Recently, the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, publisher of the prestigious journal Science, released the names of just over 700 U.S. faculty members who had been named fellows of the AAAS. Below is a partial breakdown, showing the public institutions with at least five fellows for the current year.
In addition, we will have a separate list showing the number of National Academy of Sciences (NAS) members for each university. Membership in the NAS is extremely selective.
Some of the numbers may be a surprise, but what is no surprise is the prominence of University of California schools, especially on the NAS list.
New Fellows AAAS (note: our list does not include fellows from medical schools affiliated with universities)
Michigan–19(led all institutions, public and private)
Ohio State–18 (second among all institutions)
Univ of S. Florida–14
UC Davis–13
UC Irvine–13
Maryland–11
UC San Diego–11
Washington–11
Indiana–10
Purdue–9
North Carolina–8
Stony Brook–8
UC Santa Barbara–8
Washington State–8
Georgia Tech–7
Minnesota–7
Tennessee–7
UCLA–7
UT Austin–7
Illinois–6
Penn State–6
Colorado State–5
Florida–5
Georgia–5
Missouri–5
Rutgers–5
Univ of Cent. Florida–5
The next list shows public institutions that have at least ten faculty members in the National Academy of Sciences:
UC Berkeley–129 (third highest in the nation, public or private, following Harvard and Stanford)
As an architect and president of Clemson University, James F. Barker is perhaps the best person in America to speak to the value of the college campus as a place where young men and women can learn, grow, and be transformed within an atmosphere that is not only intellectually stimulating but also physically beautiful and inspiring.
Barker was one of several college presidents who contributed essays to a publication entitled Responding to the Commodification of Higher Education. The title of Barker’s essay is “The Endangered Campus: Defining and Defending the Value of Place-Based Higher Education.”
Online delivery is “no substitute for the experience of ‘going away to college,'” he writes. “We must bring that experience into the 21st century and make it meaningful for today’s students. The best education is not transactional but transformational. It’s not: ‘You give me X amount of money and I give you a credential and a degree.’ Rather it is: ‘You give us four years, and you get a life-changing experience.’
Barker might have been speaking as well of the value of Clemson’s Calhoun Honors College, one of the most successful in the nation.
Barker recognizes the utility of digital learning methods, noting that for years Clemson has used a blended model in almost all math courses and in introductory chemistry. Students work in small groups while seated at round “technologically-enabled tables,” where they listen to short lectures and then complete exercises “to reinforce concepts and track progress.” Using this model, students have had higher success and graduation rates.
Yet the success of this blended model in some kinds of instruction does not replace what Barker calls the “Idea of the Campus,” rooted in five concepts:
• Each campus is a distinct place. Each of us experiences it in a very personal way.
• The campus is a community – an intentional community. We are not born there. We choose to study or work there. It is a place of diversity and unity.
• The campus is stimulating and energetic. It bustles with ideas, creativity, and innovation.
• The campus is a work of art – for many of us, the first designed, beautiful, and cohesive landscape we experience.
• The campus is a place of pilgrimage – a place we return to, to renew a sense of belonging to the community we experienced in our youth.
But campus communities have another powerful value. “Besides the cultural and historic value of our campuses, they also have economic value” Barker writes. “In a recent New York Times column, Thomas Friedman wrote that ‘the best entrepreneurial ecosystems
in the future will be cities and towns that combine a university, an educated populace, a dynamic business community and the fastest broadband connections. These will be the job factories of the future.'”
But the most important value of the physical campus is the impetus it gives to instruction. “A beautiful, stimulating campus environment attracts the best students, faculty, and staff. It encourages personal reflection and group learning. Simply being together in a physical place, as a community of teachers and learners, has tremendous educational advantages,” the president-architect writes.
The real concerns for Barker and many other higher education leaders is not whether online instruction will have a significant role on campus but how that role should be defined in a way that does not diminish the overriding place of the campus as the principal seat of learning.
Most would agree with Barker that “he campus has always been the place where students begin separating from their families and gain independence. It’s a place where the deepest kinds of discovery and learning can and should happen. It’s a place where brains are fed, minds are opened, and lifelong connections and communities are formed. It’s a place that attracts creative, innovative people and creates the right ecosystem for community and economic development.”
Now that we have the full list of Marshall Scholars 2013 , we thought it would be a good time to report on the number of Marshall scholars among the 50 public universities we follow, since 2001, the year we use in our metric for Marshall awards.
Below are the universities and the number of Marshall Scholarships since 2001:
We now have a complete list of the 2013 winners of the Marshall Scholarships, which fund two years of graduate study at any university in the United Kingdom.
Up to 40 Marshall Scholarships are awarded each year to students at U.S. universities, but this year only 34 scholars were selected. Below are the 34 students and the 31 universities they represent:
Abilene Christian University–Brittany Partridge, a political science major and founder of the Red Thread Movement, which raises awareness of modern-day slavery and works to save Nepalese girls from the sex trafficking, will study at University College, London. The Red Thread Movement has supporters at about 75 campuses across the nation. She also won a Truman Scholarship this year.
Air Force Academy–Ian Gibson, also a Truman Scholar, will study political science at the London School of Economics.
Boston College–Aditya Ashok was a winner of the Truman Scholarship in 2011; he majored in history and biology and will study global health at the University of Glasgow.
Brandeis–Elizabeth Stoker, a graduate in theology and Christian ethics, will study philosophy at Oxford.
Brown–Nick Werle, a 2010 graduate in physics and modern philosophy, will work on master’s degrees at University College, London, and the London School of Economics.
Colorado State–Christopher Counts, a student in the honors program with majors in biomedical sciences and anthropology, will study at University College, London. He is the founder of Hygiene for Humanity.
Columbia–Dylan Liu, an engineering major, will study theoretical physics at Oxford.
UConn–Ethan Butler, a chemical engineering graduate and previous winner of a Udall award, will study at Imperial College, London.
CUNY John Jay College for Criminal Justice–Nicolas Montano, a senior in CUNY’s Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies Program at John Jay College, will pursue two master’s degrees–one in research in the social sciences at the University Liverpool and the other in criminal justice policy at the London School of Economics.
Duke–Kenneth Hoehn, a biology major with minors in computational biology and bioinformatics, will study at Oxford.
Georgetown (2)–Shea Houlihan, an international politics major, will study social research methods and international migration at the University of Sussex. Benjamin Buchanan graduated in 2011 with a degree in government and minors in Arabic and English, will pursue either a doctorate in war studies from King’s College, London, or a doctorate in information communication and the social sciences at Oxford.
George Washington–Stephanie Figgins, who graduated in 2011 with a degree in economics and international affairs, will study post-colonial culture and global politics at the University of London; she has been a journalist with the Voice of America in Cairo.
Georgia Tech–Jacob Tzegaebe, pursuing a five-year BS/MS degree in civil engineering, will work on a doctorate in the same field at University College, London. He has also earned an NSF grant and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.
Harvard (2)–Aditya Balasubramanium will study political science at the London School of Economics, and Alex Palmer will study at King’s College, London.
Illinois–Jonathan Naber, a 2011 graduate in materials science and engineering, designed prosthetic prototypes and established a non-profit organization to provide low-cost prosthetic devices to amputees in the developing world. Jonathan will pursue a degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is now working in Guatemala on a project to make the devices out of native materials.
Michigan–Spencer Smith graduated in 2011 with degrees in economics and math and will study economics at Oxford.
Montana State–Bryan Vadheim, a member of the University Honors Program, is MSU’s first Marshall Scholar. He will study at the London School of Economics and King’s College, London. His interests are water science and governance. Montana State also produced a Rhodes Scholar this year: Joe Thiel, who will study engineering at Oxford.
Naval Academy (2)–Katelyn Davidson, and English major, will work on an M.A. in gender and equality at Queen’s University in Belfast and an M.A. in international peace and security at Kings College, London. Ronald Allen, an economics major, will study public policy at Kings College, London. The Naval Academy also had two Rhodes Scholars this year.
Northwestern–Jennifer Mills, a triple major in earth and planetary science, integrated sciences, and chemistry, also has a minor in physics. She is part of the university’s highly-selective integrated sciences program. Already the author of two scientific articles, she will study and integrated science, she will study climate science at Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh.
NYU–Jessica Mason, a social work graduate, will study global policy at the London School of Economics and work on an MSc. at Oxford.
Ohio University–Keith Hawkins, already a Goldwater Scholar, studied astrophysics, math, and African studies in the university’s Honors Tutorial College. He is doing research now at the University of Hawaii and previously did research at Caltech. He will continue his studies at Cambridge.
Ohio State–Alexander Chaitoff, a Truman Scholarship winner in 2012, will complete an MPH at the University of Sheffield.
Oklahoma–Jerod Coker, a senior economics major, will pursue a master’s degree in economics and philosophy at the London School of Economics, after which he plans to obtain a JD/MBA from Harvard. OU student Mubeen Shakir, a biochemistry major, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship this year.
Pitt–Paras Minhas, a microbiology major and student in the honors college, will work on a Ph.D. at University College, London.
Princeton–Jake Nebel, a philosophy student, will work on an M.A. at Oxford.
Rice–Rahul Rekhi, a bioengineering major, will study biology and bioinformatics at Oxford. He has also won both Truman and Goldwater awards.
USC–Alexander Fullman, a political science major, will continue his studies in that field at Oxford.
UT Austin–William Berdanier, a Dean’s Scholar honors student in physics and math, has also won a Goldwater Scholarship. His undergraduate research has focused in part on developing fusion energy. He will study at Cambridge.
Virginia–Hillary Hurd was a Jefferson Scholar at UVA and majored in Russian and East European Studies. She will concentrate on international studies at Cambridge and at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Washington U St. Louis–Alexander Baron, also a Luce Scholar, has majors in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and political science. He will pursue graduate studies at Oxford.
Wesleyan–Zully Adler, a history grad in 2011, will study art history and print culture at Oxford.
Below is a recent story from the UT Austin Plan II site:
Marissa Nichole Duswalt, a spring 2010 Plan II Honors and Dean’s Scholars graduate in Nutritional Science (Registered Dietitian) will transition from her current position in the Office of the Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture to join the White House Office of the First Lady as Associate Director of Policy and Events for the Let’s Move! initiative.
The goal of the Let’s Move! initiative is to reverse childhood obesity, which impacts one in three American children. The initiative seeks to engage every sector of society in this effort, as everyone has a role to play to ensure that America’s kids have the opportunity to reach a healthy adulthood.
Duswalt says she is “honored to serve in this new role for this cause, as it has been a passion of mine since entering college at UT. As an undergraduate in the Plan II Honors Program as well as the Coordinated Program in Dietetics, I had the privilege of studying this critical issue across multiple disciplines. That academic path prepared me for working in government, and specifically on this issue, which embodies the intersection of science, economics, culture, and policy. It is a true honor to join Let’s Move!, and I am grateful to the incredible support from the University community that contributed to this moment.”
Although admitted to the MBA program at Stanford, Duswalt couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work in the White House on a project so close to her heart. She was passionate about civic engagement as an undergraduate, and of course, was encouraged to follow her passions. We have no doubts that when the time comes and she reapplies to Stanford, that she’ll be admitted once again as a Truman Scholar.
In 2009, Duswalt was awarded a Truman Scholarship. The selection committee recognized her interest and leadership in the fields of childhood nutrition, behavioral and culinary science, and American food culture. She’s particularly interested in investigating ways to remedy the increasing rates of obesity in American children. Her new duties in the White House Office of the First Lady will engage all her interests and skills.
Duswalt, a native of Rosenberg, Texas, and the first in her family to attend college, was one of 60 Scholars selected from among 601 candidates in 2009. Each Truman Scholarship provides up to $30,000 for graduate study. Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling, and special internship opportunities within the federal government.
Recipients are United States citizens, have outstanding leadership potential and communication skills, are in the top quarter of their class and are committed to careers in government or non-profits. In return for the funding, Truman Scholars pledge to serve for three to seven years in the public service sector after receiving their graduate degrees.
Marissa’s Plan II/Dean’s Scholars Honors thesis, supervised by Dr. John Stephen Hursting, Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, studied the relationships between nutrition, metabolism and disease prevention. Marissa investigated how differences in the saccharide ratio comprising the carbohydrate portion of the American diet lead to obesity and metabolic dysfunction.
Duswalt is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was a 2007 Temple Scholar, a Plan II Distinguished Graduate and a Presidential Scholar. As an undergraduate, she initiated a service-learning initiative to integrate civic engagement into the Plan II curriculum, and worked at the Health Promotion Resource Center as a Nutrition Educator.
It is a dream of many honors deans and directors that their offices might one day be able to coordinate honors curriculum, undergraduate research, internships, and study-abroad under one roof.
That day has already arrived for the Honors College at East Tennessee State University, located in Johnson City, right on the border between Tennessee and Virginia.
Although the bedrock University Honors Scholars program was established in 1993, the advent of the Honors College in 2005 brought with it two more honors options along with the consolidation of all the above functions within the college. Dean Rebecca Ann Pyles reports that graduation rates are high among the more than 400 students enrolled in all honors options–86–88 percent of students graduate in honors.
The University Honors Scholars program enrolls only about 22 students a year. Minimum entrancement requirements include an SAT of 1290 and GPA of 3.5. The UHS program extends across all four years and, like the other two options at the college, requires the completion of an honors thesis.
UHS students complete four year-long seminars, two in the freshmen year and two more as sophomores. The freshman seminars focus on English and philosophy. Students consider alternatives to their own views, often from global perspectives, and then reflect on how their own perspectives might be seen by others.
In the sophomore year, much of the emphasis is on the interrelationships of the sciences and the broader culture. Students not only learn about the most significant scientific concepts but also the ethical responsibilities that accompany many scientific advances.
Sophomores also take a turn toward the creative side. Students study and participate in studio and performing arts, learning the importance of aesthetics to all elements of human culture.
Juniors participate in the unique Honors Appalachian course, where they study the history, arts, economics, and politics of the region.
Senior honors work focuses on research and the completion of the honors thesis.
The Midway Scholars option enrolls transfer students with an associate’s degree or at least 30 hours of credit, and with a minimum GPA of 3.5. Midway Scholars take three honors or honors option courses and must complete a research course and write a thesis.
The Honors in Discipline (HID) option also requires honors or honors option coursework along with a thesis in the major, or “discipline,” of the student. Currently, seventeen departments are involved in the HID program.
All honors students can take advantage of Washington internships coordinated by the honors office, and can participate in international study, also through the honors college.
Honors students at ETSU also have the option of living on the sixth floor of Governors Hall, new in 2007. The hall includes space for more than 500 students who share double rooms with private baths.
By Jini Curry, University of West Florida Honors Program
Being part of honors is not just about being smart or making good grades; it is also about learning leadership skills and growing as a student and a person. Coming into college I never realized that one program could have such a lasting impact on my life.
The opportunities that I have been given as an honors student at the University of West Florida are unlimited. As I freshman I went to the 46th annual NCHC in Phoenix, Arizona and I was hooked. Therefore, when the word was spread about proposals for this year’s NCHC in Boston, Massachusetts, I could not pass up the chance. The experiences I had during my stay in Boston are more than what I could have ever imagined, and the passion that it lit inside of me is unstoppable.
Preparing for a conference is not the world’s easiest task, but with the help of my other group members we put together a presentation that we felt would be worthwhile for us to talk about and beneficial for others at the conference to hear, and we went with it. Walking into our presentation room Saturday afternoon and seeing it filled with people was overwhelming, knowing that they were all there to see what our program was doing and how we were running things–that was nerve-racking to say the least. After we presented the questions started flowing in and that is when the real fun began.
For me, one of the greatest parts of the NCHC conference is the collaboration that comes from attending sessions. A question is posed, and then it is discussed. People from all over the United States and the Netherlands get to tell others what their program is doing, how they are running things at the institution, and even the struggles they are going through. At that moment you are able to see what NCHC is truly all about. It is about developing leaders and then teaching them how to work together to come up with a solution. Through feedback from other institutions, you are given an innovative idea of how to fix something that may not be working in yours.
I must admit from a student’s perspective NCHC is not just about the collaboration and the sessions—it is also about the friendships. Going to different sessions, often separated from the people that came from your institution, creates some awkwardness. After you get past that initial “should I talk to the person sitting next to me” worry, the doors open for conversation and oftentimes friendships. The passion that is in a room of Honors students is mind blowing. Everyone is eager to talk about their plans and what they are doing, and if not, someone is there to bring them out of their comfort zone.
For me, talking to random people is not a difficult task and I use that to my advantage. Talking to people is how connections are created and the NCHC conference gives us that opportunity. Whether it is at a session, reflections after the plenary speaker finishes, or even at the many student activities, you are bound to encounter someone that you do not know. You gain the courage to talk to them and the next thing you know, a new friendship is developing.
Overall the 47th annual NCHC conference was an experience that will never be replaced. I made connections with other institutions, I created friendships with people in many different states, I collaborated with others on Honors related topics, I learned skills that would enhance my leadership, and my passion for Honors grew greater. The experiences that come from attending the NCHC conference far outweigh the strife that it takes to get there. Never think that you have nothing to bring to the table if you attend or that the process is too difficult, because if you do believe that, you are missing out on the chance of a lifetime.
The four pubic university undergraduate business programs that appear near the top of many rankings are those at the universities of Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina Chapel Hill, and UT Austin.
All four are highly selective, especially the Ross School of Business at Michigan and the Business Honors Program (BHP) at the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin. These two programs differ from the other two in allowing freshmen to participate, though the freshmen “preferred” admits at Michigan only take one core business class the first year.
All applicants for preferred admission at Michigan “must first receive an offer of summer or fall admission to U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA); the College of Engineering; the School of Kinesiology (Sport Management only); the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance; or the School of Art & Design” before being considered for the Ross School of Business.
The average SAT/ACT for preferred admits is 1494/34, and the high school gpa average is 3.91. The acceptance rate for 2011-2012 was 16.25 percent; in the most recent class, a total of 89 students enrolled as preferred admits. The average UM gpa for regular admits (who must have one or more years of college) is 3.65, and the acceptance rate is 39.9 percent. About 440 regular admits are enrolled.
Even though many preferred admits may also earn admission to the excellent LSA Honors Program at UM, they should know that combining LSA honors and the Ross regimen of business courses can be daunting.
The McIntire School of Commerce at UVA requires an even larger number of hours–at least 54–before a student can become part of the school, giving UVA business students the most expansive required background in liberal arts of any of the schools discussed in this post. Students in the prestigious Echols Scholars (honors) program are not exempt from this requirement.
The mean GPA of students admitted to McIntire after at least 54 hours of course work at UVA is 3.65. The average SAT for freshmen entrants at UVA is about 1395. However, many students transfer into McIntire from Virginia community colleges or other colleges, and the average SATs for these students is between 1190 and 1280, although the GPA for transfers must be at least 3.8.
Admission to UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School requires making it through a “rigorous and selective” process that includes a year of previous study. The average SAT is 1346, with an average college GPA of 3.56. In a recent year, 330 students were admitted, while 236 were denied.
A small number of freshmen can qualify for the Assured Admission Program (AAP), which appears to be similar to the preferred admission program at Michigan. The average SATs and high school GPAs for AAP are probably similar to those at Michigan and at the Business Honors Program at UT Austin. Students can be in Honors Carolina and qualify for AAP as well.
The BHP at UT Austin differs from all three of the other programs discussed here in that it requires full freshman participation. It is also highly selective, with the average SAT being 1480 in 2012, and the average high school class rank being in the top 2.1 percent. In 2012, a total of 235 freshmen enrolled in the BHP, and the acceptance rate was 22.2 percent.
As in the case of the LSA Honors Program at Michigan, BHP students can also be in UT Austin’s highly-ranked Plan II Liberal Arts Honors Program, but only 11 out of 145 recent Plan II graduates also completed the BHP at the same time.
Rhodes chooses scholars in November preceding the year of award. For example, 2013 scholars, below, were named in 2012.
The latest list of Rhodes Scholars (awarded in November 2012 for the year 2013) includes seven recipients from Yale, six from Harvard, two from Cornell, and one from Brown, giving the Ivy League half of the 32 awards for 2013.
The most prestigious academic award in the world, Rhodes Scholarships fund two or three years of study at Oxford; at total of 838 students applied this year. The approximate yearly value of a Rhodes Scholarship is $50,000.
The service academies at Annapolis and West Point had two winners each. Stanford also had two.
State universities with winners in 2013 are Georgia, Georgia Tech, Montana State, North Carolina Chapel Hill, Oklahoma, UC Berkeley, and Virginia. Virginia and North Carolina are the leaders among all state universities in the number of Rhodes Scholars earned by their graduates.
Special congratulations to University of Georgia honors graduate Juliet Elizabeth Allen, and kudos to the great public institutions in the Southeast.
Other state university leaders in total Rhodes Scholarships are Washington, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, UT Austin, Kansas, Mississippi, Arizona, Georgia, and Nebraska.
Already recognized as a leader among major public universities for the quality of its Campuswide Honors Program (CHP), the University of California-Irvine has also made a success of the “honors to honors” program that helps to guide high-performing community college students to CHP.
Before honors to honors, the number of community college transfers into CHP was extremely low, in the range of one or two students a year. Now, 20 to 30 community college honors students are welcomed into CHP, and the best news of all is that they perform as well as, or in some areas better than, the “native” students in the program.
Successful transfer students into CHP must be nominated by their community college honors program. At first, the CHP pilot honors to honors program had partnerships with only eight community colleges in California, but now the number has risen to 14. To be nominated by one of these institutions, students must have a 3.7 g pa. Then, since they are nominated in the middle of a term, CHP does an additional review when the student’s final grades for the term are available.
The honors transfer students fall into two basic types: students who are about the same age as juniors who entered the program as freshmen, and students who are older or “non-traditional” students.
CHP has tried with varying results to find ways to connect the freshman entrants with the transfer students, especially with the non-traditional students, but there can be significant differences between the groups. On the other hand, the transfer students are themselves a part of the honors experience for freshman entrants because of the special experiences the non-traditional students have had.
Over the past few years, CHP has learned that the factors below are often involved:
–The quarter system can be confusing to transfer students who have been on the semester system.
–Study and writing skills for some transfer students may not be fully developed.
–The family responsibilities of transfer students are often very demanding.
–Transfer students may be more stressed, upset, or even depressed.
–They are also more likely to have job responsibilities.
Yet despite these differences, Lisa Roetzel, associate director of CHP, says that transfers perform as well and graduate as promptly as freshmen entrants, and they tend to be even more receptive to the thesis requirement, in part because many have already made plans for graduate school. Transfer students also take full advantage of the increased faculty contacts afforded by CHP.
CHP advisor Mary Gillis has created a special schedule for transfer advising, including the use of paid peer advisors who are successful transfer students themselves. The special advising also includes GRE preparation and counseling for degree planning.
The first semester advising is generally focused more on support, encouragement, and efforts to make the transfer students a part of the overall honors community. Transfers are eligible for honors housing and priority registration, just like freshman entrants.
Since about half of UCI’s students now are first-generation college students, the matchup with outstanding community college scholars may be more feasible, as many of them too are the first members of their families to attend college.
One result of UCI’s close partnership with community colleges is that many of the best honors students from the two-year schools are choosing UCI honors instead of honors or regular admission at other UC campuses.
