255.Unstack the Odds--GO TO COLLEGE: LINKS

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

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

20. GO TO COLLEGE: LINKS

Here are some more links to articles of interest, drawn from the Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP) blog, with the original posting number shown.

Miscellaneous (continued):

76. Higher-Education Data
What percentage of various groups in the U.S. graduates from high school? Goes to college? Earns a degree? This article by Erik W. Robelen for Education Week, posted on May 14, 2010, presents these data on higher education, at this link:http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/19/32census.h29.html?tkn=RTVF%2B%2BRyRRrQ8MnT0wDe%2F3UOs8Y%2Bn3KgCprJ&cmp=clp-edweek

77. Do You Need to Go to College?
Students sometimes inquire, "Do I need to go to college?" Or, put another way, they ask: "Can I get a good job without a college degree?" Jacques Steinberg, a writer for The New York Times, addresses these questions in his article, dated 5/14/10, at this link:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/weekinreview/16steinberg.html?pagewanted=1

79. Non-traditional College Students
Many college students today are not 18 year-olds, fresh out of high school; they're over 20, work (full- or part-time), and are often parents. For these non-traditional students, earning a college degree can mean overcoming many obstacles to graduate. Read an article from USA Today on non-traditional students at this link:http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/degrees-of-difficulty.htm

82. What to Take to College
Freshmen often wonder what to take to college. Some take too much, while others don't take enough. Like the three bears, aim for just right--because your space will be limited! To see an Off-to-College Checklist of The College Board, click this link:http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/college-success/9763.html

And don't forget: you may be able to save money on many items you'll need for your college dorm room by picking them up at yard & garage sales!

87. Retention Rate
According to the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, a college's retention rate is "the percentage of first-time students who are seeking bachelor's degrees who return to the institution to continue their studies the following fall." Retention rate is regarded as an important statistic relating to student success in college. To discover the retention rate of a U.S. college or university, click the link below, then type in the school's name to search for it; finally, click on "retention and graduation rates."http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

To see the retention rates of students having differing ACT scores and admitted to colleges with varying rates of selectivity, consult the ACT report "National Collegiate Retention and Persistence to Degree Rates" at this link:http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/retain_2009.pdf

88. Is College the Key to Success?
In America, we hear that getting a good education--particularly, earning a college degree--will lead to career success. Today, more and more people are entering college; they are expecting an economic payoff. But is this expectation realistic? Ann Larson examines "the education gospel" in her post, dated June 3, 2010, for Inside Higher Ed entitled "Higher Education's Big Lie;" you can read her views at this link:http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/06/03/larson

89. World's Best Universities?
If you wonder which country has the highest-rated universities in the world, you're not alone. Apparently, others wonder, too. U.S. News & World Report ranked 400 of the "World's Best Universities" in 2010; to see its list, hit this link:http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-universities/2010/02/25/worlds-best-universities-top-400.html?PageNr=1

90. Graduation Rates in U.S.
To find out "Student Success Highlights" (i.e., retention rate, four-year graduation rate, five-year graduation rate, and six-year graduation rate) of any college or university in the United States, check out a website of The Education Trust called "College Results Online." (You can also compare success statistics for various schools.) Access the site at this link:http://www.collegeresults.org/

91. Value in a Liberal Arts Education?
During this challenging economic climate, students and parents expect college to aid one's career. Consequently, they often seek majors, programs, and degrees that will lead directly to a specific job--and a well-paying one, at that. Nonetheless, defenders of a liberal arts education still emphasize its value; to see why, read this post by Michael Roth, President of Wesleyan University, entitled "Coming to the Defense of Liberal Education," at this link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-roth/coming-to-the-defense-of_b_605899.html

92. Academic Progress Rate (APR)
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires member colleges and universities to submit information on all sports teams competing in Division I. These data indicate student-athletes' eligibility and retention during a previous four-year period; the most recent APR is based on statistics from the 2005-06 through 2008-09 school years. If a team's APR is less than 925 (of 1,000), it can face penalties, including loss of scholarships or limits on practice time. Teams having an APR lower than 900 for several years can be penalized by being banned from postseason play--including bowl games. To search the Academic Progress Rate for schools of interest, click this NCAA link: http://web1.ncaa.org/maps/aprRelease.jsp

93. Proportion of Adults, 25-34, with College Degrees
The U.S. national average for the proportion of adults (ages 25-34) holding college degrees is 37.8%; in Ohio, however, the figure is below that--at 36.4%. To see the percentage for any state, you can access an interactive map from The Chronicle of Higher Education at this link:http://chronicle.com/article/Interactive-Map-Proportion-of/65009/

94. U.S. Senate Hearings on For-Profit Higher Education
On June 24, 2010, Chairman Tom Harkin opened hearings by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on for-profit higher education. At the outset, a report was issued; to read this document, "Emerging Risk?: An Overview of Growth, Spending, Student Debt and Unanswered Questions in For-Profit Higher Education," copy and paste this link:http://harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/4c23515814dca.pdf

96. College Return on Investment (ROI)
With tuitions up and jobs scarce, it is understandable to question whether college is really worth it. To help quantify this decision, some have applied the concept of return on investment (ROI). According to The Huffington Post, "ROI takes the price of a school's degree and compares it to how much that school's graduates earn on average, producing perhaps the truest measure of a school's value." To see which U.S. colleges have the highest ROI, click this link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/college-biggest-payoff_n_628127.html

To find out which college in each state has the highest ROI, click this link to Business Week:http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0628_payscale1/index.htm

99. From Access to Success
Providing students access to higher education used to be the goal of many organizations. Today, however, emphasis is being placed on student success in college--that is, graduating. To read the report "From Access to Success," released by Grantmakers for Education on July 22, 2010, click this link:http://edfunders.org/downloads/GFEReports/GFE_FromAccessToSuccess_FundersGuide.pdf

168. 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. EGCC chief: School committed to serving Warren, by V. Shank - http://t.co/LIgx1dY - TribToday.com - Warren, OH

"Eastern Gateway Community College president Laura Meeks said the institution is committed to developing a strong presence in downtown Warren, even without the $1.3 million in federal funding U.S. Rep. Timothy Ryan was hoping to secure for the college's expansion and other projects. The college will start classes as planned Tuesday at its new Warren site."

2. Part 1: Answers to Readers’ Questions on Financial Aid, by Mark Kantrowitz - http://nyti.ms/f6v4bK

"To help navigate that process, Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and founder of the Web sites finaid.org and fastweb.com, is answering questions from readers of The Choice this week."

3. Ivy Chase, by Kevin A. Hassett - http://www.aei.org/article/102981

"All told, the average annual ROI for the top ten public institutions is 13.4 percent. The average annual ROI for the top ten private institutions is 12.3 percent. . . .The average total cost for a bachelor's degree from a public institution is $83,695; for a private institution it is $171,026. The higher tuition at top schools brings diminishing returns."

4. Trends in College Pricing, by Gaston Caperton - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gaston-caperton/trends-in-college-pricing_b_807469.html

"The reports found that during the past decade, average tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose almost twice as fast as those at private colleges. Over the same period, average household incomes have remained stagnant. Making matters worse was the disturbing drop in state spending on higher education -- a decline of 9 percent in 2008-09 and 1.3 percent in 2009-10."

5. Ivies, Extracurriculars, and Exclusion, by Lauren Rivera - http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/rivera_lauren.aspx#research

"Employers privileged candidates who possessed a super-elite (e.g., top 5) university affiliation and attributed superior cognitive, cultural, and moral qualities to candidates who had been admitted to such an institution, regardless of their actual performance once there."

6. University of California: Another Year of Student Protests? by Lynn O"Shaughnessy - http://t.co/N1yg7gi

"Californians should probably prepare themselves for round II of student protests. Jerry Brown, in one of his first acts as governor in the cash-strapped state, has released proposed budget cutbacks that would slash $500 million from the 10 UC campuses. That would bring state support to the UC campuses back to the level it was in 1999 — and there were tens of thousands of fewer students then."

7. Rigorous, Revelant High School Program Leads Kids to College, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/eGwT0k0

"The seven-year study found that participation in CART's Linked Learning approach increased the community college entrance rate by 11 percentage points—71 percent for CART students compared with 60 percent for a demographically similar group of non-CART students. About 23 percent of CART students went on to four-year universities compared to 21 percent of their non-CART peers."

8. How Graduation Rates Shape College Choice, by Eric Hoover -

http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/how-graduation-rates-shape-college-choice/27770

"Providing graduation rates, the researchers found, increased the likelihood (by about 15 percentage points) that parents would choose the college with the higher graduation rate. Moreover, such information was most likely to influence the choices of parents who had relatively low incomes and little admissions savvy. More-affluent parents were less likely to change their preferences based on information about graduation rates."

9. The Plight of Nontraditional Students, by Mary Churchill - http://chronicle.com/blogs/old-new/the-plight-of-nontraditional-students/147

‎"Students are married, have children, care for their parents, hold full- and part-time jobs, and drop in and out of school as their lives and finances allow. Increasingly, we are finding older students returning to school after a 10-to-15-year hiatus. They are in their 30s or 40s. Our institutions are not prepared for them and do not welcome them. This needs to change."

10. How Jared Loughner Changed: The View from His Schools, by Mark Thompson - http://bit.ly/ibZ2F3 @time

‎"Loughner's actions unnerved up to a third of McGahee's 15 to 20 students, so much so that they complained to the professor following the opening class in basic algebra. "The students were very concerned after the first day," he says. "I must have had three to five students come up to me after class saying, 'Jared concerns me a lot.' One lady in the back of the classroom said she was scared for her life, literally."

11. A critical shortage of school counselors, by Valerie Strauss - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/student-life/a-critical-shortage-of-school.html

"Though the recommended number per counselor is 250 students, the American School Counselor Associations shows that the national average is actually one counselor for every 457 students. And those figures were from 2008-09, the latest available, but before many states slashed school budgets last year."

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96. College Return on Investment (ROI)

With tuitions up and jobs scarce, it is understandable to question whether college is really worth it. To help quantify this decision, some have applied the concept of return on investment (ROI). According to The Huffington Post, "ROI takes the price of a school's degree and compares it to how much that school's graduates earn on average, producing perhaps the truest measure of a school's value." To see which U.S. colleges have the highest ROI, click this link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/college-biggest-payoff_n_628127.html

To find out which college in each state has the highest ROI, click this link to Business Week:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0628_payscale1/index.htm