<p>Hi. My son is now a junior in a wellknown boarding school in the U.S.A. Because he came from a British system overseas when he started as a sophomore last year , he was asked to take some math courses after failing in some placement tests. Looking at the math courses available from now until the end of his senior year, the highest math course he could complete before his graduation would be Calculus A as he is now taking Accelerated Algebra 2 and would be taking Accelerated Trigonometry in Spring, Precalculus in Fall 2010 and Calculus A in Spring 2010.</p>
<p>My concern is that his math courses would not be enough for him to competitively apply to engineering schools of his choice, as he aspires to go to some top 10 engineering schools, despite his good grades in other subjects. I am thinking of sending him to summer programs such as Harvard or Cornell summer programs for high school students, in order to to take those more advance math courses, since the school does not offer any summer program. However, the school will not accept or recognize any math courses taken elsewhere as a replacement for school math program, so my son will have to follow school proposed math plan anyway.</p>
<p>Please share with me your thoughts and whether Calculus A would give my son disadvangetage when he applies to college next year.</p>
<p>Is Calculus A similar to AP Cal A/B? or is it like regular Calculus? Will he take an AP Cal exam (A/B or B/C) after completing the class?</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re concerned that your son won’t have the stats for an ivy education. I hope you realize that even those with perfect stats often don’t gain admittance to ivies or MIT. </p>
<p>That said, as long as your son’s overall grades are strong, there are many strong, ranked Engineering schools that will accept your son with regular Calculus. </p>
<p>Which are your son’s desired top 10 engineering schools?</p>
<p>His chances at ivies/MIT could be hurt if his school offers higher math classes, and he’s applying into Engineering program. Ivies and MIT type schools do look to see what your school offered, and will “ding” you if you didn’t take (or qualify for ) the most challenging curriculum offered.</p>
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<li><p>You may want to post on the boarding school parent area. They are very well informed.</p></li>
<li><p>I think the caliber of the Boarding school really comes into play here. From my limited understanding the couselors are very involved in selecting the students college app choices. Which means even with the added math courses in summer the counselor may not permit application to certain schools.
I recommend contacting your son’s college counselor ASAP. Let them know of the intention to go into engineering & your concern that the the math program will be a detriment.</p></li>
<li><p>Do some research into the lesser ranked Engineering schools. Drexel comes to mind first — It isn’t MIT, but it is nationally reputable. I know they take kids from our public where regular Calc is the limit (no AP, etc)</p></li>
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<p>Look into the possibility of taking a math course at your local community college. If this is a possibility, bring it to your g.c. and ask if he could test out of pre-calc, and perhaps Calc A if he takes sufficient courses at the c.c.</p>
<p>There are also on-line courses, some at a reasonable cost. </p>
<p>The hitch is getting the school to agree to allow him to test out. Try not to take one persons “No” answer… ask why they wouldn’t allow it… My daughter tested out of 9th grade geometry after self-studying over the summer.</p>
<p>Regarding summer courses, I’d advise you to do the above and use the summer to attend a math/engineering related summer program. I think this looks better to colleges than taking a course at a university. There are some highly respected ones, usa mathcamp; Hampshire Math., and some good engineering ones too.</p>
<p>I encourage you to keep at the school. There should be no reason for them to deny your child the chance to test out of a lower level course and take a more difficult one – especially after earning a grade at a community college.</p>
<p>The issue of testing difficulty could be a concern. Do you know what his attitudes towards math are? Does he love math? Is he on the math team? Does he like to solve puzzles? Engineering programs are typically rough and some amount of desire and love for math and science help you see it through to the end.</p>
<p>Has he taken geometry?</p>
<p>Some schools have two semesters of precalculus with trig rolled in. In the old days, a student would take trig and college algebra instead of either two semesters of precalc or one of trig and one of precalc. He will have to do well in all of these to make your schedule. You should find out what the Calc A course covers. Is it equivalent to a semester of college calc or maybe only three credits? It might not prepare the student for the lower level Calc AP.</p>
<p>Is he a year younger than US students? I’ve seen British curricular materials and I think that they go a little faster than we do in the US.</p>
<p>Many thanks for all the replies from you guys.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: Calculus A is the first Calculus course after Precalculus. The school also offers Calculus B and Calculus C and students will have to take AP Calculus A/B or B/C I think. For now we don’t know if he would take AP Calculus as he would take Calculus A in Spring of his senior year and might not be competent enough to take AP Calculus. His school of choice are MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins e.t.c</p>
<p>Longhaul: Thanks for your recommendation. I did talk to the advisor and he confirmed that my son’s application to college of his choice would not be affected which I am not convinced.</p>
<p>mom22girls: I am also considering other math programs as you kindly recommended. Thanks.</p>
<p>BCEagle91: My sons likes math but his passion is in Chemistry. Yes, he has taken Geometry last year. No, he is not younger than his classmates , just turns 17. Thanks for your recommendations.</p>
<p>I am still looking forward to more thoughts and whether the summer program at Harvard or Cornell is worthwhile for my son to make up for his math shortfall and for his valuable experience at those prestigious schools.</p>
<p>There is probably little point in his taking an AP calculus exam at the end of senior year. He would be better off taking the appropriate calc course for his level of mastery in the first semester of college and getting a solid grounding from which to move forward. I would think that it is likely that there will be a placement test that he can take at his college. I suppose it will depend on the college, but he should know where he’s going in time to take the AP exam if necessary, right?</p>
<p>A summer math program would only seem valuable if it enables him to test out of a course and accelerate at his boarding school. Otherwise he’s just going to be repeating the same material during senior year. If you consider this course of action you <em>really</em> need to work it out in advance with his school to be sure that they will accelerate him if he achieves a certain result (which may include taking a test when he goes back to school in the fall). Unless, of course, he needs the extra work to achieve mastery.</p>
<p>A summer engineering or science program, on the other hand, would seem like a valuable step. He’ll find out if he really is interested in engineering, for one thing, and not just going in that direction because of external forces. Is he interested in becoming a Chemical Engineer? Perhaps he would prefer to be a chemist, a bench scientist. It seems as if a lot of kids these days think of “engineering” as a monolithic profession, and as the only thing you can do with a math/science bent other than go to medical school, which of course it is not.</p>
<p>I think the best strategy for your son is to follow the school curriculum, and learn the math through Calculus very thoroughly. An excellent score on the SAT Math section and on the SAT II could demonstrate his math abilities.</p>
<p>The counselor’s letter could explain the diferences between his old school’s curriculum and his boarding school and the reasons why he took the the courses he did. Outstanding Math SAT scores would show that he has the ability, but just is on a different sequence then a typical student from his school. </p>
<p>The schools you mentioned do not give Calculus credit generously. They would most likely require a 5 on the BC exam or have their own Math placement exam to determine what level of Math a student needed.</p>
<p>I agree that a summer program that shows his passion for engineering would be more valuable than taking specific math classes that his boarding school wouldn’t recognize.</p>
<p>I think this goes beyond just getting into a good school for OP’s son. If he wants to go to top engineering school, then he really should have calculus BC by the time he graduates from high school. There are a few things to consider - 1) by taking a summer course, would his school have a higher level math for him to get into senior year, 2) will he be able to absorb a whole year worth of math in a few months. It would be important for him to be able learn a whole year of math in a summer program, or it could back fire when he is a senior. I have seen many kids go from A math student to B or below when they try to accelerate.</p>