
Why would-be engineers end up as English majors - evo_9
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/17/education.stem.graduation/index.html?hpt=Sbin
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pw
_"We need more supportive programs and less sorting"_

We don't need _less_ sorting, we need _better_ sorting. It's obvious that some
fields have a cognitive threshold.[1] Some people just aren't smart enough to
succeed as a math major (and there's nothing wrong with that). Current "sink
or swim" classes weed out students that students that are poorly prepared or
unmotivated, as well as those that aren't smart enough. We can do something
about the former, but not the latter.

1\. Steve Hsu has published some research on cognitive thresholds for
different college majors. He found that such thresholds exist in physics and
math: [http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2010/03/cognitive-
thresholds.ht...](http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2010/03/cognitive-
thresholds.html)

