Much2learn, you are right there are a lot of math classes but the probability and stats class is required for Computer Engineering but not Computer Science. I had to check my kid school website for certainty.
I myself didn’t take the prob and stat class but opted for Laplace transform and Fourier series, probably more useful for digital signal processing which is more EE than CE, my undergraduate major.
it is the high schools that determine how the subject is taught. While the CB can make recommendations on the “how” they really can only mandate the “what.”
As far as AP Physics 1 and 2, it seems that most high schools are offering these (or at least AP Physics 1) without prerequisites. In the old days (like last year and earlier 
), an intro physics course was usually the prereq to AP Physics B. An intro college-level physics class, even without calculus, might be a challenge for most HS juniors (presumably the earliest most would be able to take since they would need to knock out bio and chem first) to complete in a year. I guess we’ll get more insight once the exam scores are released in July.
I have been told that one reason that Calculus BC and Physics C are important to admissions officers is that success in those two AP classes is more predictive of college success (i.e., graduating college) than success in other AP classes is.
If that is correct then, from and Adcom perspective, how useful the classes turn out to be to a student maybe less important than the improved odds of admitting a candidate who graduates.
Splitting AP physics B into 1 and 2 and encouraging high schools to make each of them a year-long course may also mean that fewer students take the SAT subject test in physics, because they will not have taken the full sequence by the time they take the SAT subject tests.
Some high schools used to use AP physics B as their honors high school physics course.
College Board is a business. They won’t let the splitting of Physics jeopardize the profitability of the SAT Subject tests.
Sorry, I know this quote was from a few pages back now (pretty active thread) but I wanted to make the point in case there are other parents from places with different math tracks reading this. The track that I referenced earlier, Algebra 1 in 8th grade or a hybrid geometry/Algebra 1 class in 9th, culminating in kids taking no higher math than the second year of IB HL math or AP BC Calc. Kids coming through that type of program, this school year, did get into the “tippy top elites”, unless we now live in a world where Princeton/MIT/Columbia/UChicago, etc are not “tippy top” schools. The point being that I doubt seriously that any schools, let alone large public universities are looking down on kids who haven’t taken the “right” middle school math classes, or somehow taken differential equations as a 10th grader.
@Ohiodad51 I agree. My reference was to the earlier suggestions of multivariable, diffEQ, or linear alg as somehow being common. Not in any place we have ever lived. I have had kids graduate from high school with that level of math and it was not considered “normal” by any definition. Even BC is considered as a small % of students in some districts we have lived in. AB is more common amg the highest achieving students, but again, that is still a small % of the over all high school graduating class.
My older S is a SW engineer doing big data and algorithm/language development. He was a math major who took grad courses in CS (specifically algorithms, theoretical CS, discrete math, etc. – i.e., not hardware or programming languages) while in UG. He taught himself programming and algorithm development in middle school and kept on going. He majored in math to have the skills to support what he wanted to do in CS.
He took calc-based stats in HS, and did not take any more of it in college.
He was accelerated four years in math, but he was at specialized (public) magnet programs starting in 4th grade. He was able to take the very fast track with age peers, and was able to take lin alg, discrete, MV and analysis, along with other post-AP CS courses in HS. Doing this with other kids his age was huge, as he was already young for grade. Without these programs, he would have run out of math freshman year at our neighborhood HS. Before folks jump on me for being a pushy parent, the program he was in tested everyone for math placement. We didn’t have to advocate at all. It got S out of an incredibly toxic local situation and he freely admits that it saved his life. We know how lucky we were to be able to have access to this kind of education.
< If you think your child is top 50 college material and that is your expectation, then educate yourself early on about what that takes and talk to you child’s counselor candidly to determine whether that is actually a reasonable expectation for your child’s abilities>
I blame holistic approach. It is supposed to help disadvantaged students. In reality it is helping students with connected and involved parents. It created the whole ecosystem of admission counselors, test prep counselors, tutors, etc. Multi-billion ecosystem.
@CountingDown , Could you please name the school? Sounds great!
Holistic college admissions can help whomever the particular college wants to help. Not all colleges are the same in this respect. Non-holistic college admissions can also be tuned for whatever the college’s admission goals are.
Why math is such a 'scary" thing? For many students, math is not their hardest class. My D. struggled with History, she spent tons of time with her father in HS to “get” those complicated concepts. The Bio, Physics, English Lit. were definitely much harder classes than math. What so difficult about math? The answer is - bad teachers, hard to overcome this obstacle. There is nothing difficult about math, it is simply a language that describes the relationship between variables under certain conditions. Hard science cannot be taught correctly without this language, engineering would not exist at all. But if you think about it, math is nowhere close to complexity of any human language and kids with normal development learn language when they are 3 y o.
Nothing is inherently scary about math. The idea that kids who are not taking multi variable calculus in high school are somehow behind the 8 ball and are doomed to the horrors of some state school that is probably not even on the coasts is the scary part
Very proud parent here!! And of a student who not only completed multivariable but multiple 200 and 300 level math/physics courses during high school and is very happily attending a non-coast school and loving every single minute of it, especially the research he is involved in! Absolutely nothing scary or horrific about it. Contrary, it has been a huge blessing! Roll Tide!
(we reserve “horror” for the $ signs in FA packages that equate to massive debt for us.)
Obviously many parents here have children that are good at math but talking about how easy it is is a bit if a stretch. Many kids in the real world, if not on cc, struggle with math. My D was one of these. She was in remedial classes and had special tutors up through 6th grade. It was very hard for me, her engineer mother, to understand how she could not understand simple math concepts, but she just couldn’t. Seriously, I have spent hours moving blocks around to demonstrate concepts like multiplication and division. She could memorize math facts but she just didn’t understand what was happening. But then, suddenly in 8th grade something clicked and it became easy for her. She went from remedial to almost tracking into the fast group, but they wouldn’t let her because of her history. This is why this discussion of math tracking is near and dear to my heart. We are quite happy that she is now acing Algebra 2 as a junior, though if not for middle school math tracking, I think she could have been farther along than that. And just in case you want dismiss this as a discussion of a below avg student, she is in the top 25% of her class and math is the only core subject that she will not be taking AP classes in next year.
Yeah, my math major son had a terrible time with chem and bio. Physics was another story. Ohiodad, he picked a non-coast school, despite excellent options on each coast. 
My future math major son had a hard time with biology as well, although part of the problem was not completing assignments. I took biology to fulfill my science requirement in college and didn’t have much of a problem. I probably would have done well if I had taken it Freshman year instead of putting it off until I was a Senior. I think it’s easy to say that anyone should be able to do subjects we do well in. I found history very easy. I could do the readings and spend a little time turning the concepts over in my mind (usually while doing something else that didn’t require a lot of thought) and make a A. Maybe anyone can do well in Algebra 2 with the proper support. My question is whether learning it is the best use of time for every student. I realize there are those who believe that anyone who can’t successfully complete 2 years of high school algebra has no business in a 4 year college (and I’m not saying anyone on CC believes that; I’ve seen it on other boards, though).
Well, I am glad to see that you all got the sarcasm in my last post.
And @Mom2aphysicsgeek, I am assuming you are talking about the Alabama NMSF grant, which is pretty ridiculous. I think Alabama is one of those schools that kids from all over the country are taking a look at now because college is so ridiculously expensive. I know that in my son’s class here in Ohio, a couple kids looked really seriously at Alabama solely for that reason. One of them ended up taking the NMSF grant at Fordham, and the other took the NMSF grant at Oklahoma. But five ten years ago, Alabama wouldn’t even have been on those kid’s radar, because the kids who want a “big” school have so many closer options. With the NMSF grant, Alabama is now competing nationally. The football team still sucks though.
@me29034 Your story is a very important one. It sounds like you did an outstanding job working with your D. Too many people assume that math is an ability. The truth is that even the best students have difficultly comprehending certain concepts and details. Teaching your kids that effort is what matters in the long run and encouraging them to keep working on concepts that you have not mastered, and ask for help when they need it, can overcome a lot of barriers. If other parents made just a little bit of the effort that it sounds like you made, there would be a lot fewer kids who “just can’t do math.”
Yeah, well, I was a math major and I completely concur that the CC attitude that if you haven’t completed multivariate calculus by the end of junior year, you’ll just be making milkshakes at the fast food counter is ridiculous. I don’t even get the push for everyone to complete calculus, when proficiency in probability and statistics is far more important in order to function and be competent in today’s society.