SEAS students are all math wiz's?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Just how good are you guys/girls?</p>

<p>Im a senior studying BC Calculus and find it a pleasurable challenge.
not too hard, not too easy.</p>

<p>but interesting.</p>

<p>(have a feeling im gonna be the SEAS math idiot haha)</p>

2

<p>I'm an English major, but I found Calculus BC pretty easy in my sophomore year. Maybe it's because my dad is a math professor.</p>

3

<p>jeez. BC calc Sophomore year... haha our school has finally had a kid do that this year. first time in 40 years hahahaah.
if ur majoring in ENglish...</p>

<p>now im really wondering how do SEAS kids are lol</p>

4

<p>Well, it's kinda in my genes, though. Bascially I'm breaking family tradition by studying English...</p>

5

<p>SEAS students have varying degrees of math skills. Not everyone is a math genius.</p>

6

<p>well put C02</p>

7

<p>I am a math genius.
Honestly, for a SEAS student, Calc BC should be a joke.</p>

8

<p>wow thanks for that s snack, i better just kill myself</p>

9

<p>bc is a joke but try taking calc 2 when you get here. pick the wrong professor and its instantly one of the things you'll regret most.</p>

10

<p>so um... an example of a "wrong professor" would be?</p>

11

<p>check out the website with reviews on classes and profs.</p>

12

<p>
[quote]
bc is a joke but try taking calc 2 when you get here. pick the wrong professor and its instantly one of the things you'll regret most.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is true--this one crazy calc 2 prof gave C's to a bunch of people who I know got 5's on the BC exam. If this guy taught long division to Columbia kids, he'd probably still give everyone horrible experiences and grades.</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
check out the website with reviews on classes and profs.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>you mean <a href="http://www.culpa.info%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.culpa.info&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>yea it helps sometimes but not always. for example, when i took calc 2 i had 2 options: 1 guy who had average-bad reviews and one who was a new teacher and had no reviews. i was stupid and picked the no reviews guy ~_~</p>

14

<p>ouch, sry to hear that mate. I was really looking forward to attending Phelps' classes, but his reviews are pretty terrible. He's suppossed to be more effective than sleeping pills, :D</p>

15

<p>or the other thing you could run into is that you are forced to take a professor with bad reviews....like i have to take cornish for orgo next semester. in this case culpa just scares me...</p>

16

<p>well, seems like even the best places have mediocre lecturers... some academics are simply not meant to be teachers...</p>

17

<p>
[quote]
well, seems like even the best places have mediocre lecturers... some academics are simply not meant to be teachers...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The better the school, probably the worse the teachers on average. Hiring/tenure at the top schools is predominantly a function of research/publishing/grants and barely a function of teaching.</p>

<p>Also, the top schools mostly give their profs more frequent sabbaticals and let them teach fewer credits each year. You'd think they'd focus more on teaching since they have comparatively less work than profs at worse schools.</p>

18

<p>I agree, BC wasn't bad at all sophomore year. Multi junior year I thought was fairly absurd, but nothing that couldn't be worked through given enough diligence.</p>

<p>I have no experience with linear algebra, so it'll be interesting to see what it's like next year.</p>

<p>Oh, and current students, do you advise using BC credit to skip to a more advanced level of calc, or to just start fresh and slow it down with a term long review?</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
Oh, and current students, do you advise using BC credit to skip to a more advanced level of calc, or to just start fresh and slow it down with a term long review?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Get out of as much math as you can. The more basic stuff you get out of, the more room you have for dropping classes down the road / taking more interesting electives / graduating early / studying abroad / whatever. The math department generally has crappy profs for the basic math sequences. And, just because you got a 5 on BC and took multivariable doesn't mean that Calc I will be an easy A.</p>

20

<p>Don't worry about linear algebra, it's really boring and dull but quite simple. You guys might do something with analytical geometry too, since it's a related field. The only thing that I find interesting is stochastic theory tbh.</p>