Is having calculus by graduation really important?

Rhapsody_in_Green
Sun, 18 May 2008 15:41:39 +0000

As someone who actually is going to a top college right now, as opposed to just speculating about it, plenty of people here haven’t taken calculus in high school. Some of my friends haven’t even taken precalc. It is true that a significant portion of the freshman class has had calculus experience – I’m always surprised by how many of my humanities friends are taking linear algebra or the like – but you will by no means be rejected from colleges for not taking calculus in high school. If there are other (challenging) classes you’re more interested in, go for those by all means.

That said, galoisien is right about calc being useful in the humanities/social sciences. Anything with more than very basic level statistics will require calculus to really understand, so if you’re considering those sorts of majors, keep that in mind. There’s still plenty of time in college for that, though, if you’re not a math major.