This is the time of the year when many college freshmen are moving into their dorms or preparing for their first classes.Unfortunately, some will want to transfer to a different school by the end of the year.
Pretty soon, many high school juniors and seniors will also have to start thinking about whether they want to attend college, and if so, where. Choosing the right college is difficult, made even more so by today's rising tuition and other difficult economic realities. The many changes in academia have also created a number of extremely important factors about which prospective students need to be aware.
One of the most significant of these little known factors is a rising trend among many colleges, most especially community colleges and technical or trade institutions, to replace full-time faculty with part-time faculty (known as adjuncts). This has a powerful impact for many reasons - it would take an entire article to discuss them all (and many such articles can be found in publications like the Chronicle of Higher Education, or even Slate). You should always ask (and you may have to insist and do a lot of checking to insure you are being given the correct numbers) what exactly is the percentage of full-time faculty to adjuncts teaching at the college, and, perhaps more importantly, what is the percentage of courses taught at the college by adjuncts versus full-time faculty. If these numbers are more than 30%, do not choose that college. It means the administrators who run the college do not value their own product, a college degree, enough to pay their own teachers a living wage let alone benefits, and that attitude will trickle down in many ways to other policies affecting the students. It also will affect the amount of time the adjuncts have to work with the students outside of class (very little), whether they have office space at all or space enough for private meetings, and many other problems that will directly affect what and how well students learn in the classroom.
This unrealistic attitudes many administrators have toward the academic side of education can result in serious problems within a college; this is why the second major factor you should look at when choosing a college is the ratio of administrators and staff to full-time faculty. Is the college top-heavy with administrators and staff? If there are more administrators and staff than full-time faculty at the college, there may well be many conflicts and problems undermining policies there, not to mention wasteful spending and poor budgeting. Ask what exactly those administrators do - many of those positions could probably be part-time or parceled out to a smaller number of administrators. Also, full-time faculty, whether tenured or not, are the ones who do most of the academic advising (often counseling offices handle only academic advising through your first year), the committee work that determines curriculum (such as what classes you need to take and why), and many other duties that go well beyond their most important, which is teaching. Teaching a course takes many hours of preparation as well as many hours of grading, a fact that many administrators and staff don't understand because they have never taught. These can become seriously impacted if administrators outnumber full-time faculty significantly, especially in terms of what is traditionally the shared governance of colleges. Adjuncts rarely get to participate in any kind of decision making at most colleges and have little time to do so even if they are invited to. If administrators can overrule faculty in curriculum and major policy decisions, great harm can be done to students' academic environment, from the actual classroom curricula and textbooks to extracurricular activities like student newspapers and other student media, sports, clubs, and so on.
One of the ways in which you can tell how well the administrator/faculty ratio and relationships are affecting the college, as well as what the priorities of a college's administration are, is to look at the student organizations, especially student media. Read the student newspaper; listen to the student radio if there is one. Talk to the students who run the student media as well as the ones who write for them. Are they given the freedom to act like real journalists or does the administration create obstacles, even policies, to force them to publish only positive stories? What is the ratio of money spent on sports events versus supporting student athletes academically with tutoring services? How much money goes to extracurricular organizations and where does that money come from? How many full-time faculty advise or coach these organizations? How many advisors are adjuncts? Are they paid for this or must they struggle to balance their other responsibilities with the extracurricular and so aren't able to give their full attention to those activities?
These questions all point to a larger, even more important question: is the college administration more concerned about money and image than about the success of the students, especially in areas such as support services? Are there free tutoring programs for all students, regardless of their involvement in sports? Are there counseling services that go beyond academic advising to include mental health support services, as well as offering workshops and events on subjects like how to study, how to survive exams, and so on? Do student services include things like safe dorms, ride-share programs, security officers who will walk students to their cars or dorm rooms late at night, and strong, well-placed public lighting all over campus, as well as large, very visible campus security? How well are administrators really reporting problems like thefts, assault and rape? How do they treat victims of sexual assault and rape? Do they involve the police immediately in such cases? How well do they investigate such cases and punish the perpetrators?
Everything I have mentioned here is heavily influenced by the college's budget and from where its funding comes. Unfortunately, many states, counties, and city governments, as well as the federal government, have drastically reduced funding to most public institutions. Look carefully at the college's budget and see where it gets and puts most of its money. Again, if the highest percentage goes to administrators' and staff salaries and benefits, then there is a problem in priorities. Look at how much money comes from fundraising and other sources versus tuition, and how often that college has raised its tuition over the past ten years. That will give you an idea of whether or not you can expect the tuition to rise again while you are paying. Compare your local community college with any nearby four-year colleges or universities. If the cost of the community college is only a few hundred dollars less a semester than at a four-year college, it may not be worth those small savings, particularly since most four-year colleges and universities often don't accept transfer courses in quite the way you might expect, even given agreements with the community college. For example, a 100 or 200 level course in a specific major area at a community college might transfer only as a general elective to the four-year college, and a student might get stuck taking the course again after transferring. Unfortunately, not all community colleges are the economic bargain they used to be. Rising costs and disappearing public funding have caused many to increase tuition. Also, keep in mind all of the other criteria I mentioned earlier. Community colleges are generally the greatest offenders when it comes to having a much higher percentage of adjuncts versus full-time faculty and less extracurricular or counseling services, though they do often provide smaller classroom sizes and better disability services.
Community colleges also have an open enrollment policy, so they take everyone with a high school diploma or GED, and sometimes even high school students can take a college class while finishing high school. Community colleges offer an education to everyone, which is what makes them so important. Students still have to be able to do college level work, but community colleges offer developmental courses to help students who, for whatever reason, need more skills in math, reading, and/or writing before taking college level classes. Many are cheaper than four year colleges and so are a good place to take the general education courses you will need for any four year college degree. However, it's important to check with the four-year college you plan to transfer to and make sure those classes really transfer. It's also important to compare tuition rates with other colleges that interest you. Again, some community colleges are no longer that much cheaper than some four-year colleges, especially in a state university system. Technical colleges and many community colleges also provide degrees in technical fields like fire fighting, auto mechanic training, and so on, and sometimes even certificates instead of degrees, which may be all that is necessary to find employment in a certain technical field like being an auto mechanic or beautician, etc. For some people, those are better choices than a four-year college.
Research on these issues is the key to making the best choice. Most colleges post at least some of this information on their websites, and you should be able to use the Freedom of Information act to obtain any of this information not easily found otherwise, at least at publicly funded colleges. If a college refuses to provide you with any of the above information, it's usually because there is something to hide. Beware of any college that won't give you any of this information.
One of the most significant of these little known factors is a rising trend among many colleges, most especially community colleges and technical or trade institutions, to replace full-time faculty with part-time faculty (known as adjuncts). This has a powerful impact for many reasons - it would take an entire article to discuss them all (and many such articles can be found in publications like the Chronicle of Higher Education, or even Slate). You should always ask (and you may have to insist and do a lot of checking to insure you are being given the correct numbers) what exactly is the percentage of full-time faculty to adjuncts teaching at the college, and, perhaps more importantly, what is the percentage of courses taught at the college by adjuncts versus full-time faculty. If these numbers are more than 30%, do not choose that college. It means the administrators who run the college do not value their own product, a college degree, enough to pay their own teachers a living wage let alone benefits, and that attitude will trickle down in many ways to other policies affecting the students. It also will affect the amount of time the adjuncts have to work with the students outside of class (very little), whether they have office space at all or space enough for private meetings, and many other problems that will directly affect what and how well students learn in the classroom.
This unrealistic attitudes many administrators have toward the academic side of education can result in serious problems within a college; this is why the second major factor you should look at when choosing a college is the ratio of administrators and staff to full-time faculty. Is the college top-heavy with administrators and staff? If there are more administrators and staff than full-time faculty at the college, there may well be many conflicts and problems undermining policies there, not to mention wasteful spending and poor budgeting. Ask what exactly those administrators do - many of those positions could probably be part-time or parceled out to a smaller number of administrators. Also, full-time faculty, whether tenured or not, are the ones who do most of the academic advising (often counseling offices handle only academic advising through your first year), the committee work that determines curriculum (such as what classes you need to take and why), and many other duties that go well beyond their most important, which is teaching. Teaching a course takes many hours of preparation as well as many hours of grading, a fact that many administrators and staff don't understand because they have never taught. These can become seriously impacted if administrators outnumber full-time faculty significantly, especially in terms of what is traditionally the shared governance of colleges. Adjuncts rarely get to participate in any kind of decision making at most colleges and have little time to do so even if they are invited to. If administrators can overrule faculty in curriculum and major policy decisions, great harm can be done to students' academic environment, from the actual classroom curricula and textbooks to extracurricular activities like student newspapers and other student media, sports, clubs, and so on.
One of the ways in which you can tell how well the administrator/faculty ratio and relationships are affecting the college, as well as what the priorities of a college's administration are, is to look at the student organizations, especially student media. Read the student newspaper; listen to the student radio if there is one. Talk to the students who run the student media as well as the ones who write for them. Are they given the freedom to act like real journalists or does the administration create obstacles, even policies, to force them to publish only positive stories? What is the ratio of money spent on sports events versus supporting student athletes academically with tutoring services? How much money goes to extracurricular organizations and where does that money come from? How many full-time faculty advise or coach these organizations? How many advisors are adjuncts? Are they paid for this or must they struggle to balance their other responsibilities with the extracurricular and so aren't able to give their full attention to those activities?
These questions all point to a larger, even more important question: is the college administration more concerned about money and image than about the success of the students, especially in areas such as support services? Are there free tutoring programs for all students, regardless of their involvement in sports? Are there counseling services that go beyond academic advising to include mental health support services, as well as offering workshops and events on subjects like how to study, how to survive exams, and so on? Do student services include things like safe dorms, ride-share programs, security officers who will walk students to their cars or dorm rooms late at night, and strong, well-placed public lighting all over campus, as well as large, very visible campus security? How well are administrators really reporting problems like thefts, assault and rape? How do they treat victims of sexual assault and rape? Do they involve the police immediately in such cases? How well do they investigate such cases and punish the perpetrators?
Everything I have mentioned here is heavily influenced by the college's budget and from where its funding comes. Unfortunately, many states, counties, and city governments, as well as the federal government, have drastically reduced funding to most public institutions. Look carefully at the college's budget and see where it gets and puts most of its money. Again, if the highest percentage goes to administrators' and staff salaries and benefits, then there is a problem in priorities. Look at how much money comes from fundraising and other sources versus tuition, and how often that college has raised its tuition over the past ten years. That will give you an idea of whether or not you can expect the tuition to rise again while you are paying. Compare your local community college with any nearby four-year colleges or universities. If the cost of the community college is only a few hundred dollars less a semester than at a four-year college, it may not be worth those small savings, particularly since most four-year colleges and universities often don't accept transfer courses in quite the way you might expect, even given agreements with the community college. For example, a 100 or 200 level course in a specific major area at a community college might transfer only as a general elective to the four-year college, and a student might get stuck taking the course again after transferring. Unfortunately, not all community colleges are the economic bargain they used to be. Rising costs and disappearing public funding have caused many to increase tuition. Also, keep in mind all of the other criteria I mentioned earlier. Community colleges are generally the greatest offenders when it comes to having a much higher percentage of adjuncts versus full-time faculty and less extracurricular or counseling services, though they do often provide smaller classroom sizes and better disability services.
Community colleges also have an open enrollment policy, so they take everyone with a high school diploma or GED, and sometimes even high school students can take a college class while finishing high school. Community colleges offer an education to everyone, which is what makes them so important. Students still have to be able to do college level work, but community colleges offer developmental courses to help students who, for whatever reason, need more skills in math, reading, and/or writing before taking college level classes. Many are cheaper than four year colleges and so are a good place to take the general education courses you will need for any four year college degree. However, it's important to check with the four-year college you plan to transfer to and make sure those classes really transfer. It's also important to compare tuition rates with other colleges that interest you. Again, some community colleges are no longer that much cheaper than some four-year colleges, especially in a state university system. Technical colleges and many community colleges also provide degrees in technical fields like fire fighting, auto mechanic training, and so on, and sometimes even certificates instead of degrees, which may be all that is necessary to find employment in a certain technical field like being an auto mechanic or beautician, etc. For some people, those are better choices than a four-year college.
Research on these issues is the key to making the best choice. Most colleges post at least some of this information on their websites, and you should be able to use the Freedom of Information act to obtain any of this information not easily found otherwise, at least at publicly funded colleges. If a college refuses to provide you with any of the above information, it's usually because there is something to hide. Beware of any college that won't give you any of this information.