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<p>An excellent question.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, accreditation requirements ensure that colleges offer programs which meet minimum standards. And those minimum standards are generally pretty high as they are created based on feedback from researchers, professors, and industry representatives. Industry wants to see a certain level of competence from college graduates, therefore accredtiation boards ensure that graduates have the skills they need to succeed in a work environment. Researchers and professor feedback ensures that graduates will have the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in graduate school and beyond.</p>
<p>That all being said, the answer to your question really comes down to hard work and dedication. Students who graduate high school with lower test scores and cumulative GPA have to perform at a higher level in order to catch up with the rest of the class. This means that, while the high performing HS student is studying Calc 1 material, the lower performing HS student is studying Calc 1 material plus some miscellaneous algebra, trigonometry, and possibly basic math in order to fully understand what’s going on with the calculus.</p>
<p>That’s really what it all boils down to. A mediocre student in high school can still do very well in college, as long as the motivation and work ethic are there. The goal of a good college is to ensure that a graduate who did well in high school will be equally as capable and competent as a graduate who was mediocre in high school, assuming their college GPA’s were the same. The difference is that the high performer in high school will likely have an easier time keeping up with the workload since he/she will not have to keep backtracking.</p>