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Rankings Update
2007-05-06 08:11:00
It's not just me that thinks rankings are not a useful tool for selecting a university. On April 2, , The Education Conservancy, a US non-profit, sent a letter to college presidents asking them not to participate in the U.S. News rankings. The Education Conservancy cites the lack of accuracy, lack of important criteria such as whether students are actually learning anything, and the fact that the "rankings game" distracts from the main purpose of a college, which is to educate its students.The letter asks university presidents to make two commitments: First, to not fill out the reputation survey that U.S. News sends to administrators as part of its ranking process. It also asks them not to promote their own rankings, in such a way as to show approval for the rankings system. Already 12 presidents of liberal arts colleges have signed the letter and meetings are planned to discuss alternative forms of ranking or rating colleges. More details can be found here.The text of the letter ...
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American First-Year Students
2007-05-03 07:57:00
What are American students like?In January of this year, the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California—Los Angeles (UCLA) released its annual survey of American freshman. In 2006, CIRP interviewed 271, 441 students who were entering universities and colleges for the first time, representing the total of about 1.3 million students who started higher education in 2006. According to the 2006 Profile of American Freshmen, students are more political than before. 8.3% more students reported discussing politics frequently when they were in their last year of high school, though the total is still only 33.8%. In addition, while other surveys have shown that students tend to be more “middle of the road” politically, only 44.3% of students identified as being politically moderate. 28.4% identified as liberal and 23.9% as conservative, indicating that students are politically divided. However on many specific social issues, a majority of students held m...
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Three Resources Online
2007-04-29 09:46:00
It can be really useful to keep your eye on news about universities in the US. It's always good to have an idea of which universities are doing what kind of research, which faculty members are publishing and what they're publishing on, as well as sadly, any scandals. Three great resources for keeping up with what's going on in American universities, in no particular order, are:Inside Higher Ed. While the site is designed more for professors and administrators than for students, it provides great articles on the big issues, trends, and questions in education. A great place to orient yourself to what is being talked about on campus.The University Diaries is another good source of what's going on, with a particular interest in scandals. It's where I first found out Auburn University lost its credentials. Finally, in case you thought the Ivy League Schools were all very serious, Ivy Gate is a fun blog that takes a light look at news at the 8 most prestigious universities in the US ...
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MIT Admissions Dean Lied
2007-04-29 09:16:00
According to the Harvard Crimson the dean of admissions at MIT admitted to lying about her university degrees as she resigned. Her resume claimed that she had degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, and Albany Medical College. While she apparently never attended Union or Albany, she did attend RPI, but did not graduate or receive a diploma there. It is not clear what academic qualifications she did have.The irony of an admissions dean lying about her qualifications is lost on no one. Hopefully, while this does demonstrate that even prestigious institutions like MIT don't always follow best practices and check their employees resumes, liars do get found out. Also, as many are noting, this woman must have been pretty well-qualified and been pretty together to hold and manage such a job. If she hadn't been doing a good job, this would have come to light sooner.
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Interrupted Service
2007-04-27 11:48:00
Apologies if anyone checked out the blog the past few days and found a big warning message from my host--zendurl.com. Turns out my last post used a couple of words common in phishing sites and they blocked the site. It's all straightened out. I'm just an innocent teacher, not a web-criminal so please resume using the EA blog as usual.
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The Visa Interiew: What Do They Want?
2007-04-27 11:37:00
The visa interview is required to get a student visa to the United States. You will have to go to the Embassy or Consulate in person and both present your documents and speak to a consular officer. You will be alone during the interview and you will have to speak English.What is the purpose of the visa interview?First, they want to make sure that your documents are in order, and that you have not lied or mislead them. Expect to be asked about any inconsistencies in your documents. Be honest; if you aren't hiding anything then there is nothing to fear. One student I know had a record that he had gotten a visa to the US, but on another form he said he had never been to the US. As it turns out, he got the visa but was unable to go because his father became ill. The consular officer understood the situation and there were no problems.The most important thing to do is to make sure your documents are clearly in order... and that you have filled everything out accurately. Lying on a form...
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Getting a Student Visa to the US
2007-04-25 09:08:00
What are the steps to get a student visa to the US?The first thing you want to do is contact the US Consulate or Embassy in your country because the rules and regulations may change and because there may be special requirements for your country. The Embassy or Consulate is the only authoritative source of information. All Embassies have websites and telephone numbers and email addresses. You want to look for the Consular Section and the non-immigrant visa section (non-immigrant visas are for people who do not plan to move to the US permanently, such as students). For Kazakhstan, the instructions for getting a student visa are listed here and the documents you need are here and here..What Do I Need from the University?The first thing you will need is a form from the University which basically tells the Embassy who is responsible for you at the university, what kind of course you are accepted for and on what date your study begins and ends. If you are getting an F-1 visa, this form is...
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Alternatives to Rankings
2007-04-24 10:56:00
This article is part of a series on university rankings. Part One dealt with some general problems with the concept of rankings. Part Two looked at the methodology of the rankings and some problems with it. Now we look at moving beyond rankings. What Do We Without Rankings?Remember that every student is different. what you think makes a good school may not be what others think. So the first thing to do is make a list of everything that you want in your university. You might consider:Location: Do you want to be in a big city or a small town? Do you like to be out in nature or do you want lots of night clubs, restaurants, and shops around you? If you plan to study Public Administration, you might want to be in Washington, D.C. or New York because schools in those towns have access to lecturers from the government, the UN, and international visitors. On the other hand, if you plan to study oil and gas engineering, you might want to look at schools in Texas, where you can more easily in...
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I want to learn real English. You know, British English
2007-04-24 06:25:00
It is a common belief in many parts of the world that there is one true, correct and pure English and that that is British English. It is not uncommon in Kazakhstan to refer to American English as "American language" "Ты говоришь по американский, да? (You speak Americanese, right?") one person asked me. Further it is assumed that because Britain is the home of the English language, that British English must be true and proper English. This belief may come from the days when the Russian language was imposed on the entire Russian Empire, and people were forced to learn the same Russian everywhere. In contrast, while English has been imposed upon colonies from the US to India to Africa to Australia, there has never been a uniform English nor any body in charge of keeping the language pure (unlike the Academie Francaise, for example, which is charged with deciding what words are proper French and what words are not). In other words, officially there has ne...
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Will I Be Killed if I Study in the US?
2007-04-22 17:03:00
On the heels of the Virginia Tech tragedy in which 33 students were killed by a gunman who then killed himself, a lot of international students have been asking whether it's dangerous to study in the US. It's an understandable question and no one can fault the parents of students who say, 'No way is my child going to go to the US.' A lot of American parents are pulling their students from Virginia Tech. While all this is natural, I hope that in the long run this tragic but isolated incident won't ruin your plans to study in the US.There is certainly an image that American is a country of violence and guns, and US gun laws are more liberal than in a lot of other countries. That being said, statistics from the US Department of Justice are a little reassuring. Violent crimes (rape, robbery, homicide and aggravated assault) are on a downward trend. In 2005, there were less than 2 million incidents of violent crime. Considering the population of the US was around 250 million at the ...
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Rankings Part Two: Methodology
2007-04-20 08:55:00
This article is part of a series on university rankings. Part One dealt with some general problems with the concept of rankings. Part Three will look at some alternatives to rankings and how to pick the perfect university for you.Here I'm going to focus on the most popular and widely used rankings for undergraduate programs, the US News and World Report rankings. Usually when someone gives an overall ranking to a school in the US, this is the number they are referring to. As we noted before, these rankings do not in fact measure the university as a whole; they measure primarily indicators related to undergraduate education. So that number isn't as meaningful as you might think it is. In any case, whether you decide that the rankings are a perfectly accurate and useful tool for choosing a university, or not, you should know what the number means. Let's look at the methodology of the US News and World Report rankings, and some critiques of it. US News has a pretty clear breakdown ...
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Rankings Part One: General Problems
2007-04-20 08:54:00
While I hate to generalize, I have to say that Kazakhstan students are crazy about rankings! It's one of the most common questions I get asked about American universities: "What is it ranked?" Or, "What is the highest ranked university in my area?" Or, "I went to Duke which is ranked 8 and he went to Columbia which is ranked 9, so I must be better!"The most frustrating moment of my life was when I was speaking to a student about a very good state school in the area of aerospace engineering. I pointed out that its students had won numerous national competitions, the professors had excellent academic and professional qualifications. The laboratories and facilities were state of the art, and the university won more NASA research contracts than any other. "Yes," said our hapless student, "but the ranking is very low. I think it can't be a very good school."On the one hand, I do understand. It's very convenient to have a single number to sum everything up. Numbers also have the illusi...
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