<p>Does his HS offer a course JUST in statistics and does that count as “math?” That might be a work around. Personally, I was NOT a fan of trig, but some folks loved it. Statistics is pretty interesting to many, especially since we’re often shown figures and percentages and it’s useful to understand them.</p>
<p>I’d ask the HS & college counselors about this and whether statistics would meet the “math” criteria. A warning is that if he doesn’t take enough math in HS, he may be behind and have to take remedial math in college. Our D had to take through pre-calculus in HS & community college or she’d have had to take it in college as well.</p>
<p>D doesn’t expect to need her math too much as a cinema major, but you never know. She also was thinking about business which I believe requires calculus at her U. Agree with others that it’s sad that math is not taught to relate to the physical world and made more abstract that most students enjoy. Am glad our S found it mostly fun and easy, but sad D struggled with it.</p>
<p>I think that one of the big problems with math education is that you need a lot of math to where you can find good uses for it and that the trip to get to where you find out that math is really interesting is a long journey. Physics I is a good place for discovering the math relationships to the physical world but you have to take so much to get there. Computer science depends on discrete mathematics but you need a lot to get there too.</p>
<p>Unfortunately a lot of kids don’t get taught in a way where they get to have a lot of fun with mathematics with time to explore and experiment because of the pressure to adhere to a schedule is so strong. Sometimes I think that that schedule results in it taking much longer to learn K-12 math than needed.</p>
<p>I took a linear algebra course many years ago and there were quite a few marketing applications as examples and problems.</p>
<p>I think of Calculus I and II as complementary to English 101 and 102. Everyone in college should take these courses. Or maybe substitute something like logic for Calculus II.</p>
<p>Back in the day, I had to take calculus 1 and then was able to take Logic and 2 terms of computer science as well as statistics for social science majors to complete my math requirement. Those courses were more valuable to me than Calculus 2 would have been and I did use the info I gleaned form them.</p>
<p>I’m not convinced everyone NEEDS calculus 1 and/or 2. I know many college grads who didn’t take those courses but are still very successful.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there are lots of people that would be successful without English 102 as well. But all of the schools that I’ve looked at require it.</p>
<p>I think I argued in the Why Calculus thread that JHS mentioned that Calculus was like poetry. That you take it because it’s beautiful, not because it’s useful. I’m an architect and had to take it. I didn’t need it for any structures class I took in grad school, nor do I use it in real life, but I’m still glad I took it. But for the OP’s kid - it’s not a question of taking calculus now, just trig/pre calc so that he’ll be prepared for calculus if it turns out it’s required by his major.</p>
<p>One semester of calculus for business majors (easier than regular calculus for math, physics, and engineering majors) is required for the business major (including marketing) at CSULB, the school the OP’s son wants to go to.</p>
<p>Logic and statistics are probably of more general use than calculus for those whose majors do not specifically require any of them. However, calculus can be helpful in understanding statistics to a deeper level.</p>
<p>“Wouldn’t a probability of 2.0 mean something was twice as likely to occur than if it has a probability of 1.0? And why must the average fall between the high and low value?”</p>
<p>Sorry, but I was educated before STEM was invented as an education alternative.</p>
<p>I think that you need to take a look at the treads that detail the stats of the kids applying to the colleges that you think your son would apply. Check and see if his Math level is competitive with theirs and decide.</p>
<p>In general, high school students intending to go to college should plan to complete precalculus / trigonometry at the minimum in high school, so that they are ready for calculus in college. Taking calculus in high school is obviously a bonus if the student is going into a major that requires calculus.</p>
<p>Students should also be aware that business and economics majors generally require calculus and statistics, and many other social studies majors require either statistics or a major-specific quantitative methods course.</p>
<p>Times are changing! In the modern world of Big Data, marketing is becoming more and more based on statistics. I would encourage your son to take statistics and trigonometry in high school to get ready for college. Whether or not he will use trigonometry later on in life is beside the point. He needs to develop quantitative skills to prepare for the future. It is easier to develop these skills in high school than in college.</p>
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