Viewpoint: Yes, most first-year college students would be better off taking a statistics course rather than calculus because statistics offers a greater variety of practical applications for a non-scientific career path.

Viewpoint: No, first-year college students would not be better off taking a statistics course rather than calculus because calculus is wider in application and teaches an intellectual rigor that students will find useful throughout their lives.

Statistics is a branch of mathematics devoted to the collection and analysis of numerical data. Calculus, on the other hand, is a mathematical discipline that deals with rates of change and motion. The two, it would seem, have little in common, yet they are linked inasmuch as they are at the center of...