Admissions Academy Blog

The Value of a College Degree

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on August 5th, 2009 in Academics, Articles of Interest
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CNN this week featured an article about a recent college graduate who is suing her alma mater, Monroe College, claiming that their career services office hasn’t done enough to place her in a full-time job. She claims that the career center showed favoritism to students with a 4.0, rather than her 2.7 GPA, and she’s suing to reclaim both her four-year tuition and extra damages for the stress that her failed job search has caused her.

Whether or not the suit has merit, it does open up a conversation about what college is, or should be, for. In their statement, Monroe College replied that, “it is clear that no college, especially in this economy, can guarantee employment.” Four-year colleges are institutions of higher learning, and while Census data shows that the earning power of college graduates is higher than that of only high school graduates, colleges at best can provide career assistance, not guaranteed career placement.

Some have argued that this article reinforces the idea that a bachelor’s degree is becoming increasingly less meaningful, that in order to secure a professional job with a living wage, students have to attend graduate school. But one of the New York Times blogs took up this issue not too long ago:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/what-is-a-masters-degree-worth/. The argument that an M.A. now is like B.A. years ago, or that a B.A. now is like a high school diploma years ago, misses a more important point. Why do students graduate from colleges with educational experiences that do not adequately prepare them for the “real world”? To take it a step further, why are students allowed to graduate from high school with meaningless educational experiences? Standardized testing pass rates are on the rise in New York City, for example, but the feel-good news misses the fact that the number of students who are advanced or highly proficient is shrinking.

If anything, the suit may be indicative of a larger problem in the U.S. educational system; students shouldn’t have to go to graduate school to get an education that prepares them for jobs. Advanced degrees hold value when they provide students a skill set that can’t be taught in college, or when they’re used as a means for students to change career paths. But if a generic master’s degree is a band-aid for what should have been taught in high school and undergraduate college, then perhaps it’s time to demand better of our school systems.

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Always Be Prepared: Making the Most of the College Experience

•  Posted by Kathy Chi on May 27th, 2009 in Academics
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It’s an exciting time of year, as high school seniors don their caps and gowns to celebrate their graduations with family and friends. Commencement is a significant turning point, marking the transition to college and young adulthood. How should students prepare to make the most of their higher education experience?

Fortunately, there are several wonderful resources that provide insightful, practical advice. Many books are written to speak directly to the student experience:

Getting the Best Out of College: A Professor, A Dean, & A Student Tell You How to Maximize Your Experience by Peter Feaver

Everything You Need to Know Before College: A Student’s Survival Guide by Matthew Paul Turner

The Everything College Survival Book: From Social Skills to Study Skills — All You Need to Fit RIght In by Michael S. Malone

How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport

How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country’s Top Students by Cal Newport

The National Association for College Admissions Counseling also has numerous shorter but equally helpful articles online:

Preparing to Adjust to College

In so many ways, college is simply an extraordinary experience — one for which students should be fully prepared.

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Grade Inflation and Student Expectations

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on March 17th, 2009 in Academics, Articles of Interest
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Inside Higher Ed recently highlighted new data about grade inflation published by former Duke professor Stuart Rojstaczer, founder of http://www.gradeinflation.com/ and the College Ranking Service. His recent findings, expanded to include an assortment of large and small, public and private, highly selective and less selective institutions across the country, show that average GPA’s have been rising at virtually all of the 70 colleges that were sampled. Private college average GPA’s rose almost 7%, from 3.09 in 1991 to 3.30 in 2006. Public college averages rose almost 6%, from 2.85 to 3.01. At some highly selective institutions, average GPA’s now top 3.5. Mr. Rojstaczer argues that these persistent increases cannot be explained fully by a corresponding increase in the quality of college-bound students, as average SAT or ACT scores have not kept pace with increased grades.

This issue of rising grades, and what grade inflation means to the rigor of higher education, is also connected to changing expectations among college students. The New York Times reported that students increasingly expect to be rewarded for their effort, even if that effort doesn’t produce an average or above-average product. The articles quotes a senior from the University of Maryland as saying, “If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point”? Some students, accustomed to earning high grades throughout their K-12 classes to gain admission to college, fear that low grades will prevent them from gaining admission to subsequent graduate programs.

See the full data for over 180 colleges’ average GPA’s here, and about Princeton’s efforts to curb grade inflation here.

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