There were a lot of Phineas and Gene jokes in my house during this whole process. Really liked A separate Peace.
Calc at my school (as well as other math courses) are in session for only one semester.
So when answering some of these questions, should put down that I will have completed one full year of (insert course) by the end of the school year? (The options are only one full year— no semester)
I have a question that I hope doesn’t offend anyone. Why do so many people take calc freshman year? Is it because you have taken all of the other math available?That’s not even an option at my school and if you were at the point where you could take calculus I believe they still put you with the grade. And how do people accelerate very quickly? FWIW there are people at my school going to Ivy League schools and taking calculus as a senior.
I really hope this doesn’t offend anyone and I intended no harm - I’m just curious.
Yes.
Most people at an Ivy League college took calc as a senior. The kids here who take/took it as a freshman (and I’ll admit that I was one) are in the distinct minority, even by College Confidential standards.
The why is easy - it’s the next course in the sequence. The how is trickier. Different schools have different rules. For me, I attended MS in Europe, so the difference in systems partly explains it
Just to add to what was posted above, taking Pre-Calc in MS may not be adequate preparation for Calc at a competitive boarding school as an entering Freshman (non-repeat). Maybe you are a repeating Freshman or took Calc already in 8th grade, or just really love math. Consider this: You will have several challenging course at BS and you don’t want to spend too many hours on homework when you could be making friends @ your new school. The pace is fast and the competition is tough in Calc at BS. Are you willing to risk GPA sabotage by getting into the deep end of Calc as a Freshman? If you have a solid prep for it and are confident, then go for it. Like the great golfer Sam Snead once said “If you’re going to take a risk, then know what you want”. ?
To @misslilbookworm, you wanted to know about books that were about a prep school. You could start with “Prep” - the author (Sittenfield) attended Groton. She writes about that game (like tag) that’s played at BS. Last year, parent & kiddo read “All Loves Excelling” by Josiah Bunting, former HOS of L’Ville. I found this chillingly sad and negative, but with a dose of reality (pushy parents, race to nowhere, pressure, eating disorders, aiming to get higher rank on a team, not getting into an Ivy School, PG isolation). The book could have its own thread on CC ?. The characters can be found at most schools. Take it with a grain of salt, but remember it was authored by a former HOS.
Just as skieurope said, different schools have different policies. My case was a special one.
I attend a school that is still in its infancy so the curriculum, for the most part, is very flexible and this allowed me and ~10 other middle schoolers to simultaneously take algebra 1 and 2. Out of that group, 4 (including me) were able to zip through precalculus and land in calc by freshman year.
Just to build upon this. Almost every BS has placement tests in math and foreign language. So just because you took a subject in MS, don’t assume that you will get placed out of it at BS. Many students find themselves in level one of a foreign language (or algebra I or geometry) because the MS class did not come close to preparing them for the more challenging BS class. And that’s OK.The last thing you want is to be behind the 8-ball from day one because you’re under prepared.
I think “oh, I’ll be placed into Calc BC!”
But I know deep down they’ll push me back to Algebra 1…
@CavsFan2003 I know you’re saying it tongue in cheek. It won’t be that dramatic, but I remember at Andover where they have literally dozens of permutations for that path from geometry to calc and students getting bent out of shape because they were not placed in the class they thought they should be…until the first day of class when they realized that they were better off where they were placed. 
Just wondering, do New Lowers ever retake algebra at Andover?
@YoungThriver - don’t worry. The NE schools we know give new students a placement test. Even if you do very well and get placed into Calc as. Freshman, you may discover during the first week that the class is too fast paced or covers material you didn’t get in MS pre-calc or via online course. The schools we know all have a drop-add period of about 2 weeks. During which time, you can switch out of Calc to Pre-Calc. Also, if you go to PEA, PA, or other NE schools of that level, you may be introduced to a new way of learning math. I am sharing this with you in hopes that it helps you know that things will settle out to what works best for you.
I got the housing info finally!
@ffsophiar I’m jealous! We got the course description guide in the mail and a note said we’d get the portal in early May, but nothing yet… I want my portal so badly lol
@CavsFan2003 deerfield sent out everything online recently but i really want to see housing info too!! course selection was so confusing i almost died
Has Exeter sent out anything besides the placement test, course selection, and admissions survey?
idk if this is the right place to ask but i wanted to get some advice from yall:
i’ve already fulfilled the language requirement at deerfield (finishing level III this year). i automatically got into chinese III and never took chinese I and II. would this count as finishing 3 years of foreign language? i’m asking b/c i know there are colleges that require (or recommend) xx years in a foreign lanugage.
secondly, should i bother taking chinese IV next year? i’m literally a native speaker and it won’t help me that much, and i’d prefer taking other classes that da has to offer. would it look bad to drop my language as soon as i finish the requirement?
It depends.
In general, finishing level X is equivalent to X years of a foreign language. So I’m assuming you’ve already crossing off every college that recommends 4 years from your list? And I’m assuming that you’re crossing off all colleges that state that they want 2 years of study to come during HS years (which aren’t that many, but still).
Personally, I think you should go for another year so that you have 2 year taken in HS under your belt. I’d further say, if you were truly “literally a native speaker” you should have placed higher than Chinese 3 and/or should have taken a different foreign language.But that’s water under the bridge.
@skieurope thanks for the advice! i was also thinking of continuing at least through my sophomore year. as a side note: most native chinese speakers at my hs will start at 3 so they can take 4 years of chinese (3, 4, ap, ib) but, like you said, it doesn’t really matter now
Wait does it matter that much to take 4 years? I was planning on stopping after third-year Spanish so I could focus more on STEM classes.