Preparing in high school for college math and science

Margaret Spellings, the U.S. Education secretary recently told a U.S. Senate committee that students need to be better prepared for college-level math and science classes.

One of the big pushes in the plan to enact this is to expand the Advanced Placement program so that more high school students have access to it. I generally support such an idea but I have a couple personal reactions to it. Note these are based on my experiences and don't necessarily reflect official UM or Ross School policy or even some recent research.

First, if a student is at a school that offers tons of AP classes (I'm talking 6, 20, or even more classes), she shouldn't feel compelled to take a huge number of them. Take three or maybe four of them; there's no need for the student to swamp herself with work that keeps her from participating in extra-curricular activities. The student does want to demonstrate to readers of her college application that she was interested in taking a difficult and diverse set of college preparatory courses. She doesn't necessarily want to place out of too many freshman-level classes during her freshman year and start taking lots of classes with "seasoned" sophomores. Doing this a few times in the first year might work out, but do this too many times and her performance can suffer.

Second, but on a related point, a student shouldn't necessarily let an AP class and test be a substitute for college math. College math courses can be quite difficult. Placing out of the initial Calculus class and starting the college math curriculum with the second Calculus class can make the jump to college math quite daunting. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be done; I'm just saying that the student should consider simply taking the college math class even though she took the AP class.

This is what I did when I went to Furman University many moons ago. I took Calculus when I went to Dunwoody High School and actually did fairly well. I went to Furman on a math scholarship but I still took calculus from John Poole as a freshman. I thought it would help solidify my knowledge of calculus, would introduce me to math at the college level, and would (hopefully) provide me with an easy A. The first two held true — though, while I did get an A in the class, the grade didn't come easily.

In any case, I encourage high school students to take as many demanding math and science classes as they can fit into their schedule. It will pay off in college.