Interviews with 10 of the survey respondents, however, indicated that opinions may be changing. One admissions officer at a public research university said they were “removing” applicants from the belief that “good” students take calculus. “Therefore, we have had to address that in our student training,” said the admissions officer. One respondent said: “After entry, yes, maths trumps all others, but if we’re not following a STEM program and especially engineering, we consider maths or data science to be perfectly fine as a fourth-year math course.”
At the same time, some interviewees said that the acceptance of voluntary testing motivated them to put more emphasis on counting. One admissions officer at a large public university said that they previously relied on SAT scores to determine math readiness, but now put more weight on math, especially for engineering applicants.
Some admissions officers said they felt pressure from university administrators to prioritize those who would study mathematics. Giving more weight to math is “an entrenched practice,” says Burdman of Just Equations, and because admissions officers have to answer to audience lists, they’re noticing the change.
Changing hearts and minds within the college admissions department can take time. Burdman says that if selective institutions can show that students who don’t take calculus do well in college, colleges will have “greater confidence” in accepting students who take other courses, such as math.
Until then, students who struggle with limits and derivatives may have to wait until the evidence comes together.
Contact a staff writer Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595 or barshay@hechingerreport.org.
This story is about high school calculus written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger reporta non-profit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up Evidence Points and so on Hechinger newsletters.
