Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa write:
“The typical student meets with faculty outside of the classroom only once per month, with 9 percent of students never meeting with faculty outside the classroom the previous semester. Although 85 percent of students have achieved a B-minus grade point average or higher, and 55 percent have attained a B-plus grade point average or higher, the average student studies less than two hours per day. Moreover, half of students have not taken a single course that required more than twenty pages of writing, and approximately one-third have not taken any courses that required more than forty pages of reading per week during the prior semester.”
-from Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (2011, University of Chicago Press)
My sophomore year in college I turned in over 80 pages of writing each semester, so I find the above quote nothing less than staggering. What breeds academic excellence? Faculty members who are approachable, have high standards, and high expectations. I also discuss these matters in Thriving at College.