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Why, according to Gladwell, do “more than half of all American students who start out in science, technology, and math programs . . . drop out after their first or second year” (page 8)? How does he support this claim?

User Ed Lucas
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Answer:

According to Malcolm Gladwell, many science, technology, and math program students in America drop out because of the tough competition between schools, and the high workload and stress associated with studying those courses.

And in support of his claim, he presents a comparison between students of Hartwick College and Harvard, where the best students of Hartwick and that of Harvard's bottom third have the same score levels.

Explanation:

In his book "David and Goliath", Malcolm Gladwell stated that "more than half of all American students who start out in science, technology, and math programs . . . drop out after their first or second year." This is mainly due to the high demand and level of competition among the students to be 'perfect' and get good grades. The competition is hard which makes it a lot more stressful than those who opt for the arts.

To support this claim, he presents a chart/ data of one school in upstate New York called Hartwick College, where the SAT scores are compared. This date provides the data that shows how much of the science students drop out of their courses, for only a few percentages of the students who opt for this course were able to get high scores.

Now, compared to that of Hartwick, Harvard students who are in the bottom scores are on the same level as that of Hartwick's best scorers. This shows the disparity between the schools and how the levels differ so much.

User Sergey Zyuzin
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