College Letters

I have been very busy of late finishing college letters of recommendation; I actually enjoy writing them; it gives me time to reflect on why I like teaching students. A former colleague, Joy App, sent this to me after a recent conversation we had about this topic. By policy, I do not write negative letters; [...]

Campus College Fair

The campus lawn outside the performing art center and mustang corral  were empty Friday morning as many students arrived early to meet various representatives from across the country.

As a school that encourages students to find a college that is a fit for them, our reputation with national schools continues to grow. Houston Christian had over [...]

Top 10% Rule

Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996), was the first successful legal challenge to a university’s affirmative action policy in student admissions since Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978). In Hopwood, four white plaintiffs who had been rejected from The University of Texas School of Law challenged [...]

European History Reading and Debating the Drinking Age

Above: Downtown Fort Collins
For the third year in a row, I am spending the second week of June doing European history work and reading at Colorado State University.  It is safe to say that I love this college town; it has all of the ingredients one would want: shops, bookstores, restaurants, bars, live music, and [...]

Campus Beauty

I am off to Princeton University in less than two weeks. Thus I thought I would pull this post up again with the number of college letters arriving daily; I have enjoyed writing recs for a number of students I care about. My trip to Princeton will be my fourth to the prestigious New Jersey [...]

Great New History Blog

Here is a great new blog by Randell Stephens, a historian and teacher at Eastern Nazarene College called The Historical Society.
About Randell:
Professor Stephens began teaching at ENC in the fall of 2004. He brings expertise in many fields: late 19th and early 20th century US history, American religious history, race, and American popular music. In [...]

Freshman Year

I received this picture today via facebook. This shot was taken my freshman year at Harding University; I suspect we are standing in the room of either Roger Butner or Phil Young in Graduate Residence Hall. Young (# 97) and I both attended Alabama Christian Academy together; Young and I along with Bryan McDermott are [...]

Faculty Tension Over Courses

The dichotomy that exists between college and upper school faculty appears to be clearly defined: college instructors teach specialized courses to students in a less democratized fashion; students who apply to attend a college or university are supposed to be the best and the brightest from their high schools – – of course that is [...]

College Students Struggle with History

The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article on the state of American history and Economics amongst many of America’s college students. According to it, students are getting dumber in history. The think tank that conducted the study found that seniors in college knew as much as, if not less than entering freshman. James Loewen, [...]

Leaving the College Campus for the Elite Private Schools

The article below was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Gwendolyn Bradley. For those of you who have an interest in leaving College level teaching for an appointment at a private (or independent) school, this piece offers some good advice. And, as promised to my college colleague, a blog piece to help you [...]

My Davidson College Experience by Lerin Rutherford

Lerin Rutherford, a student in my AP European History course, shares her academic experience after a summer of study at Davidson College. She is one of my elite students who will have a number of college options come April. You can also read Lerin’s last post on Political Correctness and Happy Feet here.

Davidson College is [...]

Same Rules: No Letters of Recommendation For Students Applying to PCC & Bob Jones

Sam Pilkington, one of my top AP history students fired an e-mail at me today about the college letter of recommendation I finished writing for her a few weeks ago. I recall telling students that I do not write bad letters; however, I will hint to a student if I think he or she will receive a stronger letter from [...]

The College Board and AP Courses

I have been involved with the College Board and Advanced Placement since my first year of teaching; I have found that the curriculum offer students a level of rigor that many regular high school courses do not. One of my biggest complaints about the nature of high school is its lack of rigor. I laugh [...]

Sexism by Jaylon Williams

Jaylon has been commenting on this blog now for almost a year; he is a regular that offers some thoughtful suggestions to various blog posts. I love it when people decided to e-mail me great stuff to publish — this one came out of the blue. Jaylon’s piece discusses the fact that women simply [...]

Campus Beauty

I am off to Princeton University tomorrow morning. This will be my third trip to the prestigious New Jersey college. In preparation for the work that I will be doing at Princeton over the course of four days, I thought that I would share my top “most attractive campus” list. Of course this is a [...]

Thoughts on Duke, Class, and Race

The District Attorney recently exonerated all members charged with sexual assault in the Duke University lacrosse case. There were clearly no winners here. Moreover, the Duke lacrosse case illustrates both the racial and class resentment that exists in America. Just like the O.J. murder case, Duke lacrosse brought to life both the social and economic problems Americans tend to ignore. [...]

Good Job Dorian Ojeman!!

Dorian Ojeman has been one of the most impressive students I have taught over the past few years. He is always ready to learn, ready to challenge my ideas, and the ideas of others. More than anything, Dorian is an intellectual who embraces knowledge for the sake and desire of learning. Unfortunately for me, this [...]

Is College Really Worth it? Of Course

After reading Kristi Sweeney’s blog today on education, I got to thinking about how education has become such a transformed entity since I was in college. I do not write letters for students in hopes that they will be admitted into a university these days, I write letters so that students will be admitted into [...]

My Top College Towns

 
 

Duke University
Since I am almost done writing letters for students who are attempting to gain admission into a number of colleges and universities, I thought that I would draft a list of my top college towns, as requested by a few students. It is very difficult to define a college town; however, we all have [...]

10 Myths about College

Above: The late actor John Belushi portrays the typical image of college in the comedy Animal House. Belushi plays a college student who skips classes, parties, and drinks too much beer.
I was talking to an old student the other day when he mentioned all of the misperceptions [...]