<p>One more calculus related admissions quote, from an interview with the UPenn admissions dean in The Choice blog at the NY Times. It is for business school admissions, not engineering, not social science, but gives an idea of the importance of taking calculus in HS for selective college admissions.</p>
<p>Q. Can a prospective student who is interested in Wharton, the school of business at Penn, still apply even if they have not taken calculus while in high school?</p>
<p>My son is in #2 best public HS for math and science in the nation, so the competition and expection of teachers are really high. He is hearing these days many of his friends who are very good at math are receiving B for their AP calculus class this semester, so he was kind of afraid of taking it next year even though he is doing quite well in current pre-calulus honors class. If pre-cal is not enough, then we will definitely move on to AP cal. He could do some preparation in the summer and be ready for the small war :)</p>
<p>My D took AP Stats instead of AP Calc, and has not missed the calc experience at all in her political science major or internships. Statistics has been valuable, though.</p>
<p>Hmmm, this means that a student who was not placed a year ahead in math back in junior high school (algebra 1 in 8th grade instead of 9th grade) is shut out of Wharton?</p>
<p>I agree that if a high school student completes precalculus in 11th grade or earlier and has a chance to take calculus, s/he should. But it seems unreasonable that a placement decision made back in junior high school closes the door to more than a very few super-elite math/science-oriented schools. (Then again, if this is the current trend, it may be encouraging inappropriate “pushing” of not-quite-ready students ahead in math.)</p>
<p>Penn does have a first semester freshman calculus course for those without high school calculus, Math 103.</p>
<p>regarding the potential for experience in state capitals, obviously there are a lot of directions you can go with a political science degree. If you are interested in the domestic side of things, there are definitely opportunities in state capitals and locally.</p>
<p>But, if the student wants to focus internationally (national security, foreign policy, international development, etc), those positions are concentrated in DC.</p>
<p>and to the post on the last page… lots of students in college don’t always read the material. American is obviously not a “top” school, but it does have advantages of being in DC and will likely give merit aid to top applicants. It’s a lot harder to get merit aid at Georgetown.</p>
<p>Look at the math/statistics courses required/recommended for the political science major at various colleges that interest you. You may be best off waiting to take the stats course at your college to get the required one. Given a choice (instead of taking both) the AP calculus seems most helpful for the college application process et al. PS- why do people seem to think the political process is limited to Washington, DC??? There is plenty of activity outside of that place.</p>
<p>Agreed. A lot of parents/students here seem to forget that not every poli-sci major desires to become a politician, lobbyist, or have anything to do exclusively with Washington D.C. beltway politics. That…or we all want to become lawyers. </p>
<p>Some of us poli-sci minors or majors prefer comparing/analyzing different political systems in different societies, theories, etc. For us…a Washington D.C. internship or emphasis on studying only US politics may not always be the most optimal route to reach our academic/employment goals. </p>
<p>So, based on everyone’s input this is the list of schools that we’re going to do in-depth research to finalize our reach/match/safety schools. </p>
<p>CMU
NYU
UVA
UMich<br>
Cornell
Texas A&M
Northwestern
George Washington
Duke<br>
American<br>
JHU
Tufts
U of Maryland
Georgetown
WashUSL
U of Chicago
Brown
Columbia
Dartmouth
Some UCs
HYPSM </p>
<p>“Some of us poli-sci minors or majors prefer comparing/analyzing different political systems in different societies, theories, etc. For us…a Washington D.C. internship or emphasis on studying only US politics may not always be the most optimal route to reach our academic/employment goals.”</p>
<p>For the record, American U. has largest undergraduate School of International Service in the world. (and internships to go with… As noted, the internship orientation might, for some students, be a reason NOT to chose it.)</p>
<p>If your son’s interest is in Poli-sci and going to law school as stated in the beginning, Boston College and Oberlin are two additional schools which should be given serious consideration. Both schools have sent many of their graduates to topflight law schools…including many in the T-14.</p>
<p>@floridadad55, Yes UCSD is in our list, thanks!</p>
<p>@cobrat, ok, we will include Boston College and Oberlin, thanks.
Also noticed that some of the schools you mentioned before are omitted in our list, so we’re just curious. How are these schools? Nortre Dame, UT-Austin, William & Mary?</p>
<p>Only concern with Notre Dame is that the school tends to be more conservative politically and socially because there is a greater emphasis on its Catholicism than other nominally Catholic colleges like Georgetown or Boston College.</p>
<p>Maybe these are not considered selective, but my D was accepted to them w/o calculus, no math at all in her senior year:
NU, UNC-CH (OOS), Carleton, CMC, Haverford, and more. Denied UPENN (Huntsman).</p>
<p>I have a degree in political science from umich. I’ve never taken calculus and am honestly not entirely sure what it even is, I’ve never seen it. I took whatever the minimum college level statistics course was and that was more than adequate for my particular course of study, though Michigan’s program allows quite a lot of room for variation in curriculum based on your interests. My focus were in political theory (which was a LOT of statistics but nothing requiring advanced study) and in international politics.</p>
<p>In terms of college admissions, though, I think I would have taken calculus over statistics if I’d had the choice. I’m sure it varies based on the school, but I had a VERY hard time finding colleges with less emphasis on math even for poli sci majors, my inability to make it to calculus was a very limiting factor for me in my college choices. Maybe things have changed in the last four years, but when I was applying it was obvious that colleges wanted to see calculus. </p>
<p>I have done a little consulting for colleges (top 100 LACs) about homeschoolers. The first question I always get is, “How can we get more of them?” The second question, commonly, is “Can they do the math?” Exploring further, I discovered that it wasn’t about homeschoolers at all. Rather, faculty in social sciences were complaining that students, even with very high SAT scores, were increasing unable to do the math needed in their increasingly quantitative classes. The social sciences aren’t what they were 30 years ago.</p>
<p>And probing further, it turns out that almost none of the classes required calculus. But a good grade in calculus was an indicator for admissions that it was more likely that a student (in the social sciences) would be able to cope. In no case was it required, and most readily admitted that statistics would be more useful. But they did see calculus as one indicator (others being possible) that math wouldn’t turn into a problem for social science applicants.</p>
<p>@Youdon’tsay, I think Texas A&M was someone’s recommendation. It might have have been meant UT-Austin</p>
<p>@gloworm, Emaheevul07, thanks for the info. It seems like AP Calculus seems to be needed for selective schools. By running net price calculator for some reach schools, I realized their need-based scholarship was better than one from UCs</p>
<p>@mini, as I mentioned earlier, many of my son’s friends are having B from AP calculus this semester. It is not becuase they are not good at math, but because teachers made questions ridiculously difficults from their very high expectation. Hopefully, getting 5 on AP test somehow can compensate that</p>