We’re almost a full week into November, which for many students means the end of the semester is nigh.  It’s likely time to start working on those final papers, or at least generating some paper topic ideas.  It’s better to start sooner than later to avoid pulling all-nighters or finding out too late that the jerk in your English class who’s writing a similar paper has checked out all the relevant books in the library before you get your chance.

But finding something new to say can be challenging, even for graduate students and undergraduate students in upper-division college courses.  If the usual strategies aren’t working, we’ve come across a couple of links that can help humanities students generate ideas for academic prose, or at least provide some much-needed levity while you’re agonizing over your coursework.  Note: you may not want to actually use these to write your papers, since your professor or TA is likely to see some of his or her own writing reflected in them.

The University of Chicago writing program has a tool to help both students and career academics craft a sophisticated argument without backbreaking labor: Make Your Own Academic Sentence.  By simply selecting from drop-down menus of current buzzwords in literary theory, you can stumble upon a unique academic argument, and possibly lay the groundwork for a final paper!  If you’re not sure of just what concepts to piece together, some samples are provided by the website’s Virtual Academic and his counterpart the Virtual Critic.

If you’ve got a great academic sentence, but no research area to apply it to, a recent piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education can help with that.  James Lambert’s article “Heteronormity is Hot Right Now” provides some helpful (and hopefully humorous) guidelines for humanities grad students on declaring their research interests (and possibly finding topics for their first seminar papers). Both of the above are also great for answering that question about your academic interests in your grad school application essays.

As a bonus for grad school applicants, the above links are likely to teach you some new (and obscure) vocabulary, so that’s even more of a time-saver for studying for the GRE. However, if nerd humor is not your taste, but you are concerned about getting papers started early and beating the finals week frenzy, you may want to check out our college resources on study skills.

Posted: under Graduate School, Just for Fun.
Tags: College Applications, Graduate School, Just for Fun, study skills

Comments (0) Nov 06 2009

The Obama health plan isn’t the only hotly debated controversy in which the of the social good is currently being invoked.  College rankings also fall into this category with the release of Washington Monthly’s annual rankings this month, which differ sharply from the better-known U.S. News and World Report rankings, and focus primarily on universities’ contributions to the “social good.”

Washington Monthly publishes two sets of rankings, one for national universities and one for liberal arts colleges, each year.  This year, the top three spots in the magazine’s national university rankings all went to schools in the University of California system: UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and UC Los Angeles, respectively.  The top three liberal arts colleges were Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Williams College.  Amherst and Williams both appeared in U.S. News’ top three, as well, but rankings differed sharply for many of Washington Monthly’s other top schools, which included many state colleges, as opposed to the elite private colleges that dominate U.S. News.

A large part of the drastically different rankings comes from Washington Monthly’s chosen methodology, which asks as much what colleges are doing for the country as it asks what they can do for their students.  This is determined by looking at factors that include student involvement in national service, university involvement in research, and the social mobility attending college gives students.

The service index is achieved by looking at the number of current students involved in ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps, as well as graduate participation in the Peace Corps.  Research is determined by the university’s production of PhD graduates, the number of degree recipients going on to achieve PhDs at other institutions, and other components such as research spending and faculty awards.  The matrix is slightly different for liberal arts college, as many don’t award PhDs and some don’t provide data for all of the research categories.  Social mobility is based on each school’s ability to enroll and graduate needy students, determined by a calculation involving the percentage of students who receive federal Pell Grants and the school’s undergraduate graduation rate.

Washington Monthly provides a more thorough description of their rankings system, as well as the rationale behind their decision to rank colleges, on their College Guide website.  Other magazines participating in the college rankings game include Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine.

Posted: under Back to School, College News, High School, High School News, Tips.
Tags: choosing a college, college news, college rankings, College Search, college tips, community service, Financial Aid, Graduate School, high school students, Tips

Comments (0) Sep 03 2009

Posted: under Back to School, College Culture, College News, Tips.
Tags: Graduate School, High School, Minority Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, undergraduate students

Comments (0) Aug 27 2009

In a bad economy, many recent college grads and laid off workers decide to make the move to go back to school.  A number of current undergraduate students are also hoping to delay entry into the working world until the economy improves.  Many of these prospective students will apply to graduate programs, hoping to land financial aid like a fellowship or assistantship on their way to a master’s or doctorate degree.  However, many programs that traditionally come with stipends attached are cutting enrollment, as their cash-strapped institutions try to find ways to reduce their operating costs.

A recent piece in Inside Higher Ed explains that while terminal master’s degrees and other programs in which students commonly pay full tuition are still admitting large numbers of students, and in some cases even increasing enrollment, programs that typically give out more money than they receive, such as doctoral programs, are reducing admissions due to reduced budgets.  While some master’s programs and professional degrees come with fellowships, assistantships, or scholarship awards, the bulk of graduate financial aid goes to PhD students.  These students typically serve as teaching or research assistants, receiving free tuition and a stipend in exchange.  With university-wide cost cutting measures and rapidly shrinking departmental budgets, many institutions simply can’t afford to offer as many of these generous aid packages as they have in the past.  And rather than admitting and not funding doctoral students, these schools are choosing to admit fewer students in order to maintain their funding commitments to current and future students.

If you applied this year and didn’t get in, at least you can console yourself with the knowledge that it was a particularly bad year for PhD applications.  Whether it’s your first time through the process or your second, if you’re thinking of applying next year, start your college search early and consider sending out extra applications, especially if you’re hoping for university funding.  Competition may be fierce, and if the schools you want to attend decide to admit fewer students, applying to more schools will boost your odds of being admitted and winning scholarships, fellowships, or assistantships.  If you’re seeking a degree that may or may not have funding attached, such as a master’s degree or professional degree, be sure to look into outside aid, such as scholarships for graduate students.

Posted: under Back to School, College News, College and the Economy, Graduate School, Tips.
Tags: college admissions, College and the Economy, college news, college tips, Graduate School, graduate students

Comments (0) Mar 31 2009

New college grads may face an especially tough time due to the recession.  The growth in anticipated new hires, which is measured twice a year by The National Association of Colleges and Employers, has been slowing since it reached a high in spring 2007, falling almost flat in the fall.  The numbers for spring 2009 show that for the first time in years, businesses actually anticipate hiring fewer college graduates this year than last–22 percent fewer, in fact.  According to The Boston Globe, the business and finance sectors have an even bleaker outlook, as does the northeastern region of the United States.

With this dim hiring picture in mind, soon-to-be college graduates are looking at alternatives to the traditional workforce. Additional education, teaching fellowship programs, and volunteer work are all proving popular. If you’re a college student staring graduation in the face, keep in mind the increased competition and start researching and applying sooner, rather than later.

Graduate programs, including ones offered by business schools, are seeing increased enrollment as many students choose to either delay their entry into the workforce or push up their long-term plans to attend graduate school.  Graduate students can potentially land full-tuition fellowships or assistantships, as well as generous scholarship awards.  Many graduate degrees can help recipients become more competitive when they do enter the workforce, even if the economy does not recover substantially.

Similarly, teacher certification programs, such as the popular Teach for America, are seeing an increase in applicants.  These programs offer a stipend, as well as teacher certification, and in some cases a master’s degree in education, in exchange for a commitment of one or two years teaching in a low-income school or a high-need subject.  Other programs exist with similar benefits, including teaching fellowships in several major cities such as New York and Chicago.  College students or recent grads who want to teach but don’t want to pay for more school may want to consider these options.

Other volunteer programs, like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, also are seeing more applicants.  Such programs often come with a stipend or living allowance, as well as student loan deferments or even loan cancelation or repayment benefits.  Students can also participate in many of these programs while still in college or while pursuing graduate degrees.  If you’re interested in an alternative to the post-collegiate rat race, there’s no time like the present to start considering your options.

Posted: under College News, College and the Economy, Fellowships, Graduate School, Tips.
Tags: career, College and the Economy, Fellowships, financial tips, Graduate School, graduate student scholarships, service, teachers, volunteer

Comments (1) Mar 18 2009