<p>ah man. this got me thinking that's why princeton ranks at the top for all the top professional schools. :) it's a relief knowing that the work i'll be doing is for something</p>
<p>Is the only factor for placement AP Calc test scores? No Placement tests?</p>
<p>Bangoo - FYI, there are some girls that may need to smell that coffee, too - my D for one ;) I think she's already decided to retake vector and multivariable at Princeton.</p>
<p>OhMother,</p>
<p>How fantastic ! A female engineer ;) Yes, MAT201 is a better choice for frosh, especially for the first semester. But, I would say MAT201 is not a walk in the park, either: Whew, lots of problem sets, and abstarct mind expanding for Stoke's theorem, deriving kinematic equations from spherical corrdinates to cylindrical coordinates... ouch ;)</p>
<p>Also be v. particular on your prof for MAT201. Try to get intel on the prof you might have. Not all are equally good teachers...</p>
<p>Does MAT 217: Honors Linear Algebra satisfy the BSE requirement for linear algebra??</p>
<p>is 103/104 harder than 101/102 and easier than 203/204? Cause I thought 103 was 101 and 102 put together. Do you usually take 104 after 103?</p>
<p>And does a higher course number always indicate a higher difficulty?</p>
<p>@iCalculus: yes, 217 works for the LinAl requirement.</p>
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<p>103/104 is harder than 101/102 (mainly because the students are better even if the material in 103 is the same as 101+102). 203/204 is significantly harder than 103/104. Most people who take 103/104 and need to learn more advanced math take 201/202. iCalculus, I would strongly discourage you from taking 217 to fulfill your linear algebra req. The course is very difficult, very abstract, and will not spend time teaching you the basic computational tasks you’ll need to perform as an engineer.</p>
<p>But I’m going into math/econ possibly. & I picked my username for a reason. I’ll scream, I’ll cry, I’ll take a blow to my grade, whatever it takes.</p>
<p>Is ORFE the only BSE concentration you’re considering? Because I would imagine that 217’s usefulness toward math/ORFE would be different from that toward CBE or MAE.</p>
<p>Yes, ORFE is pretty much the only BSE concentration I’m considering.</p>
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<p>Haha ok. Have fun.</p>
<p>The AP credit tables recommend placement into 211/215 etc. straightaway with 5s in Calc BC etc. - is this accurate? The drift of this thread is very discouraging in light of my taking 214 or 215/217. Are there separate departmental placement tests for math, or do they place you according to your math-related background+standardized exams? A sophomore friend of mine doesn’t recall having placement tests for math (she took 215-217 first year) but she was a double IMO medallist…</p>
<p>Really, I don’t think we should be discouraged. The ones who are less mathematically inclined (ie humanities majors) and opt to take “harder” math courses are more vocal about their complaints than those who actually enjoy math. The thing about math is that if you like it, and if you work hard at it, you’ll be fine. Whatever, you get one mediocre grade. Who cares. You go to Princeton.</p>
<p>Even in high school, people cringe at Calculus AB, Calculus BC, college multivariable calc, diffeq, etc, but really, it’s doable. Just take math one step at a time. Understand it. The people who memorize problems end up struggling.</p>
<p>You are placed based on your AP and SAT scores. There’s no departmental placement test. iCalculus, I don’t disagree with your sentiment. It’s great to be enthusiastic about math and to push yourself to take the most challenging courses you can. 215 is a fantastic course that will allow you to gain a tremendous amount of mathematical maturity. Just go in knowing that the courses are very difficult, and the people who struggle in them are not, as you suggest, less mathematically inclined humanities majors – these students don’t even sign up. Pretty much everyone in 215 aced BC calculus and got an 800 on the math section of the SAT, but a significant portion of these students still struggle. I’m not trying to discourage anyone; I’m a math major myself, and I think the courses and the department are fantastic. I just want people to know what they’re getting into.</p>
<p>Thank you, iCalculus and Weasel. Rather comforting to gain some insight from a math major! 
Well, I’m an international, and multivar/linalg is not available in our high school math syllabus - but I do have national IMO training school training from my early high school years (discontinued for the sciences) - which of 214/215 and what kind of preparation would you recommend? (Working through Rudin? ==" Gilbert Strang? etc.)</p>
<p>Rudin is the 215 textbook, so working through it would be obviously be good preparation. If you can work through the first seven chapters without any difficulty, then I’d recommend skipping 215 and jumping right into 217 (the textbook for 217 is Hoffman and Kunze). I’d strongly recommend 215 over 214. The material taught in 214 is elementary number theory which, while fun, doesn’t really prepare you for any upper level courses. 215 is introductory analysis, which is an essential pre-req for many upper level math courses (most notably the 330-331-332-433 analysis sequence).</p>
<p>I don’t think strangers on the internet can determine your math placement. Read some of the placement information for the math courses, and decide where you fit in the most. </p>
<p>There is a difference between the person who gets an 800 SAT/5 on Calc BC but hates math and only studied for scores, and the person who got the same scores but loves math and wants to explore it more in depth. Which one are you?</p>
<p>I think this ultimately determines, for example, 201 vs 203; 202 vs 204 vs 217</p>
<p>Weasel, is it common (or doable for that matter) for freshmen who take 215 in the fall to take both 217 and 218 in the spring in order to get into upper-level classes starting in the fall of sophomore year?</p>