106. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at this online resource library: http://fb.me/HOUIYNqq

1. Note to Applicants: Admissions Officers Read What Your Teachers Say About You#more-23693#more-23693 - http://nyti.ms/cJmqjW

‎"Most students want to know if the recommendations matter, if we even read them. At Connecticut College, we require two teacher recommendations, and yes, we read them.Whether or not they matter depends on the quality of the recommendation. A good recommendation — well written with strong praise for the student — will certainly help us make our decision. And, of course, we will take note if the writer has reservations about recommending the student. But if the recommendation is poorly written or clearly a form letter with the name of the student simply filling in a blank (you’d be surprised), we won’t include it in our review. In short, a good recommendation can help, but we don’t hold it against the applicant when we receive a poorly written one."

2. Misplaced From the Start - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/cwGnGr via @addthis

“In the national debates about improving college readiness and increasing college completion, student voices have largely been absent,” said Kathy Reeves Bracco, senior research associate at WestEd and report co-author, in a statement. “Our systems of K-12 education and postsecondary education are not connected and it’s students who pay the price by not being prepared for college.”

3. Calculating the Cost of Dropouts - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/cDEVph via @addthis

"In the report, published today by the American Institutes for Research, Mark D. Schneider, a vice president there and former commissioner of the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics, cites data suggesting that 30 percent of first-year students at four-year colleges do not return to their original institution for a second year, and that states and the federal government provided more than $9 billion in aid to institutions and students to support those students. The critique of the report -- from another leading researcher with a background at the Education Department -- centers on its focus on students who return to their original institution, thus ignoring the many transfer students on whom that first year is not "wasted," as the report suggests."

4. http://huff.to/9EyOOO Huffpost - College Dropouts Cost Taxpayers Billions: Report

"States appropriated almost $6.2 billion for four-year colleges and universities between 2003 and 2008 to help pay for the education of students who did not return for year two, a report released Monday says. In addition, the federal government spent $1.5 billion and states spent $1.4 billion on grants for students who didn't start their sophomore years, according to "Finishing the First Lap: The Cost of First-Year Student Attrition in America's Four-Year Colleges and Universities.". . . The AIR report draws from Department of Education data, which Schneider concedes does not provide a full picture. The figures track whether new full-time students at 1,521 public and private colleges and universities return for year two at the same institution. It doesn't include part-timers, transfers or students who come back later and graduate."

5. http://huff.to/aTXrb8 Huffpost - How to Survive and Have Fun on a College Tour With Your Kid This Fall

‎"But it wasn't the choice of restaurant that was making me so happy this particular Saturday night. It was that we'd survived a day of college touring in Boston without a meltdown, without stalking off a campus, without tears and with everyone still speaking -- and even more surprising, smiling.Anyone who has ever toured colleges with a high school student -- and I was on my third round that Boston weekend -- knows that's no small feat. I've driven four hours to have my son refuse to get out of the car because he didn't like the look of the campus; I've flown halfway across the country to have my daughter bail out before the tour because she didn't like the looks of the other prospective students ("too intense") and because the campus was "too flat." (What did she expect in Chicago anyway?). I've gotten the evil eye from a child when I've asked a question on a tour. (Parents are supposed to be seen and not heard in these situations, I quickly learned.)"

6. 8 Things You Didn't Know About Final Exams http://t.co/5dzYZZA

"At Harvard, for instance, students in a mere 259 of the university’s 1,137 undergraduate courses had to take final exams during the spring semester, according to the Boston Globe. Professors across the country have also been putting less emphasis on finals. At the University of Arizona, about a third of the professors have reduced the value of final exams in students’

grades. Here are seven more things you probably didn’t know about final exams. . . ."

7. In Higher Education, a Focus on Technology: Gates and Hewlett Foundations Focus on Online Learning - http://nyti.ms/aXGT1k

"An initial $20 million round of money, from the Gates Foundation, will be for postsecondary online courses, particularly ones tailored for community colleges and low-income young people.

Another round of grants, for high school programs, is scheduled for next year.

Just how effective technology can be in improving education — by making students more effective, more engaged learners — is a subject of debate. To date, education research shows that good teachers matter a lot, class size may be less important than once thought and nothing improves student performance as much as one-on-one human tutoring."