Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former University of Tennessee president, is bringing the idea of three-year degrees back into the news with this week’s column in Newsweek.
As a parent of a 3-year-old, I’m already dreading how much it’s going to cost to send my son to college and applaud any plan to cut those expenses, which will continue to escalate. From a financial standpoint, the idea of three-year degrees, which a College Bound previously pointed out is already offered by some schools, has some merit.
But one benefit of the four-year degree is that it benefits self-starters and highly focused students as well as those who are lacking direction during their first couple of years in college.
Some students are able to gain duel degrees or even start working on post-graduate work with the four-year scenario, allowing them to squeeze every drop out of their college career. Others arrive from high school unsure of a career focus and it takes time for them to determine their major or to develop a passion in a particular area.
Packing a college education into three years also could hinder opportunities to study abroad, and some schools have significantly increased those programs in the past decade. I’ve seen students travel around the world, to destinations as varied as England, China, Italy, and Antarctica, and come back not only with new relationships, but also a more worldly view that aids them in their studies and career paths.
Most students I know already don’t pursue internships until between their junior and senior years, and the possibility of losing out on those opportunities could be harmful upon graduation in the form of closed job doors. Those experiences are crucial, I believe, to getting hired and being competent to handle the first year in a career.
Alexander advocates steps such as making summer classes mandatory as ways that would enable students to graduate earlier. As I see college students stress about their weekly load of tests and projects, I fear that being forced to go to school year-round could lead to burnout. They need those breaks, even though as a working professional, I’m envious about those long naps and the possibility of even just a week of nothing to do but watch movies or read.
The three-year degree’s financial benefits are obvious, but to reach to that point, more would need to be done, starting as early as the middle school and high school level. The main question is how to get students focused on their careers earlier so that they enjoy a fun but knowledge-filled college education that sets them on a professional path earlier than their parents, siblings and bosses.
I was surprised the other day to see a college student I know pull out a stack of index cards and flip through them while studying for a big test. She and her friends constantly text and communicate via Facebook, but when it comes to taking notes and marking important passages in a textbook, they seem to turn to traditional paper instead of technology.
That observation fits with what The Associated Press reported when Amazon.com gave university students Kindle devices this fall. The Kindles, which had been uploaded with digital textbooks –pricier than books –were tested by more than 200 college students.
Some students reported problems typing notes using the small keys. Although there’s the ability to highlight passages or bookmark pages, some students told the AP that they had trouble sorting through the many bookmarks.
One positive: Students said the portable Kindle allowed them to study more often.
If you are pursuing a career in technology, your future could involve creating tech-savvy tools that assist students in learning and studying.
Some of my friends in college or who work at colleges say the drawbacks are the lack of color and difficulty with graphics or reading PDF documents that professors may provide students. They and the students interviewed by the AP also said they didn’t want to lose the ability to scribble notes in margins.
In an electronic world, index cards and notebooks still have a place – for now.
The traditional college freshman is 18 years old. But here at The CollegeBound Network, we are declaring shenanigans on the idea of what is “traditional.” In fact, I am going to pretend this blog is a mountaintop, and I’m going to shout out this message:
YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO GO TO COLLEGE.
Maybe you decided to work a few years before heading off to college. Perhaps you have a child who is in college. You might even have a grandchild who is in college. Age is a state of mind, and when it comes to enriching your mind, you are simply never too old to study for your college degree.
Colleges have enough tradition as it is. From fight songs to crazy mascots to secret fraternity and sorority handshakes, rest assured that a college’s long and illustrious history will not be tarnished when a non-traditional student arrives on campus. Many of the oldest colleges and universities pride themselves on having vibrant and diverse campus populations, which means that they will be more than happy to welcome older students. (And by older I mean wiser, more mature individuals who are focused on college and are eager to grow personally and professionally).
While it may seem hard to return to school after an absence from the classroom, non-traditional students actually have the upper hand on campus. Whether you’ve been away from school for two years or 22, the hiatus has allowed you to reflect on what you want out of life and how college can get you there. And since you are most likely financing your own education, chances are you’ll want to benefit from every dollar you spend by showing up at every class, ready to squeeze every drop of wisdom possible from your professors and fellow classmates.
Consider Nola Ochs, the 90-something woman who earned her degree after taking one class at a time for years. Or Ken Mink, the 73-year-old who not only returned to college, but also to the college basketball court. These students made headlines, but there are many more non-traditional students who are forging a new tradition of their own by breaking down the age barriers in the classroom.
Think you might be ready to stage your own comeback? In the upcoming weeks, check out our sister blog, CollegeSurfing, for some inspiring stories of adults returning to college.
Some bad news as high school students prepare to head back to school: SAT scores have taken a slight dip and the gap between minorities and their white and Asian-American counterparts is only increasing.
But the decrease isn’t as bad as you might fear. According to a recent article in theWall Street Journal, the class of 2009 had an average score of 501 in critical reading, 493 in writing, and 515 in math. Of these three scores, only critical reading and writing experienced a drop from last year and it was only by a point each. However, it is worth noting that the reading score hasn’t been this bad since 1994 — though the SAT given then was considerably different from today’s SAT. (In the 90s, SAT scores could soar as high as 1600 and the test consisted of the oh-so-annoying analogy section, for example. The modern SAT did away with this favoring a new writing section and a score that only goes up to 800.)
Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a think tank, had this to say about the new data, “This is a nearly unrelenting tale of woe and disappointment.”
While I don’t think the two-point drop is worth worrying about, the widening gap between different ethnicities is concerning. While white and Asian students average in the 500s in all three sections, Hispanic and black students have stayed firmly in the 400s.
Citing poorer school districts as a reason why minority students have lower scores, Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board which oversees the administering of the STAT, said, “As a country, we must do better providing students of every background access to the best education.”
Who says you have to shell out top dollar or leave your home state in order to receive an Ivy-League caliber education? Thanks to the power of the Internet, dozens of colleges and universities from across the country have made it possible for students to download and view lectures from some of their top professors and courses.
The best thing about these online lecture sites? They’re free! Check out a few below:
Who? Academic Earth Where?www.academicearth.org What? Features video lectures from the following universities: UC Berkely, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, Yale. Sample subjects? Physics III: Vibrations and Waves, Computational Science and Engineering I, and Aircraft Systems Engineering.
Who? Open Culture Where?www.openculture.com What? MP3s and videos of lecture from such schools as Columbia University, CUNY, UC Berkely, MIT, and Oxford University. Sample subjects? Existentialism in Literature & Film, Astrobiology and Space Exploration, and Information, Law and Policy.
Who? WGBH Forum Network Where?http://forum.wgbh.org/ What? Speeches and video lectures from professors and other movers, shakers, and top minds from around the nation. Sample subjects? Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces with Prof. Frank Wilczek, Poetry and Perception with Susan Stewart, and Cultural Humanist with Joss Whedon.
And if you need to pump up on your math and science skills for upcoming SATs, make sure to check out the Khan Academy, which we first covered back last December. The founder, Salman Khan, is a Harvard MBA and has taped dozens upon dozens of YouTube videos detailing everything from the basics of algebra to the nitty-gritty of physics.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
>> Thanks to CollegeCandy for their recent coverage of Academic Earth and Open Culture.
Starting college is always a daunting prospect, but what if you knew that instead of spending four years working on a degree, you could finish all of your schooling in just three years — saving time and money in the process? It’s an option that some students have pursued on their own, but now some colleges seem to be wising up to it and offering help.
Case in point: three Arizona state universities are considering introducing three-year college programs as an alternative to the more traditional four-year bachelor’s degree program. Though three-year college degrees are par for the course in Europe, in the states it’s a bit of anomaly. The students who manage to complete their college education a year early do so either by tacking on extra classes during their spring and autumn semesters or taking classes in the summer.
Unfortunately this isn’t an option for every student, as it can create a scheduling fiasco, eat into time that’s needed for internships or part-time jobs, or deprive students of the classes they need to take — as not every course is offered during the summer term. In fact, only 2.3 percent of the nation’s undergrads currently graduate in three years, according to the U.S. Department of Education, showing that it’s not the easiest thing to accomplish without the proper support.
But some schools, like Northern Arizona University are considering changing their “Finish in Four” program into a “Finish in Four or Less” program that offers students the chance to graduate early though a combination of guaranteed course availability and advisement. Will this type of program catch on? Only time will tell. But it would certainly offer a much-needed alternative to middle- and lower-income students who would like to save money on tuition, student housing, and meal programs.
Of course, a three-year program will only benefit students who definitely know where their future lies. There’s not a lot of wiggle-room for feeling out majors and being “Undecided” for a year or more; you’ll have to get in, get the courses you need, and get out.
Chime in: would you like to see a three-year program offered at your college?
Think about your average college cafeteria and the tons of waste it produces each year — whether in terms of leftover food, waste products, or cooking oil. While some students may accept it as the status quo, a small group of students from the University of Rochester in New York decided to at least put all that excess cooking oil to good use with a green initiative dubbed UR Biodiesel.
David Borrelli, Dan Fink, and Eric Weissmann are the students behind the UR Biodiesel project, which is now responsible for the school’s only biodiesel bus. Running on 80 percent diesel fuel, the bus relies upon the students’ very own UR Biodiesel lab to convert the remaining 20 percent of biodiesel fuel from vegetable oil. As to why there aren’t more biodiesel buses, the answer may surprise you: the cafeteria simply doesn’t produce enough leftover oil to run more than one at the moment.
To add to the green nature of this program, the students report that many of the tools and materials used to create the biodiesel converter were repurposed from various items across the campus.
Said Weismann, “This initiative is good in terms of the green movement. Even the bus will serve as a billboard for the university’s commitment to sustainability.”
For more on UR Biodiesel, you can check out the project’s home on the Web, www.urbiodiesel.com, or Inside Higher Ed’s article about this initiative and others like it.
Have you ever played the icebreaker game “Two truths and a lie”? Basically, each person tells the group three things about herself, and the group has to decide which two items are true, and which one is the lie.
Sound easy? Try your hand at the game with these college urban legends. Choose the lie before scrolling down for the answers. No cheating!
The Legends
1. Dissect an Aunt
Imagine rolling up your sleeves for gross anatomy lab, only to discover that you are, in fact, seeing dead people – and one of the cadavers is someone you’ve seen before. It happened to a medical student who discovered that one of the cadavers presented to her class was her great aunt. Of course, a different cadaver was immediately substituted by the state anatomical board.
2. Doing Laps to Get a Degree
At Columbia University, a stellar student who completed his degree requirements in three years, finished at the top of his class, and later earned a Ph.D. from Columbia and taught at Columbia was denied his bachelor’s degree because he failed to pass the mandatory school swim test. After informing Columbia that he had since learned how to swim and asking the school to waive his disqualification, he was finally granted his bachelor’s degree – 60 years later.
3. Beware the Brothel
Have you ever wondered why your school doesn’t have a sorority house? It might be because of local brothel laws, which prohibit more than a specified number of unrelated females from living together. In these municipalities, sorority houses are illegal … so members of the sisterhood stay in the dorms.
Truth or Lie?
1. Dissect an Aunt: It’s true, and it happened in 1982 at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Other urban legends about discovering the cadaver of a long-lost parent or a celebrity, however, are false, including the tale of the corpse of English novelist Laurence Sterne, who died in 1768. But the fact that it could happen and it has happened is creepy enough!
2. Doing Laps: This one’s for real, too. In 1923, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler was denied his bachelor’s degree from Columbia because he couldn’t pass the mandatory swim test. Actually, Columbia and a handful of other schools still require students to pass a swim test before graduation. Untrue urban legends about university swim tests do abound, however, citing that the tests came at the behest of a wealthy benefactor whose own child drowned.
3. Beware the Brothel: Despite constant retelling at colleges across the country, there are no “brothel laws” that tie a building’s classification as a bordello to the number and gender of its occupants. Some municipalities do have zoning laws that prohibit more than a specified number of nonfamily members from living together, but buildings in violation of those codes would only be labeled a brothel on the basis of what goes on inside the house. Plus, sororities and fraternities are exempt from those housing restrictions.
Comment up: What’s your favorite college urban legend?
It’s official: the latest victim of the recession, is the higher education system – specifically, college sports teams. From cross-country to skiing, schools have been forced to halt scholarships and cut some teams entirely or face troubling budget deficits.
Here is a small sampling of the colleges affected: Stanford University’s fencing team will have to find some non-Ivy funding fast or be forced to put away their swords; the University of Cincinnati will no longer offer scholarships for men in cross-country, track, or swimming; and the University of Washington is cutting all of its swimming teams in order to cut back on $1.2 million in spending.
The trend is continuing at universities big and small, and teams as popular as soccer and as lesser-known as competitive pistol are feeling the crunch. The NY Times warns that this could “deeply alter the college sports landscape” while also affecting the country’s performance during future Olympic events.
Let’s just hope that the situation doesn’t reach as dire proportions as the Space Olympics did.
With their close quarters and high population density, as well as some students’ rebelliously unhygienic ways, college campuses are popular breeding grounds for disease and viruses. Combine all this with the fact that many students regularly travel abroad – whether for spring break or study abroad programs – and you’ll understand why college administrators sit up and take notice when talk of a global pandemic looms.
The latest cause for concern is H1N1 (swine flu). Originating in Mexico, this virus has a little over 200 confirmed cases across the nation with one incidence of death. College administrators have taken notice, especially considering the amount of schools that have study abroad programs in Mexico, and have begun taking action to inform students about the virus and protect them in whatever ways they can.
If you’re curious about what colleges have had reported H1N1 cases, or how they’re reacting to the virus, you can check out the International Association of Emergency Managers-Universities and Colleges Committee’s online map or this article from Inside Higher Ed.
Join four girls who are in love with grammar, coffee, and their iPods as they dish on everything you need to know NOW to make the transition from high school to college. It wasn't too long ago that we walked a mile in your excited, eager, and slightly nervous student shoes. Believe us -- it really can be the best four years of your life.
Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former University of Tennessee president, is bringing the idea of three-year degrees back into the news with this week’s column in Newsweek.
That observation fits with what The Associated Press reported when Amazon.com gave university students 
and when it comes to enriching your mind, you are simply never too old to study for your college degree.
Some bad news as high school students prepare to head back to school: SAT scores have taken a slight dip and the gap between minorities and their white and Asian-American counterparts is only increasing.
Who says you have to shell out top dollar or leave your home state in order to receive an Ivy-League caliber education? Thanks to the power of the Internet, dozens of colleges and universities from across the country have made it possible for students to download and view lectures from some of their top professors and courses.
Starting college is always a daunting prospect, but what if you knew that instead of spending four years working on a degree, you could finish all of your schooling in just three years — saving time and money in the process? It’s an option that some students have pursued on their own, but now some colleges seem to be wising up to it and offering help.
Think about your average college cafeteria and the tons of waste it produces each year — whether in terms of leftover food, waste products, or cooking oil. While some students may accept it as the status quo, a small group of students from the University of Rochester in New York decided to at least put all that excess cooking oil to good use with a green initiative dubbed UR Biodiesel.
