I am trying to make sure teen has the pre-requisites to apply for engineering school next year. Teen is a Junior in High School. One of the pre-requisites to apply to some of the engineering colleges in which teen is interested, is Calculus.
Teen’s school offers AP Calculus for seniors only with approval by the math department. Interestingly enough, the prerequisite for the AP Calculus class is the Algebra 2 class Teen is currently taking and not the pre-calculus class which the school also offers, but which is also only offered senior year. Will not taking a pre-calculus class put Teen at a disadvantage in taking a calculus class? Or is the math Teen has taken thus far considered a sufficient pre-requisite to Calculus? So far Teen has taken Algebra 1, Geometry & Algebra 2 - all honors.
Also, if Teen applies early decision or early action to any school, we won’t have Teen’s final grade in Calculus yet (if fortunate enough to be accepted into the Calculus class). So how does that work as far as college applications? Thank you.
Many, maybe even most colleges for engineering don’t require calculus.
One doesn’t need AP calc if they take calc. You can take regular too.
Whether or not the student is qualified for the schools in mind, I don’t know - don’t know his portfolio but fortunately, engineering is very - hmmmm - where you go in 95% of cases won’t matter. Depending on the major, companies may want accreditation. For example, a mechanical engineering major - will want to ensure the school is ABET accredited.
I would follow your school’s guidance. Perhaps there’s pre-req work in the Algebra 2 class.
Yes, schools will make a decision on your based on your grades through Junior year and not having a grade will not be an issue.
But you’ll be accepted, like all students, with conditions which will likely be a successful 12th grade - i.e. succeeding in the schedule you told them you are taking.
Most engineering schools want you to be ready to start in Calc 1 freshman year.
It’s very normal for freshman to take Calc 1. No disadvantage. He needs to follow the schools progression unless it’s just very easy for him. You can talk to his school but I would just let him learn. Most schools won’t progress kids till they take Pre Calc. Our school let kids take this over the summer and it always sold out per se.
Sounds like your school has an accelerated version of Algebra2H which includes concepts from precalculus and is meant to segue neatly into your school’s calculus class, likely with some precalc reciew/skills first, whereas precalculus at your school is a slower-paced final class for regular Algebra2 students, extending content from algebra2H and beginning calc over a yearso that they are ready for calculus in college.
You should just make sure the GC will specify that the sequence your child took is an accelerated sequence culminating in calculus senior year.
So what seems confusing about Teen’s school is that the math Teen is taking now IS the prerequisite to AP Calculus as well as the prerequisite to Pre-Calculus.
Looks like the school has an accelerated or honors algebra 2 course that can be a prerequisite for calculus for students who do well enough in it. Those who do not make the needed grade can take a more traditional precalculus course. Examples include the San Francisco Unified School District.
Only a few colleges require taking calculus while in high school (for engineering majors or otherwise). Engineering majors generally are expected to be ready for calculus, meaning that they have completed precalculus in high school at the minimum. Completing AP calculus with a high enough AP score can give advanced placement that can allow for additional electives and more schedule flexibility in the course plan.
If you are in the SFUSD or other California school, note that no UC or CSU requires calculus in high school. Neither does Stanford or USC.
Probably contingent on how well the student does. For example, it may be that students who earn A grades can go directly to calculus, but other students go to precalculus. Check with the math department if you cannot find it in the school’s curriculum handbook.
@ucbalumnus when did Santa Clara start requiring calculus in high school as a condition for majoring in engineering. Or…are you saying that this requirement is only for students applying directly for admission to their college of engineering.
I ask, because my kid was a bioengineering major at SCU graduating in 2010. Kid applied undeclared, but took the same courses freshmen engineering majors took…including calculus which the kid had not taken in high school. Kid, at that time, was easily able to declare an engineering major and switch to the college of engineering. Maybe that’s not possible anymore either but it was when my kid attended.
And kid was not disadvantaged at all because of no calculus in HS.
As the linked post from 2018 says, it was at that time recommended (not required) according to SCU’s statement that “for natural science, business, and engineering applicants, readiness at the level of calculus is expected”. However, SCU may have backed off on that recommendation since then, since that statement is no longer on its web page listing high school course work requirements for frosh applicants. (The previous post did say that some may have changed, and SCU is evidently one of those that changed.)
The usual high school math sequence is Alg 1, geometry, Alg 2, preCalc (which includes trig), Calc AB or Calc BC, or Calc AB followed by Calc BC. As you can see, the way to reach Calc by 12th is to start Algebra in 8th, which many kids do. The problem is when a kid who is capable of doing higher math is steered into regular track math in middle school, doesn’t reach algebra 1 until 9th grade, cannot get farther than preCalc in high school.
So, your kid needs to be in Calc BC for 12th grade, but they’re in Alg 2 now. Here is a solution. Take a look at modernstates.org They’ve got an online Precalc class that your son could take independently, for free, over the winter break and longer, if needed. He can then take the CLEP exam for preCalc, for free. Then you ask for permission for him to register for Calc BC for 12th grade. Voila. He will have made up the year of math, will be ready for Calc BC.
Well…we were the horrible parents who declined having our kid accelerated in math. DH strongly felt that a very strong math foundation was a key thing to have. So when algebra was offered in 8th grade, we politely declined.
It never affected our kid one bit. I’m not saying it might not affect others, but I’m saying…our kid had no disadvantage at all once she got to college where she took calculus, plus many many many higher level math courses.
You all are making it sound like the only students who can matriculate in engineering programs are ones who have accelerated math in middle school…and that just isn’t true everywhere.
Yes, I’m sure there are colleges that prefer that applicants to their engineering programs have HS calculus. But there are also plenty of programs where this is not required.
I’m not the one saying that a kid has to have had Calc in high school. The OP specifically stated that their kid needs Calc BC in 12th in order to apply to a particular school. So I gave them the info that they needed. I do, however, know of kids who were kept out of accelerated math for other than academic reasons, who then entered engineering school without having had Calc in high school, and who felt that they were behind, were unhappy that they hadn’t had Calc in high school.