Campus Safety Questions

campus safety questions to build awareness of campus security

Campus Safety Questions

In building a college list, parents may have a lot of campus safety questions. And in this country, that is not surprising. The news seems full of bad news coming from college campuses (even when they are relatively safe, overall). And parents worry that their kids will not be the victims of crime. But sometimes it’s hard to separate the impressions one receives from the media (which may not reflect the actual risks on campus) from the facts and crime statistics.

Similarly, how does one separate information about crimes committed on campus (which may be handled by the campus police) versus crimes committed in the vicinity of the campus (which are handled by local police, even if college students are involved)?

What is Campus Safety?

The idea of “safety” is difficult to define. It’s a feeling. It is certainly related to the facts and statistics about crimes, accidents, and other risks. But these risks that all parents worry about are not equivalent. Either in terms of the lethality or violence involved or in their origins. For example, some of the biggest risks may not come from external forces (criminals or rapists coming on campus) but are, instead, a result of student misbehavior (e.g., alcohol abuse at a frat house that leads to a fall and serious injury, or instances of sexual assault perpetrated by other students).

As we think about safety on campus, we have to think about all the sorts of risks our students might face on campus. And think clearly about whether those risks are ones that the student can take steps to avoid (e.g., by moderating alcohol consumption and being more aware of the possibility of unwanted sexual advances). Ones that are more random and outside a student’s control (a hurricane flooding campus, a car accident, or–heaven forfend–a mass shooting).

Where Can I Get Statistics on Campus Safety?

The government requires campuses to gather data about crimes on campus. One way to access this data is on the “College Navigator” website of the National Center for Education Statistics. Just type in the name of the college you want to investigate and scroll down to the “Campus Security and Safety” tab. And you’ll see three years of data reported by the college, broken down into different kinds of crimes and where they took place (on campus generally, or in the campus residences). As you’ll see, liquor law violations tend to dominate the stats for any college.

One criticism of these data is that reporting is inconsistent from one college to the next. While the government provides guidelines and universities are expected to follow those guidelines. Reasonable people may question the accuracy of the data from school to school and from year to year. Some colleges may seem to have very high rates of theft and burglary, for example. But the location of the school (in a city, in a rural town) may help to explain those differences–rather than the laxity of the campus police.

Similarly, some colleges seem to have higher incidences of sex-related crimes. Those universities with higher rates of sex crimes sometimes claim that they are actually better at encouraging victims of such crimes to come forward than may be the case on other campuses. It’s hard to tell, sometimes, what the statistics really tell us about campus safety. And it can still be difficult to compare one campus against another.

Nonetheless, the statistics are helpful to families as they investigate campus safety as they are building their college lists.

Video Course for College Admissions

What Campus Safety Questions Can I Ask?

It’s perfectly okay to ask about campus safety while on a college tour. The admissions staff is generally well-positioned to answer your inquiries on this topic. They should be able to refer you to statistics and other information. And they may invite you to visit the office of the campus police. If you have particular concerns you’d like to address. You can also try to talk to local residents about their impressions of safety in the community. And the local police department can be another source of information (crimes that do not take place on campus will not appear in the government statistics reported on College Navigator).

However, it is less helpful to ask current students about the details of campus safety. You can certainly ask about their own experiences (do you feel comfortable walking around campus after dark, or do you feel safe in your campus residence?). They might be able to share their own impressions of how well the campus is able to provide information to students about safety issues. But students–including tour guides–are generally not fully aware of all safety systems, university policies, disciplinary procedures, or aggregate crime statistics.

CRIME

  • Does campus feel safe to you?
  • Is the school monitored in real time, 24/7 by video cameras? Or is the video merely checked after there has been a problem?
  • Are there emergency call boxes throughout campus? (More on these in a moment)
  • Does the campus police use a cell phone alert system to communicate imminent risks to students?
  • Does the school use electronic-access card keys to monitor the entry and exit of campus buildings?
  • Are there redundant forms of security, like cameras, call buttons and rotating patrols?
  • Does the school offer self-defense classes?
  • Do you feel safe walking alone across campus at night? If not, what do you do to get around campus at night?

ALCOHOL AND DRUGS

  • Is there a well-defined alcohol and drug policy? How vigorously is it enforced?
  • Are residential staffers trained to spot abuse and offer help?
  • Does the college inform you of arrests and hospitalizations related to drugs and alcohol?
  • How many students are in fraternities and sororities? (They tend to drink more heavily.)
  • How many students are involved in community service? (They tend to drink less.)

FIRE

  • Are there smoke and carbon monoxide detectors?
  • Are there sprinklers and fire extinguishers? Are there two exits? Do the windows open?
  • Are there regular fire drills?
  • Does the furnace get annual maintenance, and is the electrical system up-to-date?

Campus Safety and Blue Light Call Boxes

Often when touring campuses you’ll see a network of call boxes or emergency buttons, often with blue lights on them. Campus tour guides may actually point them out while on the tour and mention how quickly campus police will arrive when one of those buttons is pushed. As I mention in the video below (the audio is pretty bad, for which I apologize), these systems were constructed before the ubiquity of the cell phone. These systems usually still work (where they have not been removed), and they often are still featured on campus tours.

Campus Safety Questions and School Location

One of the biggest differentiators in campus safety has nothing to do with the quality of policing or the complexity of campus policies. Rather, the location of the school can tell us a lot more about the relative safety of the campus than anything else. These days, most students seem to want to attend college in a city. But higher population density in urban areas is correlated with criminality (not to mention traffic accidents, which remain a significant risk on many campuses).

On urban campuses, one is likely to find a high degree of security. For example, at the University of Pennsylvania or New York University, it is impossible for a casual visitor to visit any building without proper permissions and concomitant identification cards. However, on campuses located in small towns or rural areas away from major population centers, all campus buildings may be unlocked at all hours.

In this video below, I explain this phenomenon while showing viewers around the Bowdoin College science building. It’s not the best quality video, either, but it gives you a distinct impression that some campuses feel relatively safe and open while others feel more like a minimum-security prison.

So if safety is a primary concern, you may want to consider the location of the campus itself.

Campus Safety, Alcohol and Drug Use, and Walkability

As a parent–and as someone who has worked with gazillions of young people over a long career in education. I tend to worry about some of the simpler, more obvious risks that pretty much every student may be expected to at least experiment with while in college: alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Because young people are impaired while on these substances (their protestations to the contrary). I thought it important to consider how easy it is to walk from place to place around campus while impaired.

Big busy streets with speeding cars seemed more risky to me than small, tree-lined lanes with slow-moving traffic. And the proximity of campus buildings to one another seemed better than ones where a car might be required to head to a bar or off-campus parties. I wanted my boys to be able to walk home (with or without the support of a sober friend) without having to get behind the wheel.

Why Is Campus Safety Important?

Campus safety is an important consideration in selecting a college. You want to have an understanding of the relative risks involved in choosing a particular campus. And statistics give us an indication of what sorts of risks one might encounter. However, keep in mind that the statistics do not necessarily tell the whole story and that environmental and circumstantial factors (e.g., the location of the campus) may have a bigger impact on campus safety than school policies or the size of the campus police force (indeed, there have been examples of outrageously poor policing by some campus cops).

As you think about campus safety, you’ll have to trade off these considerations with other ones, including the quality of the academic programs, the availability of certain activities or amenities, and other preferences and priorities.

Whatever campus you choose, it’s important to think carefully about the risks one might encounter while at university. And to build awareness about how to minimize those risks for you as an individual student. Understanding the risks is the first step in reducing them for yourself.

Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting

Find a Good College Fit: Academics

best college fit for academics

Find the Right Fit: Start with Academics

Finding the right college fit is tough. About as tough as finding a good pair of shoes.

I recently bought a pair of shoes. I’m hard to fit. I have small feet for a guy (7.5). My feet are pretty wide. And they pronate or roll in when I walk. Add to the fit issue, I’m pretty picky. Not just any shoe that fits will do. I have to actually like the style, the color, the shape. So finding the right pair of shoes is a chore. It takes time. I have to ask questions. I have to try them on. I have to walk around in them before I put my cold cash on the counter and make my purchase.

So it is with choosing a college.

You have to know what you need. And you have to know what you want.

The elements of a good fit vary from student to student. But we can identify some basics.

In this series of posts, I take a deeper look at the various aspects of a good college fit. Here we focus on academics.

College Fit: Academic Learning Environment

Some students are excellent independent learners and need little guidance from their instructors. They can take ideas gleaned from a lecture, and use those to fan the flames of their own intellectual curiosity. Students don’t need much hand holding in developing ideas into term papers or independent projects. They are not afraid to approach their peers or their professors with questions or further exploration of course material.

They have a good sense of what is important in a subject. They can marshal their own resources to ensure their own academic success. These students will likely be successful in any academic environment, even large universities with enormous lecture classes. These students are active in their own learning, so the mode of instruction is less important. The passive presentations of lectures and readings may be enough to activate the innate learning impulses of this sort of student.

Other students enjoy learning most when instructors are able to bring the material alive and help them tie abstractions to the practicalities of everyday life. These students may not yet have developed their own internal academic compass. They may not be as confident with their basic academic skills. Or they may simply enjoy the higher level of interaction that occurs in smaller classes that require a high degree of participation by both teacher and student.

Thus it is critical to match a student’s learning habits and preferences with the sort of learning environments that exist at different colleges and universities. This is more difficult to extract from students in a short discussion. Most students have never really considered why they prefer one teacher to another, or why they are more successful in one class than in another. Most people never give much conscious thought to their own learning.

While some will thrill to the art of a well-crafted lecture by a distinguished professor. And be able to convert that thrill into independent learning. Others, however, simply cannot develop a personal relationship with the material without a personal relationship with the human beings in the classroom. In order to make a recommendation about the appropriate learning environment. Then, it’s important to discuss with high school students why some classes are more successful and to uncover the reasons why others are less so.

College Fit: Level of Academic Challenge

High schools tend to offer various levels of a course (college prep, honors, AP) to provide various levels of academic challenge to different sorts of students. Some prefer to take courses that challenge them intellectually at the top of their game. Others prefer to coast a bit more. Some seek a cohort of students who are as academically driven (or not) as they are, while others prefer to hang with students who are smarter. Still, others prefer to be a big fish in a smaller pond and clear standouts in a less challenging environment.

One of my tests of this issue is my “geek index.” When I visit colleges, I often ask students on campus to rate the general academic vibe on campus on a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being over-the-top geeky. I find that students are pretty consistent in assigning a value to their college. My clients, too, are generally very candid about their place on the “geek index.” So, as I learn about both students and colleges, this sort of information can help me identify the academic environments in which a student would feel most comfortable.

College Fit: Program Offerings and Majors

It’s pretty obvious that finding the right major is important. But I go beyond the student’s first answer, no matter how confident they appear about their choice. The fact is that the vast majority of students change their major at least once in college, and many change two or three times. So as I look for the programs that they want most. I also try to be on the lookout for the sorts of programs that also interest them.

For example, a high school junior may tell me confidently that they want to be an architect. But they may also enjoy foreign language and literature. Thus it would not be enough for me to simply list the schools of architecture: I need to consider which schools also would make it possible to continue that interest in a second language.

A student may or may not change majors; but college is also a time in which students are introduced to academic disciplines they have never had any contact with in high school (aeronautics, social psychology, oceanography, linguistics) that may end up becoming a passion. So while I start with programs and majors a student identifies as first choice. I also try to tease out what other academic interests the student has. These alternative interests may become a well-spring of electives, a potential minor, or an about-face major alternative down the academic road.

Curricular and Program Structure

Some students simply don’t like to be told what to study, while others feel more comfortable making choices within a more structured, controlled environment. Some have a very good sense of what they want to learn and why. Others are still exploring, and are happy to have at least a bit of guidance to help them make sense of the smorgasbord that is a collegiate course catalog. Fortunately, there is a college to match this preference.

At one extreme are the colleges that make very few demands and impose few—if any—curricular requirements. The curriculum may be completely individualized and tailored to each student’s interests and passions. At the other extreme are the colleges that allow for virtually no choice in what courses students take. And then there is a broad spectrum of colleges and universities that fall somewhere in the middle of this continuum.

Here again, curriculum structure can be difficult to discuss with high school students, for whom their entire academic experience has been fairly prescribed. Electives have been few and far between, especially compared with that smorgasbord they will encounter in college. In order to make a recommendation, then, one has to measure a student’s academic maturity and ability to make good, future-oriented decisions.

While it’s completely fine not to declare a major until the end of the sophomore. Students still need to put a plan into place to ensure that they can graduate on time. Students with less self-discipline may be better off in a more structured program, or one that at least has a very strong and personalized system of academic advising.

Evaluating Academics: Conclusion

Academic fit is the single most important factor in choosing a college, in my view. While the environment, availability of extracurricular opportunities, and social climate are all also very important. It’s important to keep in mind that students are not choosing a country club or vacation resort. Their primary purpose in college is to get an education—one that suits them best and allows them to achieve their own intellectual and professional goals.

For More Info on Finding A Great Fit

There are many other aspects of finding a great college fit. Please check out our other posts on this topic.

Evaluating social engagement on campus

Evaluating campus social life

Finally, here’s a video on how Mark and the folks at Great College Advice can help you find a great college fit.

 

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
GreatCollegeAdvice.com

Tips for Successful Campus Visit For Parents and Students

campus visits

Get the Most from Campus Visits

As you plan the general goals of your campus visits, plan the logistics, take the tour, listen to the information session, and investigate the campus surroundings, keep in mind these few tips for making the visit as productive, successful, and fun as possible.

Parent Tips for Campus Visits

Don’t ask too many questions, either in the information session or during the campus tour. Even if your kid is silent, try to restrain yourself. Silence does not indicate that your child is comatose. I can guarantee that even the most taciturn teen is taking it all in, trying to incorporate new ideas about their own future, some of which are really exciting, and some of which may be sort of terrifying.

Don’t try to fill the silence by embarrassing or annoying your child. I can’t tell you how many tours I’ve taken on which students and their parents have traded eye-rolls, verbal jabs, elbows to the ribs. This is a stressful time for everyone, so don’t your parental instincts interfere with your child’s experience.

Do help your student to brainstorm the questions he or she has about this college and its campus before the visit starts. What information do you already know about this campus, and what questions remain? What things are important to see during the visit—facilities that may be important for your child? Encourage the student to ask the questions by helping to formulate the right questions in advance.

Do seek answers to your own parental questions. If you have particular questions about financial aid, for example, that remain unanswered in a general information session, you may want to call the financial aid office and seek their counsel. Similarly, if you want to learn more about a particular sports program, an academic offering, or more details about the curriculum, make sure that you check the college website thoroughly.

Colleges have become pretty adept at putting tons and tons of information online. If you can’t find what you seek, by all means pick up the phone. Better, if it’s a question that you and your child share, encourage the student to do the communicating. Empower the student to take charge of gathering the information that will help him or her find the right college match.

Don’t even think about accompanying your student to the interview with the admissions officer. Just asking the question could be a red flag for admissions officers who really don’t want to have to deal with overbearing, bossy, and domineering parents. Assume that you are uninvited, and be surprised (and pleased) when the admissions officer engages you in some conversation before or after the interview. If such a conversation does take place, don’t talk about anything beyond pleasantries. The worst thing you can ask is, “what are my kid’s chances?” Not only will they not answer that question, but they may be a bit annoyed that you even ask it. So don’t.

Student Tips for Campus Visits

Do take charge of the visit. Don’t be passive. Don’t let mom and dad do it all for you. Look at the maps and figure out where you are and where you’re doing. Take the lead as you wander around campus. Know what you want to learn during the visit, and know how you are going to learn it. At this stage of your transition from high school to college, every parent is a bundle of nerves, and they hate a power vacuum. When parents sense that their student is disengaged, they engage more forcefully. So don’t give them the chance. Do your homework, be involved in planning the visit, and take charge of the visit once underway.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. This is a big decision, and you are going to make it based on the information you have gathered. This is not the same as asking a question about proof in geometry class or about mitosis in biology. This is about your future. Everyone (including your parents) knows that you have about a zillion questions rolling around in your brain during a college visit. So ask a few, especially those that you think that a tour guide or an admissions officer can ask. If you can’t figure out how to formulate your own questions, perhaps memorize one or two from this list.

Don’t be afraid to talk to other students on campus, and to ask them what they like about their school. In most cases, students on campus love their choice of college and will be only too happy to share their thoughts with you. You can also ask them what they don’t like—for no place is nirvana. Usually, they will readily tell you. Of course, the answers they give will be based on their own, personal experience of that campus, and cannot be said to represent the entire student body. But if you ask several students the same question or questions, you may find a pattern that will help you confirm (or disconfirm) your own impressions.

Do focus on academic factors at least as much—if not more—than social, environmental, and geographical factors. Remember, you are choosing a school, not a vacation resort. You will spend a great deal of time in class, studying for exams, preparing lab reports, and writing papers. And you will spend a lot of time interacting (or not) with professors.

So try to gather relevant information about the academic program. Tour guides will all say that “professors are accessible” and the “average class size is low.” Dig beneath those platitudes, especially when you talk to other students on campus. Are professor-student interactions limited to office hours? Do academic departments host activities open to all students?

Do guest lecturers come to the campus, or is there not enough of a scholarly audience (or budget) to attract them? Do professors offer open lectures frequently about their research or other timely and interesting topics? How active are academic societies on campus? Do the honorary societies merely hand out certificates, or do they sponsor academic activities? How often do individual professors or departments host meals or other social events for students?

Prepare for Campus Visits

Campus visits contain some of the most important moments in the entire college selection and application process. You need to prepare. You need to be aware. And you need to know what things are important to you—and which are not. As with every other aspect of the college search process, the focus should be on you: your abilities, your preferences, your desires, your needs, your aspirations. The primary question in your mind should be, does this campus fit me?

The more you are able to keep yourself at the center of the visit, the more productive and helpful your campus visit will be.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant and Professional College Tour Taker

How to Choose a Major or Career–Taking the Stress Out

choose a major by a circuitous route

How to Choose a Major

Today a client and I had a long conversation about how to report her intended college major on her applications. How was she going to choose a major when she is only 16 years old? She has been stressing out about it. She has many, many interests and an equal number of talents. And she just can’t decide what to be when she grows up.

I told her to join the club.

First, let’s take a look at the philosophical implications of choosing a major. In the grand scheme of things, a major isn’t all that important. Even career advisers say so. The fact is that beyond your first job out of college, your major won’t matter.  You’ll learn new skills on the job, and your career will mutate and morph as the economy evolves, and (more important) as your own understanding of where your interests and talents lie.

To give you more insight, you might want to take a look at a recent guest post in which a recent college grad recounts his own experience in choosing a major and making career choices right out of college. His conclusion is that what’s important is that you love what you are learning and that you build experiences, contacts, and skills that will help you pursue the jobs that most interest you.

It’s Not Necessary to Choose a Major Before Your Get to College

The fact is, your job–and your career–will likely change many times before you retire. An article from the New York Times also admonishes parents (and college counselors) that it’s sort of unrealistic to expect that an 18 or 22 year-old can or should make career decisions as if they are making a decision that is lifelong and permanent. We all have the option of changing our priorities, of chasing new careers, of refashioning our professional selves at many different points throughout our lives.

So from a counseling point of view, I tell most of my students not to stress out about college majors and career choices. If a student has interests in engineering or business or other specialized fields. It does make sense to understand the requirements necessary to enter those fields. For example, if there is a possibility that a student wants to go to medical school. Then she should know what the prerequisites are and thus be careful to complete them.

Or a prospective engineer may have to major in engineering from the get-go (but he may change his mind down the road as he learns more about engineering and about himself). Undecided does not mean “without decisions.” It’s smart to know what the options are and how to keep options open for as long as possible.

Sometimes It Make Sense to Choose a Major Early

However, with regard to completing college applications, there are times when it makes sense to declare a major. Why? Because admissions officer are also social engineers. They are looking for people to populate certain departments. Especially those hard-to-fill ones like art history, anthropology, music (at some schools), geology, geography, and others. So if you have a passion or skill that you plan to share on campus. It certainly doesn’t hurt to express that focus by announcing your intention to major in that subject.

Similarly, if a college has a particular strength or reputation in a certain issue, it makes sense to tell the admissions folks that one of the reasons that you are applying to that school is the excellence of that department–you are showing that you have thought about what makes that school a good fit for you.

Still, the majority of students heading to college are undecided. It’s okay in America to be undecided. Most of us are still undecided. We’re exploring, discovering, and learning. And isn’t that what it’s all about, anyway?

Mark Montgomery
Educational Planner

 

 

 

How to Get Great Teacher Recommendation Letters in the Weird World of Covid

teacher recommendation letters

How do you get great teacher recommendation letters in Covid? How can you ensure that teachers present you in the best possible light when they usually see you in your jammies on Zoom? Read these tips from a college admissions expert on how to impress your teacher and get great recommendation letters for college.

Continue reading