Texas Ed Spectator

Randolph-Macon College is a small liberal arts of less than 1,200 students just north of Richmond, Virginia. The college has two programs that I find appealing. It has a First-Year Experience that goes beyond freshman seminars. Undergraduate research appears to be prominent with it’s Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship. And for those who ranking is important, its ranking in US News and World Report suggests that it may be an under-rated or undiscovered education value. It’s ranked 122 over all in its Liberal Arts Colleges list but is 176th in selectivity.

• Four Year Graduation Rate: 52.2%
• Median SAT: 1095
• $18,433 expenditures per student
• 78.4% Admitted
• 86% Students living on campus

Over a third of the students participate in nationally based sororities and fraternities. The importance of Greek life comes across in the Princeton Review’s student comments. And while the campus hasn’t reported any liquor or drug violations, drinking appears to be a major recreational focus. Randolph-Macon makes the Princeton Review’s top twenty lists in “Lots of Beer Parties,” “Major Frat and Sorority Scene Parties,” and “Party Schools Parties.” This where it would be nice to know more about how other schools ranked on these lists other than the top twenty. For all we know, it may be little different than number 50 or dramatically different than number 21. Having attended a school that regularly made the party school rankings, I know that it’s possible for such a label to have very little effect on your individual experience. However, given it’s small size, it’s something I would want to check out very carefully.

While student’s comments don’t say anything specifically about the academic rigor of the classes, the college states that “since 1920, when statistics were first kept, a higher percentage of Randolph-Macon graduates have gone on to earn PhDs than that of any independent college in the state of Virginia.” I suspect this is a school worth looking into if you are interested in a liberal arts education but don’t have the scores to get into one of the more selective schools. I would just be wary of it’s drinking reputation.

R-MC :: What is the First-Year Experience?

As a new student, you’ll explore these kinds of connections through your First-Year Experience (FYE). You’ll join a small group of other students and two professors from different disciplines for a yearlong exploration of a topic in a challenging and interesting set of FYE classes. Outside the classroom, you’ll attend co-curricular events such as plays and public lectures designed to deepen your understanding of the topic. The work will culminate in an interdisciplinary analysis that might take the form of a written report, a video production, or a work of art. And through FYE you’ll make solid connections with those who share your exploration, including the faculty members, one of whom will serve as your academic advisor.

FYE Topics

The Drug Trade
Disciplines: Chemistry and Sociology

What is Life?
Disciplines: Biology and Computer Science

Biopolitics
Disciplines: Biology, Political Science

Wine, Science, and Society
Disciplines: Literature, Chemistry

In God’s Good Time
Disciplines: Religious Studies, Physics

Why R-MC: Undergraduate Research?

Randolph-Macon College views students as colleagues through their summer research opportunities that take them out of the classroom for a total summer immersion program.

Like professional scientists and scholars, Randolph-Macon students have to apply to the SURF program by writing a proposal and request for grant money to fund their research. If their project is accepted, they receive a stipend of $3,000 and free housing. In addition, funds are available for supplies and travel.

Technorati Tags: Randolph-Macon College, College Rankings, College Search, Liberal Arts Colleges

The Princeton Review is one the sites I’ve been frequenting in my search for colleges that might accept my son and that he might accept. One interesting feature is its list of rankings.

The New 2008 “Best 366 Colleges” Rankings on The Princeton Review

We’ve created 62 rankings lists across 8 categories, based on feedback from more than 120,000 students across the nation. Enjoy!

I don’t know how statistically valid these lists are or what actually separates the number one school from the number 20 school from the number 100 school. But if there is anything to these lists at all, you’ve got to wonder what’s the attraction of the super selective schools in the country. If a school makes the top twenty “Toughest to Get Into,” you would think they would make multiple appearances on the various education quality lists. Not necessarily so.

The other “education quality lists” I’m talking about are:

• Professors Get High Marks

• Their Students Never Stop Studying

• Professors Make Themselves Accessible

• Class Discussions Encouraged

• Students Happy with Financial Aid

• Schools Runs Like Butter

• Best Classroom Experience

• Happiest Students

• Best Quality of Life

Six of the toughest schools to get into don’t make it onto any of the lists: Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Dartmouth College, Cooper Union, and Georgetown. Harvard, MIT, Yale, and Brown only make it onto one additional list. The schools that appear the most on the other lists are Middlebury College, five categories, and Princeton, Stanford, and Pomona in four categories.

So which schools appeared in the most categories? Thomas Aquinas College and Wabash with seven appearances each. Not exactly household names. Hendrix and Ursinus College make the Best Classroom Experience. Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Centre College, and Sewanee-University of the South are in the “Professors Get High Marks” category. A total of 87 colleges appear on these nine lists. That’s a lot more than the 20 “Toughest to Get Into.” Of course, many of these colleges could be ranked in the top 30 or 40 on the “Toughest to Get Into” so it may not be that big of a deal. But without any way to judge the difference between those on the list and those that didn’t make it, it’s hard to reach a conclusion about the value of the top twenty.

I understand why the Princeton Review didn’t want to rank all 366 colleges on the list. Any college that appears at the bottom of the list would unfairly receive a “negative” rating even if there really isn’t that much difference between those at the top and those at the bottom. However, if you’re going to evaluate colleges based on their placement on these lists, it seems to me that you should seriously be considering factors other than just selectivity when looking for a quality college.

Technorati Tags: College Admissions, College Rankings, College Selectivity, Princeton Review

From my basic list of liberal arts colleges

I love Albion’s “Prospective Student” page. It starts with “do you believe that your first 18 years of life can be accurately and completely reflected in one admissions applications?” Well, of course not which is why you should visit Albion. Like most small, liberal arts colleges, it’s faculty gets high marks for quality and interaction. It appears to have some interesting academic programs and has a high percentage of students going to graduate school or med school after graduation.

The Princeton Review has Albion ranked as number ten in terms of Least Happy Students which may have something to do with being number seven in More to Do on Campus. If the students are as sheltered suburbanites as suggested, it could explain why they might not find the small town of Albion very entertaining. About a third of students are part of the Greek community and comments on StudentsReview suggest that the campus is very clique-ish. Given the nature of small schools, it’s probably a good idea to make sure Albion’s social scene will work for you.

• Four Year Graduation Rate: 66.9%
• Median SAT: 1125
• 15,035 expenditures per student
• 81.9% Admitted
• Princeton Review reports 38% going to graduate school and 15% to medical school
• US News and World Reports lists an endowment of $174,464,242

The Good:

There appears to be a lot of social activities on campus and there is very little on campus crime reported. The college has made a commitment to academic excellence in its First Year Program and numerous academic opportunities.

Entertainment

The Coffee House is a nonprofit student organization which provides Albion College and the Albion community with social space in the hopes of fostering greater social and intellectual exchange. The Coffee House serves the entire gamut of Coffee House fare–espresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate, mochas, soda, etc.–and provides frequent entertainment and lively discussion. Furthermore, the Coffee House provides student volunteers with the opportunity to manage a small business first hand.

Albion College First-Year Experience

William Atwell Brown, Jr., and Mary Brown Vacin First-Year Experience (FYE)

The FYE program will enable you to make a smooth and positive transition to Albion College. Through the program you will be introduced to the liberal arts tradition and the rigors of academic excellence. The FYE program will help you establish habits of mind and patterns of decision-making that will ensure achieving optimal success throughout your four years here. We think you’ll find the First-Year Experience will meet you where you are and take you where you want to go.

Albion College First-Year Experience

Digital Portfolios

Your Digital Portfolio, which provides a detailed summary highlighting your academic and extracurricular experiences.

Albion College Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

The Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (FURSCA) was established to promote and support student research, original scholarship and creative efforts in all disciplines. Through a number of programs, taking place at all points in a student’s career at Albion, FURSCA can help students pursue independent study in their areas of interest. Students work closely with a faculty mentor to develop and carry out research or other creative projects

Flags:

Albion’s budget cuts are coming after being highlighted by the Wall Street Journal for it’s questionable statistics in alumni donations.

Trustees propose budget cut

At 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12, a meeting was held between faculty committee chairs and Board of Trustee members to discuss a recent proposal by the board to cut four tenure-track faculty members to help reduce the college’s deficit.

…

Next year, the school will assume additional operating expenses of about $1.2 million. VanAken said that the largest piece of this is $850,000 in depreciation for the science complex. To help make up for these new expenses, VanAken and the administration have the goal of recruiting 525 first-year students, 45 more than this year’s 480. The extra students would increase the college’s enrollment closer to last year’s 1,950 students. Looking at enrollment a few years ahead, the college will need to recruit classes to replace the class of 2008 that came in with 559 students and the class of 2009 that came in with 571 students, an important thing to be noted, according to VanAken.

WSJ.com

Albion

College, 90 miles west of Detroit in Albion, Mich., used this tactic to increase its alumni giving rate beginning in 2003, when it reaped an artificial increase of 1.4 percentage points, to 51.6%. The college boasted of the rate in a grant application; ultimately, it was awarded the $4.65 million in funds. Albion President Peter Mitchell says the school stopped using this method for the class of 2007 and that the giving rate was just “one arrow in the quiver” for the grant.

Albion stats called into question

On March 2, Albion received attention on the national level, serving as the featured school in a “Wall Street Journal” article. Many students and faculty were dismayed to find, however, the attention was not positive.The article, entitled “To Boost Donor Numbers, Colleges Adopt New Tricks,” addressed how several colleges calculate their alumni-giving rate. Albion was used to illustrate all of the practices called into question in the article, which included limited effort to find alumni that do not have current contact information on file and the practice of considering senior gifts as multi-year donations.

I also have some concerns about the strength of its liberal arts program. I know that Albion has several programs that are design to integrate the liberal arts into management, medicine, and administration but given its five most popular majors, I would look into the emphasis of the academic programs very carefully.

USNews.com: America’s Best Colleges 2008: Albion College: Academics

Albion: 20% economics, 13% biology/biological sciences, 12% psychology, 11% English language and literature, 10% history

St. Olaf: 11% biology/biological sciences, 8% English language and literature, 6% economics, 6% mathematics, 6% psychology

College of Wooster: 10% history, 9% psychology, 8% English language and literature, 8% communication studies/speech communication and rhetoric, 8% political science and government

Kalamazoo: 24% social sciences, 13% psychology, 10% English language and literature/letters, 9% biological and biomedical sciences, 9% physical sciences

Wabash: 14% history, 13% psychology, 12% English language and literature, 11% philosophy and religious studies, 10% biology/biological sciences

College Navigator - Albion College

Majors in Business, management, marketing, and related support services 41%

Technorati Tags: Albion College, College Rankings, college search, Liberal Arts Colleges

Another attempt to head off government regulation of college endowments.

Yale Plans to Increase Spending From Its Endowment - New York Times

Facing pressure from Congress and some donors to use more of its multibillion-dollar investment gains, Yale University announced Monday that it would increase the amount of money it spent from its endowment next year by nearly 40 percent.

Because otherwise, they might be required to spend five percent of it’s endowment like other foundations. But for some reason, colleges think that they need more flexibility than other non-profits.

Yale Plans to Increase Spending From Its Endowment - New York Times

Dr. Levin said universities should be allowed to determine how much of their long-term assets it would be prudent to spend. “You wouldn’t want to mandate a spending rate,” he said.

And other foundations shouldn’t be allowed that freedom because…?

Technorati Tags: College endowments, College finance, Yale,