<p>I’m a little clueless as to how to gauge a school’s rigor for a given department. Granted, I have always managed to stay in the A- range in college in a challenging dual-major (physics-mathematics; then again my college offers that program as a honors-only one) so I’m perhaps a poor judge of academic rigor*. </p>
<p>How can I gauge a department’s rigor and see how that department would stack up against that department at another college?</p>
<p>Easiest way is to find students from that college in your major and talk, talk, talk. Reaching out and networking will be a valuable skill to master after college.</p>
<p>I’d be better off trying to get some coords from them as well…</p>
<p>If old final exams for the other school’s courses are available on its web site, you can compare them to the final exams for the similar courses at your school. You can also compare textbooks and problems assigned, if available. While this may not be a complete picture comparison, it is likely to be more reliable than word of mouth.</p>
<p>Depends on how the OP defines “rigor.” Is it grade deflation, is it speed (quarter system vs. semester system covering same textbook), is it professor expectations, is it competitiveness between students. We really can’t “guess” what the OP means by “rigor” at the college level.</p>
<p>Competitiveness between students isn’t to be used in a rigor calculation but it does matter in a college choice nonetheless, if only for fit purposes.</p>
<p>Grade deflation is hard to use by itself, although speed and professor expectations could help putting it in context, alongside the student intake.</p>
<p>As far as using student testimonials is concerned, I might be better off talking to people on study-abroad plans or transfer students.</p>
<p>Catria, you ask alot of questions that lack definition and specificity and it is difficult to know what you are looking for or ‘really’ asking. YOU need to define what you mean by rigor so we aren’t all guessing. I have zero idea what you mean by talking to kids on study-abroad plans or transfer students. I have no idea why that might yield more valuable information. Since rigor is in essence another word for “harsh” I absolutely would think competitiveness among students could be a component of the rigor of a college or university.</p>
<p>Add some specificity about what you are trying to elucidate and perhaps others will come up with additional ideas.</p>
<p>One way might be to look at the syllabus to see how much material the students are expected to master in how much time. For example Harvard’s Math 55, famous for being perhaps the most rigorous undergrad math course in the country, covers four years worth of undergrad mathematics in just one year.</p>
<p>My son has gain an appreciation for the rigor of Arabic at Tufts by taking classes at other institutions.</p>
<p>The trick is you have to put it into perspective with who is teaching the class, too. I took a few near-impossible classes at Purdue but the Profs were pretty much the A-team, and better yet, could explain some very esoteric concepts very well. Professor review sites usually give such profs very high marks so that’s another data point to consider.</p>
<p>Assignments may or may not tell you the whole story. The directional state U I attended gave notoriously complex programming assignments in undergrad comp science (compared to friends at places like CWRU, UT Austin, Waterloo, and the like) but obviously that was only one part of the puzzle.</p>