Harvard Instituting Remedial Math Class
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Anonymous
They aren't admitting them blind. They can see their coursework on their transcript. But without the objective yardstick of a standardized exam, they have much less information than they need to evaluate the transcript. |
Anonymous
I would not tell my kid to apply to Harvard. SAT scores are a better predictor of academic success in college than GPA. That's why Harvard now requires test scores. |
Anonymous
I agree that Harvard can prioritize equity and diversity over academic excellence if it so chooses. The reason it’s news is because Harvard has spent most of its 388 year history emphasizing scholarship and building a reputation for choosing the “best and brightest” (even when it was a gentleman’s club). Just scan through any discussion on this board re: the value of paying Ivy League tuition vs. in state public and parents will confidently assert that it’s worth it to ensure that your bright kid will be surrounded by other stellar students. That hasn’t been their goal for some time now, but the results of test optional policies has revealed to what extent that’s true, and it’s an adjustment for some people who haven’t been paying attention. (Also, it’s a bit of told you so after everyone was haughtily assured that these Admissions officers “know what they’re doing” and didn’t need to see test scores to select highly qualified students. Instituting an entire new program means that this wasn’t just one or two kids that needed extra support. If Harvard screwed it up, even with the quality of their applicant pool, how bad is it at every other test optional college in America?) |
Anonymous
Yes but legacies frequently don't need a hook that way the proletariat do. |
Anonymous
None of the bolded was included in the course description from 30 years ago. It doesn’t mention algebra, because it was assumed you already know it. It certainly doesn’t mention of extra support being provided for “foundational skills in algebra and geometry.” |
Anonymous
MIT grads were so arrogant we no longer recruit them at our company. They were terrible team players. The only thing they could do was brag they went to MIT. Couldn’t take direction or criticism. Insufferable. |
Anonymous
But all of it is at the insistence of their parents in order to go to an Ivy. So formulaic. It’s like a “plug and chug” personality. Intrinsic motivation is completely absent. |
Anonymous
Sure, I mean Harvard can place more emphasis on diversity and race over aptitude and merit all it wants. But Harvard grads can't cry later as they start tanking in ratings and the Harvard name brand becomes more synonymous with slightly above mediocre rather than excellence. Employers take note and will draw less and less from less qualified Harvard candidates. What took 300 years to build in terms of name brand and excellence is going to be demolished in only 20 years because of overemphasizing race and diversity above all else. Have fun with that fallout. Tbh, Harvard has already reached a breaking point and is past the point of no return. Grads from schools like MIT, CalTech, Rice, GAtech, CMU, Princeton, etc. are more impressive. And in terms of the world, I doubt Harvard is even top 20 anymore. Grads from Tsinghua, National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, Oxbridge, Imperial College of London, etc. are all more impressive grads. Many other countries in the world give zero craps about diversity at all costs. Americans would be in for a shocking eye opener if they looked at global rankings. US schools are falling fast, because they're backsliding into medicority due to identity politics. China is eating US' lunch now in engineering and STEM. US continues to go down the tubes because we do is enroll mediocre students like at Harvard who now need remedial algebra - the same class Asian students have mastered since about the 4th grade. |
Anonymous
please, that is no different that strivy white people. |
Anonymous
| It’s good they’re providing these kids support. When are other schools going to do the same. It’s a nationwide problem, not just an Harvard problem. |
Anonymous
Yeah this isn't true. Gentleman's Club yes, Wealthy and Powerful yes, Best and brughhtes researchers yes, best and brightest students, no. Students are a small part of Harvard, and have always served Harvard's needs. |
Anonymous
An elite school shouldn't have to provide a slowed down math class for remediation. |
Anonymous
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This is common in community colleges.
It is common to offer math basics and English writing basics. You would not expect this at Harvard. |
Anonymous
Yes and poor Asian children of immigrants in NYC also play a lot of soccer. Somewhere. |
Anonymous
A little context. In 1990 I took freshman calc using the Deborah Hughes Hallett preprint at my state flagship. The book hadn’t been published yet. It was referred to as Core Calculus Consortium, or Harvard Consortium. The class was honors and met daily. I still have the spiral bound copy. The concept was, graphing calculators are now commonplace, so we can re-write to reach calculus conceptually even if students have weak symbolic manipulation skills. Remediation may not be explicitly in the blurb above, but it was the reason for the course. The same group of educators went on to propose the Common Core reforms in K-12 over the next decades. Anyway, I was a lazy HS student on to a so-so university but I placed into honors and majored in math. |