17 Ways College Campuses Are Changing

The fifth-century B.C. Greek philosopher Heraclitus used to exclaim everything changes, nothing stands still. Well, colleges are in flux, too. Here are the 17 biggest differences between college today and college just 10 years ago:  

1. Booming enrollments. It's estimated that in 1999, 15 million students were enrolled in American colleges and universities. Today, the number is 19 million. And college enrollment looks to be growing-as far out as the eye can see-at a rate of 4 percent or so a year. Some unpleasant byproducts: humongous class sizes at many schools, interminable wait lists for popular or required classes, and more teaching by adjuncts and graduate students. 

2. Skyrocketing tuition. According to the College Board, tuition for the academic year just past was approximately 6 percent higher, at both public and private universities, than it was the year before. And indeed, the rate of increase was approximately 6 percent a year for the decade before that. The inflation rate, on the other hand, ran about 3 percent per year for that same 10-year period. Public outcry has caused many universities to put a hold on tuition hikes for the time being. But when the economy strengthens a little bit... .

3. Increased government support. To some degree, the pain of out-of-control tuition increases has been lessened by a slew of recently introduced tax advantages, including the Hope credit, the lifetime learning credit, the student loan interest deduction, and the tuition and fees deduction. Very good information about all of these (including family-income caps and other requirements) is available at Sallie Mae's Web page. 

4. New demographics. The male-female ratio is almost 60-40 at most schools. Forty percent of students are over the age of 25. And with many more first-generation students, foreign students, minority students, and returning students, expect a much broader mix of people in your classes. 

5. More female bosses. Ten years ago, approximately 19 percent of college presidents were women. Now, four of the eight head honchos at Ivy League schools are women. And recently arrived University of California President Mark Yudof has proposed two new female presidents for UC-Davis and UC-San Francisco.

6. Community college explosion. Community colleges are flourishing, with new ones sprouting up all over the place. Indeed, more than 40 percent of U.S. college students now are enrolled at community (or junior or two-year) colleges. As before, community colleges are attracting students who are interested in getting associate degrees or some college experience before transferring to four-year colleges.

But in a new twist, some students at four-year colleges now are picking up courses at community colleges from time to time--when they want to be closer to home, need less expensive credits, want to take classes with a professor rather than a TA, or can't get into classes they need at their own school.7. New online opportunities. In addition to distance-learning institutions, such as the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University, and Devry University, a number of big-name schools have put up selected courses at free, "opencourseware" sites. This is something great: top-notch professors in your own living room at no charge! Check out www.oyc.yale.edu (for Yale University), www.ocw.mit.org (for MIT), www.webcast.berkeley.edu (for UC-Berkeley), and www.ocw.consortium.org (for a general, worldwide directory).  8. First-year experience (FYE) courses. Used to be, first-year students had to "sink or swim" at the big U. But now-in an attempt to ease the pain (and also to stem the very high dropout rate at many schools)-colleges have forged new small-group classes, taught by regular faculty, especially for newly incoming students. Trouble is, no one has yet figured out quite what to teach. Some are seminars, where students study "big idea" books such as Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, or Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. Others use 500-page, skills-teaching textbooks such as David Ellis's Becoming a Master Student or John Gardner's Your College Experience: Strategies for Success. And still others blow off the reading thing altogether and content themselves with once-a-week meetings in which you can befriend a prof, commiserate with 20 students just as worried as you, and--if you're lucky--have a pizza at the big U's expense. For two samples of imaginative FYE programs, check out UCLA's "Fiat Lux" program and the University of North Carolina's first-year seminars brochure. 

9. Obsession about majors. Many schools encourage students to declare majors right when they come in. Many parents discourage students from considering majors in which there isn't a clear path to a high-paying (or, at least, some kind of) job. And many students think it's a point of special pride to do a double (or sometimes even triple) major. Not to mention picking up a minor or two on the side.  

10. Diverse foreign languages. Used to be, most students fulfilled the language requirement by taking French, Spanish, or German. Now students have discovered Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, and Japanese--the languages half the world's population actually speaks. And, in a nod to globalization (and student enrollments), some schools (most notably, the University of Southern California) have recently boarded up their German departments. Ach du lieber!  

11. Proliferation of interdisciplinary programs. Interdisciplinary studies that used to be small programs have recently developed into full-fledged majors. These include fields such as gender, queer, Jewish, African-American, and Islamic studies, as well as area studies, such as Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, American, African diaspora, and European studies. 

12. Emphasis on "service learning." Colleges are falling all over themselves to join the volunteerism spirit by setting up educational experiences, at home and abroad, in which learning is placed in the context of community service. Premeds are encouraged to volunteer at clinics or hospitals, art ed students are directed to mentor in the public schools, and environmental science students go into the community to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint. 

13. New teaching tools. Overhead projectors, white boards, and transparencies have been sent to the junk pile with the advent of PowerPoint. "Smart" classrooms allow professors to integrate materials from the Internet directly into their lectures. And "clickers" allow instructors instant feedback on how well their students have grasped (or slept through) the last 10 minutes of the lecture.   

14. Increased use of "E-resources." E-reserves have replaced required readings at the library. Textbooks now come electronically with the profs being able to custom-order the chapters they want. Courses have their own Web pages, where you can not only consult the syllabus and download lecture notes; you can often chat with other students in the course and sometimes even the professor. And, in the new spy vs. spy game, universities provide faculty with plagiarism-detection software such as Turnitin, while students cruise the (new electronic) paper-mills, where for only $9.99 you can take your chances at being thrown out of the big U.

15. More study abroad. Every university worth its salt has dozens of cooperative arrangements for junior-year (or indeed any-year) study abroad (though it's good to know that at many of the receiving institutions, the students aren't being offered the real university, in the real language, with the real faculty, but rather a special institute developed solely for visiting students. Caveat emptor) Since this is a "prestige item" for many colleges, there's often big fellowship money available for student travel.

16. Longer time to degree. The four-year college degree has largely faded, despite much hue and cry: Today, five, six, or even seven years is more common. Some reasons: more onerous requirements, bad advising, students working while at college, and students taking more semesters off. But the gravy train might be coming to an end: States are beginning to place caps on the number of semesters students can attend while paying in-state tuition. Hey, times are tough everywhere (especially in California and in Florida).

17. Increased consumerism. More and more, students and their parents are viewing college as a purchase--one for which you're entitled to get your money's worth. Bad grade? Go in to complain to the prof. Bad course? Tell the chair or the dean. Bad school? Transfer ASAP.