YCBK 189: 2U buys Edx to expand online courses

In this episode you will hear:   (13:45) In this week’s “In the news segment, a June 29th, 2021 Harvard Crimson article by Nate Herpich looks at why 2U bought Edx for 800 million dollars, what changes does 2U plan on making,  and how will the money from the sale be used. Mark and Dave explain who Edx and 2U are.  They discuss many of the frequently asked questions that this article tackles. Online courses are growing and this purchase of Edx by 2U will not only help bridge the gap between well-resourced and under-resourced students but it will allow Edx to stay cutting edge with their offerings for all students. Edx has been around since 2012 when MOOC (Massive Open-Online courses) really took off but in recent years it has fallen behind Coursera. This purchase by 2U is going to help learners from all income brackets.     (24:14) Mark and Lisa answer the following question:    Our son loves computer science and programming but also is a voracious reader of literature, history and pretty much everything.  We’ve only recently learned about 3+2 programs where a student could do a few years at a liberal arts college and then finish up at a university for CS. Have you done an episode on this topic?  If not, we’d be interested in hearing more! If you can couple that with a discussion of the schools that participate (seems like Dartmouth and Columbia team up a lot), that would be great.  Also, I can't tell if students apply as incoming freshmen or have to apply once they get to the liberal arts school?  For example, if a student gets into say USC for CS as well as a great liberal arts college but won't know if they can get into a companion engineering program if they are supposed to apply as a rising Sophomore, then it seems really risky to go to the liberal arts college   Mark and Lisa discuss the pros and cons of 3/2 engineering programs.   (45:00) Mark interviews Eric Furda,  who spent over 25 years in high level leadership at both Columbia and Penn. This will be a three-part interview. In Part 2 of 3, Mark asks Eric the following questions:    Preview for Part 2   Eric answers several questions about institutional priorities and he gives an ingenious way for our listeners to know what a school’s institutional priorities are Eric gives advice to any teacher listening about what to focus on when you write a teacher recommendation What is a good AP score? What AP score should a student not submit versus submit? We stay on the topic of test scores and I ask Eric when should a student submit their ACT or SAT scores, and when should they choose to apply test optional?   (56:54) Recommended resource: Dr. Lisa Rouff shares another great resource she introduced Mark to named, Corsava. It is a card sort online test that helps identify the qualities in a college each student will thrive at. Mark and Lisa have Corsava subscriptions and we use this test with all of the students that we counsel. Students enjoy this and it takes only about 12 minutes. https://corsava.com/   (01:10:37) Our college Spotlight goes to Spokane Washington to do a deep dive on Gonzaga University   Follow Mark Stucker on Twitter to get breaking college admission news,  and updates about the podcast before they go live:   Feel free to pass this podcast on to others who you feel will benefit, even if they are not a YCBK listener.   Don't forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: . If you enjoy our podcast, would you please do us a favor and share our podcast both verbally and on social media? We would be most grateful!   Music is by SENA HERO/Victor-Alan Weeks.