Universities Weblog

I see it all the time, especially in my Freshmen students: stress and illness. These both increase around midterms and final exam time. College students are notorious for many things, and one of those is letting the new stressful demands of being on their own–not to mention communal living– take a toll on their health.

I was glad to see this article extolling the importance of this issue, as well as offering helpful advice.

Know where to go for medical emergencies and nonemergencies. Be aware of what services are available at your student health center. Too often, students don't know that there are many services available to them, including counseling for stress. Find out the location of the nearest emergency room and keep important phone numbers for medical services handy.

Fill up on zzzs. ''It sounds fairly simple, but getting enough sleep can make a big difference,'' said Patricia Ketcham, chairwoman of the National College Health Assessment advisory committee for the National College Health Association. Too many late nights studying or partying can weaken your immune system. Don't use caffeine regularly to stay awake for class. Take naps.

The improvement in university healthcare is truly amazing. Most schools offer free or discounted medical services and a wide array of options for students. It is not uncommon for university health centers to employ everything from general practitioners to dermatologists to psychiatrists.

Here's to a healthy fall semester.

(Source: Colby College)

Ivy bashing continues.

This time it's Newsweek making the case that a good education can be had elsewhere. Thanks for the tip. For the record, these are the "new Ivies," according to Newsweek:

Boston College, Bowdoin, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd and Pomona, Colby, Colgate, Davidson, Emory, Kenyon, Macalaster, Michigan, NYU, UNC, Notre Dame, Olin College of Engineering, Reed, RPI, Rice, University of Rochester, Skidmore, Tufts, UCLA, Vanderbilt, UVA and Washington U.

Seems to me these schools have always been good and, to varying degrees, popular. (One exception, of course, is Olin, which enrolled its first class in 2002.) But is it really news that talented students are choosing Bowdoin, UCLA and Vanderbilt?

Anything to sell magazines, I suppose.

(Source: Williams College)

You'd think graduates of private colleges accrue more debt than those of public colleges, given the respective costs. In many cases, you'd be wrong.

A new report sheds light on just how much debt college graduates accumulate. Here's the Chronicle of Higher Education's take:

Students who attend public universities and state colleges graduate with nearly as much student-loan debt as those at private colleges on average, according to a report released on Tuesday. [....]

Along with the report, the project has posted on its Web site an interactive map that provides statewide averages and campus-by-campus data.

(Source: Kenyon College)

Line right up, journalists, and take turns beating the same drum. Yes, we know American higher education includes more than the Ivies, Stanford, Duke, Amherst and Williams. Yes, we know good educations and bargains can be found just about everywhere. Yes, we know many students ignore all this and pine for the Ivies anyway.

But let's rehash it once more, courtesy of the New York Times. Here's how we begin:

If you live and die by status, if the name Harvard, Yale, Stanford or Penn must hang etched in sheepskin on your wall, then read no further. There is nothing we can do for you here. The demographic bulge of college-age students has made the journey to a top-tier campus the most arduous, angst-ridden an 18-year-old can make.

"My view is that there is a very modest to zero correlation between general academic prestige and the quality of undergraduate experience available to students," says Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. "Those seeking hidden gems are very wise, especially if they are committed to coming to a campus and becoming very active students, taking advantage of faculty office hours, undergrad research experiences and the like."

Ah, so true.

For everyone interested in those "hidden gems," the piece goes on to offer brief descriptions of the following schools: Pitzer, Santa Clara, Mills, Southern Oregon, evergreen State, Whitman, Colorado College, Oklahoma, Macalester, Carleton, Grinnell, Cornell College, Kalamazoo, Earlham, Miami U., Kenyon, College of Wooster, SUNY Geneseo, Union College and Wheaton.

Of course, for those obsessed with the Ivies, none of this matters.

Think you know who's in line to be the next Harvard president? Wanna bet?

You can, according to this Boston Globe article. Just go to bodog.com to wager among 17 candidates. Each has odds on being appointed.

I wonder if the chair of the search committee will try his or her luck.

College just keeps getting better and better. I almost wish I hadn't been yet, just so I could experience all the amazing things happening now.

Okay, most colleges require some math courses and a biology course or two. But what if your college required you to, well, leave the country?

Some colleges are doing just that, and experts hope it is a trend that will grow stronger.

The article makes several thought worthy points and does signal an exciting possibility in the development of higher education. However, I do disagree with the notion that world travel should be so full of 'agenda.' I still believe that traveling benefits the individual most of all, and should. What do you think? Would you like to study abroad as a college requirement?

FOXNews.com has launched a fabulous new series that examines the 'typical' lives of college students.

Most students wrestle with the same dilemmas and share the same questions, so shared experience is invaluable. Be sure to keep up with the series, as it will certainly be a help to you.

Topics include such things as whether to choose a liberal or professional college, how to handle financial aid options, and of course, how to choose the best major. (Is there any student who hasn't changed their major at least three times?)

The series contains both articles and videos. What topics would you like to see covered?

U.S. News officially releases its 2007 college rankings tomorrow, but I managed to get my grubby paws on them early. Here they are:

National Universities

1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Yale
4. Cal-Tech/MIT/Stanford
7. Penn
8. Duke
9. Columbia/Dartmouth/UChicago
12. Cornell/Washington U.
14. Northwestern
15. Brown
16. Johns Hopkins
17. Rice
18. Emory/Vanderbilt
20. Notre Dame

National Liberal Arts Colleges

1. Williams
2. Amherst
3. Swarthmore
4. Wellesley
5. Middlebury
6. Carleton
7. Bowdoin/Pomona
9. Haverford
10. Davidson/Wesleyan
12. Claremont McKenna/Vassar
14. Grinnell/Harvey Mudd
16. Colgate
17. Hamilton/Washington and Lee
19. Smith
20. Bryn Mawr/Colby

Yahoo! Finance is featuring a "back to school" page with articles about newfangled dorms, PCs, cost-cutting measures, choosing roommates, MBA futures and, Naturally, the sociology of tattoos.

Worth a look….

That question recently graced the cover of Time magazine, and of course the article retold the same old story: Competition for the Ivies and such is fierce, and students can find a good education at many other schools. So stop stressing, students and parents, and concentrate on the right fit, not the name brand.

Yes, we've heard the message before. And yes, it bears repeating. Here's a bit:

It's the summer before your senior year, and you're sweating. The college brochures are spread across the table, along with itineraries, SAT review books, downloaded copies of Web pages that let you chart the grades and scores of every kid from your high school who applied to a given college in the past five years and whether they got in or not. You're hunting for a school where the principal oboe player is graduating, or the soccer goalie, so it might be in the market for someone with your particular skills. You can be fifth-generation Princeton or the first in your family to apply to college: it's still the most important decision you've ever made, and the most confounding.

You're the college counselor at a public school in a hothouse ZIP code, and you wish you could grab the students, grab the parents by the shoulders and shake them. Twenty thousand dollars for a college consultant? They're paying for help getting into a school where the kid probably doesn't belong. Do they really think there are only 10 great colleges in the country? There are scores of them, hundreds even, honors colleges embedded inside public universities that offer an Ivy education at state-school prices; small liberal-arts colleges that exalt the undergraduate experience in a way that the big schools can't rival. And if they hope to go on to grad school? Getting good grades at a small school looks better than floundering at a famous one. Think they need to be able to tap into the old-boy network to get a job? Chances are, the kid is going to be doing a job that doesn't even exist now, so connections won't do much good. The rules have changed. The world has changed. You have a sign over your office door: COLLEGE IS A MATCH TO BE MADE, NOT A PRIZE TO BE WON.

Read the rest here.