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OT: Alabama's academic problem...
Posted on 4/7/23 at 5:30 am
Posted on 4/7/23 at 5:30 am
So I am an alum of the university and, as such, I would like to see the university succeed at an academic level because it makes my diploma look better and better with the passing of time. However, I don't understand how we continue to sink more and more money into upgrading the facilities on campus and bringing in highly touted out-of-state students to raise the collective GPA of the students on campus, and yet still remain outside the Top 10 in the conference in academics.
This post was edited on 4/7/23 at 5:31 am
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Posted on 4/7/23 at 5:56 am to RollTide1987
Bc most of those out of state kids are just there to party.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 6:33 am to SECSolomonGrundy
Do you have stats to show that the out of state students (likely paying more money) party and make worse grades. Sounds like a cheap cop out and thread derailment.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 7:28 am to BlackPawnMartyr
quote:
Do you have stats to show that the out of state students (likely paying more money) party and make worse grades. Sounds like a cheap cop out and thread derailment.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 9:50 am to RollTide1987
From what I recall, the plan was to ramp up enrollment and demand to the saturation point and then tighten admissions standards, somewhat following the University of Texas model. Seems all we've done thus far, though, is get a bunch more people on campus with no benefit on the academic side.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 10:02 am to RollTide1987
UA is literally the only school in the country that can recruit high stats students year in and year out and continue to drop in these "rankings". That is why I don't follow them. Do you seriously think the students we brought in the past 10 years is worse than 15 years ago? Yet we are in a worse ranking than we were then.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 12:25 pm to cdur86
I’m guessing the ranking methodology is incorporating factors that have no bearing on the competency or competitiveness of the students graduating from Alabama.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 1:04 pm to tide06
quote:
’m guessing the ranking methodology is incorporating factors that have no bearing on the competency or competitiveness of the students graduating from Alabama.
You'd be correct. For the U.S. News and World Report rankings peer opinion of you is 20% of the total ranking. How ridiculous is that? All of these rankings are stupid and it seems like every publication does them. I can find two or three where we are ranked higher than the most popular publication if we are comparing to AU.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 2:23 pm to RollTide1987
I’m a believer that undergraduate education is mostly replacement level. If you are attending a top program in a field then there may be some benefits but frankly the department/college’s top academics are not teaching many undergraduate courses.
The discriminator on university quality is academic research and that’s mostly happening in the graduate programs. This is when one of those great faculty members takes a handful of graduate students under their wings.
The State U with a football party school rep to reputable private or public ivy graduate program is the wisest strategy imo.
The discriminator on university quality is academic research and that’s mostly happening in the graduate programs. This is when one of those great faculty members takes a handful of graduate students under their wings.
The State U with a football party school rep to reputable private or public ivy graduate program is the wisest strategy imo.
Posted on 4/7/23 at 6:37 pm to cdur86
Maybe we should come up with metrics that actually matter. How about gainful employment after a set number of years, for instance?
Posted on 4/7/23 at 9:38 pm to Diego Ricardo
quote:
I’m a believer that undergraduate education is mostly replacement level. If you are attending a top program in a field then there may be some benefits but frankly the department/college’s top academics are not teaching many undergraduate courses.
I’m a believer that undergraduate education could be replaced with functional training at a fraction of the price and delivered for the most part remotely with an output that would be far superior to anything you would receive in the Ivy League.
The only factor that would be missed is the socialization and networking aspects of attending a school and even that is highly overrated these days by schools that have grown far too large and are run by MBAs to maximize profitability while treating the students like cattle.
We as Americans spend far, far too much on an antiquated educational system and receive far, far too little in return and the costs are felt at a societal level with poor and middle class students deferring families and buying homes as they pay off massive student loans.
This post was edited on 4/8/23 at 10:31 am
Posted on 4/7/23 at 10:39 pm to tide06
higher education is dying under the weight of its contradictions. So many degrees exist that would be better suited for a 1 or 2 year technical school approach. I’m not exactly sure why my accountant needed to take humanities. I just need them to understand double entry bookkeeping and such.
Posted on 4/8/23 at 12:46 am to cdur86
Academic rankings of universities have less credibility than recruiting rankings and weather forecasts.
Posted on 4/8/23 at 10:13 am to SoFla Tideroller
I work for the university, so I can see the changes more than most. They do have legitimately smarter undergrads than when I was a student in the mid aughts. UA is making a big push to become a more credible research university but it takes time to cultivate those fruits.
Posted on 4/8/23 at 11:16 am to Diego Ricardo
I mean, a huge issue is that we did the arts school instead of the med school everyone was clamoring for. Whether you like that or not, it’s a reason for our academic drop. USNews ranks based on whether you have an on-campus medical school, and UAB’s doesn’t count as ours.
The system is dumb but I will say the University is still improving, even compared to when I was there in 2010-2014
The system is dumb but I will say the University is still improving, even compared to when I was there in 2010-2014
This post was edited on 4/8/23 at 11:20 am
Posted on 4/8/23 at 12:13 pm to UhOhOreo
That is the big problem. Medical research is just a huge part of academic research funding. It is a pity that UA System doesn’t maximize their flagship’s value to soothe the vanity of the city of Birmingham by making UAB a separate university rather than a sat campus.
UAB will never have the public reputation of UA. It is an urban commuter campus so it will never be an undergraduate bread winner. But it has the biggest chunk of research dollars and publications in the system because it claims the med school.
UA will never be what it could be because a lot of what UAS is about is soothing regional political interests.
UAB will never have the public reputation of UA. It is an urban commuter campus so it will never be an undergraduate bread winner. But it has the biggest chunk of research dollars and publications in the system because it claims the med school.
UA will never be what it could be because a lot of what UAS is about is soothing regional political interests.
This post was edited on 4/8/23 at 12:16 pm
Posted on 4/8/23 at 5:36 pm to Diego Ricardo
quote:
higher education is dying under the weight of its contradictions. So many degrees exist that would be better suited for a 1 or 2 year technical school approach. I’m not exactly sure why my accountant needed to take humanities. I just need them to understand double entry bookkeeping and such.
I am a supporter of those humanities courses. The humanities broaden our minds and help us to see important things that we might miss by eschewing them. Humanities also often instill cultural literacy in people.
The math courses that humanities students hate help to strengthen their minds and liberalize their education as well. A well rounded mind is valuable to each person as well as to our society at large.
Posted on 4/8/23 at 10:36 pm to LovetheLord
quote:
I am a supporter of those humanities courses. The humanities broaden our minds and help us to see important things that we might miss by eschewing them. Humanities also often instill cultural literacy in people. The math courses that humanities students hate help to strengthen their minds and liberalize their education as well. A well rounded mind is valuable to each person as well as to our society at large.
I agree but I do not think one necessarily needs a traditional collegiate education to do many professions.
Posted on 4/8/23 at 11:46 pm to SECSolomonGrundy
quote:
Bc most of those out of state kids are just there to party.
I assure you that my out of state Presidential Scholar, Honors College daughter finishing her dual degree with Magna Cum Laude status with a good shot of bumping that up to Summa before she matriculates to law school is not just there to party.
This post was edited on 4/9/23 at 12:21 am
Posted on 4/9/23 at 7:31 am to Diego Ricardo
quote:
I’m a believer that undergraduate education is mostly replacement level.
This all day. I’m not faculty at Alabama but at my institution the undergrads are money in seats and keep the lights on,… very little more. Sure there are those that excel, and are propped up but for the most part they’re part of a numbers game.
Graduate level students are where you get your academic credit.
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