The implementation of common core caused students to fall behind on one year of math. A lot of people took a math class in the summer to advance to the next level, but I never did. Will colleges care that I did not advance and am taking the regular class. (Most people are in AP Calc. AB but I’m still in Math Analysis.)
What grade are you in, and what colleges and college majors are you interested in?
And what colleges are you thinking of?
The minimum sequence you will need is Algebra, Geometry and Algebra II wi/Trig. Higher level and more classes beyond those is obviously better and will get you into more selective colleges. It really depends on what your goals are and intended major.
And yes, I hear you…the Common Core math has derailed a lot of kids especially the ones thrown into the program in mid-stream of their school career. I don’t understand why educational leaders haven’t put a stop to this and turned this ship around.
It looks good to have calculus if you’re trying for a STEM major, but your math progression is probably very typical for liberal arts and non STEM hopefuls. Your guidance counselor may not check the box that says “took most rigorous coursework available”, which could ding you at top colleges such as the ivy and equivalents, but that still leaves thousands of great schools from which to choose. You will have plenty of choices.
I am a senior and am interested in the UCs (mostly Berkeley) and Barnard College, as well as a few other private schools such as USC and LMU.
My top choice is UC Berkeley and Barnard. I am applying to most of the UCs as well. I am from Silicon Valley, California, if that’s important
Exactly! They implemented the curriculum right when I started high school, so it was very new and teachers were pretty lost when teaching. We call ourselves “labrats” because it was ineffectively tested on us haha… I see it’s success in the class of 2020 and so on but my class didn’t benefit much
Define “most people” how many seniors are there and how many sections of Calculus?
Our senior class has roughly 750 people. I’m not sure how many sections of Calculus there are, but many people have already finished Calc AB or BC, and are in AP Stats. The majority of seniors have already taken MA and are in AB/BC. (My MA class has more juniors and sophomores than seniors) A good handful is finishing up the entire series with AP Stats.
As a senior in math analysis (precalculus), you are not behind. You are at normal level, and should be able to take calculus in college.
No UC or CSU requires or expects calculus in high school for admission.
“No UC or CSU requires or expects calculus in high school for admission.”
I’m going to disagree with this statement. UCs, especially Berkeley and Los Angeles only accept ~15% of applicants and many, many students will have AP calculus AB or B/C. Like it or not you are competing with kids who are taking the most rigorous course work offered by their HS and many will take additional courses at local colleges. At this point there is not much you can do but make sure the other areas of your “resume” are strong.
Aside from my math level, I do believe I am a pretty strong applicant. Regarding classes, I have 8 APs and 3 local college classes (only allowed one per semester). This is about average, more or less, for the competitive people at my school.
Iff you got to Pre-calc, that is the “normal” track and 99% of college curriculums assume that is where you are starting from.
You can possibly try and test into and take Calculus I at your community college for Spring semester, if that’s what you wanted. Then at least you can list that course on your UC application. If you’re going to be any kind of a STEM major, even though it’s not a requirement, probably 99% of incoming freshman STEM UC students from the top 2 tiers will have taken Calculus of some sort in HS.
What math courses have you taken so far outside of MA? ucbalumnus noted that MA is pre-calc, is pre-calc honors not offered, if it is, why aren’t you taking that? It’s tough to answer without more context, your uw GPA, uc GPA, test scores, if you’re willing to share, would help. Using the summer to take a math class is not generally looked on too fondly by adcoms (squeezing 9 months into six weeks for the sake of college), so don’t worry about that.
@theloniusmonk I am interested in what makes you say that. Also, do you feel this is the case regardless of performance in the summer class and/or the following year/years upper level class?
Typically Math Analysis is the non-honors version of pre-calculus honors, that course selection may cause adcoms to think you didn’t take as rigorous as you could. If you took M/A or pre-calc in the summer to take Calc AB as a senior, to rush through your math sequence, if you will, for admissions vs some real love of math is what I was referring to as not something adcoms would appreciate.