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| WHY GO TO COLLEGE? Anne Matthews takes your questions on what really goes on within campus walls.... May 27, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
How will new technologies change educational opportunities? To what extent do social, moral and political biases of faculty and administrators direct a college's budget? Do the present cost differentials between private and state universities and community colleges perpetuate inequality ? Are there any substantial college reform proposals ? Why is a professor's research encouraged more than his or her teaching skills? How does grade inflation effect the quality of education at prestigious universities? Additional comments....
NewsHour Backgrounders
May 1, 1997:
A discussion on the rising cost of higher education .
February 10, 1997
Experts discuss President Clinton's plans for college tuition assistance.
December 26, 1996
A NewsHour panel scrutinizes the Democrat's plans for the 105th Congress' education initiatives.
EXTERNAL LINKS:
Financial aid links for higher education.
As a parent who is currently sending two children to college, I pose this question: why does it seem that the only purpose of the freshman core subjects is to "weed out" the students? If the purpose of the core classes is actually to make a "well-rounded" student, then why not just have a pass-fail grade. Why am I asking? It was the grades from two core classes that knocked my son's average down so he was unable to enter the engineering school at his university (he had a 2.19 and needed a 2.2). I feel like the money we spent on these classes could have been used toward more useful classes that would have benefited our son more in his future work.
Anne Matthews responds:
It's interesting--and frustrating--that the language used to attract students to campus is often contradictory. Catalogues and brochures frequently emphasize that college will mean personal development, but many first- and second-year students never speak directly to a professor and are funneled into huge impersonal lecture courses, sometimes with depressing results.
If your son still wants to try engineering, he could always take extra math and science courses, work like mad to do well in them, then go see Engineering's dean ofr admissions. Proof that a student is serious about a field, so serious he's willing to do additional preparation, then try again for admittance, should make any committee think twice.
A roundabout road to the degree, in any case, is becoming increasingly common. The four-year degree is rapidly yielding to the six-year degree, say college registrars--and some college presidents now think a five-year degree is not a bad idea, because high-school preparation is so often deficient. (Other administrators, though, argue for a three-year B.A., on the grounds that it cuts costs, uses campus resources more efficiently--and creates more alumni for the annual giving drive.)
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