Sunday, January 22, 2012
Research Blog #1
I am considering writing about the stressful competition in which students face when applying to selectives programs. I feel this topic is extremely relative to students today since not only are we competing nationally, but also internationally. Rutgers University is especially known for having extremely competitive programs. I believe this is very unfair since many students end up having to change their majors because they are unable to get into the programs they need. For example, I am currently working towards getting into the school of Nursing and in order to get in I must have a gpa of at least a 3.5. I feel this is unfair given that the first two years are general classes including expositoring writing and either a history or anthropology course. Clearly Nursing students do not intend on majoring in english or history and therefore may do poorly in these classes. Also, there is a low number of students allowed to be admitted into the Nursing school because there is a shortage of professors teaching the required courses for that program. Therefore students who wish to major in Nursing and cannot get into the program here at Rutgers need to either change their major or transfer to another school and risk not having their credits transfer. I feel that researching more information on this topic will be beneficial since I am one of the many students who are currently dealing with this issue.
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This might be an interesting topic, but you have to give it a larger framework than your current focus on the stress suffered by students who want to go into a hot field. Instead, begin by looking at why programs are so competitive and the rationale regarding GPAs. Most of all, try to look at the big picture. At least consider the position of other stakeholders. After all, I'm not sure a patient wants a nurse with a B-average being in charge of his care or even drawing his blood. And those in charge of these programs must think that nurses who are more literate will also be better critical thinkers and more aware of what might be going on with the patients under their care. Ask yourself: do I really want 3.0 Engineers designing any bridges I have to drive across -- or writing reports saying the Space Shuttle might be good to go when it is not? And if a program graduates students who are not well prepared or who cannot even write a decent job letter, it is going to reflect badly on all graduates from that program.
ReplyDeleteConsider some of the large implications of the trend toward professional degree programs and the competitiveness in those areas. Is competition raising cheating rates, for instance? I had a student who considered this question: see Nursing and Academic Integrity. If you have to maintain a 3.5 GPA, and if it is all about jumping through that hoop, aren't students going to be more tempted to cheat? There are real policy implications to that topic.
If you want to focus on the stress on individuals, then you might ask whether or not students in these fields need more counseling support, or more academic support, to succeed. Has this competition pushed up the suicide rate among college students in these fields? That might be a way to go toward policy implications for the topic.