What To Expect From College Education?

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What To Expect From College Education
– Varying Class Sizes Class size varies depending on the course. While most classes have fewer than 40 students, larger introductory classes may have anywhere from 15-400 students. Intro classes tend to have large class sizes while upper-division classes are smaller.

The Need for Critical Thinking Skills In college, you will be expected to understand and remember what you read. You will also be asked to draw conclusions, form opinions, and evaluate the ideas of others. Strong Emphasis on Tests and Less Busywork Often your class grade will depend heavily on tests and key assignments.

To maximize your grade, keep up with your assignments and readings. Students who succeed do their assignments and keep up with their readings. The Need for Personal Responsibility In college, you have a tremendous amount of freedom. No one is monitoring your progress.

No one is checking to see if you are going to class, and no one knows whether or not you’re doing your assignments. You are responsible for your own academic progress. Consequences UCSC has academic standards that students must meet in order to stay enrolled. Students may be placed on academic probation if their grades fall below a certain point.

Students on probation must bring their grades up by a specified time. If they are unable to, they are withdrawn from the university. Less Time in Class and More Emphasis on Independent Study In college, you are expected to do most of your learning on your own.
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What do you think is the main purpose of a college education?

There are metaphors that we live by. If we think of the United States as the world’s policeman or as a nation of immigrants or as a land of self-made men, these metaphors inevitably shape people’s political attitudes and public policies. Similarly, if we think of our students as customers or creators of knowledge or partners, those metaphors, too, color the way we think about teaching and our professorial responsibilities.

I am a historian of the life course, so I supposed it’s not surprising that I think of college students through that metaphorical lens. Some undergraduates are late adolescents who continue to engage in adolescent-like behavior. At the same time, a growing number are adults who juggle their college-going with a variety of adult responsibilities.

But most undergraduates, especially at four-year institutions, are emerging adults, and, in my view, the education they receive should reflect that reality. Emerging adulthood is the extended period of life that lies between adolescent dependence and adult independence.

It is the life stage that exists when individuals have begun to leave home yet before they have committed themselves to a steady job and a committed and sustained relationship – the roles that structure most adult lives. As scholars like Jeffrey Arnett have shown, emerging adults encounter a series of Erik Erikson-like developmental tasks.

These include:

  • Identity exploration: experimenting with various life possibilities.
  • Psychological and behavioral maturation, which typically entails developing more intimate interpersonal relationships, assuming new levels of personal responsibility and cultivating a capacity to handle increasingly complex life demands.
  • Developing competences, which encompasses not only skills development and knowledge acquisition but obtaining technical or professional expertise and creating a supportive network.

During this protracted, stressful, problematic life stage, emerging adults are especially prone to mood disorders, high levels of anxiety and substance abuse. Risk-taking behavior tends to peak during this time of life, evident in the widespread incidence of binge drinking, illicit drug use, drunk or drugged driving, and casual sex.

  • How can we better nurture the development of higher-order cognitive skills and students’ aesthetic, cultural, historical and intellectual sophistication?
  • How can we best help our students better handle problematic emotions (such as anger, anxiety, depression, fear, guilt and shame) and fraught, dysfunctional and abusive interpersonal relationships?
  • How can we best help students to develop a sense of direction and purpose, autonomy and the ability to monitor and self-evaluate the quality of their performance?
  • How can we assist students in developing mature interpersonal relationships, including a respect for difference among people, ideas and values?

The Strada Education Network’s 2021 Alumni Survey, which asked a nationally representative sample of college graduates to reflect on the value of their education, suggests to me the gap between what many students consider the purpose of their education and what it could and should be.

According to the survey, most students attend college in order to qualify for a good job, be successful at work, make money, learn new things and grow as a person. I’d consider this a rather impoverished understanding of the purposes of a college education. Yet even with this narrow conception of the aims of undergraduate education, only half of the graduates felt that their education was worth the cost and had also helped them fulfill their personal goals.

Alumni of color, first-generation and female graduates all were significantly less likely to feel that their education was worth the cost or had helped them achieve their aims. Whether or not graduates found their education worthwhile, the surveyors concluded, hinged on three variables:

  • Whether the graduate had developed a connection with faculty.
  • Whether the graduates’ education was connected to their postcollege career.
  • Whether the graduate had acquired in-demand professional skills.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Strada Education Network would have a particular interest in degree value and the alignment of higher education with careers. Originally United Student Aid Funds, Strada was among the largest guarantors of federal student loans under the bank-based Federal Family Educational Loan program, until that program effectively ended in 2010.

I, too, believe that we should embed career preparation across the undergraduate experience. But we shouldn’t focus on employment outcomes to the detriment of other essential aspects of students’ maturation. For anyone who cares about the education that our colleges and universities provide, the Strada survey should raise certain red flags.

Three questions stand out:

  1. Are we doing enough to help students articulate the value of college beyond its employment and income outcomes? If most graduates think that a college education’s essential value lies in career preparation, then we’re doing a poor job of explaining our broader objectives: to produce culturally literate, well-rounded adults who are knowledgeable about the arts, the humanities and the social, behavioral and natural sciences, who can think critically, communicate effectively, argue logically and solve complex problems.
  2. Are we doing enough to connect students and faculty? Among the variables that separate those graduates who did or did not find their education worth the cost, one factor that stands out is whether the student felt a connection to a faculty member. In the best case, that faculty member was a mentor, a trusted adviser, a role model and ardent supporter. But those qualities weren’t essential. At a minimum, the professor needed to be a skilled teacher, a provider of helpful feedback and someone who helped the student see the world in fresh ways.
  3. Are we doing enough to draw connections between an undergraduate education and postcollege careers? The degree to which graduates value their education hinges, to a significant degree, on whether they gained insights into the job market, acquired essential professional skills and crafted a realistic pathway into a career.
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What would it take to make more graduates feel that their education was worthwhile? Here are certain principles that I think ought to guide our efforts.

  1. Transparency. Be explicit about the purposes of every requirement, assignment and assessment. These should not simply repeat the learning objectives specified on your syllabus. These should speak more broadly to the purpose of your course, the logic behind your class’s organization, the themes you are examining and the skills you are building.
  2. Authenticity. Use real-world examples to illustrate concepts. Have students work with authentic evidence. Create assessments that have real-world analogues, like policy briefs or environmental impact statements.
  3. Relevance. Speak to the applicability of the concepts, knowledge and skills that you are teaching to a variety of contexts – academic but also nonacademic.
  4. Transferability. Integrate transferable skills building activities into your courses. If your goals include enhancing students’ written and oral presentation skills or their analytic and critical thinking skills, make sure that your class activities build these skills and your assessments evaluate student mastery.
  5. Mentorship. In my view, mentorship needs to become an integral part of the undergraduate experience. I’d urge departments to redesign their curricula to include a greater emphasis on mentored undergraduate research and, above all, opportunities for students to undertake a meaningful project in collaboration with a faculty member. To develop the interactive courseware that I use in my introductory U.S. history survey courses, I had the opportunity to work with a team of undergraduates who co-created the user experience and designed many of the interactive features. As an undergraduate, my stepson had the chance to work with a professor and classmates on a gamelike app used by hospitals to monitor the well-being of adolescents suffering from chronic pain. Collaborative projects like these result in much more than a useful product. In addition to learning much more about the relevant content, the process teaches the students many skills that they will find useful in later life, whether they pursue history (in my case) or psychology (in my stepson’s). These include organizational, collaboration and project-management skills and personal accountability.
  6. Incentivizing desired outcomes. I understand full well that no one-size-fits-all path through an undergraduate education will fly. Higher education’s stakeholders are too diverse to ever reach much more than a superficial consensus about the literacies, competencies and attributes of a successful bachelor’s degree holder. But we could incentivize the kinds of educational experiences that we most value. These incentives might include certificates or another kind of diploma designation (like the certificate offered by Purdue’s Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts Program) or participation in a cohort program (like Hunter College’s Athena, Daedalus, Muse, Nursing, Roosevelt and Yalow scholars cohorts), or in the programming offered by specialized centers and offices (for example, an office of the arts or the health sciences or public policy).

To return to my theme, the metaphors we live by, let me conclude by asking: What should the relationship of a college to its students be? Obviously, it can’t be “paternal,” with its associations with hierarchy, condescension and control. “Maternal,” with its connotations with warmth and caring, is a bit better, but this metaphor, too, reduces an undergraduate to a childlike status.

Nor should we think of ourselves as our students’ peers or friends or confidantes. Neither should we think of the relationship as permissive, given the revival of the in loco parentis principle by the courts, parents and activist students. Lenience, tolerance, even indulgence are expected, but treating students wholly as adults has proven unacceptable, though we should also not embrace the role of problem solver, either.

So here’s my suggestion: follow the advice we give to parents of emerging adults, Recognize that undergraduates are undergoing a messy period of transition.

  • Create opportunities for your students to experiment with identities and test new ideas with as few constraints and penalties as possible.
  • Foster a responsible independence.
  • Model desired behavior.
  • Nurture an atmosphere of mutual trust and open communication.
  • Provide empathy, support, feedback and guidance as needed.
  • But don’t facilitate continued dependence or immaturity.

Above all, take to heart another message from the advice provided to parents of emerging adults. Maturation is a prolonged process that is trying and problematic, not just for emerging adults but for those of us with a duty of care. Steven Mintz is professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin.
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What are positive expectations in education?

Positive expectations means that a teacher believes in every student and that all students can learn on their own individual levels. Research shows that a teacher’s expectations seem to be linked with a student’s self-concept and achievement.
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What do you gain from college experience?

Welcome to College! – Congratulations on your decision to attend college! For the great majority of college students, it really was your decision —not just an automatic thing to do. If you happen to be one of the few who just sort of ended up in college for want of anything better to do, the benefits of college will soon become obvious.

The reason for this book, and for almost all college courses, is that college does require commitment and effort. Like everything else in life that leads to meaningful results, success in college is not automatic. But when you apply yourself to your studies using the skills you’ll learn in this book, you’ll find you can succeed.

When asked, most students say they’re in college primarily for the job or career they expect to follow after college. And they are correct that college pays off enormously in terms of future earnings, job security and stability, and job satisfaction. Every statistic shows that people with a college education will make much more in their lifetime (much, much more than the cost of college itself) and be much happier with the work they do.

  • You will have a fuller life and a better understanding of the world around you.
  • You will gain decision-making and problem-solving skills.
  • You will meet many interesting and diverse people and have a richer social life.
  • You will gain self-confidence.
  • You will gain learning skills that can continue for a lifetime.
  • You will make wiser decisions about lifestyle issues and live healthier.
  • You will make wiser economic decisions the rest of your life.
  • You will be better equipped to deal with other people, organizations, governmental agencies, and all the hassles of daily life.
  • You will feel more fully a part of your community, the larger culture, and history.

A college education is correlated with greater success in all those areas, even though most students are usually more concerned with making it through the next class or test than the rest of their lives. But sometimes it helps to recall what a truly great step forward you are taking! Sadly, however, it’s important to recognize that some students do not succeed in college and drop out within the first year.

Sometimes it’s due to an unsolvable financial problem or a personal or family crisis, but most of the time students drop out because they’re having problems passing their courses. The two biggest causes of this problem are a lack of motivation and not having learned the skills needed to succeed in college.

A book like this one can help you stay motivated when things get tough, but it can’t necessarily give you motivation to start with. That’s part of what you yourself have to bring to college. What we can promise you is that you can learn the skills for succeeding in college.

  • Special skills are needed because college isn’t the same as high school.
  • Throughout this book, we’ll be looking at the many ways college is different from high school.
  • To name just a few, college is different in study skills needed, in personal skills related to being independent, in social skills for getting along with instructors and others on campus, in financial realities, in matters of personal health, and more.
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Remember, you can learn whatever you need in order to succeed. That’s what this book is all about. You’ll learn how to get the most out of going to class. You’ll learn how to study in ways that use your time efficiently and help you pass tests. You’ll even learn how to remember what you read in your college textbooks.

  • You’ll learn how to manage your time more effectively than you might have in the past, so that studying is less a burden and more a simple routine.
  • You’ll even learn how things like eating well and getting enough sleep and exercise make it easier to do well in your classes.
  • One warning: you might not at first see an immediate payoff for everything you read in this book.

When it comes to certain things, such as tips for how to take good notes in class to help you study later on for a test, you will get specific, practical advice you can put to use immediately to get a better grade. But not everything is as obvious or immediately beneficial.
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What is the real value of a college education?

1. What is the economic value of a college degree? – At first glance, figuring out the value to a college degree seems simple. After all, the US Census Bureau routinely studies the lifetime earning potential of people with various degrees. In a 2017 report, the Bureau estimated that individuals with high school diplomas earn roughly $1.2 million, associates degrees approximately $1.5 million, and bachelor’s degrees nearly $2.1 million over the course of their careers.

  • If you take those figures at face value, the choice is clear.
  • But like most things in life after high school, the decision is a little more complicated than it seems.
  • To determine the true cost — and eventually the overall value — of a college degree, it just makes sense to start by calculating all the education-related expenses.

Tuition is, by far, the largest figure on the financial ledger. In their latest report on the price tag of a college education, COLLEGEData reported “a moderate college budget for an in-state public college for the 2017–2018 academic year averaged $25,290.

  • A moderate budget at a private college averaged $50,900.” These figures included tuition, fees, housing, meals, books, miscellaneous school supplies, and transportation expenses.
  • So, as you research potential college choices, be sure to account for all the same expenses.
  • This will give you an estimated education expense,

Before you let the tuition costs and related expenses discourage you from pursuing higher education, it’s important to remember that as many as 85% of college students received financial aid of some kind. From federal grants and loans to private and institutional scholarship programs, there are countless sources of financial assistance available.

For a more in-depth look at the various forms of financial aid, visit the US Department of Education website, In addition to financial aid, it’s also important to factor in any assistance your family can provide. Whether they come from parents, grandparents, or even your own hard work, family financial contributions can go a long way toward reducing the need to borrow money via student loans.

Let’s talk about student loans for just a minute. Judging by the number of Internet memes and social media posts about student loans, you might be tempted to think that student loans are as much a part of the college experience as professors, textbooks, and late-night study sessions.

  • Considering the fact that more than 44 million Americans are currently responsible for approximately $1.48 trillion in student loan debt (yes, that’s trillion with a “T”), that idea may be more accurate than anyone wants to admit.
  • No doubt about it, a college education is expensive.
  • If you will need financial help to complete your degree, federal loans traditionally offer excellent terms and interest rates.

However, they don’t always cover all the necessary expenses. If you find yourself coming up a little short, your credit union may offer affordable financing options that can help you bridge the gap and avoid making some common student loan mistakes, OK, back to the financial value equation.

  • Once you have calculated the total expenses for your degree of choice and subtracted the amount that will be covered by grants, scholarships, and the amount you and your family will be able to contribute, you should have a reliable estimate of how much you would need in student loans.
  • At this point, you can use a student loan calculator to calculate how much you will pay in interest over the course of your repayment plan.

By adding your expected contributions and the total amount you’ll pay for student loans and interest, you will arrive at the overall cost of your college degree. Now, before you let yourself get discouraged at the figure in front of you, remember the earning potential we discussed at the start of this article.

A college education is an investment designed to pay dividends throughout your career. For clear perspective on the real economic value of a college degree, compare your overall expenditures with your expected career earnings, If you earn a college degree and enjoy a career earning potential of $2 million — roughly twice what you could expect to earn with a high school diploma — and your total educational costs add up to $100,000, it’s safe to say that is a sound investment.

If you look at your education the same way you would view any other investment, the economic benefits become clear. Spending $100,000 to earn a $1 million return simply makes sense.
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Is college education the key to a successful life?

Working hard at getting a good education has long been seen as the right thing to do, because education is the key to success. But why? Find out more here. – Working hard at school and going on to further education or college has long been encouraged by parents and teachers for generations, as most people believe education is the key to success.

Civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” His words still ring true today. Even at a high school level, students are encouraged to analyse texts, numbers and trends to allow them to see society in a new light.

This broadens the mind and helps us to see the world afresh. But there are many other fantastic reasons that education is good for us — and many ways in which it can be the key to professional success.
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What are your expectations from the college society?

The Benefits of Joining a College Society – DU EXPRESS One of the best things about college life, undoubtedly, is getting to explore things other than academics. College societies are one such platform which help students to engage in different activities and help them to further hone their skills through vigorous participation in various creative fields of their interest.

Creative Writing Society Photography Society Environment Society Fashion Society Dance Society Music Society Theater and Drama Society

And the list goes on and on. To be part of a college society, students generally go through various stages of selection, such as interviews, which help them to become more confident and they learn various skills and develop leadership qualities in them, which are very useful and necessary to thrive in today’s competitive world.

By being a member of a college society, students are expected to attend meetings, take part in discussions with other members, suggest ways on how to improve work quality, etc. They also bear the responsibility to organise various events and fests throughout the year. Society members can also visit other colleges and participate in the competitions being held there to represent their respective colleges at different levels.

Moreover, societies also help to provide good exposure to the students as they are associated with various other reputed organisations and individuals, who can guide them efficiently. Apart from this, students who are not members of a society can also bring out their creativity and showcase their talent in the various competitions, fests and events organised by a society in the college premises.
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What is the expectations to you as a student?

School Code of Conduct – Students are expected to conform to high standards of behaviour when at school, on the way to and from school, and while attending any school function or field trip. Students are also expected to demonstrate high standards of work habits, arriving to school and class on time; with the necessary supplies and materials; as well as completing all in-school and homework assignments.

Be kind and helpful. Work well with one another. Leave the situation better than you found it. Become an expert at something.

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What is expected of a college professor?

What Does a College Professor do? – College professors are responsible for preparing course materials and teaching classes to graduate and undergraduate students. These courses may be in lecture, seminar, field study or laboratory formats. Many university professors also conduct related research in their field of expertise.

  • College professors tend to spend a lot of time in a classroom setting conducting lectures, or in an office setting meeting with students, colleagues and preparing materials.
  • College professors work anywhere from nine to 12 hours per week teaching classes, an additional 20-30 hours preparing for classes and around 10 hours a week grading, reviewing and evaluating course assignments.

Often times, college professors conduct research in order to publish work in their field. In addition, many college professors take on more responsibility by seeking positions such as Department Chairs.
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What are the expectations of teachers?

​What we expect of our teachers – Teachers play a critical role in each school community as they contribute to the success of students and the school itself. As a teacher, you’re responsible for planning, preparing and delivering effective learning and teaching programs for every student in your classes.

Plan, prepare and deliver quality and effective teaching and learning programs in line with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers,Maintain your competency and current knowledge of relevant curriculum programs.Create supportive learning environments and effective behaviour management practices for your classes.Provide for the physical, social, cultural and emotional wellbeing and safety of students while at school and assist in their progression towards inclusion.Assess students for developmental, feedback and reporting purposes.Maintain student records and samples of work and meet with students, parents, and the department to report on student performance as needed.Collaborate on the development and evaluation of the curriculum and regularly monitor, through observation and evaluation, the effectiveness of the teaching program.Participate in school decision-making and professional development.Establish and maintain strong interpersonal relationships between the school and community in keeping with

our conditions of employment for classroom teacher​s the student protection procedure the Code of Conduct for the Queensland public service and the department’s Standard of Practice which supports the Code of Conductthe Queensland College of Teachers code of ethics,

Complete our mandatory induction program, Create teaching and learning environments that have child/student health and safety at their centre.

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What are some expectations for instructor?

Some years back The Teaching Professor featured an article highlighting Mano Singham’s wonderful piece describing how he moved away from a very authoritarian, rule-centered syllabus (reference below). It’s one of my very favorite articles—I reference it regularly in presentations, and it appears on almost every bibliography I distribute.

Since its publication in 2005, Singham has continued to explore the role of the syllabus in his courses (and elsewhere) and has become even more convinced that many faculty are using the syllabus in ways that more effectively hinder than promote learning. In a presentation at an International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning (ISETL) conference, Singham described an activity he now undertakes on the first day of class.

Instead of distributing the syllabus then, he passes out a list of readings, a tentative schedule for the readings and a proposed list of paper due dates. Then he asks students this question: “What do you expect from an instructor who is giving 100% to the course?” Here’s the list students came up the first time he tried this approach:

Give students their papers back in a timely way Give students lots of criticism and feedback on their work Have passion for the material Listen and respond to student concerns Care not only about academics but also about students as people Realize that students have a life outside of class and not make unreasonable demands on them Not stick only to the class readings for discussion Take all questions seriously and not fake answers Provide inspiration to students so that they will want to change their minds

He followed that question with this one: “What would you expect to see your peers doing if they were giving 100% to the course?” And here’s that list:

Doing the readings Listening to others and appreciating diverse opinions Learning from each other’s ideas Keeping things lighthearted Not putting down others if you disagree Showing up for every class and being on time Showing respect for everyone’s ideas Going beyond just academic conversation, bringing personal elements into the discussions too

Singham added three items to the students’ second list: responding thoughtfully to weekly journal prompts; being conscientious about sending weekly private emails to the instructor; and regularly checking the course website for information about the course.

The activity confirmed for Singham that students do know what’s expected of them and have a good sense of what professors can do to support their efforts to learn in a course. References: Singham, M. (2005). Moving away from the authoritarian classroom. Change, 37 (3), 51-57. Excerpted from Expectations: Students Stepping Up, December 2008, The Teaching Professor,

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