Nervous about College availability/accommodations

Parents Forum
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<p>I'm really nervous about college being another boring experience, particularly in mathematics. I want to know especially about 2nd Tier colleges, because colleges like MIT, Cal-Tech are very accommodating, I'll explain what I mean by that.</p>

<p>For example, in HS if you take AP Calculus AB, you would not be able to transfer those credits into NYU, hence repeating a year of Calculus that you already know. I am self studying Calculus BC, and at the right I am going at i will have skipped about 2-3 years of Undergraduate math, as well as 1-2 (one subject 1 year, and the other 2 years) of Chemistry and Physics. Will i still be able to find a college whether it's City college or lower tier but cheaper college that can accomodate me?</p>

<p>That is probably the biggest reason why I am so adamant about getting into MIT, Cal-Tech, Stanford, Harvey Mudd, Carengie Mellon University (very realistic), UoFC, and a few others, but I don't exactly have the best grades, I am a high 80's student, which is essentially an indicator of a big fat REJECTION letter from most of these colleges, although I am self studying 11 AP's this year, and either going to Andover Boarding school, or home schooling myself.</p>

<p>I am prepping and ready for the US Math Olympiad, which means, out of 400,000 students, I am one of 500 other students standing, or a 1 in 800 survival rate. Please don't be narcissistic, if you have questions feel free to ask, and I will answer whatever else you wish to know to better advise me,</p>

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<p>Shushugah,</p>

<p>My daughter will complete HS with AP Cal BC under her belt as well as Stats AP. At the University of Texas Austin, (where she plans to attend) she can go directly into 3rd year calculus or other upper division math if she chooses, as long as she scores 5 on the AP exams. (She did receive a 5 on AP Cal AB, and BC has been pretty easy for her, so I suspect the same success on BC) So I don’t think you have to be at a tippy top university to advance to upper level math. But what you will have to do, to be successful once you find the right college, is do some self reflection on to why you accept 80’s on your work when you seem like you could easily ace these subjects. Proper study habits will be very important no matter where you end up or I can assure you academic probation is pretty universal no matter what school you matriculate into.</p>

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<p>Are you saying that you are wary of schools won’t accept your AP Calculus credits? Most Universities DO accept these as math credits. </p>

<p>AP Chemistry and Physics are a different story, most schools make you re-take those, although the college version of what you take will not be very similar to what you took in high school, due to superior lab facilities, and honors level classes that you can qualify for.</p>

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<p>I am self studying Calculus BC now, am a sophomore, and hence I will do Multivariable calculus/Vectors Calculus and linear algebra next year, senior year differential equation, or something of the sort. If I am accepted to my summer program at Carengie Mellon, I will have done Linear Algebra and Vectors Calculus in 2 months, meaning I’ll have even more math to do.</p>

<p>Thanks for the update on physics and chem,</p>

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<p>You’re just a sophomore. You have time to get your GPA up so you’ll have a better shot at the colleges that suit you. You should spend less time studying advanced math and doing AP prep and more time on your grades.</p>

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<p>Not all colleges give credit for APs, but all colleges give exams for placement. If, for example, you go to a big state school, you’ll test into the right math class.
The same is true of other courses. So, don’t worry about finding challenge at schools that aren’t the best-known.
Have you already done AMC/AIME - how have you done there?
Work on your other courses. Really. Schools like MIT, CMU, HM, Stanford and CalTech are not going to be very forgiving of a lot of Bs.</p>

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<p>11 APs…what’s that all about. Drop some of those and spend more time on the classes you’re getting Bs in would be my advice. You’re interest in math is, from what you write, your passion an you’ll be able to make that shine in your application and to pursue that in college. Right now it’s important to round that our academically with the same passion…and grades to match if you want to go to some of the colleges you list. You’ve got time but your priorities (self studying 11 APs) are incorrectly placed. You’ve got to walk before you run and some effort placed on the entire high school curriculum is the price of entry.</p>

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<p>I am home schooled now, so there’s not much I can do about grades, so any other suggestions? These comments are very reassuring, and I’m feeling less “nervous” now, :)</p>

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<p>What state are you in and where else have you considered applying to college? Have you considered taking a higher math course at a local college instead of self-studying?</p>

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<p>NYU, like most colleges will give you credit for a 4 or 5 on calculus or psychics c. Likewise, most colleges will let you challenge/test out of courses (all the ones I’ve come to know well at least). And if that doesn’t cut it, you can always skip class but hand in the exams as needed, take for credit or audit graduate classes, or do independent study with faculty. It’s not highschool, I don’t see a reason why you’d be bored. </p>

<p>But my sense is this isn’t really answering the question you intended to pose.</p>

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<p>To a large extent your answers have really helped, </p>

<p>the colleges I am looking at are,</p>

<p>MIT
Princeton,
Brown,
University of Chicago,
Carnegie Mellon,
CalTech
Harvey Mudd,
UCB
UCLA
Stanford, </p>

<p>and this Honors program in city college of NYC (hence I live in NY) called Macaulay particuarly Queens College but Brooklyn or CCNY would be my safety. I wonder, how far do the math courses of an undergraduate go, of say a less selective college? For example city colleges. </p>

<p>I will look into taking math courses at a local college, as of now I am taking 2 online courses at ArtofProblemSolving, and 2 weekly math courses starting in February in Pushkin Academy and NYU Math circle (unaffiliated with actual NYU program). I wonder if UCLA MOM can provide specific info on UCLA :)</p>

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<p>Can’t answer your question above, but one thought is your grades, along with all these APs and probably very strong SAT would easily get you into a school like U of Toronto, McGill or Waterloo, the latter being particularly well known for all-things-math.</p>

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<p>yeah, Waterloo was in my mind, but I admit, I know NOTHING about canada, except some trivial things, will also have to make sure it’s my “fit” :)</p>

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<p>My son majored in engineering, not math. However, one of his dorm friends was a math major. That friend is now a PhD candidate at Cal Tech. </p>

<p>UCLA has some great math profs including Terence Tao.<br>
[Terence</a> Tao - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Tao]Terence”>Terence Tao - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>The UCLA math students also have quite a bit of fun finding prime numbers.
[New</a> Prime Number - Rare prime number found - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/27/science/sci-prime27]New”>Rare prime number found)</p>

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<p>If I add one (making it a power of 2, since it’s a mersenne prime) and divide entire number by two (subtracting one from exponent) and multiply the two numbers I’ll get a perfect number, which has the property that it’s divisors add up to the number itself, examples include</p>

<p>6=(2^2-1)(2^{2-1}), 28=(2^3-1)(2^{3-1}) etc…basically a mersenne prime is a power of two, which when subtract one becomes prime, so 4-1, 8-1, 32-1, 128-1, 512-1 are all mersenne primes, hence forming perfect numbers…</p>

<p>this is really awesome!!! :DD</p>

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<p>Shushugah, I know for a fact Caltech and Carnegie Mellon actually don’t give credit for AP scores. CMU requires their own internal placement test. When I took it, it allowed you to place out of freshman year calc and into calc 3d. One of my friends had a few more years of math under his belt and was able to place out a bit higher (I remember him taking a grad class during the spring of freshman year).</p>

<p>Very few students at Caltech place out of the math 1a series, especially since it’s pretty much expected you’ll have taken up through Calc BC (also the course is proof-based, so it’s probably a bit different than what you’ve had to study for the AP exams).</p>

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<p>I don’t know how old this is, but this is the current AP policy for Carnegie Mellon:
<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/admission/forms/10/Placement_Credit.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/admission/forms/10/Placement_Credit.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
n.b., some schools (i.e., CIT) have variations on this policy.</p>

<p>Shushugah, I have to join the others who say that you are spreading yourself too thin. Your plans are ambitious to a degree that is not reflected in your grades. Schools want to see a thoroughness to your HS level preparation. Get some solid advice on your schedule from someone whom you respect and will listen to.</p>

<p>Also, you may want to add Cornell to your list of schools. My oldest had a good experience there as a Math/CS major. In particular, his first year Calc class was designed for those who had a 5 on the Calc BC exam. No extra credit or weighting, just the freedom to move at a fast clip for those who love math. He would be the first to tell you that college calc is a big step up from what you study in AP courses.</p>

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<p>If you like that, then you’ll probably love the Pomona College mania for the number 47. Their math professor (and my former instructor) Donald Bentley really outdid himself in creating a math dept “number mascot” that evolved into a school-wide mania and continues to this day.</p>

<p>[pomona</a> college 47 - Google Search](<a href=“pomona college 47 - Google Search”>pomona college 47 - Google Search)</p>

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<p>^Thank you looks really great!!! And I don’t have doubts at all about CMU or Cal-Tech those are really top tier colleges, and I feel better now about many of the 2nd tier colleges such as UCLA and Waterloo (well from an American perspective). I am going to worry less, and do what I enjoy as well as improve my grades overall. I am not as concerned anymore about colleges not providing right nurture for my needs. I guess my city colleges in NYC were just bad options, since they aren’t as flexible or rigorous. </p>

<p>Any more info would be highly highly appreciated,</p>

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<p>If you are serious about being a math major because you love math, and it seems you do, and have your level of ability and experience,I would not only think about the schools, but also the department. Most high level schools do not accept AP credits, but once you are admitted to a department, if you are talented they will take you under their wing and accommodate you. For instance, the “official” policy might be specific pre-reqs for a course, but if you can do the math and the prof likes you, you’ll be in. </p>

<p>Also, some schools’ math departments have a “flavor” once you get passed, say linear algebra and diffy Q’s. Some are excellent in algebraic geometry, or topology, etc (I was a math major at MIT in the stone age, so the math fields then were Roman Numerals and Abacus, so I can barely name the current fields.) It shouldn’t matter too much at the higher level schools, but it might at the lower tiers.</p>

<p>Finally, mathematicians are not status conscious as a general rule. If you do excellent math work you’ll be fine for a graduate program. I’d focus less on the undergraduate classes qua classes, and more on how much the students are able to interact with faculty at the undergrad, how much the undergrads can do research, how much the undergrads and grads interact.</p>

<p>Finally + 1, I wouldn’t hesitate to interact with a professor or two that you feel a kinship with because of his or her work NOW or before college. Back in the stone age, we didn’t have these computer things, so it was harder. But it turned out that by sheer coincidence I wound up becoming very close, once I was at MIT, with the professor who authored the paper that was my jumping off point for my Westinghouse math paper submission (are they still Intel papers now?). Nowadays I might have considered very, very humbly emailing my research and asking about some other math issues.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you</p>

<p>PS, I am no longer a math person, alas, but one never leaves the fold.</p>