The Answer Sheet: Higher Education


Posted at 12:27 PM ET, 02/27/2011

James Franco’s unusual education
By Valerie Strauss
James Franco, actor and co-host of The Academy Awards tonight, likes going to school. In fact, he still is, studying for his doctorate in English at Yale University, while fitting in movie and television appearances when he isn’t studying.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:27 PM ET, 02/27/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  anne hathaway, columbia university, james franco, the academy awards, the oscars, yale university

Posted at 09:08 AM ET, 02/01/2011

Peace Corps' 2011 college rankings; D.C., Va. schools on top
By Valerie Strauss
The Peace Corps, in its 50th year, announces its 2011 college rankings. Tops in their categories: The George Washington University in Washington D.C., the University of Mary Washington in Virginia and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:08 AM ET, 02/01/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  george washington university, peace corps, president john f. kennedy, president kennedy, university of florida, university of michigan

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/29/2010

University of Virginia reforms speech code
By Valerie Strauss
The University of Virginia has eliminated four controversial policies that restricted the free speech of students and faculty, becoming one of a minority of schools across the country to do so.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/29/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  FIRE, free speech, free speech on campus, speech codes, university of virginia

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 11/13/2010

So you want to be a professor? A laugh/cry video
By Valerie Strauss
Here's a sad/funny video showing an optimistic student in conversation with her realistic (some would say jaded) professor about going to graduate school and becoming a humanities instructor.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 11/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  college professors, college recommendations, getting a phd, grad school, graduate school, humanities, studying the humanities, video, you tube

Posted at 10:00 AM ET, 11/03/2010

Why so many bright kids fail to launch in college
By Valerie Strauss
Nationwide, there is a large and growing group of bright kids whose brains aren’t wired right for a demanding college routine. The strategies and supports that worked in high school when they were living at home are not adequate to the new demands that college places on the executive functions of the brain.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:00 AM ET, 11/03/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  SAT scores, add, adhd, college dropouts, college freshmen, college graduation, college work, executive functioning, graduation rates, high school, higher education, landmark college, learning disabilities

Posted at 02:38 PM ET, 10/27/2010

Ivy League students 'out' kids who don't donate to senior fund
By Valerie Strauss
How's this for obnoxious? Student volunteers at Dartmouth College and Cornell University, using lists given to them by school administrators, are “outing” students who have not donated to senior class gift funds.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:38 PM ET, 10/27/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  cornell university, dartmouth college, fund raising, ivy league, senior class, senior gifts

Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 10/04/2010

Willingham: How to teach collaboration
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham writes that “collaboration” and “working effectively in groups” are often deemed 21st century skills that young people must learn. But how to teach them? Researchers just made headway in characterizing what good group members do.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:55 AM ET, 10/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education, Higher Education, Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  21st century skills, collaboration, dan willingham, daniel willingham, how to teach collaboration, teaching 21st century skills, willingham, working in groups

Posted at 03:53 PM ET, 06/24/2010

Gulf oil spill spawns new college course
By Valerie Strauss
It didn’t take long for the diastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to become the focus of academics: The University of Minnesota has created a new course called “Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010” that will be offered this fall.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:53 PM ET, 06/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill, college course on ol spill, consequences of oil spill, deepwater horizon oil spill, effects of oil spill, environment and oil spill, gulf oil spill, researching oil spill, studying the oil spill, university of minnesota, university of minnesota and new course

Posted at 02:31 PM ET, 06/03/2010

College awareness: How much is too much?
By Valerie Strauss
How old should children be before they are asked to start worrying about going to college? Eight years old? Ten? Thirteen? Fifteen? How about 5?

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:31 PM ET, 06/03/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  college readiness, college readiness week, kalamazoo and obama, kalamazoo school, kalamazoo school district, newsom and savings account, obama's 2020 goal and college, san francisco and kindergarten savings account

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 06/01/2010

Clemson student charged for rude e-mail
By Valerie Strauss
Here’s another in a long list of overreactions by school officials to young people saying things in a way others would rather they didn’t. At Clemson University, an undergraduate was charged with "disorderly conduct," "harassment" and other school rule violations for sending a rude e-mail to an administrator.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 06/01/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  1st amendment rights, Clemson University, FIRE, disorderly conduct charges, first amendment rights, free speech at school, free speech on campus, student charged for nasty email, student charged for rude email, student charged with disorderly conduct, the right to free speech

Posted at 10:01 AM ET, 05/29/2010

Gender gap in higher education growing -- report
By Valerie Strauss
In less than a decade women will account for 59 percent of total undergraduate enrollment and 61 percent of graduate enrollment at the country’s colleges and universities and already have a dominant presence at every degree level, a new government report shows. But women still remain severely underrepresented in certain fields, the report shows, and young adult males still have higher median earnings than young adult females with the same levels of education at every degree level.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:01 AM ET, 05/29/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  condition of education, condition of education 2010, female enrollment, female enrollment in higher education, gender and enrollment, higher education, male attainment and college, male enrollment, male enrollment in college, participation in higher education by gender, women and higher education

Posted at 03:06 PM ET, 05/27/2010

Sharp critique of for-profit ed companies
By Valerie Strauss
A highly successful and well-known Wall Street trader who has become famous for foreseeing the country's financial crash gives a speech blasting the for-profit education industry.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:06 PM ET, 05/27/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  for-profit education, for-profit higher education, steven eisman and for-profit education, steven eisman speech, the big short

Posted at 04:38 PM ET, 05/20/2010

Harvard endowment losses fueled financial crisis -- report
By Valerie Strauss
Endowment losses at Harvard and five other universities that were triggered by risky investment strategies helped fuel the financial crisis, a new report says.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:38 PM ET, 05/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  endowments and financial crisis, harvard endowment, report on endowments

Posted at 12:54 PM ET, 05/18/2010

Adult student penalized for one curse word
By Valerie Strauss
The largest community college in Mississippi barred a 30-year-old student from a speech course because a professor became upset when the student uttered one curse word after class was over.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:54 PM ET, 05/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  cursing at college

Posted at 09:51 AM ET, 05/12/2010

A most unusual university investigation
By Valerie Strauss
A Christian university investigates whether one of its official really has the Muslim background he says he had before converting.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:51 AM ET, 05/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  Liberty University, caner and muslim, caner and muslim background, falwell and liberty university, investigation into caner, liberty university investigation, was caner a muslim

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 05/09/2010

The funniest commencement speeches
By Valerie Strauss
Most graduation speeches are boring; who really remembers theirs? But some classes get lucky, and are graced with a speaker who says something memorable because it is profound rather than sappy, or because it is really funny, or because it is profound and funny at the same time. I like the funny ones, so here are excerpts of some of the funny ones.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 05/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  commencement speeches, degeneres speech, ellen degeneres and tulane, funny commencement speeches, funny graduation speeches, graduation ceremonies, graduation speeches, hilarious commencement speeches, jon stewart and commencement address, jon stewart and william and mary, lady gaga and commencement address, lady gaga and new york university, obama and commencement, obama and graduation, obama at hampton, will ferrell and harvard

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/07/2010

Ethics expert to head Harvard Business School
By Valerie Strauss
With the image of America's corporate world bruised, Harvard names an ethics expert as dean of its influential business school.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  business ethics, business schools, business schools and ethics, doo, harvard and faust, harvard business school and new dean, harvard dean, harvard names new dean, nitin nohria

Posted at 12:32 PM ET, 04/22/2010

Should professor be allowed to run a sex Web site?
By Valerie Strauss
A tenured California university professor is operating a Web site that caters to people interested in Thailand's sex tourism and school officials say they can't do anything about it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:32 PM ET, 04/22/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  BigBabyKenny.com, California State University at Northridge, Kenneth Ng, higher education, sex website, tenured professor

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 04/19/2010

New analysis of violence on campus
By Valerie Strauss
Colleges and universities should strategically review their threat assessment capacities because some of the conventional beliefs about these attacks are not accurate, a new report issued by the federal government says. For example, while much attention is given to the “traveling” attacker, such as the student who killed 32 students in a shooting spree at Virginia Tech in 2007, only 3 percent of the attackers acctually move from building to building.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 04/19/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  campus violence, research on campus violence, school violence, study on campus violence, violence at school

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 04/16/2010

Any value to U.S. News rankings?
By Valerie Strauss
It's the time of year for more U.S. News & World Report rankings, these of graduate schools around the nation. The methodology is very very complicated, but it's hard to find much meaning in any of this.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 04/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  U.S. News & World report rankings, U.S. News and graduate schools, U.S. News and rankings, U.S. News rankings, business school rankings, engineering school rankings, law school rankings, rankings of education schools, rankings of graduate schools

Posted at 01:00 PM ET, 04/06/2010

Everything you ever wanted to know about Butler
By Valerie Strauss
Go ahead, admit it: You hadn’t really heard about Butler University until it became a contender to win the NCCA 2010 basketball title and came heart-breakingly close to besting Duke to become national champs. Well, here's some things you might want to know.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:00 PM ET, 04/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  Bulldogs and class, Butler Bulldogs, Butler University, NCAA basketball, classes cancelled at Butler

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 03/17/2010

March Madness: What's the academic effect?
By Valerie Strauss
A nationwide independent poll funded and conducted by me strongly suggests that during the three-week NCAA championship tournament, many classes will be cancelled, the minds of many students will wander and very little in the way of academics will get done at dozens of schools across the country over the next few weeks.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 03/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  march madness, ncaa tournament

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 03/09/2010

Higher ed gender gap seems stable--except for Hispanics
By Valerie Strauss
The gender gap in higher education--in which males represent 43 percent of traditional age undergraduates--has stayed stable since 2000, except for Hispanic males. Here are details of a new report.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 03/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  gender gap, higher ed and gender

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 03/07/2010

Virginia colleges: Just say 'no' to Cuccinelli
By Valerie Strauss
Virginia's attorney general has really stirred the pot by telling the state's colleges and universities that they should remove from their anti-discrimination employment policies anything that covers homosexuals. Virginia's school's should just say "no."

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 03/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  cuccinelli letter, higher education

Posted at 06:10 PM ET, 03/03/2010

Linking college academics to careers
By Valerie Strauss
But Rick Cherwitz. Too many students graduate without appreciating how their academic studies can affect their the potential contribution of academic knowledge to their future careers and to the broader goal of solving society problems. The answer is an entrepreneurial laboratory where students can discover how to make these connections.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:10 PM ET, 03/03/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  academic/community mentorship, higher education, university of texas at austin

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 01/08/2010

U-Alabama by the numbers
By Valerie Strauss
We know the University of Alabama has a great football team; last night the Crimson Tide won the national championship with a win over the Texas Longhorns. But here are some things you may not know about the school: You need four years of high school English but one of history to be admitted. Most undergraduates live off-campus and last year, the school handed out exactly zero bachelor's degrees in math or the social sciences but a lot in business/marketing.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 01/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  university of alabama

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 01/05/2010

Are American students lazy?
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher at Babson College in Boston wrote a guest column in the Boston Globe complaining about how lazy her American students are and saying that international students are generally much harder working. Her contention that American students are, essentially, lazy, sparked a heated on-line discussion. The question is whether the discussion has any merit.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 01/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  achievement, higher education

Posted at 10:30 AM ET, 11/13/2009

The List: 10 best college presidents, as determined by Time
By Valerie Strauss
E. Gordon Gee of Ohio State University tops Time magazine's list of 10 best college and university presidents.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:30 AM ET, 11/13/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  The List, college presidents

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 11/13/2009

The List: Students from China lead rise in foreign enrollments at U.S. colleges
By Valerie Strauss
Foreign enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities is up this fall--with students from China leading the way--but overall growth seems to be slowing, according to a newly released survey of 701 institutions of higher education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 11/13/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  foreign enrollments at u.s. colleges

Posted at 01:22 PM ET, 11/09/2009

Is the gold standard of higher ed best practices flawed?
By Valerie Strauss
The supposed gold standard on best practices in higher education was released today and it says that more colleges and universities are exposing more kids to high quality learning experiences. That sounds good--unless you believe the author of a new look at the engagement report, which questions the survey’s methodology and its conclusions.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:22 PM ET, 11/09/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  higher education, student engagement

Posted at 09:32 AM ET, 11/02/2009

How much is a university president worth?
By Valerie Strauss
I suppose we are supposed to recoil in horror that some presidents of private universities in the United States are earning a lot of money--a record 23 presidents received more than $1 million in total compensation in 2007-08, according to a new survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:32 AM ET, 11/02/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  higher education, presidential compensation

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/16/2009

“The Naked Roommate” And Other Trials of College Life
By Valerie Strauss
True or False: “The Naked Roommate” by Harlan Cohen is required reading at some colleges and universities. You knew the answer was going to be “yes” or The Answer Sheet would not have brought it up. The Sheet was surprised to learn this, but found that it made sense after students and school administrators persuaded her to read the advice it offers for negotiating naked, smelly, noisy, and mean roommates, as well as dealing with professors, how to read a college textbook, sex, drugs, laundry, diet, and many other issues.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/16/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  "The Naked Roommate, college life

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 10/15/2009

Trachtenberg: When a College’s Reputation Trumps Its Quality
By Valerie Strauss
How one values a college education is very different from how one places a monetary value on a college’s prestige, a topic that relies more on the recognition of the school’s brand than it does on the quality of its educational program (although the two are often closely entwined). Two examples: Schools that routinely play in the NCAA’s Final Four basketball tournament receive large numbers of undergraduate applications not always correlated to the standing of their academic programs.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 10/15/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  stephen joel trachtenberg, university reputation, value of college education

Posted at 04:00 PM ET, 10/12/2009

Enough With The Lists Already
By Valerie Strauss
The Daily Beast blog does an "exclusive" list of the "smartest" cities in the country. So when will we stop paying attention to silly lists?

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:00 PM ET, 10/12/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  The Daily Beast, list of smartest cities

Posted at 11:46 AM ET, 10/09/2009

What's So Great About Harvard?
By Valerie Strauss
Harvard University is known for providing its undergraduates with an unexpectedly high number of graduate assistants as teachers rather than professors because, apparently, the profs are too busy with more important things than teaching. Now those poor kids can’t get a hot breakfast. Why, at a school where tuition is $33,696 for undergraduates this year and the total package including room, board and student services fee is $48,868? Isn't it time to stop viewing Harvard as standing alone as the platinum standard for higher education?

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:46 AM ET, 10/09/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  Harvard University

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 10/09/2009

A New World Ranking Of Top Universities--And Why Such Lists Are Nonsense
By Valerie Strauss
There is sure to be angst in some education quarters now that a new list of top universities around the world has just been published in Britain--and American schools did not do as well as they did last year. Since Friday is the day for lists on The Answer Sheet, read on for a list of the top universities that were ranked--and a list of reasons why such lists have no merit. That's a lot of lists.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 10/09/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education | Tags:  international university rankings, university rankings

Posted at 11:35 AM ET, 09/09/2009

WHY IT MATTERS: Porn Movie Tests University Leaders
By Valerie Strauss
The Answer Sheet bets that setting policy about pornographic movies is not the first thing you would think higher education administrators would be wrestling with at the start of a new year. But at the University of Maryland at College...

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:35 AM ET, 09/09/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Higher Education, Higher Education | Tags:  Maryland legislature, college park, free speech, higher education, pornography, university of maryland