A Place Beyond: Gap Year in the Wild

The Student Life: "A startup that seeks to provide an in-person, community-focused academic experience for college students in the wilderness, A Place Beyond (APB) rents out and converts campgrounds into college campuses where students from around the country can apply to learn and live for the semester ... APB participants are enrolled full-time at their respective universities but pay APB for room and board. Participants are tested for COVID-19 weekly and were quarantined upon arrival. Together, they live in cabins, eat meals together and are free to explore around the converted campground when they are not doing work."

"Participants are also paired with mentors, who are paid staff members typically in their 20s, to monitor their academic success and overall program experience. In addition to these check-ins, mentors run optional workshops, activities and expeditions throughout the semester."

Pitzer student Tatiana Wells comments: “Everybody goes to different colleges, which I wasn’t sure about how that would work out, but honestly, it’s not that different from having a different major than your friend at the same school. We all get up, have breakfast and then you have the whole day to do work or go bouldering or go mountain biking. Kids take trips to the lake and go cliff jumping; we can cook, we do movie nights. If you want to play ultimate frisbee, you put it in the Slack and get a team together, because someone is always down to hang out. If you need a quiet place to work, the entire campus has really good WiFi, and it’s really nice to be outside.”

Campus Takeovers: Unscripted Virtual Tours

University Business: "High schools students who want to see colleges and universities up close must largely view them through a set of scripted virtual tours. But what if they could get a glimpse of campus from an insider, someone who could give them the straight dirt – key pieces of not-so-filtered information? It’s happening, thanks to college-age students who are going live on Instagram (@NSHSS) and giving their take on the unique places and happenings that may not be seen on those university virtual tours. Called 'Campus Takeovers,' It’s part of a new project launched by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS)."

"Two spots have already been done by students – Jay Farrel at the Florida Institute of Technology and Lauren Marquez of the University of California, Riverside. Next up are visits Thursday to Colorado State, Friday to Cornell, Monday to St. Michael’s College and next Friday to Florida Southern. The NSHSS plans to continue them as long as its student members are contributing."

"These are not run-of-the-mill virtual tours or strict walkarounds of the exteriors of campus buildings. These are phone-driven Instagram takes, often with very different looks and commentary." Karen Kane of NSHSS comments: “It’s a little raw. It’s a student or two walking around with their phone in their hand, visiting the points on their campus and talking about it. It’s a little bit more authentic than what you might find from a canned marketing video.”

Top 25: Alumni Rate their Alma Maters

Forbes: "Have you ever wondered what the top colleges and universities would look like if they were ranked based on alumni ratings? Thanks to a recent study derived from the largest source of representative surveying of college graduates, we have a sneak peek into what it might look like. Although you’ll see some familiar names, there are also many surprises ... The data analyzed come from 146,345 college graduates from 2,989 colleges and universities .. based on answers to a series of questions ... such as: You received a high-quality education; You would recommend the educational path you took to other people; You would not be where you are today without your degree; You learned important skills during college courses that you use in your day-to-day life; Your education was worth the cost; If you had to do it all over again, you would attend the same institution."

Here are the top 25 colleges and universities according to alumni ratings: 1) Princeton University; 2) Yale University; 3) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 4) University of Maryland – Baltimore; 5) Duke University; 6) University of Virginia; 7) United States Military Academy; 8) Cornell University; 9) Harvard University; 10) Northwestern Business College; 11) University of La Verne; 12) Colorado School of Mines; 13) Wheaton College; 14) Vanderbilt University; 15) Johns Hopkins University; 16) Emory University; 17)Stanford University; 18) Rice University; 19) Tufts University; 20) Lesley University; 21) Texas A&M University – Kingsville; 22) Azusa Pacific University; 23) University of Chicago: 24) University of California – Berkeley; 25) University of Southern California.

"Remarkably, the tuition range among this top 25 is more than 6x from the least expensive (Texas A&M-Kingsville at $9,136 for in-state students) to the most expensive (University of Chicago at $60,522). This point is a great illustration of what the study also found in debunking the myth that price equals quality in higher education; when it comes to alumni ratings, there is no relationship between price and quality."