspective. There are more people in BC than AB because BC gets both people who skipped AB and people who took it sequentially after AB.
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Thatâs great. Surprised how many BC.
But would be great if a Hopkins or Duke or Cornell or even a regular flagship would.
Since itâs not required they probably have no need to.
After all they want more, not less apps and if they got granular it wouldnât help them
I attended MIT. A 92 in high school precalculus is very good, and is excellent for nearly every other university in the world (except perhaps Caltech). It is not going to impress the average undergraduate student at MIT. One way to think of this is that there is something like 35,000 high schools in the US (including public and private ones), and MIT accepts a bit more than 1,000 freshmen each year (figure another 250 at Caltech). Just being the #1 top student in math in the entire high school is not enough to make you an average incoming freshman at MIT.
Also, for anyone who is strong enough in math to be taking calculus in high school, mathematics and specifically calculus are something that they are likely to use quite a bit in both future classes and on the job. This is something that is worth knowing very well.
I am thinking that your high school understands how their students do in Calc AB versus Calc BC. I would be inclined to listen to them. Jumping too far ahead in math can lead to unfortunate results.
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Thank you. Thatâs all I need to know AP cal AB selection is good to apply to my listed college.
Of course my kid will apply to some safety schools.
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The problem is no one replying is on the selection committee for those schools or knows the details of the competitive environment of your kids school. So everyone would be guessing. Overall, itâs highly unlikely that your student would be ruled out of the schools you list exclusively because they took AB vs BC. Those schools all accept plenty of people every year who didnât take BC and some who didnât even take AB. If your kid checks all their other boxes on GPA, test scores (where submitted), ECâs and accomplishments, recommendations, essays, etc., this will not be the reason they are denied. And for sure being in BC wonât be the reason they are accepted. If your kid is in the most ârigorousâ classes available at the school with this as an exception, donât sweat it. If this is part of a broader pattern of not being in the most rigorous classes, it would matter as part of that bigger pattern. More than anything students are competing against their peers, present and recent past, from their own school. The OAâs are going to know what is competitive at a school and judge applicants against that unique environment, not sweating small variances and looking for things that stand out. Being in BC wonât stand out one way or the other.
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