David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

educated scientists and engineers in the
United States.
To get a sense of who is dropping out
—and why—let’s take a look at the
science enrollment of a school in upstate
New York called Hartwick College. It’s
a small liberal arts college of the sort
that is common in the American
Northeast.
Here are all the Hartwick STEM
majors divided into three groups—top
third, middle third, and bottom third—
according to their test scores in
mathematics. The scores are from the
SAT, the exam used by many American
colleges as an admissions test. The
mathematics section of the test is out of