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55 votes
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California bans legacy admissions at private universities
29 votes -
Artificial Intelligence-enabled intelligent assistant for personalized and adaptive learning in higher education
8 votes -
English universities offer to curb foreign students if they can raise tuition fees
16 votes -
More Chinese women graduate but jobs and equal pay still elude them: women under-represented in Stem subjects at university and afterwards are quizzed about plans to start a family
19 votes -
Navient reaches $120 million settlement with CFPB for misleading US student loan borrowers
21 votes -
At the University of Michigan, pro Palestinian protestors have "Shut Down" student government, by being elected to it
35 votes -
MIT's drop in Black students shows fallout from top court ruling
33 votes -
US appeals court blocks all of Joe Biden's SAVE student debt relief plan
45 votes -
Graduated in December 2023, but federal student loan servicer still lists my loan status as "in school" and that repayments will not begin until December 2025?
Screenshot for clarity My understanding was that after I graduated, I would have a six-month grace period, during which no loan payments would be due. At some point during that six-month grace...
My understanding was that after I graduated, I would have a six-month grace period, during which no loan payments would be due.
At some point during that six-month grace period, my university should have notified "the feds" or my loan servicer that I had graduated, so that they could appropriately adjust my loan status and start date of my repayments.
Well, we are seven, almost eight months post-graduation, and my loan repayments still are not due to begin until December 2025.
I'm still looking for a job, so if I can continue to put off repayment, that would be great.
Of course, if my loan status finally updates, and the servicer realizes I was supposed to start repayment in July 2024, but didn't, then that would not be great.
What do?
Literally this evening I intended to just go ahead and sign up for the SAVE plan, so I wouldn't have any payments until I got a job, even if my loan servicer woke up and realized their mistake. Unfortunately, republicans hate America, so that plan is looking dead in the water. I might go ahead and try to sign up anyways. Maybe I will continue to get lucky.
7 votes -
Students at fake university in Michigan created by ICE can sue US, court rules
45 votes -
Don’t say ‘elite’: Corporate firms’ new pitch is meritocracy. McKinsey other big firms [claim to] want to recruit with a wider net, focusing more on skills than on pedigree.
12 votes -
How tens of thousands of grad workers are organizing themselves
12 votes -
University suspends students for AI homework tool it gave them $10,000 prize to make
46 votes -
Students invent quieter leaf blower
41 votes -
Meet Max, the cat receiving an (honorary) doctorate from Vermont State University this weekend
26 votes -
How the US is destroying young people’s future | Scott Galloway
32 votes -
[Columbia University president] Minouche Shafik: Universities must engage in serious soul searching on protests
4 votes -
MIT scraps diversity statements in faculty-hiring process
14 votes -
Protesters unaffiliated with CCNY, Columbia made up nearly half of arrests: police
23 votes -
More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested across US campuses
49 votes -
Students at Brown just secured a vote on divestment. What happens next?
24 votes -
At least thirty protesters arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin
52 votes -
Canada bet big on immigration. Now it’s hitting the brakes.
31 votes -
The state as blunt force - impressions of the Columbia campus clearance
11 votes -
The youth need your help
21 votes -
Student revolt and the curtailing of critical speech
19 votes -
Remembering May 4 (Kent State massacre) - An interview with Devo's Jerry Casale
16 votes -
Canadian science gets biggest boost to PhD and postdoc pay in twenty years
7 votes -
Norway's health minister resigned Friday, the second Norwegian government member to step down this year amid allegations they plagiarized academic works
17 votes -
How to succeed in a cramming-based academic system?
I'm an intuitive learner. I learn by constantly asking questions, the answers to which i can then effortlessly remember. By messing around and seeing what happens, and then asking why. Lecturers...
I'm an intuitive learner. I learn by constantly asking questions, the answers to which i can then effortlessly remember. By messing around and seeing what happens, and then asking why. Lecturers have been enthusiastic about my approach but said I'm going to struggle because the school system in my country wasn't designed for people who learn like this. I want to kill myself.
The way I see myself learning stuff:
- Here's a fresh store-bought kombucha scoby
- Here's a scoby from the same store that I've been growing for 6 weeks
- If I sequenced the DNA from equivalent cells in each of these scobys, would I find any differences? Why?
Same with my latest interest: Law. I've watched a few (mock) court cases and researched whatever questions I came up with, to get an understanding of how courts worked, and had a look at the cited laws.In physics tests I end up running out of time because whenever I forget an equation I need, I try to intuit/derive it, which I would manage given enough time.
The way we are actually expected to learn stuff:
- Listening to a lecturer talk for 12×2 hours, and/or reading the referenced literature. Anything mentioned could be on the test.
I have been trying to do it the mainstream way anyway, but I am getting such bad grades that I've had to re-take a year. Even if I found strategies to help me focus I'd still clearly have a competitive disadvantage to people to whom this approach comes naturally. This feels unfair since I know there is a way that I could learn about my field as effortlessly as other people do listening to these lectures.
How does someone like me succeed in academia instead of just scraping through?
I understand that my prefered methpd which I outlined is what you do at PhD level. I'm afraid that by force-feeding my brain all this information that it currently sees as irrelevant, I will kill my curiousity, which I don't want to do because it's the thing that's allowed me to get this far with practically no effort (I went through the archetypal Smart Kid thing in middle school).
For context, I'm in 1st year bachelor's biochemistry (repeating the year). Although I think that at least in my country, all university courses have the format I described.
Since I am also struggling with ADHD I honestly feel like giving up on Uni and going for some sort of apprentiship-style thing. I would like to have a degree though because it's sort of a requirement nowadays and I am genuinely interested in my subject area. Alternatively, what kind of professions seek my method of inquisitively deep-diving into stuff, as I described?
19 votes -
How Chinese students experience America
23 votes -
How do you feel about student loan forgiveness?
The debate is coming back up because of new talks around student loan forgiveness in the US. I was on the fence about it until I did some extra research for a comment I posted last week. I am...
The debate is coming back up because of new talks around student loan forgiveness in the US. I was on the fence about it until I did some extra research for a comment I posted last week.
I am including the comment I posted last week that was from a discussion about whether general education classes should be required for a college degree, but the part about the societal value of a college graduate to the US is relevant.
Higher education is an interesting thing to put a price on because while some classes can provide economic benefits to people who get a higher education, many classes provide more of a societal benefit.
A history class doesn't help an engineer make a jet turbine, but it can help them be an informed voter. College campuses mix people of different races, genders, origins, and socioeconomic classes with each other. The general education courses expose students to different concepts that can help them in their civic lives.
College graduates also have many economic benefits to society. On average, college graduates pay much more in taxes than they take in government benefits over their lifetimes. High school graduates also contribute, but only a modest gain where college graduates contribute 4-5x what they take. Governments invest $28,000 per college student on average but gain $335,000 in net monetary benefit over their lifetime.
I get that many people are opposed to courses that don't directly apply to a career because they have to pay a lot of money out of pocket when the course may only provide a benefit to society. Why can't the government provide loan forgiveness to anyone who graduates? It would take pressure off students and still provide a net benefit to society over having them not graduate.
50 votes -
Has anyone gotten a degree online?
Does anyone have any experience with online degree programs? I was looking into the Arizona State University online Electrical Engineering BSE. The program is accredited and your degree is not...
Does anyone have any experience with online degree programs? I was looking into the Arizona State University online Electrical Engineering BSE. The program is accredited and your degree is not marked any differently than an in person ASU degree.
I already have a BA in Economics, but I don’t really use my degree for my work. I feel like my career is progressing just fine, but I’ve always been interested in science and math. I tried Electrical Engineering at the beginning of my undergrad, but I was too undisciplined and unfocused to handle it.
I am interested in ASU because it will allow me to take classes while still having a full time job, but I am interested if anyone else has gotten a degree while working full time. What was your experience like?
15 votes -
Not every student needs Algebra 2. UC should be flexible on math requirement.
21 votes -
UT Austin lays off around sixty staffers to comply with Texas DEI ban
22 votes -
A university librarian asks: How do we rescue the past?
14 votes -
Relative financial burden imposed on university students by housing cost in Germany steadily increasing. About a third of all students close to poverty line. How does this compare to your region?
The latest iteration of a study regarding the cost of student housing in Germany found, that rent prices for students have risen to a germany-wide average of 479€. Three years ago the average was...
The latest iteration of a study regarding the cost of student housing in Germany found, that rent prices for students have risen to a germany-wide average of 479€. Three years ago the average was just 391€. In Munich the average cost for student housing has risen to no less than 760€. This is more than double than the housing-cost covered by BAföG, a public program providing financial support to students from low-income families. [1]
Statistically, more than a third of students in Germany are at risk of poverty at the moment, meaning they have less than 60% of the country's mean income available. [2] [3]
Also with regards to Munich specifically, the number of designated student housing facilities has not grown significantly or even dropped over the past few years, while the number of students has been steadily increasing. This means that more and more students have to look for rooms in shared apartments on the city's highly competitive housing market. Statistically, these students are those that live close to the poverty line particularly often.
I realize that the cost of high-quality higher education in Germany is not as majorly fucked as for example in the USA, but still the financial burden on students is steadily increasing due to housing cost. How does this compare to where you're from? How is student housing organized in your city, how much does it cost relative to the mean income, and do you experience similar trends in your region?
Sources (german), besides in-person conversations and experiences:
[1] https://cms.moses-mendelssohn-institut.de/uploads/24_03_19_Wohnkosten_Studierende_804a7b53ef.pdf
[2] https://www.spiegel.de/start/statistisches-bundesamt-mehr-als-ein-drittel-der-studierenden-lebt-unter-der-armutsgrenze-a-460cb19f-8a62-43ab-8b52-652814234250
[3] https://youtu.be/UVaY8SCtjwg28 votes -
"The university campus is rapidly becoming a locus of infantilizing social control that any independent-minded student should seek to escape"
42 votes -
Higher education teaching career advice
Greetings Tildeans! I am wrapping up my Ph.D. and am pursuing a teaching-focused career in higher education. I am currently in talks for a 4-year institution teaching faculty position that would...
Greetings Tildeans!
I am wrapping up my Ph.D. and am pursuing a teaching-focused career in higher education. I am currently in talks for a 4-year institution teaching faculty position that would revolve around teaching a subject I am passionate about and could provide a lot of intellectual stimulation. Unless something wild happens the offer is there and we are just negotiating the parameters. I also have a position that is in 2nd-phase interviews for a community college tenure track position that would be teaching general biology, anatomy, and physiology. I feel optimistic that they are going to offer me a position, but nothing is concrete yet.
I'm at this impasse because both have really good reasons for doing them and would provide experiences unique from the other. I am trying to balance the pros and cons between these two positions and consider what might be good for my career in the long run, and so I was hoping I could get some advice. Even if you're not in academia I think it would be helpful to get some outside prospective. I'm gonna list my thoughts on it below.
4-year University
Pros:
-Teach upper level and domain specific courses with opportunity to design courses I am passionate about.
-Integrated into scientific community if I want to to do more research/keep abreast of scientific advancements.
-Great community of teaching faculty with lots of support.
-Could be good curriculum vitae experience if I want to stay teaching at a 4-year institution, and could open up teaching psychology courses.
-Option to develop a community outreach project I am passionate about, not sure if there is support for me but there is infrastructure there.
-Partner's family is in the area, and it is a big metropolitan area with lots to do.
-Can get tuition at 25% cost for my partner and I incase we want to get some other degrees.Cons:
-Pay is not great (does have option of picking up extra summer online classes to earn more).
-My partner and I don't want to live here long term, primarily because of climate, and cost of living is increasing. We are already ready to move, but this is a good opportunity.
-Is contract based, so not as much job security. Having said that, many of the teaching faculty have been there a long time and it seems like the student body for this department is generally growing.Community College
Pros:
-Pay is pretty good, and there is a baked in growth of salary as long as you stay there long term. Pay could be as much as $15K more starting out than the 4-year institution.
-Small class sizes, so better teacher:student ratio means more involved education.
-Cost of living in the area is pretty cheap (so far).
-Beautiful area and would put us closer to a part of the country we would like to live in long term.
-I do like biology and physiology, just not as much as neuroscience.
-From my understanding there is lot of support and easy options to get into administration if so desired. All the faculty I briefly met had been there at least 7 years.Cons:
-Only lower levels courses, with little room to develop new ones.
-Not sure how this would impact my ability to switch to a 4-year institution if I end up craving that intellectual stimulation.
-The area is in a part of California that does have issues with forest fires (not the town proper), and the county swings hard in the opposite direction of my politics.
-Small town so there isn't as much to do.Overall, the community college looks best on paper. We're not planning on having kids so family support isn't as big of a deal. My main concern is if I could switch back to a 4-year institution if I feel like I'm missing something. So if anyone has any thoughts please let me know, in particular if there are other things I'm not considering that you think are worth examining.
Edit: Just to add some additional information. As part of making myself a good candidate for higher education, I have worked as a teaching assistant for several courses during grad school and I have taught online physiology as an adjunct professor at a community college, so I have some experience in both environments.
Thanks ahead of time!
20 votes -
Liberty University hit with record fines for failing to handle complaints of sexual sssault, other crimes
17 votes -
A university professor reflects about time management
7 votes -
An American education: Notes from UATX
4 votes -
$1 billion donation will provide free tuition at a Bronx medical school
21 votes -
Citation cartels help some mathematicians—and their universities—climb the rankings
8 votes -
UBC student flies to school from Calgary (because Vancouver is that unaffordable to live in)
31 votes -
Research samples collected over decades at Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet were destroyed when a freezer malfunctioned during the Christmas holidays
30 votes -
UK professor suffered discrimination due to anti-Zionist beliefs, tribunal rules
20 votes -
Inventing the perfect US college applicant – For $120,000 a year, Christopher Rim promises to turn any student into Ivy bait
23 votes -
Recruited to play sports, and win a culture war
4 votes