mentorship

[Anonymous]

Ron Lieber's new book has some interesting thoughts about the value of college and notes that a relationship with professors, where they actually know students, is one of the things that was one of six crucial factors tracked in the 2014 Gallup-Purdue Index Report, the largest poll of students. Lieber says the three factors that contribute most to well-being involved aspects of mentorship.
This bit struck me: Just 14% of students strongly agreed when Gallup asked if they'd experienced one of these three factors of mentorship. And Lieber says Gallup doesn't name names, but his source said "the so-called R1 research university - mostly big, mostly public - had scored second worst on mentorship, with Ivy League schools coming in dead last due to their propensity for hiring famous researchers who are not good teachers."
If you have students in college now or who recently finished, what was their mentorship experience like at their colleges? Would love specific examples and names of colleges. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

My child is at Juniata College, a small LAC in rural PA.

They provide two advisors per student, and one must NOT be in your area of study. They will meet with her anytime about anything. They have written countless letters of recommendation, which have helped her win two prestigious national internships. One offered to read her application essay in advance, and gave suggestions for how it might be strengthened. He has supervised her research in his lab, over years, allowing her to take the lead on a paper that has been published in a peer reviewed journal. The second invited his whole class over to their house for dinner, to meet his family and celebrate the end of the semester. Another faculty member took the Environmental Health club out into the woods on a Saturday night during the Vernal Equinox, to help them find salamanders and other amphibians.

In response to the UNIGO survey question "How accessible are your professors?" 52% say "they are always available" (the top of 4 levels of response. No students reported the lowest two levels of rating).

Because it is a CTCL, a certain sad sack will likely rip it apart...just give him time. But in response to OP's question...we have found the mentorship there to be excellent.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! OP here - parent of a junior. This ^^ is the kind of thing I was looking for. Not everyone will think mentorship is the most important priority and that's fine but I am looking for examples of colleges that offer it (or those that don't) as DC tries to put together a list.

[Anonymous]

My DS graduated from Swarthmore. The morning of graduation, there was a small get together in his department. The dean of Biology, who had taught my DS a few classes, walked over to me, introduced herself and said nice things about my kid. I was impressed. Small schools have their advantages.

[Anonymous]

As someone who teaches at a big uni, I would say that a downside of big schools is that they encourage inertia/lassitude on the part of students. It's a small--and diminishing--number of students who take advantage of office hours or other outside of class opportunities to interact with teachers.

[Anonymous]

College professors are worthless mentors for my college graduate kids. My kids didn't learn anything from them.

My DS is mentored by a CEO of a mid-size company who is also a father of DS college buddy, while my DD is mentored by a CFO of a FINTECH company whom she met at an art show.

[Anonymous]

I guess your kids want to go into business, so it makes sense that they will find their mentors there.

I do think your post reflected an attitude though, which hopefully did not rub off on your kids. I doubt that all of the faculty at your school are modelling nothing of value for your children (i.e., "worthless mentors"). If that is the case, please name the school, so others can learn from your experience.

[Anonymous]

I am generally not a fan of rankings but fwiw the US News' list of colleges with the reputations for the best undergrad teaching do include both of the examples above (Juniata and Swarthmore) in the top 50.
#1 was Carleton College.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/undergraduate-teaching?_page=2&_mode=table