Reply to What’s the educational difference between a highly-rated college and a good one?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "What’s the educational difference between a highly-rated college and a good one?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the UMD professor: Do you give attendance points that will increase grades? (My friend’s son went to UMD and this was the case for him).  Sounds like high school, to me.

My son’s SLAC:
-no extra credit
-most exams were essay form vs scan-tron 
-no opting out of finals
-minimal grading on the curve
-no homework points
[/quote]

I’m sure your son walks 5 miles uphill in snow to class, too. [/quote]

To frame PP’s point a different way, I think s/he is pointing out that, even if you assume the quality of professors is held constant, smaller classes (and better grad students) make more challenging assignments/evaluations possible.

FWIW, having taught/studied/had a kid at total of four different t20s, I think ambition/affluence/HS preparation rather than brains/academic orientation/mastery of material/effort is what differentiates a t20 cohort from cohorts at other good schools. But, as other posters have already suggested, you’ll find both that the top students at the good schools are just as smart/capable and that your kids’ college educations will largely be a function of what they make of them. Opportunities/challenges are everywhere but @ some places (t20s) they are obviously/readily available  (but often highly competitive) and other places you have to seek them out.[/quote]

I agree t30 coddle their students more.[/quote]

One of my professors at a non-t30 school had previously taught at Harvard, and he said that the only difference between the two schools from his perspective was that it was easier to make an "A" at Harvard.  He said that at Harvard it is assumed that everyone will deserve an A, so there is no pressure for grade deflation.  In fact, the opposite was true. [/quote]

Agree about GPA, but I think at least 3 different things are at stake here — how challenging are the assignments, how much/what kind of feedback does/can the student get, and what’s the grading scale.  I think t20 profs are working in an environment that enables challenge and substantive/cumulative feedback and one where the ranking and sorting/QC function of grading can be seen as relatively unimportant.  T20 profs don’t all see it this way and there are some non-t20 profs who are similarly situated, but, having taught in both contexts, I experienced a different set of imperatives.[/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