Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.
Successful students are motivated and engaged students; unfortunately, on many campuses, motivation is lacking.
The book Academically Adrift cited a nationwide sampling of 2,300 students who took the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA): more than 45% found no improvement or declines in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over their undergraduate years.
A new study about the earning power of recent undergraduates was just published by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce: “What’s it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors”. The study can be found complete at: http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/whatsitworth-complete.pdf.
A lot of students and their families are justifiably concerned about the cost and quality of education in the United States. A hundred US colleges now have a cost of attendance (COA) exceeding $50,000; 2 years ago, only 5 did. Worse still, the price tag continues to escalate at around 4% per year, with no end in sight. Add to this state of affairs the revelations contained in the book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, which asserts, “36 percent of students ‘did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning’ over four years of college,” and you have every reason in the world to look elsewhere for alternative educational opportunities. The world, however, might very well be on your doorstep in the form of our Canadian neighbors to the north. Canadian universities have a high standard of educational rigor, their COA (depending on province) is lower, and most award degrees in three years, not the six, it seems to be taking at many US schools nowadays.
