322. College Access and Success News

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

by

Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

297. 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 on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/UftEiOc

2. NCAA cost-of-attendance puzzle: many schools, many methods, by Calder Silcox, Steve Berkowitz, and Jodi Upton - http://t.co/6IG4nQ3 via @USATODAY - "Instead, each school's financial-aid office makes an estimate — and each school uses its own formula. An estimate for in-state and out-of-state students is reported to the NCAA each year."

3. New school set to open, by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/ofUjGz - "In 1997 the state legislature passed a law allowing community, or charter schools, to operate in Ohio. According to the Ohio Department of Education, there now are some 300 such schools in Ohio, including several in the Mahoning Valley. The privately operated schools receive public dollars, and typically cater to at-risk pupils. Like other community schools, STEAM is to be funded with public money; therefore, there is no cost to the family for a student to attend."

4. Debt, Dropouts and Degrees, by Libby A. Nelson - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/n6DiJq - "The report, “Debt to Degree: A New Way of Measuring College Success,” was released Wednesday by Education Sector. Its authors say they aim to give a more complete picture of higher education -- rather than judging by graduation rates alone or by default rates alone -- by dividing the total amount of money undergraduates borrow at a college by the number of degrees it awards."

5. Debt to Degree: A New Way of Measuring College Success, by Kevin Carey and Erin Dillon - http://www.educationsector.org/sites/default/files/publications/Debt%20to%20Degree%20CYCT_RELEASE.pdf - "The American higher education system is plagued by two chronicproblems: dropouts and debt. Barely half of the students who start college geta degree within six years, and graduation rates at less-selective colleges oftenhover at 25 percent or less. At the same time, student loan debt is at an all-timehigh, recently passing credit card debt in total volume. Loan default rates haverisen sharply in recent years, consigning a growing number of students to yearsof financial misery. In combination, drop-outs and debt are a major threat to thenation’s ability to help students become productive, well-educated citizens."

6. Texas orders ATI to stop enrolling new students - http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OORN3G2.htm - "The Texas Workforce Commission has ordered ATI Enterprises Inc. to halt new enrollment at its 16 careers schools and complete training programs for current students. . . . The commission in April announced the company had been put on probation and required an outside auditor to review 2010 placement results."

7. University Reveals the Secrets of Winning Merit Scholarships, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/6qmUu8v via @cbsmoneywatch - "That’s why I was excited when the University of Rochester decided to share its fascinating accounting of just what mattered when the school was deciding which applicants would get its latest round of merit awards. After the university’s freshmen class had been selected, Jonathan Burdick, Rochester’s dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, sat down this summer and analyzed the merit scholarship numbers to determine what admission factors had influenced the scholarship decisions."

8. Bloomberg to Use Own Funds in Plan to Aid Minority Youth, by Michael Barbaro and Fernanda Santos - http://nyti.ms/qOwY7K - "Even as crime has fallen and graduation rates have risen in New York over the past decade, city officials said that black and Latino men, especially those between ages 16 and 24, remained in crisis by nearly every measure, including rates of arrest, school suspension and poverty. Although the populations of young white, black and Latino men in New York are roughly the same size, 84 percent of those in the city’s detention facilities and nearly all of those admitted to children’s and family services facilities are black and Latino youth, according to data from the Bloomberg administration. “The magnitude of the disparities is stunning,” said Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services. “It’s tragic.”

9. Teach for America 2011 acceptance rate: 11 percent, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://t.co/TQlr2g6 via @washingtonpost - "Since 2008, Teach for America has compiled a “top contributors list” to rank schools of similar size by the number of students who are accepted into the program. This year, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor had the highest number of students selected, with 119. For medium-sized schools, Harvard led the pack with 66 placements. And for small schools with fewer than 2,999 undergraduates, Spelman College had 36 placements."

10. America's Top Colleges: Forbes List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/forbes-top-colleges-for_n_917203.html#s320311&title=Williams_College - "For the second year in a row, Williams College, a small, western-Massachusetts liberal arts school, has been named as the best undergraduate institution in America. With total annual costs adding up to nearly $55,000, a Williams education is certainly not cheap, but the 2,000 undergraduates here have among the highest four-year graduation rates in the country, win loads of prestigious national awards like Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, and are often rewarded with high-paying careers."

11. HBCU Voices: Students On Why HBCUs Remain Relevant - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/hbcu-voices-students-on-w_n_917066.html#s320667&title=Danyelle_Gary_Hampton - "Here at HuffPost College, we asked current HBCU students to share what their schools meant to them. The response to this question was overwhelming. Many students said they were accepted to "predominantly white institutions," but chose instead HBCUs to connect to their past and present. Others said they sought the communities they found at HBCUs, or wanted to continue a family tradition of HBCU education."

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:"

243.Unstack the Odds--GO TO COLLEGE: STEP 2

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

by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

18. GO TO COLLEGE: STEP 2

2) Begin a college search by determining which schools may best suit desired areas of study and academic programs as well as family finances.

7. Once you've determined your career interest(s), seek schools that offer your desired area(s) of study.

8. For information on colleges in Northeast Ohio, click this link: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/2010/03/41-colleges-in-northeast-ohio.html

9. You may be interested in reading the Huffington Post article by Steve Leveen, "College: It's not where you get in, but how you come out," at http://bit.ly/aP1M0x

10. To read the article "When Choosing A College, What Really Matters? click: http://www.unigo.com/articles/when_choosing_a_college,_what_really_matters%5E63/?taxonomyId=760028

11. To read the article "Price of education is likely debt," click on this link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-23-comcol-debt_N.htm?csp=usat.me

12. To see some hazards of taking on too much loan-debt for college, click: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/2010/03/43-student-loan-debt-part-ii.html

13. To see all Ohio colleges and universities, use that link under "OBR" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

14. To see "Best Colleges 2010," use that link under "U.S. News & World Report" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

15. For "Historically Black Colleges & Universities," look under "U.S. News" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

16. For Part 2: "Answers on Historically Black Colleges and Universities," click this link: http://nyti.ms/bIpeWz

17. To see "National University Rankings," look under "U.S. News & World Report" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

18. To see "Liberal Arts Rankings," look under "U.S.News & World Report" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

19. To explore "Colleges That Change Lives," hit the link "CTCL Members" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

20. To see "Christian Colleges & Universities," try the link "Member Schools" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

21. For "National Catholic College Admission Assoc.,"use "Search for a school" in the left margin of our MVCAP blog: http://mvcap.blogspot.com/

22. To continue your college search, think how close to home you want to stay; how large a school you'd like; & do you prefer public or private?

23. An important consideration in any college search is whether you can afford--with need-based & merit financial aid--a particular college.

24. One of the hazards in doing a college search today is neglecting to consider the "mountain of debt" you may be accumulating at some schools.

25. Maybe the key question to ask yourself about a college search is this one: in which school(s) can I not just survive--but really thrive!

26. Learn about your schools of interest at a free Virtual College Fair; register at http://www.collegeweeklive.com

27. GoodSearch or Google the Common Data Set for schools you're interested in; pay attention to Part C and H. To find out more, click this link:http://mvcap.blogspot.com/2010/03/42-common-data-set-cds.html

28. If you are considering Ohio State, you can access its Common Data Set (CDS): http://mvcap.blogspot.com/2010/03/42-common-data-set-cds.html

29. If you are considering Miami (OH), you can access its Common Data Set (CDS): http://mvcap.blogspot.com/2010/03/42-common-data-set-cds.html

30. If you are considering Ohio U., you can print out its Common Data Set (CDS): http://mvcap.blogspot.com/2010/03/42-common-data-set-cds.html

137. 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. Poor Ratings for 'U.S. News' Rankings, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/etzstP

‎"The National Association for College Admission Counseling conducted the survey, part of a series of research efforts related to the rankings and leading to a full report next year. The survey was conducted both of high school counselors and of college admissions officials -- and both groups expressed low regard for the U.S. News rankings, while acknowledging their impact, which may even be growing."

2. Modest Gains for Black Colleges Online, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gtOGhG

“In their search for ways to increase their enrollments,” Beasley writes, “the private HBCUs that hitherto have shown little or no interest in meeting the continuing education needs of non-traditional African American students are now giving serious consideration to online programs, not only as a potential source of sorely needed additional revenue, but also as a source of additional enrollments that would help them justify their continued existence. ”Still, the growth in the number of private HBCUs that offer online programs — from two to six since 2006 — has been modest. And the overall proportion of historically black institutions offering online degree programs (defined as having 80 percent or more of the coursework of at least one academic program delivered online) remains low. Of the nation’s 105 HBCUs, only 19 offer online degrees — 18 percent. (Of the 40 public HBCUs, 13 have at least one online program, up from 10 in 2006.)"

3. Student Debt and the Class of 2009 - http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/classof2009.pdf

4. 13 Colleges That Won't Leave You In Massive Debt - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/22/13-low-debt-colleges_n_786237.html#s187212

"The Project on Student Debt's recent report (PDF) on student debt and the class of 2009 examined which schools left their students owing the most money -- and which schools left students with their pockets a little fuller. According to the report, members of the class of 2009 graduated school owing an average of $24,000 -- a six percent increase from the previous year. If you're looking for a college that won't break the bank, gaze westward: most of the low-debt schools can be found in the on the left side of the Mississippi. Below, we outline the 13 institutions that had the lowest per-student debt averages last year."

5. How Are the Kids? Unemployed, Underwater, and Sinking, by Mark Paul and Anastasia Wilson: http://t.co/AzzbQvM

"The U3 measure also does not count underemployment, yet with only 50% of B.A. holders able to find jobs requiring such a degree, underemployment rates are a telling index of the squeezing of the 18-30 year old Millennial generation. While it appears everyone is hurting since the financial collapse, young adults bear a disproportionate burden, constituting just 13.5% of the workforce while accounting for 26.4% of those unemployed. Even with good credentials, it is difficult for young people to find work and keep themselves afloat. . . . Jobs aren’t the whole story. Recent college graduates, those in the labor force with the freshest batch of knowledge and skills, are currently underwater and sinking fast with unprecedented student loan and personal debt. Average student debt for the class of 2008 was $23,200, an increase over four years of about 25%, meaning that students are knee deep in negative equity between their educational investment and actual earnings."

6. Kelli Space, $200,000 In Debt, Starts Site to Solicit Donations - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/22/kelli-space-two-hundred-thousand-in-debt_n_787074.html

‎"I was 18 and the first person in my family (including extended family!) to attend college. Therefore, not only was excitement consuming me, but my parents didn't exactly know how college would or wouldn't affect my salary in the future. We applied for scholarships during the summer but they heard -- as much as I did -- that cost of tuition should never keep you from attending a great school. So... we made the mistake of following such romantic advice. Cue regret."

7. 10 Cheapest and Most Expensive College Towns, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/tGrZI0r

‎"A growing number of parents, according to a Coldwell Banker survey, believe it’s a better idea to buy a house when their child goes off to college rather than picking up the tab for room and board. A Coldwell Banker survey of real estate agents who sell property in college towns reports that 64% of them have seen a significant number of parent investors. If the idea intrigues you, here are the top 10 cheapest and most expensive college town markets among the 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The prices are based on the average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bath home."

8. College Costs, the Sequel, by Stanley Fish - http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/college-costs-the-sequel/

"The list price is the tuition published in the catalog, and frequently this list price bears little relationship to the price that the student’s family actually pays. Much of this charge is covered by grants of some kind: private scholarships, and tuition discounts offered by the schools themselves. The net tuition is the price paid after all discounts. DGA explained this very well. Alarm over rising list price is misplaced angst.In addition, much of the “crisis” people perceive is driven by stories of astronomical tuition at elite private schools. But fewer than 10 percent of the students enrolled at four-year universities attend schools whose list-price tuition and fees exceed $33,000. Over 47 percent attend schools whose published tuition and fees total less than $9,000 per year."

9. "College wasn’t even a part of my vocabulary," by Teng Yang http://chronicle.com/article/Say-Something-From-a-Refugee/125454/

"In this episode, we hear from Teng Yang, a senior at Brown University, about his journey from a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand, to the United States (with 20 brothers and sisters), to college."

• Follow the most important stories on college admissions and financial aid on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rottenbornj


• For links to articles on college admissions and financial aid, you can "friend" Joe Rottenborn at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544


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


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


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


• Download or print the free MVCAP Powerpoint presentation "Paying for College" at our site: http://issuu.com/mvcap/docs/paying_for_college

131. 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. Some Early Returns on Early Admission, by Jacques Steinberg http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/early-admission-2011/

‎"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) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/12/forprofit-college-recruit_n_782982.html

"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 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/12/most-affordable-college-towns_n_782341.html#s180096

‎"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 - http://usat.ly/bPGX3z - RT @USATODAY

"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 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/14/black-colleges-look-to-in_n_783277.html

"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 - http://nyti.ms/d93SWh

"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 - http://nyti.ms/cZL6l9

"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 http://chronicle.com/article/Compensation-of-30/125371/

"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 - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/11/top_district_lets_average_kids.html

"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 - http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/opinions_on_education/102925.html

"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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