325. 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. Last of 5 Parts: Answers to Your Back-to-School Admissions Questions, by ROBIN MAMLET and CHRISTINE VANDEVELDE: http://nyti.ms/okBdt4 - "Sometimes students want to jump on the early bandwagon because they fear that the early round of admissions fills most of the seats in the freshman class. But this is simply not the case. It sounds incredible, but it’s true that even when half the seats at a college are filled with ED applicants, fewer than half the acceptances have been given out."

2. Help Needed for Student Debtors: http://nyti.ms/qlZmEn - "A substantial part of the problem also lies in the fast-growing for-profit college industry, which accounts for only about 10 percent of students but nearly half of student loan defaults."

3. Major Publishers Join Indiana U. Project That Requires Students to Buy E-Textbooks, by Jeff Young - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/major-publishers-join-indiana-u-project-that-requires-students-to-use-e-textbooks/33156 - "Slightly more than half of the students surveyed—about 55 percent—said they read less of the e-textbook than they would have read from a printed copy, while 22 percent said they read more from the e-textbook than they would have from a printed copy.Officials were watching closely to see whether students simply printed out the e-books and read from those paper copies. According to system logs, 68 percent of the students printed no pages, while 19 percent printed more than 50 pages."

4. White House details plans for more digital learning, by Greg Toppo – http://usat.ly/nnv0NB#.TnNQdis7Ky4.twitter via @USATODAY - "The center, dubbed "Digital Promise," will aid the rapid development of new learning software, educational games and other technologies, in part through helping educators vet what works and what doesn't."

5. SAT reading scores drop to lowest point in decades, by Michael Alison Chandler - http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/sat-reading-scores-drop-to-lowest-point-in-decades/2011/09/14/gIQAdpoDTK_story.html via @washingtonpost - "For the first time, the College Board said, more than half of all high school graduates — or 1.65 million students — took the exam. That was up from 47 percent in 2010. Test-takers were also more diverse than ever: Forty-four percent were minorities; 36 percent were the first in their family to go to college; and 27 percent did not speak English exclusively."

6. Students say: ‘Pressure? What pressure?’ by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/students-say-pressure-what-pressure/2011/09/14/gIQAdFEaSK_blog.html via @washingtonpost - "My view is that although homework, tests and college admission can be too stressful for some students, the real failing of our high schools nationally is that they apply too little pressure, not too much. . . . U.S. high schools are not in trouble because they are too rigorous."

7. State schools chief sets higher bar for Youngstown board - http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/sep/16/state-schools-chief-sets-higher-bar-for-/?newswatch via Vindicator - "There is little to mistake in the message that Stan W. Heffner, Ohio superintendent of public instruction, brought to Youngstown Wednesday. Youngstown schools must make greater improvements in academic achievement. And if the Youngstown Board of Education and its administrators and teachers don’t show results, it is incumbent on the Academic Distress Commission to use the considerable power that it has under state law to effect change."

8. A+ Colleges For B Students, US News And World Report List - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/a-colleges-for-b-students_n_965837.html#s363405&title=Fordham_University_ - "US News and World Report recently compiled a list of the best schools for B students and options are a lot more plentiful than one might think when mired in the hyper-competitive college process."

9. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories about college access and success, via @rottenbornj ▸ http://t.co/x7cmxSo

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"

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


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• "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
  

149. 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. Viewing College as a Joyful Celebration, as yet Unaffordable, by By Uyanga Tamir - http://nyti.ms/igo61v

‎"Financial aid has become the most important aspect of a college; if I cannot afford the tuition, I simply cannot go. Moreover, there is one thing that further complicates my already too stressful senior year: I am an international applicant."

2. Will an Admissions Rejection be a Rejection of Me as a Person? by Michael Campbell - http://nyti.ms/eCR0Mv

‎"First, my fears: I’m afraid of rejection. Not just the thin-envelope “I didn’t get into Harvard!” type of rejection, but the struggle to disassociate an admissions rejection from the rejection of me as a person."

3. If College Search Is Like Prison, Stanford Could Hold The Key, by Kori C. Hazel - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/cherry-creek-kori-hazel-1/

“College lockdown” involves camping out on a computer typing multitudes of essays and filling out a plethora of applications with the constant need of stress management and a grande hot chocolate, all of which occurs a week or two before a college deadline."

4. When Acceptance to College Hinges on An Audition, by Avery Diubaldo - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/cherry-creek-avery-diubaldo-1/

"The college application process for theatrical majors is a unique one. While most students seeking a higher education need to do no more than complete an array of standardized exams, college applications and transcript forms, the prospective theater major has one more obstacle: the audition."

5. Facebook Freshmen Welcome Groups Altered to Look Less Official, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/eaK40l

"More than 150 Facebook groups that appeared to be official welcome sites for the prospective freshman classes at colleges and universities were altered Wednesday, to make clear that they exist partly as a marketing tool for a commercial, roommate-matching service known as Roomsurf."

6. Guide to Student Loans, by Jonathan D. Glater - http://www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_studentloans.html?ref=student-loans

"There are three basic types of loans undergraduate students should know about: federal loans made by the government directly; federal loans made by banks or other lenders and guaranteed by the government; and private or alternative loans from banks or other private lenders that carry no government guarantee. (Sometimes a college itself may make loans, too, usually in partnership with a financial institution.)"

7. Setting State Targets, by David Moltz - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hDTbIM

"Spurred by President Obama’s rhetoric and the work of a few influential foundations, many states have echoed the national call for more community college graduates by setting their own completion goals in recent months. And though some say these statewide goals are evidence of a larger shift in community college mission from access to completion, others see them as a preemptive attempt to demonstrate the kind of accountability that the federal and state governments may impose. Some question whether these newly set goals are even realistic amid dwindling funding for higher education."

8. For-Profit Colleges Draw Big Revenue From Veterans, by Eric Lipton - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/education/09colleges.html?_r=2&hp

"More than 36 percent of the tuition payments made in the first year of the program — a total of $640 million in tuition and fees — went to for-profit colleges, like the University of Phoenix, according to data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs, even though these colleges serve only about 9 percent of the overall population at higher education institutions nationwide."

9. Why Final Exams Are Going to the Dogs, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/dRCKFcf

"My favorite de-stresser activity just might be at Oberlin College. Twice a night at the library during final exams, students get to dance for five minutes as a song — chosen by students in an online poll — is blasted from speakers. Sounds like fun to me."

10. Elementary Students Encouraged to Set College Goals, by Caralee J. Adams - http://t.co/PG8wmck via @educationweek

"In the push to boost college-completion rates, high schools have often been the focus of college-readiness efforts, but now the reach is going even deeper into middle and elementary schools. Some educators feel it’s too late in high school to start introducing the concepts of college, high expectations, and academic achievement."

11. Safety schools matter in college admissions, by Valerie Strauss - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/college-admissions/safety-schools-matter-in-colle.html

"Unfortunately, these are the very colleges that students should be paying extra attention to. After all, if things don’t work out with their top choices, isn’t it important to attend a college that has just about everything they want and need?"

12. U.S. Revises Report on Recruiting at For-Profit Colleges, by Tamar Lewin - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/education/09gao.html?hpw

“After the review of the tapes, we chose to issue the revised report to add more precise language and to clarify some aspects of the report,” said Chuck Young, a spokesman for the G.A.O. “But ultimately nothing has changed with the overall message of the report, and nothing has changed

with any of our findings.”

13. Parents Embrace A Documentary on Pressures of School, by Trip Gabriel- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/education/09nowhere.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

"The film portrays the pressures when schools pile on hours of homework and coaches turn sports into year-round obligations. Left somewhat unexamined is the role of parents whose high expectations contribute the most pressure of all. “Everyone expects us to be superheroes,” one high school senior in the film says."

14. Colleges Urged to Play Greater Role in Regional Development Efforts, by Karin Fischer http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Are-Urged-to-Play-a/125657/

"Participants in the two-day conference, "Providing a Uniquely American Solution to Global Innovation Challenges: Unleashing Universities in Regions," delved into the various ways colleges can help build stronger local economies, including acting as conveners for conversations about regional development, aligning their curricula with local elementary and secondary schools, and producing and retaining well-educated workers."

15. Dropout rate for California black students hits 37%, by Jill Tucker - http://t.co/73iPZR6

‎"The 37 percent African American dropout rate, up three percentage points from the prior year, was far above that of any other ethnic subgroup. Hispanic students had the second highest rate at 27 percent."

16. Poor white boys 'more likely to struggle at primary school,' by Graeme Paton - Telegraph - http://t.co/ql2nr7x

"White British boys from the most deprived families perform worse at the age of 11 than any other group, it was disclosed. They are around 50 per cent less likely to start secondary education with an acceptable standard of the three-Rs than other pupils. Poor children from black African, black Caribbean, Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families all performed better than their white British classmates, figures show."

• 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