Hello everyone,
I’m a senior in high school right now and I want to do engineering (civil/environmental engineering) in college. For a while, I have been stressing over my deficient math record in high school. In my freshman year, I took geometry and passed with over a 95 both semesters. In my sophomore year, I took trigonometry/algebra II and passed with over a 95 in both semesters. In my junior year, I took AP Statistics and got a 5 on the AP Exam. My biggest fear is that I won’t be accepted into universities and colleges because of my lack of pre-calculus and calculus classes in high school.
I know most schools ask for 3-4 years of math. Some schools require math up to pre-calculus, while other schools require math up to calculus in high school. I decided to pursue engineering pretty late in my high school career.
On the SAT, I got a 680 on critical reading, 710 on math, and 750 on writing, for a total of 2140. Critical reading + math comes out to be 1390 (not the best either).
The only subject test I took was chemistry and I got a 780 on it.
My high school GPA is a 97.43 on a 100 scale.
APs I have taken:
- AP World History - 4
- AP Chemistry - 3
- AP Statistics - 5
APs I am taking this year as a senior:
- AP Physics 1
- AP English Language and Composition
- AP Environmental Science
- AP Government and Economics
Some schools I’m applying to:
- New York University
- Stony Brook University
- College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- University at Buffalo
- Syracuse University
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Northeastern University
- Rochester Institution of Technology
- City College (CUNY in New York City)
- Other SUNY schools just in case engineering in college isn’t plausible with my math record.
Will my lack of pre-calculus and calculus courses in high school greatly hurt my applications (especially considering how I want to study engineering)? Will the AP Statistics course “somewhat” make up for my lack of pre-calculus and calculus?
Thanks you very much for taking the time to read this! Any help is appreciated!
Yes, it will hurt you. Engineering programs expect applicants to take AP Calculus AB or BC or both, or multivariate calculus, or some other form of high level mathematics. AP Stats will not make up for this. I would consider taking SAT Math II.
What guided your decision to take stats instead of calc?
@anxiousenior1 Expected it to be this way. Thank you for your suggestion!
@lostaccount I knew I was going to pursue a science major. I found out from a science teacher that most science majors require statistics so I wanted some statistics background from high school. At that time, I didn’t decide on engineering yet. I was more focused on environmental studies as a major instead.
If I remember correctly most engineering schools expect calculus 1 to be done by freshman year of college, so I’d
recommend to learn pre calc before you get into college
I’m confident that I can learn pre-calc. I know peers in AB and BC calc who are willing to help.
Sadly, I still won’t have pre-calc listed on my high school transcript. Does this mean schools won’t consider my apprivation because I don’t even have all the required high school courses?
Try taking Pre-calc online with a virtual school. You can ask your counselor to add that on to your transcript as an off-campus course…
You could the Pre-calc or its equivalent at a local Community College, preferably through some form of Dual Enrollment. I would suggest you take Calculus I concurrently with Pre-Calc or over the Summer Term or at least audit the course over the summer. These days, most (?) engineering students (at least, at some of the top schools) would have done AP Calculus AB/BC before starting University. This puts you at a disadvantage, since for a lot of these students, Calculus I would be a repeat. Not starting off with Calculus I will also jeopardize your 4-year graduation option. I think you will be able to get into a number of the listed engineering programs without Pre-Calc/Calculus AB/BC.
It sounds like you have good science/math aptitude, so I would try to pick up Pre-calc through dual enrollment at an area community college or an accredited online course (FLVS?). Not having (at least) Pre-calc could have a negative impact on engineering applications. Be sure to run this by your guidance counselor.
My niece is at Virginia Tech in engineering, and she only went through Pre-calc in high school. She wishes she had gone further though. Calc 1 was tough for her at VT, mainly because most of the students had already had some Calc exposure.
If you take pre-calc in senior year, you would be okay. Most engineering schools schedule calc 1 and 2 in freshmen year although many students have AP or DE credits to skip those.
This student is halfway through their senior year. Has to do something to at last take pre-calc, and let colleges know this is in process, in my opinion.