121. 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. Not the ‘Hook’ the Admissions Office Had in Mind, by Dave Marcus - http://nyti.ms/aH72IT

"Mark Hatch was reading applications for Bates College in Maine one weekend a few years ago when he became intrigued by a student’s essay about fishing. Turning the page, Mr. Hatch felt a sharp pain — and realized that the student had attached an actual hook. After a trip to the emergency room and several stitches, Mr. Hatch finished reading the essay. Now a vice president at Colorado College, Mr. Hatch has the scar to prove that he did, in fact, admit a student with a hook."

2. No Excuses, Mr. President, by Marc Bousquet - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/99V2gr

"President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan's plans for higher education are evident in their attraction to community colleges. All of the features that most educators deplore about community colleges are what the current administration likes about them: top-down control of curriculum, disposable instructors, automated courseware, a training model of education, and management highly responsive to local employers. Their ambitions for publicly-funded higher education are closely parallel to their commitments in the schools: more automation, a standardized national curriculum, and centralization of control with an intensified assessment regime. Higher education has been slow to pick up on these threats, but national polls show that most Americans already clearly understand the difference between raising test scores and actually improving education."

3. For-Profit Schools, Tested Again, by Gretchen Morgenson - http://nyti.ms/9adClc

"Apollo’s facilities offer flexible-degree programs for people (“working learners,” it calls them) who have jobs or other obligations that keep them from attending school full-time. The University of Phoenix, by far the largest of the company’s institutions, offers both online and on-campus classes. It operates in 39 states. A majority of Apollo’s revenue comes from federal student aid. The University of Phoenix, which accounted for 91 percent of Apollo’s net revenue this year, gets the bulk of its own revenue from Title IV programs. Just 1 percent of cash revenue at the University of Phoenix comes from student loans that aren’t channeled through the federal government. Top for-profit colleges like Apollo’s received $26.5 billion in government-funded student aid in 2009, the Department of Education says. Because taxpayers are on the hook if these loans go bad, it is high time that regulators increased their scrutiny of practices at Apollo and other for-profit education companies."

4. Most expensive colleges money.cnn.com/galleries/2010…

‎"1. Connecticut College

New London, Conn.

Tuition & fees (2010-2011): $43,990

Increase from previous year: 3.9%

Total cost including room & board: $53,110"

5. The For-Profit LMS Market - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/byaSqP

"Mining learning-management systems for data has come into fashion among nonprofit colleges relatively recently, but for-profits have been doing it for much longer, says David Harpool, provost and chief academic officer at the for-profit Westwood College. Accrediting bodies and other regulators have always scrutinized for-profits extra closely, Harpool says, so there was a high demand for tools that would log data on student attendance and the degree of activity by students and instructors in the online learning environment — and make the data easy for for-profits to organize and show to accreditors and others by way of proving their legitimacy. For-profits also have a unique interest in by-the-numbers scrutiny of both students and faculty: faculty because the institutions have greater power to fire them based on classroom performance, and students because, as Harpool puts it: “When an average school in the for-profit sector spends between $4,000 and $8,000 to attract each student, . . . ."

6. Kaplan & U.S. Vet - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-01/kaplan-quest-for-profit-at-taxpayer-expense-ensnares-disabled-u-s-veteran.html

"Melvin is among thousands of returning veterans enticed by for-profit colleges through repeated phone calls and e-mails, advertising in military-oriented publications, and alliances with veterans’ organizations eager for corporate contributions. Admissions advisers woo veterans with visions of high-paying jobs and easy access to federal grants. While some veterans succeed at these colleges, others are hindered by red tape in getting federal funding and the inability to complete degrees and find well-paying jobs after graduation. Aggressive recruiting by for-profit colleges leads to low graduation rates, said Donald Overton, executive director of Veterans of Modern Warfare, a service organization in Silver Spring, Maryland, which has 5,000 post-1990 veterans as members. “As long as the recruiters meet their quotas and bring in veterans, their job is done,” Overton said in a telephone interview. “The colleges are lacking support services, and their programs are fast-paced.”

7. For Exposure, Universities Put Courses on Web, by D.D. Guttenplan -http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/world/europe/01iht-educLede01.html?hpw

"M.I.T.’s announcement in 2001 that it was going to put its entire course catalog online gave a jump-start to what has now become a global Open Educational Resources Movement whose goal, said Susan D’Antoni of Athabasca University, in Canada, is “to try to share the world’s knowledge.” Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of Michigan all now offer substantial portions of their courses online. In Britain, the Open University, which has been delivering distance learning for over 40 years, offers free online courses in every discipline on the OpenLearn Web site; the Open University also maintains a dedicated YouTube channel and has often had courses listed on the top 10 downloads at iTunes University. There, students can gain access to beginner courses in French, Spanish and German as well as courses in history, philosophy and astronomy — all free."

8. Tomorrow's College: The classroom of the future. . . , by Marc Parry http://chronicle.com/article/Tomorrows-College/125120/

"As online education goes mainstream, it's no longer just about access for distant learners who never set foot in the student union. Web courses are rewiring what it means to be a "traditional" student at places like Central Florida, one of the country's largest public universities. And UCF's story raises a question for other colleges: Will this mash-up of online and offline learning become the new normal elsewhere, too?Signs suggest yes. The University System of Maryland now requires undergraduates to take 12 credits in alternative learning modes, including online. Texas has proposed a similar rule. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is pushing to have 25 percent of credits earned online by 2015. And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, pointing to UCF as a model, has made blended learning a cornerstone of its new $20-million education-technology grant program. These players pin their hopes on Web classes as a panacea that will expand access, speed up the time spent ...."

9. Mastering the Admissions Essay, by Ellen Gamerman Getting In Unigo unigo.com/articles/maste…

"The Wall Street Journal turned the tables on the presidents of 10 top colleges and universities with an unusual assignment: answer an essay question from their own school’s application."

10. The Case Against College Athletic Recruiting http://bit.ly/bTacyb

"Equally strange, you would discover that some academically elite schools that do not give athletic scholarships—because they are nominally committed to academics over athletics—give away a large portion of their highly competitive admissions slots to athletes, even in the most obscure sports, such as squash. For instance, Williams College, which admits only 17 percent of applicants, recruits 66 athletes per year. That’s 13 percent of the incoming freshman class that is dedicated to third-rate (literally, as Williams plays Division III sports) athletes over first-rate students. Take a look at the NEWSWEEK College Guide and you will find Williams, along with its small-school rivals Middlebury and Bowdoin, and Ivy League members Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Cornell, on our list of the top 25 schools that are “Stocked With Jocks.” You probably would conclude that these American institutions of higher learning have their priorities weirdly out of whack. And you would be right."

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

111. 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. More youths with mental disabilities going to college http://usat.me/40667136

‎"In years past, college life was largely off-limits for students with such disabilities, but that's no longer the case. Students with Down syndrome, autism and other conditions that can result in intellectual disabilities are leaving high school more academically prepared than ever and ready for the next step: college. Eight years ago, disability advocates were able to find only four programs on university campuses that allowed students with intellectual disabilities to experience college life with extra help from mentors and tutors. As of last year, there were more than 250 spread across more than three dozen states and two Canadian provinces, said Debra Hart, head of Think College at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which provides services to people with disabilities.That growth is partly because of an increasing demand for higher education for these students and there are new federal funds for such programs."

2. Middlebury Dean Says SAT or ACT is 'Seldom a Deal Breaker' - http://nyti.ms/bhwqrV

‎"It’s not that they play no role in the process, but highly selective colleges don’t usually have “cut off” scores for accepting or rejecting applicants, and most have a fairly wide range of scores represented among their admitted students.Higher scores are better than lower scores, of course, but even the highest scores are by no means a guarantee of admission. And sometimes a lower score can be at least partially offset by other factors in the application, like coming from an underrepresented background, having a special talent that is desirable in the student body, or any of the myriad other factors that come into play in the decision-making process. At most of the colleges to which you apply, your scores will probably look a lot like those of other applicants, so it’s unlikely they’ll be a deciding factor in your candidacy."

3. The Thinking LMS http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/18/phoenix

"This is where the University of Phoenix is headed with its online learning platform. In an effort ambitiously dubbed the "Learning Genome Project,” the for-profit powerhouse says it is building a new learning interface that gets to know each of its 400,000 students personally and adapts to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of their “learning DNA.” Unlike analog forms of student profiling — such as surveys, which are only as effective as the students’ ability to diagnose their own learning needs — Phoenix’s Learning Genome Project will be designed to infer details about students from how they behave in the online classroom, McQuaig said. If students grasp content more quickly when they learn it from a video than when they have to read a text, the system will feed them more videos. If a student is bad at interpreting graphs, the system will recognize that and present information accordingly — or connect the student with another Phoenix student who is better at graph-reading."

4. Unusual Majors and What You Can Do with Them http://hercampus.com/career/youre-majoring-what-unusual-majors-and-what-you-can-do-them

"Puppetry? Gerontology? Egyptology? These aren’t just words that end in a “y” — they’re all unusual majors at different colleges across the country. But even though these majors may leave you tongue-tied, don’t let that scare you off as these lesser known areas of study can lead to pretty cool careers. That’s great, but you’re probably wondering, what exactly can they be used for after graduation? HC has tracked down some of the most unusual majors in the country and the potential jobs they have to offer."

5. The 10 Best Business Schools For Your Career -- http://huff.to/9y4UvO Huffpost

"The Princeton Review sought to find out by surveying 19,000 students at 300 business schools across the country. Check out the 10 schools that provide their students with the best career prospects below, and see the Review's many lists of of business school rankings here."

6. How Are High School Grads Adjusting to College Life? http://huff.to/cOXD3i Huffpost

"...Most students, said Tillman, are struggling first with a significant academic transition. Tillman advises them, "Do whatever it takes to get organized and keep on top of the material. This includes meeting professors during office hours, joining study groups, going to the writing center, getting tutoring or academic coaching." Tillman says you shouldn't be afraid to drop a course quickly if you know it is too difficult. On the health front, if students have been receiving support at home for ADD/HD, learning disabilities or any illness, they will need to self-advocate and consistently follow through with those supports and medication in order to be successful. Socially, adjustments can also be hard. Tillman recommends being proactive -- and patient. "Find your niche sociall by getting involved. Be open to meeting a lot of people in the beginning. Push through that loneliness and reach out. It will get better."

7. White House Hispanic Initiative To Host Ed. Summit Today http://t.co/MNdCsCg via @educationweek

"Three assistant secretaries for the U.S. Department of Education are lined up to speak today at an education summit about how to boost college attainment among Hispanics. The summit is being hosted here in the nation's capital by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The executive director for that initiative is Juan Sepulveda. Under the initiative, Sepulveda and other White House officials visited more than 90 communities in 20 states over the past year to gather information and ideas on how to improve the lives of Latinos. Today's education summit, held at the Organization of American States building, is meant to be a "next step" in connecting communities nationwide to improve the educational attainment and lives of Latinos, a press release for the event says."

8. Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab - http://nyti.ms/9sq79o

"Better known as the Browne Review after the inquiry’s chairman, John Browne, the former head of BP, the report called for the cap on tuition fees at British universities, now set at £3,290, or $5,275, a year, to be scrapped in favor of a free-market approach paid for by the students themselves — but only after they graduate and are earning more than £21,000 a year. “Students do not pay charges, only graduates do; and then only if they are successful,” the report said. “The system of payments is highly progressive. No one earning under £21,000 will pay anything.” Lord Browne added in an interview with the BBC, “If you choose to go into a job which doesn’t pay very much or if you choose to go out of the workforce to build a family, you won’t have to pay it back.”

9. What They're Reading on College Campuses http://chronicle.com/article/What-Theyre-Reading-on/124990/

"The Chronicle's list of best-selling books was compiled from information supplied by stores serving the following campuses: American U., Drew U., Florida State U., George Washington U., Georgetown U., Georgia State U., Harvard U., James Madison U., Kent State U., Pennsylvania State U. at University Park, San Francisco... State U., Stanford U., State U. of New York at Buffalo, U. of California at Berkeley, U. of Florida, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U. of Miami, U. of Nebraska at Lincoln, U. of North Dakota, U. of North Texas, U. of Oklahoma at Norman, Vanderbilt U., Washington U. in St. Louis, Williams College, Winthrop U., Xavier U. (Ohio)."

10. WSJ.com - Y U Luv Texts, H8 Calls http://on.wsj.com/c448MA

"A recent survey of 2,000 college students asked about their attitudes toward phone calls and text-messaging and found the students' predominant goal was to pass along information in as little time, with as little small talk, as possible. "What they like most about their mobile devices is that they can reach other people," says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C., who conducted the survey. "What they like least is that other people can reach them."