D25 got her course schedule for the fall today. Her school has advisors that create first semester freshman schedules. Five classes at 3 units each for 15 units. Seems like a good schedule. She got her first choice first year seminar, so she was happy with that. And the earliest class is at 9:30 am so not too bad.
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We got back from Japan on Saturday. What an amazing trip! We seriously had the best time. And we didnāt kill each other! Now weāre just battling jet lag and trying to get back into the swing of things. S25 has been up all night and sleeping all day since we got back, so I guess itās a good thing he hasnāt found a job yet. Honestly, itās looking like a lazy couple of weeks until he starts a summer class. He has some things he needs to take care of for Rose, and Iām going to make him sit down with me tonight to go through the checklist in his portal. This is going to be a rude awakening for him (and me!) to self-manage moving forward.
Loved catching up on all the updates from everyone!
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So glad for the good schedule! Weāre stuck with schedule planning right now. Youāre supposed to meet with an advisor before registering for classes, but the only times the advisor had available were this week, when S25 is unavailable all week. Iām not concerned about figuring out course progression or what classes he needs or what APs count for, because I could figure all of that out and show him pretty easily from the website.
What WAS a bit of an issue, was on Friday he went into their course scheduling portal for the first time, and a lot of classes he needed or wanted are all already full or donāt seem to be offered. Students have variable registration slots - he signed up for one on the 19th. There were a few slots the 16th and 17th, but he wants to sit with me and I donāt have to work on the 19th, so he picked that day. Iām just hoping that there are still any slots left for the classes he wants. Forget having good class times, I just want availability!
The issue seems to be that he has five suggested first year courses. His APs pass him out of three of them. He wants to take the next in the progression and all of those are booked solid. Iām hoping that they are keeping some slots open for freshman and that more will pop up, but they tell the freshmen to build a few schedules ahead of time so you can hit one button and register for all the classes at once. Great idea - if the classes show as open. If they donāt show as open, then he canāt get plug them in a spot!
If he canāt get into those three courses (he really should be able to get into the science one at least - thereās a lab open, but no seats in lecture), then there are three gen-ed areas that he needs to cover before graduation. He doesnāt want to do all of them at once, but he would like to take a least one if possible. There are categories like āLiteratureā, āNon-Literature Humanitiesā and āGlobal Challengesā. There are a good handful (at least six or seven) classes under each of Non-Lit Humanities and Global Challenges that sound interesting to him - they are either not offered or they are full. Iām concerned for him - I want him to be able to take classes that meet some sort of requirement and that sound at least vaguely interesting, and Iām worried that there just arenāt enough.
It also frustrates me that there isnāt one aggregated place that just lists which courses are offered which semester. He has to go into their scheduling portal and select each course, one by one, and open up a whole new screen for each one to see whether itās offered. If there was just a way to see āall classes offered Fall 2025ā it would be an easier starting point. (My older kidās school has this, so I donāt feel like itās asking for too much!)
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Oooohā¦welcome back! I would love to hear your highlights, recommendations (if you especially loved any particular restaurants/activities)!
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My second and last is done! Looks like Physics ended up with strong grade, but itās not finalized yet. Classes ended 5/30 and then there was a week of rehearsals and award ceremonies, etc. Graduation was this past Friday evening. Our community offers an all night lock-in type party for the kids so it took most of the weekend for him to recover.
He is laying low, Iām sure feeling a mix of emotions. Iām hoping he gets more excited and submits to his college c/o 2025 Instagram page. Anyone else?
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that is not asking too much, I agree.
I hear you. My D registers in late June and we have a similar-ish type of issue. She is in nursing and they have a specific list of classes to take ā including literally the 101 classes for both biology and chemistry. While my D is a declared nursing major, there is 1) some off chance that she might switch to pre-med, and 2) she is a strong science student so a 101 class for ānon-scienceā majors may be boring, and 3) she would love to fit in a neuroscience minor and these 101 classes are not going to cut it for prerequisites. At other colleges my sons have been at, theyāve listed alternatives for these types of courses as well to be clear as to what will meet the major requirements. I realize that she could take these 101 classes and probably get an āeasy Aā and have a non-stressful start to freshman year. But then it will rule out a minor in neuroscience and she would also need to repeat biology and chemistry with the versions for āscience majorsā later if she switches.
We found a weird way around this issue (the whatās the harder but equivalent class). I canāt think of how to make it translatable right now, but Iāll tell you what happened for us and maybe that will give an idea?
S25 took AP Calc AB and got a 5. I looked at what credit that would give him and it said Math HigherNumber, which is some kind of calculus class. For his major, heās required to take Math LowerNumber, which is a ābusiness calculusā class. It took some digging around on the website, but I eventually found that the higher number (maybe calculus for more mathy majors?) was transferrable in lieu of the business calculus class.
So maybe if you search for AP Bio or AP Chem and see what they give credit for, that will show other, similar, entry level bio and chem courses that are maybe alternatives that are more science-y and she could take those instead?
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Itās been a minute since Iāve posted here-- Iāve checked in from time to time but I feel like weāve been in the middle of a marathon, no time to stop and write. Itās all come and gone so fastā¦ the college choice, AP exams, prom (she wasnāt going to goā¦ but decided, 1 week before, to go!), final recitals for dance and pianoā¦ Meanwhile, our kitchen renovation (which we hoped to start over the winter) finally got underway, so weāve been living in a construction zone the past few weeks. Oh, and I was away at a work conference last month and have another coming up next week.
Graduation is Friday, D25 was still finishing up last minute makeup assignments this past weekend and then had some sort of presentation yesterday. She was sure that sheād get Cās in her last quarter, but told us today that she managed mostly Aās and 1 A-. Mostly, Iām just glad sheās finally done- this is the first time in forever weāve had an extended family conversation at dinner without her running off somewhere. I hope we have more of these nights this summer!
I donāt think she has course selection yet, but she does need to choose her Smith STRIDE project soon. She wants us to look over the choices with her and help her 
.
Tonight feels like the calm before the storm- I took off work tomorrow so I can clean the habitable parts of my house, and get the patio ready, for my family coming up and celebrating graduation. Fingers crossed the weather stays clear so we can celebrate outside!
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Our course registration is July 16ā¦Even though we know what courses we have to take, it seems really late.
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Iām not sure how many do it so much earlier.
My kids school registers for them, but does it in mid July due to needing AP scores..Certain scores place you out of intro writing, for example, or certain CS courses. Obviously not all schools do that, but plenty do from what I saw.
Math in college WWYD question.
Lots of annoying backstory - sorry in advance.
S25 started junior year in BC calculus. He had a teacher who used a āflipped classroomā - the teacher assigned videos for homework - the students were expected to learn the new concepts from the videos. Then in class the teacher would work problems with them, showing how those new concepts were put into practice. This was NOT a good way for S25 to learn - he had track practice, couldnāt get to the videos until late at night and was tired. He had always been one of the best math students in the school, but he couldnāt adapt to this system. He got an A the first quarter (when they were doing a lot of Precalc review and the start of Calc A) he was getting a C+ second quarter. Third quarter he moved to a Calc AB class that was taught in a traditional way. He slayed the rest of the year - high As third and fourth quarter, got a 5 on the Calc AB AP exam.
Senior year he took AP Statistics rather than Calc BC.
For his major, he is required to take Business Calculus I and Business Calculus II. You can pass out of BusCalc I if you have credit for Calculus of One Variable (which is a higher number course in the catalog, so seems like it might be harder).
Hereās the description of the two courses:
Business Calculus - Intuitive approach to the concepts and applications of calculus. Topics include functions and graphing, differentiation, and integration. Applications from social, biological, and management sciences are presented. Not open to students who have received credit for [MATH 1060]. Preq: Any MATH or STAT course, or a score of 620 or higher on the SAT Math section, or a score of 26 or higher on the ACT Math section, or a score of 60 or higher on the Clemson Mathematics Placement Test (CMPT).
Calculus of One Variable - Topics include analytic geometry, introduction to derivatives, computation and application of derivatives, integrals, exponential and logarithm functions. Includes Honors sections. Preq: A score of 680 or higher on the SAT Math section, or a score of 29 or higher on the ACT Math section, or a score of 80 or higher on the Clemson Mathematics Placement Test (CMPT).
S25s AP exam score for AB Calc was a 5, which Clemson says is equal to the Calculus of One Variable course, and he could get credit for that and go straight into Business Calculus II.
Bus Calc II is described as - Introduction to the calculus of several variables, differential calculus and optimization of several variables, multiple integrals. Topics from the management sciences are used to illustrate the above concepts.
Iāve also learned that it seems that Clemson uses the flipped classroom methodology for the calculus classes. Itās been a year since S25 struggled with that, and he would be able to watch videos during daylight hours and not nighttime (which was part of the problem, watching when his ADHD meds had worn off and he was tired) so it might be better. But (1) flipped classroom has been horrible for him before and (2) itās been a year since he took calculus. But (3) he really felt his calculus foundation was solid by the time he finished.
Iām trying to decide what I should advise S25 to do. Do I tell him to skip the first level of calculus in college because heās gotten credit for it? Suggest he take it anyway because its been a while since he did calculus and jumping to Calc2 might be too hard and hey, an easy course to start college isnāt a bad thing?
Heās not planning to graduate early, so he doesnāt NEED to knock the class off. But if he gets credit for the class and starts in level 2, then heāll have enough credits for sophomore standing, which will help him (in the future) with class registration and getting ahead of the crowd. His major has a huge number of proscribed courses, there is little to no room for anything extra, or picking up a minor, so getting something like this out of the way could give him some welcome space later.
Thoughts?
Does Clemson have their final exams online for these classes? If so, have your son take a couple and see how he does. At my Dās school the advisors said if you could get above an 80%, you were good to move on to the next class.
Iād also want to know if these are weed out classes at Clemson. The advice my daughter got was to skip any of those that she had credit for and her experience was that the upper level courses had more straight forward grading.
If there is a Clemson FB page, you may want to ask this question there.
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Good idea to look for the final exams! I thought of it because a parent asked a similar question. A parent of a business student asked the whole āshould my kid skip the intro business calcā class, and a few people said yes, absolutely. A number of people talked about how hard the intro calc class was, and how so many students nearly failed or did fail (they seemed to be blaming the flipped teaching scenario). So maybe itās a weed out, and better to jump past it (that was the case with Calc 2 at my older sonās school - super hard class, so skipping past it was great if you could). Or maybe all the math are just hard and better to revisit the basics.
Honestly, I love your posts, but maybe at this point you should take a step back and let your son research all of this and figure this out and decide?
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Older Sās first introduction to calculus was probably business calc, though it was called applied calc at the CC. He was in 7th grade and had taken a 4 credit pre calc class for the fall semester. The prof at the local uni suggested that class for the spring, so he would start with calc I with him in 8th grade.
The way it was explained to me was that it was all word problems. I thought great! I LOVED calc word problems growing up. Not that S ever needed my help growing up, but I was pumped I could help!
Wellā¦ word problems it was, but where were all the balls thrown, sliding ladders and bathtubs draining? All the problems were centered around business/econ concepts that I knew nothing about, let alone a 12 year old. Not helping matters was that the prof didnāt speak English well and didnāt assign homework. All grades were just the 3 tests and final. Everyone dropped the class but S and 1 other kid. He would ask me ābut what does X mean?ā Iād shrug my shoulders and say figure it out lol. He got his A, but it was a pretty stressful semester.
So long story short - if heās going to need to know these business concepts later on, it might be better to take it. If it was me, Iād have him ask his advisor. (I didnāt advise either of my kids at all on classes to take in college. That was between them and their advisors)
Ironically, S became a math/econ major. Iām sure heād laugh at the class now.
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I would worry most about the āflipped classroomā situation for the classes. Since your DS has really struggled with that, I say go for the easier math class if graduating early isnāt a financial requirement. Let DSās strong Calc-AB background support him while he has the less advantageous class structure on top of adapting to college.
My own DS has it in mind that he will place out of multi-variable calculus. He did have a high school course, but I am nervous about this plan. However, if he really studies and takes it on, I guess thatās OK. For this process, the department makes old finals available to my DS, so I second the suggestion of checking those out if available for your DSā¦if the final exam for the easier calculus class is just ridiculously easy, then maybe rethink the harder class?
Thank you all for sharing thoughts! To hit on something both @ljs1 and @ClassicMom98 referenced - he has attempted to research this a bit by asking his advisor. She really didnāt have any help to offer. Sheās not familiar with the big general intro classes (but it sounds like sheāll be great once he gets more into the weeds of his major and her area of expertise). She pretty much said āboth ways can be successful, do what feels best for you.ā At the end of the day this will be S25s decision, Iām just trying to help him gather data so he can make a good one. Once heās at school and knows upperclassmen, it will be much easier to ask people about classes and culture. But right now the only person he knows at the college is his advisor, who hasnāt been terribly helpful. He doesnāt know where to begin researching this stuff or what things to think about, so ideas like ālook for available old finalsā (I had no idea that was a thing) or even thinking of questions he might want to ask himself to help him decide is useful. It will give him some ideas for where to start.
Right now heās asked for me to help him figure out how the scheduling works and what he can take in lieu of the things heās already gotten credit for, so Iām showing him how to find that information and how to build a schedule. At his school, there is no admin person building a schedule for incoming freshmen, each one has to do it on their own during their assigned timeslot, and it feels a little hunger games-ish. A bunch of classes are already gone or totally full so he and I have talked a lot about what might make good alternatives or options. Right now heās pretty disappointed - all the gen ed classes he was interested in are showing as not available (Iām hoping they open some sections but I donāt want to get his hopes up) and Iām trying to help him see potential positives in other options. He appreciates having someone to bounce ideas off of and, unfortunately, his advisor kind of abdicated that role. I donāt think heāll want or need me to be his sounding wall in the future, but right now, Iām all heās got.
@fretfulmother - the flipped classroom is also my biggest worry for him. When we last talked about classes (before he went to the beach, where heās been since Saturday) neither of us knew that it was a flipped set up. Even then I could tell there was a smidge of hesitation in jumping to the higher level math. I only learned about the flipped classroom because some parents mentioned it on the facebook page. Now, Iām trying to take those parents with a large grain of salt. Like, I know on my older kidās college facebook page there are parents who freak out over the smallest thing that has been hard or not nice enough or not made obvious enough for their child. And normally itās just a life thing, and their kids just need to work through it. So what I canāt tell is whether the math set up is legit terrible (like it was in our HS) or if these are parents who are just complaining because it wasnāt easy or spoonfed to their kids and they hadnāt adapted to college. Or maybe both? Who knows. Either way, itās a data point to tell S25 when he gets home tomorrow.
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I hope it all works out.
The flipped classroom is an attempt to fix a big problem, which is that poorly-behaved kids often derail lectures in classes, and itās hard if not impossible for teachers to remove those kids. This is a systemic problem, but I donāt think it should be the case at Clemson (!) at the university level. Therefore, I question the utility of flipped classroom as a pedagogical choice for teaching calculus. But, no one asked me 
It might work for your DS to take the easier calc class with flipped classroom, and use it as the chance to practice with the harder pedagogy while the material is easier. That could lead to more success when he takes calc 2, but is used to the methods.
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Iām leaning towards suggesting he take the easier Calc class and not use the AP credit. Itās been a year since he took calculus, the flipped classroom hasnāt been a great set up for him in the past, and Iām nervous enough about his EF challenges when he goes to college. It might be nice to ease into something. All good things for him to consider.
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