This looks fantastic, it seems like you're doing some great work here. I was wondering if this 90% figure is based on the number of loans repaid (i.e. 9 out of 10 loans) or the amount of money repaid (i.e. $90 out of $100)?
The 90% figure is based on the amount of money repaid. More precisely, it's the amount that has been repaid for loans disbursed in 2014, divided by the amount that is due to have been repaid.
The courses he's taken so far should give him a good understanding of what applied maths is (which is the type that the OP is thinking of majoring in). The scarier, more baffling variety of maths is pure maths. In the US system, half-majoring in applied maths, you shouldn't have to do hardly any pure maths if you wanted to avoid it.
Although pure maths can be extremely hard and initially seem quite arcane, I think you paint a picture of it which is subjective and in some cases factually wrong.
I agree that maths is infinitely deep and complex, but that is exactly why maths has developed to be as elegant as possible. Good mathematics is about developing structures and analogies that allow people to drastically simplify and improve their thinking about complex situations.
You are objectively wrong when you say that maths "isn't that precise of a language". Modern maths is extremely precise and the level of rigour is leagues ahead of CS. In the early 20th century, mathematicians were worried about how precise mathematics and its proofs were. To combat this crisis, mathematicians boiled down the inherent assumptions in maths to a handful of axioms, from which the entirety of maths is logically proven. Maths is not esoteric hand waving.
I studied maths at university and in my experience, there are lots of opportunities to apply my degree to the real world. Even in a more standard software engineer role I've been able to use my maths knowledge to quickly develop solutions to problems my CS peers are struggling with (and visa versa). If anyone's interested in maths, do consider taking courses in it. It's a valuable, rich subject which has plenty of real world uses and plenty of jobs waiting for you at the end
At the moment, it's sadly languishing at a mere 21,000 signatures. If it reaches 100,000 then that should trigger a parliamentary debate. I'm also going to send an email to my local MP. Does anyone have any other ideas for fighting this censorship?
The press could mention it, that would be a start. BBC news for instance barely mentioned the proposed blocking. The only stories to hit the front page (and then, right at the bottom in the Tech section) were the links to Huawei and the spat between the minister and the reporter. The actual proposed block has barely been mentioned. Apparently a baby being born warrants continuous headline coverage; loss of civil liberties gets a footnote.
Was a cleverly chosen publication day to be honest. I wouldn't be surprised if there's other bad news that we haven't even heard about that was completely blanked off the news by baby discussion.
