Things I Know 213 of 365: Our reported diversity is…well…diverse

Armageddon is not around the corner. This is only what the people of violence want us to believe. The complexity and diversity of the world is the hope for the future.

– Michael Palin

Wednesday included orientation for all new Harvard Ed School students. Rather than commentary, which I’m sure will work its way in here eventually, I thought I’d blast out some of the demographics shared with us by Associate Dean for Enrollment and Student Services Mohan Boodram.

Admissions Committees: 15

New students: 685

New master’s students: 620

Certificate of advanced studies students: 11

Ed.Ld. students: 25

Ed.D. students: 29

U.S. Students: 86%

States represented: 43

Countries represented: 38

Students of color: 31%

Female students: 73%

Avg. work experience: 5 yrs.

Median age: 28

Students who are parents: 9%

Most common male name: Christopher

Most common female name: Jennifer

Those were the pieces formally reported to and compiled by the admissions office.

As part of an introductory seminar on multiculturalism, clickers were handed out and we self-reported on our demos.

Students who studied at public schools: 66%

Students who studied at private religious schools: 10%

Students who studied at private non-religious schools: 23%

(I’m fairly certain those were in reference to our K-12 education.)

We also learned how those number settle across the U.S.:

Public: 89%

Private religious: 9%

Private non-religious: 2%

First in there family to earn a bachelor’s degree: 16%

Across the United States, 27.2% of people have a bachelor’s.

Sexual orientation:

Straight: 90%

Gay/Lesbian: 4%

Bisexual: 2%

Transgendered: 0%

Questioning: 3%

Political make-up:

Very Conservative: 2%

Conservative: 10%

Centrist: 24%

Liberal: 49%

Very Liberal: 16%

Across the country:

Conservative/Very Conservative: 42%

Moderate: 35%

Liberal/Very Liberal: 20%

Charter opinion:

For: 57%

Against: 11%

Undecided: 32%

(I’ve got some thoughts on how this question was asked, and I’ll share those later.)

The whole process was fascinating. I’m still working out what it means (if anything) to be a part of this specific mix of people.

Oh, as an added bonus, we later got the breakdown of students within the Education Policy and Management program:

Average work experience: 4.6 yrs.

Age: 27

Students of color: 34%

International students: 3.1%

States represented: 29

Female students: 64%

Total students: 88

Part-time students: 2

What are the implications of all of this? Does it help me understand anything that’s about to happen in the next 9 months, or does it give me a false sense of understanding the people with whom I’ll be studying?