<p>bgrill27, your list looks good to me. This is your shot. Go for it. Good luck.</p>
<p>Well, I dont know if anyone has said this, but isnt it possible that these students could have just done a lot better on one then the other. Meaning, couldn't these students who didnt get accepted get a 760 CR with a 670 M, which would cause them not to be accepted? </p>
<p>I dont feel like reading all these posts, but from the first post these stats don't give you all the needed data. they should give you the total SAT score and make data from that, instead of the individual scores from each section. Does this make sense, or am I just being an idiot?</p>
<p>jethro -
yes you are right that these stats don't provide all the information one would like - but they certainly do provide more info than just looking at 25-75 percentile ranges or stats for enrolled students. </p>
<p>and given how large the percentages are for some of the schools (eg 75% rejection rates at upper SAT scores for Brown) i think you would be giving yourself a false sense of security if you assumed that everyone rejected had an imbalance in their scores. (oh, and lehigh stats in post #49 are based on combined sats - 1/3 in top range were rejected - and that is probably considered a less competitive school in terms of admissions than many of the others)</p>
<p>This is a wonderful thread; which has led to my next question, but first a little background. D attends a small HS in a rural college town. The school only offers 3 or 4 AP classes and they are all in math or science. The school does offer honors English classes. D is not interested in pursuing any field of study related to math or science. She will mostly likely major in journalism or English and minor or double major in dance, media, business or French. She is in honors English but not honors math. She had Algebra in middle school and the class/grade transferred to HS, she had geometry in 9th grade. She is in 10th and is taking Stats/Algebra II. Next year she will take Algebra III/pre-cal. As a senior she would like to take accounting, which the school offers as a math class instead of calculus. D is an A student . so far.</p>
<p>My question is will Ds lack of AP classes and non-honors math classes be viewed negatively on her apps and will her choice of accounting versus calculus be viewed as taking a weak HS class schedule?</p>
<p>Tutu,</p>
<p>This was my D's issue-- math is very hard for her.</p>
<p>Her HS offers regular, honors, & accelerated tracks. Because math was a relative weakness, she took mostly "honors" math (I think at our HS it is a euphemism and is really more normal math) but she did take some accelerated science classes. </p>
<p>She handled doing that by taking some of her science courses at the local Community College during the summers (having only one thing to focus on made sciences easier for her.)</p>
<p>This way she was able to compensate for the apparent 'slacking' of the exact same math schedule that you mention by taking Physics, Bio, Chem, AP Bio, & Astronomy. Very few kids who are slacking take 5 sciences. </p>
<p>Just an idea...</p>
<p>My question is will Ds lack of AP classes and non-honors math classes be viewed negatively on her apps and will her choice of accounting versus calculus be viewed as taking a weak HS class schedule?</p>
<p>First ?
many schools don't offer APs at all. My D1 didn't and there are kids at Ivys and others everyyear in a grad class of 20-50.
What schools are looking for- is taking the most rigorous classes available- ( the most competitive schools). If your school doesn't have AB/BC calc, you can't be faulted for not taking it.</p>
<p>Our state only requires 2 years of math to graduate- my daughters are taking 4 years- I would consider accounting a math class ( does it count for math or vocational?)
I think it is fine not to take calculus in high shcool, particulary not if majoring in science. My D didn't take calc- did major in science and opted to retake precalc over at a community college in the summer since it had been several years since her high school class, but that worked too , to prepare her for the college calc class.
( she should look at graduation requirements for colleges that she is interested in- some require distribution credits but have language and math in same category)</p>
<p>most schools like to see the student challenging themselves - which usually means taking the most rigorous courses available. </p>
<p>even though your daughter isn't interested in pursuing a field in math or science it doesn't mean she shouldn't consider taking the ap's your school offers - in fact that could be a good reason to take them. some schools have distribution requirements requiring kids to have at least some science courses in college. some programs may require science or math (eg - teacher certification programs). taking an ap course in hs, may be a more palatable way for your daughter to meet such requirements than taking such courses in college -- assuming the hs ap course is good and she gets a good grade on the ap, she could place out of these classes. intro bio classes in college can be filled with intense pre-meds -- taking ap bio in hs can be relatively more "enjoyable" and end up satisfying a college requirement.</p>
<p>so i am suggesting your daughter not just think of aps as a way of pursuing a course of studies she is interested in pursuing in college, but rather as a potential way to avoid having to take those courses in college!</p>
<p>
[quote]
My question is will Ds lack of AP classes and non-honors math classes be viewed negatively on her apps and will her choice of accounting versus calculus be viewed as taking a weak HS class schedule?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The answer will depend on where your daughter wants to go to college. But for the most competitive colleges, I do believe that accounting instead of calculus will be viewed negatively. If there is room on the schedule for a math class, it should be calculus if D wants to have as many options open as possible come application time.</p>
<p>I was watching the Minneapolis 6pm newcast last night and they were talking about how the University of Minnesota is 1 month behind processing applications because they have received 30% more than last year. Now you have to add that on top of the selectivity concerns which means that many fewer percent get accepted.</p>
<p>I spoke with Ds GC today and I was wrong on both the # of APs offered and the math progression. There are NO official AP classes. Students taking calculus who express a desire to take the AP exam will receive guidance from the teacher. This is also true for Chemistry. Very few students take calculus because 9th grade is geometry, 10th is Algebra II/Stats, 11th is Algebra III/Trig and 12th is pre- calculus. I will encourage D to take pre- calculus instead of substituting it with accounting, but it is too late for her to get into the honors math track.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>9th grade is geometry, 10th is Algebra II/Stats, 11th is Algebra III/Trig and 12th is pre- calculus<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>I don't know why your school doesn't teach calculus in 12th grade. Algebra 3/Trig (what our school calls "Math Analysis") is the lead-in class at our school for calculus ab/bc. I'm not sure what your school's pre-calculus class covers.</p>
<p>I guess we are really fortunate. Our H.S. offers:</p>
<p>9th grade: Algebra 1/Geometry/Hons.Geometry/Hons.Algebra2
10th : Geometry/Hons.Geometry/Hons.Alg 2/Hons. Analysis
11th : Algebra 2/Hons.Alg 2/Hons.Analysis/AP Calc.1/AP Stats
12th : Calculus/AP Calc/AP Stats/AP Calc 2</p>
<p>So each year, you have 4 levels/choices.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't know why your school doesn't teach calculus in 12th grade
[/quote]
ellemenope, I'm not sure either :rolleyes:- Ds HS is a public school in rural Washington state and starting with Ds class (class of 2008) ALL students MUST pass the 10th grade WASL exam in order to graduate. Many Washington HSs have added an Algebra/stats class for 10th grade to prepare the students for the spring WASL. Since school/district funding will be/is tied to the WASL results, schools curricula are being changed to reflect that.</p>
<p>I figure this is why I pay for private schools - this and the good fortune to be able to afford them. Our kids' high school goes through Calc BC for seniors, AP Stats and AP Comp Sci also offered. Wanna know a surprising thing? The big public high school, one of the "feeders", only goes through Calc AB. How the heck are academically-minded kids in public schools like this supposed to be able to show they can take on demanding curricula? Hence all the parents jumping through hoops and community college and CTY etc. I guess the only benefit of a less-then-challenging public school system is that then you may wind up putting together an even more challenging curriculum for your own kid privately. But what a lot of work. As a full-time work in an office mom, I knew I wouldn't have time to essentially home school. I know there are very good public high schools that challenge those who need challenge and still meet the needs of those for whom challenge is not the key issue. But there sure aren't enough.</p>
<p>But we knew that already.</p>
<p>Alumother-- if my own district is representative, the difficulty with BC calc (and AP physics as well) is finding teachers, not in offering the class. The private schools can just decide that calc will be offered at 3 pm to allow them to hire a moonlighting professor from a local college, an early retirement engineer from IBM who is a fantastic math teacher but who doesn't have a teacher's certificate (nor has ever taken a class in pedagogy), or whatever. The public schools are stuck with a school day which ends at 2 pm, and with a host of regulations which prevent them from hiring subject-matter experts without a certificate. Our district also has rules on part-time employment... so you couldn't hire someone just to teach one class per day.... you'd need to load them up with supervising lunch in the cafeteria, monitoring the parking lot during study halls, etc.</p>
<p>Gotta feel sorry for the kids--</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>The big public high school, one of the "feeders", only goes through Calc AB.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Actually, this isn't so bad. Much better than nothing.</p>
<p>At our local public hs, the kids take either Calc AB or BC, not both. Calc BC covers what Calc AB covers but at a faster rate and in greater depth and covers other topics as well. My D took AB as a junior and BC as a senior, so we got a good look at both courses.</p>
<p>The problem--good calculus BC teachers are very hard to find! At our local hs, we have 2 (now one) great Calc AB teachers--the BC teacher really sucked. My D said that if she hadn't already had Calc AB, she would have been lost in BC.</p>
<p>Our high school offers
9th grade: Algebra 1 or 2 or IMP 1 or 2
10th grade: Algebra 2 or Geometry or IMP 2 or 3
11th grade: Precalculus or IMP 3 or 4
12th grade: AP-Calculus AB or BC or Advanced Mathematics.</p>
<p>Huh. Well, at our school the kids tend to take either AB or BC, not both. At least to my knowledge. And I guess we are lucky in our math program. The head of the program, a teacher in his 40's with 15 years of experience teaches Calc BC. My D said he was a much better teacher than her multivariate teacher at Princeton. She got a 5 on the Calc AP and 800 on the Math SAT II so I guess she was right. </p>
<p>Thinking about it, I believe we attract good math teachers in part because we are near Stanford. Several of the younger teachers are Stanford grads, and even alumni of this high school. I can see it would be more difficult in more remote locations. Because the cost of living is so high where we are even private high school salaries are such that good technically able people have many other high paying opportunities.</p>
<p>I have learned a lot on cc, not the least of which is to appreciate my kids' school.</p>
<p>Marite - What is Advanced Mathematics?</p>
<p>My brown skin is turning green with envy :D as I read whats offered at your kids HSs. The closest private prep HS is 100 miles away on a curvy 2 lane highway. We feel fortunate that D is able to cross state lines and attend a HS in Washington and not Idaho.</p>
<p>Hey but then again in the neighborhood near my kids' schools 3 bed/2 bath houses cost close to $2M. And those are the reasonably priced ones...We don't even have any 2 lane highways.</p>