To further their math education beyond what is offered at Country Day, junior Carter Brown and seniors Wei Dai and Barrie Feusi have enrolled in university-level mathematics courses.

Brown is in the Educational Program for Gifted Youth Online High School (EPGY OHS)—an online independent school from Stanford University—and is currently taking a multivariable differential calculus class.

The course consists of three units and is one semester long, beginning in the middle of August and ending in December. Brown meets via video chat with his teacher and 14 classmates twice a week.

Between meetings, Brown is required to read slide shows that make up specific subsections of a unit. These lessons are followed by textbook and online problems.

During class meetings the teacher reviews the material covered in the lessons and goes over the homework assignments.

All students are required to have a tablet input to their laptops that enables them to write problems and show their work to their classmates and the teacher during meetings.

According to Brown, university sophomores usually take the actual course at Stanford, and although he is doing well, Brown is finding the workload much greater than he anticipated.

Brown hopes to take multivariable integral calculus next semester.

Unlike Brown, Dai and Feusi were admitted into physical college courses at UC Berkeley and Cosumnes River College (CRC), respectively.

Dai took two college courses during the summer at UC Berkeley: Math 54 (linear algebra and differential equations) and Computer Science 70 (discrete mathematics and probability theorem).

Both courses lasted eight weeks (June 20-Aug. 12).

The two courses were $1400 each, not including housing.

During his stay at Berkeley, Dai lived on campus with a roommate, which he said he enjoyed because of the freedom and weather.

According to Dai, Math 54 had 40-50 students, and Computer Science 70 started with 70 students and ended with 66, most of whom were Berkeley students.

Dai said he received an A in both classes and one of the highest grades in Computer Science 70.

“I went into both classes knowing I would do well,” he said.

Dai received UC credit for these courses and is nearly done with UC Berkeley’s entire lower division math.

Currently, Dai is enrolled in a free online computer science class from Stanford. He is applying to UC Berkeley and hopes to major in math and science.

Like Dai, Feusi was accepted into a differential equations course.

Feusi meets with his teacher and 43 classmates on Tuesday and Thursdays nights at Cosumnes River College.

Because Feusi is a high-school student, the course is free, although his textbook was $75 and parking is $1 per visit.

Between classes, students cover two to three sections of a 69-section textbook.

Feusi said that his teacher grades very harshly and that when getting into new topics, he struggles with the material. This is likely because he should have taken two classes before differential equations—multivariable calculus and linear algebra—he said.

“I came into this class thinking that it would be one of my many next steps for my math education, but it was actually two steps past what I should have taken,” he said.

While Feusi is receiving C’s on tests, he likes the course and intends to take multivariable calculus next semester.

“I think it’s getting me very prepared for college,” Feusi said. “I’m not sure if I’m getting the best or worst of it, but I’m definitely getting a taste of it.”

Feusi is considering majoring in biomedical engineering.