Seeking math dual enrollment advice

Collegequestions5
Tue, 14 Jan 2025 14:42:20 +0000

My junior is taking AP Calc BC and AP Stats this year, which maxes him out his school, so he will soon need to apply for a math dual enrollment course for senior year. He will likely major in applied math and is interested in highly selective schools. My spouse and I and our older kid are all humanities people, so we have no insight into the right course progression (or really anything else math-related), and his school counselor will not have a lot of insight; he can ask his math teachers for their advice, but I’d welcome guidance from folks who have been through this with their own kids or have other useful insight.

For context, our dual enrollment offerings are at local universities, with only a few offering DE students the level of math he’ll need; two are local commuter schools where the courses would be online, and the other two are national universities, including a top 25, where he would take classes in-person.

For further context, he’s an extremely strong math student and is doing very well in all of his classes this year (and has a 4.0uw so far in HS). He is always one of the top couple of students in any math class he’s in. I feel pretty confident in his ability to succeed in a rigorous college-level course.

So the question is, which course should he take? And where?

My understanding is that multivariable calculus and linear algebra are the options to pursue after Calc BC. Is one “better” than the other”? Is there a recommended progression? If he decides to do DE in the fall only (and so will take only one or the other), which should he choose? Does the fact that he might be taking the courses at a top 25 school (the more convenient in-person option) change anything? I think his preference will be to take classes in-person, if scheduling works out, but is there any reason not to go this route?

Anything we’re not considering and should be?

Thank you!