William Mao and Veronica Paulus
Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this ‘acclaimed university’?” McMahon wrote in reference to an introductory math course launched last year that she derided as “remedial.”
McMahon is not alone in criticizing Harvard’s academic rigor.
Her argument that the University has gone soft on academics echoes long-standing conservative criticisms that Harvard has become too easy — rooted in what they argue is a practice of accepting applicants and promoting faculty for the diversity they bring to campus, rather than their intellectual merit.
Even among Harvard faculty, most of whom are not inclined to sympathize with McMahon or the logic in her letter, separate but related concerns that some students are increasingly putting academics on the back burner are widespread. A January committee report on classroom norms found that students prioritize extracurricular commitments over their classes — a trend, the report’s authors wrote, that most faculty view “with alarm.”
More than a dozen students, faculty, and administrators told The Crimson that they disagreed with McMahon’s suggestion that Harvard students are intellectually weak. But many also conceded that student priorities have shifted.
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During its test optional phase (2020-2025), about one-quarter of admitted students didn’t submit either an SAT score or an ACT score
