<p>Maize & Blue -- that's what I'm thinking. There are a lot of branches of science. A person may do well in one area and not so well in another. </p>
<p>My daughter seems interested in molecular biology. Time will tell. My dad (a retired physicist) tells me about the school he went to in the old days (South Dakota School of Mines) where everyone started in college with Algebra and no one took Calculus until their junior year of college. Yet, somehow he ended up learning everything he needed to know to do physics (went to grad school in Berkeley and then to Iowa for his PhD). A slower approach is not necessarily a worse approach. Of course things have changed since then. But I still feel instinctively that there is no need to be in such a hurry. One can take their time and end up knowing everything one needs to know to be succcessful. </p>
<p>Perhaps the intro courses won't be as "killer" at some schools, but if the student continues into higher levels with a good understanding of the basics, they will eventually catch up to the ones that got there faster. And pass the ones of course who got discouraged and gave up because of the weeder mentality. Of course there will always be some that will be weeded out, but why design a course specifically to be discouraging to almost everyone in it?</p>