The Right College

How can a high school student and especially that student’s parents find “the right college”?

The only reason anyone reads “US News and World Report” any more is its rankings of desirable colleges. US News compares tuition, graduation rate, salary five years post graduation, average student debt, and alumni donation to reveal (Ta-Da) that once again Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford are “the right college” for everyone.

An interesting opinion piece in the Washington Post notes that the most important factor for both prospective students and parents is “How well do the professors there teach?” US News kind of addresses that question by listing faculty salaries and student / teacher ratios. What would really be helpful is how many undergrad classes are taught by foreign-speaking Teaching Assistants.

It is nearly impossible to quantify “good teaching”. Corbin Campbell, an Education professor at American University gave it a shot. She and her team observed 732 different instructors at nine different schools over a ten year period. They evaluated academic rigor and active learning. Did students engage in debates, role plays and other hands-on exercises or simply sit inert for fifty minutes during a lecture? Remarkably, the study showed that regional state universities with “active learning” outranked prestigious private schools in student knowledge and understanding. Take that, Harvard.

Finding “the right college” remains a crapshoot. Within that college, within any major there, there will be great and awful profs side by side. Freshman engineers at Lafayette were taught “Statics — Basic Structurals” by either “Screaming Charlie” Best or John MacLean. Hour exams and the final exam were the same for both instructors. “Screaming Charlie’s” guys averaged less than 50% on them. MacLean’s guys averaged close to 70%. Were “Screaming Charlie’s” guys (including me by the way) just dumber? Sophomore engineers had to take Analytical Physics. Again, two profs taught the course with common mid-term and final exams. Again, Prof Erich’s guys earned 20% lower grades than Prof Riffle’s. Were Erich’s guys (including me again) dumber? Second semester, I had Riffle and magically became smarter.

There is no easy way to find “the right college”.

By Ed Dufton