those aren't the only two possible outcomes. I went to a pretty good state school with pretty generous admissions criteria, but very rigorous coursework. most o

those aren't the only two possible outcomes. I went to a pretty good state school with pretty generous admissions criteria, but very rigorous coursework. most of the required courses for stem majors started at the 200 level. if you got a "good" highschool education (ie passed calculus) you were expected to start with CS-201. if not, there were lots of gentle 100-level courses to ease you into programming or teach high school math material that you either didn't take or failed. note when I say gentle, I mean the material itself is not difficult. you would be assigned a large quantity of work in every class at every level. plenty of kids failed out along the way, but it was more because they didn't put in enough time than being hopelessly underprepared for the rigor. you do kinda have to give up on the "undergrad takes exactly four years" thing if you want this to work though. some people will need to do more than 120 credits to fulfill the requirements of the degree. not everyone will be able to take a full-time course load every semester or even any semester. that doesn't make the end result worse when they finally graduate (though it may be more expensive).