322. College Access and Success News

Here are links to recent news on college access and success.

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. California weighs college aid for illegal immigrants, by Alan Gomez: http://usat.ly/o0dN4x#.Tm9FcqvaMLc.twitter via @USATODAY - "The bill, passed Sept. 2 by the Legislature, would give illegal immigrant students about $40million in financial aid and fee waivers."

2. Part 2: Answers to Your Back-to-School Admissions Questions, By ROBIN MAMLET and CHRISTINE VANDEVELDE: http://nyti.ms/qQaygR - "Q: ACT or SAT? Is there really any preference among top colleges like Vanderbilt and Emory or should a student just take the test they are better suited for?"

3. Forget Who's No. 1 or No. 138: How to Use the U.S. News Rankings, by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/oghZBd - “So buyer beware,” Mr. Reider concludes, “but it’s potentially of value, if you use it intelligently.”

4. Default Rates Up Again, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/na4O2g via @AddThis - "The two-year "cohort" default rate, which represents the proportion of federal loan borrowers who entered repayment between October 2008 and September 2009 and had defaulted on their loans by the end of September 2010, increased to 8.8 percent, the highest such rate since 1997. The rate increased 1.8 percentage points from fiscal 2008. And while students in all sectors were likelier to default on their loans than they had been the previous year, defaults increased the most at for-profit colleges: 15 percent of borrowers from those institutions defaulted in 2009, compared with 11.6 percent in 2008."

5. 'Imagine HBCUs Differently' by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/oJp2hd via @AddThis - "Since becoming president in January, Brown has launched a series of initiatives designed to tackle some of the largest problems threatening Alcorn State and some other historically black colleges and universities, such as stagnant enrollments; low retention and graduation rates, particularly among black males; financial instability; and a lack of student interest in what such institutions tend to offer."

6. Report: Top college athletes worth 6 figures, by FREDERIC J. FROMMER -http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g0a73PgzYlJtmqQdAE2aR7kWjsbw?docId=1546da5da23a4997b2c516cd64c3cdb1 -"A national college athletes' advocacy group and a sports management professor calculate in the report that if college sports shared their revenues the way pro sports do, the average Football Bowl Subdivision player would be worth $121,000 per year, while the average basketball player at that level would be worth $265,000."

7. Out-of-State Universities: Finding Bargains, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/out-of-state-universities-finding-bargains/6581/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Typically outsiders need to be stellar students to receive scholarships from flagship universities, but many other state universities will give nonresidents, who are smart, but not at the top of the academic heap, a cut in price."

8. Inside School Research: U.S. Postsecondary Edge Shrinking Among G-20 Countries, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2011/09/us_postsecondary_edge_shrinkin_1.html via @educationweek - "The United States still leads the world in having a college-educated workforce, but it is the only country among the G-20 members whose incoming workers are less educated than those retiring, according to a study released this morning by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development."

9. Student Loan Default Rates Rise Sharply in Past Year, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/oJIw9Z - "At public institutions, the rate was 7.2 percent, up from 6 percent, and at not-for-profit private institutions, it was 4.6 percent, up from 4 percent. . . . Although for-profit colleges, which typically serve low-income students, enroll only about 10 percent of the nation’s undergraduates, Mr. Kvaal said, their students made up 150,000, or almost half, of the defaults."

10. For-Profit-College Group Releases Code of Conduct With Protections for Students, by Kelly Field -http://chronicle.com/article/For-Profit-College-Group/128963/ - "The standards, which will be enforced by a foundation created by the coalition, require colleges that sign on to the voluntary program to provide prospective students with "clear and accurate" information, in writing, on program costs, completion rates, employment outcomes, and student-loan default rates. The standards also require colleges to disclose whether a program provides industry certifications or qualifies students for professional licensing exams."

11. U.S. News & World Report's Shocker-Free 2012 College Rankings, by Kayla Webley - http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/13/u-s-news-and-world-reports-shocker-free-2012-college-rankings/ via @TIMENewsFeed - "Nevertheless, here are this year's 10 Best Colleges in the Nation:"

12. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/x7cmxSo

300. 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. Column: Obama should tout fight for minority education, by DeWayne Wickham - http://t.co/8rdfOkq via @USATODAY - "We have launched more investigations than ever before. Much broader, bigger investigations" into whether school officials are unfairly disciplining black kids and shoving them "into the cradle-to-prison pipeline instead of the cradle-to-career pipeline," she told me."

2. Freedom at a Price, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pE8Ljj via @AddThis - "While details of the Ohio plan will not be final until Thursday's presentation, a draft of the plan released July 18 calls for immediately freeing all universities from certain regulatory restrictions, such as state health and safety codes, and eliminating enrollment caps. The draft also calls for giving the universities complete control of the management of their employees and exempting them from the purview of the state personnel board of review.
The universities would then be measured annually on a set of metrics that include student outcomes, such as graduation and retention rates; degree production in science, technology, engineering, and math fields; and the percentage of students participating in internship programs, as well as financial measures such as endowment size, affordability measured as a percentage of the consumer price index, and the unallocated cash balance as a percentage of total operating expenses."

3. Value of the Liberal Arts, by Katharine Brooks - http://t.co/iitPEnE - "In today’s Academic Minute, Katharine Brooks of the University of Texas at Austin answers “the question” faced by many college students."

4. Education Management Corporation Accused of Widespread Fraud, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/qsJS2E - "The Department of Justice and four states on Monday filed a multibillion-dollar fraud suit against the Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest for-profit college company, charging that it was not eligible for the $11 billion in state and federal financial aid it had received from July 2003 through June 2011.Education Management, which is based in Pittsburgh and is 41 percent owned by Goldman Sachs, enrolls about 150,000 students in 105 schools operating under four names: Art Institute, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University. In a statement Monday, the company denied any wrongdoing."

5. Kaplan Revenue Down 29% in Second Quarter - http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/kaplan-revenue-down-29-in-second-quarter/35148 - "The decline comes at a time when federal agencies and state legislators are more strictly regulating recruitment practices at for-profit colleges, and are increasingly holding them accountable for their graduates’ ability to find employment and repay their loans. As a result of those restrictions, as well as what the company calls “generally lower demand,” new enrollments dropped 47 percent from the second quarter last year."

6. Nonprofit Group Says CA Latinos Crucial to National Degree-Attainment Goals, by Molly Redden - http://chronicle.com/article/Nonprofit-Group-Says/128558/ - "Unless California is able to increase the number of its Latinos with college degrees, the United States will fall short of having the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, according to the advocacy group Excelencia in Education. . . . Excelencia found that while first-time, full-time white college students complete degrees at a rate of about 47 percent, the same group of Latino students attain credentials at a rate of only about 35 percent."

7. #College101: Freshman year bucket list, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://t.co/v7UEBbH via @washingtonpost - "Last week I shared a list of tips for surviving freshman year and asked you to share your tips for incoming freshmen . . . . The response was overwhelming. I combed through hundreds of tips and edited them into this 50-item “bucket list.” I suggest that you print it out, tape it to the back of your closet door and cross things off as you do them."

8. Top 10 Most Athletic Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/top-10-most-athletic-coll_n_921913.html#s325405&title=1_Stanford_Cardinals6615 - "Our friends at CampusSplash crunched the numbers to figure out the 25 most athletic colleges in the United States. They looked at everything from number of sports, to number of titles, program revenue and more. Below check out a slideshow of the top 10 schools . . . ."

292. 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. The Problem With In-State Tuition, by Roger Pielke Jr. - http://chronicle.com/article/The-Problem-With-In-State/128371/ - ". . . Of Colorado-Boulder's approximately 26,000 undergraduates, two-thirds are Colorado residents who will pay about $7,700 in tuition for the 2011-12 school year. The other third—out-of-state residents—will pay about $29,000 per year. The result is that almost two-thirds of the university's total tuition revenue comes from one-third of its students. Thus, the financial viability of the institution depends upon securing a large proportion of nonresidents, which creates incentives to favor their admission. That is contrary to the very purpose of in-state tuition, which is to favor Colorado residents."

2. Calif. law opens private aid to illegal students - http://t.co/ULwe67B via @USATODAY -"Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed a bill that will let students who entered the country illegally receive private financial aid at California's public colleges, even as debate continues over a more contentious bill that would allow access to public funding."

3. Top Chef Dreams: Are Cooking Schools a Rip-Off? by Kayla Webley - http://t.co/HiruKHW via @TIME - "And the students flocking to attend culinary schools are paying a pretty penny. According to data recently released by the Department of Education, tuition at a culinary school can run students upward of $30,000. For example, the Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) branch in Orlando charges $35,130 for its 21-month associates degree in Culinary Arts. Thanks in part to that hefty price tag, LCB's parent company, the aforementioned Career Education Corporation, has seen their profits balloon. Last year the company reported a revenue of $1.84 billion, a 63% increase from 2007.
But the numbers aren't as good for students at culinary schools. Many enroll sold on the idea of being a chef, but wake up to the harsh reality of low-paying line cook jobs and mountains of debt upon graduation."

4. Where private foundations award education cash, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://t.co/PjIIjmD via @washingtonpost - "If the foundations were supporting policies that were known to be successful, there would likely be a lot less angst at their unprecedented — and in some cases, hands-on — involvement in federal education policy, but they aren’t. That they are pursuing strategies that are not helpful and are in some areas harmful makes their questionable involvement even worse."

5. The Most Insane Cut, by Jose Cruz - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jose-cruz/pell-grant-cuts_b_906529.html - "I call it the most insane cut. Why? By age 24, the children of the wealthy are 10 times more likely to have a college degree than the children of the poor. Over the past three decades, college tuition and fees have grown at four times the rate of inflation. Against that alarming backdrop, Pell remains an essential ladder for hard-working students of modest means who seek a degree, a better life, and a chance to contribute to their communities."

6. An Introduction To Student Loans And The FAFSA, by Ross Williams - http://t.co/FX6FEqC via @sfgate - "In the United States the federal government acts as a central point in accessing financial aid for education. Therefore, for any type of financial aid (loans, grants, work-study or even parental loans) you must fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) . . . . You must also fill out an FAFSA form if you wish to apply for most state and school funded programs including college loans, state-funded grants and tuition assistance initiatives."

177. 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. 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."

• 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


• "Like" the MVCAP fan page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544#!/pages/Mahoning-Valley-College-Access-Program-MVCAP/284002915922


• You can join the group MVCAP Financial-Aid Friends at this page: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=126580419181


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

175. 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. More Students Seek Avenues to Gay-Friendly Colleges, by Sergio N. Candido - http://nyti.ms/elZ0Ft

"One website that rates whether universities are gay friendly, the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index, has gained popularity over the past year.The Index looks at policies, programs and practices each institution provides to its gay community and grades the university. Shane L. Windmeyer, co-founder of Campus Pride, the national nonprofit that runs Climate Index, said the increase in numbers of people going to the site is dramatic.
Visits have almost doubled from 6,850 a month in 2007, when the website was launched, to 13,580 a month in 2010, Windmeyer said."

2. Massage Therapists or R.N.s, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fKCq42

“For-profit colleges tend to focus on health care ‘support’ occupations like medical assisting, massage therapy, and dental assisting rather than ‘practitioner’ or ‘technical’ health occupations like registered nursing, medicine, or diagnostic technologist fields,” Morgan said."

3. The States of Online Regulation, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hJz6tC

"Online education seems to be winning the battle against the initial skepticism about its legitimacy. Online enrollments have grown at nine times the rate of classroom-based education since 2002, according to the Sloan Consortium (with major buy-in in the public sector)."

4. College Retention Rates Improving at Two-Year Schools, Declining at Four-Year Schools -http://www.act.org/news/2011/01/20/college-retention/

"The percentage of students at two-year colleges who returned to the same institution for their second year of school has been trending up, from 53 percent in 2005 to a record high of 56 percent currently. The retention rate at four-year private colleges, in contrast, has been trending down, from 75 percent in 2005 to 72 percent currently."

5. 25 Highest Application Fees, by Brian Burnsed - US News and World Report: http://t.co/JQZN7LG

"Among national universities, which are typically the largest schools that receive the most applications, the average application fee was higher than the national average: $46.78. Only three schools—the Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago, and St. Louis University—reported they have no fee (8 of the 260 national universities surveyed didn't respond to the question)."

6. 8 Reasons Not to Get a Business Degree, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/nk5R6t8

"Thinking about getting a business degree? Business degrees are hot, but you might want to reconsider your decision. Here are eight reasons why you should not major in business:"

7. Success of College-Readiness Intervention Hard to Gauge, by Catherine Gewertz - http://t.co/N24rrXW via @educationweek

‎"They created a test that sends rising high school seniors an early signal about their readiness in mathematics and literacy, and allows those who meet the mark to go right into credit-bearing coursework as college freshmen, skipping remedial classes. To complete the picture, they crafted a suite of courses to bring lagging 12th graders up to college-level snuff and added training for preservice and in-service teachers."

8. To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test, by Pam Belluck - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?_r=1&hpw

"The research, published online Thursday in the journal Science, found that students who read a passage, then took a test asking them to recall what they had read, retained about 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who used two other methods."

9. 2-Year Colleges Get Details of $2-Billion Grant Program, by Jennifer Gonzalez - http://chronicle.com/article/2-Year-Colleges-Get-Details-of/126006/

"President Obama wants every American to have at least one year of postsecondary education and wants the United States, by 2020, to once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."

10. In a tough economy, new focus on job-oriented certificates, by Joanne Jacobs - Hechinger Report: http://t.co/GuXyIhW

"Labor economists and some educators believe career-driven degrees should become an increasingly common choice and are advising students to pursue skills-oriented fields of study they feel offer better job opportunities."

• 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


• "Like" the MVCAP fan page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544#!/pages/Mahoning-Valley-College-Access-Program-MVCAP/284002915922


• You can join the group MVCAP Financial-Aid Friends at this page: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=126580419181


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

171. MVCAP fyi: M L King Day

On this Martin Luther King Day, these pertinent articles from past blogs are cited:

1. A Lesson on Urban Identity, by Matthew Amaral - http://www.educationnews.org/blogs/105853.html

“Can you be Ghetto and successful?” I tell them they can’t talk about drug-dealers, rappers, athletes, or other entertainers--we’re talking about real careers. . . . This is something that will really come into focus on a college campus when a majority of the students are NOT like them."

2. Achievement gap slow to close, by Diana Lambert - http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/10/3311645/achievement-gap-slow-to-close.html

"In 2009 there was a gap of 27% points between fourth-grade white students and African American students, and a gap of 22% points between white and Latino students in math. There also was a 28% gap between white and African American fourth-graders in reading."

3. Minorities are now the majority at UT-Austin, by Jon Marcus and Reeve Hamilton - Hechinger Report http://t.co/7JnZQJJ

"Whites are in the minority this year for the first time in the history of the flagship Texas school, which was segregated until the 1950s. Fifty-two percent of the Class of 2014 is nonwhite. Black and Hispanic students represent about 5 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Asians account for 17 percent of freshmen. The demographic shift at U.T. is a bellwether of what is about to happen—and, with little notice, already has, at other universities in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and New York—in a country where new Census figures confirm that nonwhites are by far the fastest-growing proportion of traditional-age university students."

4. Proficiency of Black Students is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected, by Trip Gabriel -http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/education/09gap.html?_r=2&hpw

“What this clearly shows is that black males who are not eligible for free and reduced-price lunch are doing no better than white males who are poor,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the council. The report shows that black boys on average fall behind from their earliest years. Black mothers have a higher infant mortality rate and black children are twice as likely as whites to live in a home where no parent has a job. In high school, African-American boys drop out at nearly twice the rate of white boys, and their SAT scores are on average 104 points lower. In college, black men represented just 5 percent of students in 2008."

5. Black Male Achievement in a 'State of Crisis,' Study Says, by Dakarai Aarons - http://t.co/1wmZtp2 via @educationweek"

"As a study this summer by the Schott Foundation for Public Education pointed out, fewer than half of black males graduate from high school on time. "At almost every juncture, the odds are stacked against these young men in ways that result in too much unfulfilled potential and too many fractured lives," writes Michael Casserly, the council's executive director. The council's report suggests that the underperformance of black male youths is nothing short of a national emergency, and it calls for the convening of a White House conference."The previous efforts to ring the alarm bell have too often fallen on deaf ears, and we thought that a White House conference would help both raise the visibility of the issues and aide in attempting to martial the public will to tackle it," Casserly said in an interview."

6. This Raging Fire, by Bob Herbert, The New York Times, November 15, 2010 - http://nyti.ms/9Jjsc2

"The first and most important step would be a major effort to begin knitting the black family back together. There is no way to overstate the myriad risks faced by children whose parents have effectively abandoned them. It’s the family that protects the child against ignorance and physical harm, that offers emotional security and the foundation for a strong sense of self, that enables a child to believe — truly — that wonderful things are possible. All of that is missing in the lives of too many black children."

7. Financial Aid: A Broken Bridge to College Access? by Bridget Terry Long and Erin Riley - http://www.hepg.org/document/19/

"Although there are many barriers to college access and success for low-income and minority students, most can be grouped into three major categories. The first set of major barriers relates to cost. . . . A second major set of barriers to college enrollment and persistence is academic preparation. . . . The third major impediment to higher education for many students, particularly those from low-income families, is the complexity of the college admissions process and financial aid systems, as well as a lack of accurate information about higher education costs. College attendance is the culmination of a series of steps and benchmarks, and this current landscape is too complex and difficult for many families to decipher and navigate."

8. 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 — the ultimate goal of our school’s vision statement — clutching knapsacks stuffed with our symbols of academic success: multiple college acceptances, a high school diploma; an official transcript indicating they had passed the MCAS test and had met all graduation requirements; several glowing letters of recommendation from teachers and guidance counselors; and one compelling personal statement, their college essay."

9. Unready and Unsuccessful, by Joanne Jacobs - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-jacobs/unready-and-unsuccessful_b_775668.html

"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 and the Campaign for College Opportunity. Between 2003 and 2009, only 40 percent of students earned at least 30 college credits, which is considered "the minimum needed to provide an economic boost in jobs that require some college experience," reports the LA Times. Blacks and Latinos did worse: Only 26% of black students and 22% of Latino students had completed a degree or certificate or transferred after six years, compared to 37% of whites and 35% of Asian Pacific Islanders. Students fail because they're not prepared for college-level reading, writing and math. Many are juggling jobs and family responsibilities too, of course, but college readiness is the make-or-break issue."

10. A Call for Change - http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/A-Call-For-Change.pdf

"The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools”

170. 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. Students' rights weighed as colleges try to assess threats, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/fwBHh2 - RT @USATODAY

‎"Two states — Virginia and Illinois — now legally require such teams and 80% of colleges nationwide have started them since the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech that left 32 people dead. . . . Since April 2007, news reports show that at least 67 people have been killed and 69 others injured in attacks by U.S. college students."

2. High School Juniors, Start Your Engines, by Lee A. Culbertson - http://nyti.ms/hkyUJb

"Juniors are already itching and beginning to ask, “What should I be doing now?” First, breathe. Remember, “College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won” (Frank Sachs, the Blake School). When you make a list of colleges that you’d like to explore, consider investigating what is most important to you, and then begin to draft your preliminary list."

3. Part 3: Answers to Readers' Questions on Financial Aid, by Mark Kantrowitz - http://nyti.ms/fBS7IH

‎"Money in retirement plans, the family home and small businesses owned and controlled by the family have no impact on federal aid. As a result, parent assets affect the EFC of less than 4% of dependent students. You should, however, save money in the parent’s name, not the child’s. Child assets have a much more severe impact on the EFC."

4. College Is Still Worth It, by Anthony Carnevale - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gWNYhv

"The most persuasive evidence that the BLS numbers are wrong are earnings data, which show that employers across the country pay a "wage premium" to college graduates, even in occupations that BLS does not consider "college" jobs. This simply means that businesses pay more money to workers with degrees than to those without because employers believe that postsecondary educated workers are more valuable."

5. Second GOALS study emphasizes coach influence, by Gary Brown - http://t.co/4Q8FYQ2 - Latest News - NCAA.org

"Athletics participation was the most-often reported reason for choosing a college (at least 75 percent of the time in all sport cohorts). Academics generally was a close second, followed by the institution’s proximity to home."

6. Five Reasons to Apply for Financial Aid, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/2cGUgxs

‎"Parents grumble about applying for financial aid, but there are excellent reasons why most families should take the time to fill out the cumbersome financial aid applications. If you are on the fence about filling out the FAFSA, here are five reasons to apply for financial aid."

7. NCAA Rejects Plan to Block Early Scholarships - http://t.co/245Bnxi via @educationweek

"The NCAA squashed a proposal Thursday that would have stopped college coaches from offering scholarships to students as young as middle-schoolers. . . . The legislative council also voted down tougher academic restrictions for incoming basketball players at the NCAA's annual convention."

8. High Achievers Scarce in Math, Science in U.S., by Erik W. Robelen - http://t.co/XKGAuOb via @educationweek

"Only about 10 percent of U.S. students scored in the two highest achievement categories in math on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, well short of the figures for a host of other nations, from South Korea and Japan to France, Germany, and New Zealand

. . . . In science, the U.S. position was more favorable, but not dramatically so."

9. Researcher Finds Easy Solution for Test Anxiety - http://t.co/APRTEDK via @educationweek

‎"The report in Friday's edition of the journal Science says students who spend 10 minutes before an exam writing about their thoughts and feelings can free up brainpower previously occupied by testing worries and do their best work."

10. Facing New Cuts, California's Colleges Are Shrinking Their Enrollments, by Josh Keller - http://chronicle.com/article/Facing-New-Cuts-Californias/125945/

"I'll tell students in my presentations that if you want to leave the state, good for you," Ms. Ponce says. "We have too many people in the state of California. We need someone to leave right now."Many of the students are in denial, she adds. Their parents don't understand how the landscape has shifted. "I will break out the numbers, and they kind of look at me in complete confusion," she says. "They have no idea."

11. A Lesson on Urban Identity, by Matthew Amaral - http://www.educationnews.org/blogs/105853.html

“Can you be Ghetto and successful?” I tell them they can’t talk about drug-dealers, rappers, athletes, or other entertainers--we’re talking about real careers. . . . This is something that will really come into focus on a college campus when a majority of the students are NOT like them."

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1. EGCC chief: School committed to serving Warren, by V. Shank - http://t.co/LIgx1dY - TribToday.com - Warren, OH

"Eastern Gateway Community College president Laura Meeks said the institution is committed to developing a strong presence in downtown Warren, even without the $1.3 million in federal funding U.S. Rep. Timothy Ryan was hoping to secure for the college's expansion and other projects. The college will start classes as planned Tuesday at its new Warren site."

2. Part 1: Answers to Readers’ Questions on Financial Aid, by Mark Kantrowitz - http://nyti.ms/f6v4bK

"To help navigate that process, Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and founder of the Web sites finaid.org and fastweb.com, is answering questions from readers of The Choice this week."

3. Ivy Chase, by Kevin A. Hassett - http://www.aei.org/article/102981

"All told, the average annual ROI for the top ten public institutions is 13.4 percent. The average annual ROI for the top ten private institutions is 12.3 percent. . . .The average total cost for a bachelor's degree from a public institution is $83,695; for a private institution it is $171,026. The higher tuition at top schools brings diminishing returns."

4. Trends in College Pricing, by Gaston Caperton - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gaston-caperton/trends-in-college-pricing_b_807469.html

"The reports found that during the past decade, average tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose almost twice as fast as those at private colleges. Over the same period, average household incomes have remained stagnant. Making matters worse was the disturbing drop in state spending on higher education -- a decline of 9 percent in 2008-09 and 1.3 percent in 2009-10."

5. Ivies, Extracurriculars, and Exclusion, by Lauren Rivera - http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/rivera_lauren.aspx#research

"Employers privileged candidates who possessed a super-elite (e.g., top 5) university affiliation and attributed superior cognitive, cultural, and moral qualities to candidates who had been admitted to such an institution, regardless of their actual performance once there."

6. University of California: Another Year of Student Protests? by Lynn O"Shaughnessy - http://t.co/N1yg7gi

"Californians should probably prepare themselves for round II of student protests. Jerry Brown, in one of his first acts as governor in the cash-strapped state, has released proposed budget cutbacks that would slash $500 million from the 10 UC campuses. That would bring state support to the UC campuses back to the level it was in 1999 — and there were tens of thousands of fewer students then."

7. Rigorous, Revelant High School Program Leads Kids to College, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/eGwT0k0

"The seven-year study found that participation in CART's Linked Learning approach increased the community college entrance rate by 11 percentage points—71 percent for CART students compared with 60 percent for a demographically similar group of non-CART students. About 23 percent of CART students went on to four-year universities compared to 21 percent of their non-CART peers."

8. How Graduation Rates Shape College Choice, by Eric Hoover -

http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/how-graduation-rates-shape-college-choice/27770

"Providing graduation rates, the researchers found, increased the likelihood (by about 15 percentage points) that parents would choose the college with the higher graduation rate. Moreover, such information was most likely to influence the choices of parents who had relatively low incomes and little admissions savvy. More-affluent parents were less likely to change their preferences based on information about graduation rates."

9. The Plight of Nontraditional Students, by Mary Churchill - http://chronicle.com/blogs/old-new/the-plight-of-nontraditional-students/147

‎"Students are married, have children, care for their parents, hold full- and part-time jobs, and drop in and out of school as their lives and finances allow. Increasingly, we are finding older students returning to school after a 10-to-15-year hiatus. They are in their 30s or 40s. Our institutions are not prepared for them and do not welcome them. This needs to change."

10. How Jared Loughner Changed: The View from His Schools, by Mark Thompson - http://bit.ly/ibZ2F3 @time

‎"Loughner's actions unnerved up to a third of McGahee's 15 to 20 students, so much so that they complained to the professor following the opening class in basic algebra. "The students were very concerned after the first day," he says. "I must have had three to five students come up to me after class saying, 'Jared concerns me a lot.' One lady in the back of the classroom said she was scared for her life, literally."

11. A critical shortage of school counselors, by Valerie Strauss - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/student-life/a-critical-shortage-of-school.html

"Though the recommended number per counselor is 250 students, the American School Counselor Associations shows that the national average is actually one counselor for every 457 students. And those figures were from 2008-09, the latest available, but before many states slashed school budgets last year."

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1. Auburn football team champs on field but not in graduation rates - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/sports/auburn-football-team-champs-on.html

"According to the Academic Progress Rate, a four-year assessment by the NCAA of the movement toward graduation for a team’s players, Auburn has dropped from No. 4 to No. 85 among the 120 major college football programs."

2. 'Sad Day For California,' by Jack Stripling - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/eWdkpb

"In an effort to tackle an estimated $28 billion budget shortfall, the newly elected governor would strip $1.4 billion from public higher education institutions. The reductions would include $500 million each in cuts for the University of California and California State University. Additionally, $400 million would be carved from the budgets of the California Community Colleges."

3. Young People Say Sex, Paychecks Come In Second To Self-Esteem: http://bit.ly/hauxJ4

‎"One of the items they were asked about was self-esteem building experiences, such as receiving a good grade or receiving a compliment. “We found that self-esteem trumped all other rewards in the minds of these college students,” Bushman said."

4. 7 Prestigious Undergrad Scholarships, by Michelle Showalter - http://t.co/lJD4xMQ - The Scholarship Coach (usnews.com)

‎"Here are seven of the more well-known and lucrative scholarships available to high school students:"

5. 5 Reasons Not to Get a Law Degree, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/W4EqIKJ

"For most young grads, the answer is a resounding no. At least that’s the conclusion you could easily draw from a lengthy story in The New York Times on Sunday. The article, Is Law School a Losing Game?, provided a devastating look at how law schools market themselves and manipulate their employment statistics to make their law degrees look like a great investment."

6. As Mental Troubles Arise, Limited Options for Institutions, by Benedict Carey - http://nyti.ms/fC3lXA

“It wasn’t a case of ‘Gee, no one saw this coming,’ ” Dr. Borum said. “People saw it. But the question then was what do you do about it? Who do you call? The whole thing speaks to the need for some coordinated way to detect such threats.”

7. NCAA Proposal Would Give Companies More Latitude to Use Athletes' Images in Ads, by Libby Sander - http://chronicle.com/article/NCAA-Proposal-Would-Give/125914/

"Existing rules generally bar companies from using an athlete's name, image, or "likeness" in advertisements, promotions, or other ventures. The proposed measure would allow corporate sponsors to feature game clips of current athletes in their TV ads, for instance, as long as the ads include the name of the athlete's institution."

8. Expert Predicts a Deluge of Tablet Computers on Campus, by Josh Fischman - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/walt-mossberg-says-colleges-will-deal-with-a-deluge-of-tablets/28889

"And tablets will matter in higher education, Mr. Mossberg said, because students will bring them to campus, and colleges and—in particular—publishers will need to meet their needs. “The actual users, like students and faculty, will barge in,” he said."

9. U. of Arizona junior Daniel Hernandez helped Rep. Giffords Moments After Shooting - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload/2011/01/u_of_arizona_junior_helped_rep.html

"Then he saw that Giffords (D-Ariz.) had a "severe gunshot wound to the head" and worked to reposition her body so she could breath without the risk of inhaling blood, Hernandez told the Wildcat. He applied pressure to stop her blood loss and gave others instructions. "She was my main focus so I stayed with her and tried to help her as much as possible," Hernandez, 20, told the campus newspaper."

10. The Education Reform Book Is Dead, by Jay P. Greene - http://educationnext.org/the-education-reform-book-is-dead/

"The problem is that education reform thinking is being shaped less and less by books. As we are seeing in other policy areas, blogs, articles, and other new media are displacing books as the primary means by which intellectual policy movements are formed and sustained."

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1. Viewing College as a Joyful Celebration, as yet Unaffordable, by By Uyanga Tamir - http://nyti.ms/igo61v

‎"Financial aid has become the most important aspect of a college; if I cannot afford the tuition, I simply cannot go. Moreover, there is one thing that further complicates my already too stressful senior year: I am an international applicant."

2. Will an Admissions Rejection be a Rejection of Me as a Person? by Michael Campbell - http://nyti.ms/eCR0Mv

‎"First, my fears: I’m afraid of rejection. Not just the thin-envelope “I didn’t get into Harvard!” type of rejection, but the struggle to disassociate an admissions rejection from the rejection of me as a person."

3. If College Search Is Like Prison, Stanford Could Hold The Key, by Kori C. Hazel - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/cherry-creek-kori-hazel-1/

“College lockdown” involves camping out on a computer typing multitudes of essays and filling out a plethora of applications with the constant need of stress management and a grande hot chocolate, all of which occurs a week or two before a college deadline."

4. When Acceptance to College Hinges on An Audition, by Avery Diubaldo - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/cherry-creek-avery-diubaldo-1/

"The college application process for theatrical majors is a unique one. While most students seeking a higher education need to do no more than complete an array of standardized exams, college applications and transcript forms, the prospective theater major has one more obstacle: the audition."

5. Facebook Freshmen Welcome Groups Altered to Look Less Official, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/eaK40l

"More than 150 Facebook groups that appeared to be official welcome sites for the prospective freshman classes at colleges and universities were altered Wednesday, to make clear that they exist partly as a marketing tool for a commercial, roommate-matching service known as Roomsurf."

6. Guide to Student Loans, by Jonathan D. Glater - http://www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_studentloans.html?ref=student-loans

"There are three basic types of loans undergraduate students should know about: federal loans made by the government directly; federal loans made by banks or other lenders and guaranteed by the government; and private or alternative loans from banks or other private lenders that carry no government guarantee. (Sometimes a college itself may make loans, too, usually in partnership with a financial institution.)"

7. Setting State Targets, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hDTbIM

"Spurred by President Obama’s rhetoric and the work of a few influential foundations, many states have echoed the national call for more community college graduates by setting their own completion goals in recent months. And though some say these statewide goals are evidence of a larger shift in community college mission from access to completion, others see them as a preemptive attempt to demonstrate the kind of accountability that the federal and state governments may impose. Some question whether these newly set goals are even realistic amid dwindling funding for higher education."

8. For-Profit Colleges Draw Big Revenue From Veterans, by Eric Lipton - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/education/09colleges.html?_r=2&hp

"More than 36 percent of the tuition payments made in the first year of the program — a total of $640 million in tuition and fees — went to for-profit colleges, like the University of Phoenix, according to data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs, even though these colleges serve only about 9 percent of the overall population at higher education institutions nationwide."

9. Why Final Exams Are Going to the Dogs, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/dRCKFcf

"My favorite de-stresser activity just might be at Oberlin College. Twice a night at the library during final exams, students get to dance for five minutes as a song — chosen by students in an online poll — is blasted from speakers. Sounds like fun to me."

10. Elementary Students Encouraged to Set College Goals, by Caralee J. Adams - http://t.co/PG8wmck via @educationweek

"In the push to boost college-completion rates, high schools have often been the focus of college-readiness efforts, but now the reach is going even deeper into middle and elementary schools. Some educators feel it’s too late in high school to start introducing the concepts of college, high expectations, and academic achievement."

11. Safety schools matter in college admissions, by Valerie Strauss - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/college-admissions/safety-schools-matter-in-colle.html

"Unfortunately, these are the very colleges that students should be paying extra attention to. After all, if things don’t work out with their top choices, isn’t it important to attend a college that has just about everything they want and need?"

12. U.S. Revises Report on Recruiting at For-Profit Colleges, by Tamar Lewin - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/education/09gao.html?hpw

“After the review of the tapes, we chose to issue the revised report to add more precise language and to clarify some aspects of the report,” said Chuck Young, a spokesman for the G.A.O. “But ultimately nothing has changed with the overall message of the report, and nothing has changed

with any of our findings.”

13. Parents Embrace A Documentary on Pressures of School, by Trip Gabriel- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/education/09nowhere.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

"The film portrays the pressures when schools pile on hours of homework and coaches turn sports into year-round obligations. Left somewhat unexamined is the role of parents whose high expectations contribute the most pressure of all. “Everyone expects us to be superheroes,” one high school senior in the film says."

14. Colleges Urged to Play Greater Role in Regional Development Efforts, by Karin Fischer http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Are-Urged-to-Play-a/125657/

"Participants in the two-day conference, "Providing a Uniquely American Solution to Global Innovation Challenges: Unleashing Universities in Regions," delved into the various ways colleges can help build stronger local economies, including acting as conveners for conversations about regional development, aligning their curricula with local elementary and secondary schools, and producing and retaining well-educated workers."

15. Dropout rate for California black students hits 37%, by Jill Tucker - http://t.co/73iPZR6

‎"The 37 percent African American dropout rate, up three percentage points from the prior year, was far above that of any other ethnic subgroup. Hispanic students had the second highest rate at 27 percent."

16. Poor white boys 'more likely to struggle at primary school,' by Graeme Paton - Telegraph - http://t.co/ql2nr7x

"White British boys from the most deprived families perform worse at the age of 11 than any other group, it was disclosed. They are around 50 per cent less likely to start secondary education with an acceptable standard of the three-Rs than other pupils. Poor children from black African, black Caribbean, Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families all performed better than their white British classmates, figures show."

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