<p>I'm officially panicking. I have a child applying to Fordham early action. She has just been told by other well-meaning friends that Statistics "doesn't count" as math. Is this true? I find nothing on the website to indicate that Stats isn't "real." I'm devastated that the school may have mis-advised and am just seconds away from flying to the Bronx to plead my case. OK, well, not quite, but can anyone help?! Thank you thank you!</p>
<p>Haha as much as I don’t consider the class I’m taking right now to be “real math,” I’m pretty sure colleges will consider it as much. I won’t comment on its possible value but I would say that you should be fine.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. But, also most schools consider the requirements to be strong recommendations, and will overlook a discrepancy or two, if the student is otherwise strong. What other math does your child have?</p>
<p>Algebra in 8th
Geometry in 9th
Algebra II in 10th
Analyt Geom/Trig in 11th
Stats in 12th.</p>
<p>While many schools want calc, stats is indeed math and I think stats will be just fine at Fordham.</p>
<p>Unless your child is planning to major in math/science or engineering, you are more than fine. There are 4 years of high school math plus stat (however that is represented), which is great. One would expect Calc for people planning to go into a more technical area. </p>
<p>I think you can stop panicking :-)</p>
<p>Interesting question.</p>
<p>In MOST fields in college, probability/stats is of far more utility than basic calculus. Calculus is only useful for some economics and all sciences except possible Biology.</p>
<p>A basic understanding of probability, randomness, the law of large numbers, correlations, regression to the mean, and such is ten times more useful in life and in most college disciplines than is calculus. There is a reason that most Social Science and some Liberal Arts Ph.D. disciplines have core courses in Statistics, and none in Calculus.</p>
<p>In that sense, the opposite is true – probability/statistics is more real (that is, useful in most academic disciplines), than Calculus. Just about every day I look at curves and agonize over what equation describes the velocity or acceleration at each point… NOT!</p>
<p>I have a friend at Fordham who took AP Statistics (which was an absurd joke at our school) and not calc. It’s really not a problem.</p>
<p>I had the same fear. I was all signed up for AP Stats until I heard it would be a ‘huge disadvantage’ to not have calculus, so I changed it to AP Calc. My guidance counselor told me I was being paranoid and that it didn’t matter; in hindsight I agree with her. It’s still math.</p>
<p>I thought Calc would be a better choice than stats for my D, but she asked the admissions officer at Colby college during her interview. The interviewer came out and told me that with the rigor of her other senior classes, she would be fine with stats, and that there would be plenty of time for her to take Calculus if she wanted to later.
Good luck!</p>
<p>As noted above, it all depends what you want to study. If you intend to study engineering, most colleges expect calculus. If you are going into a non-technical field or social sciences, statistics will be 1,000 times more useful to you. Statistics is a required part of the college and grad school curriculum of hundreds of majors. Moreover, I just read advice from an expert to nursing students that statistics would be much more useful to them than calculus.</p>
<p>I have never ever ever used anything I learned in calculus. The only time it ever became an issue was because the hydrology professor wanted students to have calculus before they took his class. I had calculus, but I didn’t want to take another class where I had to actually use it.</p>
<p>For non-engineers, I think most colleges would consider AP statistics to be a rigorous AP class, and that would be the end of it.</p>
<p>OP, not sure what your issue is. Fordham wants “three to four years” of math. You actually have four regardless of the stat course, which will be counted as math, making five. If you take a usual high school math course, Algebra 1, in eighth grade, the course counts towards the number of years required by colleges even though the grade itself will not be used in calculating GPA.</p>
<p>Reading this thread, I had a question… A couple of those replying have noted that there are 4 years of math plus stat stated above, however, Algebra is listed in the 8th grade? I had assumed that the 4 years of math were to be in grades 9-12?</p>
<p>My son took Algebra in the 7 and 8 grade which equates to HS Algebra I, Honors Geometry as a freshman, Honors Algebra II as a Sophomore and is taking Pre-Calc as a Junior. Does this constitute 4 years of Math? I have to tell you that, while his math grades are good, he was REALLY looking forward to not having to take math his Senior year, however, many colleges state 4 units of math as the requirement?</p>
<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>@ MrFritz - In your son’s case it could go either way. I think most colleges will see alg I, geometry, alg II, and pre-calc as fulfilling the four years even though alg I was earlier; others might want to see four years of math in HS. If it were my child, I’d encourage him to take AP Calc AB or Stat senior year.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks… I’ll have to follow up on this one with the school when we go visit. If my son were going into one of the sciences or engineering, I would definitely encourage him towards AP Calc his Sr Yr, however, he’s looking to Major in Music and Minor in English. He’s taking 2 AP English courses as a senior as well as AP Spanish and AP music theory. </p>
<p>AP Calc to a music major just isn’t going to be an easy sell! Maybe I’ll just let let him fall in love with a school first and then blame it on them! :-)</p>
<p>Thanks again…</p>