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. Some Early Returns on Early Admission, by Jacques Steinberg
"Among those colleges and universities with binding early-decision programs — in which those applying have consented in advance to attend if admitted — Northwestern is reporting that early applications increased by 24 percent, to about 2,100, when compared with last year; submissions to the University of Pennsylvania are up 18 percent, to 4,557; Duke and Johns Hopkins are each up by nearly 14 percent, having received 2,282 and 1,314 applications, respectively; and Rice is up about 15 percent, with about 1,000 early applications."
2. For-Profit College Recruiters Caught Giving False Info (WATCH)
"After a Remington College professor was surprised to find two convicted felons on his class roster, ABC sent an undercover producer posing as a convicted felon to meet with a Remington recruiter. When the producer told the recruiter of his felony conviction, the recruiter assured him they would work with him and that he could find work in law enforcement or corrections. But according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, those convicted of felonies are barred from working in those areas. In another instance, a DeVry University recruiter grossly exaggerated the percentage of graduates who obtained jobs upon graduation."
3. 7 Most Affordable College Towns: Forbes List
"A new study by Coldwell Banker Real Estate reveals that many students and their families are opting to purchase houses in college towns rather than pay for dorms, reports Forbes. To determine rankings, Coldwell Banker looked at the list prices of houses in 120 college towns, which had at least 6 homes available for purchase between April and September of 2010. Forbes gives the fifteen most affordable college towns. Below, check out the top seven -- and why buying, rather than renting, might be a good idea."
4. College study abroad suffers its first decline, by Mary Beth Marklein - - RT @
"Europe still attracted the largest share of U.S. students — more than 140,000 — but enrollments dropped 4%. They rose in Africa (16%), Asia (2%) and South America (13%). That growth was fueled in part "by new and sometimes more affordable" programs in developing countries, the report says."The economic situation around the world, not just the U.S., is clearly having an impact," says Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president of the institute. Although the 2008-09 figures are the latest available, there are signs that the most recent year has begun to see an uptick in U.S. students going abroad."
5. Black Colleges Look To Increase Online Education Presence, by Kathy Matheson
"Blacks comprised about 12 percent of total enrollment in higher education in 2007 but were 21 percent of students at for-profit institutions – many of which are online, according to an American Council on Education report released this year. Tom Joyner, a syndicated radio host with a largely black audience, also sees the market's potential. The longtime historical black college and unversity booster and philanthropist has invested about $7 million to start HBCUsOnline.com, an educational services venture run by his son."
6. Questionable Science Behind Academic Rankings, by D.D. Guttenplan -
"But researchers who looked behind the headlines noticed that the list also ranked Alexandria fourth in the world in a subcategory that weighed the impact of a university’s research — behind only Caltech, M.I.T. and Princeton, and ahead of both Harvard and Stanford. Like most university rankings, the list is made up of several different indicators, which are given weighted scores and combined to produce a final number or ranking. As Richard Holmes, who teaches at the Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia, wrote on his University Ranking Watch blog, according to the Webometrics ranking of World Universities, published by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Alexandria University is “not even the best university in Alexandria.” The overall result, he wrote, was skewed by “one indicator, citations, which accounted for 32.5% of the total weighting.”
7. China Surges Past India as Top Home of Foreign Students, by Tamar Lewin -
"The report found that a record high of 690,923 international students came to the United States last year — nearly 128,000 of them, or more than 18 percent, from China. Over all, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased 3 percent for the 2009-10 academic year. India, which in recent years had been in the top spot, increased its numbers only slightly, to 104,897 last academic year. “The number of students from China is booming, because of that booming Chinese economy,” said Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president of the institute. “But India, which also has a booming economy, is only up 1.6 percent. I think one factor is the great number of Chinese families with disposable income, two working parents and only one child, and a determination to invest their money to make sure that child receives the best education possible.”
8. Pay of 30 Private-College Presidents Topped $1-Million in 2008, by Andrea Fuller
"The Internal Revenue Service overhauled the way it instructed colleges to report compensation for 2008. Colleges were asked to report salaries according to the calendar year, not the fiscal year, as in years past, meaning that some dollar amounts overlap with what was reported the previous year. But one thing remained the same: As in years past, the top earners included presidents who received large payouts when they stepped down. John R. Brazil, who retired in January as president of Trinity University, in Texas, was the second-highest earner during 2008, receiving $2,777,653 in total compensation. More than $2-million of that amount included payout and interest on deferred compensation.The highest-paid sitting president was R. Gerald Turner, of Southern Methodist University, who earned $2,774,000 in total compensation. According to the university, Mr. Turner's compensation was unusually high because he cashed out a life-insurance policy and bought his own policy. . . ."
9. Top district lets average kids lag, by Jay Mathews -
"Dan Stephens, who teaches math at Northwood High School, thinks he knows why. It is a reason I have never heard before from his renowned district. The most prevalent complaint, buttressed by the new documentary “Race to Nowhere” being shown in Montgomery County, is that teachers and principals put too much pressure on the kids. They are jittery, sleep-deprived, maybe suicidal. Stephens, who teaches Precalculus and Geometry to mostly average kids, thinks his students are the opposite of too stressed. They don’t try very hard and know they will still graduate, so no problem. “All I can do is beg my students to study. Ultimately, they know they don’t have to and don’t,” said Stephens, who has taught for 20 years. “I would guess fewer than a handful actually studied for their test last week. No joke.”
10. Black-White Differences in Oracy and Literacy: A Needed Conversation, by Tom Sticht -
"Listening to adults speak in early childhood may, as suggested by Ferguson, produce differences in both oracy (listening to and comprehending speech) and literacy (reading). In research for the U. S. Department of Defense, colleagues and I found that there were significant differences between black and white young adults who were applicants for military service in the oracy skills involved in listening to and recalling information from spoken messages. Additionally, when simultaneously listening to and reading information from a 5th grade passage spoken at 100 words per minute, whites correctly identified 95 percent of mismatches between the spoken and written versions of the same message while blacks answered 85 percent correctly, a ten point gap. Surprisingly, however, when the spoken message was presented for listening at 250 words per minute, forcing examinees to listen and read at that rate, which is about the average rate for silent reading by college-oriented, high school graduates, whites got 60 percent of mismatches correct while blacks got only 30 percent correct, a 30 point gap. For some reason, accelerating the rate of speech from 100 to 250 words per minute tripled the gap between scores for whites and blacks. This suggests some differences in the internal brain processes involved in the fluency of processing oral and written language at rates of reading typical for entering college freshman."
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