Posted on 04/08/2025 9:41:43 AM PDT by george76
Have read that MIT is doing the same - which is quite shocking, because its a STEM school
Here is the description of the Math MA5 course
https://www.math.harvard.edu/course/ma5/
The study of functions and their rates of change. Fundamental ideas of calculus are introduced early and used to provide a framework for the study of mathematical modeling involving algebraic, exponential, and logarithmic functions. A thorough understanding of differential calculus is promoted by year-long reinforcement.
(Don't know what a slide rule is for.)
Do a google image search for “accepted into all the ivies”. All will be revealed.
Harvard, Columbia, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College. worst universities for free speech:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4262966/posts
High stakes standardized tests do not include test questions which perform in a disparate manner among ethnicities. Test questions included in an exam perform equitably across the racial spectrum. This has been discussed at the school level, and yet give it a few years and the accusation of racism arises again.
The class meets 5 days a week.
I should guess so. :-)
Is MIT still a STEM school? It acts like it's more of a leftist indoctrination school with a large math department.
......standardized tests have been found to be the most predictive measure of success in college.....
Then keep using them! No more DEI!
I wonder if the school has to mark the door of the classroom with some kind of special insignia so the special kids can figure out which door to enter. It's not like they could label it Room 227, or something like that.
MIT returned to using SATs in admissions!
With so many students who apply to MIT, Harvard, etc. taking AP Calculus in high school, there is no excuse for admitting math-deficient students to elite colleges!
By the way, I advance-placed one term of Calculus at MIT. Math was my worst subject at MIT—I got all C’s. But I got nearly all A’s in everything else (even Organic Chemistry), and won an NSF Graduate Fellowship, which I used at Harvard.
Harvard undergraduates can afford to get C’s in Math, if they get mainly A’s. But students who can’t pass Math don’t belong in elite colleges.
Not surprising in the least. The “top university” mantra hasn’t been true in a long time. At this point in our history, going to a ‘name’ university is like buying the equivalent of Levi’s for $1,500 because there’s some Italian name affixed to them. Except it’s a lot more expensive.
Remedial writing courses were mandatory when I was a freshman in 1978 at Temple University in Philadelphia.
For me they were redundant since I attended a high school with good college prep classes.
Yeah. High school level basic differential calculus.
NOT EVEN INTEGRAL CALCULUS. Which I took in HS. (No AP classes then, just “Enriched” level classes like English IV E ; or as Chem 2, Physics 2, Numeric Analysis, Calculus. These were all college-level classes accepted for credit at the universities at time.
Differential Calculus, then Integral Calculus were a REQUIRED minimum freshman year math classes for engineering and the sciences at A&M.
Unless you are an (illiterate) English or Arts or Political Science student, no student at the “Ivy League” level of schools should be able to hand in an application form without at least full college-level math and English classes already in-hand.
Students beware; there must be a way the so-called instructors can work wokeism and CRT into a basic math course.
My university used to have “development studies” courses for math and reading (which did not count towards graduation). It included grade-school level math classes. When I was on a committee hearing appeals from students (for being suspended) there was one student who had failed grade school math six times. She was a social work major.
Tom Lehrer is still around at 96. Get him to teach the course.
He started studying math at Harvard when he was 15 and never killed anyone.
In January 2023, CUNY issued this notice:
CUNY Ends Traditional Remedial Courses
A month later, the NY Post offered this article:
Colleges have been teaching Bonehead English to incoming freshmen for decades. Now they’re teaching Bonehead Math?
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