<p>How competitive is Penn CAS for math and/or economics? I'm thinking of apply for one of the majors RD. I know its probably not as hard as Wharton because still how competitive is it?
BTW, i have 800 M in SAT 1 with 2200 in total and a 760 in Math Level 2.</p>
<p>I do not know the answer to your question, but I have a question of my own. When you select an intended major, are you competing against the applicants of the same intended major in the admission process? For instance, biology majors competing against other biology majors…</p>
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<p>You’re not competing against other math/econ majors (or in soitgoes’ case, biology majors). Instead, you are competing against all other CAS applicants. Therefore, no specific major is more competitive than any other.</p>
<p>i mean like out of all the students trying to major in math, how competitive is Penn CAS? i know MIT/Cal Tech are the most competitive. Are Penn CAS up there as well?</p>
<p>you have a 760 math sat IIc. I have a 800 math IIc and still had my *** handed to me on the midterm (math 114 --calc II). You’ll have a fun time ;)</p>
<p>about this competitive:
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<p>as opposed to Math II:
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<p>Will the curve be lenient, though? And out of curiosity, do the best math students at Penn take 114 as opposed to 104? Could the students in 114 – assuming they had no prior knowledge of 104 – dominate the students in 104? (This, of course, is a hypothetical.)</p>
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By the curve or just the exam itself?</p>
<p>Math 2 is a decent gauge of precalc skills at a certain point in time, but it’s by no means a great predictor of how someone will fare in higher level college math courses, so don’t scare the OP.</p>
<p>^^ trudat.</p>
<p>dunbar, I got pwnt by the exam; the curve isn’t set until the end of the semester.
Math 104 is full of people who ace’d BC calc. Math 114 is full of (engineers) who ace’d multivariable calculus in their local collages / highschools. I know some kids who immediately took math 240. They are crying.</p>
<p>Do people who take BC calculus in high school usually retake Calculus 2 at penn?</p>
<p>I am in Calculus AB as a senior and am looking to major in math (I know I’m behind), and I am looking at the UPenn Math 103 finals and they honestly don’t look very difficult.</p>
<p>penn’s calc 2 (114) is what you’re placed into if you get a 5 on ap bc calculus</p>
<p>if you take ab calc, you should be taking math 104 (unless you want to take the placement test)</p>
<p>lol@the OP’s name… “handsomehandsomehandsome”</p>
<p>I’d argue that your Math IIC score has very little predictive power… many students who come to Penn to begin with have 800’s or near-800’s on their Math IIC’s, and yet the variance in Math 104/Math 114 scores is so great. You can 800 the IIC and still get reamed to high heaven on a Penn math midterm. I remember my very first math midterm as a freshman… when I was going to pick up my grades, there were kids walking back the other direction. One of them was sobbing hardcore – she was loudly upset, saying that it was her first C ever. It’s quite a bit harder than the standardized tests.</p>
<p>Math 103 is what you take if you aren’t familiar with calc concepts such as derivatives, integrals, etc. Math 104 is what you take if you’ve already taken Calc AB – you’ll get a quick refresher over two weeks or so, but then you’ll start chewing away at new stuff immediately. Math 114 is for the BC Calc kids. Math 240 is for those disgusting kids in high school who probably took BC Calc early on.</p>
<p>If you want an idea for yourself, check out the course info:
Math 103: <a href=“http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m103/syllabi/08-09Math103Syllabus.pdf[/url]”>http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m103/syllabi/08-09Math103Syllabus.pdf</a>
Math 104: <a href=“http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m104/syllabi/08-09Math104Syllabus.pdf[/url]”>http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m104/syllabi/08-09Math104Syllabus.pdf</a>
Math 114: <a href=“http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m114/09Math114Syllabus.pdf[/url]”>http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m114/09Math114Syllabus.pdf</a>
Math 240: <a href=“http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m240/09aMath240Syllabus.pdf[/url]”>http://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m240/09aMath240Syllabus.pdf</a></p>
<p>Just to give you an idea of the curve, this was my Math 104 curve at the end of my first semester back in… oh wow, 2005. Time flies, man:</p>
<p>76 - 100 A (36 students)
74 - 75 A- (8 students)
72 - 73 B+ (5 students)
65 - 71 B (30 students)
63 - 64 B- (3 students)
62 C+ (3 students)
47 - 61 C (30 students)
45 - 46 C- (4 students)
40 - 44 D (3 students)
39 - 0 F (2 students)</p>
<p>124 students total</p>
<p>So don’t feel too badly if you aren’t clocking 95%+'s on all your math midterms like you were in high school. The earlier midterms had averages around the area of 70% or so, but the later ones were as low as 55% iirc. Quiz and homework points are essentially freebies, so that’ll definitely help you out if you’re a nervous test taker.</p>
<p>In general though, I would not say it’s so much competitive as it is a survival feat.</p>
<p>^So if i’m taking MVC as a senior right now, [doing terrible in the class -> getting a B+…there’s no curve 
whatsoever], and i get better at MVC as the year goes on, should i be looking at taking math 114 if i were to get into penn?</p>
<p>Penn sounds difficult lol :P</p>
<p>You aren’t behind at all. I’m a math major at Penn, and I didn’t even take AB. However, be careful as Math 103 isn’t CALC I its more of a intro to calc. Math 104 is Calc I and starts off at integration. Look at the syllabus and finals and if you can do everything in that, then you’d be fine to start off in Math 114 Calc II. Just note that at Penn the general sequence you see at other colleges doesn’t apply. I started in 104 and i’m fine.</p>
<p>The best students start with 116 and I think about 20 actually end up finishing the course. Penn doesn’t really get any superstar math undergrads as it’s not even possible to start off with Real Analysis as a freshman (the department won’t let you). The honors sequences at e.g. Princeton, Harvard, Chicago and other really strong undergraduate math programs typically start with real. MIT is notorious for putting IMO gold medalists on a calculus course… which in my opinion is stupid.</p>
<p>Quite a few of the math grads at Penn started with real analysis as undergrads (me included), yet they won’t let undergrads here do that. I think the major problem is that Princeton is really close and if you’re really good at math and want to major in it and can get admitted by Princeton, then you would be crazy to choose Penn. This means that Penn gets strong math students, but the ones that really stand out won’t be here.</p>
<p>EDIT: For this reason the strongest math undergrads at flagship state universities are often better as they get a free ride from a school close to home.</p>
<p>not sure about this year, but last year math 104 had Prof Pemantle give us these EXTRAORDINARILY FUN supplementary questions that had TAs going ***? and Profs scratching their heads. Did I mention that they appear exactly as on the handouts for the exams? There’s usually a dozen-20 of them. There are all of 1 or 2 people (olympiad winners -_-)I know who legitly solved all the problems themselves. The rest either leeched off others, were lucky and happened upon that one rebel prof who gave out the solutions or hired someone to do it for them. </p>
<p>For the sake of your sanity, if pemantle is section leader again, put off taking math 104. If it doesn’t sound bad, consider that you’re trying to do this right before the exam when you probably have 3-4 others to study for. Without those questions though, 104 is pretty easy, standard hs calc fare. Mind you, about half of the supplementary questions are still solvable, the other half are… ugh…</p>