bmanners, Author at Get Into College

Cannabis Class: UConn Goes to Pot

NBC: “The University of Connecticut is in spring 2019 going to offer a new course on marijuana and what it takes to work in the industry. It is already causing a buzz. ‘We ran out of seats before half of the university could register for the course,’ Professor Gerard Berkowitz, who will be teaching the class, told the Hartford Courant. ‘There’s going to be more students taught in this one class than in my department, all the professors, all the classes they teach, both semesters’.”

“Connecticut is one of 33 states that have legalized medical marijuana. It has also decriminalized marijuana possession to some degree, but the cultivation and distribution of pot are still felonies, according to NORML, an advocacy group for legalization.”

“In Colorado, the University of Denver offered a pilot course in 2017 on the business of marijuana. University of California, Davis, announced in January 2017 that undergraduates could learn how cannabis affects the body in a physiology of cannabis course. The University of Washington offers medicinal cannabis and chronic pain, described as a course for health professionals on the use of medical marijuana to treat pain.”

Life @ BU: Finals Week at Mugar Library

Boston University: “It’s that time again. Twice a year Mugar Memorial Library is transformed into BU’s ground zero … The Mugar staff, which includes some 200 student-employees, puts out candy and Post-its with words of encouragement. And during the end-of-semester frenzy, the library provides van service from midnight to 6 a.m. for any student living on campus who needs a ride home. There are other stress-busters, too: visits from Rhett the Terrier and from real (What! Rhett isn’t real?) four-legged creatures, among them Ana, a two-year old Great Pyrenees therapy dog, the undisputed star attraction.”

What to Do When You Are Deferred?

Yale: “Students who apply early will receive one of three decisions in mid-December: Accept, Defer, or Deny … Here’s the deal. A deferral means one thing and one thing only: We need more time to consider your application. It’s important to understand this. You were not deferred because there is something wrong with your application. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: if you were deferred it means your application is strong enough to continue to be seriously considered by the admissions committee.”

“You should not inundate your admissions officer with weekly emails and cards. More often than not it is the required pieces of the applications, like the essays and teacher recommendations that we already have, that make a student stand out for us. For the most part, we have what we need. We’ll get your mid-year grades from your school counselor to see how you’re doing in your senior year classes, and if you want you can send us one letter of update to let us know what you’ve been up to since November 1st.”

“The bottom line is that ‘deferral’ does not mean ‘we need more information’ or ‘something wasn’t good enough.’ It means we see a lot of great potential in you and we just need a little more time to sit in that committee room and mull things over … We appreciate your patience, and you’ll be hearing from us again soon.”

Emissions Admission: Duke Buys a ‘Carbon Farm’

The Chronicle: “With the purchase of rights to a roughly 16-square mile ‘carbon farm’ in eastern North Carolina, Duke University has potentially taken a big step towards carbon neutrality. The Hyde County farm could store enough carbon to help neutralize most of the University’s emissions to help it hit its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2024 … To reach that goal, Duke would need to cut its emissions by 84 percent in the next six years.”

“The farm—on peatlands that were once drained for agriculture use—works by locking carbon in the soil and plants by using ‘enhanced land management and conservation practices.’ It’s a new practice aimed at combating global warming.”

“Sixteen percent of Duke’s emissions come from employees that commute to work, according to a recently released report. As part of its vision to become carbon neutral, Duke plans to create better access to transit, to boost carpool networks and to back electric vehicle usage, among other things. Duke has also shifted away from coal and natural gas, and its new buildings use less energy.”

Which ‘College Towns’ Are Best?

Mlive: “The personal finance website Wallethub has once again named the home of the University of Michigan the best small college town in America in a survey released on Tuesday. This is at least the fifth-straight year Ann Arbor has claimed the top spot in the sub-category. Additionally, Ann Arbor was named the No. 3 college town overall, trailing only Austin, Texas, the home of the University of Texas and Orlando, the home of the University of Central Florida.”

“Wallethub analysts compared more than 400 U.S. cities of varying sizes based on 30 key indicators of academic, social and economic opportunities for students including cost of living, quality of higher education, nightlife and crime rate. Ann Arbor’s rank is thanks in large part to its ranking in the social environment category where it is No. 23. The category examines several factors including amount of young people, gender balance, nightlife, cafes, breweries, food trucks, shopping centers, sports, festivals and attractions.”

Read the entire report here.

The Tower & Girl of UT Austin

UT Austin: “For more than 80 years, the UT Tower has been the academic symbol and architectural emblem of The University of Texas at Austin. The 307-foot-tall Tower … is a commanding symbol of pride on the Austin skyline, especially at night. From its beginning, the Tower has been bathed in a combination of orange and white light to celebrate academic honors and sport victories … Most commonly used, the top glows orange to commemorate regular-season victories or a conference title in any intercollegiate sport, and it stands dark on somber occasions.”

“The Main Building and its tower were originally designed to serve as the campus central library … librarians were stationed on every other floor. They would roller skate to retrieve requested books and send them down to the desk via dumbwaiter to the students below … In recent years, the Main Building has been renewed as space for students. Within the atrium of the Life Sciences Library, freshmen now attend classes in small seminar rooms.”

“Above the Observation Deck are the bells of the Knicker Carillon, which ring on the quarter hour. With 56 bells, the carillon is the largest and heaviest in Texas, with the low B flat 2 bell weighing in at 7,350 pounds and the high G7 a mere 20 pounds … And above the carillon is one final sight to behold, but you’ll need binoculars. The building’s very top is home to a peregrine falcon, nicknamed ‘Tower Girl.’ She is the — ahem — apex predator of the Forty Acres. Tower Girl lives in Austin year round, and this fastest of all animals on Earth can be seen dive-bombing unfortunate grackles, pigeons and other prey.”

Monserrat: Climbing Mountains at Holy Cross

Holy Cross: “From their very first days on campus, Montserrat challenges students to expand their idea of where and how learning happens by intentionally blurring the boundary between classroom, residence hall and co-curricular activities. The program’s design pushes students to make connections between parts of their lives that are sometimes seen as separate: learning, living, and doing.”

How to Study for Jobs of the Future?

NPR: “Eighty-five percent of the jobs that today’s students will do in 2030 don’t exist yet, the Institute for the Future has predicted. That might seem like a high number to reach in only 12 years. But think about the now-mainstream careers that did not exist just a handful of years ago: drone operator, social media manager, app developer and cloud computing engineer, among others … Even if that 85 percent is ultimately smaller, the number begs an important question about how the workforce is preparing for the future, starting in the classroom. What role should colleges and universities play in preparing students for a workplace that is constantly changing?”

“At the University of Utah, the new Degree Plus program seeks to fill the job skills gap. It offers eight-week courses intended as an add-on to a student’s main degree. The courses include data analysis, web design and digital marketing, all taught by industry professionals … The model is similar to ‘badge’ programs, which aim to give students a certificate showing they know a skill that employers might find useful.”

“The University of California, Berkeley, is another school that is trying to foster student-driven pursuits, which may not have a traditional, professional outlet. Students there can design their own courses, such as ‘Blockchain Fundamentals’ and ‘Impact of AI,’ a class that explores ‘various economic, social, and ethical challenges facing AI’ … In addition to allowing students to study subjects not taught in a standard university class, the DeCal, short for Democratic Education at Cal, program is designed to foster creativity–a skill that could be valuable in any job market.”

Well Spoken: Bike-Friendly Schools

Kentucky.com: “The University of Kentucky was named the most bike-friendly college in America by the non-profit group League of American Bicyclists, which uses results from an annual survey. Schools are evaluated based on the Five E’s: engineering a safe bike network, education by incorporating bikes into the class room, encouragement in motivating students to bike, enforcement in protecting riders and evaluation in forming committees to improve campus cycling.”

The other top schools “are University of Maryland, College Park; Harvard University, Dickinson College, University of Utah, University of Vermont and University of Washington.”

“Amelia Neptune, program director of the bicycle league, said UK stood out due to its incentives for students and faculty members. Those include a free bike-share membership or $200 to spend at a local bike shop, as well as offering students who don’t bring cars to school free access to bike rentals. UK also hired a full-time coordinator to oversee its support for cycling, the league said.”

The Top 10 ‘Most Underrated’ Colleges

Boston.com: “CollegeVine, a Cambridge-based college guidance company, recently examined the ‘most underrated’ colleges in the United States, by comparing their cost of attendance and generosity of financial aid with ‘qualitative data’ on students’ career outcomes. Unlike traditional college rankings, CollegeVine co-founder Vinay Bhaskara said they primarily focused on financial outcomes, like students’ starting salary and return on investment one and five years after graduating, as well as ‘qualitative outcomes like job placements’.”

“The No. 1 school on the list is San Jose State University … The second most underrated college was the University of Houston, followed by SUNY Binghamton, City College of New York, George Mason University, WPI, Fordham University, and University of Texas at Austin — with Babson and Wellesley rounding out the list.”