I think we do a terrible job in the US education system of explaining why and how concepts are important. When I entered the University of Michigan for Computer Science, I had to take many math classes in my early years that seemed at the time very unrelated to programming (derivatives, integrals, multi-variate calculus, differential equations, linear algebra). I did what was required to pass these classes but didn’t understand their importance. Then, my senior year of college I took computer graphics and machine learning courses. I was so disappointed that I didn’t realize the real-world applications of math and how it would be helpful to my career. I feel like these math concepts could have been more integrated into the degree program. At the very least, a better explanation of the applications for these concepts would have been helpful.