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

Grove City College, a Hidden Gem

Grove City College, a Hidden Gem

On occasion people ask me where are the hidden college gems?

I have a found that the 50 Best Colleges list (www.thebestschools.org) is a pretty good source of hidden gems. The list’s primary criterion is that college is for undergraduates, not graduate students—which eliminates many of the big names, such as Harvard or Northwestern. It surveys the record of achievement among a college’s graduates to determine whether they have the skills to succeed in the real world. It also considers whether a college offers a ‘diversity of courses’ free of dogmatism, ideology or political correctness, delivers academic rigor so that students master their subjects, and watches its expenses to avoid adding an unwieldy debt load that indentures many graduates for decades to come. Grove City College (GCC) is number 18 on this list.

Cooper Union: No Longer ‘Free as Water and Air’

Cooper Union: No Longer ‘Free as Water and Air’

Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, located in Manhattan’s East Village with 1,000 students and an admission’s rate of 8%, was founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper, a successful entrepreneur who had designed and built the first steam railroad engine.

Cooper wanted to create a college, ‘equal to the best’ yet ‘open and free to all’ regardless of sex, wealth, or social status. Cooper Union is comprised of three schools: Irwin Chanin School of Architecture, the School of Art, and Albert Nerkin School of Engineering.

The engineering school offers both bachelors and masters degrees in chemical, electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering. Thomas Edison is a notable former student.

Oberlin-The Queen of Ohio Liberal Arts Colleges

Oberlin-The Queen of Ohio Liberal Arts Colleges

Ohio is rich in liberal arts colleges: Kenyon College, Denison College, and Ohio Wesleyan to name but a handful of the twenty six; then there is Oberlin College, a boundless bastion of liberal arts, with extensive historical roots, and resources that few schools of 2,900 might even dream of matching.

Knowing a College Well: An Exercise with Bucknell University

Knowing a College Well: An Exercise with Bucknell University

Any time is an ideal time to ‘test drive’ a college. Even though the bulk of your undergraduate years will be spent inside the classroom and library walls (at least they better be), knowing the campus and the community where you’ll be spending at least the next four years, possibly longer, is important. A good exercise to help you explore a school you’re serious about is to pretend you’re already there.To begin, let’s choose a college. If you’re thinking of engineering, or chemistry, and have a penchant for liberal arts programs as well, Bucknell University in Pennsylvania might be of interest.

To begin, let’s choose a college. If you’re thinking of engineering, or chemistry, and have a penchant for liberal arts programs as well, Bucknell University in Pennsylvania might be of interest.

UC Davis, the UC System’s Pearl of the Sacramento Valley

UC Davis, the UC System’s Pearl of the Sacramento Valley

Despite the buffets of budget cuts, the UC System is more popular than ever. This year, UC applications hit over 161,000, up 13% from last year. UC Davis, located just 15 miles west of Sacramento, best known for its biology, agriculture, and engineering programs, was up 5% from a year earlier with slightly more than 62,000 applications. This in the face of the ill-conceived Davis police pepper spraying of students protesting student tuition increases. The steady rise of applications-despite the pepper spray gaff-speaks to the resources and boundless educational opportunities Davis offers.

Carleton College: a Superb Liberal Arts College in Minnesota

Carleton College: a Superb Liberal Arts College in Minnesota

Even in the sub-zero frigidity of a Minnesota January, brains are exuding energy in Northfield, a town about 40 minutes from Minneapolis and St. Paul. ‘Carls,’ Carleton students, also known as “northern commies” by more conservative elements who find their politics a touch too left leaning, have just begun their second trimester. If you can weather the Minnesota winter, and find enjoyment in talking with some of the most intellectually engaged students in the country, “serious students who don’t take themselves too seriously,” then Carleton College might warrant being added to any application list

Why Swarthmore Warrants a Glance

Why Swarthmore Warrants a Glance

While Swarthmore might be small in numbers, with fewer than 1,550 undergraduates, its breadth and depth seem unrivalled. Swarthmore is international in scope: Swarthmore students (Swatties) come from every state, and 49 foreign countries. Its student faculty ratio of 8 to 1 enables students to develop an intimate relationship with professors. The alumni base of 19,000 is active, accessible, and devoted. Swarthmore also has a track record of producing Nobel Prize and MacArthur Grant winners, along with numerous PhDs per capita, exceeding all but a handful of schools. Couple all this with an endowment of over $1.2 billion, and there is a lot to like about Swarthmore.

Middlebury College, One of the Best Colleges No One has Heard of

Middlebury College, One of the Best Colleges No One has Heard of

For those of you who enjoy strapping on your Rossignol Avengers and skiing down a slope just minutes after leaving your class in physics, or shouting in German, or any of the other 10 languages taught, across the slopes where the Adirondacks and Green Mountains shoulder up on either side of Lake Champlain, or just sitting in meticulous marble and limestone quads viewing alpine vistas on a clear autumn day, Middlebury, whether you’ve heard of it or not, is what you’re pining for.

Profile of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Profile of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

If you’re willing to sacrifice the Mediterranean climate of California for the seasonally snowy plains of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) might warrant a review. The Twin Cities campus is, with 33,000 undergraduates, greater than Berkeley, UCLA, or Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. For out of state students, its cost of attendance (COA) is less than the in-state price of Berkeley or UCLA. As part of the Big Ten, and with its seven colleges offering over 150 majors, ranging from Russian to Kinesiology, the University of Minnesota might be worth weathering the winter storms.

Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.School)

Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.School)

“Innovators aren’t exceptional as much as they are confident.” (WSJ, 17 October 2011, R5)

“…virtually everyone has the capacity to innovate. It’s just that somewhere around fourth grade most of us stop thinking of ourselves as creative…so our ability to innovate atrophies.” (Ibid.)

These are the beliefs, along with a $35 million gift from German software entrepreneur Hasso Plattner, the co-founder of SAP, that have stirred David Kelley to create the d.School at Stanford. The program does not award degrees and is open to Stanford graduate students to learn what it takes to become more innovative. It warrants mention in this column because to survive in the years ahead every student will need to innovate and create both within the classroom and afterwards within their chosen careers.