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."

281. 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. Why you want to go to college: In 140 characters or less, by Luke Kerr-Dineen and Natalie DiBlasio - http://usat.ly/qOERgx via @USATODAY - "At the University of Iowa, a good tweet is worth $37,000. That's the price of a full scholarship, and that's exactly what a student hopeful can win in a contest the university has dreamed up that takes electronic communication to a new level. The university is asking prospective students to submit a 140-character tweet in place of a second essay."

3. AFT teachers union to defend educators in cheating scandals, by Greg Toppo - http://usat.ly/nyANPN via @USATODAY - "Weingarten noted that local union affiliates in Atlanta and elsewhere have been among the first to ferret out cheating among their ranks.In Atlanta, the union in 2005 "blew the whistle on this, and it was ignored because there was this enormous pressure to meet (testing) targets," she said. "Targets became more important than learning and a climate, as the governor said, that was intimidating and that was fearful and that was retailiating against anyone who came forward."

4. Colleges replacing loans with no-pay grants for their neediest students, by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/vqM8MXh via @washingtonpost - “They’re essentially chasing after the same group of low-income students who are academically talented,” said Mark Kantrowitz, an industry expert who is tracking 73 colleges that have eliminated or capped student loans. “If you get in, these schools are a great deal.”

5. The 12 best college financial aid policies - College, Inc., by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/66dHIwK via @washingtonpost - "In today’s paper, I write about the trend toward “no-loan” financial aid pledges at some of the nation’s top universities. More than 70 schools have replaced loans with grants in at least some of their aid awards, focusing on the neediest students.I resisted the temptation, in that story, to rattle off a list of the schools with the best aid policies. So, why not do it here?"

6. Financial Aid Pledges to Reduce Student Debt (2009-10), The Project on Student Debt - http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php - "A number of colleges have developed financial aid policies that limit or eliminate student loans from financial aid packages, reducing costs for students and families. We have analyzed each of these programs and include information here for the programs that meet our guidelines."

7. Preparing for college with a learning disability - Campus Overload, by Meghan Benzel - http://t.co/VUpOrWy via @washingtonpost - "I am a non-visual learner, and I have AD/HD and components of Asperger’s Syndrome. For those of you preparing for college with a learning disability: I understand. I’ve been there."

8. The PREPPIEST Schools Of 2011, by Lindsay Dittman - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/the-preppiest-schools-of-_n_894320.html#s305674&title=University_Of_Virginia - Which university in Ohio made this list?

9. Education Needs to Break With Tradition - Room for Debate: How to Improve Summer School - http://nyti.ms/nMFuzw - ". . . Is there a way to make summer school more cost effective or, with tight budgets, does it make sense to cut them? What are the best methods for making sure students are learning what they need to learn in the summer and not losing ground?"

10. How to Save on College Tuition, by Princess Clark-Wendel -http://t.co/dgO4nrq via @foxbusiness - "At a time when many families are strapped for cash, the cost of college tuition is steadily climbing. New research shows that the median income in the United States has held steady around $33,000 since 1998 while college tuition has more than doubled.Here are nine ways to help cover the cost of tuition."

11. Hechinger Report Two years after Obama’s college graduation initiative, major obstacles remain, by Jon Marcus: http://bit.ly/pbgf3C - "Only one in five of those who enroll in community colleges—and, in some states, barely one in 10—graduates in three years, while only about half of students who go to universities get their bachelor’s degrees within six. That has helped to push the United States from first to 10th in the world in the proportion of the population that has graduated from college, threatening to make this generation of college-age Americans the first to be less well-educated than their parents."

271. Review of 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. My degree isn't worth the debt! http://t.co/txvYdC0 via @CNNMoney - "We talked to seven people overloaded with student loans. Here is Erik's story. (Click through the rest of the gallery for other profiles.) --The Editors"

3. No time to abandon black colleges, by Walter M. Kimbrough - http://usat.ly/jA8JFn via @USATODAY - "Since the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board ruling and the mass acceptance of African-American students, the percentage of blacks attending HBCUs has dropped markedly. Before Brown, more than 90% of African Americans of college age attended an HBCU. Today, it's 12%."

4. High schoolers join YSU Summer Honors Institute, by Virginia Shank - http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/558466/High-schoolers-join-YSU-Summer-Honors-Institute.html?nav=5021 - "Each year students attend classes, which are taught by YSU faculty, that span several disciplines including business, engineering, science, social sciences and the arts.To participate, students must be identified as gifted and talented and must have completed either 10th or 11th grade by the start of the program. This year, the $35 fee for each participant covered the cost of student lunches."

5. Slow Growing, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/l5HJoe - "Published tuition and fees at private colleges and universities will be an average of 4.6 percent higher this fall than last, according to a survey of 429 institutions by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. This marks the third consecutive year of hikes of about 4.5 percent. While that rate still outpaces the consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, it represents a drop-off from the 10 years leading up to the recession, when tuition rose by a national average of 6 percent."

6. Students With Disabilities at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions - http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011018.pdf - "Institutions reported enrolling approximately 707,000 students with disabilities in the 12-month 2008–09 academic year, with about half of these students reported enrolled in public 2-year institutions (table 2). While the reported number of students with disabilities is overestimated due to duplicated student counts, this estimate largely reflects unduplicated counts of students with disabilities; most institutions (94 percent) provided an unduplicated count of the total number of students with disabilities at their institution."

7. Get Into These 39 Top Colleges With Bad SAT or ACT Scores, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/7Hpe4Zh via @cbsmoneywatch - "Where can you find these schools? The best source is the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), which maintains a list of hundreds of colleges and universities with test-optional policies.To make your job easier, I’ve provided lists of the top nationally ranked schools in the liberal arts college and university categories that are test optional. Here they are:"

8. Private College Costs Rising 4.6 Percent, by Tamar Lewin - http://nyti.ms/jOL2FG - "The colleges’ average financial aid will increase by 7 percent. Last year, institutional aid increased by 6.9 percent and the previous year, 9 percent. In 2010-11, the published tuition and fees at private colleges and universities averaged $27,293."

9. Leaders of Historically Black Colleges See Key Role for Their Institutions in Obama's 2020 Goal, by Rachel Wiseman - http://chronicle.com/article/Leaders-of-Historically-Black/128022/ - "Seventeen percent of African-American students at a four-year institution attend a historically black institution, and those students are four times more likely to graduate than African-American students attending other institutions. HBCU's have been leaders in postsecondary education of underserved populations, but the panelists acknowledged that they must continue to aggressively pursue degree-completion goals."

10. When College Grads Move Home: Six Ways to Get Them Off the Couch, by Kayla Webley - http://t.co/yBGS99m via @TIMEMoneyland - "Things are not looking so good for this year’s college graduates. Unemployment among those under 25 is at a record-high, they have more debt than any graduating class in history, and starting salaries are plummeting. That’s right, mom and dad, according to a Department of Labor poll, some 85% of the class of 2011 will be moving back home at some point in their lives."

11. Achievement gap for Hispanic students hasn't narrowed in 20 years, by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo - http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0623/Achievement-gap-for-Hispanic-students-hasn-t-narrowed-in-20-years - "Since the early 1990s, “there’s been overall growth in reading and math for both whites and Hispanics,... but the gap really hasn’t closed,” says Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees NAEP."

12. Persistent achievement gap vexes education reformers: Six takeaways, by Amanda Paulson - http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/1214/Persistent-achievement-gap-vexes-education-reformers-Six-takeaways/Progress-on-achievement-gaps-sluggish - "No education issue has received more attention in recent years – but with less apparent progress – than the achievement gaps for minority and low-income students. The Center on Education Policy released a study Tuesday that looks at trends in all 50 states. Despite a few bright spots, the picture is bleak. Here are a few of the study’s major findings:"

262. Review of 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. Surging college costs price out middle class, by Annalyn Censky - http://t.co/Rl6BzD9 via @CNNMoney - "As the out-of-pocket costs of a college education go up faster than incomes, it's pricing low and medium income families out of a college education," said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial aid sites FinAid.org and FastWeb.com."

2. The Class of 2011: Commencement Speeches, by Jonathan Corum - http://nyti.ms/kSQ0Ye - "Word usage in 40 speeches given at graduations this year."

3. The True Significance of 'Gainful Employment,' by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/lHltJi - "Leaders of for-profit colleges -- and their supporters, mostly Republicans, in Congress -- continued to rattle their swords about the rules’ fundamental unfairness in singling out for-profits for scrutiny. Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts and others who watch the sector -- and were free from worry about maintaining the colleges’ position in a potential lawsuit challenging the regulations -- acknowledged just how much gentler the new rules were than the earlier version."

4. Teach Financial Literacy, by Steven Bahls - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/l1kLFH - "Lately the most common answer from recent graduates as to how we can improve has been surprising — more education about financial literacy and the practical aspects of living in today’s world."

5. How to Get a Rhodes, Fulbright and Other Prestigious Fellowships, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/AtwE378 via @cbsmoneywatch - "So how do college students increase their chances of getting these fellowships for graduate work? Andrew Roberts, a professor at Northwestern University and the author of an excellent book, The Thinking Student’s Guide to College: 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education, provides some tips."

6. Why a Learning Disability Can Give You A College Admission Edge, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/qM8tAA0 via @cbsmoneywatch - "Colleges and universities, he says, can treat a learning disability as a plus. And here’s why: colleges look for diversity in their applicants and a learning disability is a form of diversity."

7. Education Secretary May Agree to Waivers on ‘No Child’ Law Requirements, by Sam Dillon - http://nyti.ms/jxh3rH - "The Obama administration has been facing a mounting clamor from state school officials to waive substantial parts of the law, which President Bush signed in 2002, especially its requirement that states bring 100 percent of students to proficiency in reading and math by 2014 or else face sanctions."

8. Lawmakers Talk About Their Degrees—or the Lack of Them - http://chronicle.com/article/Lawmaker-Talk-About-Degrees/127846/ - "I think the biggest gift I could give my children is an education," Ms. Roach says. "But even if I had no children at all, I wouldn't want to make it more difficult for the average family to give their kids a chance at a college degree."

9. Colleges offer graduates help repaying loans, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/jT4sn0 via @USATODAY - "The financial-aid benefit, which targets students who expect to pursue careers in low-paying public-service fields, aims to help colleges attract and retain students who might otherwise enroll somewhere cheaper, or nowhere at all."

10. College group targets incentive payments for international student recruiters, by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/WaCGg68 via @washingtonpost - "Most colleges have few, if any, employees devoted to international recruiting, and sending workers abroad can get expensive. Many schools have turned instead to agents, who typically set up shop overseas and refer students to U.S. universities for a fee. Many agents charge the student a fee, as well."

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

198. 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. The Inevitable Happens in Ohio, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gRtKQ4

"Ohio has undergone rapid and significant change in its higher education system since 2007, when the state legislature passed a law allowing Strickland, rather than the Ohio Board of Regents, to appoint the higher education chancellor, streamlining the newly created University System of Ohio and -- as a near-unavoidable consequence -- politicizing its head position."

2. Ohio Chancellor Steps Down, Leaving Strat Plan in Limbo, by Eric Kelderman - http://chronicle.com/article/Ohio-Chancellor-Steps-Down/126480/

"Mr. Fingerhut's departure leaves in doubt to what extent the state will continue with the far-reaching, 10-year strategic plan the chancellor engineered and shepherded through the General Assembly in 2008 with overwhelming bipartisan support."

3. 'Lowering Higher Education' by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/dQRHU6

‎"The corporate university is one that, in the face of declining government funding, is increasingly dependent on corporate sponsorship and funding to carry out its traditional tasks of teaching and research. It literally sells physical space on the campus to corporations, accept[ing] financial donations for building projects and endowments of chairs, replete with the corporate brand."

4. Don't Believe Princeton Review's Best Value College List, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/2cb6bWj

"Plenty of the top colleges that The Princeton Review singles out for honors could also earn spots on a list of the nation’s most expensive colleges and universities. Many of the students who end up attending these “best value” school will pay more than $200,000 for their degree. Hardly what I call a bargain."

5. Schools tout efforts to keep tuition in check, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/gqMPQr via @USATODAY

"The Education Department began nudging colleges toward greater transparency last July, when it published, at http://www.collegenavigator.gov/, average net prices based on family income for schools that receive federal financial aid. Beginning Oct. 29, colleges will be required to post a "net price calculator" on their websites to help families estimate more precisely what they will be expected to pay."

6. Calculate the cost of college and chance of financial aid, by Terri Gruca - http://t.co/4GbTyC2

‎"There are a few tools that can help you determine the price of college based on your family’s income for schools that receive federal financial aid. The Department of Education created this web site last July to help families make more informed decisions about college. This is a terrific tool because it not only breaks down the cost of tuition, but of books, room and board and even how many students qualified for financial aid as well as the amount they were given."

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1. Jobs that pay well, no degree required, by Anthony Balderrama - http://bit.ly/eyss8f #cnn

"That's not to say you shouldn't earn a college or graduate degree if you want. However, if college isn't the right option for you or if it's not a plausible option in the short term, consider these 15 professions that don't require a college degree but pay well:"

2. Economy shuffles Princeton Review's Best Value Colleges, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://t.co/7J4vIXM via @USATODAY

‎"Federal stimulus money, which helped many public universities hold tuition down, is about to dry up. Some private schools, including Williams and Dartmouth, are paring financial aid. House Republicans have proposed cutting the maximum Pell Grant given to needy students."

3. Four Questions on How to Cut Tuition, by John M. McCardell Jr. - http://nyti.ms/fvg07r

‎"I would not presume to say what other institutions might be capable of doing. But I WILL say that any institution that has embraced the high tuition/high discount mode of fee-setting is, sooner or later, heading for a fall."

4. Funding Completion, by Hilary Pennington - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hOtoab

"Today, Complete College America (an effort supported by the Gates Foundation and four other national philanthropies) is inviting all governors to take the Completion Innovation Challenge. The 10 governors with the most innovative and inventive proposals to significantly boost college completion in their states each will receive a $1 million grant."

5. Wanted: A Dependable Backer, by Dan Berrett - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hzJ1mf

"State governments have proven to be unreliable partners," Robert J. Birgeneau, chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley, said here Saturday morning at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "The federal government needs to guarantee the fate of our great public institutions."

6. U.S. House Votes to Slash Current-Year Education Funding, by Alyson Klein - http://t.co/wFLnmJj

"The U.S. Department of Education's current-year budget would be slashed by more than $5 billion under a bill approved early this morning by the U.S. House of Representatives on an almost strictly party line vote of 235-189. That sets up a showdown as the legislation heads to the Democratically controlled Senate, where lawmakers are expected to reject the cuts."

7. Generous, but Not So Generous, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hNTmL9

"While aid officials almost uniformly want to encourage more colleges to offer more aid, many have been quietly critical of institutions like Yale, Harvard and Stanford for being as generous as they are to families with incomes as high as $200,000 . . . ."I think Yale want too far, farther than anyone else," said one aid director at an elite college who asked not to be identified. . . ."

8. Financial Aid Growing Faster than Tuition - Notre Dame Magazine // University of Notre Dame - http://t.co/vQla4GD

‎"Trustees approved an increase of $1,150 in tuition and $290 in room and board for next fall, bringing the average undergraduate student’s bill to $29,100 a year. The combined increase of $1,440 or 5.2 percent is the smallest, percentage-wise, in two decades. . . . Even with the price increase, Notre Dame continues to cost less than all but two of the other institutions in U.S. News & World Report magazine’s top 20 national universities."

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1. Recent grads finding jobs - in their living rooms, by Jessica Dickler -http://t.co/dMEGo9a via @CNNMoney

"She's one of a growing number of young professionals choosing to work from home as telecommuting opportunities have jumped nearly 400% in the past three years, according to job-search site FlexJobs.com."

2. Oversigning offenders won't be curbed by NCAA's toothless rule, by Andy Staples - http://bit.ly/g6iYgS /via @SI_24Seven

"When Football Bowl Subdivision schools across the nation begin signing football players on Feb. 2, they'll have to adhere for the first time to an NCAA bylaw that limits them to 28 signees between Signing Day and May 31. Unchanged is the rule that declares schools can bring in only 25 new scholarship players each academic year."

3. On education reform, safe is for losers, by Richard Whitmire - http://usat.ly/eD79K7 - RT @USATODAY

"On this round of the trusted National Assessment of Educational Progress, only one in five high school seniors scored proficient in science. Worse, only a handful scored at the advanced level — not an encouraging sign as the nation faces international economic competition based more on brains than brawn."

4. A January Deadline Met, but the Applications Continue, by Uyanga Tamir - http://nyti.ms/gwqYWP

"So here I am, a second semester senior still filling out applications and writing good old essays. Since the bigger wave of applications has passed, I also have started my scholarship search. Most of the scholarships that are available have deadlines in the second semester, which is convenient for all students. To those other students who believe that second semester of senior year is going to be a breeze, it really will not be if you are serious about your future. Life does not get easier, only more challenging – something that I anticipate with enthusiasm and readiness."

5. Shielding Education and Research, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fhRsZM

‎"The president's speech was relatively short on details about programs he would seek to shield from the overall five-year freeze on domestic spending he proposes; it made no mention of Pell Grants or other financial aid (which many college leaders fear could face cutbacks if Republicans stick to their goal of slashing domestic spending) . . . ."

6. The Same Boxes to Check, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fitseI

"The Common Application has rejected a proposal that it add optional questions on sexual orientation and gender identity. The board of the organization issued a statement suggesting that colleges have other ways to indicate support for applicants who are gay or who don't identify with traditional gender categories, and that adding the questions could pose problems."

7. Deal Stopped in Its Tracks, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fDrCtZ

"Though Cuyahoga would keep all tuition from in-county students in this program, it would have to give 70 percent of tuition from out-of-county students to Academic Partnerships. Ross noted that the college would pilot two course offerings of 30 students to see if the model made financial sense, then expand it if deemed appropriate."

8. Enrollment Management, Inc.: External Influences on Our Practice -http://www.usc.edu/programs/cerpp/docs/EnrollmentManagementInc.ReportFINAL_002.pdf

A report on the enrollment management industry, by Scott Andrew Schulz and Jerome A. Lucido, both of the University of Southern California

9. Top Schools See Record Applications for 2015 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/top-schools-see-jump-in-a_n_812455.html#s227215&title=University_of_CaliforniaLos

‎"This year, the ten University of California campuses all attracted large volumes of applicants, with UCLA topping the list with a record 61,498 applications. Among private schools, Columbia University saw a massive 32 percent increase in applicants from last year, for a total of 34,587 applications."

10. Is College Tuition Too Low? by David Leonhardt - http://nyti.ms/fBBp08

‎"In essence, Mr. Becker and Mr. Posner are calling for a higher list price for public colleges. Well-off families would be able to pay this higher list price. Their children would still go to college, graduate and, far more often than not, earn enough of a wage premium to make college a fabulously good deal. Middle- and lower-income families, on the other hand, would not have to pay more than they’re now paying."

11. Census Data Show Rise in College Degrees, but Racial Gaps in Education, by Alex Richards-http://chronicle.com/article/Census-Data-Reveal-Rise-in/126026/

"For instance, the census estimates that in 2009, 28 percent of Americans 25 and older had at least four-year degrees. But the rate for black Americans was just 17 percent, and for Hispanic Americans only 13 percent."

12. Proficiency Eludes U.S. Students on Science NAEP, by Erik W. Robelen - http://t.co/2J5jeSL via @educationweek

‎"Only one in five high school seniors scored at least proficient on the exam. Meanwhile, 34 percent of 4th graders and 30 percent of 8th graders were deemed proficient or better in science on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as “the nation’s report card.”

13. Application Boom Begets a New Strategy, by Eric Hoover - http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/the-application-boom-begets-a-new-strategy/27800

"So Rutgers decided to allow applicants to submit their academic information—courses, grades, grade-point averages, and class rank—via an online form called the Self-Reported Academic Record. Students who decide to enroll must then ask their high schools to send an official copy of their transcript by July 15, so the admissions staff can verify the information they had submitted. In other words, the university must process transcripts only for those students who enroll."

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1. Congress Targets Spending, by Patrick O'Connor and Janet Hook - http://on.wsj.com/eOVkTc - WSJ.com

"Republicans aren't proposing an across-the-board cut on the government, so some departments could see deeper cuts than others. The top targets could be programs whose budgets saw a jump under Democrats, like foreign aid and Pell Grants for middle-income college students."

2. Study less, earn more--at least in the beginning, by Michael Vasquez - http://t.co/Q2ciV5a via @miamiherald

"What the numbers say: Bachelor's degree recipients from the state's 11 public universities earned an average starting salary of $36,552 in 2009. Meanwhile, those who received associate in science degrees from Florida community colleges earned an average of $47,708 -- a difference of $11,000 more per year."

3. Cuomo Names Developers of a Student Loan Center, by Kareem Fahim - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/nyregion/01student.html?_r=1

"Mr. Cuomo said Friday that $13 million in settlements paid by dozens of colleges and lenders in the case would be used to finance a national student loan center, to help young borrowers and their parents navigate the complexities of the college lending process."

4. Winter break is high season for dropouts, by Alan Tripp - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2010/12/winter_break_is_high_season_fo.html

"Their reasons are many. Students are naturally likely to reassess their college choices and careers at the end of their first semester. Also, and not surprisingly, our coaches have found that freshmen at traditional colleges returning home for their first extended break can have heightened feelings of homesickness. Other students have second thoughts after underestimating the rigors of college and how to balance those with everyday life.
Whatever the reason, these students will join the 800,000 each year who begin a bachelor's program yet never graduate. When 40 percent of our college students fail to graduate, there's a crisis -- one that impacts their lives, the lives of those around them and a country quickly falling behind."

5. Delaying College to Fill in the Gaps, by Sue Shellenbarger - http://on.wsj.com/hVPfkp - WSJ.com

"Gap-year activities range from doing volunteer work or taking classes, to working for pay, traveling or tackling outdoor adventures."

6. For-Profit Colleges Charging More While Doing Less for Poorest, by John Lauerman - Bloomberg http://t.co/DNSz190 via @BloombergNow

"The industry, including Washington Post Co.’s Kaplan University, has tripled enrollment to 1.8 million in the past decade by pouring billions of dollars into marketing and recruiting, offering flexible online classes and outfitting more-modern campuses while states slash funding for

for community colleges. As much as 90 percent of revenue at each for-profit college comes from federal student aid.
Today, one in seven minority students attends a for-profit college, as does one in four poor students who receive federal Pell grants for low-income families, according to the U.S. Department of Education and an industry group."

7. College grade inflation feared as GPAs gradually rise, by Diane Smith http://t.co/RzpAudV

"Rojstaczer, who has been tracking GPAs for years, lists his finding on gradeinflation.com--a website with links to GPA data. His findings were also presented in a research paper that was published in March. Rojstaczer said the average GPA nationwide at all schools has gone from 2.93 during the 1991-92 academic year to 3.11 in 2006-07."

8. Universities Are Challenged as Demographics Shift, by Reeve Hamilton and Jon Marcus - http://nyti.ms/hganF7

"Although the changing demographics of college campuses may be grabbing the headlines, the more compelling issue is how the growing number of minority students presents serious social and academic challenges for financially strapped universities, even as the schools are under pressure to boost graduation rates.

Nationally, 52 percent of Hispanic students and 58 percent of black students are unable to earn a bachelor’s degree in six years, compared with 40 percent of white students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics."

9. Study: TRIO Programs May Ease College Racial Gaps, But Parent Support Still Needed, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/C2JjW5o

"In fact, adolescent interventions brought the college-going rates of low-income Hispanic and black students up to the level of middle-income white students. "Upward Bound and Talent Search are examples of adolescent intervention programs that can benefit African-American and Hispanic students immensely when properly implemented," Ms. Walsh concludes.
The downside? The programs still do not make up for family support and resources in the college-planning process, a critical intent of the programs."

10. 10 ways to pay tuition in 2011, by Christina Couch - http://www.bankrate.com/finance/college-finance/10-ways-to-pay-college-tuition-in-2011-1.aspx

"With 529 plans fluctuating, financial-aid budgets getting slashed and tuition rising at an alarming rate, the landscape of college financing is changing fast. Fortunately, you still have options. Here are the best college finance tips for 2011."

11. High School Counselors Lack Training in College Admissions, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/2T3hZA5

"High school counselors, particularly those in poorer urban and rural districts, often don't have the training needed to help students navigate the college admission system. And this can hinder access to higher education for first-generation, minority students, says Patrick O'Connor, past president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in an recent op-ed essay that appeared in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.
While 466 colleges offer training for school counselors, fewer than 45 of these programs offer a course showing future counselors how to help students and families select, apply, and pay for college, writes O'Connor."

12. Applying Early Decision: 6 Things to Do When You're Deferred, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/VfRBYzp

"A dear friend of mine’s son recently learned that the University of Chicago had deferred his application and he was devastated. Here, however, are six things that you can do to boost your chances of still getting into your dream school:"

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1. Data on 760,000 at risk after The Ohio State University's server hacked, by Jim Kavanagh - http://t.co/3mry0Bh via @cnn

"It doesn't appear that anyone's personal data were accessed, the university said, but Ohio State is providing a year of free credit protection services to those potentially affected. . . . The university expects the investigation and credit protection services to cost it $4 million, according to the Dispatch."

2. Elite Colleges Continue to Fill Slots Early, by Jacques Steinberg: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/early-admission-acceptances/

"At UPenn, for example, nearly half of the freshman class has already been admitted, according to my back-of-the-envelope calculations. At Haverford, Johns Hopkins and Bowdoin, the comparable figure is at or near 40 percent.

By allowing the most motivated — and, at times, some of the most financially able — applicants to lock in their college choices in December, selective colleges have in past years drawn criticism. The institutions have responded that it is in their interest to accept those applicants who are deemed the most qualified, and who have done sufficient research on a university to commit to it as their first choice."

3. More Tuition Struggles Projected, by Jack Stripling - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/e7yG2y

"Of 128 respondents, 15 percent of private institutions forecast zero growth or decreases in net tuition revenues for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30 for most colleges. That’s quite a change from the period between 2002 and 2008, when no more than 5 percent of private colleges saw annual decreases. The declines don't mean private colleges are cutting tuition, but rather that revenue lost from increases in discounting rates, which are at a 41 percent median, may be greater than revenue gained by tuition hikes."

4. Making P-16 Meaningful, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/ni0vzYK

"Education reformers have held out hope that the Common Core State Standards Initiative -- the bottom-up effort by governors and state school chiefs to define college readiness and create national standards and assessments to measure progress toward it -- could get college and K-12 leaders out of the silos in which they too often operate."

5. Tracking Students to 200% of Normal Time: Effect on Institutional Graduation Rates - http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011221.pdf

"A majority of college graduates take longer to earn a degree than what is commonly thought to be the “normal” amount of time it should take—4 years for a bachelor’s degree and 2 years for an associates degree."

6. Delaware man pleads guilty to duping Harvard - http://b.globe.com/h1zyqU (via @BostonUpdate)

"Adam Wheeler was sentenced to 10 years of probation and to pay restitution to Harvard for the financial aid, scholarship money and academic awards he received fraudulently from the school."

7. 2010 high school valedictorians - Boston.com: http://shar.es/XcocG

"Forty different paths, many that began in distant lands, have brought them together. Through hard work, caring parents, and perceptive teachers, they've conquered challenges. Now, they've made it to the top of their class. Here is a snapshot of Boston's 2010 valedictorians."

8. Sweating Bullets at the GAO, by Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gFoGJo

"The authors of the Government Accountability Office’s for-profit secret shopper investigation pulled off a statistically impressive feat in August. Let’s set aside for the moment that on Nov. 30, the government watchdog quietly revealed that its influential testimony on for-profit colleges was riddled with errors, with 16 of the 28 findings requiring revisions. More interesting is the fact that all 16 of the errors run in the same direction -- casting for-profits in the worst possible light. The odds of all 16 pointing in the same direction by chance? A cool 1 in 65,536."

9. 10 Excellent College Towns: Unigo List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/16/10-excellent-college-town_n_797873.html#s209457

"A school's location is the inherent culture surrounding the campus, and what that environment can offer its students. Don't worry though, if you are looking for great weather, we have that too! The perfect vista, town, or climate where you'll be truly happy is out there waiting for you. Here are ten of our favorites."

10. Seeberg parents feel betrayed by Notre Dame sex attack investigation - chicagotribune.com: http://bit.ly/h9Zm8A

"We are parents fighting for our daughter. We're fighting for our sisters, our nieces and our granddaughters," Tom Seeberg said. "If not at Our Lady's university, then where? Where in the world would you fight for women? Where in the world would you fight for a cause like this?"

11. 3 Reasons Colleges Accept More Early Applicants, by Kim Clark - US News and World Report: http://t.co/s8Y0AY5

"Many schools' early admission rates appear high because coaches often push recruited athletes, who are pre-screened, through early to ensure commitments. Yale University, for example, accepted 730, or 13.9 percent, of its 5,261 early applications last year. Meanwhile, Yale says it accepted just 1,309, or 5.6 percent, of the 23,273 regular candidates. But Yale spokesman Tom Conroy noted that many of the early applicants were recruited athletes."

12. A Plea Deal for George Huguely, by Liz Seccuro - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-seccuro/the-plea-deal-for-george-_b_797742.html

‎"It is important to note that today, as I sit a mere 10 minutes from Capitol Hill, Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) is introducing the SaVE Act in the Senate, a bill crafted in direct response to this horrific death. Let us not lose focus on what Yeardley's murder means, the facts of the case, and that it resonates beyond UVA and to every corner of America's college and university communities."

13. Should You Major in Journalism? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/QEmDWuF

"I write a college blog for CBS MoneyWatch and the two most popular posts that I’ve written in 2010 focused on the 20 best-paying college degrees and the 20 worst-paying college degrees. Since this summer when I wrote those posts, they’ve had close to a half million hits. And this is no fluke. The most popular college blog post that I wrote in 2009 was also on the same subject."

14. Mentor Program Introduces Students to STEM-Related Fields, by Jamaal Abdul-Alim - http://t.co/ijMyOBl via @educationweek

‎"Just one of dozens of local chapters affiliated with the national ACE Mentor Program, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., the program provides early career exposure, mentoring, and scholarships to high school students in an attempt to encourage them to enter one of the three fields that make up the ACE acronym: architecture, construction, and engineering."

15. Tax Bill With Benefits for Colleges and Students Heads to President's Desk, by Kelly Fields - http://chronicle.com/article/Tax-Bill-With-Benefits-for/125737/

"The bill would extend for two years a series of expiring tax breaks, including several deductions and credits for research, tuition, and charitable donations. They include a tuition tax credit worth up to $2,500, a student-loan interest deduction worth up to $2,500, and a benefit that allows companies to provide up to $5,250 in tax-free tuition assistance to their employees.

The measure would also renew a tax credit for companies that give research dollars to colleges and allow individuals to continue to contribute up to $2,000 a year tax-free to Coverdell Education Savings Accounts."

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1. Report on College Attendance Crisis for Black Males Exaggerated - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/achievement-gap/report-on-college-attendance-c.html

"The article also referred imprecisely to the significance of the number of black men in college. While black men made up “just 5 percent” of college students in 2008, that figure did not represent one of the areas in which blacks showed a lack of achievement, given that black men make up only about 6.5 percent of the general population."

2. University report: Class of '11 will see slightly better jobs outlook, by Andrew Katz - http://bit.ly/ifypLZ #cnn

"The Recruiting Trends 2010-2011 survey, released November 17, found that overall hiring is expected to grow by 3 percent over last year to provide 122,000 opportunities for graduates across all degree levels. In fact, nearly 72 percent of those positions could be filled at the bachelor's degree level alone, as the entire college labor market is leveraged by an expected 10 percent increase in the hiring of those degree holders, the survey of 4,600 employers says."

3. California State campuses raise tuition in middle of school year, by Michael Martinez - http://bit.ly/9kN1W3 #cnn

"The 5 percent increase will raise tuition from the current $2,115 to $2,220 for the spring semester for full-time undergraduate students. Next fall, full-time undergraduate tuition rise from $4,440 to $4,884 per year. Trustees sought to soften the blow by stating that about half of its undergraduates -- about 180,000 students -- will be fully covered for the tuition increases through financial aid."

4. Experts give tips to college grads seeking first job, by Christine Dugas - RT @USATODAY - http://usat.ly/hpzZSr

"The unemployment rate of Americans ages 20 to 24 has climbed from 8.5% in 2007 to 15% this year at a time the overall unemployment rate hovers just below 10%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Adding to the pressure to get a job, graduates on average are starting out with $24,000 in student loan debt, according to a new report about 2009 from The Project on Student Debt."

5. Students can make up credits online, by Susan Sawyers - RT @USATODAY - http://usat.ly/hxMzAT

"The classes are part of a widening phenomenon called credit recovery — a term that sounds more about erasing debt than advancing education but actually enables troubled students to get credit for classes they've previously failed or didn't complete."

Here are some articles that were posted earlier:

6. 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. . . ."

7. 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. . . ."

8. Wising Up on STEM Completion - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/903NgE

"According to NSF statistics cited in the AAUW report, despite the fact that women make up the majority of college students generally, only 88,371 of them graduated in STEM fields in 2007, compared to 138,874 of their male counterparts. In 2007, men outnumbered women in science and engineering careers, 73 percent to 27 percent."

9. A Time of Urgency, by Freeman A. Hrabowski III - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/bNqGXs

"Many might be surprised that underrepresented minorities aspire to earn STEM degrees at roughly the same rate as other groups. However, only about 20 percent of underrepresented minority students complete undergraduate STEM programs within five years."

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