According to the Princeton Review, four of the 50 universities we currently follow on this site are among the top 20 in the country when it comes to providing career counseling and placement assistance to new graduates.
The University of Florida ranks number one in the nation in this category, among all major universities, public and private.
Here is the list of the top 20:
1. University of Florida
2. Northeastern University
3. Penn State University
4. University of Texas at Austin
5. Barnard College
6. Claremont McKenna College
7. Rochester Institute of Technology
8. Bentley University
9. Clemson University
10. University of Richmond
11. Missouri University of Science and Technology
12. Spelman College
13. Yale University
14. Cornell University
15. Lafayette University
16. University of Missouri
17. Worcester Polytechnic Institute
18. American University
19. Southern Methodist University
20. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
The Hertz Awards are surely among the most prestigious academic awards that a student can earn: only 15 are awarded each year, chosen from 600 highly-qualified applicants, and the awards have a five-year monetary value of $250,000.
The Hertz Foundation says that its fellowships for “gifted young leaders” are “considered to be the nation’s most generous support for graduate education in the applied physical, biological, and engineering sciences,” and you can, so to speak, take that to the bank.
Fellows have the freedom to innovate in their doctoral studies without university or research restrictions. “The Hertz Foundation nurtures these remarkable scientists and engineers as they develop and explore their genius,” said Foundation President Dr. Jay Davis. “We help genius find itself.”
The Livermore, California Foundation says that for “nearly a half century, the Hertz Foundation has fostered the scientific and engineering strength of the nation by finding the best and brightest from those disciplines. During the past decade, there has been a major shift of the candidates towards those who apply physical and computational tools to the problems of biomedicine and health.”
The Foundation noted that at least 30 students were worthy of the awards, but funding required keeping the total actually awarded to 15. The Foundation plans to extend its fund-raising efforts to provide additional support.
Included in this 50th cadre of Hertz Fellows (2012) are six students from public universities, including four from the universities whose honors programs we follow. Three of these are present or former students in honors programs: Anjali Datta, University of Texas Plan II-Engineering Program; Grant Newton Remmen, University of Minnesota Honors Program; and Yun William Yu, General and Departmental Honors, Indiana University. Kelly Dare Moynihan is a Distinguished College Scholar in Engineering at the University of Texas.
The cadre for 2011 included students from Georgia Tech, the University of Kansas, and the University of Wisconsin.
Here is the complete list of 2012 winners:
Cheri Marie Ackerman, Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
Nicholas Ranieri Boyd, Computer Science University of California, Berkeley
Allen Yuyin Chen, Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Anjali Datta, Electrical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin
Arvind Kannan, Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
Brian Lawrence, Mathematics ,California Institute of Technology
Max Nathan Mankin, Chemistry, Harvard University Kelly Dare Moynihan, Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas
Austin Vyas Ramanan, Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Grant Newton Remmen, Physics/Astrophysics, University of Minnesota
Jonathan Robert Russell, Biotechnology, Harvard University
Jacob Noah Steinhardt Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
James Ryan Valcourt, Quantitative Biology/Bio-Engineering, Princeton University
Christian T. Wentz, Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Yun William Yu Applied Mathematics Indiana University, Bloomington
However much we dislike college rankings that equate quality with “outcomes” such as the highest salaries or mention in Who’s Who, practical considerations are a major part of almost every student’s plans.
The story below by Dana Blohm of the Daily Tar Heel describes how students writing senior honors theses at UNC Chapel Hill have their eyes on research and on the future.
By Dana Blohm
April 11, 2012
Abby Lewis spent her summer doing research for her honors thesis. But instead of heading to Wilson Library, she went to Paris.
While it might be an unconventional way to research for the extensive project, the senior said she was able to analyze unpublished French memoirs, reaching past what she would have been able to accomplish just at UNC.
“To go abroad by myself was challenging, but it was rewarding to have that experience,” she said.
About 340 seniors chose to write honors theses this year, with the most coming from the psychology department, said Jessie DeHainaut, program assistant for Honors Carolina.
In recent weeks, students have been presenting their final theses and defending them against panels.
Senior economics major Jamie Isetts said students must be passionate about their topics to complete the challenging process.
“The most difficult part was realizing how to balance what you wanted to do and what I was able to do with the resources I had,” Isetts said.
Several seniors said they were forced to change their topics due to unforeseeable circumstances.
“I came into it with a clear idea about what I wanted to write and that set me back in a lot of ways,” Lewis said. “Once I stepped back and saw what I had, there was a different paper there.”
Assistant director of University Career Services Laura Lane said students benefit from writing theses in a number of ways.
Lane said writing an honors thesis helps to develop the number one skills employers are looking for — communication.
“For anyone contemplating going into academia, it’s a must,” said economics professor Mike Aguilar, an honors theses adviser.
Many honors thesis students also commented on reaching a new level of research that they were unable to learn in school.
“I think writing my thesis definitely helped me get into graduate school because I can say that I’ve already done in-depth research,” Lewis said.
Students must choose an adviser in their department. Many had relationships with their advisers before starting their theses. “It really helps to know the student ahead of time,” Aguilar said.
Professor Tim Carter said he gets as much out of advising students as they get from him.
“It’s a fabulous opportunity to engage in cutting edge information with a smart student,” he said. “It’s one of the best parts of our jobs as faculty members.”
Senior Chris Nickell, who has Carter as an adviser, said the end product is worth all the work. “To see an argument take shape, and to now have the capacity to talk about the topic on a new level is really rewarding,” he said.
But Isetts said students’ motivations should be genuine, and not just for the recognition.
“Don’t do this honors thesis unless you do it for yourself,” she said.
“Don’t do it to get the honors or it will be a soul-sucking process. It’s for you, so make it your own.”
In this post, we list the honors programs that have the most value-added impact on the universities of which they are a part and that are also on the Kiplinger list of the 100 “Best Values in Public Colleges” report of 2012.
We estimate the honors impact by comparing the U.S. News ranking of each university as a whole with the ranking of the honors program in the category of Overall Excellence. If our ranking places an honors program or college higher than the national ranking of the university as a whole, then the honors program provides value added. For example, if University A honors college ranks 24th in our evaluation of 50 programs and colleges, and the university as a whole ranks 34th among the 50 universities we considered in the U.S. News rankings, then University A’s honors college has significant value added.
The value-added programs that we will cover in this series are those at South Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan State, Delaware, Stony Brook, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Nebraska, and Indiana.
Since all of these universities are also included among the top 100 best values in the annual Kiplinger report, this means that the honors programs at these schools are a “value-added to the value-added” because the honors programs significantly enhance the value that already exists in the universities as a whole.
The annual Kiplinger special report is a well-known and probably influential publication. The report presents a cost/value analysis, comparing the academic reputation of selected public universities to the total net costs of attending, using both in-state and out-of-state tuition as benchmarks. Kiplinger begins with 500 public colleges and universities, eventually honoring the top 100 as best values.
Kiplinger does not directly consider the value added by public honors programs, although it is certain that part of every university’s academic excellence is related to its honors students and their accomplishments.
Below is the name of the university, its Kiplinger best value rankings for in-state and out-of-state tuition, and its honors program impact rank among the 50 leading state universities we reviewed. The lower the number in honors impact, the greater the value-added factor of the honors program.
University of South Carolina
In-state tuition (57); out-of-state tuition (67); honors impact rank (2).
University of Arizona
In-state tuition (99); out-of-state tuition (100); honors impact rank (3).
The University of Arkansas
In-state tuition (53); out-of state tuition (56); honors impact rank (3).
University of Georgia
In-state tuition (6); out-of-state tuition (9); honors impact rank (7).
Michigan State University
In-state tuition (49); out-of-state tuition (61); honors impact rank (7).
As we approach the publication date of A Review of 50 Public University Honors Programs, we plan to share some results of our research over the past six months. Today’s post lists the universities whose honors values–curriculum, prestigious scholarships, grad/retention rates, and honors benefits–elevate them dramatically in relation to their rankings by U.S. News.
In the guidebook, we refer to the positive difference between the perception of a university, on the one hand, with honors excellence factors, on the other hand, as HONORS IMPACT. For example, a university may have a U.S. News ranking of 100, but score in the top 10 in our review when honors values are the primary focus. One way to look at this positive difference is to regard it as a value added, over and above the perception or quality of the university as a whole. Of course it is far more difficult for a university with a high U.S. News ranking to achieve a dramatic value-added result, but some of the best honors programs are not in high-ranking universities, and we think it’s useful to show how much value they do add.
Below is a list of universities, their U.S. News rank, and their honors impact rank among the 50 we are reviewing:
