<p>ucbalum, there is a difference between weeding by default–ie; the class presents the material that OUGHT to be mastered for progression to the next level, and if you don’t master it to an appropriate level you don’t proceed to the next level, at least not yet–and a class that is set up to deliberately weed out students who HAVE mastered the material and COULD proceed to the next level. </p>
<p>I supposed it could be justified if there were simply no room for those students in the major, but a better response would be to add resources to accommodate more <em>competent</em> students.</p>
<p>It seems as if some STEM types like to boast about how many people they can discourage from pursuing their field. </p>