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Queen’s University Math Requirements

Queen’s University offers a nice feature for prospective university students, a blog where they post up-to-date announcements, such as their New Math-Old Math conversion chart. November 8′s entry MCB, MGA, MDM, MCV, MHF – Oh my! leads students to a page from Queen’s website that describes the math requirements for all programs, as well as a handy rule for equating old and new. The key points for comparison are:

• The combination of the new courses, MHF 4U – Advanced. Functions and MCV 4U – new Calculus is being treated as the rough equivalent of MCB 4U – old Calculus.

• If MCB 4U – old Calculus is used, then neither MHF 4U- Advanced Functions nor MCV 4U- new Calculus can be included in the six Grade 12 courses required to calculate an admission average.

• Conversely, if either MHF 4U – Advanced Functions or MCV 4U- new Calculus is used, then MCB 4U- old Calculus cannot be included in the six Grade 12 courses required to calculate an admission average.

In a nutshell, it now takes two courses (Functions/Calculus) to equate to the old calculus course, and you may either use the first pair of courses or the second course in your admission requirements/averages (Top Six).

Read the fine print – one course or two?
Even though a program requiring a Calculus prerequisite now means that you have to take two math courses, it doesn’t necessarily mean both will be included in your Top Six. When a program requirement includes MCV4U, it is assumed that you already took MHF4U, because your high school would have required that you take the latter as a pre- (or co-) requisite.

Some university programs will only require the Calculus course. This tends to be true for programs in the Business fields where they need you to have a foundation in Calculus, but not in the more abstract realm of functions.  As in the Queen’s chart, this is often indicated by an asterisk following the Calculus course, with a note at the bottom reminding you that your high school will require you to take the Advanced Functions course, even though Queen’s does not need this mark for university admission. In this case, you still must take MHF4U, but it does not need to be included in your Top Six.  In this case, the functions course will be treated like an elective, and included if the grade is high enough to be to your advantage in the Top Six calculation.

Other programs, however, do explicitly state both math courses as a requirement.  You’ll find this in math-intense subjects such as computer programming or engineering.  In this case, you will be required to include both math courses in your Top Six.

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