Harvard Instituting Remedial Math Class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in Boston and the quality of our Harvard interviewees has tumbled vs MIT (undergrad)

And for the b school, there is a lot more variation

While hbs is ranked higher than Sloan, there are fewer if any duds at Sloan — but you cannot say that for hbs these days

Not really sure how they are assessing candidates at Harvard but they aren’t getting the intellectual cream of the crop nor are they getting the stereotypical “ivy chad”

MIT and BC are putting out young alums that are more clear in their strengths while H is a mess

You should try evaluating the Harvard students along more holistic parameters. There's more to life than just being book smart, dontcha know.

Yeah, you could ask how they overcame racism at harvard and how their life experiences would add to the diversity at your management consulting company..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
China has it’s own problems to deal with. Nobody is sweating China.

Aside from the USA, everyone is sweating China

China is it's own worst enemy. No ability to self-correct. America is crazy but it recovers from mistakes faster.

this comment didn't age well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some people don’t seem to understand this is a plus for Harvard — it has so much resources in Math that it is able to offer many different level of freshman math classes to suit a wide variety of students’ capabilities. For a lot of students who have taken multi variable calculus in HS, Harvard offers math 18, 19 …25, to 55 the hardest math class in the country.

If you are humanities focused during HS, you have this option of reinforcing your learning algebra.

My community college offers six levels of freshman math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

why would you assume that?

Many Asian American students are first gen, and they score very high in math, the highest of all groups.

For the most part it’s because all they do is study.

What is wrong with that, you can do the same to see if you can get there, after all colleges (should)look at stats first to make sure you are suit for the 'higher' education.

[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.

why would you assume that?

Many Asian American students are first gen, and they score very high in math, the highest of all groups.

For the most part it’s because all they do is study.

Actually, they do lot of martial arts (Tae Kwon Do etc.) and soccer and tennis as well.

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.

Most people overlooked one fact, Asian kids' parents, lots of them were top students from China, India, Korea, Japan, Singapore as first generation immigrants.
It's unfair to compare their kids with average kids here. Yes, there are smart first generation college Asian kids, but not majority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

FCPS once paid for after school prep class for poor/URMs kids, not sure they still do, but made no difference. TJ changed admission policy a few years ago, and increased student number from 480 to 550, after the very first semester, I heard close to 100 students quit, I guess they expected this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In China if you can't do the math you are not going to college.

We aren’t China. We are a far more creative and dynamic population. For all their math abilities, they didn’t create Apple or Microsoft. They just steal the IP.

You are right, but for how long? heard of DeepSeek? we could steal their IP in the future.

[Anonymous]

FWIW in my all White HS calculus was not offered.

[Anonymous]

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

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.

Harvard is working hard to become the next Columbia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

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.

Harvard is working hard to become the next Columbia.

The US is working hard to become the next Hungary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW in my all White HS calculus was not offered.

Alabama or Mississippi?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In China if you can't do the math you are not going to college.

We aren’t China. We are a far more creative and dynamic population. For all their math abilities, they didn’t create Apple or Microsoft. They just steal the IP.

You are right, but for how long? heard of DeepSeek? we could steal their IP in the future.

Lol, we stole Britain's IP. MAGA can now reclaim our greatness as a nation of industrial spies.

https://electrek.co/2025/03/19/chinese-authorities-delay-approval-byd-ev-plant-mexico-fears-tech-leaking-us/

[Anonymous]

Test-optional. Good work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people don’t seem to understand this is a plus for Harvard — it has so much resources in Math that it is able to offer many different level of freshman math classes to suit a wide variety of students’ capabilities. For a lot of students who have taken multi variable calculus in HS, Harvard offers math 18, 19 …25, to 55 the hardest math class in the country.

If you are humanities focused during HS, you have this option of reinforcing your learning algebra.

Math 55 is just a regular course now, but it's a double course for single credit to make it seem more elite and to discourage students from taking a math degree with fewer total courses.

Math 55 has always been overhyped nonsense. It is time they get rid of it. If you want rigorous maths, go to Uchicago or MIT

[Anonymous]

See the test optional thread.