Hi! I’m a high school freshman now, and I’ve been looking at doing a CS major when I go to college since I really love computers and have a programming hobby, but it appears that I have already messed up big time. I’m in AP Calculus BC this year and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. I worked hard in the class and got an A for the semester. I then had a final exam, in which I needed a 75% on to get an A, but even though I studied really hard for it, I think I might have got around a 70% on it because of a few weird questions, which would probably make my final grade a B+. Would a university with a good computer science program such as CMU or MIT look down on a B+ in a class that’s apparently really important to my subject of interest? Do I still have a chance in majoring in computer science or do I have to start looking at options for majors that aren’t technical? I would probably be mediocre in something like the humanities, and I would probably not enjoy it either. Am I overthinking this or is this a serious issue?
P.S: Does anybody know how to take the indefinite integral of t^2(sin t^2) dt, assuming that the question is TI-84 ok? I still can’t figure it out. U-Sub, Integration by Parts (including Tabular), and basic integration rules all seem to not work. I figured that since this was a forum filled with math majors, some people here would be able to tell me how to solve it. At least I’d learn something from the exam.
You’ll find that your high school grades mean very little in the long run, especially freshman grades, and that if you do well on the AP exam and do some impressive extracurriculars, that will get you into a good program. Top tier undergraduate programs have a very large element of luck in their admission. The mood of the adcom member who reads you application will have a much stronger effect on your chances of admission than whether you had an A or a B+ in freshman AP Calculus (and taking calculus freshman year is impressive in its own right).
For your second question, there is no simple closed-form solution. Try the TI-84 Integrate function if you want a numerical answer.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=integral+%28x^2%29sin%28x^2%29
ha ha ha. But there are many many universities that teach CS students and many many employers that hire them. There are colleges for students of all abilities. Don’t take classes you aren’t prepared to do well in. You want an A or B if you take an AP class and there is no reason to push it too early, what are you going to take for the rest of HS?
AP Calc BC in freshmen year? I think you are well ahead of most people your age who will decide to major in CS. A B+ will NOT kill you.
Getting a B+ is not the end of the world. I had a few in high school, and now I am a senior in EECS at an institution where the CS program has a good reputation. You’re only a freshman, you’re not at all in a risky position.
Also, note that while going to MIT or CMU is a great goal to have, it is also not the end of the world if you don’t get into either of them. As long as you go to an institution where the program is ranked in the top 20 or so, it really doesn’t make a difference when job hunting.
In high school I had at least 5 B’s and even a C or two: I’m now at a CS program ranked in the top 30 for CS and US News Top 50. I also only got up to AB Calculus in high school. You will be just fine.