<p>ucb, you raise an important concern. I’ve been through the CDS for the prospective four-year schools we’ve identified, and most do prefer transfers with associates’ degrees.<br>
That’s fine if the programs articulate. But it doesn’t work so well if you select a more technical four-year major, with courses tightly sequenced and not all offered every semester or year, and the first- or second-year courses not offered at the CCs.</p>
<p>Haystack, do you think the summer pre-calc (immediately after 12th grade) would be “illegal” and would turn the student into a transfer? One admissions officer I know has told me that at her school, when someone is admitted and postpones enrollment for a gap year, any coursework during that year would violate the terms of the delayed enrollment and turn the kid into a transfer applicant. We did not discuss preparatory work the summer between 12th grade and freshman year.</p>
<p>I share your concern about whether a person is well-suited to a major when they are not well-suited to the foundational math for the major. Ultimately, I think one must discern whether the math is something the person would need to be fluent with, in the course of their day-to-day professional life in the field, or whether it’s an academic hoop to be jumped through on your way to the professional life. I think people working in the field would know. Take landscape architects, for example. I don’t question the calculus requirement, but success in that field probably depends more upon one’s creative vision for a piece of land, and the ability to convey that verbally and visually to the client, the mortgage banker, the zoning board, and the guy with the backhoe. An engineer is probably pulled in as part of the team, long before the landscape architect would be asked to do calculus problems in the course of her work. The pharmacist at CVS is not behind the counter doing organic chemistry problems (although I’m glad she took the course, when I ask about possible drug incompatibilities).</p>