Look at this article for the graph.
Making Top Colleges Less Aristocratic and More Meritocratic – NYTimes.com.
What is interesting is how Wash. U. brags that they do the opposite of what the graph shows. Look here for what I mean by that.
I posted this comment on the Times article. (Someone didn’t agree what I wrote and explained his reasoning. I will copy that below.)
“Washington U. in St. Louis, where I once taught, is the poster boy of what universities should not be – as is obvious in this graph.
This is only the tip of the iceberg of what “elite” universities – and there are many of them – get away with.
For example, Washington U. claims to be the opposite of what this graph shows.
After their chancellor participated in President Obama’s summit on how to make higher education more accessible, they published a story, “Paths of Opportunity”. It described how Chancellor Wrighton shared his “three pronged” approach with attendees. It noted that,
“Wash. U.’s average financial aid package for students with need nearly doubled over the last decade.”
Sounds good (to the uneducated, and unquestioning), but the reality is that the numbers they used seemed to me to show that they were actually touting a reduction in “net” financial aid. The details are on my blog inside-higher-ed .
does Wash. U. really expect their magazine readers to be so easily fooled? Maybe. Here is why.
In my story “A Tale Out of School”, I document how deans and department chairs, working hard to dumb down courses for students, in order to not “discourage” them and to “retain” them. (These words were used in an email to me from Engineering’s Dean of Student Academic Integrity. He was responding to an email from me that said that the third of the class who cheated on their homework had done poorly on the test.)
Buyer Beware! And not just at Wash. U.”
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Washington University is a very rigorous school. I have personal knowledge of the University so your experience is a bit of an outlier. The student at Wash U. are highly capable and the courses by any measure are rigorous. Although the school is getting slammed regarding Pell grants, the fact is that Wash. U affordable for lower income and middle class students through their scholarship program– based on academic achievement.
Mark, I reviewed your article and various rants. You were an adjunct professor at WUSTL and seem to be very bitter about your experience. It is ironic, based on your comments, that your teaching reviews are consistent in saying that you did not really challenge the students (“learned more in a community college”). Not sure your comments on this article are relevant
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