What happens when even college students can't do math anymore?

Pandemic vs. Long-Term Causes of Decline

• One camp argues the dramatic drop is overwhelmingly a COVID artifact: middle-school cohorts missed key years, so current college sophomores are uniquely underprepared and later cohorts already look better. They predict scores will rebound in a few years.
• Others counter that national and international data show math performance was sliding since ~2009–2015, before COVID, so the pandemic is an accelerant, not the root cause.

Grade Inflation, Admissions, and Testing

• Several comments highlight high-school grade inflation and political pressure on teachers to pass students who lack basic skills, even in calculus.
• Removal of SAT/ACT from admissions is blamed for admitting students whose transcripts look strong but whose skills are weak; standardized tests are described as the most reliable (if imperfect) mass predictor of math ability.
• Others argue tests mainly measure test-taking, are heavily boosted by wealth (tutors, prep), and have documented cultural biases, though some note that dropping tests may benefit affluent families who can better game non-test criteria.

Gifted Programs, Tracking, and Equity

• Contentious debate over efforts to phase out gifted/advanced tracks, especially in early grades.
• One side: banning or shrinking advanced tracks “drags down” strong students, pushes families with means to private schools/tutors, and worsens inequality.
• Other side: early segregation by ability offers modest gains to gifted students while harming or not helping others; mixed-ability classrooms can spread positive peer effects. Some see K–2 gifted phaseouts as reasonable.

How Much Math Do People Need?

• Some question the push for universal mastery of trig, calculus, and differential equations, noting most jobs use little beyond arithmetic and percentages.
• Replies enumerate real uses: construction, finance, engineering safety, graphics, optimization, physics, and statistics, plus the intangible benefit of structured problem-solving.

Math as Culture and Teaching Problem

• Multiple comments blame math anxiety on poor teaching and abstract, decontextualized curricula; students are rarely shown why concepts matter.
• Suggestions include emphasizing probability, statistics, and financial math; or teaching the history of mathematics to connect ideas to real problems and civilizations.
• Others frame advanced math as a cultural achievement akin to literature—worth learning for intellectual enrichment, not just utility.

UCSD Data and Systemic Issues

• UCSD’s own remedial cohort (about 1/8 of the incoming class) performed extremely poorly on very basic items (rounding, simple fraction division, basic algebraic substitution).
• Some see this as evidence of systemic failure from K–12 through admissions; others say those students will self-select out of math-heavy majors and the core crisis is overblown.

Higher Education Incentives

• Several comments suggest universities have strong financial incentives to expand enrollment and lower standards, “selling” degrees to underprepared students.
• Others propose either tightening admission standards or more honest placement plus serious remediation, rather than mass panic about a permanent collapse in math ability.