General guidelines for taking math courses

When deciding which Mathematics course is right for you, please consider the following:

See your major advisor before registering for any mathematics course.

All freshmen and transfer students with fewer than 30 credits must take and pass the Elementary Algebra Placement test (Accuplacer) prior to registering for courses.  Please note: Students must complete such courses within one year or are recommended for suspension.  See the accompanying table.

Not for credit (for general education or graduation):

• Foundations of Mathematical Reasoning -  a semester-long quantitative literacy-based course designed to provide students with the skills and conceptual understanding to succeed in a college-level statistics or quantitative literacy course.  This must be taken by students who have not passed the Accuplacer, and no other mathematics course can be taken without passing basic skills.

Courses for general education credit (listed in order of difficulty):

• Contemporary Math - a relatively easy math appreciation course that includes some discrete math, statistics, and geometry. Recommended for humanities, communications, arts, and education majors
• Introduction to Geometry - an elementary geometry course for general audience
• Elementary Statistics - basic introduction to statistics not appropriate for business or science majors but recommended for communications or social science majors.
• [College Algebra – no longer being taught at Rowan, but a student might transfer in an equivalent.  It was a prerequisite for Calculus T&A, and will allow a student into Calculus T&A.]
• Reasoning with Functions – a prerequisite and prepares students for Calculus T&A; and will prepare a student for Precalculus Mathematics, Statistics I, Discrete Math or Discrete Structures if the student does not test into them directly. See the accompanying table.
• Precalculus Mathematics - a prerequisite and prepares students for Calculus I; required for students who score less than 60 on the CLM placement tests.  Required for Psychological Science (BS) majors.
• Structures of Mathematics I & II - primarily for elementary and special education majors.
• Calculus Techniques and Applications (Calculus T&A) - calculus course for Business and Economics majors.
• Statistics I & II - Two semester sequence for Business majors, but can be taken by anybody who qualifies.
• Discrete Mathematics - For Mathematics BA/BS and some Liberal Studies majors.
• Discrete Structures - for Computer Science majors.
• Calculus I & II - two semester sequence for STEM majors.