Harvard Instituting Remedial Math Class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
College ain’t what it used to be. Kids that used to go to Harvard are skipping over the waste of time for their intellect. Harvard is the community college for the super smart.

Brooke Shields graduated Princeton 😂😂😂

She “suspended her jeans modeling career”
😂😂😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
College ain’t what it used to be. Kids that used to go to Harvard are skipping over the waste of time for their intellect. Harvard is the community college for the super smart.

Brooke Shields graduated Princeton 😂😂😂

She “suspended her jeans modeling career”
😂😂😂

Just because she is beautiful doesn’t mean she is stupid. In fact, she is known for being high IQ as are a lot of precocious child actors (i.e., Jody Foster).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
College ain’t what it used to be. Kids that used to go to Harvard are skipping over the waste of time for their intellect. Harvard is the community college for the super smart.

Brooke Shields graduated Princeton 😂😂😂

She “suspended her jeans modeling career”
😂😂😂

She got in; your kid did not.

[Anonymous]

The ancient-eight’s era is over.

They are no longer great universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
College ain’t what it used to be. Kids that used to go to Harvard are skipping over the waste of time for their intellect. Harvard is the community college for the super smart.

Brooke Shields graduated Princeton 😂😂😂

She “suspended her jeans modeling career”
😂😂😂

She got in; your kid did not.

It’s easy to graduate from there. Waste of time for the genius class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
College ain’t what it used to be. Kids that used to go to Harvard are skipping over the waste of time for their intellect. Harvard is the community college for the super smart.

Brooke Shields graduated Princeton 😂😂😂

She “suspended her jeans modeling career”
😂😂😂

She got in; your kid did not.

It’s easy to graduate from there. Waste of time for the genius class.

Yep. “Harvard on the Pike” Montgomery College is probably contributing more to society.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this disabuses people of the notion that students at these “elite” colleges are somehow intrinsically superior. Generic college X could take a class composed entirely of applicants shut out of Ivy+ that would be just as strong as Harvard’s enrolling class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I assume this is directed at first gen students, but still seems pretty nuts.

Honestly that’s not a fair asssumption. Plenty of first gen kids do well in school and also kill it on standardized tests.
And the ones who do wouldn’t need the remedial algebra refresher.

But Harvard and everyone else rode the test optional wave and grabbed that opportunity to pretend that just because you graduated in top five of your high school meant you were ready to soar at Harvard. Standardized tests are basically the only measure we have to compare the field across the board. If you kill it on the SAT, you’ve aced algebra. Full stop.
If they don’t know how you did on the standardized test, then it’s a crapshoot and they find out only after you’re on campus that you can’t cut it.

I will add that my HS class of 24 kid took part of Algebra and Geometry during the pandemic. They had major content gaps. But they studied for SAT and used a tutor and self-study to fill those gaps. If they had decided to just go TO, they would never have filled those gaps. So it’s not just a matter of “less abled” kids who went TO, it’s also that studying for the SAT/ACT itself helps fill those basic math content gaps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I assume this is directed at first gen students, but still seems pretty nuts.

Honestly that’s not a fair asssumption. Plenty of first gen kids do well in school and also kill it on standardized tests.
And the ones who do wouldn’t need the remedial algebra refresher.

But Harvard and everyone else rode the test optional wave and grabbed that opportunity to pretend that just because you graduated in top five of your high school meant you were ready to soar at Harvard. Standardized tests are basically the only measure we have to compare the field across the board. If you kill it on the SAT, you’ve aced algebra. Full stop.
If they don’t know how you did on the standardized test, then it’s a crapshoot and they find out only after you’re on campus that you can’t cut it.

I will add that my HS class of 24 kid took part of Algebra and Geometry during the pandemic. They had major content gaps. But they studied for SAT and used a tutor and self-study to fill those gaps. If they had decided to just go TO, they would never have filled those gaps. So it’s not just a matter of “less abled” kids who went TO, it’s also that studying for the SAT/ACT itself helps fill those basic math content gaps.

There is no detail in the current article on exact issues being addressed, just foundational skills. If you look at the article from thirty years ago that is more explicit, the gaps really are kids who can do homework, or score on test, but still don't have the thinking to move further. That's still an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Either Covid learning loss was worse than we thought (and we know it was really bad) or test optional is a complete failure.

Harvard students don’t know algebra?

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/9/3/new-math-intro-course/

The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.

It's a function of grade inflation period. Someone posted an article from Bethesda magazine earlier that said MCPS had rampant grade inflation and kids had overweighted GPAs of 4.8 and 4.7 but their teachers/tutors said they could not do algebra 1 and lacked foundational algebra skills.

Weighted GPAs are out of control, and they are not college ready as a result. Harvard and others are seeing an over-inflated resume and admitting them based on misleading stats.

agree. everyone is rushing to blame TO policies but I agree it's happening because of inflated GPAs. everyone is getting "bonus" points for stacking up honors and AP classes and teachers are giving As where they should be giving Bs (at best).

Standardized tests counter grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I assume this is directed at first gen students, but still seems pretty nuts.

No, it is all the schools rushing kids through accelerated programs in the name of being the youngest ever to talk calculus. This is s no way to learn math.

I thought that could be contributing to it too. My kid is learning algebra in grade 7. By the time he starts year 1 of college he won't remember it.

If that were a contributor, then other elite colleges would have issues: the equivalent of BC calculus is the most common freshman calculus class followed by multivariable, then AB calculus is third, at the elite schools my kids attend. Almost all freshmen have exposure to calculus from high school, as in over 80%. If starting Algebra before high school were a problem for any significant portion of students who later took AP/other calculus then remedial courses such as Harvard's would be very common. They are not. International students abound at my kid's ivy in engineering and they come in with two full years post-calculus in high school and do fine. The ones with Algebra in 6th in the USA are similar, just not terribly common compared to typcial US freshman at this school, and same as the internationals from a similar level, are almost always at the tops of the math curves once in college. Early algebra is not an issue at all for bright kids: more in the US could do it if the elementary schools differentiated younger as do the international curricula.
Harvard's need for remedial math MAS that focuses on algebra and geometry basics is because they are admitting more kids who are not ready for traditional Math MA, PREcalculus. That type of admission is usually reserved for big 10 helmet sport recruits, not ivies let alone Harvard. They have really lowered the bar too far.

Source? You're making a lot of sweeping statements, for things for which I've never seen data.

The source is the PP's opinion which he/she is trying to pass along as fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard has many levels of math for freshman. I wonder how many are in Math MA5. 5 days a week, how many hours? TO for so many years was an awful decision.

you have to wonder how many of the students in those classes were TO.

or how many were recruited athletes or legacies.

They didn't recruit MORE athletes or legacies than previously. The thing that changed was the lack of testing.

Harvard correlated the student performance with the kids that didn't submit a test score and there was such a clear divide they published a study on it and went back to test required years earlier than they said they would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Either Covid learning loss was worse than we thought (and we know it was really bad) or test optional is a complete failure.

Harvard students don’t know algebra?

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/9/3/new-math-intro-course/

The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.

It's a function of grade inflation period. Someone posted an article from Bethesda magazine earlier that said MCPS had rampant grade inflation and kids had overweighted GPAs of 4.8 and 4.7 but their teachers/tutors said they could not do algebra 1 and lacked foundational algebra skills.

Weighted GPAs are out of control, and they are not college ready as a result. Harvard and others are seeing an over-inflated resume and admitting them based on misleading stats.

agree. everyone is rushing to blame TO policies but I agree it's happening because of inflated GPAs. everyone is getting "bonus" points for stacking up honors and AP classes and teachers are giving As where they should be giving Bs (at best).

Standardized tests counter grade inflation.

Not really. The rich kids with inflated grades pay for test prep classes and game that system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Half of US high schools don’t offer calculus. I imagine there may be very bright students at Harvard and elsewhere who have had weak learning environments.

What does not offering calc have to do with not knowing how to do algebra?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard likes pointy kids, so there are some who aren't as strong in math but are spectacular at other things. Not a surprise.

My sister has a degree from Yale, but she would struggle to pass even a basic algebra class. She has significant learning disabilities in math. But that doesn't mean she isn't brilliant. She is killing her career and may very well win a Tony someday.

theater/drama is a slightly different beast at yale.