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(FOX25, myfoxboston) – Even in August, classrooms at the Princeton Review are packed with high school students trying to get an upper hand on the SAT.
“I wanted to improve my score and see how much better I can do after a class,” Jae Rhee, a junior at Newton South High School said.
An SAT score od just one small part of an application, but it’s big when it comes to getting into state schools. It’s sometimes among the first things admissions officials check out.
“For them to, based on one number, be completely omitted from the list of possibilities, I can see why that would increase anxiety,” said Christopher Jacobs of the Princeton Review.
You can see why the $1,000 price tag for the class gets easier to swallow, as students and parents scramble for ways to stick out.
“It’s the idea that you have to get into the right college, start your life, then jump into the right job,” said Alexandra Koch, a junior at Newton South.
Koch says she’s been worried about college since she was in 7th grade. It is a reality for lots of students.
“My feeling has always been, start early, it reduces the stress,” says Deirdre Guenther of the Compass Group .
Since navigating the application process can get confusing, a new cottage industry has sprung up – the independent college counselor. For around $6,000 or $7,000, Deirdre Guenther will work with a student, starting early in high school. She’ll keep them organized, on-task, and focused on finding the right school.
“Their college advisor is really their head coach, and their parents should be on the sidelines, cheering for them. And I am their independent, or their private coach, refining their techniques,” Guenther says.
Half the battle is being smart about which schools you apply to.
“Students really need to think about who they are and what they’re looking for, and not worry about that bumper sticker on the back of their parents’ car,” says Kelly Walter, who has been reading college applications for 30 years.
Now, as Boston University’s admissions director, she sees some students trying too hard to create the perfect profile.
“I think so often students are wrapped up in trying to present themselves in a way almost to market themselves. This becomes a PR project for many students,” Walter says.
The race to join clubs, be a varsity athlete, volunteer, travel, save the world – it can all be too much. What does Boston University care most about? Your academic record, including your senior year grades.
“There are certainly a lot of resources available to students and most of those resources are for free,” Walter says.
In the end, it has no doubt become more competitive to get into college, but as with so much else, planning makes the difference.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/special_reports/college_be_prepared_get_accepted_092709
CNN American Morning aired another segment today critical of the College Board.
To help parents of college-bound students better understand the challenges of the high-stakes SAT college entrance exam, The Princeton Review, Inc. (Nasdaq: REVU), announced today the official launch of its SAT Parent Challenge. Providing a small sample of the kind of questions students will encounter when taking the SAT, the 12-question online quiz is intended to not only give parents the opportunity to test their academic acumen, but experience — if only for 15 minutes — some of the challenges their kids will face when they take the actual, nearly four-hour SAT exam.
Available at http://inquiry.princetonreview.com/ugrad/satparentchallenge, the SAT Parent Challenge features questions from each of the three sections of the exam: Critical Reading, Math, and Essay Writing. After completing the quiz, parents will receive their results from The Princeton Review, as well as examples of techniques that may have helped them correctly answer specific questions.
“Not only is today’s SAT much harder than it used to be, but many colleges and universities have increased their average score requirements for first-year students,” says Robert Franek, Vice President/Publisher at The Princeton Review. “There’s also a growing reliance on college entrance exams to determine eligibility for grants and scholarships due to the dramatic increase in requests for financial aid this year.
Given all of this, there’s no question that parents and students must take these tests seriously and really prepare for them.” Franek noted that according to The Princeton Review’s 2009 “College Hopes and Worries Survey,” when asked to gauge their stress level about the college application process, student respondents indicated higher levels than their parents. Additionally, stress levels were the highest since The Princeton Review began the survey in 2003. “Much of this stress can be eliminated if you understand that it’s not always about learning more — or even remembering what you’ve learned — but knowing how to approach a question on a standardized test.
Bottom line: the right attitude and preparation for taking these tests can be an extremely important influence and play a key role in helping a student achieve the college test score they need and deserve.” As added incentive, parents who take the SAT Parent Challenge between July 3 and August 31, 2009 will be automatically entered into the Parent Challenge Sweepstakes, with three first place winners receiving a Princeton Review SAT Classroom Preparatory Course, valued at over $1,000. About The Princeton Review The Princeton Review (Nasdaq: REVU) has been a pioneer and leader in helping students achieve their higher education goals for more than 25 years through college and graduate school test preparation and private tutoring. With more than 165 print and digital publications and a free website, http://www.PrincetonReview.com, the Company provides students and their parents with the resources to research, apply to, prepare for, and learn how to pay for higher education. The Princeton Review also partners with schools and guidance counselors throughout the U.S. to assist in college readiness, test preparation and career planning services, helping more students pursue postsecondary education. REVU-G SOURCE The Princeton Review Source
PR Newswire: Princeton Review Launches SAT Parent Challenge Posted on: Monday, 10 August 2009, 09:50 CDT NEW YORK, Aug. 10
With Harvard, Wharton, and other top schools planning to accept the GRE for admissions, cracks are beginning to show in the GMAT monopoly.
The battle between two of the largest graduate school testing giants has been heating up recently as more business schools warm to the idea of providing students with an alternative to the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT). Now another top-ranked business school is weighing in. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School(Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile) plans to allow MBA applicants to submit the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), for admission in the fall of 2010, says Admissions Director J.J. Cutler. It’s part of a move by the school to attract a broader applicant pool, including dual-degree students, younger applicants, and international applicants from far-flung countries without GMAT access.
“We are trying to open up a little bit the different types of people that we want to apply to business school and we don’t want to create additional hurdles for them to do so,” Cutler says.
More B-Schools Embrace the GRE
Wharton is following closely on the heels of Harvard Business School(Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile), which made waves this spring when it announced that it would allow applicants to submit the GRE for admissions. The institutions are joining the ranks of a small but rapidly growing number of business schools that are embracing the GRE, a standardized exam that students use to apply to a wide variety of graduate schools. The movement comes at a time when younger applicants—fresh out of college or just a year or two after graduation—are showing an increased interest in business school. For these applicants, many of whom have already taken the GRE, business schools that accept the test allow them to transition into an MBA program without studying for and taking another exam.
There are now more than 250 MBA programs that allow students, some on a case-by-case basis, to submit GRE scores with their applications, including most recently the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business(Darden Full-Time MBA Profile), Queen’s School of Business(Queen’s Full-Time MBA Profile) and Tulane’s Freeman School of Business (Tulane Full-Time MBA Profile). While most of the schools say they still prefer most applicants to use the GMAT, they say the GRE is becoming a valuable tool in attracting sought-after and unconventional business school candidates who might not otherwise apply.
“The GMAT is a very successful standard for business schools, but that is certainly not the only standard,” says Bill Sandefer, director of graduate admissions at Tulane’s Freeman School.
This type of attitude represents a seismic shift in business school admissions. For decades, the GMAT test, given by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), has been the undisputed king of the management education world. The exam has been used since 1954 by business school admissions officers to evaluate candidates on their math, verbal, and critical-thinking skills.
Opening the Door to Competition
Up until recently, the GMAT exam had a virtual monopoly over business school standardized exams. That all changed on Jan. 1, 2006, when GMAC cut its ties with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), with whom it had a decades-long partnership to develop and deliver the GMAT exam, moving instead to a new testing administrator, Pearson VUE. The severing of ties meant that ETS no longer had to abide by a noncompete clause with GMAC, giving it the green light to court business school admissions officers and promote the GRE as an alternative exam. Under the previous agreement between ETS and GMAC, this type of activity was forbidden.
“Once they ended the contract with us, we were able to move into this market,” says David Payne, head of the GRE program for ETS.
To capitalize on the opportunity, ETS has been aggressively marketing the GRE to B-school admissions officers in recent months, placing advertising campaigns in key business publications, paying visits to business schools admissions teams, and developing new testing tools that it hopes will convince more schools to use the GRE, says Payne. ETS has also been promoting the exam as a more affordable option for students; it costs $150 to take the GRE, versus $250 for the GMAT.
Top Schools Sign Up for GRE
ETS made headway several years ago when the Stanford Graduate School of Business(Stanford Full-Time MBA Profile) and MIT’s Sloan School of Management(MIT Sloan Full-Time MBA Profile) announced they’d allow students to submit the GRE instead of the GMAT. The testing group’s most significant coup to date was convincing Harvard Business School this spring to accept the exam for its MBA, as well its 2+2 Program, which accepts students straight out of college on the condition that they get two years of work experience before enrolling. Payne hopes that will have a ripple effect in the business school community.
“Now that Harvard has accepted it, I anticipate over the summer and into the fall we’re going to see a rapid increase of other business schools accepting it,” Payne says.
The University of Virginia’s Darden School is one of the schools that have recently become more open-minded about accepting the GRE. For the first time this year, the school allowed joint degree candidates to submit the GRE in lieu of the GMAT , says Darden Admissions Director Sara Neher, who herself took the GRE exam this year to assess whether it would be an appropriate assessment for Darden applicants. “I wouldn’t accept the GRE if I didn’t understand what it was asking people to do,” Neher says. “It’s definitely not as complicated of a math test, but it still tests logic, general analytic ability, vocabulary, and reading comprehension in the same way the GMAT does,” she says
In addition, the school is willing, on a case-by-case basis, to allow younger business school applicants who might have taken the GRE in college to submit those test scores for admission. For example, Neher says she’d talk to an applicant who took the GRE in anticipation of pursuing a master’s degree in English, but then had a change of heart. “I don’t want a test to prevent someone from pursuing business education,” she says.
Widening the Applicant Pool
That is also a mindset shared by Scott Carson, director of the MBA program at the Queen’s School of Business, who allowed students to submit the GRE for admissions the first time this past school year. School officials recently decided to expand its class size from 75 to 110 or 120 students and felt they needed an alternative admissions exam to help attract unconventional students, such as dual-degree students from the school’s law school, students with PhDs in other disciplines such as engineering, as well as more international students and women, he says. He expects only a handful of students to actually submit GRE scores—just one student submitted them this past school year—but says it is important to give students options.
“I think that business schools in general are looking further afield and trying to be more creative in ways that they source students,” Carson says. “The acceptance of the GRE is probably just part of that overall trend.”
At the moment, GMAC President Dave Wilson does not appear to be worried that some of the top MBA programs in the world are starting to embrace the GRE. His organization is busy working on expanding GMAC’s reach in the business school world, he says. There are now 4,700 business schools around the world that use the GMAT test for admissions and the organization recently added 363 schools to its roster this year. That’s a number far greater than the number of business schools ETS has signed on so far, he notes.
“I’m not going to let somebody else’s game plan dictate my value system,” Wilson says. “My job is to make sure that we continue to offer the best test and eventually the market will figure that all out.”
Measuring Intangibles
One tool ETS hopes will be particularly effective in helping it make the case to business schools is a workbook it developed called the “GRE Comparison Tool and Table.” The tool is based on the test scores of 525 students who took both the GRE and GMAT between January 2006 and July 2008. It allows an admissions officer to look at an applicant’s combined verbal and quantitative scores to predict the score they would have received on the GMAT. For example, a student with a verbal score of 490 and quantitative score of 680 on the GRE would have a predicted GMAT score of 570, according to the tool. This type of information is a “critical link” for b-school admissions officers, who up until recently were uncertain how to compare the results of the GRE to those of the GMAT, Payne says.
In addition, ETS also just released a new component to the GRE, the Personal Potential Index (PPI), a new evaluation system—offered at no additional charge to future test-takers—that it hopes will make the GRE more competitive in the graduate school testing market, especially in the business school sector. The index is a Web-based tool that debuted this month that allows recommenders to rank students based on six key personality traits: resilience, teamwork, planning and organization, knowledge and creativity, ethics, and communication skills. Students can elect to send the results of the 24-question standardized assessment to up to four schools, at no additional charge. ETS is billing the system as the first large-scale use of noncognitive measures, or soft skills, for admissions in higher education.
“Business schools have been telling us for years that they want to have this type of noncognitive information,” Payne says. “The index allows students to document these attributes in a way that is standardized and reliable.”
It remains to be seen just how valuable the tool will be to business schools and how much weight it will have in the admissions process. Many business schools say that their comprehensive application process already allows them to glean this type of personal information from candidates, whether through the detailed letters of recommendation or face-to-face meetings with promising applicants.
“I think that tool for us may be less useful than for a school that didn’t have an interview option or a school that didn’t have an opportunity to get a more 360-degree picture of a candidate,” says Kathryn Bezella, associate director of MBA admissions at Wharton.
But some think that it could eventually catch on, as more students and admissions officers become familiar with the PPI evaluation system over the next few admissions cycles.
“I think that business schools will see the value of it,” says James Wimbush, a dean at Indiana University’s Graduate School and the past chair of the MBA program at the Kelley School of Business(Indiana Full-Time MBA Profile). “They won’t do away with letters of recommendation, but I think this will be an additional tool to help them identify students likely to be very successful in MBA programs and thereafter.”
GMAC doesn’t have a similar assessment tool, thought GMAC’s Wilson says the organization has been searching for over a decade for a way to provide admissions officers with a reliable way of evaluating applicants’ noncognitive skills. None of the more than 200 assessment tools that the organization has examined has so far met GMAC’s stringent standards, Wilson says.
“If we can find something that will meet our criteria of being reliable, secure, consistent, and objective, than we will implement it, but to date we haven’t been able to find it,” he says. “If the [ETS] instrument works, than they have really improved the entire decision process.”
GMAT Studies for a New Exam
That’s not to say that GMAC is sitting on the sidelines while ETS makes inroads into the testing arena. The group is hard at work on developing a new-generation GMAT exam. GMAC recently asked 740 business school faculty around the world about how the exam could be enhanced and improved. The results of the redesign will be unveiled in 2013, Wilson says, and will result in a test that is “better tied to skills students need in this new era.”
For now, it appears that the majority of business schools are still playing it safe, with most of GMAT’s 1,700 member schools using the GMAT exclusively. But hundreds of business schools are watching carefully from the sidelines to see how the turf war between ETS and GMAC plays out.
Stuart Lipper, dean of Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business(Fordham Full-Time MBA Profile)—which allows applicants to submit only the GMAT for admissions—is one of these spectators. For now, he says the school is taking a “wait-and-see attitude” about allowing students to submit the GRE.
“I think you have some of the leading schools that can afford to play around a little,” Lipper says. “We can’t afford to do that. At a school like ours, I think we feel we sort of have to play by the rules a little more.”
The battle between two of the largest graduate school testing giants has been heating up recently as more business schools warm to the idea of providing students with an alternative to the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT). Now another top-ranked business school is weighing in. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School(Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile) plans to allow MBA applicants to submit the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), for admission in the fall of 2010, says Admissions Director J.J. Cutler. It’s part of a move by the school to attract a broader applicant pool, including dual-degree students, younger applicants, and international applicants from far-flung countries without GMAT access.
By now, many prospective college students have received responses from all the colleges to which they have applied. But now comes the hard part: deciding where to go.
Luckily, there are some sites that help them in that endeavor and provide them with valid insight before they make their final decisions. Even better, these sites can also help those who have not applied yet and are starting their initial research.
For the high school junior who is considering applying to different colleges or the high school senior who needs to make a decision, these sites are outstanding resources.
BeRecruited: BeRecruited is designed specifically for the high school athlete. Instead of waiting for a team to find the student, BeRecruited gives them an opportunity to find colleges across the United States that have the kind of athletic program for which they are looking. They can then upload information about themselves and their high school athletic performance to attract the attention of team recruiters.
CampusExplorer: CampusExplorer allows students to search more than 6,000 colleges in the United States to find which campus is right for them. They can search by area, curriculum, or type of school. The site provides information on the size of the school, what it offers to students, and the attendance cost. It even has advice on getting into the school from students who have asked questions about the college on Yahoo Answers.
Cappex: Cappex requires students to sign up and create a personal profile that includes grades, extracurricular activities, and SAT/ACT scores. Once that profile is completed, they can search for colleges, learn about the schools in which they’re interested, and use a handy tool called “What are my chances?” to help them determine if they really have a chance at being admitted to a particular school.CollegeAnswer: Owned by college financial-aid company SallieMae, CollegeAnswer provides students with information about all facets of college admittance. From basic research on schools to information on paying for a college education, the site has it all. It provides in-depth information about colleges, including their demographics and attendance costs. But where it really shines is in its information about college life in general. It’s an outstanding resource for prospective and current students.
CollegeBoard: Although CollegeBoard is best known for administering the SAT exam, the organization has a great resource for college students to find practically anything they want to know about college life. The site boasts information on individual schools, including attendance cost, class sizes, and more. It also offers general information on finding a school, picking the right college, and finding a suitable budget. Much like CollegeAnswer, it’s a best-in-class informational site.
LocalSchools: LocalSchools brings a unique design to college research. The site connects prospective students to more than 3,400 colleges and universities in the United States through a map. Students create personal profiles and search the site’s Google Maps integration to see schools located in areas of interest. More importantly, LocalSchools allows college recruiters to join the site, so students can have all their questions answered before they make their decision.
Princeton Review: Princeton Review has solidified itself as one of the most trustworthy sources for college information in the space. And its site is no different. It features information on every accredited college and university in the United States. It ranks them based on the quality of their education. I could go on about the usefulness of the site, but suffice it to say that if students want some of the best and most in-depth information on colleges in the States, Princeton Review is the place to find it.
ReviewSchools: There are doubtless better ways to find out about schools than to listen to the students themselves. Realizing that, ReviewSchools might be a great resource for students who want to find out what college life at a particular university is all about. The site enables students to share their “story” about their college lives. Some students discuss curriculum, and others cite party life, but in either case, it helps a student decide if a school is the right fit.
U.S. News and World Report: Widely considered the leading and most objective college-ranking tool in the world, the U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of the top colleges is an outstanding destination for students who want to go to the best-reputed college to which they can gain admittance. The colleges are ranked based on factors such as academic programs, extracurricular activities, acceptance rates, and research functions that can enrich the student’s campus life. It’s an influential resource among the most ambitious students (and parents).
USphere: USphere might not offer as much information as a site like Princeton Review, but it’s still worth consulting for students looking for colleges. The site provides information on thousands of colleges and universities in the States for free, but when students sign up, more information is made available to them, including in-depth data on schools, student information, and more. It’s worth trying out.
Zinch: Zinch adds a level of social networking to the college selection process in an attempt to connect users with more than 650 colleges and universities around the world. Students can input information about themselves on the site, and while researching colleges, find potential scholarships. More importantly, they can connect with others who might be attending the same school. Coverage of universities on Zinch isn’t nearly as broad as some of the others in this roundup, but the site puts a unique twist on college searches that might appeal to some students.
Dason and Chris, two young Hong Kongers now studying in American universities, talk about their experience preparing for their standardized tests at the Princeton Review in Hong Kong.
In this short video, two members of the Princeton Review Hong Kong team introduce the school and answer questions about what students need in order to apply to an American University.
在這影片中, 兩名香港Princeton Review的職員將會為大家介紹學院及解答有關同學們申請美國大學時應注意的事項.
By ERICA HARBATKIN
Staff Writer
Michael Shmulevich decided last summer that his first-choice school was Princeton University.
But the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies senior had been preparing for Princeton long before he decided he wanted to go there.
As the number of high school students applying to college balloons to record numbers, college admissions are more competitive than ever. And that means students need to begin preparing for the application process years before the senior year application deadlines, guidance counselors and admissions experts say.
“When we meet with the parents of the eighth-grade students who are applying here, we tell them that too early is never early enough,” said Glenn Methner, principal of Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies, a public school for engineering-oriented students in Edison. “When you start your high school career you have to be focused on what you’re gonna be doing after postsecondary.”
KEY FACTORS:
Grades and strength of schedule are the two most important factors in most colleges’ admissions decisions, which means students should enroll in challenging courses beginning in ninth grade. Test scores are the next-most-important consideration at most schools, guidance counselors say.
“The academic record is, without a doubt, the single most important factor in admission to college,” said John Mammon, the counseling department chairman at Piscataway High School. “The standardized test definitely has its place, but it’s secondary to the academic record of the student.”
At both Piscataway High School and the Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering, students take the PSAT in ninth, 10th and 11th grades to prepare for the SAT. They should take their first SAT in 11th grade, admissions experts say, and can repeat the test in 12th grade, if necessary.
Meanwhile, the ACT has become a practical alternative in recent years, said Dan Coggshall, executive director of the Princeton Review of Central Jersey.
“One of the new realities is the SAT and ACT are equally accepted by colleges. There’s not a college out there that doesn’t accept the ACT if they accept the SAT,” Coggshall said. “Students should really be looking at both tests because there are significant differences between the two tests and some students do better on one than the other.”
Students can take both tests and only report the higher score, he said.
Shmulevich, an Edison resident, has a 2,190 SAT score on a scale of 2,400 and a 5.175 grade point average — the highest possible on the school’s grading scale.
SOMETHING EXTRA:
But Princeton is looking for more. In 2008, Princeton had 21,370 applicants and admitted 2,122 of those — less than 10 percent. And the admission rate for applicants with perfect GPAs wasn’t much higher — the university turned away five out of six applicants with perfect GPAs.
“Putting it real simply, they have to have something else of distinction about themselves,” Mammon said. “That could be the outstanding athlete, the gifted musician, another kid may be a tremendous leader.”
Beginning in ninth grade, students should participate in extracurricular activities that they enjoy enough to stick with through four years.
For Shmulevich, 17, that meant science and math league, debate club, model United Nations, tae kwon do and the student newspaper. He also volunteers with a group that refurbishes old computers and donates them to homeless shelters and church groups.
“Anything I had time for, I tried to be involved in,” Shmulevich said, adding that his interest in those activities made it easy to commit to them. “I wouldn’t suggest joining a club or anything that the person doesn’t find fun — but something they wouldn’t mind devoting a lot of their time to.”
The quality of the commitments is more important than the quantity, admissions experts say.
“What students should really be focused on is not a laundry list of activities, but really choosing two or three different activities that they’re truly passionate about and really focusing their time,” Coggshall said. “Colleges are looking for a significant commitment — not just showing up to one French club meeting your sophomore year.”
MORE COMPETITION:
Meanwhile, as the economy continues its slide, state schools are becoming more competitive. Rutgers University received a record 32,816 applications from first-year students in 2008 and accepted just under 60 percent of them. In 1999, the university accepted 67 percent of 26,593 first-year applicants. And the applicant pool is getting stronger, university officials said.
“We are seeing the academic profile of our applicants rising,” said Sandra Lanman, a university spokeswoman.
At Franklin High School in Somerset County, guidance counselor Ammon Barksdale tells students that beginning the application process early is paramount.
“A major fear (among students) is they think it’s a hassle or it’s highly stressful, but it’s only stressful with the points you can’t control — and that’s the getting-in part,” said Barksdale, the chair of the guidance department. “I tell students if you can master . . . time management and organization, the process is really quite simple.”
He recommends applying to seven to nine schools, including a “reach” school, “high-confidence” schools that students have an 80 percent chance of getting into, and a “safety” school.
“That way they’re covering all the bases,” Barksdale said. “We’re always reaching for the stars but preparing for the worst-case scenario so there will be a school to accept them once they graduate.”
March 16, 2009 Monday
Column: Despite drop in rankings, Brown is still stellar
By Nick Hagerty, Brown Daily Herald
Brown U., PROVIDENCE, R.I.
There’s been a lot of talk recently on this page about the essence of the Brown student. But what about the identity of Brown University?
University administrators and students often compare Brown to the ultra-prestigious trio of Harvard, Yale and Princeton. They mourn as that authority of authorities, the U.S. News and World Report, mercilessly drops Brown’s annual ranking among National Universities from 14 to 16. Last place in the Ivy League!
But high school students, at least, see something else in Brown. For despite the U.S. News ranking, Brown ranks sixth as high schoolers’ “dream college,” ahead of Columbia, Penn and MIT. A 2004 “revealed preference” study by Harvard researchers, which compared schools by how often students choose to attend them over other colleges, ranked Brown seventh. (Unsurprisingly, they put Harvard first.) And for what it’s worth, Brown is perennially among the top three on the Princeton Review‘s “Happiest Students” list.
So what is it that causes Brown to perform so much better in those more illuminating rankings than its basic statistical indicators, as aggregated by U.S. News, would otherwise predict?
The standard answer is, of course, the New Curriculum. But perhaps equally important are Brown’s commitment to undergraduates and its “university-college” model. I chose Brown because yes, I would be able to do cutting-edge science research and see speakers like John Edwards and Ricardo Lagos, but at the same time, professors would know my name.
Jan Tullis, a professor of geological sciences, attended Carleton College and later UCLA. At Carleton, she said, faculty were out of date with the material, while at UCLA, undergraduates were not valued. Brown gets the balance just right.
Despite the current recession, though, Brown is in a substantial long-term expansion of its faculty, graduate school and research power. So will moving further away from Carleton bring us closer to UCLA?
No, Tullis said, and I agree: not necessarily. Only preeminence in research can give undergraduates such opportunities as recent fieldwork trips to Greenland and the Galapagos. Research and teaching are not a zero-sum game, said Chung-I Tan, professor of physics and chair of the department.
But the current scene of teaching at Brown, especially in quantitative subjects like physical sciences and economics, is already far from the university-college ideal. Any concentrator in these fields can name several professors who were clearly not hired for their teaching abilities.
Some professors are not comfortable enough with English to engage the class. Some have good intentions but are unable to explain concepts at a fundamental level. Others simply appear not to care about teaching – for example, rarely do the worst instructors ask for course feedback.
One semester I tried to take ECON 1210: “Intermediate Macroeconomics,” only to find that the professor had not written a syllabus, couldn’t answer organizational questions and hadn’t given any prior thought to the course beyond selecting a textbook. I know several students who were too discouraged by intermediate economics courses to continue in the department.
I could easily go on – similar scenarios are all too common. However, it is not all bad news; there are many excellent professors throughout Brown.
Tan told me that the physics department provides graduate teaching assistants for the introductory physics courses. But when I took PHYS 0160: “Introduction to Relativity and Quantum Physics,” the professor taught the problem sessions himself because he wanted to get to know his students better.
Particularly exemplary is the geological sciences department. Renowned nationally for a top research and graduate program, it is also known around campus for being close-knit and especially supportive of undergraduates.
“There’s definitely a lot of attention paid to undergraduates,” said Jon Wang, a geo-bio concentrator. The department hosts numerous community building events, he said, including a holiday party, a fall picnic and departmental field trips. No matter how busy professors are, they’re always willing to talk. “I can just wander around, find them and talk to them,” he added.
When it comes to hiring decisions, undergraduates actually have an important voice, said Timothy Herbert, professor and chair of the department. Candidates for a faculty position meet for an hour with a group of undergraduate concentrators. The students then submit written summaries, which are considered in the final deliberations.
If the university really wants to improve science education and retain its focus on undergraduates amidst ambitious expansion, academic growth must be managed carefully and deliberately. It is critical that faculty hiring, promotion and tenure decisions more strongly take into account teaching skills and enthusiasm for undergraduates. Other departments, especially in quantitative fields, should look to geological sciences as a model.
Brown’s unique identity rests on not having to choose between picnics and John Edwards, and all they represent. But unless the university remembers that first-rate higher education requires all professors to be genuinely dedicated to undergraduates, we risk losing that identity and becoming just one more “top research university.”
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