The path from eighth to ninth grade is a big step for many students — bigger than many even realize. Some students, along with their parents, understand that the math courses they take starting in middle school could determine their college options and potential career choices. Others have no idea that whether or not they are on the path to calculus as eighth graders could disproportionately influence their futures.
A major reason for that influence is the long-standing tendency among selective colleges to treat high school calculus as a gold standard in assessing applicants for their institutions. Despite numerous changes in admissions policies over the past several years, the emphasis on calculus has not shifted, according to a new report from Just Equations in collaboration with the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).
The Limits of Calculus: Revisiting the Role of Math Education in College Admissions shows a continuing emphasis on calculus by college admissions officers. Even though fewer than 5 percent of colleges—primarily STEM-focused institutions—actually require incoming students to have taken the course, 31 percent of those surveyed said the course gives students an edge in the admissions process.
That notable dichotomy in the responses to a survey of college admissions officers illustrates how calculus often acts as a gatekeeper, rather than an opportunity, especially for students who lack access to calculus, often as a result of the math courses they take in middle school.
White high school graduates have taken calculus at twice the rate of their Latinx peers and triple the rate of Black students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. And nearly 37 percent of high school graduates who come from the wealthiest 20 percent of the nation’s families have taken calculus, compared with just 9 percent of graduates from the lowest quintile, according to the National Science Board.
The difference between actual requirements and the preferences of admissions offices creates needless barriers for students, restricting their opportunities before they’ve had a chance at success.
According to the survey, the preference was more pronounced at private institutions, where 92 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “students who have taken high school calculus are more likely to succeed in college,” compared with 83 percent of respondents from public institutions.
The survey follows two previous surveys conducted with NACAC that also explored the relationship between math education and college admissions:
Together, these reports suggest that the emphasis on calculus also crowds out other rigorous course options that could open opportunities for more students to succeed in college and beyond, even though admissions officers recognize the benefits of those options.
In the latest survey, nearly all admissions officers—94 percent—said that statistics, a course often taken instead of calculus during students’ senior year, is valuable for a wide range of college degree programs. In addition, 46 percent said that data science courses met an admissions requirement, up slightly from the 38 percent who said the same in a 2021 survey.
In interviews, numerous admissions leaders said they had adopted changes in their admissions processes to curb the longstanding tendency to favor calculus—changes such as training readers to understand other math course options or revising the checkboxes on their applications and evaluation sheets.
“In the profession, there's just this, like, knee-jerk reaction. … The ‘good’ students will have taken calculus. So you know, we’ve all got to do a better job,” one survey respondent from a private research institute noted. “And we’re expanding that range of pathways that really resonate with us as being excellent preparation.”
Some admissions officers also agreed that a holistic view of a student’s academic achievement, particularly when there is limited or no access to high school calculus, is a better indicator of success.
“You can’t assume that a student has access to AP Calculus. You can't assume that the course is available at a time that’s going to work for the student’s schedule,” said one respondent from a public research university.
Added another, “Rigor of curriculum is not about all possible classes that exist in the world but possible classes that exist in that student’s local context. … What do you have access to? What did you take? And then did you maximize what was available?”
Though the survey responses did not reveal an overall shift in practices across the 133 responding institutions, the shifts in practices and perceptions at individual institutions may be a precursor to broader change. Hopefully, that shift will usher in a new generation of thinkers poised to use mathematics, statistics, and data science to understand and improve our world.
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