<p>I committed to Harvard and I'm SO stoked to spend the next four years there. </p>
<p>I have a question about math at Harvard: I took BC calc in senior year, and I was thinking of taking either 21a,b or 19a,b. Could someone post a detailed description of what either of how these classes are like in terms of the general difficulty, time necessary to succeed, difficulty to pull an A, and general comments? </p>
<p>Some background: Although I did well in HS, I'm not a fan of math at all, and I occasionally find it interesting, but I definitely don't want to be taking too much math in college. I did NOT qualify for AIME or USAMO or any of those math competitions. In terms of math, I'm just an average dude who finds some parts of it interesting but isn't too great at it. </p>
<p>Also, would you say that the results you get from classes are directly proportional to how much work you put in? My HS was pretty competitive and I want to do well in college without that pressure. How hard is it to get an A, really? </p>
<p>FWIW: My daughter took AP Calc BC at an ultra competitive high school, received an ‘A’ for the class, as well as a 5 on the AP Calc BC exam. But, she felt very insecure about her math knowledge when choosing her freshman year classes and took Math 1b for her GenEd requirement for Quantitative Reasoning. She got an A- in the class. That was her one and only math class at Harvard. She’s not a math kid though – much the way you seem to be describing yourself.</p>
<p>The content of 19a/b and 21a/b is entirely different. You should look at the syllabi (once you have your HUID and PIN, you should be able to access the course websites, but you can look at the paragraph-long description now via the course catalog) to determine which you’re interested in taking.
21a is multivariable calculus and 21b is linear algebra with a bit of differential equations thrown in. 19a is “modeling and differential equations for the life sciences” and 19b is “linear algebra, probability, and statistics for the life sciences.”
Generally, 21a/b is taken by groups like engineers, physicists (though some take 23a/b or 25a/b), more mathematically-intensive biologists, etc. 19a/b is more commonly taken by premeds or other biology concentrators who need to fulfill math requirements - hence the name “for the life sciences.” 21a/b is generally regarded as more rigorous: it covers multivariable calc and linear algebra in some depth. 19a/b covers a ton of different topics (modeling, diffeq, lin alg, probability, stats) much more shallowly, and is therefore pretty much intended for people who won’t take many - or any - more math classes.
I took 21a/b after taking BC in high school and did just fine. Neither 19a/b or 21a/b is thought of as a particularly difficult class in terms of grading. </p>
<p>I have to say, though, that I’m pretty disappointed that you’re looking to base this decision on how difficult the classes are and how easy it is to get an A. That might be a reasonable position were the content of the courses the same, but it’s not. You should really think about - gasp!- what you /actually want to learn/. If you’re really interested in a course, it won’t be painful to put the time and effort into it, and you’ll likely do well. If you’re not, it will feel much harder. And if you’re not interested enough in one of 19a/b or 21a/b, you probably shouldn’t be taking it - unless you’re interested in something that it would be useful for. Take it from me, a graduating senior: reconsider your approach to courses. Your entire Harvard experience will benefit from it. </p>
<p>I made the mistake of going for an “easy prof” in an important class, and I really regretted it (not at Harvard, but the idea applies). The one I got wasn’t very good. And it turns out that the challenging prof was a world-renowned expert in his field. What was I thinking?!? I agree with Elanorci - go for the interesting classes with the best profs.</p>