<p>What's with the math program at Grinnell? Why does Grinnell offer only two semesters of calc? Never heard of this before.</p>
<p>I am not an expert on this, but my advice is to look closely at the curriculum for the Calculus courses – you will note that Grinnell actually offers four Calculus courses. My suspicion is that 123 and 124 take a full year to cover what 131 covers in one semester. Then, 133, or “Calculus II” is a very advanced version of Calc, and may be what other colleges actually call Calculus III or some variation thereof. Out of curiousity, I checked on the Carleton website and what they call “Multivariable Calculus” actually includes some of the same topics as Grinnell’s Calc. II. It may be that other Calculus related topics are also covered in other upper level Math courses. If this is of great importance to you, my suggestion is to contact the Grinnell Math department directly and find out more information. </p>
<p>My boss’s son has a Math degree from another LAC, and he never took Calc 3. I know this because he decided to go to grad school for an engineering degree, and had to take Calc 3 at a local community college in order to apply to the grad program. So it is not so out of the ordinary. </p>
<p>I’m a first year at Grinnell and took Calc II last semester. SDonCC is correct–MAT-133 covers most of what’s normally covered in Calc III at other schools. That’s why even if you take BC in high school, you still get placed in 133. </p>
<p>I only took AB in high school and found Calc II at Grinnell doable, but very challenging. That’s what a lot of my peers have said as well. </p>
<p>123-124 is remedial math plus one year of college calc. What course do most students with AB credit take?</p>
<p>133 or 131 again. I got a 5 on AB and did 133 and was fine but it is challenging.</p>
<p>Are you saying that at Grinnell, students with AB calc credit can either start over from square one in Calc 1 or take Calc 2 (multivariable calc) but nothing in between? Neither course is optimal for a student graduating high school with AB Calc credit. Don’t enough freshmen arrive at Grinnell with AB (but not BC) credit to warrant the math department offering a course that fits them?</p>
<p>There is nothing in between. In 2007, our S entered Grinnell with AB and a 5 on the AP. Grinnell placed him into Calc 2 and for the most part he had no problems. If he had difficulty he would have gone down to Calc 1. Fortunately, he had a Calc 2 professor who was a very good teacher and could explain things incredibly well. One of his majors was Math and the program at Grinnell didn’t hinder him in any way.</p>
<p>Yeah–honestly it really isn’t a problem. Students take whichever they feel would fit them better. There’s just not really a middle street there at all to add in and it works this way well.</p>