The U.S. Census Department released a grab bag of education statistics this week. You might discover some surprising ones in this list: 18.4 million That’s the number of students who will be attending the nation’s colleges and universities this fall. If that seems like a lot of kids, it is. Twenty years ago, 13.5 million […]
Archive | Academics
Teaching Assistants You Can't Understand
Undergraduates have complained for decades about their teaching assistants. If you attend a university, chances are excellent that you will have at least some classes where a graduate student will serve as the teacher. TA’s are cheap and when they are teaching introductory courses, the professors don’t have to do it. And tenured professors love […]
Liberal Professors: Are Their Days Numbered?
There is a interesting story in The New York Times today about the changing of the guard among professors at colleges and universities. The article suggests that aging Baby Boomer professors, imprinted with the experiences of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, are more liberal in their outlook and that has effected how […]
Engineering Majors: A Road Less Traveled
I’ve been a great admirer of liberal arts colleges for years. Students who attend these colleges enjoy small classes, get to know their professors, and, per capita, they tend to go on to graduate schools in greater numbers. My son has watched his sister thrive at her liberal arts college which prompted him to say […]