Dyscalculia Schools

June 19, 2007 7:54 PM

What schools in the US will waive math requirements for people with dyscaculia?

My housemate claims he's only attending Temple University, here in Philly, as its the only school that will give him a degree and waive a math requirement. Is this true? There's an awful lot of schools out there...

posted by SansPoint to education (16 comments total)

I went to art school to avoid math. Seriously. Ended up being good at art, fortunately.
posted by miss lynnster at 8:14 PM on June 19, 2007

My university accepted any number of science courses with mathematical components - from physics all the way down to oceanography - as fulfilling a math requirement; a number of classes in cosmology and other less-predictably-mathematical subjects fit the bill also.
posted by mdonley at 8:19 PM on June 19, 2007

A lot of schools will let you take a "history of math" type class that doesn't involve any numbers. Take for example Rutgers, which is a large, "public ivy" type school. On the degree requirements they say you can take "Topics in Mathematics for the Liberal Arts" as your lone math requirement. Or take Columbia, an ivy which doesn't even have a math requirement in "the core". So I'd imagine there's tons of school he could have gone to.
posted by jourman2 at 8:23 PM on June 19, 2007

A lot of schools will let you take a "history of math" type class that doesn't involve any numbers.

Yeah, I was never inclined to do well in math, so in college I satisfied the math requirement by taking a class in which we wrote essays about math.

Seriously.
posted by jayder at 8:59 PM on June 19, 2007

I most likely have dyscaculia. My school had an option where I could take my math requirement class at the local community college and transfer the credits over to the University. I liked the pace of the community college math course and the instructor was very patient and accustomed to dealing with math-phobes. I ended up getting an A pretty easily and as a bonus, paying less tuition to take the class. I imagine other colleges allow for this kind of deal.
posted by pluckysparrow at 9:03 PM on June 19, 2007

Yeah, I was never inclined to do well in math, so in college I satisfied the math requirement by taking a class in which we wrote essays about math.

If you don't understand why that's in principle a really serious and solid way to satisfy a math requirement, it wasn't a very good class.
posted by escabeche at 9:11 PM on June 19, 2007

There are plenty of schools in the US that have NO subject-distribution requirements. (Usually in these cases you have to meet some requirement to get an honors degree, but not a regular old BA or BS.)

Also, often a math requirement can be "gotten around" by taking a course like logic, which doesn't involve numbers or math but other symbolic manipulation. Sometimes courses like ancient Greek philosophy will count too, since they're courses in "abstract thought".
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:12 PM on June 19, 2007

Depending on your major (not that you'll be able to do a math/science major with dyscalculia), one can get through UC Davis without ever taking a math class. They require three courses in the math-and-science areas, period. There's certain science classes that are low to nil when it comes to math. Look for the ones that could count for the social science req as well as math/science.

(I am most likely dyscalculic myself- it worked for me!)
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:19 PM on June 19, 2007

That is, in schools without subject-distribution requirements, usually you need a certain number of credits total to graduate, and you need to fulfill the requirements for some major. But they don't tell you what kinds of courses you need to take outside your major.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:19 PM on June 19, 2007

Also, if he has this as a result of a brain injury he may find that schools that otherwise would have a math requirement may waive it in favour of another science course. That's what happened with me.
posted by watsondog at 9:31 PM on June 19, 2007

yeah, there are plenty of schools that just don't have a math requirement. That's different from its being waived for people who have specific trouble with math, but it's not as if there's only one university someone who wants to avoid math could attend. In fact there are a lot of small, alternative, liberal arts colleges that focus very heavily on writing & the humanities where the problem tends to be that there aren't enough serious math/lab science options available (students at those schools who really want to get serious math courses sometimes supplement at a large state school in the area or something)
posted by mdn at 9:35 PM on June 19, 2007

At University of Michigan I took a census course that required almost no math. Ironically, I am now a quantoid.
posted by k8t at 9:46 PM on June 19, 2007

I got away with it by taking logic/critical reasoning. However, I know many people who took math at a community college and then audited the university course *and then* enrolled in the university course. I suppose it depends on what options you have.
posted by acoutu at 11:03 PM on June 19, 2007

Look closely at the actual requirements and then look closely at how the various departments are organized.

For instance...
I am terrible at math. Dunno why. I was petrified about the math requirement in college. Then I discovered that the "math" requirement was actually a requirement to fulfill x-hours from the school that contained the math department. For some unfathomable reason, that school contained both the math and history departments. I love history!
So, I fulfilled the "math" requirement by loading-up on history classes! I never once stepped foot into an actual math class during my college career.

Did I suffer for that lack of instruction? Perhaps. Though, I've not run across any scenarios that I couldn't work though on my own...save for lending any help whatsoever with my daughter's calculus homework.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:01 AM on June 20, 2007

My school, Brown University, has no distribution requirements. I believe that Smith College and Amherst are similar, as well as Connecticut Wesleyan and a few others that I can't think of off the top of my head. They're all pretty good schools though, so getting in is another matter.
posted by awesomebrad at 7:21 AM on June 20, 2007

Bates College has what I think is a unique requirement: you have to take either math or a foreign language, but not both.

So no, there's no way that Temple is the "only" school like that. Perhaps it's the only school that meets some other requirements, or is within a distance he wants to travel, or something else, but it's not the "only" school in the U.S.

There are probably other small liberal-arts/sciences schools that are similarly flexible, if you look around and ask. Particularly if your roommate has a letter from a doctor diagnosing a bona fide medical/psychological condition, rather than just a self-diagnosis.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:39 AM on June 20, 2007