Wesleyan's Class of 2028 Profile is Out

Mwfan1921
Thu, 26 Sep 2024 13:16:50 +0000

The calculus connection to college admissions has been studied quite a bit. Although it’s true that many high schools don’t offer calculus, the vast majority of high school students do attend a HS that offers calculus (see urban institute link below.) Of course, some students can’t access calculus because of math testing policies in junior high. Here are two resources, but there are many.

Education Week – 30 Oct 23

Why Calculus Remains a Math Flash Point

Debates center on whether all kids should take it or just those who want to major in STEM—and its odd place in college admissions.

Duration: 4 min read

Urban Institute

Unequal access to calculus could hinder low-income and black students

Recent Urban Institute analysis shows that 1 in 5 black students attend schools that don’t offer calculus.

HNH:

Too bad Wesleyan would give absolutely no credit for a student from Oakland at a school where calculus wasn’t offered who self-studied and took the AP.

Do you have a source for this statement? It’s common that highly rejective schools would take the lack of access to calculus into account during the admissions process. Even though the proportion of 2028 admitted students who have taken calc is high at Wesleyan, there were still 21% of students admitted who hadn’t taken calculus.

Collegequestions5:

I’m guessing they would “give credit” in the admissions process to a student who reported self-studying calculus and taking the AP test.

I agree. But, many students who aren’t in HS calc by senior year aren’t in a position to self study calc in HS because they don’t have the pre-reqs to do so.