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, calculus trumps everything else, but if we’re not following a STEM program and especially engineering, we consider math or data science as good as a fourth-year math course.”
At the same time, some interviewees said that being accepted by their own choice motivated them to put more emphasis on counting. One admissions officer at a large public university said that in the past they relied on SAT scores to determine math preparation, but now they were putting more weight on math, especially for engineering applicants.
Some admissions officers said they felt pressured by university faculty to prioritize math majors. Giving more weight to math is “an entrenched practice,” says Just Equations’ Burdman, and because admissions officers must answer to an audience list, 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 proofs add up.
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.