<p>Maybe this:
A Barnard prof walks in and says "good morning," but the classroom is empty. It's 9 am and the students have only been asleep for four hours.</p>
<p>kenyon- rural, enclosed campus that makes a bubble out of everyone's world. Excellent academics, though intro classes are rudimentary and boring most of the time and also, they really need to expand their classes. Very few archaeology, physics, and a few other specific area classes offered. The student body is relatively well off and the majority of people (freshmen) flock to frat parties, held by the awkward, older elite. As one grows older, one goes out less or goes to more individual, exclusive parties. During the school week, campus is often quiet. School spirit=medium to low. Cliquey? Yes.</p>
<p>Yup. That was a one- or two-line description of Kenyon.</p>
<p>You cheated. That was at least three lines.</p>
<p>yeah but other people cheated too! Wait, I can cut it down.</p>
<p>Kenyon: Excellent, though often limited academics, in an often just as limited rural social scene. Professors are innovative, classes are often hard to get into even in-major, and socially, many people flock to frat parties that can quickly get old or form tiny, close-knit cliques.</p>
<p>good one, sac!</p>
<p>Thanks momsdream.</p>
<p>Your reply was indeed very helpful. I am an international student and have gotten admisison to Howard. Please, how do you think I will be able to gain from the Howard environment and how do you think I will be able to do so?
Thanks again!</p>
<p>Pomona dead? Ha. I laugh. Compared to any other LAC of similar size Pomona has by far the best situation. Unlike other LACs that exist independantly, Pomona is surrounded by 4 other schools creating a social network that spread across 5500-6000 students. There is never a dull night in Claremont.</p>
<p>HELLO! anyone wants to tell me more stuff about Howard University aka the Mecca? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Hey, RockyOne:</p>
<p>I live in the washington, DC area and am a parent, not a college student. I have a business that takes me to the Howard University area frequently and have talked to quite a few students.</p>
<p>Howard university is located in an older section of Washington, Dc. The University is very nice, however, the surrounding area is very run down and the area immediately surrounding Howard could be described as a high-crime area. Though, I don't believe it is a problem for the students. </p>
<p>As for the students themselves, I have found them to be absolutely wonderful! I have spoken with several young men and young women who are attending Howard who I can assure you will be leaders of tomorrow. </p>
<p>I would not let the surrounding area bother me if I were going to live on campus. You will learn from other students when and where you can go in the area. </p>
<p>One of my clients attended Howard University, and I can attest that if he is representative of the student body, you will be in great company at Howard University!</p>
<p>Best wishes to you!</p>
<p>I take it no one here has read the article, (paraphrasing it) "America's Most Overrated Product" by Dr. Marty Nemko. Gloss over it. I did and it made me re-evaluate the system from an insider's point of view. It's basiically telling you what college admin's and presidents don't want you to know about their college.</p>
<p>Also, take it for what you will, as a former Admin Asst, having put many years into the working world and have put even more into academia, it was incredibly disorienting and nettling to have parents so involved in what should be their "children's" academic, social and personal journey. My colleagues at UCLA and at Berkeley would also concur as parents begin to overanalyse and orchestrate their child's education from their office at home. This is not parenting.</p>
<p>Well not many of us will be reading that article if you don't tell us where it can be found.</p>
<p>Made an attempt to find this and came up with a 2001 article by Nemko, who appears to be a career and college counselor, a columnist in both print and on the radio: <a href="http://www.martynemko.com/pub/articles/commwealth1.shtm%5B/url%5D">http://www.martynemko.com/pub/articles/commwealth1.shtm</a> Naturally, I can't be sure that this is BruinMichelle's article or not, but I have a suspicion it is. I'm reading it now. ;)</p>
<p>So far, I think it might be a good one for pyewacket's thread on "How much Debt...?"</p>
<p>This article is 4 yrs old, first of all. In the world of college admissions, that's a light year. Second, I'm well acquainted with Mr. Nemko, being that he works/lives in the SF Bay Area & is frequently on radio talk shows, etc. He is career-oriented to an "extreme," you might say, in that he devalues academia versus employment any day of the year. He is primarily an employment counselor, & I suspect that when he was a college counselor, employment was also his orientation. I do agree with him in that college is no guarantee of future employment or salary, but lots of people go to college for reasons other than <em>direct</em> employment. They go (1) to qualify for graduate school, (2) to qualify for professional school, (3) to increase/broaden their knowledge of the world, including via courses they would otherwise not enroll in (4) to discover themselves in a relatively safe environment, surrounded by peers who will help them in that growth. (5) to establish legitimate & desirable independence from the roles & identities connected with their families of birth, (6) to develop genuine friendships with both genders, (7) to develop self-confidence through social & academic activities, which will help them in their job searches, future careers, applications to grad school, and decisions to travel or re-direct their lives.</p>
<p>He strongly dislikes colleges which do not have aggressive job placement programs. While I do think that most U.S. colleges could improve in this dep't, & certainly in internship programs/opportunities, colleges are primarily for academics, not career placement. I do think that colleges would do well, & individual industries would do well, to educate potential students in the realities of employment in certain fields, such as the fine arts, the film industry, etc. It seems to me that that's where their responsibility ends. There are colleges which "specialize," shall we say, in placing their graduates in certain fields. Those choices are available to those who search for them. (I don't mean strictly vocational or business colleges, although of course those would tend to emphasize employment, too; I mean 4-yr LACs.) Is it Drexel that has the co-op program? (I think). And a huge portion of Canadian colleges are co-op. I think that's GREAT. But students wanting that do have the option of Canada.</p>
<p>Nemko is very male-oriented, I've noticed. He himself is high-powered, fast-moving, Type A, and VERY goal-oriented. Nothing's good to him if there isn't a practical goal attached & virtually guaranteed. He speaks to a particular type of person, not many of which, frankly, are heading toward the kinds of colleges discussed most on CC.</p>
<p>As to writing competencies, etc., Colleges/U's have greatly improved, even since '01, when this article was published. I'd write more but, well, Nemko tires me out with his bluster.</p>
<p>Thanks for your insights epiphany - nice to get some more background on the author of this article. I also appreciate your taking the time to make your own counter points, as well.</p>
<p>Thanks, Epiphany. I think I would loathe Nemko.</p>
<p>Moi aussie.</p>
<p>Nemko doesn't seem THAT enamored of college as vocational training school in this CNN chat. I actually found most of his advice in this particular piece to be pretty good:</p>
<p>Here's a sample quote where he lists three decidedly non-vocational colleges:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Chat Participant: What are your three favorite colleges, and why?</p>
<p>Marty Nemko: I do like Haverford, which someone mentioned earlier: top students, great esprit de corps, halcyon environment, yet near a big city. For the true scholar, St. John's in Annapolis or in New Mexico are great. Swarthmore is fabulous for the intellectual, hardworking leftist.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>simplefallout,</p>
<p>carnegie mellon u as parent for a recent graduate:</p>
<p>intense at times, good amount of geeky types who actually are interesting and quirky, big enough school so there are plenty of "normal" kids, yes it is possible to have a fun time esp if you join a fraternity or sorority, sophisticated stylish urban kids, school in a clean manageable city with a large state U next door so plenty to do, sadly are some kids who study round the clock but many are consummate procrastinators like anywhere else, good diversity esp Asian and Asian American, lots of internationals...</p>
<p>thanks 2331clk!</p>
<p>Although he seems to be career oriented, some of the things that Nemko states are true; however, the some things that he states contradict with something he wrote earlier in the article. For example:</p>
<p>Quote:
Plank Two is instruction. As I said, the lecture class is a dinosaur. Instead, picture this. Imagine that you are taking a course in biologytheres 3,500 colleges in the country and they all teach intro biology. Some of the classes have great instructors, some average instructors, and some lousy instructors. And the labs in general, unless youre at a very well funded college, tend to be pretty Mickey Mouse because its very expensive to afford good equipment. Instead of that, now imagine that every studentrich, poor, black or white, urban or ruralcould get instruction from a nations best biology instructor on computer, on line, interactive video, and it wouldnt be straight lecture; it would be lectures punctuated by simulations, simulations that would be impossible to duplicate in real life in a fundable lab, fascinating opportunities for kids to interact with realistic biological situations, best instructors, real interactivity at a fraction of the cost of what it currently costs to have good, bad and mediocre instructors and lousy labs. So I think the lecture class needs to be replaced by this kind of interactive instruction, video-based, online based.</p>