Can I get into a ""good"" college at my math level?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m a freshman in high school right now and I’m taking all honors classes except my electives (debate and broadcasting), language (first level Spanish isn’t offered as an honors class, but next year I’m taking honors Spanish 2), and math. I’d like to think that my schedule is pretty challenging, and next year I’m taking on nearly all honors academic classes (including AP Euro which is the only one offered to sophomores) as well as honors debate, intro to TV/film, and journalistic writing. My GPA is 3.75/4.20 after one semester and at the rate of the second, it looks either the same as the last or 3.88/4.40. I have a fair amount of EC’s, I’m spending my summers productively, and I’ve been studying for the SATs for a while now, so my only real concern regarding college is my math class.

As a freshman I’m taking Algebra I which means it’ll follow Geometry, Algebra II, and Precalc. At nearby schools this is the norm for a lot of the students but at mine most kids are taking Geometry right now and it’s not uncommon to find someone taking Algebra II. I’m currently getting an A in math but I’m barely scraping by with it and I’m worried for upcoming years when I most likely won’t be able to maintain that grade given that it’s the subject I’ve always had the most difficulty with and the other classes will probably require more time because they will be a higher level. It’s unlikely that I’ll allow myself anything lower than a B but even just the level troubles me.

I’ve dragged this out quite a bit, I guess my big question is does being at this level of math take away certain colleges from my field? I’ve been looking at schools such as UMich, UCLA, UC Berkley, Georgetown, NYU, John Hopkins, GWU, USC, Northwestern, and Boston University (I know some of these are far reaches; let me dream). I don’t plan on majoring in anything that has to do with math or science, but I know this is still factor. Am I behind at all or is my school district just advanced? Does it knock me out of the top tier schools completely or will I still have a shot? And if this actually is a lower level should I take the class at an honors level with a risk of perhaps a C? Thanks!

2

As a freshman, you still have time to turn it around. Get some tutoring and perhaps don’t take the VERY hardest math class possible. You have a shot at those schools as long as you don’t go into math or science (unless you turn the math around)…just need to strive for all As from here on out and plan to do well on the SAT and/or ACT.

3

Completion of precalculus in 12th grade is the normal math progression; anything more advanced is a bonus. Very few colleges have curricula that expect students to have had calculus in high school (Caltech, Harvey Mudd, WUStL engineering, Penn engineering and business, Cornell engineering).

4

Look at the Common Data sets of the schools you want to go to. Most of the higher ranking schools expect you to have at least four years of math. Some students at our school take Geometry in the summer between 9th and 10th grade so they can take a fifth year. You probably aren’t old enough to work and summer school is usually only six weeks. You can probably take the class on line. But four years will probably be fine. Here is a link to the Common Data Set for U Mich. They expect three to four years of math but say four years is “recommended.” Page 6:

http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2014-2015_umaa.pdf

Check the data from the other schools you like.

5

I just joined so idk if this is how you “bump” on this site but if nearly everyone else at my school is working at a higher level would this hurt me if I and someone else from my batch applied to the same college?