159. 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. Common Application Users Find Glitch In Common, Too, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/hrIqxS

"When he would follow the program’s instructions to execute a “print preview” of his answers — which would show him the actual version that an admissions officer would see, as opposed to the raw work-in-progress on his screen — his responses were invariably cut off at the margin, in midsentence or even midword."

2. Showdown in the Offing - http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/23/top_republican_vows_legislation_to_stop_rules_on_for_profit_colleges

"One possible scenario has House Republicans putting forward 2011 budget legislation in early March that would cut the Pell Grant Program or slash Head Start or other Democratic priorities -- but would soften those stances in exchange for an amendment to the legislation that gutted gainful employment."

3. 46% Of Fed Loans To For-Profits Will Go Into Default - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/23/46-percent-default-rate-o_n_800283.html

‎"The staggering percentage of defaulted loans at proprietary institutions may garner support for federal efforts to regulate such colleges and provide a boost for the DoE's proposed "gainful employment" rule, which would screen for-profit institutions according to their students' ability to repay loans. Essentially, the rule would test the likelihood that students will graduate and then become gainfully employed."

4. For-Profit College Loan Fail, by Andy Kroll - http://t.co/NCkkTI5 via @motherjones

"The DoE's regulations would mandate that for-profit college graduates earn enough to repay their federal loans, or else the schools could lose access to federal loan funding. That would be a serious blow to much of the industry, which relies on such funds to survive. Most colleges receive 75 percent of more of their revenue in federal loan funding; at others, like the University of Phoenix's parent company, Apollo Group, federal dollars comprise upwards of 90 percent of the revenue. (The legal limit is exactly 90 percent.)"

5. At Kaplan U., 'Guerilla Registration' Leaves Students Deep in Debt, by Chris Kirkham - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/22/kaplan-university-guerilla-registration_n_799741.html?ir=College

"Far from an aberration, Castillo's experience typifies the results of a practice known informally inside Kaplan as "guerrilla registration": academic advisors have long enrolled students in classes they never take, without their consent and sometimes even after they have sought to withdraw from the university, in order to maximize the company's revenues, according to interviews with former employees."

6. Experts Begin to Identify Nonacademic Skills Key to Success, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/12/23/15aera.h30.html?tkn=TOOFSR%2B4810CTp1N9ef4pgxwBLgqJMYV0Ew0&cmp=clp-edweek&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EducationWeekAmericanEducationNewsTopStories+%28Education+Week%3A+Free+Daily+Stories%29 via @educationweek

"Across education and industry, research by Mr. Sackett; Neal Schmitt, a psychology professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing; and others shows the biggest predictor of success is a student’s conscientiousness, as measured by such traits as dependability, perseverance through tasks, and work ethic. Agreeableness, including teamwork, and emotional stability were the next-best predictors of college achievement, followed by variations on extroversion and openness to new experiences, Mr. Sackett found."

7. Last-Minute Budget Bill Spares Pell Grants - http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/last-minute-budget-bill-spares-pell-grant-program/29308

"But Republicans, who will control the House come January, are already signaling that they may not be so generous in the future. In a news release issued today, the incoming chairman of the House Appropriations Committee described the additional Pell money as a “bailout” for the program."

8. Top Colleges Reconsider R.O.T.C. After ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Vote, by Tamar Lewin and Anemona Hartocollis - http://nyti.ms/efkKY0

"The R.O.T.C., which has units on 327 campuses nationwide, was sent packing from several Ivy League and other prominent campuses in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the firestorm of student protests against the Vietnam War. More recently, though, it has faced opposition because of discrimination against gay men and lesbians in the military."

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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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53. Proprietary Educational Institutions

For information on the sector of higher education alternatively referred to as "for-profit/private sector/corporate," access data released by the U.S. Education Department on April 6, 2010, at this link from Inside Higher Ed:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/07/enroll

To access the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled "FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES:
Undercover Testing Finds Colleges Encouraged
Fraud and Engaged in Deceptive and Questionable Marketing Practices," dated August 4, 2010, click the following link:

http://pervegalit.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/gaomarketing.pdf
According to that GAO report, you can watch video clips of applications by undercover investigators and listen to voicemail messages from proprietary educational institution recruiters at this link:

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-948T

To see the annual revenue and number of students enrolled by some of the largest for-profit companies/universities, click this link to an article in The Wall Street Journal, dated August 30, 2010:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703418004575455773289209384.html?mod=WSJ_article_related

To read the article by Stephanie Chen, "For-profit college risk: Huge debt, questionable degree," posted on 9/2/10, at CNN online, click this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/09/02/for.profit.college.debt/index.html?hpt=C2