HELP ASAP!!! Calculus Question for future possible engineering student???

Applying to College
1

I have always liked math and really want to go into engineering, I am 90 percent sure that my major will be some type of engineering. Because of this I have structured my schedule around math courses and have worked very hard in those classes.

Unfortunately, I have a major ISSUE that I am struggling with and need advice on. When I was admitted to my high school I was put on a math “track” that did allow me to move up to Calculus Senior Year. Every year I have had over a 95% in my math courses, and seeing that Junior Year was important I worked extremely hard and finished Adv. Algebra II with a 100%. Even with a 100% I am still unable to take calculus because I need to take Trig / Pre-Calc first. Because of this my teacher recommended I take Trig / Pre-Calc over the Summer. I thought that would be a good idea so I signed up for a course that my teacher recommended, it is important to note that my teacher research was “delayed” and gave me a math course that he nor the school is overly familiar with. After a few weeks of working in this course I realized that it was not designed as a summer course, just a regular course that I am taking over the summer. It takes roughly 5 hours a day to complete in which I feel like I am really lacking to learn the subject. Never the less, I could push through the course and get an A but it would be extremely stressful. But, that would be mean sacrificing most of my summer and losing out on volunteering, sports practice, job, SAT Prep and a serious lack of any “fun.”

MY QUESTION IS: How necessary is Honors Calculus for a prospective engineering student?

If I complete this course than as a Senior I would be taking AP Physics and Honors Calc. If I do not complete this course I would take AP Chem and Honors Trig / Pre-Calc.

Any information to my question is greatly appreciated. I have done additional independent research and could not find any particular college I am interested in explicitly saying I needed to take Calc in High School. I can take this course over the summer but it is one of the most stressful things I have ever done and I know for a fact I won’t learn as much as I would taking this course next year.

In addition, is there any data base where I could look at accepted students and see what classes they took on average?

Thanks for the Help,

N

P.S - This is the first time I ever used this forum. Is this the right section???

2

If it were me, I would probably stick with it. Seeing calculus for the first time at the college level is a lot of pressure; if you don’t make the grade (at my school you need a C or better to get into your major), you’ll likely be paying for an extra semester or two. Everything is sequential in engineering.

In addition, though it is not expressly required, many of your competition will have taken calc in high school. (Some strong students even take the equivalent of Calc 2 or 3 before they go to college!) Since you have the opportunity to achieve a higher level…I would not give that up.

Five hours a day can be less than the average part-time job (mine ranges from four to eight hours, usually five days a week). Do you have another job set up already? If not, don’t. This is your job this summer.

3

A high school calculus course that is less rigorous and covers less material than AP calculus AB (which itself is a slower paced version of calculus, covering a semester’s worth of material over a year in high school) is probably not worth rushing to get to. Focus on getting a strong trigonometry and precalculus foundation so that you are ready to take calculus in college.

The number of colleges that require high school calculus can probably be counted on your fingers, and all of these are super-selective ones. It is true that a large percentage of engineering majors at more selective colleges have had AP calculus and can start in a more advanced math course than calculus 1, but it is not required to do so in general.

4

Calc 1 is still a popular freshman class for engineering majors and other quantitative types, despite the fact that some students will have had it in high school. It sounds like you are already busy with your job, sports, etc. There are also a number of first semester college students that start with Calc 2 and have a terrible time, maybe because it is a hard course or maybe because their high school calc class wasn’t that great.