373. 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. Lee El Diario de Joe Rottenborn ▸ noticias destacadas del dia via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Panel's Failure Means Education Cuts in '13, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/tvlcqO -"While the Pell Grant program is exempt from cuts in the first year, the other student-aid programs will lose $134-million, reducing aid to at least 1.3 million students. Career, technical, and adult education will lose $136-million, affecting 1.4 million students, says the committee."

3. More Charges, More Details in SAT Cheating Scandal Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/rwfAXd via AddThis - "Some of those charged allegedly paid others to take the SAT on their behalf. Prosecutors said that they believed that 40 students and former students were involved, but that the statute of limitations prevented charges from being brought against all of them."

4. Poll shows concern over Penn State and other athletic programs, by Allie Grasgreen Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/v5PVRh via AddThis - "A full 72 percent of respondents said Division I college athletic programs have “too much influence over college life.” Only 3 percent said programs have too little influence; 16 percent said they have “about the right amount” and 9 percent were unsure."

5. GAO releases new investigation of for-profit colleges, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/tXujkA via AddThis - "The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released results from a second undercover “secret shopper” investigation of for-profit colleges, this time attempting to enroll a fictitious student online at 15 unnamed institutions. The findings were mixed, but investigators uncovered problems with how seven of the colleges handled online course grading, academic dishonesty, or students’ exit counseling."

6. Finding Common Ground: Why Educators Should Join Twitter, by Peter DeWitt - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/11/why_educators_should_join_twitter.html via @educationweek - "We live in the 21st century where our students don't just "do" social networking; it is a part of who they are as digital citizens. To us, it's a big deal to get on Facebook or Twitter, and to our students it is something they cannot fathom living without. Understanding their connection with those sites will increase an educator's connection with their students. Being able to talk their language may even provide an opportunity to breakthrough to a hard to reach student."

7. More Students Charged in Long Island SAT Cheating Case, By JENNY ANDERSON and WINNIE HU: http://nyti.ms/uA0Cx7 - "The investigation began when administrators at Great Neck North looked into student rumors. Their focus soon fell on students who had registered to take the tests outside the district, and those whose scores and grades showed a disparity. They turned over the details to prosecutors, who opened a broad examination."

8. How the Future Looks From High School http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/22/how-the-future-looks-from-high-school via @roomfordebate - "How does the future look to a high school senior? We checked in with 15 of them, at four American high schools."

9. Undercover Probe Finds Lax Academic Standards at Some For-Profit Colleges, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Undercover-Probe-Finds-Lax/129881/ - "The probe, which is described in a report made public Tuesday, found that staff at six of the 12 colleges that enrolled the investigators tolerated plagiarism or awarded credit for incomplete or shoddy work."

369. 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. Special report on Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, Penn State scandal, by L. Jon Wertheim and David Epstein - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/magazine/11/16/penn.st/index.html - "What they could not possibly have known was that their accounts would help set in motion the most explosive scandal in the history of college sports, one that would make a mockery of the recent drumbeat of NCAA outrages."

3. Penn State case brings other victims forward, by Marisol Bello – http://usat.ly/rYcawT via USATODAY - "It's a collective empowerment for victims," says Jeff Herman, a Miami attorney who specializes in sexual abuse cases. "Many feel isolated and alone. Then they see all this press and all of a sudden, they see victims standing up and taking on institutions."

4. College coaches cash in, by Erik Brady, Jodi Upton and Steve Berkowitz – http://usat.ly/sh5KGr via USATODAY - "Critics find it troubling that this rapid rise for coaches comes at a time when instructional spending at many schools has slowed or declined amid economic struggles and shrinking state education budgets. "Athletics has gotten so disproportionate to the rest of the economy, and to the academic community, that it is unbelievable," says Julian Spallholz, a professor in the department of food and nutrition at Texas Tech, where coach Tommy Tuberville got a $550,000 raise. "This kind of disproportion in the country is why people are occupying Wall Street."

5. Engineering Majors Most Likely to Burn the Midnight Oil, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/rpr1PY - "The average college student, the researchers reported, studied for 15 hours each week. Engineering students fell on the higher end of the spectrum — devoting roughly 19 hours to class preparation — while students with majors in business and social sciences were on the lower end, spending about 14 hours preparing for class. (Meanwhile, the survey found, students of business were more likely to hold a job during the school year.)"

6. Part 4: Answers to Your Questions on Scholarships and Student Loans, by Mark Kantrowitz: http://nyti.ms/tTizgO - "The odds of winning a scholarship, however, are pretty slim. The majority of students, regardless of their race, will not win private scholarships. Even in STEM fields the odds of winning a scholarship are about 1 in 6. Both white and minority students find it difficult to win private scholarships because there are relatively few scholarships. Race has little to do with it, though white students enjoy a statistical advantage over minority students. As documented in a recent student aid policy analysis paper, “The Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race,” white students are 40 percent more likely to win private scholarships than minority students."

7. The Early Line on Early Applications for the Class of 2016, by JACQUES STEINBERG and REBECCA R. RUIZ: http://nyti.ms/sC1Nc0 - "The window for applying to many colleges and universities under early admission programs closed late Tuesday night. While it will be some time before a definitive statistical portrait emerges of this early admissions season, The Choice has been dutifully requesting application figures from a range of more than 100 institutions. The chart above, which we’ll be updating regularly as other figures trickle in, represents the equivalent of early returns in an election, with results from two dozen “precincts.”

8. NSSE 2011 measures student engagement by major, by Allie Grasgreen Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/uiKnGX via AddThis - "For example, McCormick said, first-generation students likely haven’t had as much informal consulting or guidance as their peers whose parents went to college. That might be why this year's NSSE survey shows they went beyond the typical student in terms of learning strategies -- while they spent significantly less time preparing for class, they were more likely than their peers to use a variety of strategies, especially the less common ones such as reviewing notes after class and creating their own examples to help them study."

9. Parental Interactions and Child Development, by Daniel Messinger Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/ufQDl1 via AddThis - LISTEN TO THIS!

10. Consumer Protection Bureau Survey on Private Loans Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vNPZU5 via AddThis - "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comments on private student loans from students, families, colleges and loan providers to prepare a report for Congress on private student lending. In a notice published in today's Federal Register, the bureau said it was seeking information on how students use private loans, what types of comparison shopping tools are available, what best practices are for financial aid offices who counsel private borrowers, and other topics related to the private lending industry."

11. 25 college majors with the highest unemployment ratesby Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57325132/25-college-majors-with-the-highest-unemployment-rates/?tag=mncol;lst;9 - "Five of the college majors with the worst job prospects on this list are related to psychology. Ironically, psychology is the fifth most popular college degree."

12. 25 college majors with lowest unemployment rates, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57324669/25-college-majors-with-lowest-unemployment-rates/?tag=contentMain;contentBody - "The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce used U.S. Census Bureau statistics to tease out the unemployment rates for 173 college majors. I looked at the 100 most popular college majors and pulled out the 25 majors with the lowest unemployment."

13. College Bound: Demand for Jobs That Require High School Diploma Declines, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/glimpse_at_where_students_are_applying_early_admission.html via @educationweek - "For all the talk of the value of a college degree, there are decent jobs for those with just a high school diploma. The problem is there are not enough of those jobs to go around, according to a report released yesterday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. . . . It found that 37 percent of all jobs in 2018 will be for workers who have either some high school education, a high school diploma, or on-the-job training. This number is down from 72 percent in 1973, 44 percent in 1992, and 41 percent in 2007. In other words, the demand for postsecondary education will increase from 59 percent to 63 percent in the next seven years."

14. Rising College Costs Are Due Largely to Books, Room, and Board, Study Finds -http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/rising-college-costs-are-due-largely-to-books-room-and-board-study-finds/38109 - "The average amount that students paid, after subtracting savings from scholarships and grants, increased by nearly $3,000, while net tuition prices grew by only about $1,000 over roughly the same period. The overall cost to attend a two-year college also grew, by $1,333, despite the fall of net tuition prices by $849."

15. Hey, it's time to Occupy Education, says @arotherham - http://ti.me/tr1PO5 via @TIMEIdeas - "What do I mean by educational inequality? We’re all familiar with achievement gaps between white kids and minorities. But here’s the income-based gap: just 8% of low-income students get a college-degree by the time they are 24 while three-quarters of affluent students do."

361. 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 on http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Part 1: Answers to Your Questions on Applying With a Learning Disability, by Marybeth Kravets: http://nyti.ms/vPrzii - "In this first batch of answers, Ms. Kravets addresses questions on test scores and foreign language requirement waivers. Answers to additional questions will continue this week."

3. Gender Gaps in Higher Ed Around the World Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/t1VBCF via AddThis - "New data from the World Economic Forum show that gender gaps in higher education leave some countries (including the United States and many other developed nations) with female enrollments significantly outpacing male enrollments, while other countries face the opposite situation."

4. What Spurs Students to Stay in College and Learn? Good Teaching Practices and Diversity, by Dan Berrett - http://chronicle.com/article/What-Spurs-Students-to-Stay-in/129670/ - "Good teaching and exposure to students from diverse backgrounds are some of the strongest predictors of whether freshmen return for a second year of college and improve their critical thinking skills, say two prominent researchers."

5. Washington-area schools confront the ‘gifted gap,’ by Kevin Sieff -http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/2011/11/06/gIQAeYImtM_story.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Most of the city’s students are black or Hispanic. Most in gifted programs are white. This imbalance in classes tailored to gifted and talented students is echoed across the region and the nation, a source of embarrassment to many educators."

6. For many middle-income families, college is no longer within reach http://t.co/faGpVcuC via @freep

7. Calculators for tuition vary Business Dallas Business, Texas Business, Fort Worth Bu...: http://t.co/htnQjg7t via @AddThis

8. Students, staff frustrated as classmates skip off with financial ... - http://t.co/1qDU5fCn http://www.bakersfield.com/archive/x1454911303/Students-staff-frustrated-as-classmates-skip-off-with-financial-aid

9. How colleges make admission decisions http://shar.es/bUTSy

10. Athletics in the Admission Process http://bit.ly/uJTZkU

11. Selling higher education to those who aren’t buying it http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Selling+higher+education+those+aren+buying/5659967/story.html

12. Nancy Berk: College Anxiety: Modern Families Caught in The Middle http://t.co/hKNqZhXo via @AddThis

13. The Tutor's Tips: The college application rush http://t.co/VtWUCQmL

300. 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. Column: Obama should tout fight for minority education, by DeWayne Wickham - http://t.co/8rdfOkq via @USATODAY - "We have launched more investigations than ever before. Much broader, bigger investigations" into whether school officials are unfairly disciplining black kids and shoving them "into the cradle-to-prison pipeline instead of the cradle-to-career pipeline," she told me."

2. Freedom at a Price, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pE8Ljj via @AddThis - "While details of the Ohio plan will not be final until Thursday's presentation, a draft of the plan released July 18 calls for immediately freeing all universities from certain regulatory restrictions, such as state health and safety codes, and eliminating enrollment caps. The draft also calls for giving the universities complete control of the management of their employees and exempting them from the purview of the state personnel board of review.
The universities would then be measured annually on a set of metrics that include student outcomes, such as graduation and retention rates; degree production in science, technology, engineering, and math fields; and the percentage of students participating in internship programs, as well as financial measures such as endowment size, affordability measured as a percentage of the consumer price index, and the unallocated cash balance as a percentage of total operating expenses."

3. Value of the Liberal Arts, by Katharine Brooks - http://t.co/iitPEnE - "In today’s Academic Minute, Katharine Brooks of the University of Texas at Austin answers “the question” faced by many college students."

4. Education Management Corporation Accused of Widespread Fraud, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/qsJS2E - "The Department of Justice and four states on Monday filed a multibillion-dollar fraud suit against the Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest for-profit college company, charging that it was not eligible for the $11 billion in state and federal financial aid it had received from July 2003 through June 2011.Education Management, which is based in Pittsburgh and is 41 percent owned by Goldman Sachs, enrolls about 150,000 students in 105 schools operating under four names: Art Institute, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University. In a statement Monday, the company denied any wrongdoing."

5. Kaplan Revenue Down 29% in Second Quarter - http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/kaplan-revenue-down-29-in-second-quarter/35148 - "The decline comes at a time when federal agencies and state legislators are more strictly regulating recruitment practices at for-profit colleges, and are increasingly holding them accountable for their graduates’ ability to find employment and repay their loans. As a result of those restrictions, as well as what the company calls “generally lower demand,” new enrollments dropped 47 percent from the second quarter last year."

6. Nonprofit Group Says CA Latinos Crucial to National Degree-Attainment Goals, by Molly Redden - http://chronicle.com/article/Nonprofit-Group-Says/128558/ - "Unless California is able to increase the number of its Latinos with college degrees, the United States will fall short of having the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, according to the advocacy group Excelencia in Education. . . . Excelencia found that while first-time, full-time white college students complete degrees at a rate of about 47 percent, the same group of Latino students attain credentials at a rate of only about 35 percent."

7. #College101: Freshman year bucket list, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://t.co/v7UEBbH via @washingtonpost - "Last week I shared a list of tips for surviving freshman year and asked you to share your tips for incoming freshmen . . . . The response was overwhelming. I combed through hundreds of tips and edited them into this 50-item “bucket list.” I suggest that you print it out, tape it to the back of your closet door and cross things off as you do them."

8. Top 10 Most Athletic Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/top-10-most-athletic-coll_n_921913.html#s325405&title=1_Stanford_Cardinals6615 - "Our friends at CampusSplash crunched the numbers to figure out the 25 most athletic colleges in the United States. They looked at everything from number of sports, to number of titles, program revenue and more. Below check out a slideshow of the top 10 schools . . . ."

265. 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. Athletic departments see surge financially in down economy, by Steve Berkowitz and Jodi Upton - http://usat.ly/la5yCa via @USATODAY - "Much of the rise in athletics revenue came from an escalation in money generated through multi-media rights deals, donations and ticket receipts, but schools also continued increasing their subsidies from student fees and institutional funds."

3. Rich Get Richer in Athletics, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/j6Yxv1 - "The median net generated revenue for those FBS programs that reported a surplus was nearly $4.4 million in 2009 but rose to about $7.4 million in 2010. By comparison, the median net deficit for the remaining FBS programs (98 programs lost money in 2010) was nearly $11.3 million in 2009 and increased to around $11.6 million in 2010."

4. Do Majors Matter? by W. Robert Connor - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/m011SC - "When one looks at these data, one thing is immediately clear. The fields that show the greatest gains in critical thinking are not the fields that produce the highest salaries for their graduates. On the contrary, engineers may show only small gains in critical thinking, but they often command salaries of over $100,000."

5. 10 Great Opening Lines from Stanford Admissions Essays, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/GIhhZ5h via @cbsmoneywatch - "Here are samples from winning college essays courtesy of Stanford University. These are opening lines of admissions essays that the Stanford admission reps especially liked. All of the essay writers were accepted as members of the class of 2012. You can find even more opening lines of sample admission essays in the Stanford Magazine."

6. Experts Call for Early Focus on Black Boys' Nonacademic Skills, by Mary Ann Zehr - http://t.co/XpkuUuz via @educationweek - "The convergence of “maleness, ethnicity, and poverty,” he said, contributes to academic outcomes for black boys, which tend to be more negative than those for black girls."

7. 37% of New York Graduates Meet College-Readiness Standard, by Sharon Otterman - http://nyti.ms/ksSnnR - "The new calculations, part of a statewide push to realign standards with college readiness, also underscored a racial achievement gap: 13 percent of black students and 15 percent of Hispanic students statewide were deemed college-ready after four years of high school, compared with 51 percent of white graduates and 56 percent of Asian-Americans."

8. Syracuse Sends Personalized Video Messages to Admitted Students to Stop ‘Summer Melt,’ by Jie Jenny Zou - http://bit.ly/jyymx5 - "Each video begins with Ms. Brewer or Mr. Crowley saying the first name of the recipient, followed by a brief general message. Recording a personal intro for each of the more than 300 students took some practice, pronunciation keys, and a few hours."

9. The Fathering Gap: Pitfalls of Modern Fatherhood, by Belinda Luscombe - http://t.co/8GqFRwP via @TIMEHealthland" - A new analysis by the Pew Research Center of data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) has found that more than a quarter (27%) of all fathers with children under the age of 19 now live apart from at least some of their children. Black fathers (44%) are more than twice as likely to live apart from their kids as white fathers (21%), while just over a third of Hispanic fathers maintain a separate abode. Similarly, 40% of fathers who didn't finish high school are not residing with their children, a living situation shared by only 7% of fathers who graduated college."

10. 3-year college degree programs not catching on, by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/CxNS2ix via @washingtonpost - "But students have not responded, and most three-year degree programs have flopped — a reminder, college leaders say, that students still regard college as an experience to be savored. Why rush the best four years of your life?"

11. The Most Expensive Public Colleges For In-State Students - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/the-most-expensive-public_n_878006.html#s293193&title=Pennsylvania_State_UniversityUniversity - "On Tuesday, US News and World Report compiled their list of the 10 most most expensive public colleges for in-state students. Although these schools are not exactly costly compared with the most expensive private colleges (those top out around 40,000) they still dwarf the public college average."

170. 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. Students' rights weighed as colleges try to assess threats, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/fwBHh2 - RT @USATODAY

‎"Two states — Virginia and Illinois — now legally require such teams and 80% of colleges nationwide have started them since the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech that left 32 people dead. . . . Since April 2007, news reports show that at least 67 people have been killed and 69 others injured in attacks by U.S. college students."

2. High School Juniors, Start Your Engines, by Lee A. Culbertson - http://nyti.ms/hkyUJb

"Juniors are already itching and beginning to ask, “What should I be doing now?” First, breathe. Remember, “College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won” (Frank Sachs, the Blake School). When you make a list of colleges that you’d like to explore, consider investigating what is most important to you, and then begin to draft your preliminary list."

3. Part 3: Answers to Readers' Questions on Financial Aid, by Mark Kantrowitz - http://nyti.ms/fBS7IH

‎"Money in retirement plans, the family home and small businesses owned and controlled by the family have no impact on federal aid. As a result, parent assets affect the EFC of less than 4% of dependent students. You should, however, save money in the parent’s name, not the child’s. Child assets have a much more severe impact on the EFC."

4. College Is Still Worth It, by Anthony Carnevale - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/gWNYhv

"The most persuasive evidence that the BLS numbers are wrong are earnings data, which show that employers across the country pay a "wage premium" to college graduates, even in occupations that BLS does not consider "college" jobs. This simply means that businesses pay more money to workers with degrees than to those without because employers believe that postsecondary educated workers are more valuable."

5. Second GOALS study emphasizes coach influence, by Gary Brown - http://t.co/4Q8FYQ2 - Latest News - NCAA.org

"Athletics participation was the most-often reported reason for choosing a college (at least 75 percent of the time in all sport cohorts). Academics generally was a close second, followed by the institution’s proximity to home."

6. Five Reasons to Apply for Financial Aid, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/2cGUgxs

‎"Parents grumble about applying for financial aid, but there are excellent reasons why most families should take the time to fill out the cumbersome financial aid applications. If you are on the fence about filling out the FAFSA, here are five reasons to apply for financial aid."

7. NCAA Rejects Plan to Block Early Scholarships - http://t.co/245Bnxi via @educationweek

"The NCAA squashed a proposal Thursday that would have stopped college coaches from offering scholarships to students as young as middle-schoolers. . . . The legislative council also voted down tougher academic restrictions for incoming basketball players at the NCAA's annual convention."

8. High Achievers Scarce in Math, Science in U.S., by Erik W. Robelen - http://t.co/XKGAuOb via @educationweek

"Only about 10 percent of U.S. students scored in the two highest achievement categories in math on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, well short of the figures for a host of other nations, from South Korea and Japan to France, Germany, and New Zealand

. . . . In science, the U.S. position was more favorable, but not dramatically so."

9. Researcher Finds Easy Solution for Test Anxiety - http://t.co/APRTEDK via @educationweek

‎"The report in Friday's edition of the journal Science says students who spend 10 minutes before an exam writing about their thoughts and feelings can free up brainpower previously occupied by testing worries and do their best work."

10. Facing New Cuts, California's Colleges Are Shrinking Their Enrollments, by Josh Keller - http://chronicle.com/article/Facing-New-Cuts-Californias/125945/

"I'll tell students in my presentations that if you want to leave the state, good for you," Ms. Ponce says. "We have too many people in the state of California. We need someone to leave right now."Many of the students are in denial, she adds. Their parents don't understand how the landscape has shifted. "I will break out the numbers, and they kind of look at me in complete confusion," she says. "They have no idea."

11. A Lesson on Urban Identity, by Matthew Amaral - http://www.educationnews.org/blogs/105853.html

“Can you be Ghetto and successful?” I tell them they can’t talk about drug-dealers, rappers, athletes, or other entertainers--we’re talking about real careers. . . . This is something that will really come into focus on a college campus when a majority of the students are NOT like them."

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166. 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. Quarterback Andrew Luck to Stay at Stanford, by Pete Thamel - http://nyti.ms/flZpE1

"True to his low-key nature, and according to the wishes of his family, Andrew Luck released a one-sentence statement. “I am committed to earning my degree in architectural design from Stanford University and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012,” he said."

2. Rethinking Advanced Placement, by Christopher Drew - http://nyti.ms/f31z6y

"As A.P. has proliferated, spreading to more than 30 subjects with 1.8 million students taking 3.2 million tests, . . . many of the courses, particularly in the sciences and history, have also been criticized for overwhelming students with facts to memorize and then rushing through important topics."

3. Certificate Programs Proliferate, by Motoko Rich - http://nyti.ms/eFRPfw

"In an economy that increasingly rewards specialization, more and more institutions — from the ones that advertise on late-night cable to the most elite of universities — are offering these programs, typically a package of five or six courses, for credit or not, taken over three to 18 months. Some cost a few thousand dollars, others tens of thousands.

Are they worth the paper they’re printed on?
Not always. "

4. The almighty essay is a tough assignment, by Trip Gabriel - http://nyti.ms/dX7pNw

"What if, like most 17-year-olds, a high school senior sounds wooden or pretentious or thunderously trite when trying to express himself in the first person? Prose in which an author’s voice emerges through layers of perfectly correct sentences is the hardest kind of writing there is. Plenty of professional authors can’t manage it. How reasonable is it to expect of teenagers?"

5. Does Helping Out Help You? by Pamela Paul - http://nyti.ms/hu8ekS

"The admissions teams distinguished among the type and duration of service seen on college applications. Seventy percent of them, it turns out, were more impressed by long-term local grunt work than a summer of volunteer work abroad."

6. College’s Value Added, by Amanda M. Fairbanks - http://nyti.ms/hFx5x3

"Since graduating, 60 percent have full-time jobs, nearly 36 percent have moved back home to live with either their parents or relatives and nearly one-tenth are carrying more than $60,000 worth of debt. Of those who have jobs, more than two-thirds were making less than $35,000 a year and 45 percent were earning $15,000 or less."

7. Students who found new ways to give back, by Katie Zezima, Abby Ellin, and Inyoung Kang - http://nyti.ms/gJhxhr

"He returned home to New Smyrna Beach, Fla., raised $10,000 from family and friends, found Web developers and began INeedaPencil.com, a Web site that offers free SAT prep, including lessons that use conversational language and sports analogies and full practice exams."

8. Colleges for students with learning disabilities, by Abby Goodnough - http://nyti.ms/eRq5PQ

"Ms. Nelson is paying most of her own way at Landmark, a two-year college exclusively for students with learning disabilities and A.D.H.D. She wants to graduate on time this spring, and with tuition and fees alone at $48,000 a year — more than any other college in the nation — she cannot give in to distraction."

9. Is college athletics a sweatshop? by Bob Greene - http://bit.ly/fWCB6C #cnn

"There are various and conflicting reports on exactly how much money college sports brings in. The NCAA, on its website, says: "Overall annual revenue for college athletics programs is estimated at around $10.6 billion."

10. D.C. tops rankings for USA's most literate cities, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/hcrUkX - RT @USATODAY

"The study identifies "worrisome trends" consistent with other national research, including declines in newspaper circulation and book-buying, along with sluggish growth in educational attainment. Increases in Internet usage and stable library patronage aren't offsetting those declines, it says."

11. Seeking Your Questions on Financial Aid, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/hBhOJd

"Now that most students applying to college for next fall’s freshman class have submitted their applications, they will soon turn to the question of paying for that education. Perhaps the most important form they will fill out will be the Free Application For Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa."

12. For-Profit College Grads Also Earn a Life of Debt, by John Hechinger- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_03/b4211018017031.htm

"The bottom line: Students at for-profit colleges graduate with higher debt loads and loan default rates than those who attend conventional schools."

13. For Law School Graduates, Debts if Not Job Offers, by David Segal - http://nyti.ms/iixD2u

". . . J.D.’s face the grimmest job market in decades. Since 2008, some 15,000 attorney and legal-staff jobs at large firms have vanished, according to a Northwestern Law study. Associates have been laid off, partners nudged out the door and recruitment programs have been scaled back or eliminated."

14. Study Finds Family Connections Give Big Advantage in College Admissions, by Tamar Lewin - http://nyti.ms/fE2S11

". . . Applicants to a parent’s alma mater had, on average, 7 times the odds of admission of nonlegacy applicants. Those whose parents did graduate work there or who had a grandparent, sibling, uncle or aunt who attended the college were, by comparison, only twice as likely to be admitted."

15. Lifetime Chits Would Allow Athletes to Be Students, Too, by Bruce Smith - http://chronicle.com/article/Lifetime-Chits-Would-Allow/125863/

"An NCAA survey from a couple of years ago reported that football players devoted more than 40 hours a week to practicing, playing, and training. Only 20 hours could be mandatory (not including travel time and time rehabilitating from injury), but it's widely known that much more time running, weight training, and practicing informally is necessary to be successful. Playing college sports easily becomes the functional equivalent of a full-time job. But we also ask these young people—both in the revenue-generating sports and in the equally time-consuming "minor" sports—to be full-time college students."

16. Achievement gap slow to close, by Diana Lambert - http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/10/3311645/achievement-gap-slow-to-close.html

"In 2009 there was a gap of 27% points between fourth-grade white students and African American students, and a gap of 22% points between white and Latino students in math. There also was a 28% gap between white and African American fourth-graders in reading."

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152. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. The Case for Early Decision, by Robert J. Massa - http://nyti.ms/fuagT1

‎"Here’s what colleges typically don’t make clear: Although early decision is binding, no college will hold a student to a contract if a family determines that the financial aid package is inadequate, regardless of how much assistance the college offers or what the needs analysis-scholarship eligibility criteria suggests. That’s right. If the family says they can’t afford it, files an appeal and the college still doesn’t meet their expectations, they can withdraw their child’s application without penalty."

2. Did You (Or Your Child) Get an Early-Admission Decision? by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/gpxx4k

"In the meantime, though, I hope that those of you who applied — or had a child who applied — will use the comment box below now, or over the next few days, to tell readers what you’re hearing as you hear it. In the process, I’d like to give readers of The Choice the virtual experience of being around the kitchen table or at the computer as these decisions land. So please, tell us your stories."

3. Surprise: Alumni Love Their Colleges, by Allie Grasgreen - Inside Higher Ed - http://t.co/dz4hBVW

"The survey, which was commissioned by the American Council of Education, hinges on one finding in particular: that despite a harsh economic climate for recent graduates and a harsh political one for colleges in general, 89 percent of alumni say their degree was worth the time and money."

4. 10 Paying College Jobs That Look Good on Your Résumé - US News and World Report, by Alexis Grant - http://t.co/JsHgLGh

‎"Your best bet is to look for a job that's related to the career you're hoping to pursue, so you can gain relevant skills, contacts, and experience. If you don't know yet which career is right for you, use your college job to help you figure that out, says Lindsey Pollak, author of Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World. If you don't end up enjoying the job you choose, you can cross it off your list of potential careers.
These 10 jobs are great choices for students because they look good on a résumé, work around class schedules, and offer decent pay."

5. The 7 Most Important Classes to Take In College, by Rachel Dozier - http://j.mp/hUxJyc

"You’re not in school for the easy A’s. Here are seven classes that are not only fun but can help you down the road as well—no matter what your major is!"

6. Education Week: Study: States Must Move Faster to Close Achievement Gaps, by Mary Ann Zehr - http://t.co/BGp8XFI via @educationweek

"In Washington State, for example, the Center on Education Policy predicts it will take 105 years to close the gap between white and African-American students in 4th grade reading at the rate it’s going. By contrast, if Louisiana continues at the same pace in narrowing the gap between those same two groups of students in 4th grade reading, the gap will be closed in 12.5 years."

7. College, Jobs and Inequality - Editorial 12/14/10, The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/opinion/14tue1.html?_r=1&hp

"Over the past year, for example, the unemployment rate for college grads under age 25 has averaged 9.2 percent, up from 8.8 percent a year earlier and 5.8 percent in the first year of the recession that began in December 2007. That means recent grads have about the same level of

unemployment as the general population. It also suggests that many employed recent grads may be doing work that doesn’t require a college degree.
Even more disturbing, there is no guarantee that unemployed or underemployed college grads will move into much better jobs as conditions improve."

8. Emphasizing Sports Over Academics Sets Up Black Boys to Lose, by Richard Whitmire - http://t.co/r4Utc5k via @educationweek

"It’s perhaps understandable that high school boys ignore the odds and insist that academics don’t matter because they have a shot at the pros. But parents should know better. A community that pushes sports over academics is doing a terrible disservice to its children, who will find themselves in deep trouble when their athletic aspirations fail to materialize and they don’t have the academic background to do much else."

9. Md.'s Towson University conquers 'graduation gap' by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/8ffofsd via @washingtonpost

"In 10 years, according to school data, Towson has raised black graduation rates by 30 points and closed a 14-point gap between blacks and whites. University leaders credit a few simple strategies: admitting students with good grades from strong public high schools, then tracking each student's progress with a network of mentors, counselors and welcome-to-college classes."

10. Dearth of Blacks at Oxford and Cambridge, by D.D. Guttenplan - http://nyti.ms/hTf6ta

"According to Mr. Lammy, last year the whole of Oxford University admitted just one black student, and Cambridge University does not have a single black faculty member. . . . A spokeswoman for Oxford said that Mr. Lammy’s arguments “don’t stack up.” In a statement, the university said lack of success in secondary school was the biggest barrier to blacks’ admission, noting that “in 2009, 29,000 white students got the requisite grades for Oxford compared to just 452 black students.”
“Black students apply disproportionately for the most oversubscribed subjects,” it said, further reducing their chances of success."

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