Liberal Arts Colleges and Teacher-Student Interaction

I love visiting colleges. I learn stuff on campuses. Every once in a while I’m surprised by a conversation I have with folks.

I was recently on the campus of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.  Just being on that campus was surprising enough:  it’s truly a hidden gem in an unlikely location.

As I do on most campuses, I try to meet with a professor or two.  The admissions office set me up with one professor, who just plumb forgot about our meeting.  So I met up with another one at the spur of the moment.  He allowed me to record some of our conversation on the topic of how students and faculty interact at Millsaps, and at liberal arts colleges in general.

This professor shared a couple of anecdotes that knocked my socks off. As you watch, you’re going to think this was all a set-up.  I assure you, none of this was rehearsed or planned.  He was just supplying some evidence that students and teachers at Millsaps really do develop some tight bonds.

Have a look for yourself.

Mark Montgomery
College Consultant


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Millsaps College–Distinctive Features and Admissions Priorities

I recently visited Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, to find out for myself why this small, liberal arts college is included in Loren Pope’s book, 40 Colleges That Change Lives.  I was able to spend some time talking to the director of admission, Mr. Mathew Cox.

This short video highlights three distinctive features of Millsaps.  It’s a wonderful place.

Mark Montgomery
College Consultant

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Colleges' Participation in US News Rankings Drops

Inside Higher Ed reports in an article today that many colleges–especially liberal arts colleges–are not participating in at least some aspects of the infamous US News & World Report rankings.
The reasons are difficult to discern with certainty, but here are some likely explanations:

  1. According to Robert Morse, who leads the rankings project at US News, it might be survey fatigue: colleges are tired of filling out forms for all the various publications who are now entering the ratings game.
  2. Morse says it might also be competing priorities on campuses: they are busy dealing with enrollment and financial aid matters and other affairs, and too busy to fill out the questionnaires for US News. (This is specious: most campuses have “institutional research” departments who must complete federal reports all the time–and much of the data upon which these rankings rest is publicly available from the US Department of Education).
  3. Protest against the rankings, lied primarily by the Education Conservancy, are also likely explanations, though Robert Morse was reluctant to talk about these possible factors. The fact is that many liberal arts institutions feel that the ratings are skewed against them. And many presidents of small, liberal arts colleges have pledged not to cooperate with US News in their annual rankings.

The aspect of the US News survey that was most often not completed was the “reputational” survey, in which college presidents are asked to rate the reputations of their peer institutions. This sort of ranking is highly subjective, and many college presidents know it. So many did not fill it out.
The fact is that the US News & World Report rankings are very influential in very many ways. They make a difference in how colleges report data. They make a difference in how colleges market themselves. They make a difference in the minds of many college counselors: in a survey of college counselors, the best colleges in America are (wait for it) the Ivy League schools (shock!).
But the rankings should not affect the decision on which college is best for a particular student. Choosing a college is a highly personal decision, and should be based on factors related to the educational success of that student. The rankings are a blunt instrument. They entertain. They sell magazines. But they don’t really help me much in recommending which colleges might be best for you.
Mark Montgomery
Independent College Counselor
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St. John’s College in Santa Fe: Defining the Liberal Arts

St. John's College building

The Liberal Arts. A Classical Education. Humanism.
If this is what you seek, then seek no further than St. John’s College. I spent a couple of hours on its gorgeous campus on the edge of Santa Fe, New Mexico, today. As I got out of my car, I heard the strains of a violin playing on a balcony. I passed the fountain in the center of campus, where the pool was filled with multicolored water lilies and koi. Even a pit stop revealed state-of-the-art no-flush toilets. I figured this was going to be a different sort of experience.

I had a private tour, led by a dashing gentleman from Mexico. He began to list off his interests: classical Spanish literature and was studying Persian and Hebrew in his spare time (he listed these as his “extracurricular activities.”
He told me about the fixed, four-year curriculum that leads students through a chronological study of Western civilization; philosophy, science, mathematics, literature, music, languages (start with ancient Greek, and go forward from there).

Math classes are not about memorizing formulas. Instead they read the original works of Euclid and Pythagoras. In music, they start by singing Gregorian chants and end up analyzing–and composing–in nearly every style of western music. Students take three years of lab science, but they do not use textbooks: they use Kepler and Ptolemy and Lavoisier and Darwin.

St. John’s has no professors, only tutors who guide and engage in learning with students. Said my tour guide: “professors at other universities profess the truth; here we all explore the truth together.” In class, everyone uses last names and the title of Mr. and Ms. (no “Professor or Dr. So and So,” even when your tutor is a Nobel laureate). You will find few computers. You will find no “smart classrooms” with the latest gizmos. Powerpoint? No, blackboards are sufficient. Enormous online databases? Available, but who needs them when you’re reading the classics? No need to listen to your professor interpret these texts, when you can interpret them for yourselves.

I was smitten. I wanted to start over and go here and I want to get the sort of education that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had. As my tour guide said, in some ways, their education is highly indulgent. They can explore all the great ideas of Western civilization in detail and with relish. No need to consider the outside world.

Yet many still do. The career center is tremendous. Eighty percent go on to graduate school–many to earn doctorates–and many go on to become doctors and lawyers and architects and government officials.
Most colleges and universities in America have abandoned the ideals and traditions of the liberal arts. What we, in this country, now call “liberal arts,” has nothing to do with the 19th century academic traditions–which still live on at St. John’s.

Today’s “liberal arts” education is generally an enormous smorgasbord, from which students can pick what they fancy and leave what they do not. At St. John’s, there remains a coherent vision of what it means to be “liberally educated.” Since the 1960s, however, American education has veered from its roots in the Classical, humanist tradition. Now just about anything goes, with some colleges (like Brown) allowing students to take pretty much whatever they want without any real guidance whatsoever.

St. John’s is not going to be for everyone. In fact, only about 130 students matriculate to the Santa Fe campus each year. But for those few for whom this is a good fit, the opportunities to stretch your mind and train your intellect are immeasurable. If you’re looking for the smorgasbord and all the electronic bells and whistles, this is not the place for you.

But if the life of the mind is paramount in importance to you, this college is worth a second look. And a third. And maybe a fourth. St. John’s is special.

Mark Montgomery
College Counselor