My oldest son is a senior at Princeton, and the course catalog specifies how students will be graded for each course.
For example: 60% exams, 20% problem sets, 20% essays.
My youngest son has been unable to find any other colleges (online or in-person) that disclose this information. However, having this information would greatly affect his choice in colleges.
It almost seems unethical that colleges (besides Princeton) “sell” courses for thousands of dollars to students without disclosing the parameters on which the students will be evaluated, or the activities that enrolled students will engage in. Shouldn’t regulatory bodies like the Department of Education, and accreditation boards be a little concerned by this?
Any info on specific colleges that do provide this info, or just general opinions on the practice of not disclosing this info would be appreciated.
The syllabus will generally list the course requirements and grading expectations. The student can slmply ask the instructor for a preliminary copy of the syllabus before registration.
@skieurope, thanks for the feedback. The problem is that it would be difficult for a student to email hundreds of professors and get hundreds of syllabi when browsing a course catalog each semester.
Often, students would like to choose courses based on grading criteria. For example, they might not want to have four courses that are all essay based during the same semester, as they might prefer to spread these out.
No student is going to have a short list of “hundreds.” Even taking into account required courses that are set, what’s the maximum? 10.
Certainly after the first week on campus, the student will have a general feel for how departments run and an make educated guesses. Math will invariably be parts and exams. History will invariably have essays and/or research projects.
The scenario my son imagined was that, during his freshman year, he might see that he needs one freshman seminar course, and there might be 30 choices.
Then he might need one course to meet a social sciences general education requirement, and if he’s at a large state university, there really might be 100 courses that satisfy the requirement. (And so on…)
Even if there were just a few possibilities for each course slot, that still adds up to more than 10, based on a four-course load.
I guess my son could just follow your advice and email all the professors every semester, but this doesn’t make the info available to other students, who also might benefit from it.
Is there a reason you’re opposed to schools disclosing this information to students and the public before students register for classes?
On a side note, if anyone actually knows of specific schools, besides Princeton, that disclose grading criteria, please let me know. Thanks!
Purdue has all the grading criteria listed in their syllabi, which are available online. If your student knows their intended major, they can search for the 4 year plan of study in their major, get the course numbers, and then look up the syllabi. Purdue has consistent grading scales for courses with multiple sections, regardless of instructor.
In theory, the credit value of a college course is based on the workload.
1 semester hour credit is supposed to mean 3 hours of work per week over a semester, usually with 1 hour per week in class. So a typical 15-16 credit semester is supposed to mean 45-48 hours per week of school work.
In practice, actual workloads per credit can vary considerably.
To get technical, the link that @skieurope showed is the current semester course offering, not the course catalog. For any future term, the grading criteria could change because either the prof changes it or the prof may change. What you are really looking at is the current term syllabus. That can change.
Yes, it does take my daughter a bit of time before each semester to narrow down some fields of interest, possibly seek out certain professors - and figure out which days/slots she even still has open - but eventually, she’ll delve into the syllabus, and read up upon how the class is conducted, what the policies are etc.
Of course, then she finds herself being one of the few that are prepared to get started on Day 1, while the instructors have to go through a Q&A session when every answer is entirely spelled out in the syllabus.
That sounds like something I might expect to hear at the PTA meeting or at the local school board. Towards the end of high school I had decided to land my helicopter , as I didn’t have the fuel to fly-cross country.
It was time for her to advocate for herself, like her peers - and frankly, she would be horrified and felt disrespected as an adult, if I even remotely thought of getting involved that intensely and to any detail.
, as I didn’t have the fuel to fly-cross country.