My dream college has always been MIT with Standford or Yale right behind. Recently, I’ve been looking at my schools matriculation list and realized, since the school was built not a single student has been accepted or enrolled in MIT or Stanford; and this year we had are first student accepted and enrolled in Yale. Right now I’m in Algebra II and I could take geometry over the summer so I could take pre-calc next year, but a lot of my friends say that’s stupid. To some it up, what are some of the classes that I should take, also mentioning that I attend a private day school.
*Stanford
@2001JET Your other thread [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/1852909-pre-calc.html%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/1852909-pre-calc.html]here[/url] says you are in Honors Geometry and were wondering if you should skip pre-calculus. So which class are you really in?
Regardless, you should take the most challenging courseload available to you (and one that you can also handle!).
I wouldn’t worry about selective school admissions at this point. Take the most challenging classes available, like @MITer94 said. There is no magical course load that will help your chances at such selective schools. Focus on college preparatory classes, and try to get mostly As. Take classes that are really interesting to you. It’s good to take Calculus by senior year, but definitely not a requirement.
I’m no longer in geometry, because we got are mid-terms back and I didn’t do so good so they place me back in Algebra II, but told me that I could take a summer course if I wanted to. @MITer94
This happened Monday.
I’m also in they same pickle, any advice?
I have two friends who took Pre-Calc over the summer and are doing fine (one has the second highest A in the class, and the other also has an A) in AP Calculus AB - our school’s Calc teacher is notorious for his harsh grading and standards, so if you’re interested in doing that, that may be a good option. I haven’t heard of anyone I know taking Geometry during the summer, but I think it is a viable route to go; however, I think taking Algebra II right before Pre-Calc (especially if heading into PCH) is a better option because much of Pre-Calc (literally the entire first semester) is heavily dependent on concepts and processes you learn in the latter half of an Algebra II course.
Hope this helps!
What type of Calculus will you be going into–Regular, AB, or BC? The materials you cover in each vary, and while it’s definitely feasible to take AB with only Algebra II (it doesn’t go very far in terms of material), you need to know more for BC.