Apologies, I misinterpreted the post. MIT does indeed require calc for graduation- majoring in poli sci, linguistics, urban planning (i.e. not an engineer?) EVERYONE takes the core. You are correct…
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At some colleges, at least, a simple quantitative reasoning requirement may be met without courses from a mathematics department. A course in symbolic logic, for example, which typically appears as a philosophy course, may satisfy the requirement.
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All the discussion of Calculus makes me so grateful I got AP credit for it back in the dark ages and never used Calculus again! Personally, I don’t understand why schools emphasize it so much. Of course it is necessary to some STEM careers, but many successful professionals don’t need it at all. I think Public Speaking would provide some essential life skills, but high achieving students get steered away from that because it is not “rigorous.” But that’s veering off topic . . .
I appreciate all the help in this thread. Some have asked what are two near guaranteed admits she would be happy to attend. Unfortunately, at the moment, she loves Tufts entirely too much (partly because her best friend, who is a senior, is going there next year). She is in a Tufts or bust mindset that I hope will mellow out. She is kind of excited about UMass Amherst. She says she would be happy at Mount Holyoke (again….largely because a close friend will be going there) but I think MHC has too many similarities with her boarding school and it would be nice to have a bigger change. Still, it’s a great school, and her school has a strong track record of kids getting accepted, so I think she would very likely get in and would be happy there. I also am hopeful she will get excited about Wesleyan, UConn, and Connecticut College when we visit those in the Fall. I also think we will have more productive discussion over the summer when she isn’t so very busy with end of the year projects and traditions.
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That!
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In terms of overlap schools, Connecticut College applicants also may apply to schools such as Brown, Wesleyan, Skidmore and Wheaton.
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I’d strongly recommend she takes calculus if it’s available to her. 86% of the admitted students for the Class of 2026 at Wesleyan have taken calculus in high school.
But were they admitted because they took calculus?
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As part of the holistic admission process, no single factor will result in an automatic admit or deny. Calculus, three lab sciences and four years of LOTE are simply a short hand to prove the rigor of your studies. Of course, one can demonstrate rigor in different ways. For example, I’d imagine that a budding musician taking dual registration music class at a local college (if that’s available) would be indicative of someone who steps up to new challenges. There are many ways to do this but the short hand is the most obvious.
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This is an excellent post.
Calculus has a “signaling effect”. It’s not the ONLY signal, it’s not the only path, there are other ways to demonstrate intellectual rigor and work ethic. But seeing it on a transcript signals to an Adcom “yes, check that box”.
I wouldn’t over think it.
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Yes, I understand that it’s holistic, but you suggested she take it based on your posted article. Your second post is what I think - calculus won’t make a big difference for this excellent student with rigor and good advising from a top private school.
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My kid got into Wes RD without taking Calc or physics (she did check their foreign language box). We were actually pretty surprised about that, because they do like to make these numbers public. But like others are saying – holistic admissions means that the admissions committee apparently look at every applicant, and there isn’t a single cookie-cutter standard for rigor.
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What cycle?
I agree with those that suggest taking at least calc AB. At our private, that was the minimum for T50 colleges, many of the students, even non stem took Calc BC or higher senior year. Also, even non-STEM majors had at least one AP level science, preferably more. Public school kids will have a lot more.
Otherwise, the application looks good, rigor would be the only component were it might be improved.
She was admitted RD. It was one of her top choices but she ultimately chose a different LAC.
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This year?
Yep. As I said above, there are lots of ways to show rigor
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Nice classics major, hope she gets into a great college next year.
I am going to study at Tufts this fall for a classics major (accepted in regular round), let me know if she is still interested to apply there in the fall.
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Gonna drop my two cents in here as someone who wrapped up the college admissions process this year (attending NEU Boston in the fall!!)-
UVM offers a crazy amount of merit aid from my experience (I ended up w/a 50% ride as an OOS student- for context.)- your child could end up w/Honors College potentially and the Presidential Scholarship, which I think was 80k over 4 years? It’s got a huge queer population too, and it’s pretty liberal from what I saw.
Tufts is super artsy and vibey, definitely apply ED if it financially feasible if accepted.
Also gonna shamelessly throw Northeastern in there because there’s actually a lot of artsy kids and there’s a cultural anthropology major- I can link it here-
I think they have a BS one too, if you want to check that out. NEU is a relatively bigger school, (15k undergrad population) but it’s got an art vibe for sure. If these schools aren’t your vibe, I can recommend more too. /warmly
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Harvey Mudd, Georgia Tech, probably St. John’s College and the service academies.
But colleges with calculus graduation requirements are uncommon in general.