[ewanmcteagle]

I think this is a valuable alternate perspective. Students will become discouraged from time to time and this will vary by field. Frankly, most professors don't care about undergraduate education. I know this from direct experience. They will typically list their priorities as: research and grants, graduate students, and only then, undergraduate teaching. And teaching is hard enough even when it's a top priority. You always lose some students without dedicated effort put into teaching and that will be worse in harder classes. High school doesn't prepare students for a rigorous college experience and if we don't bridge that gap somehow that will be one more reason someone will get out of a tough curriculum.