252.Unstack the Odds--GO TO COLLEGE: LINKS

Unstack the Odds: Help All Kids Access College—and Graduate!
by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

20. GO TO COLLEGE: LINKS

Here are some additional links to articles of interest; they were drawn from the Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP) blog, with the original posting number shown.

Cost:

22. "College: More Expensive than Ever"
Read the article from Money at this link:http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/19/pf/college_costs/index.htm

23. "Survey Finds That Many Families Don't Borrow for College"
See an article from The New York Times at this link:http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/survey-finds-that-many-families-dont-borrow-for-college/

24. "529 Savings Plan for College"
Check out a column on saving for college at this link:http://www.minyanville.com/articles/college+costs-+saving/index/a/24201#

To read Lynn O'Shaughnessy's post on how much 529 plan savings will affect your expected family contribution (EFC), derived from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), click this link:http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/the-no-1-fear-of-529-plan-investors/2164/?tag=col1;blog-river

28. "College Applicants Forego 'Dream Schools' in Recession"
Here's a link to this article of interest from the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera:http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_13604363

To read a summary of the various guides that "rank" colleges, click on the post "Which College Rankings Set Should You Use," by Danielle Wiener-Bronner on The Huffington Post of 9/14/10, at this link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-wienerbronner/which-college-rankings-se_b_716526.html

31. "College Dropouts Cite Low Money and High Stress"
Here's an article of importance on why college students drop out from The New York Times at this link:http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/agenda/?src=twt&twt=NYTimesCollege

32. "Average Debt for Graduating College Seniors Rises to $23,200"
Here's an article from The New York Times on college student loan debt at this link:http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/debt/?src=twt&twt=NYTimesCollege

38. Financial-Aid Websites
You can click on any of these websites for resources on financial-aid for college:

1. FinAid!--http://www.finaid.org/

2. College Board--http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/397.html

3. Peterson's--http://www.petersons.com/finaid/file.asp?id=906&path=ug.pfs.advice&sponsor=1

4. Student Aid on the Web (Federal Student Aid)--http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/index.jsp

39. Student Loan-Debt
To read first-hand, student accounts of being in debt from college expenses, click on this series from HuffPost College:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/college-debt_n_471023.html?slidenumber=1mvKlgmw4aI%3D&&&slideshow#slide_image

40. Search for Scholarships
To search for scholarships that may interest you, you can access the following website:http://www.fastweb.com/login

43. Student Loan-Debt, Part II
To read about hazards of taking on too much loan-debt for college, click on the following links:

a. re: private loans--http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/02/25/money-college-why-one-student-advises-avoiding-private-student/

b. re: community college students-- http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-23-comcol-debt_N.htm?csp=usat.me

44. Understanding Financial-Aid Award Offer Letters
To decipher the financial-aid award offer letter a student will get from any college that has accepted his/her application for admission and received that student's FAFSA data, click these links by Lynn O'Shaughnessy from her articles on thecollegesolutionblog.com:

1. Part I--http://thecollegesolutionblog.com/2010/03/08/how-to-decode-a-financial-aid-letter/

2. Part II--http://thecollegesolutionblog.com/2010/03/09/college-grants-decoding-a-financial-aid-letter-part-ii/

45. Calculating the Net Price of a College
Daniel de Vise, blogging in The Washington Post at College Inc., stated the following:"All colleges will be required to post a 'net price calculator' on their web sites by fall 2011. 'Net price' is what a student actually pays to attend, after subtracting discounts and grant aid from the sticker price."In addition, de Vise quoted Jeff Whorley, President of StudentAid.com, as follows: "Net price is sticker price minus merit and need-based grants. Up-front, out-of-pocket cost is the net price minus work-study and government loans."Calculate the net price of a college you are interested in and determine your "up-front, out-of-pocket cost" to make certain you can afford to attend.To read a report, released by The College Board in mid-September of 2010, on "discounting" (i.e., reducing tuition/fees through merit scholarships) by both private and public colleges, click on this link:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/15/discounting

47. Verification
If your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been selected for verification, read the post by Doug Schantz of CheapScholar.org at this link:http://cheapscholar.org/2010/03/30/help-i-have-been-selected-for-financial-aid-verification/

49. "Can We Afford This College?"
In the April 2010 Money, Penelope Wang writes an article entitled "Can We Afford This College?" After students are accepted to a college, have filed their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and receive their financial-aid award offer letter, they and their parent(s) need to ask this same question. Ask it before the May 1 deadline to indicate to the college they will enroll; don't wait until the first bill arrives in August. If you can't make ends meet without taking on significant loan-debt, now's the time to consider other college possibilities.Writer Lynn O'Shaughnessy advises students and parent to get a "financial aid pre-read" early in the college-search process. You can see her column "What's This College Really Going To Cost," posted online on 9/9/10, at this link:http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/whats-this-college-really-going-to-cost/3007/?tag=col1;blog-river

50. Ask for a Reconsideration
If you can not afford to attend the college of your choice and hope more financial aid might enable you to enroll, you can ask your financial-aid officer to "reconsider" your financial-aid award. You may be asked to present financial-aid award offer letters from comparable colleges, complete a form on any "special circumstances" important to consider, or provide other information--but take a chance! Be polite, speak for yourself (rather than having a parent make the contact), and avoid using the term "negotiate." Stress that the college is your first choice and you'd like to attend, but your financial-aid award won't let you do that; therefore, can it be "reconsidered"? For suggestions on how to do this, read the blog posting by Lynn O'Shaughnessy at this link: http://thecollegesolutionblog.com/2010/03/21/student-aid-5-ways-to-negotiate-for-more-financial-aid/

Also, check out the post, "Fight for Financial Aid the Smart Way," by Peter McDougall at this link: http://ow.ly/1vhOM

Finally, Sandra J. Oliveira--Executive Director, Office of Financial Aid at Providence College--offers advice on appealing your finanical-aid award at this link from The New York Times:http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/aid-2/#more-19867

52. Tuition at Public Flagship Universities in the U.S.
To see tuitions during 2009-2010 at public flagship universities in the U.S., click the following link to a database in USA TODAY: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-20-college-costs_N.htm

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

54. College Scholarships
Many students--and their parents--want to know how to get a college scholarship. The simple answer is "Be an attractive candidate for one"--that is, have a high grade-point average (GPA) in a rigorous course of study, earn a top class-rank, and score well on the ACT or SAT. In other words, be the type of student any college would love to have enroll--and might offer a scholarship to facilitate that. But there are other ways as well. For some ideas, check out the following links to these blog-posts by Lynn O'Shaughnessy:

1. "4 Ways to Win A Scholarship"--http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/college-scholarships-4-ways-to-win-a-scholarship/1761/

2. "The Best Places to Find College Cash"--http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/the-best-places-to-find-college-cash/442/?tag=content;col1

3. "The Myth About College Scholarships"--http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/the-myth-about-college-scholarships/312/?tag=content;col1

55. How Do Elite Schools Determine Prices?
For one opinion on why elite colleges and universities are expensive, see the opinion piece by Andrew Manshel, "Why Top Colleges Squeeze You Dry," in The Wall Street Journal on April 9, 2010, at this link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304017404575165730979629178.html?KEYWORDS=andrew+manshel

57. College Loans
Today, many students--and their parents--will likely consider loans to pay for college. Indeed, some may come to regard a loan as the "four-letter word" of financial aid! To learn more about borrowing for college, Lynn O'Shaughnessy has compiled several of her blog-posts on loans, "Best College Loan Advice: 9 Tips for Borrowing for College," at this link: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/best-college-loan-advice-9-tips-for-borrowing-for-college/1864/?tag=col1;blog-river

116. 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. Average College Debt Rose 6 Percent to $24,000 in 2009, by Jacques Steinberg - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/debt-3/

"Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access & Success, the research and advocacy group that operates the debt project, provided a piece of advice worth passing on to readers of The Choice: “If you’re going to borrow, you should take out federal loans first, because federal student loans come with far more repayment options and borrower protections than other types of loans.”

2. So Far, So Good - Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/Yc68u2C

"Three and a half months after legislation took effect that ended the origination of student loans by banks, and several weeks into the first fall semester of the New World Order in student lending, even many who opposed what they saw as the Obama administration's heavy-handed push to kill the lender-based guaranteed student loan program acknowledge that the transition has gone smoothly. "They've done a good job," says John Dean, the longtime counsel to the Consumer Bankers Association, which fought the Obama proposal. "I'm not aware of a single student whose educational plan was disrupted because of the transition.... [Department officials] should be proud of what they did."

3. Recent US College Grad's Face Job Problems, by Andrew Sum - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-sum/the-labor-market-problems_b_768617.html

"Young college educated workers, particularly those 25 and under, however, have not fared very well over the past three years. They have experienced rising joblessness, underemployment, and malemployment problems (i.e., working in jobs that do not require a college degree). During the January-August period of 2010, we estimate that fewer than 50 of every 100 young B.A.-holders held a job requiring a college degree. The labor market difficulties of many young bachelor degree holders in the U.S. can best be seen in the types of jobs in which they were employed in the first eight months of the current calendar year. Of the 20 individual occupations employing the largest number of young, college graduates (25 and under), seven typically did not require any type of college degree to be employed. There were 175,000 young college graduates working as cashiers, retail clerks, and customer service representatives versus only 146,000 employed in all computer professional professions. . . ."

4. School Counselors Stretched at a Time When Needed Most, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/rrX5uoM

‎"Although the American School Counselor Association recommends a 250-to-1 ratio of students to school counselors, the national average is actually 457 (2008-09 school year). Click here to see how the individual states stacks up. The reason for the gap in the association's recommendations and reality? A combination of financially strapped schools and lack of mandates for counselors, says Jill Cook, assistant director at ASCA . "They are not as a big of a priority," she says. "When the budget gets tight, that's where the cuts are made. "Proper staffing is even more important today as the job of the school counselor has expanded to serve all students, says Cook. Rather just helping those with discipline problems or those headed to college, as was the case 20 years ago, counselors today are expected to work with all students on academic, career, and social issues. The options are now more varied, too, helping students with the transition to community college, four-year institutions, or work...."

5. It Pays to Comparison Shop When It Comes to College, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/IucUMst

"The takeaway for K-12: Guidance counselors should be aware of the variation in success rates at schools to help students make the best choices, says Schneider. "Students should be sent to schools with high graduation rates," he adds. "It really, truly matters. "In this research, two findings stand out. Attending a more selective school increases the student's payoff by an average of 6 percent to 11 percent. Among the public institutions, there was no big difference among those at the lowest level of selectivity. Second, public institutions have a consistent advantage over private not-for-profits at every level of selectivity. Any wage boost that students get from private colleges, on average, isn't enough to overcome the high cost of getting that degree, Schneider found. The findings are based on averages, and there was wide variation among schools at the same level."

6. Athletic fees are a large, and sometimes hidden, cost at colleges, by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/p77a7JJ

"University leaders say that without the fee, they wouldn't be able to offer high-quality intercollegiate athletic programs. Schools with fewer students and deep-pocket donors have to charge correspondingly larger fees. "I have 4,800 students. If I raise [the fee] by one dollar, I get $4,800," said Kathy Worster, vice president for administration and finance at Longwood. School officials say they don't list individual fees on their Web sites out of concern for burying parents in minutiae. The schools generally report prices as a comprehensive fee - a single figure that represents everything a student should expect to pay. "What we're saying is, this is our total cost for our total experience," Worster said. Critics say parents might be surprised at how much of that cost goes toward athletics."

7. The Myth of the R.O.T.C. Ban, by Diane H. Mazur - http://nyti.ms/9c5yqf

"The answer is that in all my research on the subject, I have found no universities that ban R.O.T.C., nor has the military initiated action against any institution for banning the program. We have grown accustomed to saying there are bans only because it fits with the assumption that certain colleges are unfriendly to the military. It is true that many Ivy League colleges do not have R.O.T.C. detachments today. Forty years ago, the military started to close detachments in the Northeast and establish programs in the West and South."

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