To Calculus or not to Calculus

KeyzCat

KeyzCat

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Although DS had Calculus in High School as well as College Dual enrollment Algebra and Trig he decided to take pre-calculus Alg/ Trig in his first semester over Calculus. The Rate my Professor of the professor made him feel like he needed that extra class with the Professor. Because he has already had Honors Calculus and Col Alg and Trig he is doing very well in the class so was good move GPA wise. AROTC unlike Navy ROTC where even if your degree does not require Calculus it is required for Navy ROTC. Right now his degree plan with AROTC does not have him taking Calculus at all but I wonder if that could preclude him from some branches. I know for him he does have to actually work at his math courses unlike history, psychology, English courses where his love of reading makes what some find drudgery, easy peasy GPA . Should I push him taking Calculus even though not required. He is lucky that has relatively light loads compared to many. His only very challenging courses not required for degree is multiple years of Chinese he will start next year.
 
It depends on his future plans. Many graduate programs in non-STEM areas, such as business and economics, are increasingly looking for quantitative skills. Limiting undergraduate math courses could affect options down the road. I've advised my non-STEM DS to get through at least Calculus II and Statistics and if he does well in those, Linear Algebra.
 
Your son is studying psychology correct? Or was it political science? I would not worry about math for graduate programs, if he goes into either area in graduate school they would want him to possibly have Probably/Statistics, but I took those in graduate school so it wasn't a problem. They cared more about my GRE, and he can study for that. I even got into a PhD program in a business school, and they did not care about my previous study, just my M.S. and the GRE. Again, for psychology, again, they care that you can understand research methodology for research, that is where the probability and statistics come in.

As far as branching, I cannot speak to that, he might want to ask his cadre about that.
 
THANK you for your feed back! It helps a lot when those that have gone before share with those behind you and Very mich to the College ROTC participants that help us calmed down.He actually has Statistics next semester it is statistics using research and trails data. I worry about him for Statistics. For some reason I have seen those that have Algebra / Calculus brains have a harder time with statistics. I had to take College Algebra 3 times to finally get a professor that could figure out how to reach me and took the time after classes to help me get it. But my Sophomore year I was a Statistic tutor for kids that were not getting stats but had taken up to Calculus 4 in high school. I'm going to try to get him to add it. He is actually a Psychology major and would like to be able to continue into Doctoral arena. He is good that he has several things that would be 'dream military careers' The ones I think that having Calculus which then allows him to take Physics over Chemistry since he really would prefer Physics. With Aviation Cal and Physics I think would be very preferred. Maybe with MO but there he more wants to be Psycops if got that Branch. His other 'wishes' Would be MP (I think maybe cause I and my cousin that he is close to we were both MPs. Health Services as a counselor , or Adjunct General doing Human Resource training that looks at the psychology of human resources. I think he would do very well in Communication since he was very involved in acting/directing when he was younger. It's kind of weird but good that he can find a part in every branch he would really enjoy doing.
How do they get selected to do the internships during the summer. I'm afraid he will miss opportunities since he will not be contracted till Spring or even have ti wait till Fall.

Dckc88 said:
Your son is studying psychology correct? Or was it political science? I would not worry about math for graduate programs, if he goes into either area in graduate school they would want him to possibly have Probably/Statistics, but I took those in graduate school so it wasn't a problem. They cared more about my GRE, and he can study for that. I even got into a PhD program in a business school, and they did not care about my previous study, just my M.S. and the GRE. Again, for psychology, again, they care that you can understand research methodology for research, that is where the probability and statistics come in.

As far as branching, I cannot speak to that, he might want to ask his cadre about that.
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KeyzCat said:
THANK you for your feed back! It helps a lot when those that have gone before share with those behind you and Very mich to the College ROTC participants that help us calmed down.He actually has Statistics next semester it is statistics using research and trails data. I worry about him for Statistics. For some reason I have seen those that have Algebra / Calculus brains have a harder time with statistics. I had to take College Algebra 3 times to finally get a professor that could figure out how to reach me and took the time after classes to help me get it. But my Sophomore year I was a Statistic tutor for kids that were not getting stats but had taken up to Calculus 4 in high school. I'm going to try to get him to add it. He is actually a Psychology major and would like to be able to continue into Doctoral arena. He is good that he has several things that would be 'dream military careers' The ones I think that having Calculus which then allows him to take Physics over Chemistry since he really would prefer Physics. With Aviation Cal and Physics I think would be very preferred. Maybe with MO but there he more wants to be Psycops if got that Branch. His other 'wishes' Would be MP (I think maybe cause I and my cousin that he is close to we were both MPs. Health Services as a counselor , or Adjunct General doing Human Resource training that looks at the psychology of human resources. I think he would do very well in Communication since he was very involved in acting/directing when he was younger. It's kind of weird but good that he can find a part in every branch he would really enjoy doing.
How do they get selected to do the internships during the summer. I'm afraid he will miss opportunities since he will not be contracted till Spring or even have ti wait till Fall.
Click to expand...
Honestly, statistics should do it, academically speaking, again, cannot speak to branching. My DD'S battalion had the cadets all sign up for Tudors if needed beginning of the semester, if your son can do that with statistics until he figures out how it is going to go, that might help. My DD was able to college algebra and statistics dual enrollment in HS, so no math for her in college, she is done! She was actually bummed. Silly kid.
 
When is it EVER a good plan to limit learning? Get through the Calculus and Statistics, and basic natural sciences. It's COLLEGE after all, and we are training the future leaders of our country.
 
I'm with fencersmother. Calculus is part of a good liberal arts education. OTOH I couldn't convince my math challenged son to do it....
 
If he already took honors calculus in HS, I don't see much to gain from taking it again in college. The reason the Navy requires it of scholarship Midshipmen is to guarantee a large enough pool of students to assign to nuke school, something not necessary for Army. I think the Chinese will be challenge enough. (I wonder what would happen if STEM majors were all required to take two years of Chinese!)
 
A good high school calculus program is probably sufficient in fulfilling the quantitative objectives of a liberal arts curriculum, but, in many cases, lacks the rigor of a strong college calculus course. It may not meet the prerequisite requirements if a student has an epiphany and decides to change direction in undergraduate or graduate studies.

I only took 3 years of math in high school, assuming that pre-calculus was enough for my future studies in business. When I changed my major as a sophomore to mechanical engineering, I had to take additional math courses in the summer. The watered down business calculus course and the absence of high school calculus didn't cut it with the engineering department. In business graduate school I was relieved that I did the extra quantitative work; several classmates with humanities degrees struggled with quantitative courses because they avoided math as undergrads.

DS made a similar mistake with foreign languages by only taking 3 years in HS (against my advice); he now finds that a fourth year would given him more options in college.
 
If he has already taken it he could potentially self study and take the clep calculus exam to get it on his transcript. Just a thought.
 
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