“Student Loans and Defaults: The Facts – NYTimes.com” My View: Anyway you Slice it, or Dice it, It’s Too Commonly a Shakedown

“…Graduate students borrow a lot more than undergraduates…” Source: Student Loans and Defaults: The Facts – NYTimes.com I commented. A more descriptive statement than “…borrowing is highest among the minority of college students who go on for graduate study..” is:Borrowing is highest among two groups of students: those who realize that they were scammed and […]

Maybe One Reason Why So Many Graduates Don’t Get Good Jobs.

Campus clubs spring up for early birds to rouse classmates; 9 a.m. is ‘really late’ Source: In China, Sleepy University Students Experience a Wake-Up Call – WSJ I commented. “They should come here for college. According to the well-researched Academically Adrift, American students only need to study about 13 hours a week, leaving lots of time […]

In Praise of Dartmouth (I Hope)

“Dartmouth Cites Student Misconduct in Its Ban on Hard Liquor – NYTimes.com. I put “I Hope” because though all I have seen is good, one never knows.  Anyway, I pointed out that Dartmouth’s administration may be ok. “This is one of three actions I have seen from Dartmouth that impress me (as a former math […]

Columbia Cancels High Visibility Concert – What Does This Really Mean?

Columbia Cancels Concert Amid Safety Concerns – NYTimes.com. I don’t know the answer to my own question.  But, given that the adminstrators and faculty at Columbia haven’t changed, I worry that this particular concert was cancelled simply because of its high visiblity (It got in the Times.), and not because of any serious change in […]

Focus on Administrative Attitudes: Carnegie Mellon Contrasted With Washington Univ. in St. Louis

I received a comment from someone who taught at Carnegie in the 90’s.  I will compare it – only with respect to administrative attitudes –  to my experience at Washington Univ. in St. Louis.  I believe that, though both of these observations are somewhat anecdotal, there is enough substance (and observation) in both cases to illuminate these serious and important […]

Columbia University Report Says “Academically Adrift” is Wrong. Right? No, Wrong.

You can read about the report from Columbia’s “College Educational Quality Project” here: http://chronicle.com/article/A-New-Kind-of-Study-Seeks-to/144621/#disqus_thread The report says it examined “educational rigor” and “teaching quality” to reach its conclusion, which you can read about in my comment below. I commented with what I thought about their conclusion: “The “College Educational Quality (CEQ) Project at Teachers College, […]

An Interesting Program For Community College Attendance, Then Top School

I read about the program in the New York Times.(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/education/top-students-at-community-colleges-to-have-chance-to-raise-ambitions.html?ref=us&_r=0 ) I haven’t looked into it but it sounds interesting from the description in the article, so I am posting this link here. One thing that I find encouraging is this statement from the article: ““We won’t guarantee admission or transferring credits, but these students will be at a […]

Are Some US News Top Ranked Schools Not Really Preparing STEM Grads Well?

The National Science Foundation published a list of the top 50 schools for producing graduates that go on to a doctorate in Science or Engineering.  This should be a decent measure of how well they are educating their STEM undergrads.  (You can find the list with some additional info added here: Baccalaureate to Ph.D. in […]

New York’s Mayor Boomberg Is Focusing Responsibility Where It Mostly Belongs

According to today’s NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/nyregion/new-york-issuing-scorecards-on-teacher-colleges.html?pagewanted=1&tntemail0=y&_r=1&emc=edit_tnt_20130814 Mayor Bloomberg is holding universities responsible for poorly (or well) trained teachers – something I have stressed here.  (See the category University Education Dumbs Down High School , particularly the post, A Suggestion for Holding Colleges Accountable for Teacher Performance .)  I hope his administration goes on to look at graduate schools.  For my […]