<p>My child is in calculus and has no other math class available to take next year. Does this mean any school requiring four years of math will be off the table? Or do they care if my child has taken calculus already.</p>
<p>No, basically your child has had five years of math. You could look into online courses or local colleges if your kidis interested in doing math next year though.</p>
<p>What year is your child? </p>
<p>Does this high school require 4 years of math regardless of level? Just asking as most high schools don’t have that requirement. </p>
<p>Is AP Stats available? Local CC? Talk to the guidance counselor.</p>
<p>Guidance counselor is very busy, says she doesn’t have time to talk to each student.
I will look into local colleges for my child.</p>
<p>Calculus is a higher level than the typical fourth year of math (precalculus and trigonometry). “Four years of math” is usually understood to be fulfilled by a student who completes precalculus and trigonometry or calculus or higher in high school, particularly if that is the top level offered by the high school.*</p>
<p>Of course, if the student is considering a math-heavy major in college, s/he should keep taking math in high school until s/he exhausts the high school’s offerings or graduates from high school. If the student has a high level of interest in math and wants to continue after exhausting the high school’s offerings, look at whether s/he can enroll in more advanced math at a local college.</p>
<p>*One odd school is the University of Washington, which has a requirement that high school seniors take a math, statistics, physics, or chemistry course: <a href=“http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen/CADR#math-based-quantitative”>http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen/CADR#math-based-quantitative</a> . This could require a student who has exhausted the high school’s courses in those subjects to take a college course in one of those subjects as a high school senior.</p>
<p>What is your child’s intended major or area of focus?</p>
<p>My daughter literally had only 2 years of math in high school- - technically through the 3rd year of math (algebra 2). She did a foreign exchange for a semester in her junior year, and due to scheduling issues was never able to take any more math. I figured she would take a big hit on college admissions – but she was accepted to several reach colleges including UC Berkeley. (I could see an LAC being forgiving on the math, but it surprised me that Berkeley would overlook the fact that my daughter only had the bare minimum math required to graduate from high school).</p>
<p>I do think that most students headed into STEM majors should continue to take math, if at all possible, just so that the concepts stay fresh in their mind – but in your situation I think your child will be fine for college admissions if headed toward a humanities or social science concentration. In any case, the colleges don’t expect the student to take classes that aren’t offered at the high school – but the prospective STEM major might look for some other way to demonstrate a continued interest and proficiency in math. </p>
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<p>This depends on HS. For instance, my public magnet HS required a minimum of 3 years of math, but that was regardless of level. </p>
<p>This meant if an incoming 9th grader completed the calculus in junior high, he/she’d still be required to take the next course in sequence for up to 3 years to fulfill the math requirement for graduation. My HS had enough student demand and faculty to offer math courses commonly taken by math majors in their first two years in college. </p>
<p>Even so, it wasn’t unusual to have juniors/seniors taking math or other courses at local 4 year colleges because they’ve exhausted all that by the end of sophomore or even freshman year. </p>
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<p>UC (and CSU) high school math requirements only require geometry and algebra 2 at the minimum. If her application was otherwise strong, and she was not applying to a division where calculus or higher in frosh year is expected (College of Engineering, College of Chemistry), then the admission may not actually be that surprising, although stopping at algebra 2 is not the recommended plan for high school math for a college-bound student. Presumably, her interests are in majors that do not require precalculus or calculus.</p>
<p>I agree with ucbalumnus.
Calculus is more than either of my kids took in high school, but they both were science majors.
Id look at stats, or at the local college.
Or even becoming a math TA for a period.
Explaining something is really a good way to identify your own knowledge gaps and reinforce what you do know.</p>
<p>At our school they offer online math courses for kids that have gone beyond what is offered at their school. I would see if that is a possibility. </p>
<p>I do understand that the guidance counselors at all schools are busy; however, if my child’s GC said she didn’t have time to talk about my child I would see an administrator. Obviously your child is strong in math and should have some options for next year.</p>
<p>Does your child want to take more math? What grade is he/she in? That would make a difference. My son had finished Calc AB/BC as a sophomore…not taking math for 2 years would not have looked good.</p>
<p>In our area, after Calc BC, students take Multivariable Calc and Differential Equations, which our high school offers. After that, a handful students will go on to take Linear Algebra either at CC or a U. Schedule and logistics are extremely challenging.</p>
<p>I agree with Anne that not taking math for 2 years probably isn’t a good idea.</p>
<p>@ANNE1389 Exactly, I would be in the Principal’s office the following morning to discuss my child’s future.</p>
<p>@Bearsgarden, what state/city are you in that your high school students take Multivariable Calc and Differential Equations?
Heck, I can’t even pronounce Multivariable. :)) Are you in North-East?</p>
<p>If your child is planning a STEM or math-heavy major (eg economics), it’s probably a good idea to try to continue math at a cc, or perhaps online. But I don’t think colleges would say you haven’t done enough if you’ve completed calculus, especially if you fill the time with something else challenging. My daughter did take a math class at a college this fall, but she had to forego 2 AP classes (that could have helped her high school GPA) and curtail participation in one of her main EC’s to schedule this. It was also costly, and it interfered somewhat with her ability to visit colleges this fall. So I think it’s debatable whether this was such a good idea in the end. But she really wanted to do it. If your child is indifferent or feels other options are just as good for their education, I’m not sure I’d recommend it.</p>
<p>@Lana, we are in mid atlantic. Our MV/DE classes have 60+kids in them so over 10% of the seniors take that course. DS took it in Junior year and DD will take it in Sophomore year. Both DH and I are had advanced degree in math and we don’t think their skills are as solid as ours. Wish they weren’t that accelerated. </p>
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<p>Does the high school have a dual enrollment arrangement for these courses, so that the students can get college credit for them? If not, it may be more difficult to use them to fulfill subject credit requirements once the student is in college in a major that requires these courses (not all colleges or majors offer or allow credit-by-exam to fulfill such subject requirements if there is no transferred-in college credit for them), so the student may have to retake them even if s/he knows the material well.</p>
<p>Our h.s. requires 4 years of Math to graduate no matter what advanced level you started off with. S1 took Calc. as a junior. He took AP Stats for his senior math. Turned out to be really helpful. His college major required a Stats class so his AP class knocked that req. out for him.</p>
<p>Thank you for your comments. I don’t know what the criteria is for taking AP Statistics, but he can’t get into AP Calculus BC because it is linked with AP Physics BC and he has poor science grades. I will see if he can get into AP Statistics.</p>