The Importance of math and college acceptance.
By Ellen Richards
Students must have access to high level math classses and be encouraged to take four years of math during high school. Students who do not take and pass a rigorous math sequence in high school are ineligible for admission to many four-year colleges and universities.
- Access to academically challenging course work in high school significantly increases the likelihood of a student successfully completing bachelors degree.
- Access to and enrollment in challenging courses had a greater impact on admission to college than any other factor, including income level and parents’ level of education.
- In 2004 an average applicant who passed Pre-Calculus increased his/her chance of gaining acceptance to college by 79%.
- Completing a Pre-Calculus course is the equivalent of raising one’s GPA from a 3.1 to a 3.6 in terms of admission to college.