OK, I had my daughter ask her counselor, and the counselor said it was “OK”.
My daughter will not be entering any career where she will need math. Or, at least more math than she has taken… She is A+ in calculus now, and next year she will be taking statistics. But LAST YEAR she begged me to let her not take a math because she wanted an extra AP course, and I let her not take math… so, she will have 3 years of the harder math classes when she graduates.
But I know that some colleges want 4 years of math. That is what they say, but is it 100% absolute?
What is the deal?
She has 3.94 GPA ( I think ) unweighted, and 4.59 weighted.
I would think she would be fine. Colleges will care more about her interests and what she does with her time. Taking calculus covers the expectation of most colleges. I am not even sure she needs statistics. By all means ask some schools.
Will depend a bit on what field she wants to go into. I could see it hurting her chances if she wants to get into a top engineering school. But if her intended career isn’t math focused…I really think she’ll be fine.
So your DD had Algebra 1 & 2, Geometry & Trigonometry before 9th grade? Or is your pre-calc a combination of trig & algebra? I think it’s important to have Geometry & Trigonometry, but if she has had those then she should be fine. I would put information in the additional information section about what math she had taken before high school - unless they will show on her transcript. I think most colleges like to see 4 years of math because they want you to see rigor and make sure you at prepared for college math classes. Also if your calculus is regular calculus and not AP, I would say take AP calc versus statistics if available. Unless that statistics class is AP or if she is going into a field that is heavy in statistics. In our state you only need algebra 2 to graduate, so what they don’t want to see is a kid who stopped at the state requirement and then filled their schedule with easy classes.
My daughter took no math her senior year, after having completed BC calculus as a junior. She was not STEM, but she declared her intention to major in a subject that requires math – economics – on her college applications. Cornell didn’t seem to mind; they accepted her ED.
Please don’t tell your daughter that you think her college choices were lessened by your recommendation that she followed. If she gets denied admissions at some schools, shells may attribute that to following your suggestions. This is not helpful to your daughter. How would you make up for hurting her chances even when the counselor agreed with you both. Application does not guarantee admission and denial is unlikely to be based on one element in the application. Relax for everyone, please.
In terms of admissions I don’t see a problem here. I do agree with @zannah with post #8: Good students get turned down from selective universities all the time. You don’t want her to assume that this was the reason if she gets turned down anywhere.
@Marian I would imagine that Calculus BC was the top math class your school offered, so not taking math for her senior year would not be a problem. That’s not quite the same as skipping a year of math. If OP’s daughter has not taken an AP math, then taking an AP math would be a good idea. My son’s friend had taken Calc BC & AP Stats by his junior year so the school provided an online class for him to take AP Calc 3. He’s planning on an engineering major, so taking the most math possible was important to him.
Reaching calc is fine, for a humanities kid. (And considering she’s continuing with stats, will have 3 years, including calc rigor.) She may have a math gap, but now focus on the rest of what will match her to her top choices.
My daughter dropped math in her junior year when she attempted pre-calculus and she was barely passing. No grades were recorded. She picked up math again in her senior year by taking “college algebra” which was a watered down class.
We put our time and effort junior year into getting her SAT math score up to an “acceptable” level–she got a 610. She had a 720 in Reading–so she presented as a highly verbal kid. Ultimately she got into NYU as an art major. 50% of her admissions was talent based, but she did go on to to be selected for their scholars program.
A lot of schools out there are holistic and will not penalize a student for a slight variation in their classes and will see students for their strengths and not their weaknesses. Since your D will be taking higher level math anyway, I see no problem. I would advise, though, that she continues taking science and language through her senior year.
Depends on what schools she will apply to and what her math score on the SAT/ACT is. It may be a liability for the most selective schools. It may be a liability if the top kids at her high school have all taken 4 years of math, as she will be judged in the context of her high school. The ACT/SAT math section is mostly comprised of algebra and geometry.
Does she have a solid enough foundation in that coursework to score well?
As it happens, the school offered AP Statistics and a multivariable calculus course, so she did have math options for senior year. She chose not to take math because she wanted to take AP Macroeconomics and Microeconomics instead, and the constraints of her curriculum (she was an IB diploma candidate) prevented her from doing both.
@Marian That would make complete sense to take AP Micro & Macro Economics instead of an additional AP math class as since she was pursuing an economics major. She already had “proven” ability in two college level math classes. I don’t think missing a year of math is critical as she is obviously good at math, but I think it would be better to have an AP math if possible.
My son had Algebra I in 7th grade, Geometry in 8th, Algebra 2 in 9th, Pre-Calculus in 10th (included trig), skipped math in 11th to take an extra science, and then Calculus in 12th. His high school put the middle school maths on his transcript and counted them as math credit and no college questioned it at all.
Top math students at my children’s school could take the entire calc sequence in a single year. I see on CC that some high schools require students to take Calc AB before they take Calc BC. I guess the latter route still counts as two years of math.
Also depending on the level of foreign language attained in middle school some students may take the AP level during sophomore year. Some colleges that required four years of foreign language wanted two additional years in another language and some felt attaining a 5 on the exam was sufficient.
I would ask the college admissions rep rather than the high school GC about the requirements.