<p>^^^
</p>
<p>I forgot to add to my post above, I might seriously consider changing schools if I wanted to major in math at a school that didn’t teach epsilon delta proofs in its calculus classes. I learned that stuff, and I majored in physics and engineering.</p>
<p>I’m another person who did “epsilon-delta definitions of limits, derivatives and integrals, the extreme, intermediate and mean value theorems, etc.” in high school and then never in college. My college course however was much better at teaching applications.</p>
<p>I also found my college class to be much slower than my HS class. In HS we covered 8 out of 9 chapters in the first semester (18 weeks), and were done with the curriculum months before the year was over (but I think that was too fast, the college pace was much better).</p>
<p>If one is accepted to college of their choice, importance of any future HS class seems to be irrelevant, unless they specify on college application that they are planning to take specific HS classes. Everybody is taking math (and foreign language) placement tests before registering for first semester of college anyway. Level of first college Math and Foregn language classes is based on placement test score.</p>
<p>I advised my son to take calculus in HS because it is often taught better than in many colleges. In larger colleges, TAs in Mathematics teach the first course in calculus and often have little experience teaching these concepts. The HS calculus teacher is often one of the most experienced HS math teachers. It was for my son’s HS. He ended up taking an introductory business calculus class in college but he said that the HS teacher had indeed helped him more with concepts than the college teacher. Not all colleges throw TAs at freshman calculus students but enough do so, that I believe the advice usually holds.</p>
<p>Many students who do well on the AP calculus test often start over with the first semester calculus course at UW-Madison or struggle with second semester calculus. Son the math major started over with the rigorous (proof/theory based) honors calculus sequence and is now applying to grad schools having taken many high level courses. UW is ranked in the top 15 for math grad schools and the beginning regular calculus courses are more rigorous than the AP course. Presuming you have a talent for understanding higher mathematics you should do just fine- or you will change your major. Currently economics and business majors are required to take some calculus- and at UW it needs to be in the same sequence others (math and science majors) take, not the terminal two semester one. General math placement tests are used for precalculus knowledge- UW still has a university wide competency requirement for math and language skills (they don’t rely on having passed a HS course, most people will pass the test and not need remedial no degree credit courses).</p>
<p>Short answer- don’t worry. You have plenty of time in college to start with any major freshman year and take enough courses even for grad school.</p>
<p>I am completely flabbergasted that technically based college calculus courses do not teach epsilon delta or the mean value theorem. Do they teach the Fundamental Theorem of the Calculus? Do they do any kind of proof for it?</p>
<p>When I was in school this was what the math department was notorious for. When I took Complex Analysis in the Math Department, required for Physics majors at the time, it was a PITA mainly because of all this Math department proofy type stuff I really couldn’t get and never used.</p>
<p>When we took Methods of Mathematical Physics (applied math for Physicists) they made it clear we wouldn’t be bothering with all those proofs, and we would be making a lot of approximations that would give math majors the vapors.</p>
<p>I would contact the school and ask, particularly since you are accepted and have nothing to lose. If you have no better plans, you could consider doing calculus over the summer IF you can find a reasonably rigorous course. The main reason to think about doing this is scheduling - a double major can leave you little ‘wiggle’ room. You might grab that course catalog (online if need be) and try mapping out your major to see if you might want to slightly jump the gun or not.</p>
<p>^^^
I respectfully disagree. If you are planning on majoring in Math, trying to rush through Calculus in a summer so you can skip it Freshman year is a bad strategy. Just my humble opinion.</p>
<p>You’ll probably need to take it freshman year in order to pursue an economics degree. Lower division Econ classes probably won’t require calculus (or perhaps only simple derivatives) but I can’t imagine an upper division microecon class without it. Personally I think that calculus makes a lot of the econ math easier than the non-calculus approaches. My econ major required a full year of calculus plus differential equations, so you might be taking it for a while. We also needed a good statistics course, and students interested in behavioral economics or econometrics needed quite a bit more math.</p>
<p>~bump~</p>
<p>My kids are not in love with math. My daughter took calc in high school and wanted to drop it. I wouldn’t let her, she pitched a fit, but got a 5 in the AP exam. She told me later that she was SO glad she took it in high school because the kids taking it at her college thought is was MUCH harder than in high school. (she didn’t have to take it in college) My son also took it in hs but not AP. He had to take 2 semesters (I think) in college and both courses moved really fast and were very hard. The average grade on the tests was in the 60s (for the whole class). He did fine, but needed a tutor. (that was at Penn) Just be prepared- get help if you need it because, as has been noted, the classes move really fast.</p>