Because the White Home strikes to revoke Harvard College’s certification to enroll overseas college students — escalating a battle between the administration and the oldest and wealthiest faculty within the U.S. — President Donald Trump is falsely claiming that Harvard gives “remedial mathematics” on subjects resembling easy addition.
FACT FOCUS: Trump’s claims about remedial math at Harvard don’t add up
Here is a better take a look at the details.
CLAIM: “Harvard announced two weeks ago that they’re going to teach remedial mathematics, remedial, meaning they’re going to teach low grade mathematics like two plus two is four. How did these people get into Harvard? If they can’t, if they can’t do basic mathematics, how did they do it?”
THE FACTS: Harvard doesn’t provide a remedial math class overlaying fundamental arithmetic. Requested whether or not Trump was referring to a selected class, a White Home spokesperson supplied details about Arithmetic MA5, which was launched within the fall of 2024 as a brand new format for an present course that gives additional help in calculus. The unique course — Arithmetic MA — remains to be supplied.
“Harvard College does not offer any so-called remedial math classes,” mentioned James Chisholm, a spokesperson for the college’s College of Arts and Sciences, which encompasses its undergraduate program.
He added: “Math MA5 is a college-level calculus class. It is simply a new format of Math MA, the introductory freshman calculus course that has been taught at Harvard for decades.”
College students in Arithmetic MA and MA5 have the very same homework, exams and grading construction, in accordance with Chisholm. The one distinction is that the previous meets three days per week and the latter 5 days per week. They’re each stipulations for higher-level math programs.
One query on a pattern examination Chisholm supplied asks college students to jot down a components for figuring out the full variety of instances throughout a hypothetical epidemic after a specific amount of days.
The Harvard Crimson reported in September that Director of Introductory Math Brendan Kelly mentioned Arithmetic MA5 is “aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students” created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A course description notes that its “extra support will target foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and quantitative reasoning.”
Harvard Extension College, the college’s persevering with training program geared toward working adults, gives a precalculus course. Most college students want solely register to attend. Those that need to pursue a level should first efficiently full two or three programs of their chosen subject of research. These incomes a certificates or taking a single course should solely meet sure enrollment necessities, resembling English proficiency.
Harvard Faculty undergraduates, who should apply to the college and be admitted below its rigorous admission requirements, aren’t allowed to cross-register for Harvard Extension College lessons.
“Harvard Extension School is 100% distinct from Harvard College and the two have nothing to do with each other in terms of curriculum or students,” mentioned Chisholm.
Harvard’s Rising Students Program, an invite-only alternative for incoming Harvard Faculty college students from “high schools that offered them limited college-level academic enrichment opportunities” gives a summer time course for college students who want an extra basis on subjects resembling precalculus and algebra.
“The important point on Rising Scholars is it’s more about the incoming student’s high school than the individual student’s ability,” mentioned Chisholm.
Harvard has additionally supplied an Rising Students Program to equally help freshmen enrolled in introductory calculus who’re thinking about fields associated to science, know-how, engineering and arithmetic, in an effort to “correct systemic inequalities in math and science K-12 education that have affected our college students for many years.”
The median math rating for essentially the most lately enrolled undergraduate class at Harvard Faculty was 790 out of 800 on the SATs and 35 out of 36 on the ACTs. The typical highschool GPA was 4.2.
“There is no university in America that is as difficult to earn admission to as Harvard — no matter your demographics,” mentioned Brian Taylor, managing accomplice on the faculty counseling service Ivy Coach. “President Trump’s math in this case simply doesn’t add up.”
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