education department

[usc4valpo]

My daughter is starting to look at colleges to attend. She is considering majoring in education, but with tuition and r&b at $52k a year, I worry about debt after graduation. Is the department solid and do they have adequate enrollment?

[vu72]

My daughter is starting to look at colleges to attend. She is considering majoring in education, but with tuition and r&b at $52k a year, I worry about debt after graduation. Is the department solid and do they have adequate enrollment?

Make sure she applies to other similar schools even though she isn't interested in attending.  This shows on the FAFSA form and creates a sense of competition and perhaps more scholarship money.  I have a good friend with two boys at Valpo right now and he and his wife are far from wealthy.  Their analysis showed that the net cost was about the same as a public/state school and of course the difference in academics is significant.  Here is the website for education:

https://www.valpo.edu/education/teacher-education/undergraduate/

[agibson]

My daughter is starting to look at colleges to attend. She is considering majoring in education, but with tuition and r&b at $52k a year, I worry about debt after graduation. Is the department solid and do they have adequate enrollment?

I don't have a lot of direct connection with them, or with their grads once they're in classrooms. But, the partnership (MSEED, albeit that program is now transforming) with STEM majors has seemed very positive. And, I've had good reports about our student teachers on the two occasions where I happened to know high school faculty that were supervising them. I've always thought of the department as having robust enrollment (and they have a big faculty list), but don't have statistics at hand. My occasional interactions with education faculty have been positive.

By all accounts it's worth seeing the financial aid offer before making assumptions about affordability. It seems a lot of people have experiences like the one vu72 describes (more affordable than you might think, competitive with state schools).

[valpo64]

In the last few years 2 of our grandchildren were considering Valpo vs. Indiana U. @ Bloomington.  After scholarship offers, it cost about the same to attned VU as it ended up costing at IU.  I must say that that was quite surprising.  They should have attended VU. 

[usc4valpo]

Thank you so much for your feedback.

We live in Des Moines, and she is initially considering the state school (Iowa, ISU, UNI).

[vu72]

Thank you so much for your feedback. crusa

We live in Des Moines, and she is initially considering the state school (Iowa, ISU, UNI).

I would point this out to your daughter.  The loyalty of the Valpo Alumni!  Once a Crusader always a Crusader!  To me, what makes Valpo a special place is the people, top to bottom.  hard to imagine how that would translate to a school with 15-20m students.

[usc4valpo]

Well, we will see. She has just started.

[vu84v2]

While I fully agree with all of the previous comments, I would offer one additional thought. Universities like Valparaiso often have a lot more flexibility to customize a program to fit the needs of a small group of students (or even one student). If your daughter has an interest that supplements her becoming a teacher (examples: foreign language, math, advanced sciences, etc.), a university like Valparaiso is much more likely to work to try to find a way to make a double major work. Universities like Valparaiso are much more adept at having the limiting case be a student's intelligence, maturity and effort.

[humbleopinion]

I generally don't go beyond the basketball board, so I hadn't noticed this until now.

I am in education -- a principal.  VU has a very strong education department.  The students get a good education in the classroom and in field experiences.  I always move VU grads to the top of the pile when doing hiring (unfortunately the way that states are supporting education, it has been a while since I've actually ha a "pile" pf applicants for a high school position). I remember hearing that all of last year's grads had job offers even before they received their diplomas.

[oklahomamick]

2018 Rankings
Valparaiso University is ranked #4 in Regional Universities Midwest. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.


#4 in Regional Universities Midwest

#3 in Best Colleges for Veterans

#1 in Best Undergraduate Teaching   

[usc4valpo]

Well, the college visits have started with Iowa State - a good education program, near home, beautiful campus, great connection with schools worldwide, and they left a good impression. For Valpo to be in the mix, I need better understanding of scholarship. $52K a year for an education degree is not making a lot of sense to me right now. Also, I am concerned about the budget issues Valpo is dealing with.

[vu84v2]

If you are looking for insights on how much scholarship Valparaiso will provide, I can only say that Valparaiso (like many good private universities) offer very good academic scholarships that often lower the net price down to that of some state universities. That said, Iowa State (and a few others - Alabama and Arkansas come to mind) are very aggressive with lower out-of-state tuition and offer great value.

You may know this, but look at not only the number of professors versus students, but also the number of classes that each professor teaches at a university. At a university like Iowa State, professors may teach a 1-2 or 2-2 load (1-2 would be one class in a semester and two classes in another semester). This is because their expected research load is heavier. At Valpo, the research load is less and professors teach a 3-3. In other words, you generally are going to have better classes when they are delivered by professors and you probably would have more classes delivered by professors at Valpo (noteL this is a generality - you will find some adjunct or clinical professors who are better teachers). If I were really going to look into this, I would get a list of all classes offered in a semester by a college of education and see how many are offered by professors.

This issue (in my opinion) can be most relevant at the Freshmen level. Freshmen are trying to adapt to college life and can have difficulties getting embedded in college life. Having a professor rather than an adjunct or PhD student teach a Freshmen class can, in some cases, make the difference between a student being connected to the University or losing his or her way. Thus, I would look at whether professors teach Freshmen classes (throughout the university) or whether they are given to adjunct. The value of this, of course, varies by the maturity of the student.

In a broader sense, think about how professors are incentivized at state schools versus private schools - at state schools they get promoted by research output (and, in some fields, grant awards), while at private schools they are incentivized by both teaching and research. At a school like Valpo, a professor would never get tenure if they did not have strongly positive teaching evaluations from students. This drives behavior for many professors, as well as the types of universities that they choose to work for.

[vu72]

Well, the college visits have started with Iowa State - a good education program, near home, beautiful campus, great connection with schools worldwide, and they left a good impression. For Valpo to be in the mix, I need better understanding of scholarship. $52K a year for an education degree is not making a lot of sense to me right now. Also, I am concerned about the budget issues Valpo is dealing with.

As I mentioned in another thread, my granddaughter, a good, not exceptional student, has received a Presidential Scholarship, worth about 25,000 per year.  That, in and of itself, will cut the cost in half.  There is a special emphasis on legacy kids.  If you or your wife attended Valpo it certainly will help.  As pointed out earlier, Valpo was ranked #1 in teaching in the midwest and that includes Iowa.  Northern Iowa was ranked #25 versus Valpo's #4.

[vu72]

Well, the college visits have started with Iowa State - a good education program, near home, beautiful campus, great connection with schools worldwide, and they left a good impression. For Valpo to be in the mix, I need better understanding of scholarship. $52K a year for an education degree is not making a lot of sense to me right now. Also, I am concerned about the budget issues Valpo is dealing with.

Out of curiosity I looked at the education department, here is their website:

https://www.valpo.edu/education/teacher-education/

I looked at their faculty and found that their are 21 people listed and of those, 15 had PhD. and 6 MAs

[usc4valpo]

thanks 72 for the information - much appreciated.

[usc4valpo]

My daughter agreed to make a trip to see Valpo - I think it will occur in the spring or summer.