Sean Carroll is offering more unsolicted advice (though it is in response to a comment, which makes it borderline solicited…), this time about choosing an undergraduate school. He breaks the options down into four categories, with two small errors that I’ll correct in copying the list over here: Liberal-Arts College (LAC), such as Williams or… Continue reading College Choice
Category: Academia
Ready for Some (Division III) Football
The preceding comments about my alumni oganization were brought on by a bunch of factors– the arrival of a Maryland alumni publication this week, the update-your-information questionnaire from the Society of Alumni, a visiting speaker last week who was two years behind me at Williams. Probably the biggest was the fact that this is Union’s… Continue reading Ready for Some (Division III) Football
Something for the Humanists in the Audience
“Imperialism” “Colonialism” I have a vague sense that these two terms are not interchangeable, but I can’t for the life of me explain what the difference is. But there seems to be one, at least based on listening to colleagues from the other side of campus talk about their research. So, what’s the difference? (Some… Continue reading Something for the Humanists in the Audience
The Efficient Part of Campus
There’s an academic joke that says that the job of a university president is really pretty simple. To ensure happiness on campus, all he or she needs to do is make sure that there’s sex for the undergraduates, food for the graduate students, and parking for the faculty. It’s certainly true that parking enforcement has… Continue reading The Efficient Part of Campus
Campus Visit Season
It’s college application season, and the New York Times style section ran a nice article Sunday about parents touring colleges with their children. It’s mostly about the bonding that goes on on such trips, which is probably instantly recognizable if you’re the sort of wealthy Northeasterner who is the target demographic of the Sunday New… Continue reading Campus Visit Season
How to Lie With Test Scores
Sean Carroll comments on an item in the Atlantic Monthly on test scores compared across nations. There are two things that really bug me about this item, the most important of which is the deeply dishonest graphic the Atlantic did to illustrate the item. Here’s the honest version of the graph, redone using data from… Continue reading How to Lie With Test Scores
Wrong Answers are Infinite in Number
Last week, Mike Dunford was struggling with some teaching issues, relating to what level of effort he should expect from his students. His original decision drew some harsh criticism, both in his comments and from Sandra Porter, leading Mike to reconsider matters. I meant to comment at the time, but I gave an exam last… Continue reading Wrong Answers are Infinite in Number
Fencing: All About the Bling
Inside Higher Ed had a story yesterday about the release of the new graduation rate data for college athletic programs. The data are summarized in the table at right. The two columns in the table show the graduation rate under the federal standard, and the new “graduation success rate” which fixes some of the problems… Continue reading Fencing: All About the Bling
Step Five: Make Yourself Indispensable
Following on the heels of my post on getting into graduate school, Jorge Chan offers some advice on how to stay in graduate school.
The Grad School Application Process
I’m teaching our senior major seminar this term, which means that once a week, I’m giving hour-long talks on topics of interest to senior physics majors. This week’s was “How to Pick and Apply to a Graduate School.” I’ve probably written this basic stuff up about three times already, but I’m too lazy to look… Continue reading The Grad School Application Process