<p>Whenever anyone finds out that I’m in Calculus III at a nearby university (I’m a high school senior), they are always shocked. Is it really that big of a deal? I feel like people raise it far above its significance. In your opinion, is this very impressive? Or are people just dumb?</p>
<p>it’s a big deal cause few people do it. I would be impressed. to me it would indicate honest intelligence.</p>
<p>i mean, it’s just that it doesn’t happen often. most people don’t start calculus until they’re in college, and some never take it at all. also, i didn’t even know there was a calc 3? at my school, you’d probably be taking linear algebra</p>
<p>By Calc 3, I think he (she?) means multivariate. Whether that’s impressive or not (at least, to math geeks) depends on how rigorous the course is and how well you do in it.</p>
<p>That’s very impressive, there’s only like 9-10 people in that class at my school</p>
<p>It’s a relative sense of accomplishment. If you are the only one (or one of a very few) in your location, congratulations! :)</p>
<p>At my school, everyone finishes Calculus II (required by graduation), and 50% of my class would finish Calculus III and Linear Algebra.</p>
<p>About 70 people each year at my school finish calculus 3 by junior year and take differential equations and matrix theory senior year.</p>
<p>Like someone said, it’s relative to the context of your environment. I think in general, it’s pretty impressive. </p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC</p>
<p>A few of my friends are taking Calc 3 at a top university near my school, which is pretty damn good…it means they placed out of all the advanced math classes at my school. Some kids who placed out are just math teaching interns, though. Out of the four or five who took it there in the past few years, all got into Yale except for one (who’s deferred and waiting for his results in March)…</p>
<p>Slightly more impressive than taking Calculus two, decently more impressive than taking Calculus one.</p>
<p>At my school, it’s fairly common as the school is the only school in my state with block scheduling (there were a lot of ‘schools’ in that sentence!). Here’s how a person with advanced math skills would take their math classes:</p>
<p>Freshman year: Geometry/Algebra 3-4
Sophomore year: Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry
Junior year: AP Calculus AB & BC
Senior Year: AP Statistics/Calculus 3/ Differential Equations</p>
<p>EDIT: lol Wow wrong thread!! </p>
<p>Umm… to try and be on topic… Yeah I’d be really impressed. When we had two students a couple years ago self-study BC, it was a big deal, and seeing how this is a step above that…</p>
<p>Are you all studying at public schools, private schools, U.S. or abroad?</p>
<p>Almost as impressive as taking abstract algebra in high school.</p>
<p>Well…only two kids in the history of my school have done it. And…until the last few years, maybe one kid a year took calc 2. There’s more now, maybe 5 a year in calc 2, but none reaching calc 3. The two? Me and a friend. You’re on CC, after all. And then DiffyQ/Linear Algebra next semester. </p>
<p>Yeah, people were shocked when they found out here too. But I’ve been ahead in since way before high school, so people that knew me (other than as the smart kid) weren’t shocked, they’d known I was way above them in math for a long time.</p>
<p>Anyway, there’s been two in my high school ever (public, 1000 kids, school is about 100 years old). So it’s pretty amazing I think. Unless of course everyone in your school is a genius and Calc 3 is normal. </p>
<p>Another thing: I’m a college freshman, and most people took Calc 1 in high school. I’d say that Calc 2 is the most common starting point (assuming you’re a math/science/engineering person), but a sizable minority starting in calc 3. Few above that. They would be impressed. (I’m at Wisconsin). At MIT, you’re probably just average.</p>
<p>It depends on the norm, I think, as to how impressive people in your area consider it. My school only offered through Calc 1 (IB), and I was one of only 2 juniors to take the course. The only way I option to take math beyond that was calc 2 online through the state university system, and I was the only one at my school who had ever taken that option. So people saw that as super impressive (and I got cocky about it…).
But as someone else pointed out, at their school half the senior class has taken calc 3 and lin alg. It’s all relative.</p>
<p>But how do colleges look at this? Had the option been available, I’m quite sure I would have gone through calc 3 and lin alg in high school. How do universities compare students like this when they didn’t have the same options available to them?</p>
<p>“How do universities compare students like this when they didn’t have the same options available to them?”</p>
<p>They look at other kids from that same high school (current and past applicants), so you wouldn’t be compared to kids from RayonG’s school.</p>
<p>What if no kid from your high school has ever applied to that college before? </p>
<p>They can tell whether the course came from a college or not based on your transcript (you have to submit official college transcripts if you have them). I think it’s more impressive if it came from a college as opposed to a high school (unless it’s a “college class” taught within the high school, like some schools have) because it shows you had to go out of your way and you weren’t just taking the highest course offered at your high school. But in some states taking college classes in high school isn’t free, and taking multivariable is only an option if you have a couple hundred dollars to throw around…and not everyone does. What do they do then?</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person from my high school to have ever applied to my university, so there isn’t a frame of reference in that context. What do they do in that case?</p>
<p>They look at whether your counselor checked the “most demanding” box.</p>