<p>My son, who is very good at math, will have exhausted the math at our high school before his senior year. Teachers are encouraging him to go to the nearby university to take a college math course his senior year.</p>
<p>My questions are:
Which college math course would he take? Does he need to contact an advisor-type person at the university to establish which course he would take, or how does this work?</p>
<p>I am math-impaired, so any advice is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Generally the first college classes if calc is where high school ended would be linear algebra or multivaiable calc. His math teacher may be able to tell him where to go with his strengths.</p>
<p>That's a very good idea for someone doing well in HS math and it will look great on his apps as well as put him ahead in college. If he has taken Calc BC, which is the highest my daughter got to in HS, the next class she took in college was Multivariable Calculus, then Linear Algebra. But if his school offers AP Stats that is quite a good class to take and is useful for many things. I think the best person to ask would be his current Math teacher, and just check with the local University that his prereqs are appropriate. If you need to know who it works, go back to his teachers or guidance officer as they likely have experience with what other students did in the past.</p>
<p>The usual options are differential equations, multivariable calculus (also known as calculus 3 or vector calculus), discrete math or discrete structures, linear algebra (after multivariable) and mathematical statistics (after multivariable; sometimes called probability and statistics or probability theory). There are online course videos of these (and more) at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs if he'd like to preview the materials.</p>
<p>Colleges usually allow high-school students to take courses via dual-enrollment programs. They will typically require a letter from the guidance counsellor, transcript and a filled-out application form. Some universities allow local high-school students to take college courses free of charge as a service to the local community. In some cases, there is state money to pay for dual-enrollment. Some colleges and specific professors allow local students to audit courses.</p>
<p>I suggest looking at the University's webpages on dual-enrollment procedures to get an idea of how this works at the institution that you son is interested in.</p>
<p>Stats in not really an equivalent for math after calculus. Consider university if it works with schedule or look at Stanford EPGY program on line.</p>
<p>Our S's AP Calculus BC teacher said the AP Stats class was really not rigorous enough (for mathematicians, these words have a special meaning) given out S's abilities and he encouraged us to seek other options. Unfortunately, the dual enrollment option at the community college did not work for us logistically due to its location. This was really too bad since all he would have to pay was the cost of the book.</p>
<p>We looked instead to on line options. So our S is currently taken an on line class in linear algebra from the JHU-CTY program. I asked my husband, a math professor, about what should come first, the linear algebra or multivariable calculus, since CTY called for linear algebra first. He said the order depends on how the instructors teach both the classes, and the current mode for having MC first is more popular, but that it really doesn't make a lot of difference to worry anything about. Our S is a junior so he may be taking the MC on line next year anyway.</p>
<p>Linear Algebra is frequently offered at two levels in college. Algebra-based and calc-based. It's usually easier to take Linear Algebra after MC because the students then have more exposure to vectors.</p>
<p>This discussion has been enormously helpful to me, and right on-target.</p>
<p>The students at my kids' school that have "exhausted" math by junior year have taken Cal II during the fall semester, and have taken Cal III during the spring semester of their senior years at the local univ.</p>
<p>Then (if needed), they just continue on with Differential Equations, Applied Matrix Theory or Linear Algebra, (etc.) when they start their freshman year at college.</p>
<p>MissouriGal, after narrowing down the choices based on the good advice above, I would have your son go visit the actual classes offered at the nearby university and select based on the professor.</p>