My daughter who is a junior taking Calculus BC this year. Their school used to offer Linear Algebra and Differential Equations courses through a community college. They stopped that starting from this year. Earlier she was planning to do at school. As the course is not available now, she has to do on her own during Summer at a community college. Do you see any advantages of Linear Algebra/Differential Equations? If that doesn’t really help much in the admission process, she doesn’t want to get stressed and focus more on other activities during Summer of Junior year.
Another question is regarding Summer Science camps. Did you anyone go to Summer Science Program or RIBS or that kind? How difficult to get into these programs?
I need your input: DD is a junior and she wants to apply to BS/MD; she just got her schedule and she has a conflict:
- As is, the schedule does not include orchestra; She is 1st cello chair, Tri-M VP ( she wants to go for President this year), chamber orchestra and she is waiting to see if she made all state. If she doesn’t have orchestra in her schedule she will not be nominated.
- She could add orchestra by losing the great math teacher (the other one is very very bad) for Pre-Cal H and have Spanish 4H (she is aiming to complete 4 years of Spanish in high school)
- Or add orchestra, keep good math teacher but no Spanish.
Hmmm what to do, what to do?
@SkyAndLight Bx/MD is very competitive, it does not matter whether it is BA/MD or BS/MD.
Many parents / students have posted the profile and stats of their students every year in the results thread. So you can go and check to get an idea. But remember it is not all A or perfect test scores gets you admission for Bx/MD but the overall profile.
If you share your S profile folks can comment what area he can focus since he is only in Junior year.
@mygrad2021 If I am not mistaken Linear Algebra and Diff Equation is a pre-req for Calc BC. If so, and if your D is doing fine in Calc BC, then it is better to spend the summer for other activities.
Keep in mind, any courses done at community college including HS dual enrollment MUST be reported in MD App, and being Math it will impact the sGPA score.
It is fine to do summer camps. But it is better if they provide mix of learning, experience (meet new students) and have some fun rather than being intense and do nothing but academic. Also if you need to weigh options, first take care of doing enough clinical and non-clinical volunteering, shadowing (not every student in every state can do this - so don’t worry if your C does not get that opportunity) than doing summer camps.
On a quick glance, RIBS does not excite (at least me).
A. It is too expensive ($11.62k for 3.3 credit hours) knowing when it has $8 billion endowment!
B. It is a science course with lab and hence this course also MUST be reported in MD App down the road. Not really a summer camp.
C. It is too intense for 4 weeks and not really a summer course with 10-12 weeks. So it puts unnecessary intense pressure on kids when they are supposed to enjoy the summer.
@SkyAndLight
Example: here is the last year results thread.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/2126726-bs-md-results-class-of-2019-p1.html
You can locate results for each of the previous years. Normally these threads are very small and have only few pages but it gives a flavor.
Thank you @GoldenRock! Our school offers Linear and Differential after Calc BC for some reason. This year she is doing Calc BC. So far she has done Alg 1 and 2, Pre-Calc (during Summer in community college), AP Stats and this year Calc BC.
I have a general question regarding 4 years of mathematics. She ran out of courses at school now for the senior year. Is it mandatory that she should take some math course during the school year in senior year? If so, the only choice is that she has to do it through community college. If she takes the course during Summer, is it considered as full year of course of mathematics in senior or she has to do that during the school year in both semesters? Usually community college courses are only for 3 months.
@GoldenRock , forgot to mention, thank you for the information on RIBS program.
@mygrad2021 With what she had done already, it is better let her not do any math courses in senior year. Unless your school district has any requirement that you need to do some math course in senior year to award HS diploma.
@rara-avis
Can’t she defer Spanish 4H to senior year and keep both orchestra and the great math teacher this year? That way she will still have all 4 levels of Spanish covered in HS right?
Check with the school counselor if any draw backs of having that gap during the admissions cycle (other than not being able to take AP Spanish in senior year and having to revise Spanish during summer to prepare for senior year)
@GoldenRock , I understand that she doesn’t have to do anything in senior year but all colleges ask for 4 years of Mathematics. She cannot take anything in senior year unless she enrolls in community college. How can she show o the admission officers that she took 4 years of math?
@mygrad2021
Regarding the summer camps, it depends on the priority. If BS/MD is the top priority then you should pursue or continue research, shadowing and ECs. If you have had those areas sufficiently covered, then summer camps may be a good value addition.
I have known students and parents who are great fans of some of these programs since it gives one exposure to cutting edge areas of the field and great mentors who are leaders in their field, such as for example the 6 weeks or so Bio Chem program at UCSD. Not only are the programs expensive ~5-10k, but also fiercely competitive to get into, 2-5% acceptance. Mention of attending such programs can be very catchy to admissions folks, in the traditional route at least.
Thanks for the info @rk2017 ! Do you mean they don’t much impact on bs/md programs?
Could you please let me know if you have any about my earlier question regarding 4 years of Math?
@mygrad2021
Not sure how much the summer programs matter to the admissions folks of BS/MD. The folks that I know attending such programs are primarily STEM focused so I have no sample data to infer from. However I feel the program like the one I mentioned at UCSD, called Summer Science Program (SSP), is widely known worldwide. UCSD is a top notch institution in Biology, Bio Engineering, Bio Chemistry and related areas. Have your student review that and similar programs and should pursue if they sound exciting without bothering about relevance to this or that program(s) and as long as it is not at the expense of other activities like any current or future commitments.
Regarding 4 years of Math, may not be an issue if the student exhausted all math courses offered at the school including Statistics. Also can consider year long online courses offered by JHU and such in advanced math. But again, it may not be necessary. The high school counselor can confirm this and may even put as a note in the counselor recommendation during admissions.
Thanks @rk2017 ! I will advice my daughter to talk to the counselor.
@mygrad2021 Here is my response based on some research I did for you.
For example: in my Child school district, the HS graduation req is 3 years of Math. In CA (both UC and CSU) UG admission requirement is only 3 years. Searched Stanford, Harvard and MIT if there is any explicit math requirement. Did not find with my limited time. But CalTech is the only school has explicit req that 4 years of Math (including Calc).
But in reality students (especially BS/MD or students aiming for Top 50 UG) in general have done 4 years. For example my D did Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calc, Calculus in 4 years. In other words when doing Calculus itself has 4 years of math.
So not sure how your school district courses are laid out and how did you reach AP Calc-BC in Junior year?
Bottom line it is NOT must every college expects 4 years of Math. Nor MD admission of all schools.
Thank you so much for putting extra effort @GoldenRock ! I think I didn’t put my question in the right way. We have something called College Credit PLUS (CCP) program supported by the State. So my daughter was in the accelerated courses, she completed Geometry in 8th grade, 9th - Alg 2, 9th Summer - Pre-Calc (through CCP) and sophomore - AP Statistics and Junior - Calc BC. If the requirements for the college is 3 years or 4 yeras, is it mandatory that she should to do at least one math course each year of High School even though she has completed the requirement of 3-4 years of Math? Can she just not take (completely skip) Math at all in Senior year?
@mygrad2021 You are good. It is not necessary each of the 4 math courses must be taken in each year. Including Stats, your child has done 4 years of Math in HS.
If the pre-calc done via CCP is from community college or univ then that grade will be included in the cGPA/sGPA calculation for the MD App.
@SkyAndLight
You are right in trying to see and draw a connection between BA/MD programs and band, the latter being a performance art. Also fostering leadership skills, teamwork and valuable life lessons.
However from what we noticed, these programs didn’t care. I don’t think the band came up for discussion even once in any of her interviews for these programs.
Thank you @GoldenRock ! Yes her Pre-Calc scores are in her transcript. Just curious, what is cGPA/sGPA calculation?
@mygrad2021 MD app captures these 2 numbers. c is for cumulative and includes any and all courses where as s will include only science courses (BCPM).