See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap1. NCAA football grad rates at all-time high, but top ...
"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
"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 -
"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 -
"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 -
"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:
"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:
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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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