332. 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. Law school is a waste of time, by Penelope Trunk - #cnn - http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/26/living/reasons-against-law-school/index.html - "Many, many students think they are going to law school to join a non-profit and change the world. The problem is law students have to pay back their debt -- no small amount when we're talking law school. So unless you are independent wealthy, you'll have to go to a big law firm first, to pay off your school loans. And once you get used to living the life of someone at a big law firm, you're not likely to leave. This is because we get used to whatever salary we earn."

2. No Child Left Behind option meets praise and caution, by Greg Toppo – http://usat.ly/nOOEsD via USAToday - "On Friday, Obama said he would give states a pass on much of the 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law — most notably the requirement that students make large annual gains on math and reading tests. He also would waive the requirement that virtually every student be "proficient" in the two subjects by 2014."

3. The Medium Is the Message: Should a College Call, Text or Tweet? by Rebecca R. Ruiz - http://nyti.ms/na9O1G - "Members of the millennial generation may be stereotyped as rabid text messagers, but a group of nearly 10 high school seniors and college freshmen agreed on Saturday that they would most like to hear from a college they are interested in by phone."

4. No More Waiting Around, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed - http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/09/27/wait_lists_become_a_new_topic_of_focus_at_nacac_annual_meeting via AddThis - "The main concern among counselors was the lack of transparency surrounding how institutions manage their lists and why they operate them as they do. While most of the admissions process is governed by fairly clear rules laid out by the association, there are few rules governing the time between May 1 and August 1. Counselors said they have noticed a trend of more students are getting put on wait lists every year, and many said they hear horror stories about students being blind-sided with quick deadlines or inadequate aid offers months after they gave up hope of getting into their preferred institutions."

5. 25 Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/25-best-colleges-for-entrepreneurs/6682/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "Entrepreneur Magazine and the Princeton Review recently released its second annual survey of the top entrepreneur college degree programs in the country. Like all college rankings, you should take anybody’s list with a grain of salt, but at least it gives you some schools to research."

6. College Costs and Refinancing a Home, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/college-costs-and-refinancing-a-home/6686/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "You should not refinance your mortgage for the purpose of obtaining a better financial aid package. It ain’t going to happen."

7. ‘Complete College’ Study of College Graduation Rates, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/quaCw5 - "Another factor is the large number of students mired in noncredit remedial classes that the report calls the “Bermuda Triangle” of higher education. Half of all students studying for an associate degree, and one in five of those seeking a bachelor’s degree — including many who graduated from high school with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher, previous research has shown — are required to take remedial, or “developmental” courses, and many of them never move on to credit-bearing courses, much less graduation."

8. Should the School Day Be Longer? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com -http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/201... - "When and where does it make sense to institute a longer school day, and how should it be designed? While this change may benefit children from disadvantaged backgrounds, providing a social support system, would it help other American students if they had to spend more time in school, given what we know about how they learn?"

9. Help for Parents and Society, by Geoffrey Canada - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/nM12lc - "The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows little improvement over the decades. The black-white achievement gap is as wide as ever. SAT scores are declining. I am convinced that one of the reasons is that the school day and year are too short. Without additional time, it is virtually impossible for students behind grade level -- particularly poor and minority students -- to catch up."

10. Targeted School Time and Programs, by S. Paul Reville - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/qZquIw - "No wonder schools alone, which use less than 20 percent of a child’s waking hours, have proved incapable, on average, of closing the learning gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Low income students need stimulating, enriching learning opportunities after school and in the summers to complement and enhance academic learning in the same ways more affluent peers do through camps, tutors, music lessons, organized sports and travel."

11. For Us, More Time Is Critical, by Richard Barth - Room for Debate - http://nyti.ms/nfYkcs - "The mission of public education is to open up the doors of opportunity for students. Increasing time in school is one element to ensuring that all children in America have access to the opportunities that open those doors."

12. The Higher-Education Battle the White House Should Be Waging, by Kevin Carey - http://t.co/475xSNhb - "Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been quite candid in denouncing "dropout factory" high schools where most students fail to graduate. He is less vocal in observing that many of the students who survive dropout-factory high schools enroll in community colleges or open-access four-year universities where graduation rates are even worse."

13. “Time Is the Enemy” of College Completion, Report Finds -http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/time-is-the-enemy-of-college-completion-report-finds/36681 - "A new report suggests that college students need to find faster ways to earn degrees, because the longer they stay in school, the more likely they are not to earn a degree. Key findings revealed that 75 percent of students are commuters who juggle work and school, rather than live on campus, and less than a quarter of part-time students ever graduate. The research also found drop-out rates linked to race, income, and age."

14. 2011 College Completion Data Complete College America - http://shar.es/bn52h - "Time is the enemy of college completion. Choose your state to see a snapshot of how well your state is educating all of today’s college students. Then click “Complete State Profile” to see the most comprehensive state and campus college completion data ever collected."

15. At a U. of Kentucky Dorm, a Live-In iPad Experience, by Alex Campbell -http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/at-a-u-kentucky-dorm-a-live-in-ipad-experience/33380 - "Students moving into a newly renovated dormitory at the University of Kentucky signed up for a hyperwired college experience: Each one was given an iPad and required to take a series of tech-themed courses. The unusual program is called A&S Wired Residential College and is housed in a dorm of 177 freshmen, who plan to major in a variety of fields."

16. Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone, by Amanda Ripley - http://ti.me/ob8IqF via @TIME - "But cramming is deeply embedded in Asia, where top grades — and often nothing else — have long been prized as essential for professional success. . . . Modern-day South Korea has taken this competition to new extremes. In 2010, 74% of all students engaged in some kind of private after-school instruction, sometimes called shadow education, at an average cost of $2,600 per student for the year. There are more private instructors in South Korea than there are schoolteachers, and the most popular of them make millions of dollars a year from online and in-person classes."

17. Report exposes hidden failure of part-time students -http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/report-exposes-hidden-failure-of-part-time - "A new report finds evidence of a new majority on college campuses: part-time students. Three-quarters of today’s college students attend part time, juggling classes along with work and family responsibilities, according to a new report from the nonprofit Complete College America. Only 1/4 attend residential colleges as full-time students supported by their parents, the customary vision of college embraced by the suburban middle class. . . . Completion rates are lower still among under-represented minorities. The bachelor’s completion rate is 17% for Hispanics who attend part-time, 15% for African Americans, even after allowing 8 years to finish."

18. A bet on No Child Left Behind, by Richard Rothstein - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/who-won-a-2007-bet-on-no-child-left-behind/2011/09/26/gIQAwBBi0K_blog.html via @washingtonpost - "So the secretary is now kicking the ball down the road. States will be excused from making all children proficient by 2014 if they agree instead to make all children “college-ready” by 2020."

329. 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. More college officials learn about applicants from Facebook, by Mary Beth Marklein – http://usat.ly/rpUwnK via @USATODAY - "Nearly a quarter (24%) of admissions officials at 359 selective colleges say they used Facebook, up from 6% the previous year, and 20% used Google to help evaluate an applicant, says the survey, conducted by Kaplan Test Prep. Kaplan, which did not identify participating colleges, queried 500 colleges listed in U.S. News & World Report rankings and in Barron's Profiles of American Colleges."

2. ‘Pursue your dream’ by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH - http://bit.ly/mQFLL9 via AddThis - "It makes sense," said Jasmine Wallace, 17, a senior and member of the school's yearbook committee. "It's important to show kids that there's far more to life than being on the streets, than just giving up on yourself and what you can do with your life. These are real people pursuing their careers and working hard at what they do. It gives you something to hold on to. It gives you hope that you can also make something of your own life."

3. Gazing Into Higher Ed's Future, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/ns4co1 via AddThis - "And the gender gap, already a concern for many in higher education, would widen: with enrollments of women growing by 21 percent and men by just 12 percent, as the department projects, by 2019 women would make up 59 percent of all postsecondary students, up from the current 57.1 percent."

4. College Bound: States Pass New Laws to Encourage College Completion, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/09/states_pass_new_laws_to_encourage_college_completion.html via @educationweek - "Nearly 80 new laws related to college completion have been approved in states so far in 2011, and the range of approaches are chronicled by Boosting College Completion, a two-year initiative by the Education Commission of the States funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."

5. For-Profit Colleges, Vulnerable G.I.’s, by Hollister K. Petraeus - http://nyti.ms/o9aZzl - "The schools have a strong incentive to enroll service members and veterans, in large part because of the “90-10 rule” created by the 1998 amendments to the Higher Education Act. Put simply, the rule says that a for-profit college must obtain at least 10 percent of its revenue from a source other than Title IV education funds, the primary source of federal student aid. Funds from Tuition Assistance and the G.I. Bill are not defined as Title IV funds, so they count toward the 10 percent requirement, just like private sources of financing.
Therein lies a problem. For every service member or veteran (or spouse or child, in the case of the post-9/11 G.I. Bill) enrolled at a for-profit college and paying with military education funds, that college can enroll nine others who are using nothing but Title IV money."

6. St. Mary’s U. Finds That When It Texts, Students Come, by Alex Campbell - http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/st-marys-u-finds-that-when-it-texts-students-come/33328 - "At St. Mary’s University, potential students are given the option to sign up for updates when they first make contact with the institution. Throughout the application process, they get alerts, and, if they reply, the university writes back to them individually. For the second straight year, students who signed up were more likely to apply than those who didn’t, and, if they got accepted, they were more likely to matriculate."

7. Grading the GOP Candidates on Education, by Andrew J. Rotherham - http://ti.me/nTMHie via Time - "As some start to drop hints about what their education plans might look like, here's a handicapper's guide to the leading contenders and their views — and record — on education."

8. Obama prepares to revamp ‘No Child Left Behind’ by Lyndsey Layton - http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/obama-prepares-to-revamp-no-child-left-behind/2011/09/16/gIQAKUrXlK_story.html via Washingtonpost.com - "Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are scheduled Friday to detail plans to waive some of the law’s toughest requirements, including the goal that every student be proficient in math and reading by 2014 or else their schools could face escalating sanctions. In exchange for relief, the administration will require a quid pro quo: States must adopt changes that could include the expansion of charter schools, linking teacher evaluation to student performance and upgrading academic standards. As many as 45 states are expected to seek waivers."

9. The problem with Obama’s plan to issue NCLB waivers, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-problem-with-obamas-plan-to-issue-nclb-waivers/2011/09/21/gIQAdVfQmK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "States have been begging Washington to relieve them of the most onerous of NCLB’s provisions, Adequate Yearly Progress, a measure that requires public schools to ensure that nearly all of their students score as proficient on standardized tests in reading and math by 2014. Failing to reach sub-goals toward that end results in punitive measures that require schools to be restructured in one of several models. As the 2014 goal has approached, the number of schools in danger of failing has shot up."

10. More public universities turn dorms into residential colleges, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/more-public-universities-turn-dorms-into-residential-colleges/2011/09/21/gIQA8tjGlK_blog.html via Washingtonpost.com - "The idea of a residential college is not new at schools like Cambridge and Harvard, or small liberal arts colleges. But lately many large public institutions are adopting the model, creating small academically driven communities where students can live all four years . . . . The idea is that by putting these students in a building with lots of gathering spots — movie theaters, fitness rooms, kitchens and gaming rooms — they will learn from each other and share ideas."

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

111. 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. More youths with mental disabilities going to college http://usat.me/40667136

‎"In years past, college life was largely off-limits for students with such disabilities, but that's no longer the case. Students with Down syndrome, autism and other conditions that can result in intellectual disabilities are leaving high school more academically prepared than ever and ready for the next step: college. Eight years ago, disability advocates were able to find only four programs on university campuses that allowed students with intellectual disabilities to experience college life with extra help from mentors and tutors. As of last year, there were more than 250 spread across more than three dozen states and two Canadian provinces, said Debra Hart, head of Think College at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which provides services to people with disabilities.That growth is partly because of an increasing demand for higher education for these students and there are new federal funds for such programs."

2. Middlebury Dean Says SAT or ACT is 'Seldom a Deal Breaker' - http://nyti.ms/bhwqrV

‎"It’s not that they play no role in the process, but highly selective colleges don’t usually have “cut off” scores for accepting or rejecting applicants, and most have a fairly wide range of scores represented among their admitted students.Higher scores are better than lower scores, of course, but even the highest scores are by no means a guarantee of admission. And sometimes a lower score can be at least partially offset by other factors in the application, like coming from an underrepresented background, having a special talent that is desirable in the student body, or any of the myriad other factors that come into play in the decision-making process. At most of the colleges to which you apply, your scores will probably look a lot like those of other applicants, so it’s unlikely they’ll be a deciding factor in your candidacy."

3. The Thinking LMS http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/18/phoenix

"This is where the University of Phoenix is headed with its online learning platform. In an effort ambitiously dubbed the "Learning Genome Project,” the for-profit powerhouse says it is building a new learning interface that gets to know each of its 400,000 students personally and adapts to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of their “learning DNA.” Unlike analog forms of student profiling — such as surveys, which are only as effective as the students’ ability to diagnose their own learning needs — Phoenix’s Learning Genome Project will be designed to infer details about students from how they behave in the online classroom, McQuaig said. If students grasp content more quickly when they learn it from a video than when they have to read a text, the system will feed them more videos. If a student is bad at interpreting graphs, the system will recognize that and present information accordingly — or connect the student with another Phoenix student who is better at graph-reading."

4. Unusual Majors and What You Can Do with Them http://hercampus.com/career/youre-majoring-what-unusual-majors-and-what-you-can-do-them

"Puppetry? Gerontology? Egyptology? These aren’t just words that end in a “y” — they’re all unusual majors at different colleges across the country. But even though these majors may leave you tongue-tied, don’t let that scare you off as these lesser known areas of study can lead to pretty cool careers. That’s great, but you’re probably wondering, what exactly can they be used for after graduation? HC has tracked down some of the most unusual majors in the country and the potential jobs they have to offer."

5. The 10 Best Business Schools For Your Career -- http://huff.to/9y4UvO Huffpost

"The Princeton Review sought to find out by surveying 19,000 students at 300 business schools across the country. Check out the 10 schools that provide their students with the best career prospects below, and see the Review's many lists of of business school rankings here."

6. How Are High School Grads Adjusting to College Life? http://huff.to/cOXD3i Huffpost

"...Most students, said Tillman, are struggling first with a significant academic transition. Tillman advises them, "Do whatever it takes to get organized and keep on top of the material. This includes meeting professors during office hours, joining study groups, going to the writing center, getting tutoring or academic coaching." Tillman says you shouldn't be afraid to drop a course quickly if you know it is too difficult. On the health front, if students have been receiving support at home for ADD/HD, learning disabilities or any illness, they will need to self-advocate and consistently follow through with those supports and medication in order to be successful. Socially, adjustments can also be hard. Tillman recommends being proactive -- and patient. "Find your niche sociall by getting involved. Be open to meeting a lot of people in the beginning. Push through that loneliness and reach out. It will get better."

7. White House Hispanic Initiative To Host Ed. Summit Today http://t.co/MNdCsCg via @educationweek

"Three assistant secretaries for the U.S. Department of Education are lined up to speak today at an education summit about how to boost college attainment among Hispanics. The summit is being hosted here in the nation's capital by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The executive director for that initiative is Juan Sepulveda. Under the initiative, Sepulveda and other White House officials visited more than 90 communities in 20 states over the past year to gather information and ideas on how to improve the lives of Latinos. Today's education summit, held at the Organization of American States building, is meant to be a "next step" in connecting communities nationwide to improve the educational attainment and lives of Latinos, a press release for the event says."

8. Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab - http://nyti.ms/9sq79o

"Better known as the Browne Review after the inquiry’s chairman, John Browne, the former head of BP, the report called for the cap on tuition fees at British universities, now set at £3,290, or $5,275, a year, to be scrapped in favor of a free-market approach paid for by the students themselves — but only after they graduate and are earning more than £21,000 a year. “Students do not pay charges, only graduates do; and then only if they are successful,” the report said. “The system of payments is highly progressive. No one earning under £21,000 will pay anything.” Lord Browne added in an interview with the BBC, “If you choose to go into a job which doesn’t pay very much or if you choose to go out of the workforce to build a family, you won’t have to pay it back.”

9. What They're Reading on College Campuses http://chronicle.com/article/What-Theyre-Reading-on/124990/

"The Chronicle's list of best-selling books was compiled from information supplied by stores serving the following campuses: American U., Drew U., Florida State U., George Washington U., Georgetown U., Georgia State U., Harvard U., James Madison U., Kent State U., Pennsylvania State U. at University Park, San Francisco... State U., Stanford U., State U. of New York at Buffalo, U. of California at Berkeley, U. of Florida, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U. of Miami, U. of Nebraska at Lincoln, U. of North Dakota, U. of North Texas, U. of Oklahoma at Norman, Vanderbilt U., Washington U. in St. Louis, Williams College, Winthrop U., Xavier U. (Ohio)."

10. WSJ.com - Y U Luv Texts, H8 Calls http://on.wsj.com/c448MA

"A recent survey of 2,000 college students asked about their attitudes toward phone calls and text-messaging and found the students' predominant goal was to pass along information in as little time, with as little small talk, as possible. "What they like most about their mobile devices is that they can reach other people," says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C., who conducted the survey. "What they like least is that other people can reach them."