is taking Calc 3/Diff Eq Your Senior Year Impressive?

Applying to College
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<p>or does is that common?</p>

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<p>Depends on which high school you go to, i.e., how many other students in your school take diff eq before they graduate.</p>

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<p>i would say like 12-14</p>

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<p>^^^interesting information in that link, tokenadult. As for the main question asked by that writer, most of the students I know who took Calc BC as high school juniors are majoring in computer science, engineering or physics. However, a number of them, including my son, are adding math on as a double major, an easy thing to do if you enter college with a lot of math already on your transcript.</p>

<p>Gandhiboy, based on what I have seen with son, his friends, other acquaintances a bit older, the very most selective schools do not give applicants a great deal of credit for all of their advanced math. Even with very strong records overall, I have seen students who took CalcBC as sophomores and then took university math courses as juniors and seniors get rejected from places like Stanford, Princeton and MIT. I saw quite a few get rejected from MIT last year who took Calc III and differential equations at a public flagship as seniors (and did very well). Those were students with strong records overall.</p>

<p>In one case, a student who took BC Calc as a sophomore probably hurt his chances at elite schools, since the disruption to his schedule left him taking a lot of other courses online or at university rather than at high school, and it may have led to lukewarm recs from guidance counselors and teachers who didn’t know him very well.</p>

<p>However, if you are interested in colleges that rank high but are not Ivy and closely related, your advanced math probably will help you. It probably was very helpful in landing my son a lucrative merit scholarship. It certainly was helpful at getting him the opportunity to bypass lower level math courses, making it easier to do multiple majors and probably enroll in graduate courses before graduating.</p>