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 […]

Dartmouth Also Has a 3-2 Program. How Does It Compare to Wash.U. and Columbia?.

Here are the differences that stand out to me. (1) Dartmouth has a list of 19 schools that it participates with.  Wash. U.’s list has 86 and Columbia’s has 102. (2) Unlike Wash. U. and Columbia, Dartmouth doesn’t seem to guarantee admission.  Wash. U. and Columbia appear to guarantee admission to students with a specified […]

Columbia University – Another 3-2 Program Like Wash. U.’s?

Maybe.  I won’t make this post long.  I will just give the links. Here is the link to the list of affiliate schools for Columbia: http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/combined_plan_affiliates_2012-13.pdf Here is the link to the program “guarenteed admissions” information: http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/combined-plan In a later post, I will explain why I think it matters and why I think these programs may be just money […]