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How to pick a college without USNews College Rankings - Student Research Foundation

What Tools Can Help Students Pick Colleges if the USNews College Rankings Go Away?

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As we publish this blog, we have learned that the law schools of both Harvard and Yale have decided to stop submitting data that USNews will use to rank them alongside other law schools. We think other law schools will follow suit. Will colleges also stop submitting their data to USNews for the college rankings issue? We have no way of knowing.

We do know, however, that USNews will not stop ranking law schools. That magazine will continue to rank law schools by considering data that schools do not provide – like job placements that students get after graduation, acceptance rates, and other factors that can be gathered from other sources.  Read more

student walking on a college campus - student research foundation

The Backlash Continues Against US News College Rankings

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The recent revelation that Columbia University – that’s right, that Columbia University, the one that is a pillar of the Ivy League – was misreporting data to USNews has further discredited the college rankings that are published there. 

Can anyone continue to believe that the USNews rankings, which once were considered valuable by students, parents, and guidance counselors, contain information that is accurate or reliable?  Read more

Manipulating Grades Puts Students at a Disadvantage

Why Manipulating Grades Puts Students at a Disadvantage

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A recent story reported in The New York Times, in The New York Post, and on network news programs reports that Prof. Maitland Jones of New York University was recently fired after a group of students filed a petition complaining that it was too hard to earn a high grade in his Organic Chemistry class. 

It seems that the course Prof. Jones taught was just too difficult and that Prof. Jones, a respected professor who had been teaching for many years and who even wrote the most often-used textbook on Organic Chemistry, was not helpful enough to students who were earning low grades. According to reports on the news, the underlying problem was that those low grades would hinder the ability of his students, who were mostly pre-med, to gain admission to med schools.  Read more

Student Success and improved graduation rates

New Report from Mainstay Recommends Ways to Improve the College Experience for First-Generation Students

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“When I arrived on campus as a first-year college student, the differences between me and my peers were clear. So many of my fellow classmates seemed at home, not just among the beautiful buildings and green spaces, but also with the small nuances of the higher education experience — from skillfully finding the right courses to simply approaching faculty and staff for help. As the first member of my immediate family to go to college, I very quickly realized I had a longer, more stressful road ahead than those who showed up already knowing what to expect.” Read more

Meeting Remedial College Entrance Requirements

A New Approach to Meeting Remedial Entrance Requirements Is Gaining Ground

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Information teachers, parents and college counselors should know . . .

In years past, colleges often required incoming students to take certain remedial courses in math, science, or other subjects before becoming fully enrolled. Often, students took those courses at community colleges, or in special programs the colleges offered, before becoming fully enrolled students. Read more

Student Carrying Books - Is America’s Love Affair with College Fading Away

Is America’s Love Affair with College Fading Away?

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Updated enrollment figures from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show that college enrollment levels are continuing to fall

Data just released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that enrollment in American colleges and universities is continuing to fall:

  • Undergraduate enrollment in American colleges fell by 3.1 percent in the year preceding fall 2021, a loss of 465,300 students.
  • Enrollment losses show a two-year decline of 5.1 percent or a loss of 938,000 students since fall 2019.
  • The largest numerical drops occurred at public four-year institutions, where 251,400 students (or 3.8% of total enrollment) were lost. But the steepest percentage decline occurred at private for-profit four-year colleges, which lost 65,600 students (or 11.1% of enrollment.)

Read more

A student who is combatting college burnout

How to Recognize and Combat College Burnout

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Do you know a college student who is struggling emotionally now? If so, the cause could be more than simple stress. It could be college burnout, according to “What Is College Burnout?”, a new article written by Tyler Epps for the Best Colleges Blog.

According to Dr. Lee Keyes, a psychologist and experienced student counselor Mr. Epps interviewed for this article, college burnout is often difficult to recognize. Why? It’s because college students are chronically living in a state of high stress anyway, which makes it difficult to know when their mental state has become just a little bit worse. Read more

Should You Take SAT and ACT Prep Classes Online - Student Research Foundation

Will Standardized Testing Be Another Casualty of COVID?

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If you are a high school teacher or guidance counselor, you know that a growing number of American colleges and universities have temporarily or permanently ended the requirement for applicants to take the SAT or ACT exam.

Will the test requirement for applicants go away permanently? No one knows for certain, but it could. In addition to the growing list of colleges that do not require the tests, the organizations that administer them are losing money. Read more

Physics, the Great Equalizer Subject that Is Loved by Nearly Every Kind of Student

Physics, the Great Equalizer Subject that Is Loved by Nearly Every Kind of Student

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Do you teach physics? If so, you will want to know about research from the Student Research Foundation that found that nearly every kind of student likes the subject you teach. That might come as a surprise – what is physics, after all but the study of energy and matter? How exciting is that?  But somehow students have discovered that physics is not only interesting, but it will also prepare them for a variety of college majors and STEM careers. Read more

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Will 2021 Be a Good or Bad Year to Transfer Colleges?

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The idea of transferring from one college to another has always been on students’ minds, and chances are it always will. Students who are just starting their first college year think, “Well, if things don’t work out at the college I have chosen, I can always transfer.” And students who are in their second, third or later years of college think of transferring too, for many reasons. Some would like to transfer to a college that offers stronger instruction in their chosen major. Others transfer for financial reasons. The list of reasons is a large and as varied as students are. Read more