Jack Uretsky said, "As reported to us by one of the Deans, the elite
school graduates benefited for about 1 year from their advanced
preparation. By the second year the advantage had vanished."
Okay, but think about that. A one-year advantage (or disadvantage) is
all it takes to make (or break) a student. A person who thinks they
might major in science or pre-med, and then has a rough first year is
probably not going to make it. Even when I see promise and urge the
student to consider a second year, a rough first year makes it really
hard to keep the student in the program. They struggle more than they
want, they have a lower freshman GPA than they want, and the thought of
three more years is more than they can take. Indeed, we lose quite a
few after the first semester.
Yes, there are those who had both junior chemistry and senior physics in
high school and still struggle. And there are a few who had neither and
do okay. These are the exceptions. The first year as a chemistry, or
physics, or engineering, or pre-med student generally goes better if the
student had a good HS experience in both chemistry and physics. I've
been seeing this for 28 years. Isn't anybody else seeing it?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu