Just curious question, why are you deferring AP calc BC if you could take it right after precalc? If I were you I would skip Calc A honors, whatever that means. Completely unnecessary. Calc BC follows Precalc pretty straightforwardly.
@tellmecombo my school does not allow going to calc BC straight after precalc. If you take precalc as a sophomore or freshman, you have to go to honors calc A and if you take it as a junior you go to AP calc AB. I’m not sure why, maybe to have more time to review for the AP at the end of BC
Trololol, stupid prerequisites. It’s like schools are scared their students become too smart. One thing I’ve found is that everything is flexible, and “rules” can be bent with enough willpower (or convincing). If you want, get your parents involved with the counselor.
Basically, the more math/science to take early on, the more interesting options can open up for you to pad your resume for MIT/Stanford. Like being able to do Physics/Chem olympiads after the AP courses etc…
Also AP stats is a joke. I would not even take that class, just take multivariate calc instead (more useful)
With your start point you could do the following progression:
Precalc-> Calc BC-> Multivariate Calc/Linear Algebra/DiffEQ-> some abstract Uni level math (Analysis/Abstract Algebra etc…)
Take Physics C with Calc BC and you will can prepare concurrently for Physics olympiad. You’ll have 10th & 11th grade to be good. Same thing for Bio or Chem.
With Multivariate calc, it opens up a lot of advanced courses you could take:
Like Physical chemistry instead of Analytical Chemistry.
My general philosophy is 5 very hard classes > 6 medium classes.
And finally, you don’t even have to study things at a local university, if your high school has self-study for advanced students (which it seems you are), you can just enroll and take online courses or self-study advanced topics (there’s MIT ocw and many more resources online). In general, the lower the amount of time you spend mugged down by the high school curriculum, the better you will be prepared for college. High school can be a huge waste of time, the less time you spend at school, the better… (that has always been my philosophy)
@tellmecombo well I only have 6 weeks left of my sophomore year now so not much I can do haha
Also I was considering asking to be in calc BC, but because of the Calc A class, most of the kids in BC already know basic derivatives and integrals, so they skip straight to the more difficult stuff like taylor/mclaurin series, riemann sums, etc. I would probably be totally lost unless I studied over the summer, which I didn’t really have time for bc I had to work.
I know kids who’ve only had up to calc AB but still got into MIT and Stanford, so I think just going up to multivariables should be okay. If not, I probably can’t even pay their tuition anyway, so my dreams aren’t gonna be crushed or anything
One question though, what’s your favourite subject?
Also, MIT/Stanford offers very good need based aid, I wouldn’t worry about that yet. I also got into both, and I think one thing that might have helped my application standout is I self-studied a bunch of things because my high school was slow and I was determined not to let them dictate what I could or could not learn.
Oh and last thing, your objective is to be as badass as possible so that no matter where you go (whether MIT/Stanford or not) you’ll still ace college rather than the minimum required to get into MIT/Stanford. Coz I’ve known people who got into MIT with shit preparation and dropped out. Or even went mad. Not fun.
@tellmecombo I’d probably say math and science.
I did a financial aid calculator thing for both of them and my estimated aid was 15k. My parents simply can’t write a check for 44k every year and I don’t want to take out loans for undergrad. I know their aid might be good, but it’s not perfect like they say.
Also I am not interested in the physics/ chem olympiads, I already do competitive math and I’m going to do AZ science olympiad next year so that would just be way too much
For Science/Math:
The US curriculum for science & math tends to be very lacking. If you can you can supplement it with foreign stuff. Like soviet era high school books/problem books, IIT-JEE exam materials, chinese University entrance exam material, I could go on and on, but you get the point. Art of Problem Solving is a good website to start visiting. MIT ocw is also good place to start.
Have you considered things like MathCamp etc…? You can meet people who are like minded and see what other kids are doing to learn more than they are prescribed.
@tellmecombo I actually just applied to a math camp at TAMU and I got the AoPS books as well. I’m currently on teh waiting list for math camp but I am no.1 so there’s a good chance I will get a spot. Thanks for all your help!
AoPs is a very good set of books. There’s also Problem Solving Strategies by Arthur Engel. But in general, nothing beats discussing with peers on AoPS hard problems, and banging your head several hours. Problems are like wine, the longer you are stuck on them, the better they age.
@tellmecombo: some high schools do Calc AB or BC as a sequence (ie., you take the first part one year, THEN the second part) whereas other high schools do it as an alternative (less intense calc OR more intense calc). OP is in a high school where it’s sequential, so she has to take Calc1 then Calc 2.
AoPS is very good for math minds.
@annana: if your parents can’t pay their EFC, ask them how much they can contribute. Then look for colleges where the merit scholarships are big (like full tuition).