Research Opportunities
Ralph Becker
The Importance of High School Research

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.

The Importance of High School Research

College Profiles & Rankings

The Colleges of Worcester, Massachusetts

The Colleges of Worcester, Massachusetts

About forty miles west of Boston, past Framingham, the starting line for the Boston Marathon, right off the I-90, is Worcester, Massachusetts. Contained in this town of 168,000 citizens are 38,000 students attending nine schools. While it’s not Boston, it shares in Boston’s rich fabric of higher educational institutions, including the medical school for the University of Massachusetts, and a branch of MCPHS (the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), whose main campus is in Boston.

Getting to Know Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Getting to Know Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, (SLO) nestled on the California coast, lives and breathes its motto, its core philosophy, ‘Learning by Doing,’ in engineering, business, architecture, viticulture, and all newer majors such as statistics. Classes emphasize activities and discussions, lab and field work, hands-on projects, and collaborative work experiences.

UCSC-A Place for Those Caught Up in Computer Science, Molecular Biology and the 60s-70s with a Strong Propensity for Action

UCSC-A Place for Those Caught Up in Computer Science, Molecular Biology and the 60s-70s with a Strong Propensity for Action

Any place that has the Banana Slug as its mascot will either attract or repulse. At the University of California Santa Cruz,  for those who are allured,  there is distinctly a countercultural element, initially signaled by the Banana Slug, that is  better developed as one explores what the campus has to offer.

Cornell University: What it Offers, How its Admissions Works

Cornell University: What it Offers, How its Admissions Works

While many California students applying to private schools zero in on USC or Stanford, some adventurous applicants with a taste for a more varying  climate and distinct academic challenges might turn east to such a school as Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Yale's Resurrection of the Sciences

Yale's Resurrection of the Sciences

In 1854 Commodore Mathew Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay and began negotiating the opening of Japan to the World. This ended of the Edo period and the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Japan, a xenophobic and proud nation, was not willing to be sectioned off into occupied zones, subject to the whims of European, or at the time, second rate powers like the United States. So, it set into motion a massive plan to reform all portions of its civilization with the intent of becoming a world power in as short order as possible.  

College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara

College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara

Over 50 years ago UC Santa Barbara created its own wave of sorts. It took a former cramped Marine barracks located next to its library and turned it into the College of Creative Studies (CCS). Placed under the guidance of Marvin Mudrick, a professor of the English Department, and a prodigy having begun his college career at 15, CCS flourished and became an institution for undergraduate independent studies, beyond what many honors programs might offer. 

Student Faculty Ratio and the Contingent Faculty

Student Faculty Ratio and the Contingent Faculty

Low student to faculty ratios and small class sizes are often cited when considering the quality of a school's educational experience. This year, Harvard reported a 7 to 1 student to faculty ratio, while the University of Florida reported a 22 to 1 ratio.  Does this mean that Harvard's educational experience is better than Florida's? 

The Economist’s College Ranking

The Economist’s College Ranking

Several years ago the Department of Education proposed its own college rankings. Many institutions serving the postsecondary market in the United States demurred.   

Consequently, the Obama Administration decided not to go forward with the ranking. It did, however, make its treasure trove of data available on the Education Department’s College Scorecard website, which went live September 12th.

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Researching a College: Grinnell a Case Study

Researching a College: Grinnell a Case Study

The better you know prospective campuses, the better you can figure out which might fit in with your postsecondary expectations. If you don’t have any or few expectations formed as yet, doing some research will get your thoughts of college into motion.

A good place to begin a search is with guides such as Fiske, Princeton Review, The Ultimate Guide to America’s Best Colleges, and the Yale Daily News Insider’s Guide to Colleges.  

 

Soka University of America, the Newest Orange County Liberal Arts College

Soka University of America, the Newest Orange County Liberal Arts College
When first describing Soka University of America (SUA) in Aliso Viejo in Orange County it’s tempting to draw an analogy to Pepperdine in Malibu: both campuses are mere miles from the Pacific and have stunningly beautiful campuses…but then the analogy begins to falter.