Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with highereducation

Educate me (and mine).

mds35 — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:05:15 -0800

Which colleges or universities still offer free tuition to children of employees who get accepted to the school? I once worked at a university where an employee's child (provided the parent was at a certain job level/rank and had been in the job long enough to qualify) could go to any of the undergraduate divisions for free if they were accepted to them. If the child went to another college, the university would pay half of the tuition.

Pretty sweet deal.

I know that schools are doing away with this kind of benefit, but what schools do you know of where this is still offered? My career is such that I can work in the academic setting, so where should I look for employment if I want my kids to get a free education?

This regards the US

Books about non-US universities

hydropsyche — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:24:37 -0800

Have you read good books (fiction or non-fiction) which accurately depict/explain life at universities in countries other than the US? I will be finishing grad school soon. In my life I have attended a small liberal arts college, two large state universities, and now a pseudo-ivy league private university. I'm realizing that although I know a lot about the different university experiences in the US, I know next to nothing about how undergraduate and graduate education works elsewhere.

Also, I love fiction and non-fiction set in US universities, things like The Secret History, The Big U, and The Idea Factory.

I figure there must be books like these that are fun to read and will help me learn more about higher education in other countries. About the closest I have come is Gaudy Night. Googling something like this is useless, so I'm looking for suggestions.

I want some initials after my name, please!

fvox13 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:38:18 -0800

What are the must-have certifications for a web developer working in higher education? I just started a new job as a web developer at a liberal arts college in the upstate new york area, and my boss has indicated that there will be both funding and administrative support for me to obtain certifications in my field (and, of course, the extra knowledge I will gain from preparing will be a great asset to me and the college!)

We have a mixed environment around here, with servers running Windows 2003, AIX, FreeBSD, Debian Linux, and OSX. We're probably going to be having fewer and fewer Windows 2003 servers as time goes by, and as we move to a virtualization setup, we'll have a lot more. We're writing in HTML and CSS, of course, but there's a fair amount of ColdFusion, PHP, Perl, and Python going on as well, and since we're using Django for some things, we're going to be doing a lot more with Python as time goes by.

So far, I'm looking at:

CISSP

Certified Ethical Hacker

Project Management Professional

W3C HTML

CompTIA Linux+ and Security+

Any bad experiences with any of these? Any good experiences?
Anything I'm missing from my list?

Let's give them someone to talk to

DiscourseMarker — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:40:50 -0800

I'm looking for suggestions for video guest speakers for a class I'm teaching this fall. I'm teaching a class this semester called Media 2.0: Production & Distribution in the Internet Age. It's based on the ideas of the long tail and convergence culture and how new technologies are changing the relationships between producers and consumers of media content. (There's a syllabus posted on my website, which is liked in my profile, if you're interested).

One of my ideas for the class was to have people who are actually doing this kind of work to talk directly to my class, to help make these concepts more real to them. But, because I am at a state university, in a poor state that just had a budget shortfall, I have zero dollars for this, literally (we don't even have student fees for our courses). So my idea was to have guest speakers via video chat, through Skype or ooVoo or something similar, because we do at least have internet and a video projector in our classrooms.

So far I have two AWESOME speakers lined up: Apelad (Adam Koford) of Laugh-out-Loud Cats fame, and Metafilter's Own Jesse Thorn. I'm looking for suggestions for 1 or maybe 2 more people to round out the semester. Based on my students' interests, a writer, filmmaker, or musician would be really good. (I did try to get Jonathan Coulton, but my first email received no response, and my second got swiftly turned down by his publicity person).

So any suggestions you have for good possible speakers, as well as maybe any hints as to how to best approach these people, would be very welcomed.

Test-in or backdoor into research and/or higher education?

loquacious — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:28:45 -0800

As an "outsider", how do I find a back door in to a school or institution of research? Is there any way to "test in" to such a program - or to a degree? I've heard a rumor that MIT and/or Media Laboratory has a back door somewhere where you can test in and interview to apply as a sort of guest or probated student. Does it? Do any other similar schools or institutions have such progams?

Or, to sum: Is there any way for a self educated outsider to enter post-grad level work, experimentation or research without grinding through the undergrad gristmill?

What advice do you have for a new PhD candidate?

k8t — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 08:29:54 -0800

PhD advice! I am starting a PhD program in Communications this fall. I'd like some general advice from those who have survived. I'm looking for ideas on wise steps to take as far as department politics, TAing, getting published, attending conferences, funding, trying to survive on no money, being in a relationship with a non-student, etc. More specific details: I already have an MA in International Relations and Development and my BA is focused on a specific area of the world, for which I have gained extensive language skills. (I also spent the last 5 years working in either tech jobs or international development with a tech focus.) I chose my PhD program because the university has a multi-discipline institute for Technology and Society with a PhD focus in Technology and Society in developing countries. This is exactly what I want to study.
I was offered only a TA-ship for my first year. (Boo.) I've applied for a Fulbright next year.
Thanks!

Web 2.0 in Higher Education

Toekneesan — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 04:07:14 -0800

I'm looking for examples of Web 2.0 principles and tools being used in higher education. If you know of instructors or institutions using well known sites like Flickr, MySpace, YouTube, or Wikis, or other Web 2.0 tools, please post those examples here. Thanks!

How many students will be enrolled at colleges and universities in the U.S. this year?

fugitivefromchaingang — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 11:35:08 -0800

How many students will be enrolled at colleges and universities in the U.S. this year? The U.S. census bureau only seems to have numbers up to 2004. Thanks in advance.

How good is the reputation of Swinburne University in Victoria, Australia?

ranglin — Mon, 15 May 2006 19:29:41 -0800

How good is the reputation of Swinburne University in Victoria, Australia? Are they more focused on teaching or research? As mentioned in previous AskMe's, I'm looking into moving to Melbourne and their might be an opportunity for an Academic position at the Hawthorn campus of Swinburne in Victoria, Australia. Therefore, I'm looking for opinions from the AskMe hive mind on:

a. Swinburne's reputation (and a link to websites detailing its ranking relative to some other vic/aussie uni's)

b. their focus (teaching, research, both)

c. living arrangements for Hawthorn (distance from city etc)

d. Personal anecdotes about the campus and/or the university.

Many thanks to you all in advance! I'm getting closer! :)

What are the benefits of having a 4 year BA over a 3 year one?

baking soda — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:34:30 -0800

What are the benefits of having a 4 year BA over a 3 year one? After getting the bureacuratic runaround on campus...
Im at a university in Canada that offers a 3 year 'general' BA that if i take enough courses in one subject i can get a 'general degree with an area of specialization'. But im in psyc and they dont offer a 3 year specialization in psyc so it would just be a general degree.
So i can think of needing a 4 year for continuing on to grad school, or becoming a teacher because i need a 'teachable' as my friend told me, but thats all i can think of...

Dressing past the interview...

srah — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:41:17 -0800

What should I wear to work in a higher education student services setting? Interview attire is one thing - I'm all set with that. But once I get the job, what should I wear to work? I want to build up my professional wardrobe and I want to do it right. There's plenty of information on the web about what's appropriate or inappropriate to wear to a job interview, but much less about what's appropriate to wear once you get the job. What information there is (I've read JT Molloy's New Women's Dress for Success) seems to be angled towards the corporate world, rather than higher education, and I feel like the rules are probably slightly different.

Background: It's my first professional job after back-to-back college and graduate school. I want to look professional to my co-workers/supervisor, but I thought that wearing a suit every day might be overkill in this setting. I want to be approachable by students but not look like one of them (I'm a petite and young-looking female, so this is a concern).

Please let me know what works/doesn't work for you!

Multiple Degrees

tetsuo — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:51:23 -0800

Does anyone here have more than two Bachelor's degrees? If so, why did you get your second, and did you simply need to complete your major coursework or did you have to do the complete 60 hours/second two years?