262. 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. Surging college costs price out middle class, by Annalyn Censky - http://t.co/Rl6BzD9 via @CNNMoney - "As the out-of-pocket costs of a college education go up faster than incomes, it's pricing low and medium income families out of a college education," said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial aid sites FinAid.org and FastWeb.com."

2. The Class of 2011: Commencement Speeches, by Jonathan Corum - http://nyti.ms/kSQ0Ye - "Word usage in 40 speeches given at graduations this year."

3. The True Significance of 'Gainful Employment,' by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/lHltJi - "Leaders of for-profit colleges -- and their supporters, mostly Republicans, in Congress -- continued to rattle their swords about the rules’ fundamental unfairness in singling out for-profits for scrutiny. Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts and others who watch the sector -- and were free from worry about maintaining the colleges’ position in a potential lawsuit challenging the regulations -- acknowledged just how much gentler the new rules were than the earlier version."

4. Teach Financial Literacy, by Steven Bahls - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/l1kLFH - "Lately the most common answer from recent graduates as to how we can improve has been surprising — more education about financial literacy and the practical aspects of living in today’s world."

5. How to Get a Rhodes, Fulbright and Other Prestigious Fellowships, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/AtwE378 via @cbsmoneywatch - "So how do college students increase their chances of getting these fellowships for graduate work? Andrew Roberts, a professor at Northwestern University and the author of an excellent book, The Thinking Student’s Guide to College: 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education, provides some tips."

6. Why a Learning Disability Can Give You A College Admission Edge, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/qM8tAA0 via @cbsmoneywatch - "Colleges and universities, he says, can treat a learning disability as a plus. And here’s why: colleges look for diversity in their applicants and a learning disability is a form of diversity."

7. Education Secretary May Agree to Waivers on ‘No Child’ Law Requirements, by Sam Dillon - http://nyti.ms/jxh3rH - "The Obama administration has been facing a mounting clamor from state school officials to waive substantial parts of the law, which President Bush signed in 2002, especially its requirement that states bring 100 percent of students to proficiency in reading and math by 2014 or else face sanctions."

8. Lawmakers Talk About Their Degrees—or the Lack of Them - http://chronicle.com/article/Lawmaker-Talk-About-Degrees/127846/ - "I think the biggest gift I could give my children is an education," Ms. Roach says. "But even if I had no children at all, I wouldn't want to make it more difficult for the average family to give their kids a chance at a college degree."

9. Colleges offer graduates help repaying loans, by Mary Beth Marklein - http://usat.ly/jT4sn0 via @USATODAY - "The financial-aid benefit, which targets students who expect to pursue careers in low-paying public-service fields, aims to help colleges attract and retain students who might otherwise enroll somewhere cheaper, or nowhere at all."

10. College group targets incentive payments for international student recruiters, by Daniel de Vise - http://t.co/WaCGg68 via @washingtonpost - "Most colleges have few, if any, employees devoted to international recruiting, and sending workers abroad can get expensive. Many schools have turned instead to agents, who typically set up shop overseas and refer students to U.S. universities for a fee. Many agents charge the student a fee, as well."

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.”

195. 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. Education funding crisis expected to grow beyond Wisconsin, by Michael Martinez - http://bit.ly/h8GOFT #cnn

‎"What concerns educators is that the quality of education -- and student achievement -- will take staggering hits under budget cuts now being considered in many states, Bryant said."

2. House Poised to Block 'Gainful', by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/i4CnUd

"The measure would block the Education Department from using any of its appropriated funds for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year to implement, administer or enforce its controversial plan to assess the quality of vocational programs based largely on the ability of former students to repay their student loans."

3. Duncan Announces Four Community College Regional Summits Aimed at Boosting College Completion, by Jane Glickman -U.S. Department of Education: http://bit.ly/gbR5Wu

"These regional summits are an opportunity to build partnerships that strengthen our community colleges, turn challenges into actions, and produce the best-educated and most-competitive workforce in the world," Duncan said."

4. Do College Athletes Have Time to Be Students? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/38doH03

‎"According to the survey, the most demanding sport is Division I and II baseball, which has the longest season of any collegiate sport. Division I baseball players devote 42.1 hours a week to the sport during their season, which is 10.4 hours more than they spend on academics. Division I basketball and football players also spend more time on their sports than they do on their school work."

5. DePaul Becomes Biggest Private University to Go 'Test Optional', by Eric Hoover - http://chronicle.com/article/DePaul-U-Will-Make-SAT-and/126396/

‎"Starting with applicants for the freshman class entering in 2012, students who choose not to submit ACT or SAT scores will write short responses to essay questions designed to measure "noncognitive" traits, such as leadership, commitment to service, and ability to meet long-term goals."

6. Georgia Lawmakers Keep Hope Scholarship Alive, but with Cap on Awards, by Eric Kelderman - http://chronicle.com/article/Georgia-Lawmakers-Keep-Hope/126412/

‎"The scholarship pays all tuition, and a small amount toward books, at the state's public colleges for any resident who graduates from high school with a B average. Private-college students can get $4,000 a year. The program, financed with lottery proceeds, is nearly 20 years old and now pays for about 200,000 Georgia residents to attend college each year."

7. Smart people + big report = dreamy nonsense, by Jay Mathews - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2011/02/smart_people_big_report_mush.html

"It identifies a major problem in our education system -- that the movement to get high schools to prepare all students for college has not worked. Only about 40 percent of our high school graduates earn college degrees. The ones that don't go to college often have trouble finding jobs."

• Follow the most important stories on college admissions and financial aid on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rottenbornj


• For links to articles on college admissions and financial aid, you can "friend" Joe Rottenborn at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544


• "Like" the MVCAP fan page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544#!/pages/Mahoning-Valley-College-Access-Program-MVCAP/284002915922


• You can join the group MVCAP Financial-Aid Friends at this page: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=126580419181


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