Her mother was right. Maybe weak students should -- like in CA -- go to a two year college that is a stepping stone between high school and college, with more oversight and structure; finish their gen eds; and transfer. The diploma says the same thing after 4 years.

And to be clear, it's not like Vanessa is a good student. fta:

   a month into the school year, Vanessa stumbled. She failed her first test in 
   statistics, a prerequisite for admission to the nursing program. She was 
   surprised at how bad it felt. Failure was not an experience she was used to. 
   At Mesquite High, she never had to study for math tests; she aced them all 
   without really trying. (Her senior-year G.P.A. was 3.50, placing her 39th 
   out of 559 students in her graduating class. She got a 22 on the ACT, the 
   equivalent of about a 1,030 on the SAT — not stellar, but above average.)

So basically, she only got a 3.5 in hs, and never learned math particularly well. It's not exactly a surprise she struggles at a good university.