on line math options after BC calc for high school

<p>My son is a freshman in a large public high school. Early on he advanced 4 years in math. He is currently taking BC Calculus and finished with an A+ first semester and had a perfect score on the Indiana University admistered final exam.(ACT of 35 as an 8th grader) In school options next year are not ideal. He can take AP Stats in school but also wants to take something else mathwise bc he knows stats will be easy)We are trying to determine what on line option (multivariable calc and linear algebra etc.) would be the best for him in terms of preparation and recognition of a valid program by top colleges when he applies for engineering programs. Any experience by recent grads who took individual on line classes esp from Stanford on line, MIT Harvard etc. would be especially appreciated in terms of college admissions perceptions. He will definitely be applying to MIT so anyone who may have insight as to how MIT or other top math/science/engineering schools expect highschool students continue their years if they have exhausted their math. We are willing to take cost out of the equation.</p>

<p>Check out Stanford’s Online High School. It is an accredited program.<br>
You can enroll while still being enrolled in High School.</p>

<p>^ that is what I was going to suggest. There are issues with it, but it might be your S’s best option. </p>

<p>Is it feasible to take math at an area university/comm coll?</p>

<p>We personally went with an online personal tutor.</p>

<p>We have spent some time looking at this program on line and have also called and spoken to a representative. Sounds solid, but wondered how competitive colleges look at this program vs others that are out there. Would love to hear the perspective from any students or parents of students who did the math courses and were admitted into their “dream college”.</p>

<p>You mentioned that there are some issues with the Stanford on line. I am very interested in the cons. Also how did you find an online personal tutor and what program did you use? Scheduling and transportation will be a challenge in terms of a university classroom program.</p>

<p>

In general, the questions you should be asking yourselves are more about which programs will work best for your son, rather than how different programs are viewed by college admissions officers. The admissions office (at least at MIT) doesn’t generally have preferences for particular programs, but some programs might work better for your son and his schedule, not to mention his personal tolerance for independent work.</p>

<p>You bring up a very important point which we have thought about. He is motivated on his own to do what is required plus extra to master materials for his own sense of accomplishment. What I am concerned about is that once we get to these high level math courses, there may be variability in terms of mastery based on the method, teacher, access etc. There may be some that have a reputation of being better courses just like some high schools are known to prepare their students better for college. Admissions officers often know this and have this in mind as they are evaluating applicants. On line options have been around long enough that I am interested in both prior students’ (or their parents’) thoughts as well as admissions officers and even brick and mortar college math instructors’ thoughts. ( A student who took the remote linear algebra and multivariable class through our high school 2 years prior found that the course had not been helpful when he arrived at his engineering college. 2 other students felt the same that year) For this reason we are trying to find our own solution to this problem and would like to try to gather opinions from individuals from various aspects of the college process.</p>

<p>Our son is currently finishing up differential equations through the Johns Hopkins CTY program. He has taken other classes through this program. He took Algebra 2 and Trig - when he took Math Analysis the next year, he didn’t learn anything new the entire first semester so the classes are very thorough. He also took AP Biology over a summer and earned a 5 on the AP exam the following May. They also offer multivariable calc and linear algebra but these were taught at the Governor’s school he attends so I don’t have a review of those. Everything else has been great so I would expect these to be as well.</p>

<p>Look into CTY Online as well…that’s where I’m taking my linear algebra class and I’ve heard it’s better than Stanford’s… </p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC</p>

<p>Emc2Fma can you tell me what you have heard about CTY that is better than Stanford’s? I know Stanford’s is real time and interactive with a teacher lecturing to 15 students world wide. (But still does not necessarily make it better). Does CTY give a grade or is it pass/fail? Do you anticipate your linear algebra will count in college or will colleges have a placement test to determine your eligibility to skip it?</p>

<p>patesq what year is your son? Do you know if college will allow him to test out of these classes? Does your highschool include the online course grades in his gpa?</p>

<p>You can always use a free online resource like MIT’s OpenCourseware (OCW). OCW provides materials including video lectures, exams, and problem sets from actual MIT courses. Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra, as well as hundreds of other MIT courses, are available on OCW.</p>

<p>However, you cannot earn “credit” for taking these courses. You work at your own pace and watch them in your own time.</p>

<p>That said, if your son does end up at MIT (or any other place that does something similar) he can take an ASE (Advanced Standing Exam) during orientation for all three of those classes. If he passes, he’ll earn full credit for the class as if he took it at MIT, and it will appear on his transcript.</p>

<p>Our son is a senior this year. He took algebra 2 and trig the summer before 9th grade, AP biology the summer before junior year and is currently taking differential equations. Testing out of classes depends on the school. Some of them do have tests and some don’t. That really wasn’t a concern - if he has to retake a class because he hasn’t covered it all, he will do well in it and get a stronger foundation for higher level classes. Yes, the high school has included all of these classes on his transcript and in his GPA. This became interesting with the differential equations class - no student in our school district has ever taken differential equations before (multivariable and linear algebra are offered but not diff eq). It took them months to decide how much credit to give him for the class.</p>

<p>Collegeground,</p>

<p>My son’s a freshman at MIT and a former homeschooler. He took calc. and stats in 8th grade at the local CC. In 9th, he took calc II and III, and in 10th he took L. Alg. and Dif Equ. After that, he worked with an online tutor/mentor (you can pm me if you want more info) for the last two years of high school studying more advanced dif equ, dynamical systems, and some real analysis. It was casual study and very inexpensive for us (for a variety of reasons). We could not afford EPGY or CTY or the local university, so this was the most affordable option.</p>

<p>One other thing your son could do would be to take AoPS classes online and do math competitions. My son read AoPS books for pleasure but only took one of their AIME courses online; however, he did do math and physics competitions and that gave him plenty of challenge. Lots of amazing kids do their WOOT class as well as their other hard math classes online. The classes rock and are different from the typical scope and sequence.</p>

<p>My son was able to get transfer credit for his CC classes and AP Calc but obviously did not get credit for his work with the tutor. That’s ok, though. He, like your son, loves math and just wanted to keep learning. :-)</p>

<p>Oh, and as wiseguy said, if your son ended up at MIT, he could take exams to pass out of certain classes.</p>

<p>Another person with a similarly challenged (challenging?) son! He did the same with Calc BC, then taking AP Stats just because we couldn’t coordinate getting him to a college that year. The following year we were able to have him take Multivariate and a Number Proofs class at the local college which he found extremely unchallenging since it was not a top school. If your son is interested in MIT, I would recommend some of these options others are advocating (which we were unaware of then) rather than a community/feeder college class. We found out about AoPS his sophomore year and he did some of those programs then too. I would also suggest if he is this advanced that you consider early graduation if he’s looking to MIT - my son decided to just skip his senior year and is a freshman at MIT as well this year. We realized that any classes he’d take wouldn’t transfer anyway and if he was going to just take online classes, he might be happier just going on to college instead. Feel free to PM me if you’d like too - we’re also in Indiana (although he wasn’t while in high school). Good luck!</p>

<p>Wow!Thank you so much for your insight and for sharing your experience. Your son sounds incredibly gifted. Thank you for the offer and I would like like to pm you but apparently since I am new to all this I have to wait till I have at least 15 postings…</p>

<p>I also want to thank everyone else who has responded to this issue which I originally felt very alone trying to figure out the options for.</p>

<p>No problem - it definitely seemed like a unique problem when we were going through it too, but as you meet people at a school like MIT, you realize how many other people there are who faced similar things with their students. I’ll look forward to hearing from you once you can PM! ;)</p>

<p>OP, MIT starts accepting people that will be 16 at the start of their first school year, whether or not they have high school diplomas. If your son is interested in jumping ahead in life, you might want to get him to apply next year, when he’s a sophomore. If he completes some further math courses next year, I think he’ll be more than prepared for MIT the following year, and will probably enjoy it more and be more driven by the competitive environment here than having to take 2~3 years of a totally optional secondary curriculum alongside his normal high school load.</p>