Avi Snyder, commenting on the huge salary of Ohio State University's former President Gordon Gee: According to the Chronicle of Higher Education's recently released salary survey, Gee isn't an outlier. While perpetually-increasing tuition squeezes family income and puts a college education out of reach for many, the median compensation for public (i.e. heavily taxpayer-funded) college presidents is $478,896--higher than the base salary of the President of the United States. Obscene is too kind a word. Read the whole thing, which goes on to praise Purdue University president Mitch Daniels … [Read more...] about The Scandal of College Presidential Pay
Thriving at College
Student Debt Levels Rising Faster Than Salaries
Vox reports: In the last decade, "the share of 25-year-old graduates with debt has grown from around 25 percent to nearly 45 percent." And check out the average debt load of a 25 year old, in 2014 dollars: Couple that with stagnant wages and you have a serious problem. Read the whole thing. … [Read more...] about Student Debt Levels Rising Faster Than Salaries
Why Do Asian-American Students Outperform Their White Peers?
At least academically, it's an incontrovertible fact that Asian-Americans outperform their white peers (and every other ethnic group). But why such dominance? That's what sociologists Amy Hsina and Yu Xie set out to uncover, scouring data from two long-term surveys covering more than 5000 U.S. Asian and white students. The answer? It's a shocker: They work harder. There is, however, an interesting element: "Students from all Asian ethnic groups put greater importance on effort than on natural ability." … [Read more...] about Why Do Asian-American Students Outperform Their White Peers?
Want Proof of Grade Inflation?
David Brooks of the NY Times is a fair-minded journalist: Every year researchers at U.C.L.A. do a survey of incoming college freshmen. These surveys, conducted over four decades now, show how the life cycle has changed over the past couple generations. This first thing you see from this and similar data sets is that high school has gotten a bit easier. In 1966, only about 19 percent of high school students graduated with an A or A- average. By 2013, 53 percent of students graduated with that average. … [Read more...] about Want Proof of Grade Inflation?
What Awaits 2014 Grads in the Working World?
From a March 2014 survey of more than 2,000 students (conducted by Accenture): Read more, or download the full PDF. … [Read more...] about What Awaits 2014 Grads in the Working World?
Success Depends on What You Do in College, Not Where You Go
That's the result from the inaugural Gallup-Purdue Index, a joint-research effort between Purdue University and Lumina Foundation to study the relationship between the college experience and college graduates' lives. In a nutshell, students are more likely to thrive after graduation, at work and outside of work, when they have the right kinds of support and experience during their college years. Support Professors who make them excited about learning. Professors who care about them as people. Professors who encourage them to pursue their goals and dreams. Experience Worked … [Read more...] about Success Depends on What You Do in College, Not Where You Go