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I have a BA in Journalism from the University of Dayton; I was required to take seven hours in math and/or science.
However, I did take two years of advanced level math and one year of advanced level science in high school; no doubt that was part of how I got into the university in the first place. No doubt I could have tested out of the seven hour math/science requirement, but it was more fun to take chemistry lab and blow things up.
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Originally Posted by Bettafish
What do employers think of your transcript, if there is not a single math course?
The last time a prospective employer asked to see my transcript was ... never.
It's funny, we do not ask STEM majors to write a poem or short story in order to graduate. They just need to read one, or several, and write down what they think of it. They need to know a few famous poets and short story writers and the type of literature they write. But, they do not actually need to WORK in prose or poetry. Just know about it.
This isn't entirely true. Just as humanities majors need to take math to graduate, math majors need to take humanities classes to graduate. Most colleges require a certain number of writing classes in order to call yourself a college graduate.
I am not going to argue with you but my opinion is that it is reasonable to require that a person be able to read, write and do math at a college level to be a college graduate.
I have a BA in Journalism from the University of Dayton; I was required to take seven hours in math and/or science.
However, I did take two years of advanced level math and one year of advanced level science in high school; no doubt that was part of how I got into the university in the first place. No doubt I could have tested out of the seven hour math/science requirement, but it was more fun to take chemistry lab and blow things up.
The last time a prospective employer asked to see my transcript was ... never.
They certainly do when you apply for a graduate school or professional school.
Some top companies ask for transcripts, though I agree it is not a common thing.
Also, course requirements are set for good reasons. I totally support the idea that engineering students must take humanities courses and humanities students must take math.
If you aren't good at Math, you're not going to be able to get a lot of good jobs, just like if you suck at writing, you won't be able to advance far. I have in my days working for engineering and consulting companies met some employees with horrendously bad grammar and writing skills.
You won't be able to get into medical school, law school, and obviously science and math fields if you are no good at Math. If you have a disability, tough luck. This world doesn't cut breaks for anybody.
That said, humanities courses are WAY more useful and practical than science/math courses. Reading improves your writing, vocabulary, and general ability to communicate and gives you interesting stories to tell at happy hour. Math/engineering classes don't do much of anything. You forget all the stuff like 3 months later. This is coming from an engineer.
I think EVERYBODY should be required to take a course in music to pass college!
My alma mater, Brandeis, required a "quantitative reasoning" course. These included not only math classes, but certain economics, computer science, and logic courses as well. On the flip side, they did not offer college algebra (though it seems they do now - but only one section a year). The most basic of classes was pre-calculus, which I was not sufficiently prepared by my high school to take. You could choose to take upper level language classes OR higher level math, but not both. I decided Spanish 7 was more relevant to my career that calculus, so even though I took 4 years of math, my highest level of math was algebra III/AP statistics. There were also no remedial math courses in my undergrad. As mentioned in other responses, admissions was self selecting enough that there is an assumption that accepted students have a higher-than-average math level. The average math SAT score is a 690 (which is actually higher than the language parts of the test!). My math requirements were fulfilled by a few economics courses.
^^^Bingo. Good luck getting into most of those schools with a mediocre Math SAT score.
I got into Bard with very high verbal scores, mediocre math scores and high grades. They still have no math requirement.
Yes, I am aware of my age. The purpose of this thread is to post schools which are math optional. There are still some, and I want people to be aware of these schools.
There are also colleges that permit the substitution of a Science course for a Math course. I actually did that 2 Math courses in college - 1 at Clark , "Math for Non Science Pre-Profesional Students" when I was Pre-Law, and after leaving Clark I attended a 3 year hospital school of Nursing where I took "Medical Drug Dosage Calculation" at a community college. I took the Math at Clark "Pass no Record". Came in handy when I ultimately transferred to Stony Brook.
BTW no employer has ever examined my transcripts before hiring me. The verify graduation, but I don't know of anyone who goes to a job interview transcript in hand!
My alma mater, Brandeis, required a "quantitative reasoning" course. These included not only math classes, but certain economics, computer science, and logic courses as well. On the flip side, they did not offer college algebra (though it seems they do now - but only one section a year). The most basic of classes was pre-calculus, which I was not sufficiently prepared by my high school to take. You could choose to take upper level language classes OR higher level math, but not both. I decided Spanish 7 was more relevant to my career that calculus, so even though I took 4 years of math, my highest level of math was algebra III/AP statistics. There were also no remedial math courses in my undergrad. As mentioned in other responses, admissions was self selecting enough that there is an assumption that accepted students have a higher-than-average math level. The average math SAT score is a 690 (which is actually higher than the language parts of the test!). My math requirements were fulfilled by a few economics courses.
Actually that sounds very much like the class that I took at Clark.
This isn't entirely true. Just as humanities majors need to take math to graduate, math majors need to take humanities classes to graduate. Most colleges require a certain number of writing classes in order to call yourself a college graduate.
I am not going to argue with you but my opinion is that it is reasonable to require that a person be able to read, write and do math at a college level to be a college graduate.
I would imagine that most everyone, even STEM students, can write, I am not talking about writing. I am talking about creating.
A Math problem is a creation in Math. Learning ABOUT MATH , would be more similar to taking Art History, where you learn about the History of Art, various movements, and to understand and identify different art movements. They do not however, need to produce a work of Art.
As a TA at Stony Brook in a writing intensive course that was favored by what is now called STEM majors, "Sociology of Technology" I was consistently appalled by the level of writing on tests. Incomplete sentences, abbreviations, colloquialisms,technical jargon, and lists, when an essay was called for.
Students were given the option of one paper and one midterm or two multiple choice tests
No takers on the Term Paper. They just loved those scantron/opscansheets though. Blue books? Not so much.
I would imagine that most everyone, even STEM students, can write, I am not talking about writing. I am talking about creating.
A Math problem is a creation in Math. Learning ABOUT MATH , would be more similar to taking Art History, where you learn about the History of Art, various movements, and to understand and identify different art movements. They do not however, need to produce a work of Art.
As a TA at Stony Brook in a writing intensive course that was favored by what is now called STEM majors, "Sociology of Technology" I was consistently appalled by the level of writing on tests. Incomplete sentences, abbreviations, colloquialisms,technical jargon, and lists, when an essay was called for.
Students were given the option of one paper and one midterm or two multiple choice tests
No takers on the Term Paper. They just loved those scantron/opscansheets though. Blue books? Not so much.
Solving a math problem is not creating anything.
Honestly, solving a math problem is a lower level skill than writing a research paper.
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The purpose of this thread is to post schools which are math optional. There are still some, and I want people to be aware of these schools.
