You're correct that most of computer science (except for the explicit mat classes you're required to take) doesn't inherently rely on existing math knowledge.

You're correct that most of computer science (except for the explicit mat classes you're required to take) doesn't inherently rely on existing math knowledge. However, they way computer science is taught does assume prior math knowledge. Thinking back to the very first example algorithms in my intro class--we had to impliment addition, multiplication, then heron's square root method. Very basic math, but that was around the time many students dropped the class.