183. MVCAP fyi--San Diego ed.

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1. For kids getting ready for college, FAFSA is a must, by Sandra Block -http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20110201/yourmoney01_st.art.htm

"That means it's more important than ever for families of college-bound seniors to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, as soon as possible. This application is the foundation for almost all forms of financial aid, from scholarships to student loans."

2. Rules fail to curb schools from oversigning football players, by Kelly Whiteside - http://usat.ly/eBCfQv via @USATODAY

"Many players assume scholarships are guaranteed for as long as five years. In fact, athletic scholarships are one-year, "merit-based" awards."He wanted to have my scholarship for another player. I had no idea that they could do that," Chamorro says."

3. Signing Day 2011: Who will be the top winners in recruiting? http://usat.ly/g1vbzJ -RT @USATODAY

"The usual cast of characters are expected to have successful days with Florida State and Alabama the front-runners to earning the coveted No. 1 ranking followed closdly by Texas, LSU and Southern California."

4. Washington Wrapup, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gfsyTK

‎"Durbin was not subtle about attributing his concern about for-profit colleges in large part to the role they've played in driving up federal spending on Pell Grants, which have soared from a program worth about $16 billion in 2008 to one approaching $40 billion in 2011."

5. Top 25 State Universities for Graduating on Time, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/aUGLeDd

‎"Private colleges and universities have better, but not great four-year grad rates. Nearly 48% of students graduate in four years from private schools. The vast majority of students in this country, however, attend public institutions where the average four-year grad is a measly 27%."

6. Harvard Report Questions Value of 'College for All,' by Catherine Gewertz - http://t.co/CigeF3J via @educationweek

"By concentrating too much on classroom-based academics with four-year college as a goal, the nation’s education system has failed vast numbers of students, who instead need solid preparation for careers requiring less than a bachelor’s degree, Harvard scholars say in a report issued today."

7. Pathways to Prosperity -http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news_events/features/2011/Pathways_to_Prosperity_Feb2011.pdf

"Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century"--Report issued by the Pathways to Prosperity Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

8. Pell Grants Are in Jeopardy, Sen. Durbin Says, in Warning to Nonprof Colleges, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Pell-Grants-Are-in-Jeopardy/126176/

‎"You cannot come to Congress to ask for more funding for Pell Grants while looking the other way as billions of dollars of our current investment is wasted." "I'm not talking only about low-performing for-profit colleges," he added. "There are public colleges and private nonprofit colleges that are also failing students."

9. Obstacles to better counseling--and what to do about it, by Patrick O'Connor - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/obstacles-to-better-school-cou.html

‎"The obstacles to better counseling are well known. There aren’t enough counselors (the average caseload is over 450 students), many tasks assigned to counselors have nothing to do with counseling (like a last-minute sub for a chemistry class), and most counselors start their careers with absolutely no training in how to be good college advisers."

10. Pell grant set at $5,550 for next year, by Daniel de Vise - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2011/02/in_a_dear_colleague_letter.html

"In a "Dear Colleague" letter today, the U.S. Department of Education set the maximum Pell Grant award at $5,550 for the 2011-12 academic year, signaling that the largest grant program for low-income students will be fully funded."

11. Critics say top-rated Chinese education system has a flaw, by Kathy Chu - http://t.co/EtvirW3 - USATODAY.com

"To put the results into perspective, "If (the U.S.) doubles its efforts, it would still take us decades to catch up to Hong Kong students" in math, says John Winn, chief program officer for the National Math and Science Initiative, a public-private partnership."

12. Top 10 Colleges For Campus Housing, by Brian Burnsed - US News and World Report: http://bit.ly/fabLP5 - RT @usnews

‎"The following table highlights the top 10 national universities ranked by the percentage of their undergraduate student body living on campus:"

13. Top University Endowments - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/31/colleges-and-universities_n_815646.html#s231446&title=Harvard_University_27557404000

"Below, check the postsecondary institutions with the largest endowments -- and see how much their savings grew from 2009 to 2010. Click over to Inside Higher Ed for more data."

14. www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/blogs/wp-content/www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/uploads/File/proprietary-schools-loans.pdf

15. Tiger mom adds to stereotype that burdens Asian-Am students, by Mitchell J. Chang - http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/tiger-moms-191465.aspx

‎"Parenting strategies aside, what has been overlooked is how this essay unintentionally undermines Asian American college applicants by perpetuating an erroneous stereotype."

16. A Preventable Danger for Athletes, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://t.co/1xElTj0

"It's a big red flag for 13 student-athletes to be hospitalized at the same time," said Ramogi Huma, president and founder of the National College Players Association. "Every program out there needs to re-evaluate their training regimen."

17. Scholarship Tips from the Financial Aid Office, by Martha C. Merrill and Elaine Solinga - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/tip-sheet-conn-college/

"Do your taxes early. In most cases, the financial aid deadline comes before the federal tax deadline. If you can’t prepare your tax return by the deadline date, it is O.K. to use estimated figures. A preliminary award will be determined based on those estimates."

18. Applications Rise at Dozens of Selective Colleges, by Jacques Steinberg and Eric Platt - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/total-apps-2011/

"One trend, though, does seem some obvious: the increase in applications reported by Columbia University (32 percent) and the University of Michigan (18 percent, as the Feb. 1 application deadline looms) would seem, at least in part, to be a function of those institutions’ choosing to accept the Common Application this year for the first time."

19. Economy Changed Freshmen's Plans but Didn't Shake Their Confidence, by Sara Lipka - http://chronicle.com/article/Economy-Changed-Freshmens/126069/

"Over all, students show reliance on multiple sources to pay for college,according to the report. More than half of freshmen reported using loans, and almost three-quarters said they'd received grants and scholarships, the highest proportion since the survey began asking that question, in 2001."

20. Our view on kids: When unwed births hit 41%, it's just not right - http://usat.ly/fBkHkc - RT @USATODAY

"In 2009, 41% of children born in the USA were born to unmarried mothers (up from 5% a half-century ago). That includes 73% of non-Hispanic black children, 53% of Hispanic children and 29% of non-Hispanic white children. Those are not misprints. . . ."

21. Young and Mixed in America - Video Library - The New York Times http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/01/2...

Here is an interesting video about mixed-race students on U.S. college campuses.

22. Educators Zero In on What Lumina's Degree-Qualification Template Would Mean, by David Glenn - http://chronicle.com/article/Educators-Zero-In-on-What/126080/

"The profile—which is referred to by its authors as a "beta version"—is based loosely on "quality assurance" frameworks that have been adopted in Britain, Australia, and other nations. It sketches broad skills that should be universally acquired at each degree level."

23. Freedom Riders look back after 50 years, by Cassandra Spratling - http://t.co/RQER0li - USATODAY.com

"In a sense, you could say Dr. Silas Norman Jr. is still doing the work he began doing as a freedom fighter in the South.He is associate dean for admissions, diversity and inclusion at Wayne State University's College of Medicine. But during the summer of 1964, he was a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Wisconsin who went to Selma, Ala., to be part of a five-member Selma Literacy Project. . . ."

24. Hall of Fame coach would trade in all his victories, by Steve Politi - http://bit.ly/fEq1QP #cnn

"Bob has a passion to help young men get the opportunities they would never have gotten unless he and basketball entered their lives," Krzyzewski said. "He should be in the Hall of Fame not for the number of wins, but for the number of lives he's changed."

25. Despite Obama’s Call, No Rush in ROTC’s Return to Campus,by Katharine Q. Seelye - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/education/28rotc.html?hpw

"But that is no guarantee that such programs will materialize. For one thing, the military has limited resources for new R.O.T.C. units. For another, the level of student interest is extremely low..., with no more than 10 to 20 students at these campuses participating. . . ."

26. 'National History Day' Lifts Achievement, Study Finds, by Erik Robelen - http://t.co/eftZyg6 via @educationweek

"The first-ever national evaluation of National History Day suggests that students who participate in the yearlong academic program and competition perform better on standardized tests, are better writers, and are more confident and capable researchers."

27. Going Global, Going Liberal Arts - Inside Higher Ed, by Scott Jaschik - http://t.co/ZIM34im

"While Chinese universities are discussed in the United States as science and engineering-focused, narrowly so, Sun Yat-sen University is part of a growing movement in China to promote general education -- which includes global (meaning Western) philosophy and culture."

28. UC Irvine serves chicken and waffles on Martin Luther King Jr. Day - http://t.co/1rxxZ10 via @lanow

‎"The menu and a sign reading "MLK Holiday Special: Chicken and Waffles" were thrown together at the last minute and not in the "best taste," she said."

29. WU students protest speaking invitation to Bristol Palin - http://stlbeacon.org/region/107785-wu-students-protest-bristol-palin-

"Students are upset because the money for the event comes from the annual activity fee all students pay to fund campus groups. They said it's a waste of their money to fund a speech by a politically polarizing figure on a subject for which she has no professional credentials."

30. In High School and Alone in a Homeless Shelter, by Andrew Keh - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/nyregion/27neediest.html

"With nowhere to turn, Ms. Masondo ended up last fall in a homeless shelter in the Bronx. She was the youngest person there and often finished her homework on the hallway floor after the lights had been turned off ...in the sleeping quarters. . . .Today, Ms. Masondo is at a shelter in Midtown."

31. How to Assess a College’s Mental Health Offerings, by Michael Winerip - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/mental-health/

"What follows is an exchange with Mr. Winerip, in which I sought guidance from him on how students and parents might assess the mental health offerings at individual colleges. — Jacques Steinberg"

32. Texas assistants set to be highest paid in 2011, by Steve Berkowitz - http://t.co/W61pkAo - USATODAY.com

‎"Texas' nine full-time assistants will be guaranteed nearly $3.65 million for the 2011 season, an increase of about 20% over what Texas paid in 2010, when it had the nation's third-highest-paid group of assistants, according to USA TODAY's survey of assistant coaches' compensation."

33. Pennsylvania school experiments with 'segregation' - http://bit.ly/fNnFeD #cnn

‎"The junior class at McCaskey East is voluntarily segregated by the students, who organize themselves "by gender, race and/or language," said school spokeswoman Kelly Burkholder."

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1. For Late Filers to Georgia Universities, Snow Is a Gift, by Eric Platt - http://nyti.ms/ghOsph

"In response to the snow- and ice-covered roads, the three Georgia colleges extended their regular-decision admission deadlines past Jan. 15. Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia stopped accepting applications on Friday, while Emory’s new deadline is Feb. 1."

2. What Degrees Should Mean, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fXU9Iz

"To try to provide a shared understanding of what degrees mean -- but without, its designers insist, turning that into a government or other mandate -- the Lumina Foundation for Education is today releasing a draft of its Degree Qualifications Profile, created by four leading higher education researchers and policy experts (more on them later)."

3. Lumina Foundation: The Degree Qualifications Profile - http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/The_Degree_Qualifications_Profile.pdf

". . .what the recipients of associate, bachelor's and master's degrees (regardless of discipline) should know and be able to do."

4. The 10 Most Popular Colleges: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/24/most-popular-colleges_n_812316.html#s227545&title=United_States_Naval

‎"To determine the most popular colleges, U.S. News looked at the fall 2009 yield rates, or percent of those accepted who enroll, of the liberal arts colleges and national universities included in their overall rankings. Below, check out the top ten most popular schools and their yield rates. U.S. News has the top 20 liberal arts colleges and national universities. Do you spot your school? Let us know in the comments section below."

5. How Rare Are Full-Ride Scholarships? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/mu0LlXT

‎"According to author Mark Kantrowitz, who is publisher of FastWeb and FinAid, less than 20,000 students a year receive a completely free ride to college. Among full-time college students enrolled at four-year colleges, just .3% received enough grants and scholarships to cover the full cost of college. . . .The odds of receiving a full-ride private scholarship is even more remote."

6. Data Show Two-year Colleges Improve Retention Rate, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/i1et01B

"At two-year public colleges, about 56% of students returned to school after their freshman year, up from 54% last year and 53% in 2005. This is the highest retention rate at two-year colleges in the 27 years of research by ACT. At four-year private colleges, the retention rate is 72%, down from 73% last year and 75% in 2005. At four-year public colleges, about 74% of freshman returned, compared to 73% last year and 73 percent in 2005."

7. Does College Make You Smarter? - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/gdaki0

‎"Have colleges, in their efforts to keep graduation rates high and students happy, dumbed down their curriculums? If they have, who is to blame? What should parents and federal taxpayers do?"

8. Products of Rote Learning - Room for Debate, by Leon Botstein - http://nyti.ms/g8InAN

‎"Why is anyone surprised to find that standards and expectations in our colleges are too low? High school graduates — a rapidly dwindling elite — come to college entirely unaccustomed to close reading, habits of disciplined analysis, skills in writing reasoned arguments and a basic grasp of the conduct, methods and purposes of science. All many of them know is rote learning, and fear of mediocre standardized tests and grades."

9. No Work, All Play, Equals a Job? - Room for Debate, by George Leef - http://nyti.ms/hrV22g

"Owing to the generally weak state of K-12 schooling, most high school graduates are not accustomed to serious academic work. They enroll in college with the expectation that it will be a continuation of K-12, that is, undemanding. What most of them want is just a credential attesting to their employability, accompanied by as much fun as possible."

10. An F in Student Effort - Room for Debate, by Philip Babcock - http://nyti.ms/e2fgha

‎"Full-time college students in the 1960s studied 24 hours per week, on average, whereas their counterparts today study 14 hours per week. The 10-hour decline is visible for students from all demographic groups and of all cognitive abilities, in every major and at every type of college."

11. Adults With College Degrees in the United States, by County - http://chronicle.com/article/Adults-With-College-Degrees-in/125995/

‎"Percentage of bachelor's degrees for everyone": Columbiana County 11.83%; Mahoning County 19.59%; and Trumbull County 15.84%. The rate for Ohio is 23.57%, while the National rate is 27.53%.

12. California is failing its students - http://t.co/3r3tMb7 via @sfgate

‎"Yudof noted that UC has already shrunk the size of each entering class for the past three years. About 9,000 qualified California high school graduates have been denied the opportunity to enter UC, he said - and it didn't have to be this way."

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1. NCAA football grad rates at all-time high, but top ... http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2010-10-27-ncaa-graduation-rates-study_N.htm

"The rate for black players, a longtime concern, jumped five points to 61% of those who entered school in 2003, the association's latest study showed.But the annual academic scorecard was less flattering to many of the sport's top-tier programs. Seven of the top 10 — including No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Boise State — and 16 of the top 25 in the current Bowl Championship Series standings fell beneath the sport's four-year average. Oklahoma and Arizona graduated fewer than half of their players.The numbers also were low in the other marquee college sport, men's basketball, where three of last season's eight NCAA regional finalists and more than one in five programs overall had four-year rates beneath 50%. Those multi-year averages count players who arrived on campus from 2000-2003, giving them six years to earn degrees."

2. Irish Athletes Again Rank Number One In 2010 NCAA GSR Comparisons http://www.und.com/genrel/102710aaa.html

"University of Notre Dame athletic programs again rank among the best in the country in graduation rates, based on Graduation Success Rate (GSR) figures released today by the NCAA - including first-place ratings in the sports of football, men's basketball and women's basketball, and a close second in ice hockey. Among the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision institutions, Notre Dame had the highest percentage of its sports with 100 percent scores (for the fifth time in six years), with a .863 figure (19 of 22). In football, Notre Dame achieved a 96 GSR rating for the highest figure among FBS schools."

3. Rise in college costs hits public schools hardest, by Blake Ellis - money.cnn.com/2010/10/28/pf/…

"For the school year 2010-11, in-state tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose to $7,605, up 7.9% from a year ago, the College Board reported Thursday. At private four-year institutions, the average cost rose 4.5% to $27,293.31. Dwindling state budgets are sparking the hikes at public colleges. Over the past decade, public school tuition has risen at an annual rate of 5.6% vs. 3% at private schools. "Prices are continuing to rise more rapidly than the rate of inflation, particularly in the public sector," said Sandy Baum, independent policy analyst at the College Board. "Public colleges and universities are getting less money from the states because the states just don't have money to give them."

4. Tuition Rises, But So Does Financial Aid, by Jacques Steinberg in The Choice - http://nyti.ms/c5RMXk

"If there is “good news 2010 “Trends in College Pricing” and “Trends in Student Aid” reports,” Ms. Lewin writes, it is “that fast-rising tuition costs have been accompanied by a huge increase in financial aid, which helped keep down the actual amount students and families pay.” Ms. Lewin quotes Sandy Baum, the economist who is the lead author of the reports, as saying that in 2009-2010, students received $28 billion in Pell grants, “and that’s $10 billion more than the year before.” In fact, Ms. Lewin says, growth in student aid from the government this year “was so large that unlike former years, government grants surpassed institutional grants.”

5. A Potential Vaccination for ‘Senioritis,’ by Dave Marcus - http://nyti.ms/9qnXO7

‎"As a journalist visiting scores of high schools, I have found a wasteland no one wants to acknowledge. It’s the final five- or six-month stretch of 12th grade, when college applications are done and students’ minds drift far from the classroom.For many, the boredom starts in October, after early applications are filed. Quite a few principals agree that we need to reinvent senior year. It should be a chance for teenagers to make the transition from the predictable routines and 42-minute blocks of secondary school to the self-discipline, public speaking and teamwork that is vital in college and many careers."

6. Tuition Hikes of the Downturn - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/9oO0XU

"For room and board, public increases also outpaced the privates, and privates are also more expensive. The average public college rate is going up by 4.6 percent, to $8,535, and the average private rate is going up by 3.9 percent, to $9,700. Those figures are for four-year institutions only, as the pool of community colleges and for-profit colleges charging for room and board remains small. As is the case every year, College Board officials stress that the data show that most colleges -- however much their prices frustrate students and families -- are not in the mid-$50,000 range that attracts so much attention. Total expenses for a private four-year institution are, on average, just under $37,000 a year. But because the most famous private institutions tend to be well above that average, many people assume tuition rates are even higher than they are."

7. (Almost) Final Rules - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/cxI8Hc

"More than ever before, the department emphasized in a statement released to reporters late Wednesday that for-profit higher education was its target. “These new rules will help ensure that students are getting from schools what they pay for: solid preparation for a good job,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. While the department has in the past framed the rules as designed to protect the integrity of the Title IV program, the statement cites the for-profit sector’s “rapid growth of enrollment, debt load, and default rates” as having “prompted” the public hearings in the summer of 2009, the negotiated rule making sessions that spanned from November to January, and the months of revisions that produced the final regulations. Most of the regulations released today take effect on July 1, 2011."

8. Reframing College Completion - Inside Higher Ed insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/2…

"Focusing on the states creates difficulties in those metropolitan areas where multiple states intersect, putting up unnecessary barriers (in the form of financial aid, tuition and credit transfer policies) that inhibit the flow of students. And viewing higher education completion through the prism of individual institutions' productivity -- judging them on how many graduates they produce -- ignores the rapidly increasing numbers of students who attend multiple colleges. "[A]n institution’s graduation rate is not what we truly care about," three of the center's staff members write. "What matters more is whether a student completes a degree anywhere in the system -- regardless of that student’s pattern of mobility."In the two papers, the center offers alternatives -- to complement, not replace, the existing approaches. In "Easy Come, EZ-GO," three researchers at the Institute for Higher Education Policy propose that the federal government seed an "educational zone" experiment. . . ."

9. NCPA Scholarship Shortfall Search: NCAA Forces College Athletes to Pay http://www.ncpanow.org/research?id=0018

"A study conducted by the NCPA and the Ithaca College Graduate Program in Sport Management reveals that NCAA rules force players to pay for thousands in educational-related expenses. Scholarship shortfalls are different from one college to the next so it is important for recruits to consider how much they are expected to pay at each school. The range of out-of-pocket expenses for a "full" scholarship student-athlete is $200/year to $10,962/year depending on the college....NCAA rules prevent all of its colleges from providing athletic scholarships that fully cover the price tag of the school better known as the cost of attendance. That leaves players on "full" scholarship with significant out-of-pocket expenses for education-related expenses such as various academic supplies and fees. This joint study revealed that, in 2009, student-athletes in Division I receiving a so-called "full" scholarship were left with an average scholarship shortfall of $2951/year, or $14,755 over five years. The NCAA formula for scholarships leaves very different shortfalls from one college to the next. The range in scholarship shortfalls is $200/year - $10,962/year. A full scholarship athlete at the University of Arkansas (Little Rock) would be expected to pay almost $55,000 over five years."

10. Fall College Tuition Costs Climbing Again, by Eric Gorski http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/28/college-tuition-costs-cli_n_775186.html

"When adjusted for inflation, the tuition increases this fall amount to 6.6 percent at public four-year colleges and 3.2 percent at private ones, according to the College Board. Many students are finding relief in expanded federal aid, including tax credits, veterans' benefits and a record expansion of the Pell Grant program for low-income students. In 2009-10, 7.7 million students received $28.2 billion in Pell Grants - an increase of almost $10 billion from the year before, according to a companion College Board report, "Trends in Student Aid. "Even so, the maximum Pell grant covers just 34 percent of the average cost of attending a public four-year college, down from 45 percent two decades ago."

11. College Sustainability Report Card 2011 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/27/college-sustainability-report-card-2011_n_774351.html

"Participating schools were graded in nine categories, include climate change and energy, green building and endowment transparency and then given an overall GPA. Schools were assessed according to public data as well as custom surveys sent out to campus officials and student organizations. Inside Higher Ed notes that this particular report card has caused some controversy among certain colleges because it takes into account transparency in its rankings. In July, 24 colleges issued a letter saying that they would not cooperate with the institute. Still, SEI's set of rankings is regarded as one of the most comprehensive assessments of campus sustainability. Along with the report, SEI launched a corresponding website, GreenReportCard.org, which features an interactive map, detailed profiles of each school and full answers to survey questions."

12. Tuition Over Time, 1999-2010 - Find An Institution http://chronicle.com/article/Interactive-Tool-Tuition-Over/125043/

"The published price of college continued to climb in 2010-11, according to "Trends in College Pricing 2010," the newest installment in a series of annual reports issued by the College Board. To explore tuition trends at a particular college or university, start by choosing an institution type and a state, and then select an institution. You will then be able to compare its tuition and fees with those at other institutions, stretching back to 1999."

13. In Final Rules, Ed Dept. Makes Several Concessions to Colleges, by Kelly Field http://chronicle.com/article/In-Final-Rules-Education/125134/

‎"Under the revised rules, for-profit colleges would be required to notify the department when they create new programs, but only a small percentage of those programs would be subject to formal approval.The changes being announced today do not affect the even more unpopular "gainful employment" rule, which will not be published until next year. That rule, which would cut off federal student aid to programs whose graduates carry high student-debt burdens and have low loan-repayment rates, could force for-profits to shutter thousands of programs or lower their tuition considerably. But the revisions, which department officials discussed in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, do represent a rare bit of good news for a sector that has been on the defensive for months. Over the last year, for-profits have come under intense criticism from Congress and the Obama administration for their aggressive recruiting of students, high costs, and overdependence on federal aid."

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113. MVCAP fyi

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1. For family of high-achieving kids, only one holds the keys to college - http://bit.ly/ditHuL #cnn

"This month, Javier faced a new barrier in his quest to attend college -- something Emily will never have to worry about. He had just celebrated completing his application to Georgia State University when he learned the University System of Georgia passed a policy that prohibits five public universities from taking undocumented students. Georgia State University is one of them. Georgia law also bars undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition.Georgia is one of three states that prohibit undocumented students from accessing in-state tuition rates, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. One state, South Carolina, completely bans undocumented students from all public universities. In contrast, 11 states make access to college easier for illegal immigrants by allowing them to receive in-state tuition. New Mexico and Texas also help undocumented students by providing state financial aid, the state legislatures group reported."

2. Hearing the Voice of a 51-Year-Old Man in the Essay of a 17-Year-Old Girl by Rachel Toor - http://nyti.ms/b2aIcl

‎"Parents who have raised good kids should trust them. Because the essay is not an essential part of the process, and frankly, because most admissions officers know that they don’t know whose fingerprints are all over it, parental interference — except by people who really do know how to write — can be more demoralizing and divisive than useful.It’s hard to come up with good topics. Parents who haven’t had the benefit of reading thousands of essays don’t know the clichés of the genre and steer children away from anything that might be “risky,” though essays that deal with hard stuff — sex, drugs, religion, family strife — are often the most affecting. I can understand how difficult it is for parents not to be able to advise their children. But in this case, my advice is to step back and let them express themselves. If you’ve done a good job, so will they."

3. Keeping Quiet About a Daughter’s College Choices by Caren Osten Gerszberg - http://nyti.ms/bRmGOE

"Last December, I wrote a post about secrecy during the college application process. I had come across several parents in my community who felt it was important to keep secret the names of the colleges where their child — who in some cases was not the same year in school as mine — was applying. While I accepted this practice as a sign of our competitive, helicopter-parenting times, it still seemed like a foreign notion to me. When it’s my daughter’s turn, I thought, I’m going to shout it from the rooftops. It hasn’t exactly turned out that way. Fast forward nearly a year, and I’m the one keeping the secret. I’m not really comfortable with the idea, but it makes more sense to me now. And out of respect for my daughter and her desired privacy, I must oblige."

4. Minorities in Higher Education:'09 Supplement http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CAREE&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=34226

"Closing the educational gaps among racial/ethnic groups and by gender is essential for raising the education level of the overall U.S. population. However, the 2009 supplement finds that gaps among these groups remain substantial, and for some races/ethnicities the younger generation is less likely to attain college degrees than its predecessors. Other highlights include: the high school completion rate for young people has been at a standstill, while college enrollment gaps have widened among racial/ethnic groups during the past two decades."

5. Golden State's Transfer Guarantee - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/9JG5dB

"The new legislation charges California community college districts to develop and grant associate degrees explicitly meant for transfer. It stipulates that these degrees should consist of 60 credit hours, all of which must be eligible for transfer to CSU. The degrees must consist of courses to meet the CSU general edu...cation breadth requirement. Also, at least 18 credit hours should be within a single major or area of interest. The legislation explicitly states that no additional local graduation requirements may be added. Under the California law, if a student completes one of these associate degrees with at least a 2.0 grade point average, then CSU must guarantee him admission with junior status. The legislation states that students with these degrees should be given priority admission, ahead of those who transfer without such a credential. There is, however, a catch. Admission to specific majors or campuses is not guaranteed. . . ."

6. Proctor or Gamble - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/b3yAgG

"So the results of a new meta-study on cheating, published in this fall’s edition of the Journal of Distance Learning Administration, might come as no surprise: Online courses that rely heavily on unproctored, multiple-choice exams are at greater risk of being cheated on than similar face-to-face courses, the study concluded. And while there are mechanisms available to forfend dishonesty in online exams, they can be costly and inconvenient, and may not be widely used. The meta-study, conducted by researchers at University of Connecticut and Union Graduate College, looked at three prior studies examining cheating as it applies to online courses versus face-to-face, and three studies that looked at cheating as it applies to proctored exams compared to unproctored ones. “The six studies, considered as a group, imply cheating risk is less correlated with instructional format (online v. face-to-face), and more correlated with unproctored online assessments,” the authors write."

7. Clean the Slate: Michael Mazer wanted forgiveness - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/9mUPGl

"Though Mazer said he had changed, and had a newfound appreciation for learning and for the value of a college degree since dropping out of Camden all those years ago, his transcript remained exactly the same. The two Ds and an F he’d earned in politics and history classes back then meant that even if he earned all As for the remainder of his time at Camden, he could do no better than a 3.5 grade point average.But, for Mazer, forgiveness came in the form of a pamphlet he read as he sat waiting to meet with his adviser for the first time. It detailed the college’s Academic Forgiveness Program, which allows students who haven’t been enrolled at the college for at least five years to exclude previously earned grades below a C from their cumulative G.P.A. The past classes don’t disappear from the record entirely; they remain on college transcripts but come with a notation that they’ve not been factored in the official G.P.A."

8. 'The Lost Soul of Higher Education' - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/cgs9SX

‎"Let me begin with three (or at least two and a half) cheers for American higher education. For all its flaws – and they are many – it is still a remarkably diverse, exciting, and innovative enterprise that not only stretches the boundaries of our knowledge and broadens the American mind, but also serves as the main source of social mobility within the United States. That said, it is also a system that reflects and to some extent increases the inequalities within our society. Its flaws, it must be noted, do not stem from some uniquely academic shortcomings, but are the product of larger social and political forces. In other words, our universities are mirrors of our society. So, if we are seeing an increasingly inegalitarian, competitive, and stressed-out academic community, welcome to the world of 21st century America.The issue, of course, is money. Since the financial crunch of the late 1960s and 1970s, American colleges and universities have worried about their bottom lines."

9. 10 steps to take if you can't pay your student loan bills - http://b.globe.com/bM4Oon

"Boston-based nonprofit American Student Assistance offers these 10 things you should know about your student loan payments if you're unemployed - or barely getting by."

10. Higher One: The Next College Campus Rip-Off? http://t.co/KWCVn1F

"About 1.2 million students now possess Higher One cards with a MasterCard logo that bears the name of their college. Despite the MasterCard logo, these cards are not credits cards. The Higher One cards allow students to tap into their financial aid money to make purchases for anything they want from textbooks to six-packs. Many students take out students loans in excess of tuition and room and board to pay for such things as textbooks and living expenses. Colleges have routinely issued checks to the students for the excess amounts. Now students at many campuses are being told to access their money through these Higher One cards."

11. In Digital Age, Students Still Cling to Paper Textbooks by Lisa W. Foderaro - http://nyti.ms/99nku8

"Textbooks are expensive — a year’s worth can cost $700 to $900 — and students’ frustrations with the expense, as well as the emergence of new technology, have produced a confounding array of options for obtaining them. Internet retailers like Amazon and Textbooks.com are selling new and used books. They have been joined by several Web services that rent textbooks to students by the semester. Some 1,500 college bookstores are also offering rentals this fall, up from 300 last year. . . . According to the National Association of College Stores, digital books make up just under 3 percent of textbook sales, although the association expects that share to grow to 10 percent to 15 percent by 2012 as more titles are made available as e-books. In two recent studies — one by the association and another by the Student Public Interest Research Groups, a national advocacy network — three-quarters of the students surveyed said they still preferred a bound book to a digital version."

12. Educational Difficulties of Men & Immigrants Hinder Efforts to Improve College Attainmt http://chronicle.com/article/Educational-Difficulties-of/125015/

"The overarching finding of this report is that the United States is no longer gaining ground in the educational attainment of its population from one generation to the next," Molly Corbett Broad, the council's president, said at a recent news conference to discuss the report's findings. "In general, each generation of younger women in the United States is continuing to reach higher levels of attainment, while that of younger men is falling," Ms. Broad said.Nearly all of the gains among women are being driven by those who are white or Asian-American, says the report, the 24th edition of "Minorities in Higher Education" issued by the council. The gains being made by black and Hispanic women are not nearly as large, and, on the whole, members of those two minority groups in the 25-to-34 age bracket have lower college attainment rates than they did a generation ago, according to the report, which can be purchased on the council's Web site."

13. 'Full Ride' Athletic Scholarships Sue Shellenbarger answers readers' Questions - http://on.wsj.com/bYng1i

"Less than 1% of all athletic scholarships are "full rides" covering all of a student's costs, including tuition, room and board, books and fees, says Dion Wheeler, a scout for the National Collegiate Scouting Association. The largest number of full scholarships go to Division I football players, where a coach is permitted a maximum of 85 scholarship athletes on the team. While coaches don't have to give full rides in football, "it is likely that if you get one, it will be a full ride," says Mr. Wheeler, author of a 2009 book on the topic, "The Sports Scholarship Insider's Guide." Smaller numbers of scholarship athletes are permitted in men's and women's basketball and ice hockey, and in women's gymnastics, tennis and volleyball, Mr. Wheeler says. In Division II sports and other Division I sports, such as track and field, scholarships may be split among any number of athletes; while full-ride awards can be given, they are usually reserved for top recruits coaches consider "must-haves," . . . ."

14. How to Tame College Costs—It's Not Just Tuition by Anna Prior WSJ http://on.wsj.com/anDUxh

‎"With all the added costs associated with the academic side of college, it can pay greatly to look for ways to cut back in different areas of college life. According to the College Board, students at four-year universities spent an average of about $12,500 for the 2009-10 school year on things not related to tuition and fees. Here are five areas where you can cut college costs."

15. The 13 Most Expensive Colleges
www.huffingtonpost.com

"Earlier this year, Forbes named Sarah Lawrence College as the most expensive school in America, with tuition, room and board adding up to $57,556. But what are the most expensive schools in the country when you just look at tuition costs? Campus Grotto ranked 100 of them. See the top 13 most expensive colleges according to tuition prices below, and for the full list, check out Campus Grotto."

16. How To Hyper-Personalize Education
www.huffingtonpost.com

"Now, imagine I'm taking a philosophy course online as part of my degree program. I'm just beginning a unit on epistemology, the study of knowledge and how we justify our beliefs. In my classroom, I've built a detailed profile, and I've been a student for 6 months, so the systems knows a good bit about me: I enjoy working in a learning team, I prefer podcast to video content, my GPA is .5 away from my goal, and, well, I struggle to turn things in on time. At the end of the unit, I am to write a reflection David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. My instructor has offered an introduction to epistemology, and now it's time to dive into the material. My hyper-personalized online classroom directs me to the text, which I read in sections, rating each one to mark my level understanding. With my cursor, I hover over unfamiliar words to reveal their meaning and make electronic notes in the margin. The system remembers which words stumped me and refreshes my memory in game-style...."

81. Athletic Scholarships Can Be Revoked.

What many student-athletes and their parents often don't realize is that Division I "full-ride" scholarships can be revoked after one year. This revocation can cause students to have to "walk on"--or, if they decide to, transfer to another institution. For more information, click this link to an article by Alan Scher Zagier on The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/24/revoked-scholarships-surp_n_586854.html