297. Summer College News

Here are some links to today's stories

about college access and success.

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. NCAA cost-of-attendance puzzle: many schools, many methods, by Calder Silcox, Steve Berkowitz, and Jodi Upton - http://t.co/6IG4nQ3 via @USATODAY - "Instead, each school's financial-aid office makes an estimate — and each school uses its own formula. An estimate for in-state and out-of-state students is reported to the NCAA each year."

3. New school set to open, by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/ofUjGz - "In 1997 the state legislature passed a law allowing community, or charter schools, to operate in Ohio. According to the Ohio Department of Education, there now are some 300 such schools in Ohio, including several in the Mahoning Valley. The privately operated schools receive public dollars, and typically cater to at-risk pupils. Like other community schools, STEAM is to be funded with public money; therefore, there is no cost to the family for a student to attend."

4. Debt, Dropouts and Degrees, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/n6DiJq - "The report, “Debt to Degree: A New Way of Measuring College Success,” was released Wednesday by Education Sector. Its authors say they aim to give a more complete picture of higher education -- rather than judging by graduation rates alone or by default rates alone -- by dividing the total amount of money undergraduates borrow at a college by the number of degrees it awards."

5. Debt to Degree: A New Way of Measuring College Success, by Kevin Carey and Erin Dillon - http://www.educationsector.org/sites/default/files/publications/Debt%20to%20Degree%20CYCT_RELEASE.pdf - "The American higher education system is plagued by two chronicproblems: dropouts and debt. Barely half of the students who start college geta degree within six years, and graduation rates at less-selective colleges oftenhover at 25 percent or less. At the same time, student loan debt is at an all-timehigh, recently passing credit card debt in total volume. Loan default rates haverisen sharply in recent years, consigning a growing number of students to yearsof financial misery. In combination, drop-outs and debt are a major threat to thenation’s ability to help students become productive, well-educated citizens."

6. Texas orders ATI to stop enrolling new students - http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OORN3G2.htm - "The Texas Workforce Commission has ordered ATI Enterprises Inc. to halt new enrollment at its 16 careers schools and complete training programs for current students. . . . The commission in April announced the company had been put on probation and required an outside auditor to review 2010 placement results."

7. University Reveals the Secrets of Winning Merit Scholarships, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/6qmUu8v via @cbsmoneywatch - "That’s why I was excited when the University of Rochester decided to share its fascinating accounting of just what mattered when the school was deciding which applicants would get its latest round of merit awards. After the university’s freshmen class had been selected, Jonathan Burdick, Rochester’s dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, sat down this summer and analyzed the merit scholarship numbers to determine what admission factors had influenced the scholarship decisions."

8. Bloomberg to Use Own Funds in Plan to Aid Minority Youth, by Michael Barbaro and Fernanda Santos - http://nyti.ms/qOwY7K - "Even as crime has fallen and graduation rates have risen in New York over the past decade, city officials said that black and Latino men, especially those between ages 16 and 24, remained in crisis by nearly every measure, including rates of arrest, school suspension and poverty. Although the populations of young white, black and Latino men in New York are roughly the same size, 84 percent of those in the city’s detention facilities and nearly all of those admitted to children’s and family services facilities are black and Latino youth, according to data from the Bloomberg administration. “The magnitude of the disparities is stunning,” said Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services. “It’s tragic.”

9. Teach for America 2011 acceptance rate: 11 percent, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://t.co/TQlr2g6 via @washingtonpost - "Since 2008, Teach for America has compiled a “top contributors list” to rank schools of similar size by the number of students who are accepted into the program. This year, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor had the highest number of students selected, with 119. For medium-sized schools, Harvard led the pack with 66 placements. And for small schools with fewer than 2,999 undergraduates, Spelman College had 36 placements."

10. America's Top Colleges: Forbes List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/forbes-top-colleges-for_n_917203.html#s320311&title=Williams_College - "For the second year in a row, Williams College, a small, western-Massachusetts liberal arts school, has been named as the best undergraduate institution in America. With total annual costs adding up to nearly $55,000, a Williams education is certainly not cheap, but the 2,000 undergraduates here have among the highest four-year graduation rates in the country, win loads of prestigious national awards like Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, and are often rewarded with high-paying careers."

11. HBCU Voices: Students On Why HBCUs Remain Relevant - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/hbcu-voices-students-on-w_n_917066.html#s320667&title=Danyelle_Gary_Hampton - "Here at HuffPost College, we asked current HBCU students to share what their schools meant to them. The response to this question was overwhelming. Many students said they were accepted to "predominantly white institutions," but chose instead HBCUs to connect to their past and present. Others said they sought the communities they found at HBCUs, or wanted to continue a family tradition of HBCU education."