<p>I just heard from a friend that they didn't get into a school because they hadn't taken pre-calc. I'm highly concerned because this thought never occurred to me, and I haven't taken precalculus in high school. I don't remember any of the schools I applied to saying they require this, but does anyone know which college require this corse? Theres no possible way at this point in my senior year that I can complete this requirement unless I take it over the summer. Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Probably just the most selective schools, and engineering divisions at a greater range of schools, either have high school precalculus higher math as a requirement or strongly disfavor applicants who have not reached precalculus in high school.</p>
<p>However, if you enter college without precalculus, you will need to take it as a remedial course in college before taking calculus, if needed for your major, or if precalculus or higher math is a graduation requirement.</p>
<p>Although I tended to read books while my kids sat in on the various info sessions on their college tour, I did overhear the same two things from SO MANY of the highly selective schools they visited … 1) your senior courseload should be equally as rigorous, or more rigorous, than your junior year; and 2) take AP Calc your senior year - not AP Stats.</p>
<p>The latter shocked me (I personally think that statistics is much more practical and useful longterm than calculus…). However, these schools are such a small portion of the overall 3,000+ colleges in the U.S.</p>
<p>You should be able to check the website for requirements of the colleges you want to
go to and see what they require before submitting your app. I think most would be Algebra II. We did encounter a surprise on the Univ of Washington (Seattle) website. It says they require a math class your senior year or a math-based science. I asked the counselor on the tour and
she finally said that if we had through pre-calc that it would be ok. I think you can still be
accepted, but can’t enroll officially until you have that last math - like taking stats over the summer at a cc.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed too and I feel for you. Unfortunately my daughter wants to become an engineer and most of the schools require AT LEAST (shouty caps intended) pre-calc. Bad news, due to an extended illness in 10th grade, she got off track on her math courses and now will only graduate with Trig. under her belt so don’t know quite how this will play out, but she did well on her SAT and ACT so that might mitigate things a bit. Maybe this could be the case for you as well. However, like UCBAlum said, unless you’re applying to the most selective schools or your major is engineering or physics or well, math, it probably won’t be a huge deal breaker provided your other classes are college prep courses. They’ll probably just require you to take whatever courses you need for your major. I would take a deep cleansing breath, hit send on that common app and send positive thoughts along with it.</p>
<p>Back in the Stone Age when I grunted through high school we didn’t have pre-calc. The progression (at least in my school) was 9th grade-Algebra, 10th grade-Geometry, 11th grade-Algebra 2/Trig, 12th grade-Calc. This was California in the early 80’s though where we had to do our homework on the cave walls, so I’m not even sure what pre-calc is to be honest, other than a huge source of anxiety. I wonder if anyone else from that time and place (late 70’s early 80’s- state of CA) has the same recollection.</p>
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<p>While it is true that statistics is more useful in general day to day life than calculus, calculus is required for many majors (including the popular business and economics), and some majors that require statistics require a calculus-based statistics course (that AP statistics does not qualify as).</p>
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<p>[College</a> Academic Distribution Requirements (CADR) | University of Washington](<a href=“http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen/CADR#math-based-quantitative]College”>http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen/CADR#math-based-quantitative)</p>
<p>I.e. math, statistics, physics, or chemistry in senior year.</p>
<p>It does not say what to do if the student has exhausted the high school’s offerings and is not able to schedule such a course at a nearby college.</p>
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<p>Perhaps your school distributed the precalculus stuff (including trigonometry) into your algebra 2 and calculus courses? When I went to school slightly later than that in CA, the usual progression was:</p>
<p>algebra 1
geometry
algebra 2
trigonometry/precalculus
calculus (BC)</p>
<p>Normal track was to start algebra 1 in 9th grade and get to trigonometry/precalculus in 12th grade. Advanced students started algebra 1 in 8th grade and got to calculus in 12th grade. Once every few years, there was a student who started algebra 1 in 7th grade and got to calculus in 11th grade.</p>
<p>I graduated high school in 1982 in California and the math progression was:
9th grade - Geometry
10th grade - Algebra 2
11th grade - Trig/Precalc
12th grade - AP Calc</p>
<p>Boston College requires pre-calc for business and science majors. Georgia Tech requires calculus for their applicants. I know there are other colleges but I can’t think of them off the top of my head. My dd fell into this gap so she took pre-calc online the summer before senior year and AP calc during her senior to catch up from transferring from a high school that had a weak math program.</p>
<p>UCBalumnus, that UW link is interesting. They state that they want a math or science course senior year so that the math skills don’t atrophy. </p>
<p>We have options around here for college courses. Looks like another conversation to start having with the kids so they don’t assume they can slack off senior year. One of my frustrations with our school is that scheduling isn’t as predictable as with many schools. The only way for my kids to show rigor in senior year is to take something at the college level, because they’ve been able to front load their math and science in the first couple of years.</p>
<p>Another back in the Stone Age story, good midwest suburban high school, no APs, late 1970s. The math sequence for good math students was:</p>
<p>8th-Algebra I
9th-Geometry
10th-Algebra II w/Trig
11th-Intro to Analysis/Analytic Geometry
12th-Calculus</p>
<p>Kids who didn’t get placed in Algebra I in 8th grade but still wanted to get to Calculus by 12th would double up Algebra II and Geometry in 10th grade. Few did. They also offered an Intro to BASIC course that was a double one semester class. Dot matrix printer/keyboard combo connected to a PDP-11 via 300 baud modem. In senior year, they got a B&W screen, to save on paper costs. I can still hear the scream of that printer and the joke messages one could send when you discovered the joy of the Form Feed command.</p>
<p>The high school math graduation requirement in those days was two math credits, I believe. (And only one science!) You only needed 20 credits in those days, vs. 25 now. A few kids would graduate in 3 years every year.</p>
<p>But back to the original question, I know over on the W&M forum, W&M Admissions specifically states they prefer kids with Calculus in high school, preferably AP Calc, and they really almost require pre-calc. You’re at real disadvantage if you can’t step right into a Calculus course, 1st Semester, Freshman year.</p>
<p>Mork- Ah, the dark ages. Yes, I had that same sequence in California in the late sixties/early seventies.
This was in gifted-accellerated tracking. There was not a push then to start
algebra early. As a group, we had exceptionally high SAT scores, got into lots of Ivy and other top schools, and</p>
<p>seemed to turn out just fine as engineers, MDs, etc.
In fact, I remember one child psychologist who felt that children’s brains were not developmentally prepared to do algebra before age 14, no matter how intelligent!
As I recall, he said something like “You can train a monkey to do just about anything, but that doesn’t mean he actually internalizes and understands it.”
Such a change from now, when we have seventh graders routinely taking algebra, and some parents pushing for even earlier.</p>