There seems to be a much wider variety of options for high school paths than there were when I was in school. Dd13 will be a sophomore in the fall and has a pretty heavy load this year. She was hoping to have a slightly lesser load next year to allow time for clubs, NHS, etc.

Her current schedule (9th grade) consists of geometry, pre-AP english, pre-AP bio, earth systems science (usually taken in 10th and seems to be a mix of chem, physics, geology, and other things from what dd says), world history, French 2, and two electives. She switched one of her electives to a study hall this semester for mental health. She has managed straight As thus far.

So, next year she was thinking of taking a botany/zoology/microbiology course for science and holding out for chem until 11th grade after she'll have completed algebra II. For math in 11th, she was going to go with either college algebra or college trig & then probably AP stats in 12th. AP bio was her plan for 12th in science.

Her Earth Systems teacher thought that sounds like a good plan for a kid who is interested in marine biology/oceanography. Her pre-AP bio teacher, however, convinced her to double up on science again next year & she's signed herself up for both the botany/zoology/microbio course and physics next year. I told her to contact a few colleges she might consider to ask if she really needs physics.

The one prof who has gotten back to her thus far didn't say that she needed it as there are a lot of different ways to get to where she wants to be, but suggested that physics would be a good idea as would AP calculus in high school. Math really is dd's weakest area although she's not bad at it per se; it just takes more work for her.

Thoughts?

If she's going to need college calc for her degree I would definitely encourage AP calculus in high school. Math was never my strongest area, and I ended up doing AP calc in HS and then again in college, the HS class definitely helped.

You might get more responses on a forum like College Confidential. The Parents Forum (not the same as Parent Cafe) would be a good place to post this question.

In general, a lot depends on what type of college she wants to attend. But I would say that most science majors at more rigorous colleges (even biology majors) have taken both physics and calculus in high school. One of the hardest parts of a science major in college is getting through those core courses that are generally required for a science major (especially because a lot of pre-med students are majors in some kind of bio, and are gunning for high grades to get into med school). Being exposed to those subjects for the first time would put her at a disadvantage to students who have studied them already in high school. My advice would be to take the core sciences and math in high school, and maybe look for summer programs to supplement her knowledge in things like botany and zoology. Just my two cents, of course.

I would suggest that anyone interested in the sciences should take in high school AP calculus (many kids at our local public high school actually take two years of AP calculus), biology, chemistry, and physics. At our high school, AP classes are weighted, so many kids try to jam in as many as possible.

So, although math isn't her immediate worry (Algebra II is definitely next year's course), would you substitute out the college trig or algebra course and/or stats for calculus?

It sounds like a lot of you would take physics instead of microbio/zoology/botany rather than in addition to. The real hesitancy I have with telling her to go that route is that she's sacrificed a lot of what she enjoys for toeing the line of what is going to get her ahead in college aps/scholarships already.

For instance, she dropped her speech/debate elective this semester (it is a one semester class that would have replaced the other one semester elective she had in the fall) for study hall b/c she was already saddled with hours of homework/night and didn't think that she could take another class with a lot of homework. She was planning to add it back in her sophomore year but, again, is going to have to pass on it in favor of physics if she takes physics. She also doubled up on science this year in order to make enough room in her schedule to take this zoology course next year instead of the std earth systems class that is taken in 10th.

I told her that an alternative might be to take physics at the community college the summer after her 10th grade year rather than in 10th grade. We'll keep looking at options and hopefully come up with something that works and makes her semi-happy.

If the issue is that prior exposure to the topics would help her be more successful in college, and not that she needs the credits on her transcripts to get in where she wants to go, I'd consider leaving her schedule the way she had it planned, and using resources like The Hippocampus independently over the summers to develop familiarity with the additional material, such as physics.

ETA: I would probably swap out AP statistics for AP calculus just because I think it is probably easier to get a grasp of stats doing independent study than it might be to get a good grasp of calculus if math is not your strong suit.

I'd definitely agree with this. However, I am not sure as to whether she actually needs courses like calculus and physics on her hs transcript or if she just needs familiarity with the material. I'm sure that we could expose her to the material enough that she's feel okay going into college, but if she's going to be at a disadvantage when applying to competitive universities or for scholarships b/c they aren't on her official transcript, I guess that she's going to have to figure out a way to get them into her schedule.

The hard part of this is that she's getting very conflicting information regarding that question from different advisors at her school.

I'd rather rely more on the admissions offices at the schools she wants to attend, and on the opinions of the relevant department heads at those schools.

It's a tough call, balancing taking high school classes that you actually enjoy versus "what looks good on your application." It really depends on what college she wants to go to and the likelihood that she will get in.
At our local high school, it's very difficult to just get into our state colleges, so it would force you to take AP biology and not zoology, even though you might have more interest in zoology. Or taking AP calculus when you don't really want to.

Thanks, that's why I had her contact some schools to get input. She's not totally sure where she wants to go at this point. UW was high on her list for some time, but an out of state school that is not private is likely to cost a lot and not have a ton of scholarships available. She's considering Stanford (we did hear back from a prof there who said physics and calc would be good but wasn't sure if she needed them). I had her contact two in-state schools as well in case she qualifies for and gets a scholarship that is given to 40 in state kids each year that covers full tuition/room & board at any in state school.

We're going to give some thought to other possible schools to contact. Duke, Stetson, and University of Oregon come to mind as possibilities.

I don't think that she'd have any trouble getting into state schools where we live or probably even UW (another one she's interested in) and she will get in both zoology and AP bio with her current plan. Physics is the one that wasn't going to fit into her current game plan, but that may have to change. I hate to have her entire transcript full of nothing but science though, too...

The kids at our local high school who go to the state schools or even private schools will have- 1-2 years AP calculus; bio, chem, and physics (some will be AP); AP english; AP US history; etc. They don't just take science and math, they take it all.
We live in a very competitive school district, and I don't agree with simply taking courses that will "look good" on your resume, but that is what they do out here.

Agree with jack'smom, especially if you have schools like Stanford or Duke on her list. Unless she has some really spectacular extracurricular or other hook, she probably ought to be taking calc & physics. Are there any local colleges where she could volunteer to help with research in the summer in the other areas she is interested in (like zoology?). My D is taking the top science track at her school (no APs offered, but honors bio, honors chem, and honors physics). The only other science course she is planning on is an anatomy course her senior year (in addition to physics). She is very interested in epidemiology and vaccine development, so is looking for research opportunities in those areas over the summers.

She is open water SCUBA certified and has been diving with an indoor program since she was 8. She did the open water cert shortly before her 13th bd. She is now going in to help as an assistant with the younger kid SCUBA classes for the 8-12 y/o kids. I'm sure that the people at the SCUBA shop would write her great letters of recommendation.

We've volunteered @ the local humane society weekly since she was 11 and plan to keep that up throughout high school. She's hoping to do a summer science program this summer at a college (we're waiting to hear back on admission), and will likely do other summer programs of that sort in future years.

She does have AP history for next year and AP English at some point along with a few other APs likely. Her ACT scores from when she was 12 more than qualify her to take anything she'd like to take at the community college, so she certainly could do some courses there as well later. She's hoping to start up a club to work on assisting with domestic animal care (spay/neuter clinics, vaccines, etc.) in Costa Rica and other developing countries...

Point being, I think that she is pretty well rounded and has long term passions in animal related and ocean related areas. She's just not sure how much time she's going to have for things like her club or NHS if she is taking so many heavy classes every year.

AP Physics B (non-calculus-based, often taken by future biology majors) http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_physb.html may be better suited to Cricket2's daughter than AP Physics C (calculus-based physics for for students majoring in the physical sciences or engineering ) http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_physc.html .

One option might be to take an immersion French course during the summer to leave time for what she wants to do in HS. Take immersion courses two summers in a row then cap it off with summer in France taking a science class or two. I would also get subscriptions to French TV programs and have her get her news and science programs that way. She will be far more fluent at the end of this rather than taking it in HS. And she will have time to read books in French with the slower summer pace.

Other than that, there is no way around the hard math classes and the hard science classes. Best to get them out of the way now. Professors will respect students who faced their fears and took the hardest classes.

I would take some sort of anatomy class at some point in HS even if its human anatomy and a DNA class, even if she has to go to a local college.

As for her major, I would not specialize too soon in Marine Biology. Rather, work on her tool box (ie classes ) and look for a professor she likes whom she can talk her way into working for as an undergrad even if free.

One of the profs at one of the universities she contacted suggested that she avoid trying to get AP/college credit for introductory bio b/c it would be better to take courses in your major @ college. Another option might be to bypass the AP bio her senior year and just live with the pre-AP bio she has already and then take physics her senior year (or to see if the school will let her take it at the community college rather than the hs so she can get college credit for physics at least if she won't be for bio).

Her school does use Naviance. I was unaware that it had any features beyond letting you plan out your courses. I'll have to find out more about what else can be done with it.

Re not specializing in marine bio early, she's thought about that and I do think that she will be specializing early b/c she has unusual direction in that area. She met with a researcher at the Fish & Wildlife Svc when she was in 6th grade who is a well known manatee expert who had, oddly enough, moved to CO at the end of his career to study bats. They discussed her college aspirations and he felt that, given her specific and long term interests (she's wanted to study manatees since she was three), she might be one for whom he'd bend the typical advice to major in just bio and then specialize in marine bio in grad school.

The only variance we've seen from her passion area is from underwater photography of manatees to marine mammologist with a specialty in sirineans (manatees and relatives) to her recent consideration of studying tide pool critters b/c she prefers the atmosphere of the pacific northwest to FL.

The introductory freshmen courses in biology, chemistry, physics, calculus etc. are the universities' cash cows, and this is likely a factor in their not wanting students to skip these courses. If a student gets a 5 on the AP exam and if all of the topics on the course syllabus are things she has studied, I think she probably should skip the intro course.

Thanks. Dang, so much conflicting info out there! So, do you think that 'intro bio is where we teach students how to do bio the [insert school name] way and students who miss this course will be at a disadvantage' is a bogus claim?

Intro Bio at many selective colleges uses the same textbook at AP Biology (I know because D keeps seeing it in dorm rooms as we visit colleges!). It is the Campbells book, and it is very hefty. There is a LOT of material in it. There is a huge difference between a regular (or even honors) high school bio course and a course that uses Campbells. We know this because D has taken honors Bio (AP is not offered at her high school), but has been studying Campbells for the USA Biology Olympiad test. One thing this has made clear is that she will be at a signficant disadvantage at a rigorous university if she is competing in her classes with kids who took AP science courses in high school; she will have a lot of catching up to do. Not everyone who takes AP skips the intro classes. Some because they don't get a high enough score, some because they want the easy A on their college transcript (especially those aiming for med school), and some because they just want to make sure they are solid on the material before taking the higher classes.

D is still thinking about her major and college choice, but she already intends to spend the summer before college beefing up with the intro college chem book just so she is ready for intro chem in college, since there is no AP at our high school.

I will re-iterate what I said above. Your D will need to get through those basic science courses and calc in college to major in almost any science related field. She can spend her summers and after school hours doing field work/manatee research or whatever specific area interests her, but she is going to need to get through those classes. IMHO, it is not doing her any favors for her to avoid them in high school.

She isn't trying to avoid the basic science courses in high school. If she hadn't taken both the 9th and 10th grade science courses this year, there would be no way that she'd get in all of them anyway. What she is stuck with is that she can't take any AP science courses at all unless she takes multiple science courses every year except one and takes both the pre-AP and then the AP. So, for instance, a kid who wants to take AP bio, chem, and physics would need the following schedule:

9th:
pre-AP bio
Earth Systems Science
(this is what dd is taking)

10th:
pre-AP chem
pre-AP physics

11th:
AP Bio
AP Chem

12th:
AP Physics

What we're leaning toward at this point is having her take the microbio/botany/zoology course next year as her only science class b/c she wants to be done with Algebra II when she enrolls in chem or physics, taking chem in 11th, and college physics in 12th (she can do this through concurrent enrollment rather than the pre-AP/AP sequence) rather than AP bio. She can study extra bio on the side and probably will through summer programs, etc. and get both college & high school credit for physics but no bonus GPA points like she would get from the AP bio class.

I'm trying to help her balance mental health, her grades, and a decent course load.

We'll cross the math choice in the future after she's into Algebra II. At that point, she can decide if the pre-AP calc, AP calc route or college trig, AP stats route is going to work for her.

My problem with this is, why does the high-school require an introductory course before AP? I've never heard of this before. A college student who never took bio in high school can take college-level bio without taking an intro course for elective credit first... so why not take the college-level class in high school? Isn't that the point of AP? It's a nonsense requirement.

I'm no expert, but what I keep hearing over and over is that the 20 most selective colleges absolutely want to see that a child took the most difficult courses availible at her school. It seems to me that you are looking for something different than that - see above - which I encourage. Having time to 'be a kid' is more important that going to any particular college.

Since your child have a very strongly defined area of interest, why not explore some 'niche' colleges, such as
http://www.coa.edu/contact.htm
and look on College Confidential to see what kinds of kids are being admitted to schools that are strong in marine biology?

My point is that you can't answer to 2 masters - either you want to keep the door open to one of the top 20 'name' schools and toss all other considerations to the wind, or you want what is best for your individual child(which is only occasionally the same thing - there are some kids who can do well in all those hardest High School classes, and do the ECs, and feel perfect balance - but those kids are few, and IQ isn't more than a small part of what makes a kid like that. Consider Drive and Competitive nature and Stamina and ability to see things from other people's perspective, even if the other people are adult teachers.) Think it over, decide what is best for your family, and go from there. Our advice isn't worth anything unless you make your best guess about what kind of kid you have and what is best for her.

Best wishes,
Grinity

That's been my thought as well. She's taking a lot of pre-AP classes which apparently count for nothing in terms of boosted GPA but they are pre-reqs to take the AP classes and we're told that they look good to colleges. I took AP bio in 10th, AP chem in 11th, and AP physics in 12th with no pre-AP intro course before these classes, but I guess that things are different at her high school and we've not been able to talk them into letting her take the AP classes without the pre-AP first. She can do concurrent enrollment college courses her junior & senior year and take the college courses for college and hs credit. The only drawback to doing that in lieu of AP is that the AP classes count for an extra point on your hs GPA and the college courses do not. She also won't be able to drive until a little after the start of the senior year b/c she won't turn 16 until then so, if these classes aren't offered on campus @ her hs, getting her to and from them will require a little juggling.

Re Grinity's note, I have a very driven, motivated HG kid. She is, however, a slower processor with a SPD and dyspraxia dx. She has a 504 for extra time theoretically but that amounts to nothing really. She still has eight classes each semester and, if those classes are all core/hard classes rather than a lot of the softer electives that many other kids are taking, it means nothing in terms of her GPA, makes it hard to have the other things that appeal to colleges (like leading clubs/other extracurriculars), and the only thing she could get out of extra time is to ask to turn stuff in later which would only pile the homework up. She hasn't been using the extra time at all as a result.

It sounds to me like she has a good chance of getting into two of her top college choices (Stetson & UO) even if she doesn't take five AP classes every year and become the student body president. I don't know on others like Duke, but she can apply and see what happens. I'm just looking @ it from the standpoint of realizing that, if she falls apart and kills herself or her grades start slipping b/c she is so stressed, that doesn't help her applications to competitive colleges either. Alive and happy is more important to me. I just don't think that she should have to sacrifice her life long dreams to be alive and reasonably happy.

What is "pre-AP" class for? I never took any pre-AP anything.

I took AP Chemistry in the 10th grade my first year in a really tough HS and loved it. Ditto the other classes.

Grinity has a great point. Better to go to a good school where she can get one on one with a good prof in a well-funded program as an undergrad that is getting results than getting into a "top 20" school.

The one thing that is missing from the course selection is computer science of some sort.

She has a lot more on her schedule than what I am listing here. I've been focusing on the science courses primarily b/c that's where she's at a loss to fit it all in w/out losing other things she wants to take like speech/debate. She is taking AP human geography (history) next year and two AP language arts/literature classes (one in 11th, one in 12th) plus a range of other electives ranging from French 4 to sociology to photography to probably something in the computer sciences. I'm not positive on all of what is in her 11th and 12th grade tentative plans at this point.

As an Earth Science prof, and advisor to 130 of our undergrads:

Calculus before college opens doors.

The rest is gravy.

Calc is the prereq for just about everything. Here, you need calc before chemistry, and chemistry before bio, so if you come into college as a bio chem major without calculus, you need 3 terms to get to the first intro course.

Often times AP Chemistry and Physics don't transfer, not because of what Bostonian suggests as the need for butts in chairs, but because the AP classes are poorly aligned with the content in the first year courses.

I was in a similar situation in high school. I took my mom's and HS councilor's advice: I was already intending to go to a STEM school for college, so why not take things I wouldn't have time for then? I took psychology, art history, AP European history, and an extra writing course instead of AP physics and chemistry. I have a significantly better education as a result.

Our local high school also has kids take regular Bio or regular chem, then AP bio or AP chem. I don't understand that either.
If you know what schools she wants to go to and can get into, then that is good. If a kid wants Duke or a really top school, they are kind of forced to take a million AP courses and not do the fun extra-curricular activities that don't "get you anywhere." I don't agree with all of that but that is what has happened to college applications. It has gotten super competitive to get into a good college.

My son took all the AP's in high school but at the advice of his father (EE major), my son took Calculus again as a freshman in college this year instead of testing out of it. He said it IS taught differently and that he is glad he's taking it in college as it is the foundation for the boatload of the math classes towards his ME major. But he said the AP classes in high school have definitely helped with how easy the material has been as a freshman.

As to two sciences in one year in HS - that is a lot. And if her GPA suffers, it could hurt her scholarship chances. And having time to be a kid is important - I think your mom instincts are right about that.

It depends on where you want to go for graduate school.

For instance, if you want to go to Duke for law school (which I don't recommend), it's easier to get into Duke Law from Penn State (and 100 other places) than it is from Duke undergrad.

That's kind of where she is heading: take just the one college science class through concurrent enrollment and take APs in other areas plus electives that interest her. Honestly reading/writing are her strongest areas just not as much of a passion for her as is science. She got 27s on the English & Reading parts of the ACT just after her 12th bd. She should be taking some of these other courses in the AP track.

To change my direction, though, I know that a lot of people mention calculus as necessary and we are getting the feel from a lot of the universities that have gotten back to her that it would be desirable if not necessary. Her (and my) big fear here is that math is not her strength. Pre-skipping she was testing in the upper 90s on math achievement tests like MAPs & ITBS but not the 99th (which is where she was in all other subjects). Post skipping, she's always still been "advanced" on the CSAP math tests (NCLB test) and got a 19 on the ACT math again at 12. She isn't bad at math, per se, but she isn't knock you out stellar like she is in other subjects.

Her senior year is the year she'd be taking AP calc if she did. She is also taking AP literature of some sort that year and the college physics class (along with whatever else goes into that year to fill in the other periods). How hard is calculus for a kid who isn't mathy but is generally very bright?

I just checked our district's course guide.

+ AP Bio has a year of bio (pre-AP or regular) as a prereq and a year of chem (pre-AP or regular) as a coreq.

+ AP Chem requires a year of Chem (pre-AP or regular) and Algebra II as prereqs.

+ AP Physics B has pre-calc as a coreq. AP Physics C has Calc AB as a prereq, or Calc BC as a coreq. Neither have a physics prereq, although pre-AP physics is an offered course.

When I took it, a million years ago before AP tests, I had a good teacher, took calc concurrent with trig, and high school calc wasn't particularly hard. Then I spent a year abroad, and essentially had a math-free year.

And for some reason, when I went to college, I figured that I still remembered all that math, so started at Calc II (2nd semester of the 2-semester univariate calc course), and the next term went on to Calc III (multivariate). Same grade in both classes, which I suspect was slightly below the class average, but I felt like I was keeping up in Calc II and was totally lost and bewildered in Calc III.

So my vote would be "not that hard." I struggled much more with physics than with calc.

It's fine to apply to a few 'lottery schools' just to see what happens, but some kids can plan their entire lives around that and some kids shouldn't. It sounds like you are quite clear of your priorities.

Have you found College Confidential?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-oregon/1276452-admission-uo.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stetson-university/?pp=20&daysprune=-1

I recently heard a reminder that it's all just people's opinions, but given that grain of salt, I think it's a great resource.

There is also a magic document that all colleges put together nowadays called the 'Common Data Set' that you can find if you hunt -

http://www.stetson.edu/administration/iro/commondataset.php

for example
http://www.stetson.edu/administration/iro/media/CDS2010_2011.xls
might help you see where she stands compared to incoming freshman

http://ir.uoregon.edu/cds
specifically -
http://ir.uoregon.edu/sites/ir/files/CDS2010_2011_For%20WEB.xls

hope that helps -
Grinity

Uhhh, she more that just "generally very bright" based on what you're saying. It sounds like you're seeing that she's not as "mathy" as she is other things, but that doesn't mean she's not mathy.

Calculus was the easiest math class I took in high school.

For me, algebra was hardest, and it got easier from there all the way through until I hit Fourier Series, where the combination of 8 am classes and a prof who talked like Grandpa Smurf got the better of me. I suspect, like everything else in this world, it depends upon how your brain is wired. Some kids latch onto arithmetic quickly but stall out when the abstract nature of algebra hits, while others see algebra as a huge relief from the difficulty of memorizing multiplication facts and computation algorithms.

I see the same with my advisees, many of whom come in taking pre-calc, and their math grades go up as they move into and through calculus.

The difficulty of calculus depends directly on how intuitive you find calculus. I don't know whether it's a question of "mathy".

With calculus, I think I was completely confused for about one month, figured it out, and then proceeded to sleep through the rest of the year while getting a 100%.

With me, either I understand the theoretical underpinnings or I don't. For instance, I never unlocked differential equations, so I have virtually zero ability in that area.

Harvard's guide to what math freshmen should take is at http://www.math.harvard.edu/pamphlets/freshmenguide.html . There are freshmen who will be prepared for multivariable calculus. My oldest son, who is gifted at math, ought to be in that category a decade from now.

Just because a college course is different from an AP one does not mean it is better. Harvard's single-variable calculus course is criticized at http://mathematicallycorrect.com/hc.htm
and the introductory textbook used has received many poor reviews on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Sing...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1327424647&sr=1-1 .

Thanks for the links, Grinity. I'll check them out.

One thing you may want to consider with AP/college sciences is the difference between the instruction and lab time available in each situation. Depending on the high school and college schedules, your DD might get 50 minutes a day of science instruction in college plus a 2-3 hour lab section a week vs. 50 min of combined instruction AND labs in a high school setting. On the other hand, the college course may be very demanding if, like Bio or Chem, it is acting as a "weed-out" course for certain majors. Best of luck with your planning!

Lol. Dd's third grade teacher said something along those lines: "[dd]'s weak areas are other people's strong areas." I don't think that she isn't good at math; I just think that she is good at math the way I am good at math not the way my younger dd is or her friend who is just a math whiz is. She needs a good teacher. If she runs into what she had in Algebra I in 8th for part of the year, which was a teacher who spent the first quarter essentially making it an independent study math class, she doesn't get it. She needs someone to teach her well. Her Algebra I class got better after a few complaints at least.

My youngest makes these intuitive leaps in math and tends to find step by step instructions frustrating. Dd13, on the other hand, needs all of the steps layed out as do I. I took integral calculus my freshman year @ Cal & totally froze. I was unprepared, had a teacher who was probably brilliant at math but didn't know how to teach it. Funny enough, my calc teacher had a bit of a papa Smurf air about him, too . I don't think that I can help her unless I go back and learn it myself now.

Actually, my guess is that with Khan Academy and all the onther online help, that given enough time a step by step learner in Math could do quite well given enough time. Perhaps she could 'pre-learn' Calculus on her own (or with you or a tutor) over the summer before she takes it in school. I had a lot of trouble with AP Calc as a high school Senior, but the teacher was great, and after spending many many afternoons getting extra help I did have the feeling of finally 'getting it' which was very satisfying - not my first taste of academic difficulty, but my first experience with putting effort in and getting a wondeful result out.

I did take Calc again in College, and as well as Chemistry and Physics that I hadn't taken AP with a whole bunch of other kids who had taken it before. Did I resent being graded on a curve with kids who already were quite familar with the material? You bet I did! I call this the SUV problem.

If 60% of the vehicles on the road are SUV and could do major damage to you in your normal sized car, do you go out and buy an SUV? What about 75%, 99%? http://www.smartmotorist.com/traffic-and-safety-guideline/the-suv-controversy.html
I counted up one day at our local park, and there were 30 minivans and SUV, and zero cars.

love and more love
Grinity

Every time I see a Smart Car, I want one. But I won't put my kid in one, because of exactly that safety issue. Smart Car vs SUV = catastrophe.