<p>I was just wondering whether it is legitimate to say we are taking six courses here as opposed to the typical 4. This is the issue: here, the calculus is broken up into 4 units (calculus 1-4) and in Calculus 4 we don't cover vector calculus (we have another class called vector and tensor calculus, which covers vector calculus in a little more depth than in other schools' calc 3 course). Other schools cover Stoke's Equations, Surface/Line integrals, Green's theorem, ..., in their standard multivariable calculus course. So effectively, our calculus sequence is maybe 3/4 the length of the normal calculus sequence.</p>
<p>So if you multiply 3/4 to 12, we are taking 9 "course equivalences" of any semester school in a year (9 courses a year is quite typical). I am not really complaining because we aren't losing anything but I don't really see how they try to make us think "the quarter system is particularly fast, unforgiving, and rigorous".</p>
<p>At WPI you take 12 courses in a year, with each course worth 3 credits. That’s 18 credits a semester, which is larger than most universities. Overall, the 144 credits a WPI student takes assuming no Ws or NRs is larger than the 120 credits that is typically required of a BS degree (btw, I think that WPI technically only requires 135 credits to graduate). </p>
<p>I think that WPI’s calculus IV class should some of that that. Except Stoke’s equations of course, that’s covered in Fluid Mechanics. But then again, I couldn’t imagine a school teaching fluid mechanics as part of its calculus curriculum.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There’s probably some amount of unnecessary ego boosting going on at any school.</p>
<p>We do not cover Stoke’s Equations, Surface/Line integrals, Green’s theorem, …, in Calculus 4 but rather in Vector/Tensor calculus (“Calculus 5”). So a full calc 1-2-3 sequence (1 and a half years at any other rigorous school) is covered here in 1 and a quarter years. In a way this is good because many engineering students do not require this background at all and they don’t have to study it. But it makes you question whether or not the quarter system is really that much faster.</p>
<p>Meh, Calculus 1-2-3 is 12 credits, which is the same as WPI’s 1-2-3-4 calculus sequence. </p>
<p>My guess is that the 1-2-3-4 sequence covers more sequences/series but covers slightly less multivariable. Consider that WPI dedicates an entire class to sequences and series, but at most universities the class is put together with integral calculus. Note that vector and tensor calculus covers much, much more than multivariable calculus, at least at UMD (which is probably a typical state school curricula wise). </p>
<p>“Line and surface integrals
Green’s theorem
Stokes’ theorem
Divergence theorem”</p>
<p>which are roughly the first 1/3 of Vector and Tensor calculus. The rest is spent on vector operators (the divergence theorem is just the first vector operation) and tensors. That makes sense, because the traditional Calculus III is 1 credit longer than WPI’s.</p>
<p>Wow thanks for the input. I think I am definitely going to take vector and tensor calculus, and probably advanced calculus too. I don’t think quarter/semester really matters. I guess we can agree that a quarter class is probably equivalent to more than 2/3 of a semester course (and we take 14 classes), meaning that we take slightly more 9 classes, which is pretty good. I think that the courses covering 2/3 of the information is good because you get a lot more breadth and depth in specific areas of interest.</p>