<p>S2 wants to take Calc II during his senior year in high school. He will be taking it at a nearby LAC. </p>
<p>Is this something that’s done very often? If not, could this attract some positive attention from admissions reps?</p>
<p>Right now he’s thinking about a business major but that could change.</p>
<p>It’s not super common though there are some schools were it’s standard operating procedure. At our local high school 1% of the 2007 class took a course beyond BC Calc - in their case Linear Algebra. It was offered by the school. (I don’t know what last year’s numbers were.)</p>
<p>Thanks Mathmom. Do you have a feel for whether ad coms would view this as something special? Right now S is looking at Georgetown as #1 choice so we’re just trying to identify what might set him apart.</p>
<p>It should help giving him some distinction but my impression is that one course is not a transcript make. Adcom looks at the whole transcript and the whole record, so it depends what else is on your S transcript and application.</p>
<p>Calc 2 is basically AP Calc BC. A good math course for sure, but not all that special.</p>
<p>My daughter took calc II as a high school senior at Bowling Green State Univ. She will be pre-med tract in the fall at another school . Not sure that it gave her much of an edge with the adcom besides that fact she can handle a tough college course. It was also nice to get a tough course off her plate so it wasn’t layered on top of other courses like inorg chem/org chem or physics. I do think it really helped her ratchet up her study skills. Worth it? yes. Extra points? probably not.</p>
<p>The way I interpret OP orignal post, I thought the OP’s term Calc 2 means a Calculus class beyond Calculus BC. To me this usually means multi variable Calc which is usually the next topic beyond AP Calc BC. Maybe not that special but also not very common for a high school kid to have had it.</p>
<p>Just got on our high school’s website. Our course catalog does not say whether the initial AP Calc class (the one he is taking before Calc II) is AP Calc AB or BC. And of course school is closed so I can’t call to find out. :(</p>
<p>I too assume a class beyond Calc BC. It will certainly be looked on favorably, especially going to the effort to go to a local college to take a class. No way to know if it will be a deciding factor. At a place like Carnegie Mellon or MIT it’s probably half expected, at Georgetown, it may be a little more unusual.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t your son know this? Also, shouldn’t he have taken AP test already if he took the course? If he did, he should have selected between either AB or BC test.</p>
<p>Calculus 2 covers parametric equations and covers power series and Taylor series in greater detail.
So, AP Calc BC is not same as Cal 2. </p>
<p>Cal 2 > AP Cal BC</p>
<p>“At a place like Carnegie Mellon or MIT it’s probably half expected”</p>
<p>I don’t know about CMU, but all of my friends who applied to MIT took Calculus 3 and/or beyond.</p>
<p>ttparent - Son is taking AP Calc this coming year (his junior year) and Calc II at the nearby college during his senior year. So he does not know the answer plus as I mentioned in previous post our hs course catalog does not state A/B or B/C – it just states the course title AP Calc and that’s as high as it goes at our school. I do have an email in to the head of math department at the college he will be taking the Calc II class at. Hopefully he will be able to shed some light.</p>
<p>“Calculus II” usually refers to second semester freshman calculus. “Calculus III” usually refers to third semester freshman calculus, or multivariable calculus.</p>
<p>AP Calculus AB approximates first semester freshman calculus.
AP Calculus BC approximates first and second semester freshman calculus.</p>
<p>However, curriculum variations between different universities may mean that the material covered in first and second semester freshman calculus is not exactly the same as what is covered in the AP tests (or courses at different universities).</p>
<p>There are at least three super-elite STEM schools where the first semester of freshmen calculus covers the material normally covered in a year of freshman calculus everywhere else (and may do it with extra theory as well).</p>
<p>In any case, completing second semester freshman calculus or AP Calculus BC by high school graduation is one year ahead of the normal math sequence (which completes precalculus by high school graduation). It is not typical in high school, but may be fairly common for freshman in STEM subjects at top universities.</p>
<p>More unusual are the students who complete second semester freshman calculus or AP Calculus BC as high school juniors, and then take university sophomore level math (multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations) as high school seniors (typically doing so at a community college).</p>
<p>My son took AP Calc BC his senior year in high school. Even though he got a 5 on the AP exam, his college gave him a screening test before putting him in Linear Algebra as his first math course at college. He had no problem with the material. At his high school, about a dozen kids do this, but some will go into Calc 3 rather than Lin Alg. My other son who took AP Calc AB in high school, could have gone into Calc3 but chose to take some Discrete Mathematics course. </p>
<p>So, now it is not unusual for a student to have 2 terms of calc done by high school</p>
<p>If we’re talking an average high school even in a well-funded suburban district like the ones my cousins attended, it would be considered unusual and place said student above the curve.</p>
<p>If he was doing this at my NYC specialized high school when I attended, what he did wouldn’t be considered unusual. Especially considering the vast majority of classmates freshman year were starting at the second/third year or beyond of the standard NYC high school math sequence upon starting 9th grade already meaning they’d have plenty of opportunities to take advanced math up to and beyond Calc III or its equivalent(Many could start taking calc as early as sophomore year or earlier).</p>
<p>Yes, you should find out what Calc your son is taking junior year so you will know what he should take at the LAC senior year. If it’s AP AB level, and Calc II is the 2nd semester, it would be like completing AP Calculus BC level. Not unusual at all, but a creative way for your son to get the full year of college Calc in.</p>
<p>If the HS calc is BC, then the college Calc II would be a repetition of 2nd semester. I think.</p>
<p>High schools in average, well-funded suburban districts are also providing math courses past BC Calc. Some do it through dual enrollment with a local college or community college, and some just teach the class themselves. Our local public high school (with 3500 students) offers MVC for kids who finish BC Calc as Juniors. This is becoming standard in many, many schools.</p>
<p>There is a difference between taking the most advanced math classes offered at your high school and being motivated enough to find a class elsewhere that is beyond what is available right at your school.</p>
<p>If your son loves math and really wants to move to the next level, he should definitely do it. It demonstrates not only a strong interest but also a willingness to make things happen.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about what “looks good on the record”. Instead consider what the course will do for him. Will it keep him less bored with HS and allow him to pursue a subject he loves? If so, by all means let him do it. Our area offers the standard first AP calculus course. Students take it when they are ready- usually as seniors, but a few will have had algebra and geometry while in middle school and will want another math course- taken through a college. No big deal. Something you should know- both the AP course and the CC course will not cover as much/be as rigorous as one taken at an elite or top U. However, they are better than not taking any math for the year. </p>
<p>Short take- don’t worry about perceptions, think instead about knowledge gained.</p>
<p>"Short take- don’t worry about perceptions, think instead about knowledge gained. "</p>
<p>Always wise advice (in any area!) Thanks Wis75 for inserting some common sense here!</p>