296. Summer College News

Here are some links to today's stories
about college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

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

2. ROTCs return to Ivy League, by Jim Michaels - http://t.co/cHv2lFV via @USATODAY - "Since the Pentagon last year repealed "Don't ask, don't tell," that argument was nullified and anti-ROTC campuses have become more receptive to the military. The Navy has reached agreements with Yale, Harvard and Columbia to establish programs on their campuses."

3. Students, seniors may feel impact of debt deal, by Sandra Block - http://t.co/L0pf2Jb via @USATODAY - "Interest on federally subsidized student loans for graduate students will accrue while students are in school. Currently, interest on doesn't begin to accrue until they graduate. The change will take effect on July 1, 2012, says Justin Draeger, a spokesman for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.In addition, the deal will eliminate on-time repayment incentives for all federal student loans, effective July 1, 2012. Currently, federal Stafford loan borrowers who make 12 consecutive on-time payments are eligible for a rebate of 0.5% of the loan amount, which is applied to the 1% repayment fee."

4. 'Uneducated Guesses' by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/r8WeGA - "Between 2001 and 2009, the passing rate on AP exams fell from 60.8 to 56.5 percent -- as the number of students who took an AP exam increased from 17 percent to 26 percent of the public high school population. As the critical articles noted, however, some high schools had very low pass rates, while others had very high rates."

5. 12 Things College Freshmen Should Be Doing Now, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/bQJXedk via @cbsmoneywatch - "Are you heading to college for the first time later this month? If so, it’s important to start getting prepared. Here are 12 things that you should be doing now:"

6. Statistics Show More Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/kCijOX9 via @educationweek - "As of 2005, the most recent data, grandparents cared for 13.8 percent of preschoolers—more than Head Start, day-care centers, and nursery schools combined. They also provided care for 12.8 percent of all school-age children ages 5 to 14. The Census Bureau found the average time children spent in their grandparents’ care also increased, from 13 hours a week in 2005 to 14 to 16 hours per week in 2006."

7. Debt Deal May Offer Only Temporary Reprieve for Student-Aid Programs, by Kelly Field - http://chronicle.com/article/Debt-Deal-May-Offer-Only/128468/ - "It also provides $17-billion over two years to shore up the Pell Grant program, which has doubled in cost over the past three years and faces a multibillion-dollar deficit.By closing most of that gap, the deal makes it easier for appropriators to maintain the maximum award at $5,550 in 2012 without slashing other programs. But the reprieve comes at a cost and is likely to be temporary. To pay for Pell Grants, the deal will end subsidies for interest on graduate students' loans while they are still in school, while eliminating the interest-rate reduction for on-time loan repayment for all borrowers."

8. Stone-Cold Sober Schools: Princeton Review List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/stone-cold-sober-schools-_n_916935.html#s321095&title=Brigham_Young_University Which area college made this list? - "Not all colleges have parties where students do keg-stands with abandon. According to the Princeton Review, the schools listed below are the most stone-cold sober in the country."

9. Schools With The Happiest Students: Princeton Review List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/happiest-students_n_915868.html#s320143&title=Rice_University - "Happiness and an academic setting don't have to be mutually exclusive, at least according to the Princeton Review. The Review surveyed more than 122,000 students nationwide on everything from party habits to study habits. See below for the schools where students maintain a rosy outlook."

10. Solving achievement gap will take innovation, Harvard professor says, by Erin Albanese MLive.com - http://t.co/sJaKfu1 - "The U.S. is failing to prepare large numbers of young people to succeed in the 21st century economy, he said. The goal is to increase learning for white children and even more quickly increase that for blacks and Hispanics who are further behind.“Nationally, it’s in our interest for all groups of students to reach their full potential,” he said."

11. The Top 10 U.S. Colleges for Financial Aid, By Sheryl Nance-Nash: http://srph.it/qufAsZ http://t.co/SAL3ycl via @AOL - "The company considered how many students received aid compared to the number of students who needed it, how much of their financial needs were met and how many students received all the aid they needed, as well as how satisfied students said they were with their awards."

283. 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. How the Recession Re-Sorted Freshmen, by Allie Grasgreen - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/r7dzVj - "A new study largely confirms what anecdotal reports had anticipated about national college enrollment patterns during the economic downturn: that enrollments of high school students swelled, that larger numbers of students chose community colleges, but that private colleges did not suffer the losses that many had predicted."

2. Easy A, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/nU5PaK - "Two critics of grade inflation have published a new analysis finding that the most common grade at four-year colleges and universities is the A (43 percent of all grades) -- and that Ds and Fs are few and far between."

3. How Freshman Picked Their Colleges, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/5rhgwOQ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Nearly one third of freshmen say they aren’t heading to their No. 1 choice of colleges in the fall because they couldn’t afford these schools. More than half of the teenagers (56%) received financial aid, but 82% said they didn’t receive as much as they had hoped.To keep costs down, 22% of teenagers ultimately selected schools nearby so they could commute from home."

4. Recession Reshaped College Enrollment Patterns, but the Sky Didn't Fall, by Eric Hoover - http://chronicle.com/article/Recession-Reshaped-College/128223/ - "A major story line of the past five years has been the increase in traditional-age students who enrolled in community colleges. In 2006, 41.7 percent of traditional-age students enrolled at two-year colleges; in 2009, 44.5 percent did so. Between 2008 and 2009, enrollments of traditional-age, first-time students at two-year colleges increased by 8.3 percent.The report suggests that this trend was driven by two groups of students: those who, in a better economy, might have chosen to attend other (and costlier) types of institutions, and those who otherwise would have joined the work force after graduating from high school."

5. Admission dean pulls back curtain on merit aid, by Daniel de Vise - College, Inc. - http://t.co/ksAzir3 via @washingtonpost - "So, I was surprised to see the admission dean at University of Rochester pen an unusually candid list of 12 “steps that mattered” in merit awards at his school this year, and the approximate dollar value of each factor in shaping the merit award. Jonathan Burdick, dean of admission and financial aid at Rochester, analyzed merit award data at his school to discern “some rules of thumb about how the mythical ‘average’ student succeeded in earning a scholarship this year,” he writes in the June 11 post, titled “What kind of scholarship can I get?”Here are some of the dozen variables:"

6. “What kind of scholarship can I get?” by Jonathan Burdick, U. of Rochester Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid - http://enrollment.rochester.edu/eblog/?p=2356 - "12 steps that mattered for earning merit scholarships in the UR Class of 2015."

179. 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. After Tucson, schools seek aid to track trouble - USATODAY.com - http://t.co/QO6zSHK

"College mental health workers report greater concern about disruptive students since the mass shooting in Tucson, resulting in more calls from faculty, requests for special training and reassessments of campus procedures."

2. The President as College Counselor, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/ijx2Qq

"While the law automatically pegs increases in the popular Pell Grant program to the rate of inflation, my colleagues David M. Herszenhorn and Tamar Lewin wrote at the time that "for individual students, the increase in the maximum Pell grant — to $5,900 in 2019-20, from $5,550 for the 2010-11 school year — is minuscule, compared with the steep, inexorable rise in tuition for public and private colleges alike."

3. Pressures of High School and Economy Weigh on College Freshmen, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/ftTrmJ

"In Today’s Times, my colleague Tamar Lewin reports that “the emotional health of college freshmen — who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school — has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago.” The survey is called “The American Freshman: National Norms,” and it involves more than 200,000 incoming, full-time students."

4. Stressed, Yet Hopeful, by Allie Grasgreen - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hZxIjU

"And schoolwork isn’t the only thing dragging students down: incoming freshmen are also still feeling the impact of the recession, reporting higher use of loans and financial aid, and limits on where they could opt to attend college. But despite all that, they’re more optimistic about their college educations – in terms of success, experience and satisfaction – than they’ve been in nearly 30 years."

5. Letter to President Obama on Regulation of For-Profits: http://cdn.publicinterestnetwork.org/assets/80e95d84805cc5b0a5e0e3c35af6cee4/GERegulation-LetterToPresObama-January26-2011final.pdf

"Consumer and Minority Groups Urge Tough Rule on For-Profit Colleges"

6. Everyone's Battle: Confronting College Depression, by Julia Lurie - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-lurie/everyones-battle-confront_b_813685.html

"Those girls are me. I came to Yale University with a history of insomnia, anxiety, and mild depression, but optimistic about my ability to move beyond it. During freshman and sophomore years the problem persisted in waves, but at most to a degree of severe discomfort--not disability. I decided to take a leave of absence during the fall semester of my junior year to confront these issues, hoping to come back to Yale headed in the right direction."

7. 10 Most Prestigious Scholarships In America, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/JPMUxo3

"While there are billions of dollars available through college scholarships, only a select few offer prestige along with the college bucks. Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of FastWeb and the author of a new book, Secrets To Winning a Scholarship, has compiled a list of the most prestigious scholarships in the country. Here are the top 10:"

8. Linking After-School Learning to College, by Mary-Ellen Phelps Deily - http://t.co/RlssO3S

"The brief explores how after-school learning can open students' eyes to their college potential, as well as easing them away from more risky paths. The report calls middle school a "critical time" to engage students and says after-school programs can offer crucial supports through apprenticeships, guest speakers, and "project-based activities."

9. Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen, by Tamar Lewin - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges.html?_r=1&hp

“Brian Van Brunt: . . . “More students are arriving on campus with problems, needing support, and today’s economic factors are putting a lot of extra stress on college students, as they look at their loans and wonder if there will be a career waiting for them on the other side.”

10. A Profile of This Year's Freshmen - http://chronicle.com/article/A-Profile-of-This-Years/126067/

"Who they are, what they think, and what they hope to achieve"

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