See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap1. Should free college be part of education? Plain Talk by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY Founder, RT @USATODAY - http://usat.ly/c4snA7
"Is it time to make tuition free in public colleges and universities? Of course. Here's why and how: Families are spending an average of $64 billion in tuition a year to send 13.9 million students to public colleges and universities. For the last 10 years, we have spent $1.1 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an average of more than a $110 billion annually. Get it: $64 billion annually for higher education; $110 billion annually for wars. In addition to that staggering money cost, those two wars have cost us 5,663 military lives. Many of those killed in the wars were college-age men and women.The war costs are paid for through some present taxes and mostly debts piled up for future generations.The college costs are paid for by parents and/or longtime debts for graduating students."
2. Internal Barriers to Online Expansion - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/bwj6k2
"The biggest factors holding back the expansion of online programs at the 183 responding colleges? Lack of instructors and support personnel (61 percent) and budget cuts (56 percent). In a presumably related pattern, 67 percent reported having growth plans fettered by “[s]tudent demand for online courses which exceeds capacity to provide these courses. ”In other words, the pace at which colleges expand their online arms now depends largely on internal politics and how much money administrators can wrangle from their depleted coffers. And if there is opposition, the call is likely to be coming from inside the house. Many institutions see online expansion as a good way to increase tuition revenue in light of reduced giving, shrunken endowments, and stingy statehouses."
3. 11 Colleges That Do Not Require SAT For Admission http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/11-colleges-that-do-not-r_n_782187.html#s179417
"Although initially introduced as a means of providing all applicants an equal shot at being accepted, some universities believe the SAT's democratic goals have gone awry. Students have to pay a fee to take it, and those who can afford to usually enroll in expensive prep courses or hire a private tutor. A number of researchers have concluded that a student's high school GPA is as good an indicator of performance in college as the SAT. Some institutions, like Wake Forest University, found that dropping the SAT requirement increased their student body's diversity -- the percentage of undergraduate minority students rose from 18 to 23 percent once Wake Forest joined the ranks of SAT-free schools. According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, at least 775 American colleges and universities are now test optional. Below, check out eleven competitive institutions where most -- if not all -- standardized tests are not required for admission."
4. Want to Live the American Dream? You Might Have to Move to UK, by Jane White - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-white/want-to-live-the-american_b_782324.html
"Compare what the Brits are mad at with what we put up with -- in the U.S. the cost of college can top $50,000 at a private college and typically half that in a public school. This wasn't always the case. A generation ago, college costs were not only lower but federal grants accounted for 70 percent of the cost of a degree; now loans make up 64% of the cost. And our next Speaker of the House, John Boehner, made no bones about taking donations from the student loan industry when he was minority leader, the lenders that make college even MORE expensive, profiting from interest rates that we subsidize."
5. We Get It. College Is Great. But So Is Welding, by Michael N. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-n-smith/we-get-it-college-is-grea_b_773055.html
"College is the answer for some, just not for everyone. It also works the other way. Skilled trades are the answer for some, but not all. I think we are failing our younger generations by having unrealistic expectations. What would happen if a guidance counselor told the valedictorian they will be a failure if they didn't learn to weld? That would be crazy. Their parents would be appalled. But we do exactly the same thing to other students when we say they "need" to go to college and it's considered okay. Not all students have the same skills. The truth is we aren't all equal and that's OK."
6. As For-Profit Colleges' Enrollment Slows, Industry May Be At Brink of a Major Reset, by Goldie Blumenstyk http://chronicle.com/article/For-Profit-Colleges-May-Be-at/125379/
"ITT Educational Services reported that the number of new students at its campuses declined by 3.9 percent over the previous year. Corinthian Colleges Inc. said it expected declines of 5 percent to 7 percent this year. Strayer Education reported a 2-percent decline. DeVry Inc. and Capella Education both said they expected new enrollment would be down slightly from the previous year.The biggest changes occurred at the biggest for-profit institution. The University of Phoenix said the 92,000 new degree-seeking students it enrolled in the quarter that ended August 31 represented a 10-percent decline from the previous year. More telling, the university's parent company, the Apollo Group, said it expected its new-student enrollment could drop by more than 40 percent in the quarter ending November 30, as it radically revamps its enrollment machine in response to new federal regulations and what company executives describe as a transition for the company's business model."
7. 'The Washington Post' and the Perils of For-Profit Colleges, by Stephen Burd http://chronicle.com/article/The-Washington-Postthe/125270/
"It's hardly a secret that the Washington Post Company owns Kaplan Inc., one of the largest for-profit-college chains in the country. Kaplan, in fact, accounts for 62 percent of the parent company's total revenue. Late last week the Post reported that overall revenue from its Kaplan division rose to $743-million, up 9 percent over the same period last year. Recognizing the outsize role that Kaplan plays in keeping the newspaper afloat, Donald E. Graham, the company's chairman and chief executive, declared in 2007 that the Washington Post Company was now "an education and media company."Less widely known are the Post's ties to Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit higher-education company that serves about 110,000 students at more than 100 colleges in the United States and Canada. The newspaper company purchased nearly seven million shares of Corinthian Colleges' stock in 2008, giving it an 8-percent ownership stake in a company that appears to be among those most in jeopardy. . . ."
8. Best Majors for Big Paychecks http://bit.ly/8Zj4lK RT @newsweek
"The number of openings for new B.A.s shrank by an estimated 22 percent last year, according to the National Association of Colleges, and with only slight improvement this year, unemployment for degree-holding early-20-somethings has remained above 7 percent. That means many new grads may find themselves poolside after all—only it won't be out of choice. Some caveats: the figures are self-reported and limited to people with a B.A. only (which means lawyers, doctors, and anyone with an advanced degree are not included). More important, salary reflects career choice as much as the financial merits of a particular major."
9. Top 2,000 Colleges: MIT, Stanford, Caltech Top Latest College Ranking List http://www.educationnews.org/higher_education/top_2000_colleges.html
"The web site StateUniversity.com unveiled its latest college rankings list this week. The list ranks 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities based on a formula that weighs student retention, standardized test scores, student/teacher ratios, and other factors.StateUniversity.com, a web site that provides information about thousands of post-secondary educational institutions, first released a college ranking list in 2009."
10. ACT: Most high school juniors not college-ready in Illinois - Educators criticize ACT benchmarks chicagotribune.com http://bit.ly/bTWI4D
"The readiness numbers generated skepticism and even heated criticism from some educators who questioned ACT's benchmarks, though schools were hard-pressed to explain why their students weren't considered prepared. The nonprofit ACT company stands by its readiness scores: at least 18 in English, 21 in reading, 22 in math and 24 in science. The top possible score is 36. Paul Weeks, an assistant vice president at ACT, said students who don't meet those scores may find themselves in remedial courses or struggling in regular college classes."I will hear a story about a student who maybe fell far short of one or two or three benchmarks and went on to college and did well," Weeks said. "But when we look across all the data, that is not the case." School officials insisted that their graduates do, in fact, go off to college and do well — though that information comes from student surveys and anecdotes."
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