My daughter is a Fall 2018 freshman and a life sciences/pre-med. major. She has to choose between two math series - either Math 3b and 3c (she’s AP’d out of Math 3a) or LS 30a and 30b.
What are the pros and cons of taking Math 3b and 3c vs. LS 30a and 30b? For example, is Math 3 harder than LS 30? Is the coding portion of Math 3 difficult? Do med. schools readily accept LS 30? Is there any problem with skipping Math 3a and starting with Math 3b (especially because my daughter took calculus A/B in her junior year of high school and may be a bit rusty). Which math series provides a better foundation for typical follow-on life science courses? Other thoughts?
Any input is appreciated. Thanks!
@Interested_Dad Hopefully this helps.
The LS 30 series is a newly developed series by Dr. Will Conley to be a math course that is highly applicable (notice applicable) to students in the life science career paths. The concepts and examples will all be geared towards practical life science usage. The coding is in R and is not difficult. It is also only graded on homework and is not tested on exams. Dr. Conley is an exceptional math professor. He is kind and very clear and teaches “high school teacher style”.
The Math 3 series will gradually be phased out over the next few years. It is your traditional math Dept calculus series. Math 3b is not challenging for most but 3c can be as sometimes it will be tougher than the 31 series. This is for those interested in the theory behind math.
Since your daughter is skipping math 3a (she needs a 4-5 on AB) then the amount of courses is the same. Personally I’d do the LS series. It’ll be easier than taking the 3 series and the class is more applicable. Keep in mind no matter what she will need a stats class too. Ls30 takes an easier stats than the 3 series does. And you must take the stays aligned with your series. Her science courses won’t really use the math at all especially if she is life science so theory from the 3 series is unnecessary. Med schools take the 30 series. The name doesn’t matter they just need a year of Calc. And ls30 is a Calc class.
Thank you very much, 10s4life, for your helpful and informative reply. This forum is lucky to have you.
@Interested_Dad Of course. And if you have any additional questions feel free to reach out. FYI if you use the “@“ symbol it will notify the user. I get email notifications for that so my response is typically much faster that way.