Universities Weblog

(Source: New York University)

Come again?

NYU?

Kidding, right?

Nope. NYU is the top choice for students "dreaming" about colleges, according to the Princeton Review. Harvard is second.

Parents had a slightly different take, however, naming Stanford first among the dreamy. Funny that few parents dream of their kids landing at NYU; it didn't crack their top 10.

Here are the full results:

Q: What would be your "dream" college? What college would you most like to attend (or see your child attend) if chance of being accepted or cost were not an issue?

Answers, from students:
1) NYU
2) Harvard
3) Stanford
4) Princeton
5) Columbia
6) Yale
7) UCLA Brown
9) Georgetown
10) Penn

Answers, from parents:
1) Stanford
2) Princeton
3) Harvard
4) Brown
5) Notre Dame
6) Boston College
7) MIT Northwestern
9) Yale
10) Georgetown

(Source: Harvard University)

My latest Chronicle of Higher Education column appeared this week. It's a letter to Drew Faust, the incoming Harvard president. I thought I'd share with her some thoughts about the university's massive fund raising goals.

Here's a bit….

Dear Dr. Faust:

I wonder, though, how much thought you have given to leading the largest fund-raising campaign in the history of American higher education. Sources, reliable or otherwise, suggest that Harvard is planning a campaign in the neighborhood of $5-billion. As someone who has frequently pondered what it must be like to undertake such responsibilities, I figured I would share what I can.

You can find the rest here.

(Source: Princeton University)

Children of alumni, known as legacies, often receive preferential treatment when applying to mom's or dad's alma mater. How they fare once they're in is the subject of a new study.

The findings? Legacies face academic difficulties more often than athletes or minority students who benefited from affirmative action.

Read this snippet from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

A new study by researchers at Princeton University has found that the children of alumni — commonly known as "legacies" — are far more likely than minority students or athletes to run into academic trouble in college if admissions preferences got them through the door.

Barmak Nassirian, an associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said on Friday that the study's findings "just pile on more evidence that institutions ought to take a careful look at what they are doing on legacies."

You can find the rest here.

So the debate persists. Should universities continue to favor legacies in admissions decisions? Why or why not?

(Source: davidson college)

Following in Ivy footsteps, Davidson College announced it will no longer require students to take out loans. Instead, the college will meet financial need through grants and work-study jobs. Students will thus graduate debt-free.

Read this, courtesy of the AP:

Davidson College announced Monday it will eliminate loans from its need-based financial aid packages and replace them with grants and work-study, a move school officials said would allow students to graduate debt-free.

Others, such as Harvard and Yale, have stopped requiring lower-income families to contribute to the cost of attending – an amount of money usually expected based on federal financial aid calculations. And even public universities, such as the University of North Carolina, have stopped forcing loans upon the neediest students.

You can find the rest here and read Davidson's announcement here.

(Source: Hamilton College)

How much should colleges reward merit, and how much should they address need? It's a tricky question with no clear answers. Put another way, the answer varies by institution.

But as this USA Today article shows, many colleges are rethinking whatever formulas they've used. As a result, they're pouring more resources into need-based aid and cutting merit-based funding.

Here's a snippet:

Good grades and high test scores still matter – a lot – to many colleges as they award financial aid.

Not all colleges offer merit aid; generally, the more selective a school, the less likely it is to do so. Harvard and Princeton, for example, offer generous need-based packages, but plenty of families who don't meet need eligibility have been willing to pay whatever they must for a big-name school.

Read the rest here. And check out Hamilton College's new policy and rationale here.

The big tournament starts tomorrow, and bracketmania is once again sweeping America. Funny how no one pays attention to College basketball until we have brackets to fill out. Pure madness.

Anyway, a couple of years ago I wrote a piece for InsideHigherEd called "March Madness." It actually has very little to do with basketball per se, but it's fun nonetheless. Here's a bit:

Every March, university campuses embrace an enduring tradition. No, not spring break. I'm referring to college basketball, and those few weeks when our attention turns to bubbles and bracketology, office pools and buzzer-beaters, Cinderella stories and Final Four mayhem.

That statement is preceded by the claim that the singer is a "helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva engineer." Maine has its own "Stein Song," which exhorts students to "drink to all the happy hours, drink to the careless days!" And New Mexico State enthusiasts promise to "buy a keg of booze" and "drink to the Aggies 'til we wobble in our shoes."

Read the rest here. And happy bracketing.

(Source: Sarah Lawrence College)

Yes, according to at least one college president. The head of Sarah Lawrence College called out U.S. News in a Washington Post op-ed, claiming the magazine estimates SAT scores in the absence of real data. Does this cast a shadow on the validity of the rankings?

Consider this from InsideHigherEd:

It's not unusual for college presidents to complain about U.S. News rankings (at least out of the earshot of U.S. News editors). But on Sunday, the president of Sarah Lawrence College publicly charged that the magazine is preparing to publish made up, false data about her institution. Meanwhile, Inside Higher Ed has learned that 10 other liberal arts college presidents are preparing a letter to be sent to hundreds of college presidents proposing a new set of policies that might challenge the role of the rankings. The policy options include complete non-cooperation with U.S. News and refusing to fill out the "reputational" survey – which many educators deride as a "beauty contest" that is particularly lacking in substance, even though it represents 25 percent of the magazine's rankings formula.

And that's where the dispute starts to point to potential problems with both SAT averages and U.S. News. When applicants learn that a college is SAT-optional, it doesn't take an 800 math score to figure out the statistically wise strategy. If your scores are at or above reported averages, submit them. Otherwise, don't. Not surprisingly then, many colleges that go SAT-optional experience both a surge in applications and an increase in their SAT averages … and their U.S. News rankings go up.

Read the rest here. And draw your own conclusions about rankings and their value.

It's mid-March, spring break time for many campuses. Soon college seniors will face one of life's most difficult questions: Now what?

Some will postpone the inevitable decision by attending graduate school, while others will begin forging a career. What are the best career options these days? U.S. News thinks it knows, and it's happy to share.

Look here for what the magazine calls the best jobs for 2007. You can sort jobs by pay, attainability, prestige and quality of life. And graduates-to-be can find tips on cracking the job market.

You can't put it off forever.

(Source: UC Riverside)

I don't think I know anyone who's been homeschooled. That is, I've never met anyone who's made it known. It's not that common, after all.

But it's becoming more common, and colleges are increasingly accepting and accommodating kids who've been homeschooled.

That's the gist of this Washington Post article:

David Sample wanted to attend the University of California at Riverside but thought it was a lost cause because he had been homeschooled.

Some private colleges have eagerly recruited those students for years and tailored application processes to include them. Homeschoolers still face challenges when applying to many public universities, but their chances of being considered are improving.

Read the rest here.