Reply to Brown $68K vs. UMich (in-state) $28K

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Brown $68K vs. UMich (in-state) $28K"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]College rankings take in so much that has nothing to do with the quality of a student's undergraduate experience. In the US News rankings that came out yesterday, they included a list that I find interesting every year: Best Undergraduate Teaching
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching

As the parent of kids heading for college, this is what matters most to me: the schools that are renowned for actually teaching undergrad students. Interesting that both Brown and Michigan rank well. Also interesting that  Harvard, Chicago and Hopkins are not in the Top 20. All are known for incredible graduate/professional schools, and all are known for providing less than stellar undergraduate experiences.

1. Princeton
2. Miami of Ohio
3. Yale
4. Brown
5. Rice; Wake Forest
7. Dartmouth; Michigan; Notre Dame
10. Stanford; Vanderbilt
12. William & Mary
13. Purdue
14. Duke; Georgia State; Wisconsin; Washington U. in St. Louis
18. Cal-Berkeley; UMBC; WPI[/quote]

Actually, Harvard, Chicago, and Hopkins can be great places for undergrads who are very academically-oriented.  They're really exciting intellectual environments and faculty are often quite supportive of smart kids who share their interests/enthusiasms.  [/quote]

PP here. I used to work at JHU, during the time they devoted a year to trying to make the undergrad experience not so bad. Don't take it from me, here's a blurb from the report the President's committee published:

[quote]Notwithstanding the many positive aspects of our undergraduate programs, [b]students’ current levels of satisfaction with both their academic and social experiences at Johns Hopkins are lower than we should find acceptable[/b] and do not reflect the educational experience that the University can and should provide. In terms of institutional reputation and our own values, we cannot afford to continue business as usual. Ours is an institution that accepts excellence as a threshold criterion for any undertaking. We expect to be competitive for the very best faculty and students. We expect to engage in world-class research. Our goal should be to offer the very best quality undergraduate experience.
 
To meet this goal, we have work to do and needs that must be addressed. The single most important undergraduate need at Johns Hopkins is to strengthen the sense of community. The second is the need for
[b]better integration of the elements of the undergraduate experience and for a healthier sense of balance[/b]. A third need around which many of the recommendations cohere is the [b]need for undergraduate education at Hopkins to be more personal[/b]. There is also a need to reconcile the gap between the perception of not caring and the reality that many do indeed feel passionately about the satisfaction and success of
undergraduates. And, finally, the [b]need to be more intentional about undergraduate education is a fifth need[/b] and the focus of many of the recommendations.[/quote]

Great for JHU to acknowledge this, but very telling they know how inferior their undergraduate experience is.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics