Everyone knows teachers aren’t paid enough, but apparently they make more than architects, accountants, medical scientists and engineers. Who knew? From All Education Schools, Teacher Salary Secrets Revealed:

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), average teacher salaries for K-12 positions range from a median of $47,040 a year for kindergarten teachers to over $52,500 a year for some secondary school positions. And, those numbers just reflect the US median.

Take a closer look at teacher salaries and you’ll find states like New York where the median kindergarten teacher salary is over $71,000 a year, and states like New Jersey where middle school vocational teachers make over $60,000 a year. You’ll also find states, such as Montanta and Arkansas, where teacher salaries rarely exceed $40,000 a year, even after teaching for many years.
Teachers Are Paid More Than the Average Professional Worker

According to a recent Manhattan Institute study of teacher salaries, public school teachers are paid 11 percent more than the average professional worker. The statistics also show that most public school teachers are paid better than their private school counterparts.

At over $34 an hour, according to 2005 BLS statistics, average teacher wages exceed that of many professionals:

* The average accountant salary includes a median hourly wage of $27.89.
* Architects earn a median hourly wage of $32.96.
* Civil engineers earn a median hourly wage of $33.41.
* Medical scientists earn a median hourly wage of $33.24.
* Fashion designers earn a median hourly wage of $32.39.

Even computer programmers, the architects of the Internet age, earn a median hourly wage of $32.40. This is evidence that teachers can make a good living depending on their subject specialty and their state’s school district.

college | teaching

Undergrad Origins Of PhDs

Despite Reed College’s possible letter-writing inadequacy, they kick ass at molding their undergrads for PhD-hood. Their website has a very shiny table that shows the top 10 schools in the nation where PhD recipients earned their baccalaureate degree.

The table tracks a decent interval, from 1975 to 2004. It’s interesting to note the fairly solid state of the list: only 11 schools make it to the Top 10 in the 29-year span. It’s not the list I thought it would be—there are schools I hadn’t expected as well as several schools I assumed would have been on the list and aren’t.

Here’s the list, including number 11, in alphabetical order so I don’t piss anyone off:

Bryn Mawr
California Institute of Technology
Carleton
Grinnell
Harvey Mudd
MIT
Oberlin
Pomona
Reed
Swarthmore
University of Chicago

Grinnell College has part of the list as well, broken down by discipline. It’s interesting, but kind of a tease as they only show a tiny section of the list for each discipline where Grinnell appears. They only show the other schools at all for “context.” It is on their website, they can choose which parts to show us.

Earlham College has a good chunk of the data on their site that you can check out.

I don’t know whom you have to pay to be allowed to see the entire list. I looked, and the closest I came to finding the list in its entirety was someone else wondering how in the hell to get a copy of it. Feel free to let me know if anyone can shed some light.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

No one can back up “coolest” with facts, but I stand by my statement nonetheless. The non-sheep in me wanted so much for it to have been an actual college admissions essay. Alas, I can find nothing to back that up. The Urban Myth maintains that Hugh Gallagher wrote the infamous essay in 1990 when he applied to NYU and it was then printed up in several major newspapers as well as making the rounds on the Internet. The Internet part is true, which means most people have already read it. If you haven’t, you really should.

Here’s the real story, according to Harper’s Magazine:

“This essay, by Hugh Gallagher, won first prize in the humor category of the 1990 Scholastic Writing Awards. It appeared in the May issue of Literary Calvalcade, a magazine of contemporary fiction and student writing published by Scholastic in NYC. Gallagher, who is 18, grew up in Newtown Square, PA, and will attend NYU this fall.”

He did attend NYU and graduated in 1994. I have no connections in the admissions office, so I have no idea whether he used his essay to get in. The Internet circulation in combination with his essay being published in Harper’s did open some doors for Gallagher’s writing career. He’s written for Rolling Stone, Wired, and his first novel, Teeth, was published in 1998.

Rampant, unfounded optimism usually pisses me off. And yet it’s my dream (which has every chance of not coming true) that someday colleges will choose students because of who they actually are and for their unique potential, not for padded high school transcripts or highly-coached college admissions processes and SAT scores. Whether Gallagher actually sent this in with his application to NYU or not, it still makes me happy and gives me at least a spider web of hope. Sometimes we all need to be reminded that not being a sheep can work in your favor.

ESSAY: IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me. I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to college.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source*)

Sometimes crappy life moments can be funny. Especially if they have to be or you’ll risk becoming catatonic. High school seniors in their San Francisco prep school psychology courses figured out a way to deal therapeutically with their collection of college rejection letters. They turned it into a competition.

I would imagine that the most ass-kicking therapy occurred when the students scored the colleges in the following categories:

-Most obsequious while maintaining utter insincerity
-Least number of words you need to read before you know you are being rejected
-Most emphatic rejection
-Shortest rejection
-Least original rejection
-Total insensitivity

Apparently Reed College won for “Total Insensitivity”:

The grand prize for “total insensitivity” is presented to Reed College. One student applied to Reed and when the college failed to notify him that they had received his materials, the student sent a polite follow-up letter inquiring about his status. Reed sent him back what was apparently intended to be an interoffice memo which read “he’s a deny.” Reed’s selection as biggest overall loser precludes them from “shortest rejection” contention.

Posted by Alexa Harrington
college

Good News for College Interns

Summer is upon us: the season of the intern. Thousands of eager college students and some overly aggressive high schoolers will flock to New York, DC, and maybe some other cities to surf the web for eight hours a day, attend some meetings, and hopefully learn a trade.

Though there can be a lot of pressure on people to secure the best internships (people even pay for them now) and get noticed by their superiors, being an intern is one of the great joys of growing up. Whether 15 or 23-years old, I encourage everyone to make the most of “working” in a professional environment without any real consequences. Of course, you should soak up information like a Downy kitchen towel, “challenge” yourself, and maybe attempt to secure a couple “connections.” But do me one favor and remember the Golden Rule of Internships: No one will ever entrust you with anything that actually matters.

Take it from me, I’ve done my fair share of internships. Hell, who am I kidding—I’m still an intern!!!!

Anyways, for anyone planning to intern in New York City this summer, good news doth abound. First, there seem to be some really nice summer music festivals taking place, so that should be a breath of fresh air for everyone. And second, there is a new service hitting the ‘net (and also regular-sized paper) that caters directly to you.

Educatednation.com is no Gawker, but we’re hot off the presses with news of the Intern Memo, a free newsletter that promises to be hilarious and also pretty informative. Here is the press release:

Coming on May 28th, 2007, The Intern Memo is a free email newsletter sent out three times a week with a mix of event listings, comedic vignettes and career advice for interns working in New York City — basically all you need to get you through your summer internship.

To sign up just give your email address at www.internmemo.com. Enjoy the summer!

Posted by Chris Schonberger

Last week, TV’s favorite college girl, Lorelai “Rory” Gilmore (did you know that was her full name?) graduated from Yale University (the show couldn’t help but mention “Yale” every other line). This week, the show ends it’s seven year run. The show’s snappy dialogue, loaded with pop culture references and allusions to indie music, politics, class, gender, and academia, garnered the Gilmore Girls status as a critical darling as well as a deeply devoted fan base.

Gilmore Girls has had many rough patches, but it survived the “college years,” a death knell for most shows (The O.C., Veronica Mars, 90210). According to the show, Rory had her mind set on attending Harvard since kindergarten, so she transfered from a public school to an elite prep school in order to achieve her goals. Throughout the show, main plot points revolved around Rory’s academic career, such as Rory’s dilemma over choosing between Yale and Harvard. Poor thing. Still, the show’s kooky heart was the center of Gilmore Girls; its warmth, wit, good humor and amused take on the world radiated out of it.

“I live in two worlds,” Rory said during her valedictorian address when she graduated from high school. “One is a world of books. I’ve been a resident of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, fought alongside Napoleon, sailed a raft with Huck and Jim, committed absurdities with Ignatius J. Reilly, rode a sad train with Anna Karenina and strolled down Swann’s Way.”

“It’s a rewarding world, but my second one is by far superior. My second one is populated with characters slightly less eccentric but supremely real, made of flesh and bone, full of love, who are my ultimate inspiration for everything.”

It’s only fitting that the series conclude with Rory’s graduation from college, still we’ll miss the Gilmore Girls.

gilmore girls | college

I wrote a while back about Arizona State University’s new degree programs in Sustainability. When I first read about it, I was just happy that there was a glimmer of hope shining through the fog of global warming and pollution. My logic was that if higher education was seeing this as a viable degree, then societal thinking about how to save the planet was changing. And, obviously, if we teach people how to implement ‘green’ technologies and practices, then someday we might be smart enough to save ourselves. This article from FastCompany makes my happiness even more complete. Business executives are all over this sustainability degree action:

The idea: If companies hope to operate in a world that increasingly demands sustainable strategies and practices, they’ll need employees who actually have the technical expertise. “Significant and high-profile corporations are saying we need to do this,” says director Charles L. Redman. Indeed, executives from Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), as well as Arizona utility companies APS (NYSE:PNW) and Salt River Project, have already joined the school’s board.

Students will learn to identify and provide solutions to both local and global challenges, taking on such issues as rapid urban growth, sustainable energy and materials use, and water management. At least a dozen research projects are under way, including one on strategies to combat the rising heat index around Phoenix, and another on a special strain of bacteria that could be used to create fuel.

If the white-collared people of the world are seeing this as a solid career choice, then doesn’t it follow that society overall has changed the way it thinks about natural resources and the environment and all the generally bad stuff mankind does to the planet? Was I just too pessimistic before? Because I totally thought it was going to take complete polar ice cap-meltage to convince the money-makers that the sky is falling.

Watch this if you prefer to stay pessimistic and laugh about the fate of the planet and how dumb humans are.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Commencement Day Tossing Traditions

The scene of hundreds of jubilant graduates tossing their black mortarboards into the air upon commencement is a quintessential graduation symbol. Many colleges and universities including the U.S. Naval Academy, sanction the practice, however there is a trend toward banning the tossing of anything into the air. Injuries from flying tortillas and caps have promoted UC Davis and the University of Arizona to ban tossing from the ceremonies. At Harvard’s 2006 graduation, among the most unusual totems thrown were inflatable plastic Aladdin’s lamps accompanied by ears of wheat.

Here are some creative tossing traditions:

• Surgical gloves
• Globes
• Gavels
• Condoms
• Faux CliffsNotes
• False Teeth
• Rulers
• Inflatable Sharks
• Construction Tape
• Rubber chickens
• Toothpaste Tubes

Avoiding Career Burn Out

Just as college students can take a gap year with no major repercussions to their professional life, many working adults are taking a career break / gap year and coming back to their job refreshed. Anyone not currently in the matriculation phase of their lives (usually referred to as adults) have jobs and bosses, which means ridiculous amounts of angry looks and hurtful comments regarding professional responsibility and whether “work ethic” is part of their vocabulary if said adult suggests taking a gap year. Much better to call it a sabbatical and give it some shiny pro-career vocabulary words so your boss will let you travel to China to save the monkeys. Adults outside of academia are taking time out to repair (or avoid) career burn-out.

There are many sites out there devoted to “career breaks” and “sabbaticals.”
These have good articles on the subject:

The Career Break Sabbatical: Coming Back With Grace
Leave Of Faith
Want Time Out?
What Is A Sabbatical?
Stop The Office, We Want To Get Off
Exploring The Sabbatical…As A Means Of Energizing A Career
Mom On Sabbatical

These are devoted to the business of career breaks:

the leap: Career Breakers
The Year Out Guide
Year Out Group
Career Break Cafe

Read these books if you’re a responsible adult:

Six Months Off: How To Plan, Negotiate, & Take The Break You Need Without Burning Bridges Or Going Broke by Hope Dlugozima, James Scott, David Sharp
Lonely Planet Career Break Book by Joe Bindloss, Andrew Dean Nystrom
Time Off From Work: Using Sabbaticals to Enhance Your Life While Keeping Your Career On Track by Lisa Angowski Rogak

If you’re one meeting away from gnawing your way through your cubicle “wall,” then this is the book list for you:

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
The Back Door Guide to Short-Term Job Adventures: Internships, Summer Jobs, Seasonal Work, Volunteer Vacations, and Transitions Abroad by Michael Landes
Work Your Way Around the World 12th Edition by Susan Griffith

For inspiration, FastCompany.com made a list of possible escapes / growth experiences to ponder. Sadly, the links are no longer viable (they were from 2001), but I loved the spin-doctoring they did to help you convince your superiors that the break would be advantageous:

Lost Cities Expeditions: Choquequirao
Why it’s cool: Explore the famed Incan city of Machu Picchu, and journey through mountain passes and over raging rivers on a 17-day tour of Peru. Your destination: the mysterious settlement of Choquequirao, a major archaeological site that still hides historical and sociological secrets from the world.
How to spin it: Trekking ancient roads and perusing centuries-old dwellings offer important lessons in enduring value — the Incas clearly recognized the worth of institutions that are built to last!

The Bellagio Center
Why it’s cool: The Rockefeller Foundation hosts monthlong retreats for voracious students of all varieties at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, located on Lake Como in northern Italy. Collaborate with colleagues from around the world, attend provocative workshops, or contribute to a team project revolving around such topics as global inclusion or creativity and culture. Use the center’s creative-energy vibes to incubate the novel, thesis, or Broadway musical that you’ve been meaning to develop.
How to spin it: Interacting with people from widely varied disciplines, backgrounds, and locales at the Bellagio Center provides lessons in the power of collaboration and diversity, essential skills in the emerging global economy. The center’s resident program requires participants to produce some sort of creative work during their stay, so you’ll leave with concrete results to show prospective employers — and valuable experience completing a major project on a tight time frame.

Latin American Art Resource Project
Why it’s cool: Learn to sculpt and paint with indigenous Honduran materials, or help artists in poor Central American communities build a business using the resources at hand. In three months, you’ll learn Spanish, lead workshops, and create original works of art — creative therapy at its best.
How to spin it: By developing your creative side and hatching strategies for stretching available resources and minimal funds, you’ll acquire skills that will make penny-pinching tech firms drool.

Fiji’s World Class Diving and Underwater Photography
Why it’s cool: Dive among reefs located off the Fiji Islands, and photograph tropical fish as they swim past your scuba mask. Spend 15 days frolicking with whales and dolphins, or just relax on the deck of the sailing yacht Nai’a as you soak up the South Pacific sunlight and indulge in introspection.

How to spin it: Practicing photography will hone your appreciation of design, and scuba diving will confirm your risk-taker status. Plus, you can study teamwork by watching the seamless cooperation of the marine-mammal pods as they swim alongside your ship.

Global Citizens Network: Arizona
Why it’s cool: Live as part of the Hopi community in Arizona’s Painted Desert while working to construct a youth center for the reservation’s underserved children. During a one-week stay, the villagers of Shungopavi will introduce you to such traditional trades as basket weaving, desert farming, and jewelry design.

How to spin it: Layoff victims can take inspiration from the Hopi people’s resilience in the face of adversity. Participating in the tribe’s spirit of cooperation and innovation will enhance your team-building skills and your ability to rebound from setbacks.

The Ultimate Kailas
Why it’s cool: Embark on a 34-day spiritual journey through Tibetan mountain ranges, witness a Hindu full-moon festival, and take time for meditation and self-reflection at high-altitude sacred sites.

How to spin it: Sometimes perspective is the best antidote to overanalysis and overreaction. An employee who can separate the truly significant from the truly mundane will help any company as it faces the turbulent times ahead.

Outward Bound Epic Surf Adventure
Why it’s cool: Let the waves rolling off Costa Rica’s shoreline wash away your woes. On this monthlong excursion, expert guides help novices and veterans alike stay on top of some of the world’s best ocean swells.

How to spin it: New surfers demonstrate the ability and willingness to learn on the job and to persist despite wipeouts. Experts show their readiness to meet new challenges and build upon their existing skill set — even while swimming among sharks!

International Work Programs: Ghana
Why it’s cool: Ghana’s rain forests and savannas provide exhilarating forums for imparting and collecting business wisdom. For up to six months, help local entrepreneurs achieve financial success by leading seminars on such basics as record keeping and product marketing.

How to spin it: If your dotcom lost track of reality during the Internet boom, a refresher course on the rules of business will help get your feet back on the ground — and in the door at a globally minded company that can use your hands-on experience at teaching strategies for success.

French Language & Cooking Institute
Why it’s cool: Stay in an 18th-century château in the French countryside while learning the native tongue and preparing culinary delights. Language classes last for up to four weeks, and French cuisine courses require just one additional week. Family and significant others are welcome to join in the cultural immersion.

How to spin it: Your classroom is the world. Rather than sitting behind a desk with a pencil and paper, you prefer to jump right in and experiment. Take this daring attitude with you to job interviews — along with homemade crepes or quiche — and you’re sure to feed any employer’s hunger for innovation.

Saving China’s Monkeys
Why it’s cool: In the tropical climate of southern China, novice volunteer teams will help Dr. Zhaoyuan Li save two of the rarest monkey species in the world. Track the monkeys’ behavior, analyze their habitat, and draft a management plan to ensure their survival on this two-week environmental expedition.

How to spin it: This animal-conservation mission will teach you how to focus on the details as you monitor behavior, examine environments, and forecast changing conditions. In short, it will sharpen your ability to observe and understand unfamiliar communities — and to recognize monkey business in the workplace.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

I accept none of this. I’ve been doing a lot of ranting and raving, bitching and moaning about the college admissions insanity in this country. If I could laugh about it I’d feel better. Maybe this book will help. I love that someone wrote a book satirizing the bizarreness that is the college admissions process (albeit for only a teensy fraction of the population). Not necessarily high-end literature, but isn’t it enough that someone wrote a satirical novel about this subject? At any rate, it makes me feel better. The rest of you can use your free will to suffer or laugh (at yourselves or the other poor bastards who’ve allowed themselves to be sucked into the vortex). Do I still sound cranky?

Acceptance: A Novel (Sarah Crichton Books 2007) by Susan Coll

Publisher Comments:

A comic chronicle of a year in the life in the college admissions cycle.
It’s spring break of junior year and the college admissions hysteria is setting in. “AP” Harry (so named for the unprecedented number of advanced placement courses he has taken) and his mother take a detour from his first choice, Harvard, to visit Yates, a liberal arts school in the Northeast that is enjoying a surge in popularity as a result of a statistical error that landed it on the top-fifty list of the U.S. News & World Report rankings. There, on Yates’s dilapidated grounds, Harry runs into two of his classmates from Verona High, an elite public school in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There’s Maya Kaluantharana, a gifted athlete whose mediocre SAT scores so alarm her family that they declare her learning disabled, and Taylor Rockefeller, Harry’s brooding neighbor, who just wants a good look at the dormitory bathrooms.

With the human spirit of Tom Perrotta and the engaging honesty of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep, Susan Coll reveals the frantic world of college admissions, where kids recalibrate their GPAs based on daily quizzes, families relocate to enhance the chance for Ivy League slots, and everyone is looking for the formula for admittance. Meanwhile, Yates admissions officer Olivia Sheraton sifts through applications looking for something — anything — to distinguish one applicant from the next. For all, the price of admission requires compromise; for a few, the ordeal blossoms into an unexpected journey of discovery.

Posted by Alexa Harrington
College