The Pope Center’s site today features an article by a woman who has taken large numbers of courses at two schools in Raleigh — North Carolina State and Meredith College. The comparison between the two is not flattering to the big research university, and we learn a lot about how academic standards in at least some college courses have been seriously degraded.
Moral of the story: Forget about rankings and reputation when hunting for a college. Look for evidence of solid teaching and academic requirements that don’t allow students to coast to their degrees on autopilot. If you want to obtain a degree with minimal effort, a big state university probably has enough courses that you can do that. If you’re interested in intellectual growth, however, you might well conclude that a school such as Meredith is the better choice.