What math level will you be starting as a freshman in BS?
Depends on which school. Best way to get a sense of classes is to look at the course catalog.
I was just wondering in general whether kids already took algebra in 8th and starting geometry in 9th etc.
There is great variety in what students took in MS. I know students who have started in everything from Algebra to Calculus. This is one class that is most frequently a combination of students from different grades.
Our DS will be starting Algebra but I heard many incoming freshman will be taking Geometry. I don’t want him to be “behind” as far as what colleges look for by senior year.
It really depends on the incoming student, schools send out placement tests in the summer and go from there. I’m assuming most students who aren’t talented with math either start with Algebra 1 or Geometry.
Even those who are talented in Math can start with Geometry at lots of BSs. My two students did, then Algebra II in 10th, Trig/pre Calc in 11th and BC Calc in 12th. If you can test out of Geometry, then you can do BC Calc in 11th and stats or Linear Algebra in 12th.
DS started in Alg 2 for 9th, but he has friends that started lower and friends that started higher. It all depends on your math background.
Several of my friends go to boarding school and they told me that most of their friends took geometry and a decent amount of students took Algebra 2 during their freshman year. But there are always those 2-3 students who are extremely good at math and end up taking Pre-calc/Trig or maybe even Calc their freshman year.
One of my friends took Calculus in his freshman year. I will be a 10th grader this fall, and I am hoping to take either multivariable calculus or linear algebra as I already completed AP calculus BC! But it seems like a standard math sequence for BS students (unless you are planning to study engineering/science/math…etc.) starts with algebra or geometry in 9th grade. It generally depends on your school’s course list and what you have studied in MS.