IMO, get a math tutor and start working on it now. At the schools I’m familiar, finance majors are required to take math through Calc I and II. I would highly encourage him to not wait until college for Alg II. It will got twice as fast as a high school class.
I believe Nova SE in FL doesn’t have an Alg II requirement (or at least they didn’t a few years ago).
Usually you need calculus at least to major in finance afaik. He may have a hard time finding a program.
He was given permission to take Financial Algebra as a junior. The course description doesn’t state that II is a prerequisite but they usually likes the students to have it, that’s why it is offered as a senior class. When I talked to the ECU admissions counselor, she told me it wouldn’t count b/c Algebra II isn’t stated as a prerequisite. He got 100 in that class.
We did talk to him last night about switching it up this year or maybe taking II at a community college in the midwinter session. Having 2 weeks off for christmas break this year, it may be good to get his out of the way with that being the only class he would have to focus on.
We were going to have apply undeclared. We are realist
I would strongly advise against doing it in a condensed session. Alg II is a foundational course for the math that comes next. I’d recommend taking Alg II at school and doing whatever elective he had planned at CC if his heart is set on that.
Also, CC class grades will follow him to college and he will need to submit that transcript.
Thank you. I was thinking more of “get it out of the way” but this makes sense.
He needs a good foundation in math to be a strong business major…I believe.
@blossom ?
This. My child”s school does not recognize any condensed algebra (summer school etc) courses for progression precisely for this reason.
I have a question: have you identified what the source of his struggles so far with math have been? I’m just concerned that switching back to this track without addressing the issue may not work well - a tutor might work, but if it is something like dyscalcula as noted above you’ll need a different intervention. ( know you said he’s done very well on financial algebra and I know I’m in a different state, but at my kid’s school financial algebra is essentially a terminal math course for the students who are not expected to succeed in Algebra II, so I’m a little wary of reading too much into that, especially given what you said about algebra 1).
That’s fine, but if he wants to major in finance he will still need to figure out the math issues at some stage. So regardless how he applies I would still suggest examining the curriculum of the majors he is most interested in to see what he will need to do once he is there.
Business majors often have to take calculus for business majors, which typically has algebra 2 among its prerequisites. Finance is a subarea of business which has a higher importance of math and statistics than other areas of business.
A student who enters undeclared may have to go through another admission process to get into the business major at colleges where the business major has higher standards of admission.
Helping him conquer his math issues isn’t just about college…it’s about figuring out which credit card is better for his needs; whether he needs an extended warranty on a car or not; which of the four possible mortgage configurations saves him the most money depending on how long he plans to own the condo he wants to buy. And whether or not to get vaccinated, which medical treatment is best for his condition (let’s hope he is very old before he needs that calculation, ) etc.
Life is one big series of word problems… essentially “solve for x” or “define this function”.
So I’d figure out his math issues before worrying about whether he’ll be a successful finance major or not.
I have 2 finance majors (plus an accounting and management major), there is definitely a lot of math in finance. I think my daughter’s next semester (junior) is mostly math. At least at our HS courses outside of traditional math trajectory are pretty easy. My daughter took honors accounting as an elective (my business majors topped out with AP BC calculus) and said it was a breeze (sophomore year). As someone who is terrible at math (made it to algebra 2) with a husband and kids who are great at math (one is a math minor), he might want to see if other majors make sense. It’s not always possible to transfer into the business school.
Also, be careful about prerequisites for any college or major. I just looked at S23 school (large state U) and they require 4 years of math for admission, but don’t specify any courses. Once you are accepted, you need to take 1 year of quantitative reasoning to satisfy general ed requirements along with whatever math is needed for your major. You must either supply AP scores for advanced math or take a math placement test (equivalent to algebra 2). If you don’t pass the math placement test, you need to complete math modules ( Three 1 credit courses, online, self paced) before you can register for your math classes within your major. I looked at the list and only a few classes didn’t require a math beyond the general quantitative reasoning classes (history, anthropology, music, dance, theater, tourism, communication, early childhood, etc).
The parents page is filled with stories of kids that can’t place those placement modules or who have to extend their time while they get outside tutoring to pass them. The suggestion seems to be that if you can’t pass the placement test to take the course over the summer at a CC (and check Transferology to make sure the credits will transfer). There are also people that have to change their major because they can not pass the required modules.
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