links for 2009-04-22

“The survey found widespread confidence among students that university was a good investment, with 80% expecting to gain from higher earnings after graduation.

“Confidence in the value of university had risen among first year students, compared with three years ago.”

“The percentage doing paid work during the academic year fell from 58% in 2004-05 to 49% in 2007-08.

“Half of part-time students and around one third of full-time students who worked during the academic year reported that this had affected their studies. The most common problems for both were less time available for study or reading, and more stress and higher workload (most often suffered by part-time students).”

“An odd conclusion one can draw from this is that it is easier to fool others when faking an expression than to fool yourself. That makes sense since smiling when you are down is one proven way to lift yourself out of a funk and make others feel better around you. (Few notice your underlying feeling.) Also, it’s worth learning to read other’s facial expressions for many reasons – from knowing how to best connect in the moment to experiencing empathy.”

“My reaction when I started reading the news release was “They found some undergrads who aren’t using Facebook?” Then, sure enough, I found when I calculated the numbers that there were a mere 15 undergraduate non-Facebook users in the study.”I confess that I’m a little wary of some of Karpinski’s generalizations. Although she noted that other factors may be involved besides Facebook use or non-use, the ones that she hypothesized have to do with personality traits and/or predilection for online socialization.

“Right now I’m not totally convinced that these findings don’t just represent the fact that about 80% of her non-Facebook users were graduate students. I think it’s safe to say that grad students generally spend more time studying than undergrads. Also, as she noted, grad students’ GPAs typically are higher.”