Duke Academic atmosphere?

TopTier
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 16:40:41 +0000

@CHD2013‌ (re post #26):

With respect, you are (at least in part) wrong. There are two legitimate meanings for the term “weed out courses,” one you’ve suggested (#26) AND the other I have (#15). In fact, it was extremely common for some public flagship universities to have one or several “weed out” courses, specifically intended to flunk out large numbers academically unqualified freshmen; this was especially true when state legislatures REQUIRED the flagship to accept EVERY in-state high school graduate who applied. While that statutory practice is now not as common as it was a generation or two ago, it is incorrect to suggest that “weed out” courses refer ONLY to academic concentrations (pre-med is the “textbook” example).

I’ll provide a pertinent example. For many years, Ohio State was – as a matter of law – required to accept any Ohio high school graduate. Further, at that time there were few, if any, “satellite” OSU campuses, which meant matriculation at the main Columbus campus. Many of the kids who were admitted due to this legislative mandate were simply unqualified for undergraduate school. Ohio State had one or two freshman English courses (although many freshmen were not required to take these, due to their high school records and SAT results) that had at least a 50 percent failure rate – and if you failed this/these required English course(s), you were immediately academically dis-enrolled. That’s the other – far more long-standing – meaning of “weed out courses.”

I don’t doubt that many individuals currently use the second meaning of the term, but the first and primary meaning remains entirely correct. My post was intended to emphasize the fact that we clearly do not have such practices at Duke.