I’m not familiar with the specific area of CS she is interested in. In my sons experience the MV calculus was only of value since he is CS with minor in math. For the CS part he actually felt he would have been better off with more linear algebra or statistics.
“@ucbalumnus Are girls being nudged off to AP statistics or no math at all?”
They are being nudged both ways. Mostly into easier math though. Many students take 4 years in high school, and finish with Pre-calc, AP Stat, or AP Calc AB. Some only take the required 3 years and stop at algebra II or geometry.
The people nudging girls down don’t realize they are doing it, and so it happens over and over again. They just see the girls differently, and so it happens over and over again. Everyone acts like it is a big mystery. Teachers and parents do it. Often it is as subtle as the tone in people’s response when a girl says they are interested in engineering compared to when a boy says it.
“Is multivariable calculus the only offering of post-BC math at this school?”
MV is the only math above BC Calculus that is taught at our HS. She did tack on Linear Algebra during the summer at Northwestern.
As a freshman at Penn she started in MV Calc, but she was really bored, so her faculty advisor tested her and moved her up to the next course in the sequence (Math 240). The point is that the boys tend to begin college with more high level math and that puts the girls at a disadvantage in engineering and CS.
Math requirements vary a lot in the different CS programs. My general impression is that if CS is in the Engineering College then it has more requirements, otherwise Calc 1 and 2 plus one Prob/Stats are required.
Math options at her school next year are - Calculus 2 and Differential equations, both are half year courses but no college credit or dual enrollment at the local community college for the same courses.
In colleges where CS is in the college of engineering, you need to separate the CS math requirements into two buckets. Some are required to meet college of engineering requirements, others are more relevant to CS.
@njmom2019, if your D didn’t care to do the free online programming on her own, maybe you can find a coding camp for her to attend this summer. Many universities and even some community colleges offer a variety of introductory coding camps, and your D might enjoy that a lot more than just learning by herself at home.
Your initial list is solid, I’d put Rutgers, NJIT, Delaware as safeties, the rest as matches only because you’re out of state for those public universities. UIUC is a match as a girl applying to STEM is a hook, esp for CS and engineering. Good luck!
Any feedback on the placement opportunities on the colleges on the list ? We know Northeastern has a solid co-op program and majority of colleges should have one not sure how good they are or which one has what kind of opportunities.
@traveler98 thank you for the suggestions, We have looking into few options for summer programs, she was looking forward to doing the Girls Who Code summer program but they don’t accept students are are taking AP Computer Science courses. She is going on a school trip after school which is throwing things off since a lot of programs start last week of June and our last day of School is June 22. If nothing works out we will see if she is interested in doing a course on edx
@theloniusmonk thank you for the reply.
@njmom2019, it may take some digging but check with either your local universities (for day camps) or if the budget permits you can look at residential programs as well. If she’s interested in learning about cybersecurity she might like to check out GenCyber, which offers camps at universities around the country and may even cover the program cost for attendees. My son attended a residential GenCyber program at WPI during the summer of 2016 and the full cost was covered by a grant from the NSA and NSF:
My son also attended several weeks of coding camps at UT Dallas during summer 2017, with two goals in mind. He already planned to apply there for college, so he wanted to check out residential campus life in addition to exploring his interest in CS. He learned a lot of good CS concepts and loved the college so much he decided not to apply anywhere else, which saved him a huge amount of time and stress last fall during his first semester of senior year.
Another option, depending on what you have available locally, is to help your daughter look for a CS internship or job shadowing. Where I live there are several local companies that are happy to have high school students come in to do various types of CS work or job shadowing. Some students are even fortunate to get “real” jobs that involve actual coding and are paid. Our local community college is also very open to high school students coming in for research and internships. Something like that can help your daughter figure out if CS is something she can see herself doing as a career, and help her home in on which areas of CS she likes or doesn’t like.
Is this true @theloniusmonk ?
People tend to overestimate “hook” factors like gender, race, and legacy, because the admission process may be opaque and depend on subjective grading of other factors like essays and extracurriculars. In general, none of these particular factors should be counted on to move a reach to a match or a match to a safety. Only the bigger “hooks” like recruited athlete and relation to a big donor or big VIP may move a school that considers them to a less difficult category for admission.
I.e. UIUC for CS or engineering should be considered a reach, regardless of gender or race.
A quick perusal of UIUC CDs shows that men are accepted at 55% with women being accepted at 67%. That should translates into higher acceptance for women into their most popular majors - Comp Sci, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The enrollment of men in those three majors is 82% with women at 18%. Frankly that is not good for STEM, but we’re digressing from the point. UIUC knows it has to make that number more balanced, so imo being a female is a hook. You’re not guaranteed a spot of course.
And UIUC is not a reach for everybody, as my friends from Illinois tell me, the state is broke so they will gladly accept OOS tuition money. So good stats, OOS even for EE, CE and CS could make it a match.