College Prestige Doesn't Guarantee a Top-Flight Learning Experience
Chronicle of Higher Ed: College Prestige Doesn't Guarantee a Top-Flight Learning Experience
Inside Higher Ed: Study Finds Selectivity Makes Little Difference in College Experience
These two articles share insights from an important report by the National Survey of Student Engagement. The findings demonstrate with data what we observe as college counselors visiting many colleges around the country: how few students a college admits has no bearing on the quality of the student experience, teaching or outcomes. The college years are in important time in our maturation into adulthood, but the institution itself only matters in the way that it will engage a student and contribute to their continued personal and academic development over four years. There are life-changing faculty at any college our students could be admitted to and choose to attend. (The academic job market is stunningly tough. Some of the best scholars in any discipline can be found teaching at colleges that you've never heard of. Talented, motivated students are also widely distributed among institutions for any number of reasons influencing their enrollment choice.) If we can free our students from artificial notions of "prestige," and from selectivity, which is easily manipulated by colleges (though they are rewarded for it in the rankings, it usually comes at the cost of direction of resources toward the educational program), we can help lighten the stress and anxiety factors that can so negatively impact their high school experience. Every student, as long as they are doing their best academically and pursuing their out-of-the-classroom interests, should know that there are many great colleges where the admission office will happily meet them where they are and enroll them for four more years of growth and exploration.
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Inside Higher Ed: Study Finds Selectivity Makes Little Difference in College Experience
These two articles share insights from an important report by the National Survey of Student Engagement. The findings demonstrate with data what we observe as college counselors visiting many colleges around the country: how few students a college admits has no bearing on the quality of the student experience, teaching or outcomes. The college years are in important time in our maturation into adulthood, but the institution itself only matters in the way that it will engage a student and contribute to their continued personal and academic development over four years. There are life-changing faculty at any college our students could be admitted to and choose to attend. (The academic job market is stunningly tough. Some of the best scholars in any discipline can be found teaching at colleges that you've never heard of. Talented, motivated students are also widely distributed among institutions for any number of reasons influencing their enrollment choice.) If we can free our students from artificial notions of "prestige," and from selectivity, which is easily manipulated by colleges (though they are rewarded for it in the rankings, it usually comes at the cost of direction of resources toward the educational program), we can help lighten the stress and anxiety factors that can so negatively impact their high school experience. Every student, as long as they are doing their best academically and pursuing their out-of-the-classroom interests, should know that there are many great colleges where the admission office will happily meet them where they are and enroll them for four more years of growth and exploration.
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