For self-assessment, he can try these tests: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/rur_index.html . He can try the “are you ready for calculus II?” test to check his calculus I knowledge, and he can try the “are you ready for calculus III?” test to check his calculus II knowledge.
This may not help if a graduate program explicitly requires that a college calculus course (or perhaps AP credit) is on his record, but if he still knows the material well, that could help in terms of knowledge needed for any calculus-based statistics courses he could encounter in a graduate program that would admit him without calculus on his record. He can also check if the graduate programs that want to see calculus on his record will accept CLEP or some such.
It may be helpful to name the specific programs. A web search of “PhD genetics prerequisites” finds pages from various PhD programs, only some of which list prerequisites. Those that do tend to list prerequisites similar to a subset of biology major prerequisites (sometimes not even including calculus). For example, https://gsas.harvard.edu/programs-of-study/all/molecular-and-cellular-biology suggests that most admits have “a basic knowledge of differential and integral calculus”.
Is there a CLEP test for Calculus?
Anecdote of one…me. My undergrad university was awesome and had tons of interesting courses I could have taken my last year. BUT I really wanted to gain entrance into a masters in my field, and I also wanted to be competitive for a fellowship that funded my studies. So…I took a pass on the interesting courses, and took the prerequisite for my field masters. I also took two years between my bachelors and masters, but as life would have it, I lived in a very lovely part of this country…where taking these courses would have been impossible.
I got the admission…and the fellowship…and full funding for my masters. Only 2 in my masters program were fellowship students. This is common, even now.
Oh…and the interesting courses from my undergrad school…I’ve been able to take continuing education or college courses as an adult…those courses were there later too.
Your son has some choices to make. Maybe he really isn’t sure about his graduate studies direction and really would prefer to take these other interesting courses now. That’s all fine. But as noted above, there very well could be ramifications down the road if he is applying for a competitive spot, or full funding.
It’s really his decision…but he needs to research this well, because if he really wants this graduate program, and they really have the expectation that these courses will be taken as part of his undergrad degree, he might not end up being very happy.
I help evaluate and interview candidates for our reasonably competitive umbrella biomedical PhD program. All of our accepted students have taken calculus; we don’t have course prerequisites specified online, but any undergraduate degree that prepares students properly for our PhD program would require calculus.
If your son is applying to competitive PhD programs, he should take calculus at his undergrad institution as part of his undergrad studies.
If he takes his calculus at a community college/online, he would stand out to us as trying to avoid the “more rigorous” courses at his university.
If he takes his calculus after he completes his undergraduate degree, he would stand out to us as being a poor planner, not being mature enough to find and follow directions, or having completed an unsuitable undergraduate major.
Standing out for any of these reasons would make him a less attractive applicant.
I’m having a difficult time envisioning an undergraduate degree that doesn’t require calculus that would be deemed suitable preparation for a PhD in genetics.
There will be plenty of interesting courses for him to take in grad school.
Thanks @ucbalumnus and everyone. I didn’t even know CLEP was a thing. I will get him calling his school advising and the people at the programs he interested in.