394. 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Is it OK for Someone to Proofread Your College Application Essay? - College Admissions Q&As (http://t.co/YL8VAMpm) http://bit.ly/sXOnvK

3. Do colleges with test-optional admissions inflate ratings? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/admissions-101-do-colleges-with-test-optional-admissions-inflate-their-us-news-ratings/2011/12/20/gIQApEvD7O_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "A growing number of colleges do not require SAT or ACT tests. Does that help, hurt or do nothing for a school’s U.S. News ranking?"

4. The Hazards of Being a Stealth Applicant, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-hazards-of-being-a-stealth-applicant#.TvKffx58XNU.twitter via AddThis - "You could reduce your chances of getting accepted into college if you are a stealth applicant, who never contacts the university before you apply."

5. Tweet-like College Admission Essays Spark Debate: http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/tweet-like-college-admission-essays-spark-debate-5487866.html#.TvKf4o5Y2aY.twitter via ArticlesBase - "The new format integrated in the college admission essays that asks students to respond in as brief as a tweet, has triggered debates participated by students, parents and even school administrators."

6. Action teams tackle St. Paul achievement gap, recommend other big changes at SPPS Twin Cities Daily Planet http://bit.ly/swqoDm - "Slide is one of a series of recommendations from nine District Action Teams — see pdf at end of article for full PowerPoint presentation."

7. Will $60 Million For Early Learning Help Close The Achievement Gap? http://shar.es/WHwd2 - "Last week Washington state won a $60 million federal grant for early learning. We take a closer look with leading experts on early childhood education in Washington and other states. How will the state spend the money? Will it help close the achievement gap for low–income kids?"

8. Cost vs. benefit steers debate over future of integration aid http://t.co/wy2UiQMB http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/135974858.html

9. 'Financial Aid Offers in Florida' - http://EzineArticles.com/6762362 - "There are several financial-aid programs given to students. Each of the programs has different requirements and qualifications. Every university and college in the United States of America have scholarship offerings to students . . . ."

10. Autopsy: FAMU band member died within an hour of beatings, by Douglas Stanglin - http://usat.ly/tZJ8Ho via @USATODAY - "CNN reports that some band members have said Champion died after taking part in a rite of passage called "crossing Bus C." One member, who CNN says spoke on condition of anonymity, described the ordeal in which students "walk from the front of the bus to the back of the bus backward while the bus is full of other band members, and you get beaten until you get to the back."

11. Ohio State gets bowl ban, other penalties - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://bit.ly/s53koq via AddThis - "The NCAA also issued a public reprimand and censure, put the Buckeyes on probation through Dec. 19, 2014, and reduced football scholarships from 85 to 82 through the 2014-15 academic year."

12. Study Links Winning Football and Declining Grades, by Mary Pilon: http://nyti.ms/tBcKoJ - “Our results support the concern that big-time sports are a threat to American higher education,” the paper’s authors — Jason M. Lindo, Isaac D. Swensen and Glen R. Waddell — wrote. They said their work was among the first to take a look at the “nonmonetary costs” of college sports."

378. 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Duncan Calls for Urgency in Lowering College Costs, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/thZSu2 - “Three in four Americans now say that college is too expensive for most people to afford,” Mr. Duncan said. “That belief is even stronger among young adults — three-fourths of whom believe that graduates today have more debt than they can manage.” College seniors with loans now graduate with an average debt load of more than $25,000."

3. Committee on Measures of Student Success issues final report, by Libby A. Nelson Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sOdSKW via AddThis -"One of the recommendations, if endorsed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, would create a combined “graduation and transfer” rate that includes students who graduate from a two-year college as well as those who do not graduate but do go on to a four-year institution. That move would be a victory for community colleges, who have argued that counting only those students who earn degrees makes community colleges appear less successful than they really are."

4. 10 job market trends college grads need to know, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57332329/10-job-market-trends-college-grads-need-to-know/?tag=mncol;lst;8 - "Hiring of college graduates is expected to increase 4 percent across all degree levels, according to a survey of more than 3,300 employers. The survey, which is the largest of its kind, has been conducted annually for 41 years by Michigan State University. . . . Hiring will be strong for college majors such as computer science, accounting, agriculture sciences and agriculture business. Other in-demand degrees will include communications, public relations, marketing, finance and economics."

5. Experts Say Social Sciences Are 'Left Behind,' by Sarah D. Sparks - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/30/13social.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Researchers at an NRC forum on social sciences in Washington this month suggested that the expansion of testing in math and reading under the No Child Left Behind Act has led to a piecemeal approach to social and behavioral science subjects in the states. . . . “No Child Left Behind frankly left us behind, and the common core gave us a footnote,” said S.G. Grant, the education dean at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y. The discussion caps a year of dismal news on the social studies front for U.S. students: National Assessment of Educational Progress reports out this year found mostly mediocre performance for students in geography, civics, and history."

6. Learning the Language: New Study on Hispanic Achievement Paints Stark Picture, by Lesli Maxwell - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2011/11/new_study_on_hispanic_achievem.html via @educationweek - "When it comes to "readiness to learn," Hispanic children face several disadvantages compared with their white peers. Thirty-three percent of Hispanic children in 2008 lived in families where no parent had full-time employment compared with 21 percent of white children. And in 2007, 27 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty compared with 10 percent of white children. Those factors and others translate to Hispanic children being less likely than their white or black peers to recognize letters of the alphabet, knowing how to write their name, or being able to count to 20 or higher."

7. THE SOCIAL & EDUCATIONAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE OUTCOMES OF HISPANICS IN URBAN SCHOOLS- http://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/4/HispanicStudy2011.pdf -"Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) analyzed for this report show that Hispanic fourth graders read and do math at substantially lower levels than students with greater advantages and students who speak English. The situation is compounded by the fact that large numbers of Hispanic students live below the poverty line, do not have health insurance nor access to pre-school services, are unlikely to have a parent who has graduated from high school, are among the working poor, and face constant suspicions about whether they are in the country legally."

8. Surge in Free School Lunches Reflects Economic Crisis, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/tmx5jh - "The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program."

9. ‘Broader, bolder’ strategy to ending poverty’s influence on education, by Pedro Noguera - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/broader-bolder-strategy-to-ending-povertys-influence-on-education/2011/11/29/gIQAtTvaAO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.com - "Over 50 years, numerous studies have documented how poverty and related social conditions — such as lack of access to health care, early childhood education and stable housing — affect child development and student achievement. The research never suggests that poor children are incapable of learning or that poverty itself should be regarded as a learning disability. Rather, research suggests that poor children encounter obstacles that often adversely affect their development and learning outcomes."

10. Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer’s salary: $4 million, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/ohio-state-football-coach-urban-meyers-salary-4-million/2011/11/29/gIQAup9K9N_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost.com - "Meyer will earn three times more than Ohio State President E. Gordan Gee, the nation’s highest paid university president. On most campuses, coaches top the payroll. And despite the economy, budget cuts and increasing tuition, coach salaries continue to climb."

11. Kevin Carey: The Dissenter The New Republic: http://bit.ly/tyVhGG via AddThis" -"Improbably, at the end of a four-decade-long career as the nation’s most prominent education historian and a vocal advocate for education reform, Ravitch has emerged as reform’s fiercest critic. Her about-face has made her more famous and influential than she has ever been. Now, pundits, scholars, philanthropists, and education leaders are all asking the same question: What happened to Diane Ravitch?"

356. 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. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Tips on Finding and Securing Scholarships, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/vLFbCd - "His principal tip was volume. “The trick to winning is to apply to lots of scholarships,” he said. All students – including the “very lucky and very skilled” – will get far more rejections than they will get wins, he said."

3. Your Common Application Essay, Uncut - The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/vmfPUd - ". . . The Common Application now asks that essays be between 250 and 500 words long. That upper limit was reimposed — after four years without one — amid feedback from admissions officers that essays had grown too long. But unlike other parts of the online application, which may cut off students midword when they exceed character limits, the essays are sent to colleges in full, and aren’t even labeled with word counts. Many seniors are pondering: to cut or not to cut?"

4. Pentagon Pledges Not to Change Tuition Reimbursement Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/t1ikrK via AddThis - "The Pentagon on Friday pledged not to change tuition reimbursement policies for active duty military at this time. Cuts in benefits have been expected (and the Marine Corps indicated earlier in the month that it was ready to make cuts), causing concern to many active duty military members who are enrolled in various programs."

5. Schooled in Sports: NCAA Raises Minimum GPA for Incoming Student-Athletes, by Bryan Toporek - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/schooled_in_sports/2011/10/ncaa_raises_minimum_gpa_for_incoming_student-athletes.html via @educationweek - "Starting in August 2015, high school student-athletes who hope to play sports in college will be held to a higher academic standard. While freshmen only need a 2.0 GPA to be eligible for competition now, the new rules require student-athletes to have a 2.3 GPA to have immediate access to competition.
If a student-athlete meets the current 2.0 GPA requirement but falls short of the 2.3 GPA required for competition, the NCAA approved a proposal that will allow him/her to still remain on his/her athletic scholarship. The NCAA is calling this an "academic redshirt" year."

6. More Students Migrate Away From Home, by Eric Hoover and Josh Keller -http://chronicle.com/article/The-Cross-Country-Recruitment/129577/ - "Public universities across the country are engaged in an all-out war for out-of-state students. Deep cuts in support are driving the search for revenue, and in many states, a stagnating pool of local applications has pushed colleges to recruit broadly. The winners, like Arizona State, bring in higher out-of-state tuition and get to skim from a larger pool of prospective students. . . . Randy Hodgins, the former chief lobbyist for the University of Washington, said he once told a joke to his counterpart at the University of California that has more than a grain of truth. "The answer to both of our budget problems is, I take your kids and you take mine, and then they're both nonresidents," Mr. Hodgins said."

7. Where Does Your Freshman Class Come From?http://chronicle.com/article/Interactive-Freshman-Class/129547#id=204796 - "Ohio State University was the 1st most popular in-state university for Ohio freshmen in 2010."

8. Bottom of the Heap - The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/10/29/opinion/29blow-ch.html?ref=opinion "Selected measures from the report "Social Justice in the OECD--How Do the Member States Compare?" Includes some categories of index ratings and some raw data."

9. Want to earn more money? Study STEM. by Daniel de Vise - College, Inc. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/want-to-earn-more-money-study-stem/2011/10/28/gIQALikjPM_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.com - "Math-science majors can earn more than humanities majors even with a lesser degree. Carnevale believes the economy has shifted over the past 30 years to reward academic fields over educational attainment. In other words: It doesn’t matter how long you have studied; it matters what you study. . . . 63 percent of STEM workers with associate’s degrees earn more than non-STEM workers with bachelor’s degrees."

10. Know Before You Owe: Student Loans - http://www.consumerfinance.gov/students/knowbeforeyouowe/

264. 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. Terrelle Pryor apologizes for actions that led him to leave Ohio State, by Erick Smith: http://usat.ly/jCJ5c2 - "Pryor did not take questions after his statement. He did confirm he would enter the NFL's supplemental draft and said he was nine credits short of graduating from Ohio State and hoped to receive his degree from the school."

2. College Bound: Low-Income Students More Likely to Attend For-Profits, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/xo8pH7s - "Students between ages 18 and 26 whose total household income is near or below the federal poverty level are likely to be overrepresented at for-profit institutions and underrepresented at public and private nonprofit four-year institutions, according to Portraits: Initial College Attendance of Low-Income Young Adults by IHEP, an independent, nonprofit public-policy research organization in Washington."

3. U.S. Students Remain Poor at History, Tests Show, by Sam Dillon - http://nyti.ms/iMj1G1 - "American students are less proficient in their nation’s history than in any other subject, according to results of a nationwide test released on Tuesday, with most fourth graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify China as the North Korean ally that fought American troops during the Korean War."

4. With Perkins Loan Program Set to Expire in 3 Years, College Presidents Work to Preserve It, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/article/College-Presidents-Pull/127918/ - "For many low-income students, several panelists noted, a Perkins Loan is all that stands between a student and needing to take out a higher-interest private loan. "In a real sense, the Perkins Loan is the last chance not to say 'no' to a student who wants to go to school," said the Rev. Charles L. Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities."

5. University of the People: Tuition-free higher education, by Daniel de Vise - http://wapo.st/j3yc9P - "The biggest drawback to Reshef’s school is that it lacks accreditation. There’s little hope for his students to transfer their credits to any other university until it gains accreditation. Reshef says he’s working with an as-yet-unnamed accreditor."

6. Reviewing education reform in the 2010-11 school year, by Valerie Strauss - http://t.co/Ce7fjg1 via @washingtonpost - "That contest, plus a controversial film about charter schools called “Waiting for ‘Superman,’ ” propelled a reform movement that stresses choice and incentives rather than equity and funding."

7. The MOST Expensive Private Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/13/the-most-expensive-privat_n_876440.html#s291540&title=Connecticut_College_43990 - "Although it overall nabbed 41st place in a ranking of liberal arts schools, Connecticut College tops the list of the most expensive colleges in the nation, according to a new study by US News and World Report. 7 of the colleges listed are liberal arts colleges, and two are national universities. One is a regional college."

8. Slowing the summer slide to lower academic achievement: Making summer school cool, by Maureen Downey - http://bit.ly/leRksA - “While all students lose some ground in mathematics over the summer, low-income students lose more ground in reading, while their higher-income peers may even gain,” states the RAND study.“Most disturbing is that summer learning loss is cumulative; over time, the difference between the summer learning rates of low-income and higher-income students contributes substantially to the achievement gap,” the study warns."

9. Symposium Focuses on Positioning Young Black Boys for Educational Success - http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/symposium-focuses-on-positioning-young-black-boys-for-educational-success-123831924.html - "The toxic cocktail of poverty, illiteracy, racial disparities, violence, massive incarceration and family breakdown is sentencing millions of children to dead end and hopeless lives and threatens to undermine the past half century of racial and social progress," says Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund. "These ingredients ultimately combine to produce striking gaps in educational success, life expectancy and other important outcomes. We believe there are ways to avoid these outcomes."

10. Separate and unequal, by Karen Finney - TheHill.com: http://bit.ly/k5pWjp - "McKinsey analyzed data that suggest America’s academic achievement gap “imposes on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.” The study suggests that closing the gap between black and Latino students and white students between 1983 and 1998 would have raised the GDP between $310 billion and $525 billion by 2008."

11. We Must Help Students Reach College, by Yash Gupta - http://t.co/5vUumzq via @educationweek"We should all be terrified. The young people moving through our education system, particularly at public schools in low-income areas, are lamentably unprepared for the challenges that await them in their post-academic lives."

257. 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. Redefining Community College Success, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/k3IPFg - "This discussion was influenced heavily by the Education Department’s recently released “gainful employment” regulations, which will hold many programs at for-profit colleges and certificate and vocational programs at nonprofit institutions to a new federal standard on student debt and employability."

2. Paying for College, by Jill Schlesinger, CBS MoneyWatch.com - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/video/paying-for-college/6238758/?tag=video-roto-2;slide-cover - 3 tips are provided.

3. Hechinger Report For-profit universities: By the numbers, by Sarah Garland and Sarah Butrymowicz: http://t.co/XQyPOqs - "Below is a chart looking at federal loan repayment rates for Kaplan University, the University of Phoenix, Capella University, ITT Technical Institutes, and DeVry, along with several private and public universities for the sake of comparison."

4. Stopping Fraud at Trade Schools, editorial of 6/5/11, The New York Times - http://nyti.ms/kLUozr - "In one case, city officials say, students who paid to attend a truck-driving school spent the entire course in the classroom and were never taught to drive. At other schools, students say they were promised jobs or business contacts that never materialized."

5. How to Regulate For-Profit Colleges - The New York Times: Room for Debate, 6/5/11 - http://nyti.ms/kJQKgI - "Should the federal government block loans to borrowers who want to study at such schools? Are there other ways to discourage students from pursuing what may be a money-losing degree, or to reduce the risk of federal loan losses in these programs?"

6. For-Profit Recruiters and the 'Pain Funnel,' by Jack Conway - The New York Times: Room for Debate, 6/5/11 - http://nyti.ms/iSlcXP - "Namely, we are asking four questions about for-profits: Do they accurately represent transferability of credits? Do they adequately inform students that their cost often far exceeds that of public institutions? Do they fraudulently advertise expectations of future employment while hiding default rates? And finally, do they properly respond to complaints?"

7. For-Profit Colleges Take Advantage of the Poor, by Gaye Tuchman - The New York Times: Room for Debate, 6/5/11 - http://nyti.ms/lUlOiP - "Roughly 25 percent of today’s college students are following the traditional pattern of attending a residential college in the years just after high school. The rest commute from home, are often older and frequently attend part time because of jobs and family responsibilities."

8. The New Rules Don't Go Far Enough, by Osamudia R. James - The New York Times: Room for Debate, 6/5/11 - http://nyti.ms/mAuyD9"The real question is not whether for-profit graduates make too little money relative to their debt levels, but whether the profit-maximizing motive encourages institutions of higher education to provide a sub-par education, preying on both students and the public in pursuit of shareholder benefit."

9. Gainful Employment Rules Play Favorites, by Daniel L. Bennett - The New York Times: Room for Debate, 6/5/11 - http://nyti.ms/ijWKXG" - As matter of policy, we should limit the risk exposure to which we subject the taxpayer, but the focus of gainful employment regulations is too narrow and plays favorites. We need to hold all institutions accountable to provide educational value, regardless of tax status."

10. OSU will get through scandal, experts say, by Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch - http://t.co/6C5Gl7C - "For this coming school year, Ohio State received 10% more applications than last year, for a total of 29,243, Freeman said. Last year, the university also saw a 10% increase in applications.Ohio State's student body has grown steadily for years, reaching a record 64,077 students this past fall, she said. The campus anticipates it will welcome a slightly larger freshman class of 6,800 to 6,850 students in September."

11. Knowledge of financial aid is key to affording college, by Rob Jenkins - http://bit.ly/kO7Mau - “You can absolutely afford college, as long as you make smart decisions about money,” said Jared Smith, director of financial aid at Georgia Gwinnett College. “You might not be able to go to your No. 1 school, but there are plenty of affordable options for you to get a degree.”

12. Loan defaults put local colleges at risk, by cmagan@coxohio.com - http://m.daytondailynews.com/dayton/db_101691/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=FzKYxMcl&detailindex=0&pn=0&ps=8&full=true#display - "Serious students call them “check babies,” students who enroll in college or trade school just long enough for their financial aid stipend checks to clear. “Some of these kids come in here for the checks, and that’s it,” said Cheryl Davis, a health sciences student at Lincoln College of Technology in Dayton. “They get their checks and they don’t come back. They figure they can get away with not paying it back.”

193. 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. College students socked by budget cuts, by Anna Spinner - http://t.co/kmwTJGU via @CNNMoney

"Facing declining tax revenues in the wake of the Great Recession, states are slashing funding for higher education, forcing many colleges to eliminate majors and entire departments."

2. Colleges plan Black History events - TribToday.com - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH: http://t.co/ixeOuCJ

‎"Black History Month programs and activities with featured guests speakers have been scheduled at both Youngstown State and Kent State universities."

3. Governor, black Ohio lawmakers seek common ground - http://t.co/aXSonKI via @daytondailynews

‎"Black state lawmakers say they believe they can work with Ohio Gov. John Kasich (KAY'-sik) to change sentencing laws, help close the achievement gap among students of different ethnicities and work to promote minority businesses."

4. Class of 2015 follows financial aid pattern, by Felicia Schwartz - http://t.co/Dv2PNs9

‎"If an admitted student informs the College that they have received a better offer from another school, the College will see if there are adjustments that can be made to match offers from other schools that continue to operate under no-loans policies, according to Laskaris. “If it’s an [Ivy League] school, we will match it,” Hazen said. “If it’s a non-Ivy, we probably won’t.”
. . . . Yale University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania all offer loan-free financial aid packages, according to their respective websites."

5. Is Completion the Right Goal? by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/eBgCek

"Arthur M. Hauptman, an independent public policy consultant specializing in higher education finance issues, kicked off the event, "Degrees of Difficulty: Can American Higher Education Regain Its Edge?," with his paper arguing that, based on underlying data, the president’s national goal for increasing degree attainment is “almost impossible to achieve in the best of circumstances.”

6. Dealing (With) Drugs at Elite Colleges, by Allie Grasgreen - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/dZ3DPn

"The busts were unusual not only because they occurred at top-tier institutions within a short time frame, but also because of their scope. In late October, police found a drug lab on the top floor of a Georgetown freshman residence hall. A little over a month later at Columbia, a five-month police investigation (dubbed “Operation Ivy League”) ended in the arrest of five students who sold $11,000 worth of various out of dorm rooms and fraternities. And two weeks after that, police arrested a Cornell student off-campus in possession of $150,000 worth of heroin."

7. UNLV president plans for 'state of fiscal collapse', by Anthony Ramirez - http://t.co/wsxenAe via @lasvegassun

"Smatresk told the faculty group that the cuts for UNLV would total $47.5 million and would need to be implemented by July 2012, so a plan for financial exigency would have to be prepared.UNLV has had about $50 million in cuts over the last four years. . . . If the cuts proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval were approved, Smatresk said, academic cuts could not be avoided."

8. "But For Ohio State:"with $100 million, Class of 1959 alum Les Wexner makes largest philanthropic gift to university - http://www.osu.edu/features/2011/butforohiostate

"Find out what Ohio State means to Wexner--and tell us what it means to you."

9. How Much is Your College President Costing You? by Brian Burnsed - US News and World Report: http://t.co/d2spAbr

"The sitting president of a private nonprofit college received an average of $475,403, in pay, bonuses, and additional benefits according to a U.S. News analysis of 2008 compensation data amassed by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Twenty of the 362 sitting college presidents received more than $1 million in compensation and two cracked the $2 million threshold."

10. What does $659 million in debt really mean? by Arielle Milkman - http://t.co/rByZDj9 via @nyunews

"Tomorrow, NYU Local is partnering with MTV darling and former NYU student Andrew Jenks in an event they've titled Casualties of Debt: An NYU Student Demonstration. Jenks explains it best: we are casualties because after we graduate, we may as well be indentured servants. "Our lifetime is going to be spent trying to pay people back for things," Jenks said . . . ."

11. Where Professors Send Their Children to College, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/atbJtDl

"The children of professors are far more likely to attend liberal arts colleges than other parents. Children of university faculty are about twice as likely to select liberal arts college than children of parents earning more than $100,000 a year. Why are college professors steering their children to liberal arts colleges, which educate a mere 3% of the nation’s college students?

These insiders understand that liberal arts college focus exclusively on educating undergraduates and offer a boutique education with small classes and personal attention from professors.
In contrast, the main focus for professors at private and public research universities is conducting their own research and training graduate students. Educating undergrads is a lower priority. In fact, at universities graduates students often teach many undergraduate classes."

12. Ravitch: The Problem with Teach For America- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/diane-ravitch/ravitch-the-problem-with-teach.html

"The problem with TFA is that it grossly overstates its role in American education. This year, TFA sent 8,000 young people into high-needs schools; they agree to stay for two years; some stay longer, but most will be gone within three years.This is a small number indeed when you consider that our nation has 4 million teachers. And our most compelling problem is attrition. Of those who enter teaching, 50 percent are gone within five years. These are terrible statistics. We need a stable teaching profession, not a revolving door. We need to recruit new teachers who plan to stay in teaching and make a career of it."

13. A Resident Assistant and His Guide Dog, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/blogs/saysomething/2011/02/14/episode-11-a-resident-adviser-and-his-guide-dog/

"In this episode, we hear from Matt Simpson, a junior at Washington and Lee University, whose visual impairment hasn’t stopped him from working as an RA."

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192. MVCAP fyi

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1. Too many hours on the job could put high school teens at risk, by Sophie Terbush - USATODAY.com: http://t.co/Z6JboyT

‎"According to the study, students who worked more than 20 hours a week had lower expectations for educational attainment, lower school engagement, higher levels of substance abuse, and other problem behavior. However, these same students also showed more autonomous decision-making and had slightly higher grade point averages than teens without jobs."

2. A College Opts Out of the Admissions Arms Race, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/fXDWPs

“You know as well as I that those numbers aren’t real,” Mr. DiFeliciantonio said by phone from the school’s campus in Collegeville, Pa. “People count anything that moves as an application. Everyone is going up 10 percent every year for 20 years. It’s absurd.” “At some point,” he added, “the credibility of those numbers is questionable.”

3. Maximum Pell, at All Costs, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/eFSFu2

‎"While the GOP measure would slash the maximum Pell Grant by $845, end funding for several other student aid programs (as well as the AmeriCorps national service program), and slice billions of dollars from agencies that support academic research, the Obama budget for 2012 keeps those and other programs largely intact."

4. Where Are the Student Voices? by Tara Watford, Vicki Park, and Mike Rose - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fwG6QQ

‎"A recent study from the Institute for Higher Education Policy found that about half of low-income young adults in the United States enroll in higher education, but only 11 percent of them earn a postsecondary degree. . . . Low-income students, compared to their middle-class peers, tend to have longer transitions between high school and college and, once there, lower retention."

5. ‘Tiger Mother’ meets reality: Asian-American students struggle, too, by Jennifer Oldham - Hechinger Report: http://t.co/KBMPjh1

‎"Like Lo, about half of the nation’s Asian-American students enroll in community college, where they often struggle to pay for classes and scramble to find room in remedial courses. They get far less attention than overachievers like Chua’s highly micromanaged daughters, whose rigid childhood is described in a book that’s sparking debates about Asian-American student success. . . ."

6. Obama Budget Proposes Significant Increase for Schools, by Sam Dillon and Tamar Lewin - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/us/15education.html?_r=1&hpw

"Last year, the president said that, to remain competitive, the nation must increase the number of college graduates. But forced to make deep cuts in many areas of government, the president now proposes to eliminate some provisions of the Pell program, which has doubled in size over five years, and serves nine million low-income students."

7. President's Budget Protects Pell Grants, but Makes Cuts to Career and Technical Education, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Presidents-Budget-Protects/126370/

‎"To maintain a maximum Pell award of $5,550, the president's fiscal 2012 budget would eliminate the in-school interest subsidy on loans to graduate students and end a policy that allows students to receive two Pell Grants in a single year. It would provide level support for most other student-aid programs, including Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and Federal Work-Study, while making deep cuts to career and technical education. . . ."

8. Colleges embrace older students, part-timers, by Sandra Block - http://usat.ly/fUa604 via @USATODAY

‎"That means many non-traditional students must pay the entire cost of their education, which is why it often takes them several years to earn their degrees, O'Riley says. That's how Conlan handled her tuition bills. She and her husband took out a home-equity line of credit to help pay for their children's college education, and she didn't want to take on any more debt."

9. How to avoid college scholarship and aid scams - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/college-life/how-to-avoid-scholarship-scams.html

‎"There is no fee to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). But there are a number of websites that charge you money to do it. Many people try to find application on-line with the wrong terms: fasfa com, fasfa edu, fasfa gov, fasfa gov edu, FASA, fasa com, fasa edu, fasa gov, fasa gov edu. They can wind up on a website that asks you to pay a fee to file the form, and sometimes, to file the wrong form. The correct website is http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/#. If you need help, talk to your school’s financial aid officer or call 1-800-433-3243."

10. Why Obama’s 2020 graduation goal isn’t attainable - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/high-school/why-obamas-2020-graduation-goa.html

‎"A 2010 study of Chicago students found that fewer than 20 percent of students who were below grade level in third grade attended college, compared to about a third of students who were at grade level, and nearly 60 percent of students who were reading above grade level. It would take some sort of miracle to turn around that cohort of kids. Don’t count on it."

11. Bar education consultants' race to the cash: editorial cleveland.com: http://t.co/AQr5XxK

"Now that the Ohio Department of Education has been promised $194 million and 487 school districts and charter schools are getting $206 million from Race to the Top, contractors and vendors are swarming like bees to honey. And the consultants' cut -- in fees, conference costs, overhead and salary -- could be hefty, Plain Dealer reporter Edith Starzyk found in a special report in collaboration with Andrew Brownstein, a freelance writer with Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news outlet, and the Education Writers Association."

12. Ohio State, Miami universities accused of racial bias in admissions, by Encarnacion Pyle - http://t.co/jZ1PyxA

"The Center for Equal Opportunity released a study this morning that it says shows that the schools treat undergraduate students with similar academic records differently. It says black students were favored at Miami by a ratio of 10-1 over white students with similar ACT scores, and that the ratio at Ohio State was 8-to-1. When comparing students with similar SAT scores, the group found a ratio of 8-1 ratio at Miami and 3-to-1 at Ohio State."

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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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129. MVCAP fyi

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1. Analyzing salaries for Football Bowl Subdivision coaches http://usat.ly/22JgPq

‎"USA TODAY obtained at least some information on all but nine schools, most of which are private. Four public schools did not provide contracts; 17 did not provide the NCAA-mandated outside income report, which covers athletically related income the coach receives from non-university sources (e.g. support organization, apparel contracts). Schools that provided contract information were given the opportunity to review their figures. A not available (NA) in the chart denotes schools that are private or did not release the information or schools whose coaches are new and had not filed an outside income report."

2. Encouraging Deep Learning - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/bEGCoi

"The authors of this year’s survey argue that the percentages of students who reported that they engaged “often or very often” in “deep learning” activities indicate that community colleges must do a better job of promoting them in the classroom if they hope to boost student performance. Only 43 percent of students reported that they “included diverse perspectives (different races, religions, genders, political beliefs, etc.) in class discussions.” Forty-five percent noted they “learned something that changed [their] viewpoint about an issue or concept.” Fifty-six percent stated that they “put together ideas or concepts from different courses when completing assignments or during class discussions” and “examined the strengths or weaknesses of [their] own views on a topic or issue.” Finally, only 57 percent reported that they “tried to better understand someone else’s view by imagining how an issue looks from his or her perspective."

3. Executives Collect $2 Billion at For-Profit Colleges http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=am_MEK7XWQr0

"Strayer Education Inc., a chain of for-profit colleges that receives three-quarters of its revenue from U.S. taxpayers, paid Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Silberman $41.9 million last year. That’s 26 times the compensation of the highest-paid president of a traditional university. Top executives at the 15 U.S. publicly traded for-profit colleges, led by Apollo Group Inc. and Education Management Corp., also received $2 billion during the last seven years from the proceeds of selling company stock, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show. At the same time, the industry registered the worst loan-default and four-year-college dropout rates in U.S. higher education. Since 2003, nine for-profit college insiders sold more than $45 million of stock apiece. Peter Sperling, vice chairman of Apollo’s University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit college, collected $574.3 million. Education corporations, which receive as much as 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial-aid programs, are “private enterprise that’s almost entirely publicly funded,” Henry Levin, director of Columbia University’s National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, said in a telephone interview."

4. 10 Issues Affecting Student Veterans - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/10-issues-affecting-stude_n_782049.html#s177524

"For a veteran, making the transition from military life to college life can be especially difficult. Beyond the stresses of the classroom, veterans must cope with a host of other issues, from anxiety disorders to simply feeling like they fit in. The Washington Post offers a list of what colleges can do to better support their student veterans -- and below, we outline ten issues affecting the men and women who've gone from the service to campus."

5. Some simple rules for managing student loans, by Michelle Singletary - http://t.co/fYPPSVQ via @washingtonpost

"For years, I've written, talked and generally fussed about the way people handle their money. Yet it never - and I mean never - ceases to amaze me how people borrow money with so little understanding about how much they owe and how long it will take to pay it back. And the worst are borrowers who take out loans for college. So what should you do if your grace period is coming to an end this month? Here are some suggestions from the Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit independent research and policy organization. You can find all 10 of its tips at http://bit.ly/avNe7V:"

6. Thousands Of UK Students Protest Tuition Fees Hike - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/10/thousands-of-uk-students-_n_781493.html#s179091

‎"Organizers said 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters demonstrated against plans to raise the cost of studying at a university to 9,000 pounds ($14,000) a year – three times the current rate – in the largest street protest yet against the government's sweeping austerity measures."

7. Is Any University President Worth $42 Million Dollars? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/uDePJNY

‎"According to Bloomberg, that’s what Robert Silberman, the chair and chief executive officer of Strayer Education Inc., a chain of for-profit colleges, pocketed last year.The for-profit colleges that Silberman oversees enroll roughly 54,000 students, which is the same number of students as Ohio State University. Gordon Gee, Ohio State’s president, whom Time Magazine named one of the nation’s 10 best college president in 2009, is the highest paid president of any public university. Gee’s salary and compensation exceeds $1 million.$114,794-a-Day Pay???Silberman’s pay is about 42 times greater than Ohio State’s president. I’m not sure what’s more galling, Silberman’s $114,794-a-day compensation last year or the fact that he must surely believe that he deserves the money."

8. High School Teachers Don't Think Students Are College Ready, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/IVJolVl via @educationweek

While just 31 percent of high school teachers think their graduating seniors are prepared for college, 68 percent of current college students say they were prepared for college coursework during their first year. Still, about 28 percent of students surveyed had to take remedial classes to get up to speed. Other sources, such as the College Board, put that number as high as 40 percent.What then should high schools do to get students on a solid footing for college careers? Teachers want more data to help them better measure how well their students do in college so they can adjust coursework accordingly."

9. University Giving Falls, With No Rebound in Sight, by Geraldine Fabrikant - http://nyti.ms/9QBjqd

"But in 2009, giving to 1,027 universities and colleges plummeted 11.9 percent, to $27.85 billion, according to data compiled by the Council for Aid to Education, the greatest single annual decline since the Depression. Fund-raising advisers and experts anticipate a slow recovery. Indicators are that overall giving for fiscal 2010 may be flat; data for the year, which generally ended June 30, is not available yet. A handful of institutions have already released their numbers. At Harvard, for example, giving was down 1 percent, to $596 million, and Yale also had a slight decline. Chicago was up 1 percent, and for the University of Texas, Austin, giving rose more than 3 percent."

10. Community Colleges Must Focus on Quality of Learning, Report Says, by Sara Lipka - http://chronicle.com/article/Community-Colleges-Must-Focus/125344/

"Community-college students also do not use support services to the extent they may need to, the report says. Nineteen percent of entering students were unaware that their college had an orientation program, and 26 percent didn't know about financial-aid advising, according to the report. Seventy percent were familiar with writing, math, or other skill labs, and 72 percent knew about academic advising, but 65 percent and 47 percent, respectively, never used those services. Many of those students drop out of college. According to the report, only 28 percent of first-time, full-time students seeking an associate degree finished a certificate or a degree within three years. After six years, still fewer than half (45 percent) of students who enrolled in community college to earn a certificate or degree had met that goal."

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