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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

142. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. College students on break fix others' lives, by Betty Klinck - http://usat.ly/h1QOQ5 - RT @USATODAY

"About 72,000 students went on "alternative" break trips in 2009, most of them spring break. But of 1,430 winter, spring, summer and weekend alternative breaks, about 140 were during winter break, says Samantha Giacobozzi, programs director for Break Away, an alternative-break resource that represents more than 140 participating colleges."

2. To-Do (and To-Don't) Lists for Parents, by Sue Biemeret - http://nyti.ms/fWkQmK

"But you need to let your child be responsible for this process. Sure, he may need some prodding along the way — OK, “prodding” could be euphemistic for “begging and pleading” — but, in the end, this is your child’s college search, not yours. The more you do, the less your child will."

3. Spokesperson Confirms Apollo Layoffs, by Teresa Rivas - http://on.wsj.com/heZvCB

“In recent months, we have accelerated the shift in our approach to student admissions, and have refined our business model. These staffing reductions are intended to better align our operations with these business decisions,” Clark wrote in an email."

4. College Application Essay Increasing in Importance, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/BM9LXKN via @educationweek

"The essay was rated of "considerable importance" in the admission decision by 27 percent of admissions officers in 2009, compared to 14 percent in 1993, according to the 2010 College Admissions Report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. With so many more students applying to college now and increased competition for spots at selective schools, the essay is a quick way to get a thumbnail sketch of an applicant, says David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the NACAC. It's a way to get a sense of the applicant's writing ability and personality, he says."

5. Education Week: Study Points to Fewer 'Dropout Factory' Schools, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/FS6p2gH via @educationweek

‎"The study suggests that a combination of state economic concerns and federal accountability pressure has helped drive up the national graduation rate from 72 percent in 2001 to 75 percent in 2008, the most recent federal graduation estimate. Black, Hispanic, and Native American students made some of the greatest gains, but more than 40 percent of those students still did not graduate on time as of 2008."

6. Workers seek new skills at community colleges, but classes are full, by Peter Whoriskey - http://t.co/z0dlgUi via @washingtonpost

"All over the United States, community college enrollments have surged with unemployed and underemployed people seeking new skills. But just as workers have turned to community colleges, states have cut their budgets, forcing the institutions to turn away legions of students and stymieing the efforts to retrain the workforce."

7. Does It Matter Where You Go to College? - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/dSSsLX

8. What You Do vs. Where You Go, by Marth (Marty) O'Connell - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/fN7ly5

"The key to success in college and beyond has more to do with what students do with their time during college than where they choose to attend. A long-term study of 6,335 college graduates published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that graduating from a college where entering students have higher SAT scores -- one marker of elite colleges -- didn't pay off in higher post-graduation income. Researchers found that students who applied to several elite schools but didn't attend them -- either because of rejection or by their own choice -- are more likely to earn high incomes later than students who actually attended elite schools."

9. Yes, College Choice Makes a Difference, by Richard D. Kahlenberg - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/iag5Ki

"While people might assume that it is harder to get through an academically rigorous college, in fact a student is more likely to graduate from a selective institution than a less selective one, controlling for initial ability. For example, Anthony Carnevale and Jeff Strohl’s Century Foundation study found that among students scoring between 1200 and 1300 on the SAT, 96 percent graduate from the most selective colleges, compared with 78 percent at the least selective."

10. Lifelong Benefit: Access to Money and Power, by Anthony P. Carnevale- Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/eHazJl

"Our dilemma is that, although selective institutions produce excellence, they are also reproducing inequality. The elite colleges are increasingly white and affluent. The least selective four-year colleges and community colleges are increasingly home to disproportionate concentrations of low-income students as well as African-American and Hispanic youth. And less than 5 percent of students at elite colleges come from the bottom quartile of family income."

11. Merit and Race, by Luis Fuentes-Rohwer - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/hoL7WR

"This point raises the question of who is a racial minority worthy of special consideration. For example, fewer and fewer historically disadvantaged African-American students are being admitted to elite colleges. Increasingly, elite colleges are admitting biracial students and first- or second-generation black students from the Caribbean and from Africa. Historically disadvantaged African-American students are being left behind in the elite college lottery. This is a tragedy. This also underscores the remaining importance of our historically black colleges and universities.
The question is similarly complicated with respect to Latino applicants. For example, should Cuban Americans with on average higher socioeconomic status be treated the same as Mexican Americans or Puerto Ricans? How about recent migrants from Central and South America?"

12. Skip the Admissions Game, by Kevin Carey - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/fztWiP

"The only way we know how to rate college quality in this country is by wealth, fame, and exclusivity. But most students -- about four out of five --attend colleges that have modest resources, are easy to get into, and are relatively obscure. Lacking any other way to distinguish among these choices, these students usually attend whichever college is cheapest and closest to home."

13. Graduate School Matters More, by David W. Breneman - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/eFu1DZ

"Performing at a high level in a good quality but not highly prestigious college may give a student a better chance of getting into graduate or professional school than being lost in the middle of the pack in a highly selective institution. The quality of graduate or professional school will matter more in the long run to a student’s success in life than the ranking of the undergraduate college."

14. The Specialization Trade-off, by James Shulman - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/fDx8l3

"Upon graduation, students at these highly selective institutions will find that firms that recruit talented people would rather search in 20 places, which have already sorted people on the basis of talent, than in 200. Being at one of those 20 places puts a person in the field of vision of those who are looking for talent. Because of these opportunities in college and beyond, the scarcest resource an elite college manages is a place in the entering class."

15. U.S. School Graduation Rate Is Found to Be Rising, by Sam Dillon - http://nyti.ms/hFU3kq

"The report cites two statistics. The national graduation rate increased to 75 percent in 2008, from 72 percent in 2001. And the number of high schools that researchers call dropout factories — based on a formula that compares a school’s 12th-grade enrollment with its 9th-grade enrollment three years earlier — declined to about 1,750 in 2008, from about 2,000 such schools in 2002."

16. Diversity Remains Fleeting on College Governing Boards, Surveys Find, by Paul Fain - http://chronicle.com/article/Diversity-Remains-Fleeting-on/125566/

"The older age of board members and their lack of diversity may be related, said Merrill P. Schwartz, the association's director of research and author of the reports. Minorities and women were much less likely to attend college during most trustees' prime college-going years, when many institutions were just beginning to admit them."Our boards look more like folks who graduated college 30 years ago," Ms. Schwartz said."

17. The New Conservative Critique of Higher Education, by Frank Donoghue http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-new-conservative-critique-of-higher-ed/27902

"But to do so we would eventually have to find an alternative to our current byzantine and often life-crushing financial-aid system, so largely dependent on borrowed money. The easy availability of students loans is, I believe, setting the stage for a meltdown similar to the subprime mortgage crisis, as waves of students will graduate unable to pay their debt."




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Monday, November 29, 2010

141. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Court filing reveals for-profit college recruiting tactics, by Paul Koepp http://www.desnews.com/700085300/ - (@deseretnews)

"White said Everest College would buy "leads," or contact information of potential students, for $80 apiece. He was required to call each new lead three times a day for a week, then once a day for the next month. White made up to 600 phone calls each week. He said his managers told him not to delete the numbers of people who asked not to be contacted anymore."

2. What Makes a University Great? by Robert J. Sternberg - Inside Higher Ed - http://t.co/EX9u0TQ

"Typically, land-grant institutions willingly and even gladly will take students with a wider range of grades and test scores because their mission is to provide access, not to restrict entry. A necessary qualification, of course, is that the students admitted are able to do the work, either upon admission or with remediation and enrichment."

3. Kansas Seniors Achieve Perfection on SAT and ACT, by Susanna Baird - http://www.gnn.com/article/kansas-seniors-achieve-perfection-on-sat/1421736

"There must be something in the Kansas corn, because three other current seniors in the town of Blue Valley received 36 on the ACT out of a possible 36 points. Charlie also earned a 2400 out of 2400 on the SAT, placing him in the top 1 percent of college test-takers in America."

4. Universities Tell High Schools Valuable Logos Are Off Limits, by Adam Himmelsbach - http://nyti.ms/fuwUf9

"Universities steadfastly protect their trademarked logos, which appear on everything from oven mitts to underwear, and their reach is increasingly stretching toward high schools. If a school’s logo can be confused with a university’s, or if it is capable of diluting its value, the universities often demand changes."

5. If your child resists college search, by Jay Mathews - http://t.co/gfqnSLw via @washingtonpost

"I call this the boy problem, although I suspect some girls have it, too. When I speak or write on admissions issues, I encounter parents who envy the college eagerness displayed by other students and are driven to despair by the fact that their kid can't be bothered. These reluctant college applicants, at least in my experience, are usually male. We guys mature more slowly. I certainly did."

6. What Tom Friedman got wrong about schools, by Valerie Strauss - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/what-tom-friedman-got-wrong-an.html

"It does mean that leaders who ignore the effects of poverty fail to see the importance of providing proper supports for these children -- meals for the hungry, glasses for the seeing-impaired, etc. And it means that teachers wind up getting blamed for conditions outside the school that greatly affect a child’s ability to progress in algebra."

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Friday, November 26, 2010

140. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Report on College Attendance Crisis for Black Males Exaggerated - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/achievement-gap/report-on-college-attendance-c.html

"The article also referred imprecisely to the significance of the number of black men in college. While black men made up “just 5 percent” of college students in 2008, that figure did not represent one of the areas in which blacks showed a lack of achievement, given that black men make up only about 6.5 percent of the general population."
2. University report: Class of '11 will see slightly better jobs outlook, by Andrew Katz - http://bit.ly/ifypLZ #cnn

"The Recruiting Trends 2010-2011 survey, released November 17, found that overall hiring is expected to grow by 3 percent over last year to provide 122,000 opportunities for graduates across all degree levels. In fact, nearly 72 percent of those positions could be filled at the bachelor's degree level alone, as the entire college labor market is leveraged by an expected 10 percent increase in the hiring of those degree holders, the survey of 4,600 employers says."

3. California State campuses raise tuition in middle of school year, by Michael Martinez - http://bit.ly/9kN1W3 #cnn

"The 5 percent increase will raise tuition from the current $2,115 to $2,220 for the spring semester for full-time undergraduate students. Next fall, full-time undergraduate tuition rise from $4,440 to $4,884 per year. Trustees sought to soften the blow by stating that about half of its undergraduates -- about 180,000 students -- will be fully covered for the tuition increases through financial aid."

4. Experts give tips to college grads seeking first job, by Christine Dugas - RT @USATODAY - http://usat.ly/hpzZSr

"The unemployment rate of Americans ages 20 to 24 has climbed from 8.5% in 2007 to 15% this year at a time the overall unemployment rate hovers just below 10%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Adding to the pressure to get a job, graduates on average are starting out with $24,000 in student loan debt, according to a new report about 2009 from The Project on Student Debt."

5. Students can make up credits online, by Susan Sawyers - RT @USATODAY - http://usat.ly/hxMzAT
"The classes are part of a widening phenomenon called credit recovery — a term that sounds more about erasing debt than advancing education but actually enables troubled students to get credit for classes they've previously failed or didn't complete."
Here are some articles that were posted earlier:


"Seventy percent of California's degree-seeking community college students failed to earn a credential or degree -- or to transfer to four-year universities -- within six years, concludes a new study. Most students drop out quickly, reports the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy. . . ."

7. Failure to educate, by Junia Yearwood - http://b.globe.com/dz8Hmo

"I knew that most of my students who walked across the stage, amidst the cheers, whistles, camera flashes, and shout-outs from parents, family, and friends, were not functionally literate. They were unable to perform the minimum skills necessary to negotiate society: reading the local newspapers, filling out a job application, or following basic written instructions; even fewer had achieved empowering literacy enabling them to closely read, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate text. However, they were all college bound. . . ."

8. Wising Up on STEM Completion - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/903NgE

"According to NSF statistics cited in the AAUW report, despite the fact that women make up the majority of college students generally, only 88,371 of them graduated in STEM fields in 2007, compared to 138,874 of their male counterparts. In 2007, men outnumbered women in science and engineering careers, 73 percent to 27 percent."

9. A Time of Urgency, by Freeman A. Hrabowski III - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/bNqGXs

"Many might be surprised that underrepresented minorities aspire to earn STEM degrees at roughly the same rate as other groups. However, only about 20 percent of underrepresented minority students complete undergraduate STEM programs within five years."

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

139. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Net-Price Calculator: The Latest Buzzword for College-Bound Families, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/dMK35D

‎"It is an online device called the “net price calculator,” and colleges and universities will be required by the federal government to have their own versions on their Web sites beginning late next year. The expectation is that families considering a particular institution will be able to enter basic information — household income, savings, mortgage, number of other family members in college — and a program will respond with estimated costs for that college."


"The median debt of for-profit college graduates -- $31,190 -- far outpaces that of private non-profit college graduates, which stands at $17,040, and is more than triple the median debt for those from public colleges, which is $7,960. The University of Phoenix had one of the lower graduation rates at five percent, though the school said in a statement that when all of its students are accounted for -- not just those in federal data -- its graduation rate for bachelor's degree seekers rises to 36 percent."

3. International Students: 8 Things To Know About Attending American Colleges, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/aqjj4SC

‎"If you want to study abroad in the United States some day, here are eight things that prospective international students need to know:"

4. School Demographics Can Add to Social Cost of Achievement, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/f1eSdef via @educationweek

‎"The authors found black and Native American adolescents each had significantly higher social costs associated with academic success than did white students, and the social cost was greatest for students who were part of a racial minority in a high-achieving school. Interestingly, this occurred whether or not white students or another racial group made up the majority of the students. "The main interpretation is these schools are likely to create a more competitive environment, and any competitive environment will increase tensions between groups," Fuller-Rowell said. Moreover, in a highly competitive school, "It's difficult to achieve highly without engaging in behaviors that are visible to peers" such as speaking out in class or participating in clubs, he said."

5. 12th Grade NAEP Scores Are Meaningless, by Diane Ravitch - http://t.co/jyZjs3X via @educationweek

"The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which oversees NAEP, has known for years that 12th graders don't try to do well on the tests. The students know that the tests don't count, that there are no individual scores, that no one will ever know if they did well or poorly, and they are not motivated to do their best."

6. Harvard Revisits Policy on Early Admissions, by Eric Hoover http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/harvard-u-revisits-policy-on-early-admissions/27740

"William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions and financial aid, told the Crimson that the university was reviewing the success of moving to a single application deadline in 2007. “We’re in the midst of a major study,” Mr. Fitzsimmons said. “At the moment, we don’t anticipate any changes, but we’re a dynamic institution.”

7. This Raging Fire, by Bob Herbert - http://nyti.ms/9Jjsc2

"We know by now, of course, that the situation is grave. We know that more than a third of black children live in poverty; that more than 70 percent are born to unwed mothers; that by the time they reach their mid-30s, a majority of black men without a high school diploma has spent time in prison. We know all this, but no one seems to know how to turn things around. No one has been able to stop this steady plunge of young black Americans into a socioeconomic abyss.
Now comes a report from the Council of the Great City Schools that ought to grab the attention of anyone who cares about black youngsters, starting with those parents who have shortchanged their children on a scale so monstrous that it is difficult to fully grasp. The report, titled “ Call for Change,” begins by saying that “the nation’s young black males are in a state of crisis” and describes their condition as “a national catastrophe.” It tells us that black males remain far behind their schoolmates in academic achievement and that they drop out of school at nearly twice the rate of whites. Black children — boys and girls — are three times more likely to live in single-parent households than white children and twice as likely to live in a home where no parent has full-time or year-round employment. In 2008, black males were imprisoned at a rate six-and-a-half times higher than white males."

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

138. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. U. of Virginia Explains Its Return to Early-Admissions Arena, by Jacques Steinberg -http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/virginia/

‎"The 22,500 students who applied for the 3,240 seats in the current freshman class represented an increase of 4,000, or 22 percent, over applications three years earlier. With U.V.A.’s decision over that same period to accept the Common Application — which helped add to its popularity by making it easier to apply — the institution seemed to have little incentive to bring back early admissions. And yet. . . ."

2. Flogging For-Profit Colleges, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/elgJF2

"The study, released Tuesday by Education Trust, largely repackages previously published data on higher education companies -- their booming enrollments (particularly of minority and low-income students), escalating dependence on federal financial aid, relatively low graduation rates (compared to most public and independent four-year colleges), and high student debt and default levels . . . ."

3. Opening Up Dormitories, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/eOrJmo

"The institutions are a half mile apart, Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti and Washtenaw in Ann Arbor. The university is also the top transfer destination of students from the community college. But when Eastern Michigan had extra dorm space to spare, the two institutions drew even closer. “They approached us,” said Linda Blakey, Washtenaw associate vice president of student services, of Eastern Michigan officials."

4. College Student Borrowing On The Rise: Pew Report - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/college-student-borrowing_n_787587.html

"The rise in attendance numbers at private, for-profit colleges has caused the uptick in student borrowing, Pew reports: Over the past decade, the private for-profit sector has expanded more rapidly than either the public or private not-for-profit sectors. In 2008, these institutions granted 18% of all undergraduate awards, up from 14% in 2003."

5. Rise of College Student Borrowing, by Rebecca Hinze-Pifer & Richard Fry http://pewsocialtrends.org/2010/11/23/the-rise-of-college-student-borrowing/

‎"Undergraduate college student borrowing has risen dramatically in recent years. Graduates who received a bachelor’s degree in 20081 borrowed 50% more (in inflation-adjusted dollars) than their counterparts who graduated in 1996, while graduates who earned an associate’s degree or undergraduate certificate in 2008 borrowed more than twice what their counterparts in 1996 had borrowed. . . ."

6. Where College Hoops Reign Supreme: Best Colleges for Basketball Fans - http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/best-colleges-to-attend-for-basketball-fans/

"There are many students that choose a college based on the quality of a school’s athletic program. If you’re one of those students looking for a school with a top-notch basketball team, this list is for you."

7. Don't Let the Student Loan Crisis Kill Families, by Jennifer Openshaw - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-openshaw/act-now-to-avoid-college-_b_786531.html

"As students take on more debt -- $14,000 on average for those earning just associate degrees at the for-profits -- the default rates are growing. Some $275 billion in loans made to students at for-profit colleges will default over the next 10 years. In fact, these for-profit universities represent 10% of all university students, yet they account for 43% of all student-loan defaults, according to the Department of Ed. . . ."

8. International Students: Who Is Attending American Universities, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/JEdmr8m

"The influx of international students is hardly new. Since 2006, every college admission cycle has attracted more foreign students who are eager to study in the United States. Chinese students are the biggest source of international students by far, according to the annual Open Doors report conducted by the Institute of International Education."

9. Report Finds Low Graduation Rates at For-Profit Colleges, by Tamar Lewin - http://nyti.ms/fqGCuv

"A new report on graduation rates at for-profit colleges by a nonprofit research and advocacy group charges that such colleges deliver “little more than crippling debt,” citing federal data that suggests only 9 percent of the first-time, full-time bachelor’s degree students at the University of Phoenix, . . . ."

10. Report Faults For-Profit Colleges As Providers of 'Subprime Opportunity', by Kevin Kiley - http://chronicle.com/article/Report-Faults-For-Profit/125486/

"The report finds that, on average, only 22 percent of students who enroll in four-year-degree programs at for-profit colleges graduate within six years, compared with 55 percent and 65 percent at public and private nonprofit colleges, respectively. But there was wide variation within the for-profit sector."







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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

137. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Poor Ratings for 'U.S. News' Rankings, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/etzstP

‎"The National Association for College Admission Counseling conducted the survey, part of a series of research efforts related to the rankings and leading to a full report next year. The survey was conducted both of high school counselors and of college admissions officials -- and both groups expressed low regard for the U.S. News rankings, while acknowledging their impact, which may even be growing."

2. Modest Gains for Black Colleges Online, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gtOGhG

“In their search for ways to increase their enrollments,” Beasley writes, “the private HBCUs that hitherto have shown little or no interest in meeting the continuing education needs of non-traditional African American students are now giving serious consideration to online programs, not only as a potential source of sorely needed additional revenue, but also as a source of additional enrollments that would help them justify their continued existence. ”Still, the growth in the number of private HBCUs that offer online programs — from two to six since 2006 — has been modest. And the overall proportion of historically black institutions offering online degree programs (defined as having 80 percent or more of the coursework of at least one academic program delivered online) remains low. Of the nation’s 105 HBCUs, only 19 offer online degrees — 18 percent. (Of the 40 public HBCUs, 13 have at least one online program, up from 10 in 2006.)"

3. Student Debt and the Class of 2009 - http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/classof2009.pdf


"The Project on Student Debt's recent report (PDF) on student debt and the class of 2009 examined which schools left their students owing the most money -- and which schools left students with their pockets a little fuller. According to the report, members of the class of 2009 graduated school owing an average of $24,000 -- a six percent increase from the previous year. If you're looking for a college that won't break the bank, gaze westward: most of the low-debt schools can be found in the on the left side of the Mississippi. Below, we outline the 13 institutions that had the lowest per-student debt averages last year."

5. How Are the Kids? Unemployed, Underwater, and Sinking, by Mark Paul and Anastasia Wilson: http://t.co/AzzbQvM

"The U3 measure also does not count underemployment, yet with only 50% of B.A. holders able to find jobs requiring such a degree, underemployment rates are a telling index of the squeezing of the 18-30 year old Millennial generation. While it appears everyone is hurting since the financial collapse, young adults bear a disproportionate burden, constituting just 13.5% of the workforce while accounting for 26.4% of those unemployed. Even with good credentials, it is difficult for young people to find work and keep themselves afloat. . . . Jobs aren’t the whole story. Recent college graduates, those in the labor force with the freshest batch of knowledge and skills, are currently underwater and sinking fast with unprecedented student loan and personal debt. Average student debt for the class of 2008 was $23,200, an increase over four years of about 25%, meaning that students are knee deep in negative equity between their educational investment and actual earnings."

6. Kelli Space, $200,000 In Debt, Starts Site to Solicit Donations - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/22/kelli-space-two-hundred-thousand-in-debt_n_787074.html

‎"I was 18 and the first person in my family (including extended family!) to attend college. Therefore, not only was excitement consuming me, but my parents didn't exactly know how college would or wouldn't affect my salary in the future. We applied for scholarships during the summer but they heard -- as much as I did -- that cost of tuition should never keep you from attending a great school. So... we made the mistake of following such romantic advice. Cue regret."

7. 10 Cheapest and Most Expensive College Towns, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/tGrZI0r

‎"A growing number of parents, according to a Coldwell Banker survey, believe it’s a better idea to buy a house when their child goes off to college rather than picking up the tab for room and board. A Coldwell Banker survey of real estate agents who sell property in college towns reports that 64% of them have seen a significant number of parent investors. If the idea intrigues you, here are the top 10 cheapest and most expensive college town markets among the 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The prices are based on the average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bath home."

8. College Costs, the Sequel, by Stanley Fish - http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/college-costs-the-sequel/

"The list price is the tuition published in the catalog, and frequently this list price bears little relationship to the price that the student’s family actually pays. Much of this charge is covered by grants of some kind: private scholarships, and tuition discounts offered by the schools themselves. The net tuition is the price paid after all discounts. DGA explained this very well. Alarm over rising list price is misplaced angst.In addition, much of the “crisis” people perceive is driven by stories of astronomical tuition at elite private schools. But fewer than 10 percent of the students enrolled at four-year universities attend schools whose list-price tuition and fees exceed $33,000. Over 47 percent attend schools whose published tuition and fees total less than $9,000 per year."

9. "College wasn’t even a part of my vocabulary," by Teng Yang http://chronicle.com/article/Say-Something-From-a-Refugee/125454/

"In this episode, we hear from Teng Yang, a senior at Brown University, about his journey from a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand, to the United States (with 20 brothers and sisters), to college."







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Monday, November 22, 2010

136. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

Follow the most important stories on college admissions and financial aid on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rottenbornj

For links to articles on college admissions and financial aid, you can "friend" Joe Rottenborn at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544


You can join the group MVCAP Financial-Aid Friends at this page: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=126580419181
1. Four Sure-Fire Ways to Derail Your College Search, by Sue Biemeret http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/biemeret-3/#more-24669

‎"My mantra is simple: “The school that fits you best is the best school for you.” When a student finds a college that fits him academically, socially, emotionally and financially — and the college feels the exact same way about that student — fit happens and the college admission “game” is a win/win. But it’s so easy to stray off course, to make things other than fit matter. And when that happens, the college search can get messy, uncomfortable and just plain wrong. In that spirit, here are four easy ways to derail the college search:"

2. Consensus or Groupthink? - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/9p5Pet

"The convergence around the "college completion agenda" -- put simply, the now widely held view that the country must in the next 10-15 years significantly increase the number of Americans with a quality postsecondary credential -- has been driven by many factors, most notably the imprimatur of President Obama within the first weeks of his term. But arguably even more important has been the fact that the country's highest-profile foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the most visible foundation focused primarily on higher education, the Lumina Foundation for Education, have both thrust college completion to the top of their agendas."

3. Colleges Ask Prospective Students Creative Essay Questions http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/19/most-creative-college-ess_n_785443.html

"The University of Chicago is also famous for its unorthodox questions. According to the school's admissions homepage, the admissions essay is "an opportunity for students to tell us about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions. They can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between."

4. Top 10 Ways to Improve Students' Achievement and Create Learners - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pam-lowe/top-10-ways-to-improve-st_b_786205.html

"One of the major negatives is that change is rarely welcome. People tend to like the status quo and do not want the apple cart overturned. Our first year was fraught with change; change in vision, strategies, instructional methods and materials. Through it all, our staff preserved as we worked on our improvement. Over the course of my educational experience I've collected a list of criteria that I believe create an atmosphere ripe for improving student achievement. Here I will call it: Top 10 Ways to Improve Student Achievement and Create LearnersDisclaimer: This is by no means all that schools should be doing. Note that these are broad actions; there are many more detailed actions that need to be taken."

5. Early Decision Applications Are Soaring: Here's Why, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/d7Dtu6J

"Many elite schools that accept early decision and/or early action applications are experiencing more students applying to college through the early bird options. Vanderbilt University, for instance, received 1,666 early decision applications this year, which represents a 30% jump. Northwestern University’s early decision applications (2,127) soared 26% and the University of Chicago’s early action applications increased 18.5%.Students are applying earlier because at many schools they enjoy a greater chance of acceptance. Some schools are filling half of their classes with students who apply to college early."

6. Rise in College Applications Raises Concerns About Access, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/2C5IHhX via @educationweek

"With the rise in applications for admission, more colleges are rejecting more students and becoming more selective. The report suggests this could close doors of opportunity for more low-income, first-generation students in all sectors, as these students typically are less certain of their academic goals, received less rigorous college preparation, and have more difficulty negotiating the college bureaucracies. Applying to more schools only to be rejected by more institutions also makes the application process more costly for students and schools, the report notes. While applying to more schools may give students more options for the best fit or the best financial aid package, the report shows growing evidence that financial aid investments are outstripping investments in teaching and learning in the classroom, ultimately canceling out the students' advantage."

7. Teaching for America, by Thomas L. Friedman - http://nyti.ms/dp5tJa

"Here are a few data points that the secretary of education, Arne Duncan, offered in a Nov. 4 speech: “One-quarter of U.S. high school students drop out or fail to graduate on time. Almost one million students leave our schools for the streets each year.... One of the more unusual and sobering press conferences I participated in last year was the release of a report by a group of top retired generals and admirals. Here was the stunning conclusion of their report: 75 percent of young Americans, between the ages of 17 to 24, are unable to enlist in the military today because they have failed to graduate from high school, have a criminal record, or are physically unfit.” America’s youth are now tied for ninth in the world in college attainment."

"Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks — and less able to sustain attention. “Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”

9. Download or print the free MVCAP Powerpoint presentation "Paying for College" at our site: http://issuu.com/mvcap/docs/paying_for_college

10. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily for today's top stories on college admissions/financial aid in newsletter form - http://paper.li/rottenbornj
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Friday, November 19, 2010

135. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Early-Decision Applications Surge at Vanderbilt, George Washington and Dartmouth, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/c5CyHv

"I note, in scrolling through the nearly three dozen institutions (and counting) represented on the chart above, that binding early submissions to Vanderbilt are up more than 30 percent; those to George Washington are up nearly 20 percent; and that Dartmouth has seen an increase of nearly 14 percent. (Blogger’s disclosure: I am a Dartmouth graduate.)Bucknell (30 percent); Lehigh (14 percent); and Bowdoin (10 percent) also caught my eye. They join Northwestern (now reporting a 26 percent increase) and the University of Pennsylvania (18 percent), which I wrote about last week. As noted eloquently by several commenters in response to last week’s post, binding early programs continue to be a lightning rod for families and counselors; an applicant who applies under such a program, and commits to attend if accepted, loses the ability to not only field financial aid offers from other colleges, but also forfeits at least some potential leverage to persuade that institution to sweeten its scholarship. . . ."

2. Context on Admissions Jumps - Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/zFifUGf

"A report being issued today by the National Association for College Admission Counseling says that it is true that colleges are receiving many more applications than in the past -- and that part of the phenomenon is linked to top students applying to more colleges than they used to, and top colleges receiving more applications than they used to. Still, the NACAC report is very much a "yes but" on the question of whether the increases in applications are really about the frenzy to get into the most competitive colleges. Many of the largest increases in applications are at less selective institutions seeing increased numbers of high school graduates in some areas, and increased numbers of Latino and black applicants in other cases."


"According to a recent report from the Project on Student Debt, the average 2009 college graduate with $24,000 in debt -- an increase of six percent from the prior year. Using Peterson's data, the report also researched which colleges leave the students in most debt. Some schools, like the Cleveland Institute of Art, average more than $60,000 worth of debt per student. See the 13 schools that leave students in the most debt below."


"Analysis of approximately 4,600 employers reveals that the job-market rebound can be attributed to a cessation of hiring freezes among larger companies as well as growth in small, fast-growth businesses. The report's principal investigator, Phil Gardner, says he expects to see the largest increase in jobs for college grads in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. The industries expected to lead in hiring are manufacturing, professional services, commercial banking and federal government."

5. Entry level jobs: 8 Things You Need to Know, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/DJCE7qu

‎"Here’s the good news: more employers expect to be hiring college grads than last year. That’s one of the take-home messages of a new comprehensive survey of jobs for college graduates that Michigan State University conducted. The annual survey, which is the biggest of its kind, surveyed 4,600 employers about their hiring prospects. Here’s what the survey says about entry-level jobs for new college graduates:"


"The rise in applications at community colleges, for-profit institutions and less-selective public institutions appears to be a result of the increasing sizes over the years of graduating high school classes, and there has been growth in the number of applicants who are Hispanic and black, students who are more likely from moderate- and low-income families with less rigorous academic preparation. Many of these institutions have been hard hit by the economic downturn, and research shows that many of these underfunded public schools lack resources to meet the needs of their growing student bodies. At the more selective schools, applications have been rising apparently because each student is applying to a greater number of schools."


"The report suggests that the long-term rise in the number of high-school graduates pursuing higher education—particularly Hispanic students whose parents did not attend college—explains much of the recent increases at two-year colleges and less-selective four-year institutions. Meanwhile, a rising number of students applying to multiple institutions explains the increases at more-selective colleges and universities, the report says. At the same time, admissions offices have helped create the application monster with their recruiting and marketing practices, and many colleges have made applying to college quick and easy—not to mention free—in hopes of attracting more students. On most campuses, the relentless search for more and better applicants (encompassing the nation, if not the globe) serves altruistic goals as well as competitive ones."

8. Tuition Discounts Up at Public Colleges, Could Be Costly, by Rachel Louise Ensign - http://chronicle.com/article/Tuition-Discounts-Rise-at/125439/

"Increasing the discount rate, or the percentage of tuition covered by institutional aid from the operating budget, initially earns a public four-year college more revenue per student, according to research being presented on Thursday by Nicholas W. Hillman, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Utah, at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. But once the discount rate rises above 13 percent—as it is has done at a number of public colleges, Mr. Hillman says—the financing approach earns less of a payoff.Mr. Hillman studied 174 public colleges and universities, finding that they had an average discount rate of 12.3 percent in 2008."

9. Colleges' own recruiting may push students to spread applications around, by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/DKdmlqe via @washingtonpost

"Application inflation" is one of the most widely discussed but poorly documented trends in college admissions. Applications rose 47 percent at public colleges and 70 percent at private colleges between fall 2001 and fall 2008, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Arlington County. In a new report, "Putting the College Admissions 'Arms Race' in Context," the group attempts to explain the unprecedented jump. Admissions officers point to a steady increase in the number of students applying to eight, 10 or 15 schools, particularly among top students courting selective colleges. The 34-page report suggests that application inflation is a phenomenon largely confined to selective colleges, whose applicants hope to raise their chances by applying to more schools. Colleges feed the frenzy by recruiting heavily - and unnecessarily, the authors contend."

10. Thanks but No Thanks, NAEP, by Chester E. Finn, Jr. http://bit.ly/aTqy3o

"The big news, alas, isn’t news at all, which is that proficiency levels remain dreadfully low in both reading and math (worse in math), that gains have been tiny, that college readiness is nowhere near what it ought to be, that the achievement gap hasn’t narrowed by a micron, and that an awful lot of spending and reforming and earnest hard work has not yet paid off for a country that needs fundamentally different outcomes for K-12 education."

11. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily for today's top stories on college admissions/financial aid in newsletter form - http://paper.li/rottenbornj


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Thursday, November 18, 2010

134. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. College job market to see slight rebound MSU News Michigan State University http://t.co/122LM4m

"Overall hiring is expected to increase 3 percent, with bachelor’s-level and MBA-level hiring both surging 10 percent, said Phil Gardner, director of MSU’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute, which conducted the survey of some 4,600 employers. Geographically, the Great Lakes region, which took the brunt of the recession, will see a robust 13 percent increase in bachelor’s-level hiring, which is tops in the nation, Gardner predicts. The region consists of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.But the good news should be taken with a word of caution, Gardner said. An uptick in job growth is simply the first step out of a very deep hole, he said, and hardly represents a return to the heady economic days of the late 1990s and early 2000s."

2. How to Define College Readiness? Good Question, by Catherine Gewertz http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2010/11/lest_you_harbor_any_doubt.html

"What happened here? The Tribune analyzed how ACT's "college readiness benchmarks" lined up with schools' own ideas of their students' preparedness. At some of Illinois' most well-regarded high schools, as it turns out, rather substantial portions of students are falling short of the ACT's benchmarks, which are supposed to indicate how ready they are to succeed in entry-level credit-bearing college coursework.Predictably, this sort of thing can prompt some squirming and defensiveness in high schools that are used to elite distinctions. But it takes us back to that persistent question: Exactly how do you define college readiness?"

3. UVA Announces Early-Action Plan, by Eric Hoover http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/uva-announces-early-action-plan/27710

"In 2011, early applicants would apply to Virginia by November 1 and receive a decision in January. Successful applicants would have until May 1 to accept or decline their admission offers, and they would be able to apply to other colleges—under early-action, early-decision, or regular-decision programs. Several selective colleges have some version of an early-action program, but restrictions vary. Georgetown University, for instance, tells its early applicants that they may apply to other colleges’ early-action and regular-decision plans, but not to a binding early-decision plan.Greg Roberts, Virginia’s dean of admission, said he and his staff considered a variety of early programs over the last six months. “This provides the most flexibility and freedom for students,” he says. “It’s the type of plan that will result in the most diverse applicant pool.”

4. Black Students’ Proficiency: Cutting to the Chase, by John Jensen http://www.educationnews.org/ed_reports/education_organizations/102927.html

"African-American boys especially need deliberate retention of knowledge. Consider the kid and the bicycle accident we noted above. What’s the equivalent of an educational 911 call for the kindergartner already way behind? It’s to replace an osmosis model with a retention model. This becomes particularly obvious when the deficit can be clearly diagnosed and the diagnosis tells us what’s missing. If he’s missing a thousand words of vocabulary, a thousand words spelled, a thousand pages read, and a thousand number sets processed, is there a mystery here requiring a multi-year study? That his mother wasn’t swift at math, his dad is overseas, and his brothers are into sports doesn’t change his deficit. Call 911. If it’s a mystery to anyone exactly what the median, standard response is to repair the educational equivalent of a broken bone, our system is much worse off than anyone is facing. More of an osmosis model is not an adequate substitute for an effective retention model applied student by student."

5. Nearly one-third of students studied online last year - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/collegeinc/2010/11/survey_nearly_13_of_students_s.html

"The survey is a collaboration between the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board and is "the leading barometer of online learning in the United States," according to a release. For-profit colleges and career-oriented public campuses have been swift to embrace online learning. Prestigious public and private colleges have been slower. It was a big deal last year when the University of North Carolina appeared to become the first flagship public school to require students to take a class -- Spanish 101 -- online."


"Today's guest blogger is Jimmy Mayers, a senior English major at St. Lawrence University in New York. Before you tense up, close your eyes, take a deep breath. The college essay is one of the most famous parts of the college application -- and for good reason. Here you can paint a picture of yourself that stands out from the numbers in your test scores and transcripts. So, if you're nervous about writing your college essay, change gears. Suspend your disbelief, as any good literature teacher would say, and accept for a moment that you're going to write a great college essay. Here are a few pointers:"

7. The Most Political Colleges: Top 10 Schools Where Students Follow The Beltway As Closely As Their Studies Unigo http://t.co/SEJcIuu

"As students, political activism is a compelling way to bring that entire body of knowledge together and truly make a difference. While some say activism during the collegiate years is declining, over 30,000 student votes paint a different picture, one in which political activity is a vibrant, integral part of the academic experience."

8. Jocktastic! Top 10 Schools Where Sports Rule Unigo http://t.co/Hjcs3XY

"Sure, there are some students who chose to observe sports from afar (or not at all), but for most, being obsessed with college sports is a way of life. We scored 30,000 student votes to identify the Top 10 Schools where the Big Game is a Really Big Deal."

9. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily for today's top stories on college admissions/financial aid in newsletter form - http://paper.li/rottenbornj





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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

133. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Your Comments on ‘Clicking’ in Class, by Jacques Steinberg http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/clicking-comment/#more-25011

‎"We’ve received a range of responses from readers — particularly teachers and students — on the growing use of remote-control-style “clickers” in classrooms, particularly lecture halls but in smaller classrooms, too. Many of the nearly 100 comments we’ve posted contained strong opinions, but no perspective was dominant."

2. Community Colleges Push Back - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/axW9cy

"The primary difference between the two sectors, the brief says, is oversight. Whereas community colleges are governed by publicly elected or appointed boards of trustees, for-profit institutions are owned “either by individuals, partnerships, or collaboratives or are corporations that may be publicly traded.” Publicly traded for-profit institutions, the brief continues, “have grown in size and prominence and begun to dominate the sector.” For example, in the fall of 2008, 10 of the largest publicly traded institutions enrolled about half of all students in the for-profit sector.The two sectors also serve different populations in different ways. For instance, community colleges have long enrolled the largest number of students of any sector in higher education. In fall 2008, community colleges enrolled 44 percent of all undergraduates in higher education — about 7.3 million students.By comparison, enrollment at for-profit institutions is much lower, but has grown substantially. . . ."

3. Can Less Mean More In College Application Race? by Eric Gorski http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/16/college-admissions-2010_n_784485.html

"As acceptance rates go lower, families feel like they have to make it up with quantity," said Michael Acquilano, college counselor at Staten Island Academy, a private college prep school in New York. "They throw 15 applications out there and see what goes in. "The growth of the Common Application – which makes it possible to apply to more schools with a touch of a button – plus easy online applications and some colleges' aggressive marketing of free "fast apps" that arrive unsolicited in students' mailboxes are all contributing to the rise in applications.Colleges want to boast about how sought-after and selective they are – and possibly move up the U.S. News and World Report rankings that hold sway over so many families. Admissions officers that don't keep numbers up run the risk of unemployment and lower bond ratings for their schools.The result: 23 percent of high school seniors applied to six or more colleges last year, a huge jump from 13 percent in 2000 . . . ."

4. Kicking Unpopular College Majors to the Curb, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/s09UpZR

"We’re talking about a heap of languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Latin, French, and college majors like the Classics and Philosophy. I was reminded of this sad phenomenon this morning when I heard a National Public Radio segment on SUNY Albany, which has decided to axe some of its foreign language offerings."

5. California Court Backs Illegal Immigrant Students, by Ian Lovett http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/us/16immig.html?_r=1&hpw

“This law makes higher education affordable for so many students who have the added difficulty of not being eligible for federal financial aid,” said Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “If they are both ineligible for aid and then face higher tuition rates, it becomes virtually impossible for students to go on to higher education.”


"In fall 2009, colleges—including public, nonprofit private, and for-profit private institutions—reported that one million more students were enrolled in at least one Web-based course, bringing the total number of online students to 5.6 million. That unexpected increase—which topped the previous year’s 17-percent rise—may have been helped by higher demand for education in a rocky economy and an uptick in the number of colleges adopting online courses.Although the survey found sustained interest in online courses across all sectors, there was a spike in the number of for-profit institutions—a 20-percent increase over last year—that said online education is critical to their long-term strategies. However, more public colleges than private for-profits—74.9 percent versus 60.5 percent—say it’s part of their long-term plans."

7. Kaplan's CEO Faces Tough Questions From Public-University Leaders, by Paul Fain - http://chronicle.com/article/Kaplans-CEO-Faces-Tough/125405/

"He acknowledged problems had occurred at for-profits, saying he was "personally appalled and embarrassed" by a recent Government Accountability Office investigation that found deceptive recruiting practices on two Kaplan campuses, as well as at other for-profit institutions. Kaplan later suspended enrollments on those campuses. However, Mr. Rosen took issue with the Education Department's proposed "gainful employment" rule, which would cut off federal student aid to programs whose graduates have high debt-to-income ratios and low loan-repayment rates. Mr. Rosen said that the rule would unfairly penalize lower-income students, and that the current proposal had a 99-percent correlation between repayment rates and the percentage of Pell Grant-eligible students at an institution."

8. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily for today's top stories on college admissions/financial aid in newsletter form - http://paper.li/rottenbornj







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