Something for the Mavericks

Helping put together a cohesive and logical college list is one of the most important aspects of any counselor’s job. A college list that resembles a gift list at Christmas time does no one any good. Additionally, a list that bears only a passing resemblance to the applicant’s interests and personality will spell trouble down the road.

Admittedly, some students are easier to work with than others. They have been thinking about college since middle school and have a very good idea about the “types” of colleges out there and need only guidance on fit and feasibility.

At the other extreme, I am starting to work with more and more students who are either not interested in, or sold on, the traditional educational path. Academically, they are both intelligent and innately curious. Socially, they are independent, forward-thinking students who are looking for a dynamic and global educational experience. Comfortable with technology, these students desire an educational experience that transcends the traditional “brick and mortar” lecture hall model.

On second thought, “desire” might not be the right word here. They actually see the traditional educational model as an intellectual and professional hindrance! In the past I have encouraged these students to explore gap year options or look closely at Northeastern, Waterloo or other universities that stress cooperative educational experiences.

But, recently a new and exciting option has come to my attention: Minerva. More than just another massive open online course (MOOC) provider, the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute, as the program is formally known, will be a university unto itself, with its own classes and professors. Its students will travel from all corners of the world to be housed in one of Minerva’s own dorms.

The big difference is once the students are at their dorm in San Francisco or Brazil, they will take all their classes online in a live video chat with a professor. That professor will get real-time feedback on each student’s strengths and weaknesses, based on an algorithm developed by Minerva.

Another difference? There are no lectures. Every course at Minerva will have 20 students or less, which is perhaps the most glaring difference between it and MOOC providers such as Udacity and Coursera. Minerva’s educational experience will be far from “massive” for its student.

Recently I had the opportunity to talk with Will Houghteling, Minerva’s Managing Director in North America, about this unique education opportunity. Mr. Houghteling stressed that Minerva is committed to developing the “critical thinking and analytical abilities” of students. Moreover, he stressed the “unique curricular and classroom approach” that has been embraced by Minerva.

From a curricular perspective, rather than teach students introductory content such as psychology 101 or economics 101, all freshmen will take four interdisciplinary cornerstone courses to learn the fundamental concepts and habits of mind they will need to be successful across all disciplines and professional fields.

These are multi-modal communication, formal analysis, empirical analysis and complex systems. After their freshman year, students will study more traditional academic disciplines, taking half of their courses within their major and half outside in order to ensure both breadth and depth.

Additionally, Minerva believes that “effective education requires a dialogue, not a monologue—so all courses will be small seminars of 19 students or fewer.” This approach, focused on discussion and debate, will ensure students develop the fluid intelligence they will need to be successful in a complex world.

All classes will be conducted live over a virtual videoconferencing technology platform, allowing students around the world to study together. This proprietary, custom-built and cutting-edge learning platform incorporates the latest research on the science of learning.

I was also quite impressed by the educators who have signed on to work with Minerva. Stephen Kosslyn, the Founding Dean of the Minerva Schools at KGI, and former Dean of Social Sciences at Harvard University, leads the deans and supervises the hiring of faculty for each of the Colleges.

The deans are Dr. Eric Bonabeau, Dean of the College of Computational Sciences; Dr. Diane Halpern, Dean of the College of Social Sciences; Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities; and Dr. James D. Sterling, Director of Minerva Labs and interim Dean of the College of Natural Sciences.

Minerva also recognizes that over the past 50 years the world has changed far more rapidly than America’s top universities. For example, the world is now more globally connected than ever before, yet fewer than two percent of American college students study abroad, and top institutions pull 90 percent of their students from within the United States.

Accordingly, Minerva is creating a program that is uniquely global and accessible. Minerva’s students will all spend their freshman year in San Francisco, and then spend subsequent semesters living together in Minerva dorms in great global hubs including London, Rio, Mumbai, New York, and more. Minerva’s academic approach focuses on developing critical thinking skills and then helping students apply those to real-world problems.

Finally, Minerva is doing all it can to decrease the cost of attendance so that they can make a top education accessible to bright, motivated students from around the world. To that end, tuition at Minerva will be US$10,000 per year. The founding class, starting in the fall of 2014, will pay no tuition for four years and will receive free housing for their freshman year. Room and board, student services, books and supplies and other costs are estimated at US$18,850 per year.

The application process is rather straightforward. First, students need to submit an online application (at http://www.minerva.kgi.edu—the application fee is currently being waived). The application takes about 20 minutes and requires students to submit personal information, GPA and grades, and three to five examples of accomplishments.

The second phase requires students to take two online assessments measuring both cognitive and non-cognitive skills (Minerva does not require the SAT or ACT).

The third and final phase of the application is an interview over Skype that also includes a brief writing assessment.

Not surprisingly, Minerva is focused on recruiting the best students from around the world and expects to ultimately enroll about 70 percent of its students from outside the United States. To support these efforts, Minerva has international staff leading operations on each continent, visiting local schools and providing information about Minerva.

Interested international counselors should visit https://minerva.kgi.edu/content/ to reach out to the local representative in their region to schedule a school visit or meeting.

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