(Source: University of Chicago)
Every media outlet is offering its version of the "Year in Review" these days. For readers interested in higher education (like me), USA Today has compiled a year's worth of articles on various topics.
You can find the main page here. While there, look for features on the following:
(Source: Yale University)
Yale, which has for years featured a B-list B-school, is shaking things up. Students in the MBA program are now required to study abroad before graduating. Yale, it seems, is going global.
Check out this AP story:
Yale this year became the first major university to require its MBA students to study abroad. The Ivy League school also replaced finance and marketing courses that have been the mainstay of business education for 50 years with courses structured to mimic the way business managers operate.
"We are at the beginning of what over the next five years will be tremendous change in business education,'' said Joel M. Podolny, dean of Yale's School of Management.
The changes, implemented this fall, come after criticism in scholarly articles that MBA programs have failed to teach useful skills. Other business schools are implementing or considering similar plans.
Business schools increasingly compete for students and faculty as the number of MBA programs has soared. Universities are trying to differentiate themselves with special programs, such as a growing emphasis on ethics courses in the wake of corporate scandals.
Read the rest here. And if you're headed for New Haven, you'd better bring your passport.
With the enormous amount of information available in this day and time, many students and educators feel that colleges and universities should make their 'stats' known, too. Just how good of an institution is it, and will you benefit from it…or should you head somewhere else?
Americans who know every detail about college football rivals would have trouble finding information to assess the quality of education at those universities.
Average yards rushing per game? Sure. Average gain in writing or analytical skills in four years? Five-year graduation rate? Students' access to faculty? Probable cost of a diploma? Don't look for it on the Web site.
In a report released in September, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education called for creating a national higher-education database that would help families compare colleges by showing which are the most effective in helping students earn a degree.
That's important to know: Half of students who go to college don't earn a degree in six years. Graduation rates tend to be highest at selective colleges and lowest at colleges that admit students with minimal grades and test scores, but there are significant differences at every level.
It's certainly an intriguing argument. Do you want to 'know all' about your school?
Students who attend a Virginia community college can breathe a sigh of relief:
The Virginia Community College System and the University of Mary Washington announced Wednesday an agreement to guarantee admission for any eligible Virginia community college student who wants to transfer to a four-year college.
Among the requirements, students must have earned a transfer-oriented Associate Degree and meet certain essential requirements, according to college officials.
"I am so excited about the agreement," said Germanna Community College's President Frank Turnage, Wednesday afternoon. "It's a major accomplishment and step in the right direction. It's going to be a wonderful opportunity for community college students statewide looking to continue their education."
Is guaranteed admission a good idea? What do you think?
(Source: University of Florida)
We've seen this before, so I suppose it's a recurring theme: Flagship state universities, in a race for better students and better rankings, are abandoning their mission to provide affordable education to low-income families. Merit aid chases affluent students while need-based aid suffers. Tuitions rise to fund more amenities. A country club atmosphere begins to develop, discouraging poorer students from applying. Eventually, State U becomes an Ivy wannabe.
Or so the story goes. Let's hear it from the New York Times:
Like [the University of] Florida, more leading public universities are striving for national status and drawing increasingly impressive and increasingly affluent students, sometimes using financial aid to lure them. In the process, critics say, many are losing force as engines of social mobility, shortchanging low-income and minority students, who are seriously underrepresented on their campuses.
"Public universities were created to make excellence available to all qualified students," said Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, an advocacy group, "but that commitment appears to have diminished over time, as they choose to use their resources to try to push up their rankings. It's all about reputation, selectivity and ranking, instead of about the mission of finding and educating future leaders from their state."
While a handful of public universities have long stood among the nation's top institutions – the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan among them – many have only recently joined their ranks.
At some of the best public universities, selectivity is up: at the University of Florida, the average student high school grade point average now exceeds 4.0, a feat achievable only with high grades in honors or Advanced Placement classes. And student interest in these institutions is soaring. At the University of Vermont, where three quarters of the Freshmen come from other states, applications have more than doubled since 2001.
The demands on such universities are growing, too, particularly with many states questioning their spending on higher education. Increasingly, these colleges are expected to bolster their states' economies by attracting research grants and jobs. To do that, they say, they must compete with elite private universities.
So the universities face a tough balancing act: should they push for higher status and higher tuition revenue by accepting more top-achieving, out-of-state students, or should they worry about broadening access for low-income, in-state students? Is their primary goal to serve the people of their state or to compete nationally with private research universities? Can they leave the less prestigious state colleges to serve the bulk of in-state students?
Read the rest here.
More specifically, sign on to youtube.com. The 'video share' site has long been appreciated for its entertainment, but it's also a great place for college students to catch up on, or get help with, subjects they're having trouble with.
More and more professors are offering 'mini lectures' online that take a student Step by step through complicated processes such as writing a research paper or designing a computer program. This video on installing a Firefox extension is a nice example.
Just type in the subject you need help with at the youtube site, and there's a good chance you could bring a college professor right into your home.
Thousands of college students do it each year: transfer to another college. Whether it's a college across town or in a completely different country, transferring can be a real pain. Along with the extra work and inconvenience comes many questions.
This great article can help make your transfer smoother.
Say you're a student, trying to save some money, and you're trying to figure out which local institution to attend. Do you go for the least expensive or the best quality? According to new research, your best investment is to spend the money, which many times would lead someone to a four-year institution.
The results of the study are definitely skewed in one direction, but good points are made, and you can learn a lot from the comments other readers have posted.
(Image Source: ASE)
(Source: University of Dayton)
Can't decide on a major? Try taking Handholding 101.
It seems more and more "young adults" just can't make up their minds about what to study. They need someone to help them decide…or decide for them. Colleges oblige, as this ABC News story details:
Colleges around the country are devoting more time, money and staff power to students who can't decide on a major, concerned that many of them will leave school without graduating or will prolong their college careers and take up precious spots for prospective students. Indecision can be costly for students, as well, in times of rising tuition.
College officials say many students were so focused on extracurricular activities in high school that they spent little time considering career choices.
"They are more sheltered and more accustomed to adults making decisions for them and keeping them on track," said Chrissy Coley, director of retention and planning at the University of South Carolina's Student Success Center.
Tuition and fees at public four-year public colleges this fall rose $344, or 6.3 percent, to an average of $5,836, according to the College Board's annual "Trends in College Pricing" report. At private four-year colleges, published tuition and fees rose 5.9 percent, to an average of $22,218.
But students who can't settle on a major risk extending their college careers and paying more.
Read the rest here.
Do you love literature? Does Russian poetry or theology set your passions afire? Would you love to spend years studying foreign languages or philosophy? Then do it.
Not only is the absolute best major for you something you are truly interested in, you can even get paid for it later. No, really.
There are a number of career paths available to liberal arts graduates.
If you're a grad student, I'd like to share a few helpful tips from someone who has recently made a go of it on the job market.
Take a moment, and ask yourself: If I leave the ivory tower, what skills would I have? You'd be surprised.
You can read the rest of this excellent article here, filled with tips, encouragement, and advice for studying your passions, and becoming well equipped to find a good job because of them.
(Source: Ursinus College)
What to do if enrollment sags? Raise tuition. Applicants will think you're better. Just be prepared to discount tuition through financial aid for those who can't afford it.
Sound crazy? It's real. Read this from the New York Times:
John Strassburger, the president of Ursinus College, a small liberal arts institution here in the eastern Pennsylvania countryside, vividly remembers the day that the chairman of the board of trustees told him the college was losing applicants because of its tuition.
It was too low.
So early in 2000 the board voted to raise tuition and fees 17.6 percent, to $23,460 (and to include a laptop for every incoming student to help soften the blow). Then it waited to see what would happen.
Ursinus received nearly 200 more applications than the year before. Within four years the size of the freshman class had risen 35 percent, to 454 students. Applicants had apparently concluded that if the college cost more, it must be better.
"It's bizarre and it's embarrassing, but it's probably true," Dr. Strassburger said.
Ursinus also did something more: it raised student aid by nearly 20 percent, to just under $12.9 million, meaning that a majority of its students paid less than half price.
Ursinus is not unique. With the race for rankings and choice students shaping college pricing, the University of Notre Dame, Bryn Mawr College, Rice University, the University of Richmond and hendrix college, in Conway, Ark., are just a few that have sharply increased tuition to match colleges they consider their rivals, while also providing more financial assistance.
The recognition that families associate price with quality, and that a tuition rise, accompanied by discounts, can lure more applicants and revenue, has helped produce an economy in academe something like that in the health care system, with prices rising faster than inflation but with many consumers paying less than full price.
You can find the rest here.
