Ed and John have both waxed nostalgic about their 1960s experience at
Rensselaer - I was there a little (and a lot) later, but my undergraduate
experience was much the same as theirs.
As I understand the history, the later (mid 90s) reduction in the number of
courses required on the major at Rensselaer was partly economics, partly
marketing, and partly philosophical. Economic pressure at many medium sized
research universities was to justify the large investment of resources to
the intro courses, and similarly to justify the large investment of faculty
time to low-enrollment upper level major courses.
The philosophical piece was the belief that students will actually learn
physics better in depth by being involved in research groups, rather than by
taking courses. A similar philosophy applies to graduate education.
Given the typical RPI student, that may be a good idea ... I can't judge
what I've not experienced. But, it makes some sense with the majority of
their majors going on to research positions or graduate schools.
But, my students aren't Rensselaer students, and our small department
doesn't have "research groups" - rather students receive their mentoring one
on one from the faculty.
*********************************************
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three
unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and
the prudence never to practice either of them." -Mark Twain
********************************************
George Spagna
Department of Physics
Randolph-Macon College
P.O. Box 5005
Ashland, VA 23005-5505
phone: (804) 752-7344
FAX (804) 752-4724
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu http://www.rmc.edu/~gspagna/