Calculus Requirement

[Silverfalcon]

So, here's the situation. In high school, I took AP Exam Calculus BC and thanks to the generous curve, my score allowed me to receive credit for Calculus I & II. My exam was in junior year, so now, I'll be junior in college and I haven't touched calculus book in between those times.

I will be taking Statistics next spring just to show that I am capable of handling undergrad mathematics, and that it will be a GPA booster. My question is this: I know some schools are explicit in their calculus requirement, and some WANT to see students taking Calculus III if they received AP credit for Calculus I & II.

But, if I take Statistics and do well, and since I'm a Chemistry major, I'll have to take Physical Chemistry, will this be enough to show that I fulfill the requirement? I really do not want to, nor plan to take Calculus III, but I wonder if this'll hurt me down the admission for some competitive schools.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[jm192]

No.

If you'd gotten credit for just Calc 1, You'd be fine.

 

[DaisyBuchanan]

Like everything, it really depends. I got a 5 on my Calc B/C AP test back in the day and that satisfied my math requirement for my major, but then my advisor told me that I needed to take it at a college for med school apps. Calc seems to be the pre-req that schools care about least though, and my impression is that it's okay to take Calc I at a CC during the summer or whatever is easy for you. Of course, I'm sure there are also people that didn't retake Calc at a college level and did just fine.

 

[WuMedic]

It depends on the school. Some will be fine with the Stats class as your only college math class. Others will want to see Calc 3. I doubt any school will see it as a dealbreaker from the beginning, but it might affect you negatively at some places.

 

[Amrazzz]

Similar situation for me. I took Applied Calculus I and II rather than Calculus I and II as it was recommended for my major. I didn't even think twice to check medical school requirements. Can this fulfill my Calc requirement?

 

[Silverfalcon]

Thank you for the response. I'm just going to go ahead with it. If a medical school is really going to reject me based on not having Calculus III, I'll be content with going to other schools - even after showing that I could handle upper level math.

@Amrazzz: Was it taught by math dept? If it was, it may be OK... But I'm not sure (e.g. doesn't some business depts teach like Business Calc?)

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I thought physical chemistry required or strongly recommends taking calc 3. Anyways, you don't need calc 3 however check with medical schools individually on their ap credit stance. Most will accept I'm sure since its just a mathematics class and not a Mcat tested subject.

 

[WuMedic]

Similar situation for me. I took Applied Calculus I and II rather than Calculus I and II as it was recommended for my major. I didn't even think twice to check medical school requirements. Can this fulfill my Calc requirement?

What was the course name, number and title? Chances are if it was Math 1xx it is ok. If it was Business 1xx or math 0xx then you might have some problems.

Here at my school, premeds are ok taking math for non science majors and "applied calculus" (it's called something different here) satisfies the premed requirements. Instead of Math 13x for majors and science/engineers, they take Math 11x or math 12x.

Of course, YMMV

 

[JoshuaGuit]

I don't even know what calc 3 is Is it the equivalent of differential equations or something?

 

[Emerica]

So, here's the situation. In high school, I took AP Exam Calculus BC and thanks to the generous curve, my score allowed me to receive credit for Calculus I & II. My exam was in junior year, so now, I'll be junior in college and I haven't touched calculus book in between those times.

I will be taking Statistics next spring just to show that I am capable of handling undergrad mathematics, and that it will be a GPA booster. My question is this: I know some schools are explicit in their calculus requirement, and some WANT to see students taking Calculus III if they received AP credit for Calculus I & II.

But, if I take Statistics and do well, and since I'm a Chemistry major, I'll have to take Physical Chemistry, will this be enough to show that I fulfill the requirement? I really do not want to, nor plan to take Calculus III, but I wonder if this'll hurt me down the admission for some competitive schools.

I'm doing the same thing. I have credit for Calc I and II and Stat but there is an upper-level stats class that I will take for my major. So there, med schools will see that I can handle a college math class, but I think retaking Calc I and II would be a waste of time unless it will be a GPA booster.

 

[WuMedic]

I don't even know what calc 3 is Is it the equivalent of differential equations or something?

Calc I is usually derivatives and their associated topics, Calc II is usually integrals and their associated topics, and Calc III is usually multi-variate and advanced calculus and their associated topics.

 

[WuMedic]

I'm doing the same thing. I have credit for Calc I and II and Stat but there is an upper-level stats class that I will take for my major. So there, med schools will see that I can handle a college math class, but I think retaking Calc I and II would be a waste of time unless it will be a GPA booster.

Correct me, someone, if I am wrong here, but I think whether or not colleges will accept an upper level stats class to cover a calc requirement is based on the college. ALL of them (to my knowledge) will accept a higher level calc to satisfy a lower level one. I'm pretty sure most will accept a higher level stats class (not intro stats) to cover a lower level calc class...

 

[JoshuaGuit]

Calc I is usually derivatives and their associated topics, Calc II is usually integrals and their associated topics, and Calc III is usually multi-variate and advanced calculus and their associated topics.

I've already taken calculus 1 and 2 and you're right about the derivatives and integration part.

At my university the order is calc 1, calc 2, diffeq, multivar, then whatever higher level math courses you want (each a semester long)... but that's an engineering school for you

 

[Emerica]

Correct me, someone, if I am wrong here, but I think whether or not colleges will accept an upper level stats class to cover a calc requirement is based on the college. ALL of them (to my knowledge) will accept a higher level calc to satisfy a lower level one. I'm pretty sure most will accept a higher level stats class (not intro stats) to cover a lower level calc class...

Well the only reason I'm taking that stats class is because it's required by my major. If all I needed was calc I and II and intro to stats then I wouldn't take any college math. However, I will retake all science prereqs but most med school websites I visit say they accept AP credit for calc. So I'm not replacing college calc with that upper-level stats, it's just a necessary math class.

 

[wlee43]

Why the **** do some schools want calc 3. No one can tell me that anyone will use calc outside of college if you are becoming a doctor

 

[Amrazzz]

@Amrazzz: Was it taught by math dept? If it was, it may be OK... But I'm not sure (e.g. doesn't some business depts teach like Business Calc?)

Yep it was taught by the math department in College of Arts and Sciences... got two quarters and finished sequence. I guess i'll take stats to finish one year of math

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Why the **** do some schools want calc 3. No one can tell me that anyone will use calc outside of college if you are becoming a doctor

I think no medical schools require calc 3. In all honesty calculus is useful for theory, but has very little use outside of that. Anyways a lot of things we learn in school have very little real life applicability.