Want to do engineering at Johns Hopkins but my school doesn't offer math HL?

[WiktoriaSanders]

Hi guys, I have been quite frustrated lately with my searches so I came here specifically. I am a pre-IB student in Poland, public school first gen, our first graduates finished IB DP just a year ago or so. Many people at my school are more inclined towards visual arts, history and geography hence why these classes are standard. However I haven't heard of a single person taking HL math and our math teacher said the course is so hard she would only let one person from our class take it. So now we have winter break, I can't really contact her and ask for sure if the class is offered or not and taking into consideration my current grades they wouldn't make it easy for me to take it. I am on track of getting better at school and my dream school is Johns Hopkins, I know, wer dream and all that but I would be fine going elsewhere anyways - this school is just a dream goal. Would they accept me with SL math AA if I asked to do supplementary math courses in uni? Or is SL Math AA completely off limits. Would love to read some opinions and if someone got into engineering with sl math I would be super excited to hear about it.

[ChocolateAndVanilla]

13 hours ago, WiktoriaSanders said:

Hi guys, I have been quite frustrated lately with my searches so I came here specifically. I am a pre-IB student in Poland, public school first gen, our first graduates finished IB DP just a year ago or so. Many people at my school are more inclined towards visual arts, history and geography hence why these classes are standard. However I haven't heard of a single person taking HL math and our math teacher said the course is so hard she would only let one person from our class take it. So now we have winter break, I can't really contact her and ask for sure if the class is offered or not and taking into consideration my current grades they wouldn't make it easy for me to take it. I am on track of getting better at school and my dream school is Johns Hopkins, I know, wer dream and all that but I would be fine going elsewhere anyways - this school is just a dream goal. Would they accept me with SL math AA if I asked to do supplementary math courses in uni? Or is SL Math AA completely off limits. Would love to read some opinions and if someone got into engineering with sl math I would be super excited to hear about it.

Hi!

I'm pretty sure that you don't actually need HL Maths. This is because in the US, you apply to the unis, not for specific courses - the first year is usually that you take all different courses you want and then specialise and choose majors and minors. Maths HL could give you a credit, though, and you wouldn't have to e.g. take Maths in first year and would have this already 'ticked' as if you have taken it, but you can definitely get into with whatever subject combination you want to have.

In the US, IB counts only as credits for the admission and ofc, especially for the best unis, the better grades you have, the better it looks. But what is really important are SATs and SAT suject tests - again, they don't have to be in specific subjects (e.g. not necessarily in Maths/Physics for Engineering, could be World History if you're storng at that), but ofc it's best to take them in the area that you want to specialise in (and you're good at) to gain the knowledge you need.

On top of that, Maths HL is really hard, your teacher's right, it's literally kind of the level of 1st/2nd year uni Maths, so think if you really want to try to take it or not. But on the other hand, if you're applying to another country apart from the US (even Poland), it might be required for Engineering.

Let me know if you have any more questions