A Penn State student lay dying in the basement of his frat house for 12 hours while his frat brothers were destroying evidence of the binge drinking party.
Oh, I know it’s first world. DH is British (we’ve been married 28 years and he hasn’t become a US Citizen, only has a green card because he still thinks of himself as British) and we have relatives over there. Wasn’t implying that the colleges are anything other than top rate - in fact I think his offer from London School of Economics was the most “glam” and interesting of all the schools he was admitted to! But from DH and his relatives’ description, the system is very much more hands off, treats scholars as adults. Nobody checks to see if they come to class, there is no checking of homework, etc. In other words, if you want to never set foot in class and just shot up for finals, in most cases (dependent on course of study) you can do that.
I actually agree with that system and hate some of the American micromanaging and babysitting. Students should be mature enough to choose if they want or need to do an assignment or to be in a particular lecture. But the converse of that hands off approach is that there is little safety net to notice if a kid gets depressed and spends 2 weeks alone in his room, etc.
^Eeeeeeek I am a Brit myself, tell Mr Milee30 he really needs to get citizenship, tax implications are hideous if he crosses the rainbow bridge.
ps It is impossible not to go to class and just show up at exam time and pass. The govt is getting much more stringent on foreign students now instructing the univ’s to account for their students rather than enter the UK on a student visa and disappear. Besides at the top rate universities kids want to be in class that’s why drop out rates are only 2-3% at the top UK schools.
@gallentjill, I completely agree. D’s school advocates that students should apply non-binding EA or rolling admissions, because once you have an acceptance in hand the pressure is lessened and you can choose your schools more selectively. D applied EA, and to another program with an early application deadline. Once she was accepted to her EA choice, she only applied to two more schools . It all worked out for her she was accepted at all schools. We were lucky in that she targeted well, but having that early acceptance certainly takes the pressure off.
Good to know about the mandates to account for students. We have a history of clinical depression in our family and it often seems to manifest during the 20s. So although I haven’t seen that in DS, he’s very private and it’s something I worry about.
Thanks for the responses but, boy, did we get off topic.
A timely article in today’s Boston Globe:
@elguapo1 it wasn’t every Ivy, just the ones he applied to (plus MIT & Caltech)!