No they won’t. And no it doesn’t. I have met many MIT students when I was at university. That vast majority didn’t take every AP science in HS. 2 out of the big 3 is quite common, though.
Regardless, the kid is in 9th grade. He may very well be the next Einstein, but odds are he isn’t. The very tippy top students may be able to convince the school to waive their prerequisite requirements for courses. But IME, most that try to jump ahead without preparation struggle later.
And while MIT doesn’t require foreign language to graduate, most applicants won’t get in. God forbid, he’ll have to settle for Yale, and be forced to take foreign language taught by a grad student or lecturer instead of using that course block to learn from a paragon in the field
It’s not though. It’s like you scoring 120 on TOEFL Regardless, universities want foreign language study in school
With all due respect, this may have been a few years ago. I personally went to MIT without taking ANY science APs. But, that was over 30 years ago and things have changed.
I think this is a reasonable point. I’d like to know if this planning/conversation/math started before 9th grade (ideally yes, with teacher input).
I think MIT should not be in the equation this early considering this is a freshman. Most of my kids were taking honors algebra 2, honors bio, and honors Spanish 3 freshman year, none of them had the stats for MIT senior year. Not one scored above a 34 on the act, highest uwgpa wad 3.95, standard EC’s (sports, dance, church, jobs, theater, clubs, volunteering- things they truly enjoyed doing). I wouldn’t base my next 3 years on a crapshoot.
To put it in more concrete terms, the preferred base college prep curriculum for top students aiming for more selective colleges would be:
English: 4 years
Math: to precalculus, calculus if available to you; generally, it is best to follow your high school’s math progression and not skip anything unless the high school’s math courses are designed to allow that for top math students
Science: biology, chemistry, physics, plus an elective or advanced/AP level science
Foreign language: to level 3 or preferably 4 or AP level
History and social studies: ideally 4, but at least 3 years
Visual or performing art: 1 year
Granted, this may be hard to cram into a 4 year high school schedule in a 6-period high school. In the 6-period high school case, some categories may not come out to be ideal in terms of the above.
I think they really soft-pedal it on the website, but come on. Think about the students we see even here on CC who apply to MIT. They mention background in Bio, Chem, and Physics at high levels. But they’re very careful not to exclude the idea of someone who is underprepared through no fault of their own (poor school e.g.)
I agree with the advice to talk to your school guidance counselor and plan out your next four years together.
My daughter was also heavily into music but at a school that also had a theology requirement every year. She ended up having to stop doing music in school starting junior year to have enough room for her academic classes. She continued with her music outside of school. While not ideal, she made the decision that academics came first.
She was also in a school where you had to take the honors version of bio/chem/physics before you could move on to the AP version and there was no skipping in the math sequence, nor trying to cram it in over the summer.
My advice is to not stress about this! Your school will have their own pathway that you will need to follow, and it will be OK! Just focus on making sure you have all five of your core courses each year (math, science, English, history and FL (up to level 4 if you can).
OP needs to come back and clarify if they are skipping pre-Calc to take Calc next year or if they are skipping an entire year of Math to have none sophomore year to be able to fit in more science. Two very different scenarios.
We also don’t know what is allowable at the OP’s school. For example, our HS would not allow a student to skip a prerequisite course.
I strongly suggest the OP work with the guidance counselor, get advice from teachers, and craft next years schedule and possibly draft an outline (subject to change) for future years.
OP, keep in mind that students are NOT expected or encouraged to specialize in HS. Admissions officers, in general, look for students to get a comprehensive, broad based, rigorous HS education and then specialize in their area of interest in college. IMO it would not be prudent to skip out on taking all five major subjects to take additional coursework in a subject you prefer.
CC is not a statistically representative subset of MIT accepted students. CC and Reddit’s A2C provide an unrealistic view of reality. It’s tantamount to porn for college admissions. Or so I’ve heard
I’m skipping precalc and going straight to AP Calculus BC. I have a really strong foundation in math since I’ve been doing a lot of comp math so I don’t think I’ll have a problem with it. I’m currently in a way too easy math class anyways (I already know all the material), and I also know that I know most of the precalc material from studying for comps over the past few years.
Also my school is okay with it. Several of my friends have skipped precalc in the past (we have a “testing-out” system, where we get a summer to study and if we pass a test, we’ll get to skip the class)
I agree with this assessment. My kid will be going to MIT this coming fall. He took MVC, both AP Physics C (taught in one class), OChem, AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Comp Sci, AP Bio, APUSH, AP Econ, AP Art History, AP Stats (ran out of other math curriculum), AP Comp, AP Spanish and honors world history (no AP offered). He has robotics leadership, lots of volunteering and 4 year varsity/club sport. We are from CA so a bit more competitive here than lots of places.
I don’t see a problem skipping Precalc if you can pass the summer evaluation. The material in that class isn’t really necessary for calculus for strong math students. At my kids school, skipping Calc AB is pretty standard for STEM-y students, the BC class teaches the AB curriculum in the first few months and then hops into BC material.
Lots of high schools teach BC inclusive of AB material, so going directly from precalculus to BC can be the norm or common at these high schools (unlike those where BC starts where AB ends).
Skipping precalculus depends on whether the high school’s math curriculum is designed to allow strong students from algebra 1 / geometry / algebra 2 (or equivalent integrated math courses) to be prepared for calculus. This may be the case at some high schools, but probably not most.