MovieChat Forums > Risky Business (1983) Discussion > One thing always puzzled me...

One thing always puzzled me...

posted 6 years ago by [deleted]
7 replies | jump to latest

How’d that kid get into Harvard when he was taking Trig senior year? Trig is a lower level math course that is usually taken in 9th grade. Shouldn’t he have been taking AP Calc or some higher level math ?

[–] FredBurroughs (21871) 6 years ago

He got the admissions guy laid. Hence, it was overlooked.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I wasn’t referring to Joel and the Princton admissions guy. I was talking about his friend. The kid was in the car with Joel and Lana when they were being chases by Guido the Pimp. That kid was complaining about his trig test the next day, and then later we find out he got into Harvard.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

It's all about families with Harvard. They pick from the benefactors and past alumni before they look further afield Ent.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Oh true that Jim. Guess Joel’s friend’s parents donated a library or something.

[–] MIchiganJFrogg (-35) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mydarkstar (108) 5 years ago

I think it was just a fault in the script and wasn't supposed to actually mean anything.

[–] oubrioko (110) 4 years ago

This may depend on how old you are. High school math curriculums must have changed quite a bit since this movie was released in 1983, because it didn't seem fetched at the time. I went to a high school that had an enrollment of 2600+ with graduating classes of ~460 - 500+ each of the four years that I was there. We didn't have a single student that took trigonometry during their freshman year. During my time, the average student's mathematics transcript was 9th grade: Algebra I, 10th: (Plane) Geometry, 11th: Algebra II, 12th: Math Analysis and Trigonometry. There was a group of ~40 advanced math students each year that completed Algebra I in 8th grade, so they took Geometry their 9th grade year, eventually taking AP (Differential and Integral) Calculus their senior year. One of those students got into M.I.T. in 1988, so I doubt that this curriculum tract was all that unusual at the time. I'm sure things are much different now, both in terms of courses and coursework.