<p>Anybody see this?</p>
<p>talk about a horrible survey. </p>
<p>it ranks schools based on how much American history its graduates learn from the time the enter college to the time they leave. I believe that american history is useless for most majors. </p>
<p>though, I was astounded by their third finding: "students dont learn what colleges don't teach." Who would have thought that "Student learning about America's history and institutions decreases when fewer courses are taken in history, political science, government, and economics" or "Schools where students took more courses in American history, political science, and economics outperformed those schools where fewer courses were completed"</p>
<p>excuse me while I come to terms with these shocking devlopments</p>
<p>Hey, just because Cornell came in 48th doesn't mean it's a horrible survey. If I understand it correctly, at a lot of universities, people graduated knowing LESS about U.S. history and institutions than when they STARTED college. This could be because of the reasons listed in post #2, but I think it's more likely due to the mysterious Budweiser Effect. Whatever the reason, the dudes at Johns Hopkins got some 'splaining to do.</p>
<p>bah, Cornell's rank doesn't bother me a bit since I find the rankings to be somewhat useless. Most students at Cornell (and likewise its peer schools in Brown, Columbia, Penn, etc) probably already know more about US history going into college than most of those other students. Shouldn't this be taken into consideration?</p>
<p>I suppose. As long as you've got the empties to explain it.</p>
<p>If this ranking is indeed based on teaching US history, then the correct question is "Berkeley...how good is it at teaching all students US history?" If they sampled from history majors it may be a fair comparison. Berkeley Engineering is huge, though, and almost none of the engineers I know have taken US history as a breadth (because most took it in high school and want to learn something else).</p>
<p>Tourguide, good luck at Rhodes College, which, as this survey shows, is the best school in the country.</p>
<p>TourGuide,
You are being passive-aggressive.</p>
<p>I participated in this study as a freshmen. It asked to recall a bunch of facts. The end.</p>
<p>where the hell is University of Mobile? Is it always changing campus? Is that why I never even heard of it?</p>
<p>How can Yale be 44th when it's graduate history department is the highest-ranked in the country...?!</p>
<p>Then again, Dubya got his History B.A. from Yale, so that might explain some things...</p>
<p>Key word being "graduate," maybe?</p>
<p>But I think we already covered in another thread the dubious nature of this study.</p>
<p>I was told if you read the SPARKCHARTS (US Governement/History) before the survey, you will do very well. SPARCHARTS is available at many bookstores for $4.95 each. I guess we should all forget about college--just buy those SPARCHARTS in 20 or more subjects, memorize them, and we will all be considered "well-educated".</p>
<p>
[quote]
Key word being "graduate," maybe?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You'd think it would trickle down to undergraduate SOMEWHAT...eh!</p>
<p>Graduate quality trickling down to undergrad? No there is no such thing. That's why Berkeley's undergrad is worthless.</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>
[quote]
I was told if you read the SPARKCHARTS (US Governement/History) before the survey, you will do very well. SPARCHARTS is available at many bookstores for $4.95 each. I guess we should all forget about college--just buy those SPARCHARTS in 20 or more subjects, memorize them, and we will all be considered "well-educated".
[/quote]
That person would probably have pretty decent general knowledge at that point.</p>