<p>It appears on my high school transcript, since I got high school credit for it - so I didn't list it in activities or anything. I figured that they'd look at my transcript, and see that I was in AP Calc freshman year, Calc 4 now, and "do the math" as it were. Especially since I did the online application and you had check boxes and it only went from 9-12. </p>
<p>Also, I didn't do PSEO full-time. I did AP Calc freshman year, NO math in 10th grade, and then 11th grade I did PSEO calc 2 and 3, and this past semester I did calc 4 and Arabic, plus AP classes at school both years.</p>
<p>So just out of curiosity, what math course are you planning on starting with at Princeton, prettyfish? You're the first person I've met to be so far advanced in math in just your senior year of high school. That's pretty awesome.</p>
<p>Due to the fact that I'm going to be a math major, and the U of M is screwed up and doesn't do Laplace transforms, so I can't test out of Linear Algebra, I'm planning on just starting with the honors cycle - so, either 214 or 215 (I would rather do 214 - the algebra one, but to do 218, you have to have 215 (they're both analysis), and you need 218 to complete the cycle, and you usually only take either 214 or 215, not both). Really I have to talk with the people there, etc., but I won't be jumping up too high, because I don't have the proof skills that you acquire in the honors cycle; I'll just have a good background in the subject, and textbooks that already have the proofs for me... I mean... what?</p>
<p>And also, thanks for the compliment ;) I'm wearing my "Algebra is for Lovers" t-shirt right now, that I had a senior picture taken in, so I'm just in a happy mathy mood.</p>
<p>I'm a junior and I am in Algebra 2 Hon., I came from a small private middle school that didn't offer advanced math to students and then went to a high school that had full year classes. But I am teaching myself calculus right now and I am thinking about taking college trig this summer at a university and then taking AP Calc next year. Would that make up for being in Alg. 2 Hon. as a junior?
Also, the 1st part of the summer I am doing the Yale Summer Program, if I get accepted, so I might not be able to take college trig this summer which means that I will have to take precalc next year, am I doomed if I apply to Princeton with only math up to precalc?</p>
<p>Going above and beyond what your school offers is definitely a major factor... I don't know how that compares with the YSP.</p>
<p>Regarding some earlier discussion, I had never heard of the AMC until about month ago when I started reading posts on this site. Southern Alabama sucks.</p>
<p>prettyfish-why major in math? What sorts of math does one learn? How does it help someone prepare for the future? Would it be more interresting for a math lover than engineering? Thanks!</p>
<p>Princeton has one of the top 5 math departments in the entire nation. That's why Princeton for math - it was definitely a deciding factor.</p>
<p>It always bothers me when I see people who love math just deciding to be an engineer - or when people assume that all math people are going to be engineers. (No offense to anyone, trust me, I love all my engineering friends, too.) But I don't want to build stuff. I want to break codes for the NSA (cryptanalyism), and that's math. Plus the math department is really good and really SMALL, so you get a LOT more personal attention.</p>
<p>I think it all depends what you want to do with your degree. Do you want to build stuff? Or do you want to do cooler things? Know that the majority of math majors probably end up teaching or researching, but it's actually a lot more versatile than you think - lots of businesses will hire you with a math degree and then train you to the specifics.</p>
<p>As for what sort of math - I'm not quite sure yet. I think you can choose to concentrate more in applied or theoretical - I think I tend to like theoretical better, but I'm not sure. Engineering is definitely applied.</p>
<p>priddyfish--
you seem to know a lot about math/math dept @ princeton. breaking codes sounds like fun (john nash did it in "beautiful mind")--but how realistic is that sort of ambition? do princeton math majors end up getting nifty jobs like that or will they end up in classrooms w/ a suit and tie?</p>
<p>It's quite realistic; the NSA is the number one employers of math majors - they hire some outrageous number a year - I want to say like 500 or 2,000 or something that sounds a lot more than it should. And if I don't get a job with them, there's TONS of jobs in the private sector - any business with a high online traffic capacity needs someone knowledgeable in cryptography to be sure data being transmitted is encoded correctly.</p>
<p>The Princeton math majors I "know" best used to be "rocket scientists" for investment banking firms, essentially inventing new ways to analyze investments. Now they do what they are most passionate about, which is get young people excited about problem-solving.</p>