<p>It is not so much about what looks good to colleges, but what will keep him interested.</p>
<p>Although, from a college standpoint, if he eventually wants to major in math in college, he will need to seek colleges with good graduate level math opportunities, because he will likely want to take graduate level courses and do graduate level research as an undergraduate.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, Florida Virtual School doesn’t offer very high quality courses. I took a few courses from EPGY though, and they were quite good, though a bit on the expensive side. Art of Problem Solving also has good courses, though their offerings are sort of orthogonal to the regular math sequence, and have a slight focus on preparation for math contests. </p>
<p>My son took online courses from Art of Problem Solving. A friend of his took a Johns Hopkins CTY course. There was one kid at the high school who was so advanced that he took math at the private college nearby starting freshman year. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a two year gap in math for a STEM kid, not because of college admissions, but educationally.</p>
<p>
Don’t disagree, but the OP was concerned that CC courses wouldn’t look good enough. I don’t think it’s a good idea for a strong math student to take a two year break from math.</p>
<p>My younger daughter was two years ahead in math. She had a ‘travel teacher’ in 7th and 8th grade and went through AP Calculus AB BC by 11th. In 12th, she was able to get into a new STEM program at her high school that integrated math and science, and also took the AP Stat but like another poster noted, it’s not exactly high-level math. It would have been better if she’d taken a higher-level math course either at the local CC or university. </p>
<p>Now would be a great time to introduce your son to math as it is applied or integrated into other areas. For example, the science courses you mentioned, computer science courses, coding for fun, math teams, and maybe a summer introduction to engineering for middle/high school kid at a local university. Our younger D was accepted into a summer 1-week intro to engineering program that gave her hands-on opportunities in engineering and helped her understand what engineering is about. She liked it but decided against majoring in engineering and for that matter, she’s more interested in the sciences than math on its own. Oh well. Here’s a link to the summer program she attended. There’s probably one similar close to you: <a href=“Pre-College Programs - Tickle College of Engineering”>http://www.engr.utk.edu/diversity/pre-college/</a> </p>
<p>Well, it’s not only how CC courses would LOOK, but also if they’d really teach him what he’d want and need to know.</p>
<p>Assuming that he DOES go to an elite school - let’s say MIT, and majors in Physics, will Calc 2/3/etc from the local community college (whose students do not, I would assume, fit the MIT profile) actually teach him what he’d need to know, or would he need to repeat the material in college?</p>
<p>My son took linear algebra through the Johns Hopkins CTY program. They have alot of contact with the professor through skype and phone calls. He enjoyed the course a lot. Keep in mind that your son will be several years older when he is ready for this and maybe he will be better able to be self motivated. In previous years students at our HS had taken advanced math courses through Stanford and were not as happy with them, felt there was difficulty getting feedback from the professor. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>@sbjdorlo of reply #13 should be able to tell you more about her son taking CC math courses while in home school high school, then going on the MIT and not having to repeat them.</p>
<p>However, some other poster in another thread mentioned Michigan as being unwilling to let a student who too math at CC to start in a class higher than calculus 1.</p>
<p>My son is quite disciplined and likes math. He was quite advanced in elementary school so studied using EPGYonline. EPGY’s Geometry course had a lot of technical issues so we moved to Art of Problem Solving and he has done their Intro to Number Theory and is finishing their Intro to Geometry. AoPS have a very good progression for mathy kids and we will probably try to follow their suggestions.</p>
<p>Son is now in 6th grade and taking Algebra II. It looks like he will be taking Pre Calc next year in 7th. Thanks for the thread as the path mentioned above by sbjdorlo is useful.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>In regards to your question about CC classes adequately preparing a student for a top college.</p>
<p>Hm, well, first, my son’s goal was never a top college (but this is for a different thread, I know). It just worked out that top schools were the best fit because of all the work he’d done in HS, and he got into a number of them, so he had a choice. </p>
<p>Second-I admit that his situation was probably unusual in that MIT took all his math classes and two Arabic classes as transfer units, so he was able to start in upper division math classes as a freshman. I believe the reason they took them was because I worked hard during the summer to track down all the documentation they wanted. Tip: Save all syllabus’, all textbook titles, all tables of content, all chapters covered, all course descriptions, and of course official transcripts (and getting As) to give to colleges. I heard of kids taking classes at UCSD that didn’t transfer to MIT and I’m guessing they kids and parents didn’t document well enough.</p>
<p>Third-not all colleges have MIT’s policy of allowing transfer units. My son was fully prepared to repeat work.</p>
<p>Fourth-No, community college alone would not have prepared him for MIT. He worked with a tutor for over two years doing Dif Eq., etc. He did math competitions and AoPS type stuff, etc. And still he was probably less prepared for upper division math than his friends who were better Mathletes. What saved him is his natural ability, to be honest. He learns exceptionally quickly and has a great memory, so whereas his friends who were top mathletes had the edge over him in exposure to material, he was still able to more than hold his own.</p>
<p>Having said all that, my son was <strong><em>very</em></strong> glad to have been able to not repeat Calculus, etc. Coming in with all those units allows him to now explore EECS for his last two years, something he never did in high school.</p>
<p>One more thing-while colleges like U Michigan might not allow transfer units, many schools, MIT included, allow students to take placement exams to test out of classes. Er, well, my son was too disorganized and too lazy to try to test out of Mechanics and E&M (having studied a lot of physics in high school), so he did repeat Mechanics, but at MIT, there are three levels and being that he took the hardest one, it was more than challenging. Think IMO physics.</p>
<p>So, don’t worry about how community college will look. Just keep your son engaged in whatever way works best for him.</p>
<p>^Very good point. Op, your son may not get transfer credit, but he may test out of some of the classes he took, or he may be placed in the top level of a class if he repeats it. </p>
<p>Agreed…engagement is what matters…not impressing the colleges. They will be sufficiently impressed that he completed all the school had to offer by the end of 10th grade.</p>
<p>Is there a four year university near enough where he could take math classes his junior year and senior year of HS? We have a branch of our flagship nearby, and students take courses there. Check to see.</p>
<p>And a reminder…if he is going to take any math SAT subject tests…he should take them when he complets the courses…so he might want to take the calculus one after he finishes that course in 10th grade.</p>
<p>My son took most of his math classes at local U’s. One year, the class was 30 miles away, and I co-ordinated carpool with another student’s dad. </p>
<p>Commenting on posts 18, 29, (&25). This year a graduate of MiraCosta Community College in San Diego County transferred into MIT majoring in Math. Community College can be a great place to learn math. My DS had great CC math professors- one working on his PhD was especially current and engaging. Taking Community College courses is a really good option, though he will only be able to take 2 or 3 years worth before he runs out there. Has he taken Geometry (I would guess yes, given your initial post)?</p>
<p>Introduce him to AoPS, of course! And see if he would be interested in attending Ross Summer Mathematics Program, as soon as after his Freshman year (or years after).</p>
<p>An option we considered for later HS years was “home schooling” offered by the district. I totally understand regarding the online learning. The home schooling option allows the student to take half or more classes as independent study. Any course that a teacher is willing to advise can be used. The student and teacher agree on a syllabus and they meet weekly to assess progress and to write exams. IF you can find a teacher at your HS, this may be an option. You will likely find it is not only in Math where your son runs out of courses.</p>
<p>I do not think of AP Statistics as a rigorous part of a Math curriculum. My DS spent about 1-2 hours with a review book and then took the test, scoring a 4 (or maybe a 3).</p>
<p>And not to get too far ahead for a middle-schooler, it would not be a mistake to start Math even at the 18.03 point-maybe skip Calc- (and Physics at 8.012, as @sbjdorlo suggested that her son did) if your kid does go to MIT, just to cement the knowledge and get used to the learning style. Many student posters suggest re-taking Calculus as a freshman.</p>
<p>Of course, make sure he is having fun!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A student with as high math ability as the OP’s kid probably would be bored retaking calculus, unless it were an honors course or equivalent (analogous to sbjdorlo’s son taking the hardest of the introductory physics sequences at MIT after having studied introductory physics at the “regular” level but not having any AP or college credit for it).</p>
<p>Sorry, just one more comment regarding AP Stats. Don’t write it off if your son likes that sort of stuff. My son loves, loves, loves statistics and probability, so he enjoyed any stats/probability stuff he did. He’s always been a sports fan and just adores sports statistics. He’s played in (way too many) Fantasy Football leagues for years, played baseball for years, and enjoys card games with friends. And more recently and more seriously, he interned as a data scientist-still is part time this semester-and found his niche.</p>
<p>AP stats is a great introduction as is AoPS’s Probability and Stats class or books (my son just read them for fun). Other books that were great were Cartoon Guide to Statistics, Curveball: Baseball, Statistics and the Role of Chance in the Game, Chances Are: Adventures in Probability, and more.</p>
<p>@ItsJustSchool, that’s great to know that a student from MiraCosta transferred to MIT. Very cool!</p>
<p>I also have a very academically advanced son and our solution was fulltime dual enrollment and then early college. Is that an option for your family? We tried having ours attend high school part time and attend college for some classes but logistically it was difficult (30 minute drive each way). It also made him realize how dissatisfied he was with the pacing of high school courses. We opted for fulltime dual enrollment and it was a much better fit for him. He attended a four year university for dual enrollment but I think we could have made a community college work somewhat. He was able to complete all his undergrad math as a high school student and when he started college as a freshman he was able to go straight into graduate level classes. He has never had to repeat any courses and has never had to slow down or delay his learning of math, which was very important to him. He would never have agreed to take two years off from the subject. He is advanced across the board and is particularly driven so this has worked well for him. It’s very much an individual basis though. </p>
<p>I agree with what others have said about it being a bad idea for a mathy kid to go 2 years without doing math.</p>
<p>Our CC is 20 minutes away, and I drive my son there twice a week after school for a class. (A carpool drives him home.) CCs often have late afternoon or evening classes to accommodate students who work, so investigate what the ones somewhat close to you have. Also, by 11th grade, he is likely to be able to drive himself there. My son will probably take math there starting next year. (He’s taking history this year in order to fit AP Chem into his school schedule.)</p>
<p>As for 4-year universities being able to handle high school kids, you might be surprised, so I’d definitely recommend researching it. Our local UC has a program specifically for this. It’s not free like the dual-enrollment CC classes, but it is 1/2 price. My S knows several kids who take classes there (mostly math) during the year and do research in the summers. Admission to the program for HS students requires nomination by the high school’s GC, so you might not know about something similar unless you ask around. Since it’s closer than the CC, our main issue to figure out is that the quarter system doesn’t fit well with the HS’s semester schedule. Summer classes at this UC are open enrollment (but full price).</p>
<p>Thanks @sbjdorlo for the info about saving syllabuses, etc. I’ll do that. He’ll likely be taking some combo of MulitVar Calc, Linear Alg, Discrete Math, AP Stats (1 semester), and Diff Eq at the CC or UC starting next year depending on what classes don’t fill up before he is allowed to sign up (HS students have lowest registration priority). </p>
<p>Check your son’s guidance counselor about available options through his HS. In Wisconsin there is a state program called Youth Options that pays the tuition for college classes for courses not available through a HS. In your state you may have to pay yourself. I totally agree about keeping math in his schooling all four years.</p>
<p>When it comes time for colleges remember that overall eliteness does not mean the best programs in all fields, especially STEM. For example, math grad programs at some top public flagships are ranked much higher than some of the schools you listed. </p>
<p>At UW my son did several grad level math courses for his Honors in that major while an undergrad. Likewise Chemistry is better at UW. My son turned 16 the fall of his senior year of HS (globally gifted) and had no problems being 16-17 while a college freshman. In fact, he wasn’t the youngest in his Honors Physics class- there were two local HS students, including a 14 year old girl. </p>
<p>A girl we knew from our home city did her entire senior year of HS at UW before going to an Ivy. She took a regular calculus course (2nd and 3rd semesters?) at UW (not Honors sequence) and she and a friend ranked that with AP, local college, UW regular calculus, their Ivy in ascending order of difficulty. She had to live in a private dorm as Res Halls was full by the time she could do the paperwork. She also needed to return home periodically to keep her standing in NHS by attending meetings (ridiculous policy of her HS in the district, sigh).</p>
<p>Your son will evolve in his interests. My son was undecided between physics and math for a major. He later added a second major in computer science to his math major. No interest in my undergrad major of chemistry. No interest in any engineering or applied math. Zero interest in becoming a physician like his parents. Working as a software engineer/developer (title dependent on company) instead of grad school- intellectually stimulated by the work and coworkers. Who knows what he’ll decide in the next five years when he turns 30.</p>
<p>Take note of all of our anecdotes. The common thread is to keep taking math classes. btw- son did not study for the SAT subject test in math because “we’re reviewing it in calculus”. He should have studied more on his own. Use it or lose it applies. Also, any HS classes, including AP, will not have the same rigor or as much material in a similar class taken at the ranking of colleges he is likely to attend. Loading up on sciences will either mean taking a lesser course or retaking the course in college.</p>
<p>See if there is a math circle near you: <a href=“http://www.mathcircles.org/”>http://www.mathcircles.org/</a></p>
<p>It’s great if kids like this can find other kids who are similar to them. (And you can talk to the parents of the older kids to see if they found any solutions to the “running out of math” issue that will work for you.)</p>