365. 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. Last of 5 Parts: Answers to Your Questions on Applying with a Learning Disability, by Marybeth Kravets: http://nyti.ms/v4UE95 -"In this final installment, Ms. Kravets answers questions on college options for those with autism and pervasive developmental disorders."

3. Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania, Addresses High School Students, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/vREAvS - "One of four female presidents in the Ivy League, she began by describing her own high school experience. She then made a disclosure that seemed to surprise many of her young listeners: she was, she told them, the first in her family to attend college."

4. What Should Penn State Applicants Think? by Jacques Steinberg: http://nyti.ms/vG3nOS -"First, I would caution applicants not to do anything rash. This, after all, is a world-class state university, with highly regarded programs in dozens of disciplines, including those in undergraduate business and engineering. (While I don’t typically steer applicants and their families toward the U.S. News rankings, please consider this moment an exception: it is probably worth noting how high so many Penn State programs place in the annual survey.)"

5. Enrollments tumble at for-profit colleges, by Paul Fain Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vQOY6e via AddThis - "Over the last year or so, most of the major for-profits have changed their view of their target student market, to varying degrees. Companies that previously sought out lesser-prepared students, and made lots of money on them, now believe those students come with regulatory risks that outweigh potential payoffs."

6. Student veterans do better than peers when given support services, by Elizabeth Murphy Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/twxSYI via AddThis - "The study found:

Student veterans were earning an average grade point average of 3.04.

The retention rate from fall 2010 to spring 2011 was 94 percent, above the national average of 75 percent for first- to second-year retention.

About 71 percent of students earned all of the credits they pursued, with an average of 24 credits for the academic year."

7. College Bound: Europe and U.S. Share Vision and Challenge for College Goals, by Caralee Adams - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/11/in_other_international_higher_education.html via @educationweek - "Both the E.U. and U.S. will face shortages of skilled workers unless there is a significant increase in educational attainment. Both have set concrete goals: The E.U. wants 40 percent of its citizens age 30-34 to have college degrees by 2020. The U.S. aims to have 60 percent of its population with postsecondary training or a degree by 2020. And both are experiencing financial pressures that make attaining these new benchmarks difficult."

8. Professor disputes anti-AP film ‘Race to Nowhere’ by Jay Mathews - Class Struggle - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/professor-disputes-anti-ap-film-race-to-nowhere/2011/11/01/gIQA2IsK1M_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost - "Bauerlein was as amazed as I at Abeles’s insistence that schoolwork is ruling children’s lives “across all economic and cultural groups.” He noted that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 15- to 19-year-olds have an average of 5.69 leisure hours a day. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 8- to 18-year-olds spend 7.5 hours a day with entertainment media. A Nielsen survey counted 3,339 text messages a month sent or received by the average 13- to 17-year-old with a cellphone."

9. The GI Bill is Not Enough, by Eric Greitens - http://shar.es/bMJDD - "The fact is, many universities are still not equipped to serve the specific needs of a veteran population. As a result, Veterans register for classes, but with little direction from the school. They lack clarity about how their military experience and schooling can translate into a civilian credential, and then find themselves in programs that are unaligned to their career goals. Many leave without ever obtaining a degree."

328. 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. Students work on big ideas at Harvard's 'hack night' by Steve Kolowich: http://usat.ly/oxOLVh via @USATODAY - "HackHarvard, which is in only its second semester, operates on two premises: that most students cannot turn good ideas into operational apps, nor operational apps into successful businesses, without help; and that there are plenty of good ideas to go around. The club's leaders describe it as an incubator where students can get feedback on their ideas, learn the nuts and bolts of building Web applications, and meet with like-minded peers and potential collaborators."

2. Admissions 2011, by Scott Jaschik - Inside Higher Ed http://bit.ly/n0GFUA via AddThis - "For many colleges, a top goal of admissions directors is recruiting more students who can pay more. Among all four-year institutions, the admissions strategy judged most important over the next two or three years -- driven by high figures in the public sector -- was the recruitment of more out-of-state students (who at public institutions pay significantly more)."

3. Hechinger Report Getting a college degree doesn’t have to break the bank, by Justin Snider: http://bit.ly/qfSwOV via AddThis - "Cutting college costs has thus become a priority across the socioeconomic spectrum. The good news is there are countless ways to save money on college."

4. Universities Seeking Out Students of Means, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/qnrxAJ -"More than half of the admissions officers at public research universities, and more than a third at four-year colleges said that they had been working harder in the past year to recruit students who need no financial aid and can pay full price, according to the survey of 462 admissions directors and enrollment managers conducted in August and early September."

5. Report Profiles Student Veterans Before Passage of New GI Bill - http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/report-profiles-student-veterans-before-passage-of-new-gi-bill/36454 - "Using data from just before the passage of the new GI Bill, the report, “Military Service Members and Veterans: a Profile of Those Enrolled in Undergraduate and Graduate Education in 2007-8,” found that the same proportion of undergraduates and graduate students, 4 percent, were service members or veterans."

6. Turn Middle School Into ‘Boot Camp for Life' by Valerie Strauss - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/middle-school/middle-school-as-boot-camp-for.html - "So let’s consider a different kind of education, one that would allow kids to learn skills in unconventional ways and that would give them far more time to engage in physical activity ouside the classroom."

7. Are High Schoolers Prepared for College? New Data Says Only 43% of Class of 2011 is Ready, by Gaston Caperton - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gaston-caperton/sat-college-gpa_b_970737.html?ir=College - "It is particularly fitting that we established the benchmark in a year when the SAT reached a record 1.65 million students -- many of whom are traditionally underserved -- and only 43 percent of them met the benchmark. After analyzing the results of a diverse group of students from more than 100 institutions all over the country, we set the national SAT benchmark at a composite score of 1550. That means, if a student's critical reading, math and writing scores add up to at least 1550, they have a 65 percent chance of earning a B-minus average their first year in college. Not to mention that students who meet the new SAT benchmark are more likely to enroll in, succeed at, and graduate from college."

8. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories about college access and success, via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

9. Youngstown schools celebrate academic progress, by Denise Dick - http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/sep/21/youngstown-schools-celebrate-academic-pr/ via Vindicator - "Superintendent Connie Hathorn acknowledges the city school system has much work to do to improve student achievement. “We got beat up for celebrating that we’re in academic watch,” Hathorn told about 200 school district employees and supporters at the Covelli Centre on Tuesday. “I’m not happy about that, but we made progress.” The district moved from academic emergency, the lowest designation, on the last two state report cards to academic watch on the one released last month."

298. 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. Suicide attempts higher for veterans on campus, by Sharon Jayson - http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/mentalhealth/story/2011/08/Suicide-attempts-higher-for-veterans-on-campus/49808298/1 - "Nearly half (46%) of the 415 men and 110 women studied reported having had suicidal thinking sometime in their lives; 20% had suicidal thoughts with a plan. That compares to 2010 data from the American College Health Association, which showed 6% of college students reported seriously considering suicide."

3. Degrees of Wealth, by Steve Kolowich - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/r2wcRp - "But notwithstanding the apparent persistence of racial and gender-based handicaps, “obtaining a postsecondary credential is almost always worth it” for everyone, the researchers say. Broadly, people with associate degrees would typically earn around $1.7 million over their lives; those with professional degrees would earn $3.6 million. The degrees in between -- bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral (in that order) -- make up pretty even steps, each worth about $400,000 more than the last."

4. Tackling Urban Inequalities, by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/qVQfEz - “When we look at poverty rates, graduation rates, crime rates, employment rates, one thing stands out,” Bloomberg said at the press conference. “Blacks and Latinos are not fully sharing in the promise of American freedom, and far too many are trapped in circumstances that are difficult to escape from.”

5. When it Comes to Earnings, Higher Education Isn't the Whole Story, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Pays-but-So-Does/128526/ - "Within each occupation, like health professionals or sales and office workers, the more education a person has, the more that person is likely to earn. But some occupations pay better than others, so less-educated workers in them can earn more than more-educated workers in a different line of work. That finding echoes the center's report on college majors, since college major is closely tied to occupation."

6. Smart college shopping saves time, money and the environment, by Oliver St. John and Jayne O'Donnell: http://t.co/t6bKTeq via @USATODAY - ". . . Parents and students plan to spend an average of $808.71 on apparel, electronics, dorm furnishings and food items this year, down from $835.73 last year, according to a National Retail Federation survey by consumer intelligence firm BIGresearch."

7. A conversation: Kopp, West, Smiley on Teach for America, by Valerie Strauss - The Answer Sheet - http://t.co/zcFut19 via @washingtonpost - "I think of the degree to which we still put such low value on the lives and the opportunities for poor and working class kids of all colors, disproportionately black, brown and red. . . . It’s a moral disgrace when you look at the schools in our urban areas. Not just black, but brown and white poor and so forth."

8. Unigo Expert Network: Best Jobs for College Students - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/unigo/unigo-expert-network-best_b_918965.html - "College students being strapped for cash is no surprise, but it does beg the question of what jobs make the best fits for students? Should students make as much money as they can and graduate with as little debt as possible - or - take on internships or lower paying positions in their field of interest?"

9. The 10 Colleges With The Best Dorms - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/the-10-colleges-with-the-_n_919218.html#s322931&title=Bryn_Mawr_College - "Dorms are notoriously spartan, cinderblock affairs. However, some colleges definitely have better living quarters than others. According to the Princeton Review, Pennsylvania liberal arts college Bryn Mawr has the best dorms in the country, followed closely by Maryland's Loyola University. Check out our slide show of the colleges with the best dorms.

10. 7 Tools to Aid the College Admissions Process, by Ryan Lytle - US News and World Report - http://t.co/ORmUWFQ - "As technology advances, digital tools have become more prevalent in making this life-altering process more manageable. Here are just a few of those tools available to students and parents:"

151. 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 'Real World' Skills You Acquire During the Admissions Process, by Ann Derry - http://nyti.ms/fXKjFn

"In short, applying for college isn’t just a hideous process to be endured. It is excellent preparation for the rest of your life — a step into the “adult world” when you acquire basic skills like writing a résumé, setting goals, doing research, organizing your thoughts and your time, persevering to get what you want, following through."

2. The President Just Saved You $2,500 In Tuition, by Kalpen Modi - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kalpen-modi/the-president-just-saved-_b_794952.html?ir=College

‎"Political pundits and talk show hosts who have reported on the tax deal (which includes extending tax breaks for all Americans) have overlooked the president's fierce advocacy on this issue of college affordability and have even suggested that he has made a deal that ignores young people. This couldn't be further from the truth."

3. The BEST Gifts For College Students - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/10/student-gift-guide_n_794694.html#s203192

"Below, check out our top picks for student gifts this holiday season, as well as some suggestions offered by HuffPost readers."

4. Are Ivy League Professors Good Teachers? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/natO40I

"When I recently wrote a post on the 25 colleges and universities with the best professors, none of the Ivy League schools made the list. In fact, the eight Ivy League schools were nowhere to be seen even among the top 100 schools on the best professor list."

5. China’s Army of Graduates Faces Struggle, by Andrew Jacobs - http://nyti.ms/eMPsYd

“College essentially provided them with nothing,” said Zhang Ming, a political scientist and vocal critic of China’s education system. “For many young graduates, it’s all about survival. If there was ever an economic crisis, they could be a source of instability.”

6. Students Know Good Teaching When They Get It, Survey Finds, by Sam Dillon - http://nyti.ms/fxurdm

"Classrooms where a majority of students said they agreed with the statement, “Our class stays busy and doesn’t waste time,” tended to be led by teachers with high value-added scores, the report said. The same was true for teachers whose students agreed with the statements, “In this class, we learn to correct our mistakes,” and, “My teacher has several good ways to explain each topic that we cover in this class.”
The questionnaires were developed by Ronald Ferguson, a Harvard researcher who has been refining student surveys for more than a decade."

7. Education Secretary Arne Duncan Rethinks His Goals, by Sam Dillon - http://nyti.ms/eEQQi6

"But with Republican deficit hawks taking control of the House next month, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will no longer have billions of dollars to use at his discretion."

8. Online And For-Profit Colleges Face Aid Audits by Education Dept, by Goldie Blumenstyk - http://chronicle.com/article/OnlineFor-Profit-Colleges/125705/

"The department, which has been beefing up the compliance-office staffing in its Office of Federal Student Aid, expects to conduct about 300 program reviews of student-aid operations next year, in contrast to about 200 this year."

9. Is an internship the new entry-level job? by Natalie Avon - http://bit.ly/glFFX7 #cnn

"Full-time employment has dropped 9 percentage points among 18-to-29-year-olds since 2006, leaving only 41 percent of millennials with full-time jobs, according to "Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next," a report released by Pew Research Center in February. These statistics hit home for the 1.5 million students preparing to graduate with a bachelor's degree."

10. Kick start: College in High School, by Virginia Shank - Tribune Chronicle - Warren, OH - http://t.co/nCTZOj1

"YSU initiated its College in High School program in 2007 with a handful of area school districts through a grant from the state education department's Educational Service Centers. The purpose was to encourage dual enrollment classes in math and science for high school students. YSU started by offering calculus in six Mahoning County districts, but the university expanded the program to include school districts in Trumbull County as well. This year some 27 in the area are participating, explained Marla Carano, program coordinator at YSU."

11. Souring on Business? by Dan Berrett - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/i04XGn

‎"But as the current economic downturn drags on and hiring continues to lag, interest in business among undergraduates appears to be static, even flagging in some circles, according to federal and college data and a nationwide survey of incoming freshmen."

12. A Lack of Leadership, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/ec9Ne6

"For too long, policymakers and higher education leaders have engaged in a 'we need to change, but you go first' conversation," the three write. "Meanwhile, costs have skyrocketed, attainment has stagnated, and the public has grown skeptical. Failing to act will not result in catastrophic failure in American higher education, but a slow and steady erosion of confidence, investment, and quality."

13. Shortage of Math and Science Graduates Is a Myth, by Walt Gardner - http://t.co/K0ouJ3g

"A record 49,562 doctorate degrees were awarded in the 2008-09 academic year, representing a 1.6 percent increase over the 2007-08 year. According to the foundation, the growth was largely due to increases in the number of degrees in science and engineering. In 2009, 67.5 percent of all doctorates were in these two fields, a 1.9 percent increase over the previous academic year. Yet despite this growth, companies continue to insist that they need to recruit abroad because of a shortage domestically. The more likely explanation is that they prefer looking overseas because H1-B visa holders are willing to work for below-market wages."

14. No Jobs? Young Graduates Make Their Own, by Hannah Seligson - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/business/12yec.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=homepage&src=me&adxnnlx=1292245263 -

"In October, Mr. Gerber started the Young Entrepreneur Council “to create a shift from a résumé-driven society to one where people create their own jobs,” he says. “The jobs are going to come from the entrepreneurial level.”

15. Colleges Lock Out Blind Students Online, by Marc Parry - http://chronicle.com/article/Blind-Students-Demand-Access/125695/

"Roughly 75,000 students at colleges and trade schools are visually impaired, according to Education Department figures. Barriers to access could deny them equal learning opportunities. And colleges are finding that the problems are lawsuit bait, generating litigation and complaints."

16. Senator concerned about colleges' treatment of vets, by Mary Beth Merklein - http://usat.ly/hSmWQB - RT @USATODAY

"The report found soaring enrollments — and revenue — at 30 for-profit colleges by students whose education is covered by the Defense Department or by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, passed by Congress in 2008 to ensure that Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans could attend college at no cost. Enrollments increased from 23,766. in 2006 to 109,167. last year and reached 100,702. by the first half of this year."

17. When Will Black Churches Start Their Own Schools? by RiShawn Biddle - http://dropoutnation.net/2010/12/10/black-churches-start-schools/

"If education is truly the most-important civil rights issue of this era, it means that black churches must play their part in ensuring that every child in the pews and communities they serve are educated in cultures of geniuses. It is as important for them to step up and embrace school reform as it was for them to combat Jim Crow segregation fifty years ago. For these churches, they can learn this important lesson from another civil rights movement — the effort by Catholics to receive equal treatment in public schools: You must take education into your own hands and start your own schools for the children in your flock."

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150. 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. Gunfight at the For-Profit Corral, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/ghlBJV

"The damaging information in the GAO report knocked career college officials back on their heels, giving credence to Democratic politicians' assertions that "bad actors" in the sector needed significantly more regulation, and implying (because the inquiry uncovered problems at all 15 of the colleges visited) that there might actually be a lot of tainted players. The report's release also, not unimportantly to some observers, drove down the companies' stock prices sharply."

2. An Unequal Burden, by Dan Berrett - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/hd06eL

“Divorced or separated parents contributed significantly less than married parents -- in absolute dollars, as a proportion of their income, and as a proportion of their children’s financial need,” Ruth N. López Turley, associate professor of sociology at Rice University, and Matthew Desmond, a junior fellow at Harvard University, say in their article, “Contributions to College Costs by Married, Divorced, and Remarried Parents.”

3. Unconventional Wisdom, by Jack Stripling - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/fzbfFE

"The paper lays out in stark detail one of higher education’s most vexing questions: How is it that a nation can spend more than it did 20 years ago on postsecondary education, admit more students to college, and still have stagnant if not worsening completion rates? Perhaps, the authors argue, it’s because colleges invest in what sounds good instead of figuring out what works well."

4. For-Profit Colleges Cash In On Veterans, by Chris Kirkham - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/vets-enrollment-in-forpro_n_794555.html?ir=College

"A report released today by the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has been examining aggressive recruitment practices and high student loan default rates in the burgeoning for-profit education industry over the past several months, shows the share of their revenue coming from veterans has increased fivefold from 2008 to 2010."

5. Public Blames Graduation Rates On College Students: Poll - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/public-blames-grad-rates-_n_794255.html

"The AP-Stanford University poll also shows that people mostly blame students and their parents for poor college graduation rates. And they give high marks to all sectors of American higher education including for-profit colleges, despite recent criticism of dubious recruiting tactics, high student loan default rates and other problems at some schools. Asked where the blame lies for graduation rates at public four-year -year colleges, 7 in 10 said students shouldered either a great deal or a lot of it, and 45 percent felt that way about parents. Between about a quarter and a third blamed college administrators, professors, teachers, unions, state education officials and federal education officials."

6. The Highest-Paid College Football Coaches - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/the-highest-paid-college-football-coaches_n_794387.html#s202436

"Below, see the 13 highest-paid football coaches based on their total compensation (some coaches are afforded lucrative maximum bonuses, which can increase their salary package by hundreds of thousands of dollars.) Check out USA Today for the full list."

7. Virginia Tech Violated Clery Act In 2007 Mass Shooting, by Dena Potter - http://huff.to/i6f6fn Huffpost

"Virginia Tech's failure to issue timely warnings about the serious and ongoing threat deprived its students and employees of vital, time-sensitive information and denied them the opportunity to take adequate steps to provide for their own safety," the report stated."

8. Poverty affected U.S. PISA scores, by Stephen Krashen - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/research/how-poverty-affected-us-pisa-s.html

"But data available now tells us that poverty, as usual, had a huge impact on PISA reading test scores for American students. American students in schools with less than 10% of students on free and reduced lunch averaged 551, higher than the overall average of any OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] country. Those in schools with 10% to 25% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch averaged 527, which was behind only Korea and Finland. In contrast, American students in schools with 75% or more of children in poverty averaged 446, second to last among the 34 OECD countries."

9. Key Senator Raises Concerns on Veterans' Benefits to For-Profit Colleges, by Kelly Field -http://chronicle.com/article/Harkin-Questions-Flow-of/125677/

"According to the report, one reason for-profit colleges focus on veterans and service members is because their tuition benefits can count as a nonfederal source of money, helping the colleges remain eligible for other sources of student aid. Over the past five years, veteran and military tuition benefits flowing to 20 of the largest for-profit colleges grew about 700 percent, from $66.6-million in 2006 to a projected $521.2-million in 2010, says the report.
In the conference call, Mr. Harkin said it "makes no sense" that tuition benefits aren't counted toward the federal share of the 90-10 formula."

10. U. of Phoenix Gives Students’ Academic Progress - http://chronicle.com/blogs/measuring/u-of-phoenix-reports-on-students-academic-progress/27584

"In 2009, the proportion of Phoenix students completing an associate degree within three years of enrolling was 23 percent, down from 26 percent the year before. Among bachelor’s degree students, the six-year completion rate was 34 percent, versus 36 percent the previous year."

11. Jonathan Curtiss, Boise State U., as told to Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/article/Say-Something-A-Students/125656/

In this video, hear from a student about his decision--including the role his church played--to leave South Central L.A. to attend Boise State U.

12. Urban Education: The State of Urban Schooling at the Start of 21st Century, by Martin Haberman - http://www.educationnews.org/ed_reports/104105.html

"Since 1962 the achievement gap between disadvantaged populations and more affluent ones has widened. At one extreme urban school districts graduate half or fewer of their students. (Arbanas, 2001) At the other extreme 11% of American students are now among the top 10 percent of world achievers. “If you’re in the top economic quarter of the population, your children have a 76% chance of getting through college and graduating by age 24. . . . If you’re in the bottom quarter, however, the figure is 4 %.” (Loeb, 1999) White students’ achievement in reading, math and science ranks 2nd, 7th and 4th when compared with students worldwide. Black and Hispanic students however rank 26, 27th and 27th on these basic skills. (Bracey, 2002)

13. Half of pupils on free school meals can't read, by Richard Garner - Education News, Education - The Independent http://ind.pn/hDuf6u

"These figures reveal that our education system is letting down half of all 10 and 11-year-old boys who qualify for free school meals," said Schools minister Nick Gibb."

• 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


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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."

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1. Analyzing salaries for Football Bowl Subdivision coaches http://usat.ly/22JgPq

‎"USA TODAY obtained at least some information on all but nine schools, most of which are private. Four public schools did not provide contracts; 17 did not provide the NCAA-mandated outside income report, which covers athletically related income the coach receives from non-university sources (e.g. support organization, apparel contracts). Schools that provided contract information were given the opportunity to review their figures. A not available (NA) in the chart denotes schools that are private or did not release the information or schools whose coaches are new and had not filed an outside income report."

2. Encouraging Deep Learning - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/bEGCoi

"The authors of this year’s survey argue that the percentages of students who reported that they engaged “often or very often” in “deep learning” activities indicate that community colleges must do a better job of promoting them in the classroom if they hope to boost student performance. Only 43 percent of students reported that they “included diverse perspectives (different races, religions, genders, political beliefs, etc.) in class discussions.” Forty-five percent noted they “learned something that changed [their] viewpoint about an issue or concept.” Fifty-six percent stated that they “put together ideas or concepts from different courses when completing assignments or during class discussions” and “examined the strengths or weaknesses of [their] own views on a topic or issue.” Finally, only 57 percent reported that they “tried to better understand someone else’s view by imagining how an issue looks from his or her perspective."

3. Executives Collect $2 Billion at For-Profit Colleges http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=am_MEK7XWQr0

"Strayer Education Inc., a chain of for-profit colleges that receives three-quarters of its revenue from U.S. taxpayers, paid Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Silberman $41.9 million last year. That’s 26 times the compensation of the highest-paid president of a traditional university. Top executives at the 15 U.S. publicly traded for-profit colleges, led by Apollo Group Inc. and Education Management Corp., also received $2 billion during the last seven years from the proceeds of selling company stock, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show. At the same time, the industry registered the worst loan-default and four-year-college dropout rates in U.S. higher education. Since 2003, nine for-profit college insiders sold more than $45 million of stock apiece. Peter Sperling, vice chairman of Apollo’s University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit college, collected $574.3 million. Education corporations, which receive as much as 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial-aid programs, are “private enterprise that’s almost entirely publicly funded,” Henry Levin, director of Columbia University’s National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, said in a telephone interview."

4. 10 Issues Affecting Student Veterans - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/10-issues-affecting-stude_n_782049.html#s177524

"For a veteran, making the transition from military life to college life can be especially difficult. Beyond the stresses of the classroom, veterans must cope with a host of other issues, from anxiety disorders to simply feeling like they fit in. The Washington Post offers a list of what colleges can do to better support their student veterans -- and below, we outline ten issues affecting the men and women who've gone from the service to campus."

5. Some simple rules for managing student loans, by Michelle Singletary - http://t.co/fYPPSVQ via @washingtonpost

"For years, I've written, talked and generally fussed about the way people handle their money. Yet it never - and I mean never - ceases to amaze me how people borrow money with so little understanding about how much they owe and how long it will take to pay it back. And the worst are borrowers who take out loans for college. So what should you do if your grace period is coming to an end this month? Here are some suggestions from the Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit independent research and policy organization. You can find all 10 of its tips at http://bit.ly/avNe7V:"

6. Thousands Of UK Students Protest Tuition Fees Hike - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/10/thousands-of-uk-students-_n_781493.html#s179091

‎"Organizers said 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters demonstrated against plans to raise the cost of studying at a university to 9,000 pounds ($14,000) a year – three times the current rate – in the largest street protest yet against the government's sweeping austerity measures."

7. Is Any University President Worth $42 Million Dollars? by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/uDePJNY

‎"According to Bloomberg, that’s what Robert Silberman, the chair and chief executive officer of Strayer Education Inc., a chain of for-profit colleges, pocketed last year.The for-profit colleges that Silberman oversees enroll roughly 54,000 students, which is the same number of students as Ohio State University. Gordon Gee, Ohio State’s president, whom Time Magazine named one of the nation’s 10 best college president in 2009, is the highest paid president of any public university. Gee’s salary and compensation exceeds $1 million.$114,794-a-Day Pay???Silberman’s pay is about 42 times greater than Ohio State’s president. I’m not sure what’s more galling, Silberman’s $114,794-a-day compensation last year or the fact that he must surely believe that he deserves the money."

8. High School Teachers Don't Think Students Are College Ready, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/IVJolVl via @educationweek

While just 31 percent of high school teachers think their graduating seniors are prepared for college, 68 percent of current college students say they were prepared for college coursework during their first year. Still, about 28 percent of students surveyed had to take remedial classes to get up to speed. Other sources, such as the College Board, put that number as high as 40 percent.What then should high schools do to get students on a solid footing for college careers? Teachers want more data to help them better measure how well their students do in college so they can adjust coursework accordingly."

9. University Giving Falls, With No Rebound in Sight, by Geraldine Fabrikant - http://nyti.ms/9QBjqd

"But in 2009, giving to 1,027 universities and colleges plummeted 11.9 percent, to $27.85 billion, according to data compiled by the Council for Aid to Education, the greatest single annual decline since the Depression. Fund-raising advisers and experts anticipate a slow recovery. Indicators are that overall giving for fiscal 2010 may be flat; data for the year, which generally ended June 30, is not available yet. A handful of institutions have already released their numbers. At Harvard, for example, giving was down 1 percent, to $596 million, and Yale also had a slight decline. Chicago was up 1 percent, and for the University of Texas, Austin, giving rose more than 3 percent."

10. Community Colleges Must Focus on Quality of Learning, Report Says, by Sara Lipka - http://chronicle.com/article/Community-Colleges-Must-Focus/125344/

"Community-college students also do not use support services to the extent they may need to, the report says. Nineteen percent of entering students were unaware that their college had an orientation program, and 26 percent didn't know about financial-aid advising, according to the report. Seventy percent were familiar with writing, math, or other skill labs, and 72 percent knew about academic advising, but 65 percent and 47 percent, respectively, never used those services. Many of those students drop out of college. According to the report, only 28 percent of first-time, full-time students seeking an associate degree finished a certificate or a degree within three years. After six years, still fewer than half (45 percent) of students who enrolled in community college to earn a certificate or degree had met that goal."

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1. When Listing Extracurricular Activities, No Need To Fill All Blanks, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/bqSxIL

"Here’s how Monica C. Inzer, the dean of admissions at Hamilton College in New York and a member of the Common Application board, put it: We’d rather see depth than a longer list. I think students think we want well-rounded kids. We do. But we really want a well-rounded class. That could be lots of people who have individual strengths. Distinction in one area is good, and better than doing a lot of little things."

2. The Rise of the 'Edupunk' - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/9azAXt

“We're still trying to fit the Web into our educational paradigm. I just don't think that's going to work,” said Mary Spilde, president of Lane Community College, in Eugene, Ore. Today's students are “pretty bored with what we do,” she added. In a notable acknowledgment of the tail wagging the dog, several panelists alluded here to the possibility that if colleges don't change the way they do business, then students will change the way colleges do business.College leaders don't yet know how to credential the knowledge students are gaining on their own, but they may soon have to, said Mark David Milliron, deputy director for postsecondary improvement at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We are not far from the day when a student, finding unsatisfactory reviews of a faculty member on ratemyprofessors.com, will choose to take a class through open courseware online and then ask his home institution to assess him, Milliron said. Colleges need to prepare for that reality, he said."

3. When Social Media Is Irrelevant - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/bW8sTL

"In an admittedly limited study of 65 students (mostly from graduate programs) -- presented Thursday to a packed room here at the Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning -- university officials discovered that the students cared mainly that their instructors clearly communicated the expectations and requirements for a class and responded in a timely manner to their questions. They cared less about getting to know their classmates, looking at instructor profiles, having real-time chat sessions, and simulating face-to-face communication with video. Also, students who had previous experience learning online were more likely to be relatively indifferent toward social intimacy with their instructors and classmates. The notion that “social presence” might help with retention in online programs has prompted vendors to infuse their online learning platforms with more social media tools, particularly synchronous text- and video-chat features."

4. Veterans who go back to school want more support, by Jenna Johnson - http://t.co/XTPoFI4

"Researchers with the National Survey of Student Engagement interviewed nearly 11,000 student veterans who were first-year students or seniors at four-year schools. The veterans reported interacting less with their instructors than did classmates who had not enlisted, and they were less likely to partake in educational opportunities such as internships or study abroad. The Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research produces the survey each year to measure how students and faculty interact and learn. The latest, results of which will be released Thursday, found that colleges should "seek ways to more effectively engage student veterans in effective educational practices and provide them with the supportive environments that promote success."

5. Banks Spend $83 Million to Promote Student Credit Card Use, by Scott Gamm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-gamm/banks-spend-83-million-to_b_778709.html

‎"According to a new report released by the Fed, credit card issuers paid a whopping $83,462,712 to colleges, universities and institutions of higher education to promote student credit cards. As a result of this $83 million+ spent, credit card issuers gained an extra 53,164 college credit card accounts in 2009. Let me get this straight: $83 million was spent to encourage college students to open up credit card accounts, which allow students to spend beyond their means and rack up huge amounts of credit card debt (the average per student is over $4,100, according to Sallie Mae). You may think that college students use credit cards for books and groceries. But when 50% of college students have 4 credit cards or more, according to Sallie Mae, it's hard to believe that only necessities are being charged on their credit cards! Irresponsible credit card use in college will not only ruin the credit score of students, but it will instill poor spending habits for years to come."

6. College Applications Continue to Increase. When Is Enough Enough? by Eric Hoover - http://nyti.ms/dARwf9

"For this fall’s freshman class, the statistics reached remarkable levels. Stanford received a record 32,022 applications from students it called “simply amazing,” and accepted 7 percent of them. Brown saw an unprecedented 30,135 applicants, who left the admissions staff “deeply impressed and at times awed.” Nine percent were admitted. The biggest boast came from the University of California, Los Angeles. In a news release, U.C.L.A. said its accepted students had “demonstrated excellence in all aspects of their lives.” Citing its record 57,670 applications, the university proclaimed itself “the most popular campus in the nation.”

7. Education Department to Review U. of Phoenix’s Federal Student Aid http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/education-dept-to-review-u-of-phoenixs-federal-student-aid/28111

"Phoenix, like many for-profit colleges, relies heavily on federal student aid, and its prediction last month that by 2011 such aid would exceed 90 percent of its revenue—breaking a federal threshold—helped send the company’s stock price into a tailspin. According to recently released data from the department, last year Phoenix took in $1-billion in federal Pell Grants, the first institution, for-profit or otherwise, to receive that much."

8. NCAA Puts U. of Michigan on Probation for Rules Violations in Football Program

http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/ncaa-puts-u-of-michigan-on-probation-for-rules-violations-in-football-program/27703

"The Division I Committee on Infractions announced its decision in the closely watched case Thursday afternoon, when it released a 29-page report detailing the allegations—and sanctions—against head coach Rich Rodriguez’s football program. In addition to placing the institution on probation, the committee also upheld Michigan’s self-imposed penalty that would reduce the amount of practice time allotted to its football team through the end of the 2011-12 academic year. In the report, the NCAA faulted Rodriguez for allowing his program to run afoul of the association’s rules in several areas, including the number of coaches he had on staff and the amount of practice time athletes were required take part in. The NCAA also said the head coach—as well as the athletic department at large—failed to monitor the football program, and directed Rodriguez to participate in an upcoming seminar about NCAA rules."

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1. Your College Major May Not Be As Important As You Think, by Zac Bissonnette - http://nyti.ms/atSuAa

"A University of Texas at Austin professor, Daniel Hamermesh, researched career earnings data sorted by choice of major and concluded that: Perceptions of the variations in economic success among graduates in different majors are exaggerated. Our results imply that given a student’s ability, achievement and effort, his or her earnings do not vary all that greatly with the choice of undergraduate major. A study conducted by PayScale Inc. found that history majors who pursued careers in business ended up earning, on average, just as much as business majors."

2. Veterans, Less Engaged but Satisfied - Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/7N0QQKM

"The veterans are predominantly male and more likely than non-veterans to be "older, enrolled part-time, first-generation students, transfer students, and distance learners." Also, they are twice as likely as non-veterans to report "at least one disability." Finally, veterans are less likely to attend what the survey deems "baccalaureate arts and sciences colleges" and "the most research-intensive doctorate-granting universities" than their peers. Most enroll in medium and large master's degree-granting institutions. Despite the fact that they spend as much time studying as their non-veteran peers, veterans do not "participate equally in other forms of engagement," even when the surveyors statistically control for certain demographic traits and institutional characteristics. For instance, freshman and senior veterans reported that they are "less engaged with faculty" and perceive "less campus support" than non-veterans."

3. 11 Best-Value Liberal Arts Colleges: Kiplinger List http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/03/best-value-liberal-arts-kiplinger_n_777108.html

‎"Kiplinger relied on data from Peterson's, whittling down its final lists down from 600 schools and reviewing each for value based on quality, competitiveness and cost, among other factors.Below, check out the 11 best values in liberal arts colleges, and see the Kiplinger website for a sortable lis of schools, which includes a complete data profile for each college. Does your school rank? Share your thoughts and reactions below."

4. Internships: Opportunity or Obstacle for Low-Income Students? by Michael Laracy - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-laracy/internships-gateway-to-op_b_777951.html

"But many internships today create or perpetuate serious inequalities, especially for students from families of modest means. Because so many internships are unpaid, the current system favors students from wealthier families. Unpaid internships require students to forego wages and finance a living without a paycheck, putting them out of reach for many low-income students."

5. College Admission Cheat Sheet: 8 Things Seniors Need To Do Now, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/Ra1KDw0

"To help keep your sanity during these hectic weeks, here’s a college admission cheat sheet that includes eight things you should be be doing now:"

6. Tax-Credit Changes Could Broaden Access to College, by Caralee Adams - http://t.co/kdFoNFP

‎"Last year, the federal stimulus package gave families a welcome break with the creation of the American Opportunity Tax Credit. This temporarily replaced and expanded the Hope Credit from the 1990s. Now families can claim a $2,500 credit, instead of $1,800—and claim it for four years instead of two. The credit also applies to course-related expenses, such as books and supplies rather than just tuition and fees. The AOTC also made the credit partially refundable—allowing low- and moderate-income families to receive a credit of up to $1,000. This means that families could get an upfront payment, regardless of whether they had a tax liability. To expand access to more low-income students, Huelsman proposes the credit be fully refundable and allow families to use that money to invest in 529 college-savings plans when the child enters 8th grade. This way, families could seed accounts with tax credits and have four years to build up their balances before their child enters college."

7. Major & Veteran Status Affect Students' Experience in College, Survey Finds - by Sara Lipka http://chronicle.com/article/Choice-of-MajorVeteran/125254/

‎"The report examines what it calls educationally purposeful activities and high-impact practices, finding that they vary significantly by major. About half of all seniors, for example, participate in service learning, but three-quarters of nursing and physical-education majors do. One-third of students complete a senior project, whereas half of history and political-science majors do. And half of all seniors have held internships, compared with three in four education and journalism majors and two in five accounting and business-administration majors. Business-administration students, according to the report, do more class presentations and group projects but are less likely to discuss career plans with faculty than students in three other popular majors: biology, English, and psychology. English majors most often discuss ideas with professors outside class, and psychology majors are most likely to engage in "reflective learning. . . ."

8. As Late as April, Students Choosing a College Still Think of Stretching to Pay -http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/even-in-april-plans-to-stretch-to-pay-for-college/27664

"Richard A. Hesel, a principal of the Art & Science Group, said he was consistently surprised by how unrealistic students and families can be about college costs.That families are willing to stretch to pay for college can be a retention risk, Mr. Hesel said. “Institutions have to work much harder to monitor what’s going on with students and stay in touch.”The students who responded in April were more likely to have discussed the cost of college with their parents than those surveyed in the winter, and they were more likely to have considered net cost. But they still did not have a sense of what their education might cost in the long run: Nearly 40 percent said they had “no idea” what their likely monthly payment on student loans would be after graduation."

9. Bridge Programs for Underprepared Adults Could Improve College Completion, by Jennifer Gonzalez http://chronicle.com/article/Bridge-Programs-for/125260/

"Fifty-seven percent of adults in bridge programs possess educational skills below the 10th-grade level, with 19 percent having skills below the sixth-grade level. Sixty-seven percent of survey respondents said people who complete their programs are likely to enroll in further education or training within six months. Sixty percent of respondents report that they structure their programs in a "learning by doing" format. By 2018, the report said, two-thirds of the jobs in the American economy will require a postsecondary credential. At the same time, says the National Commission on Adult Literacy, 80 million to 90 million adult workers have low basic skills and are not prepared for those jobs because they lack a high-school degree or its equivalent. Low-skilled adults represent a huge potential reservoir of workers to meet the future work-force needs of employers, Mr. Alssid said."

10. Will John Boehner Be Good for Education? by Andrew J. Rotherham http://bit.ly/aLjB73

"As a result of his policy initiatives, Boehner is well regarded by many in the education community. Though he started his career as a bomb-thrower, he evolved into someone even Democrats describe as a sincere legislator interested in practical solutions to education problems. He's "very adult, in the sense that he's a tough negotiator, but he realized always where he needed to find middle ground and was willing to reach that middle ground after making his case," observes Charlie Barone, a former top education aide to George Miller, the current chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. Boehner headed that committee from 2001 to 2006, and his rise to chairman highlights his formidable political skills and tenacity — he'd been booted out of the House leadership in the 1990s."

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1. Not the ‘Hook’ the Admissions Office Had in Mind, by Dave Marcus - http://nyti.ms/aH72IT

"Mark Hatch was reading applications for Bates College in Maine one weekend a few years ago when he became intrigued by a student’s essay about fishing. Turning the page, Mr. Hatch felt a sharp pain — and realized that the student had attached an actual hook. After a trip to the emergency room and several stitches, Mr. Hatch finished reading the essay. Now a vice president at Colorado College, Mr. Hatch has the scar to prove that he did, in fact, admit a student with a hook."

2. No Excuses, Mr. President, by Marc Bousquet - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/99V2gr

"President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan's plans for higher education are evident in their attraction to community colleges. All of the features that most educators deplore about community colleges are what the current administration likes about them: top-down control of curriculum, disposable instructors, automated courseware, a training model of education, and management highly responsive to local employers. Their ambitions for publicly-funded higher education are closely parallel to their commitments in the schools: more automation, a standardized national curriculum, and centralization of control with an intensified assessment regime. Higher education has been slow to pick up on these threats, but national polls show that most Americans already clearly understand the difference between raising test scores and actually improving education."

3. For-Profit Schools, Tested Again, by Gretchen Morgenson - http://nyti.ms/9adClc

"Apollo’s facilities offer flexible-degree programs for people (“working learners,” it calls them) who have jobs or other obligations that keep them from attending school full-time. The University of Phoenix, by far the largest of the company’s institutions, offers both online and on-campus classes. It operates in 39 states. A majority of Apollo’s revenue comes from federal student aid. The University of Phoenix, which accounted for 91 percent of Apollo’s net revenue this year, gets the bulk of its own revenue from Title IV programs. Just 1 percent of cash revenue at the University of Phoenix comes from student loans that aren’t channeled through the federal government. Top for-profit colleges like Apollo’s received $26.5 billion in government-funded student aid in 2009, the Department of Education says. Because taxpayers are on the hook if these loans go bad, it is high time that regulators increased their scrutiny of practices at Apollo and other for-profit education companies."

4. Most expensive colleges money.cnn.com/galleries/2010…

‎"1. Connecticut College

New London, Conn.

Tuition & fees (2010-2011): $43,990

Increase from previous year: 3.9%

Total cost including room & board: $53,110"

5. The For-Profit LMS Market - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/byaSqP

"Mining learning-management systems for data has come into fashion among nonprofit colleges relatively recently, but for-profits have been doing it for much longer, says David Harpool, provost and chief academic officer at the for-profit Westwood College. Accrediting bodies and other regulators have always scrutinized for-profits extra closely, Harpool says, so there was a high demand for tools that would log data on student attendance and the degree of activity by students and instructors in the online learning environment — and make the data easy for for-profits to organize and show to accreditors and others by way of proving their legitimacy. For-profits also have a unique interest in by-the-numbers scrutiny of both students and faculty: faculty because the institutions have greater power to fire them based on classroom performance, and students because, as Harpool puts it: “When an average school in the for-profit sector spends between $4,000 and $8,000 to attract each student, . . . ."

6. Kaplan & U.S. Vet - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-01/kaplan-quest-for-profit-at-taxpayer-expense-ensnares-disabled-u-s-veteran.html

"Melvin is among thousands of returning veterans enticed by for-profit colleges through repeated phone calls and e-mails, advertising in military-oriented publications, and alliances with veterans’ organizations eager for corporate contributions. Admissions advisers woo veterans with visions of high-paying jobs and easy access to federal grants. While some veterans succeed at these colleges, others are hindered by red tape in getting federal funding and the inability to complete degrees and find well-paying jobs after graduation. Aggressive recruiting by for-profit colleges leads to low graduation rates, said Donald Overton, executive director of Veterans of Modern Warfare, a service organization in Silver Spring, Maryland, which has 5,000 post-1990 veterans as members. “As long as the recruiters meet their quotas and bring in veterans, their job is done,” Overton said in a telephone interview. “The colleges are lacking support services, and their programs are fast-paced.”

7. For Exposure, Universities Put Courses on Web, by D.D. Guttenplan -http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/world/europe/01iht-educLede01.html?hpw

"M.I.T.’s announcement in 2001 that it was going to put its entire course catalog online gave a jump-start to what has now become a global Open Educational Resources Movement whose goal, said Susan D’Antoni of Athabasca University, in Canada, is “to try to share the world’s knowledge.” Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of Michigan all now offer substantial portions of their courses online. In Britain, the Open University, which has been delivering distance learning for over 40 years, offers free online courses in every discipline on the OpenLearn Web site; the Open University also maintains a dedicated YouTube channel and has often had courses listed on the top 10 downloads at iTunes University. There, students can gain access to beginner courses in French, Spanish and German as well as courses in history, philosophy and astronomy — all free."

8. Tomorrow's College: The classroom of the future. . . , by Marc Parry http://chronicle.com/article/Tomorrows-College/125120/

"As online education goes mainstream, it's no longer just about access for distant learners who never set foot in the student union. Web courses are rewiring what it means to be a "traditional" student at places like Central Florida, one of the country's largest public universities. And UCF's story raises a question for other colleges: Will this mash-up of online and offline learning become the new normal elsewhere, too?Signs suggest yes. The University System of Maryland now requires undergraduates to take 12 credits in alternative learning modes, including online. Texas has proposed a similar rule. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is pushing to have 25 percent of credits earned online by 2015. And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, pointing to UCF as a model, has made blended learning a cornerstone of its new $20-million education-technology grant program. These players pin their hopes on Web classes as a panacea that will expand access, speed up the time spent ...."

9. Mastering the Admissions Essay, by Ellen Gamerman Getting In Unigo unigo.com/articles/maste…

"The Wall Street Journal turned the tables on the presidents of 10 top colleges and universities with an unusual assignment: answer an essay question from their own school’s application."

10. The Case Against College Athletic Recruiting http://bit.ly/bTacyb

"Equally strange, you would discover that some academically elite schools that do not give athletic scholarships—because they are nominally committed to academics over athletics—give away a large portion of their highly competitive admissions slots to athletes, even in the most obscure sports, such as squash. For instance, Williams College, which admits only 17 percent of applicants, recruits 66 athletes per year. That’s 13 percent of the incoming freshman class that is dedicated to third-rate (literally, as Williams plays Division III sports) athletes over first-rate students. Take a look at the NEWSWEEK College Guide and you will find Williams, along with its small-school rivals Middlebury and Bowdoin, and Ivy League members Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Cornell, on our list of the top 25 schools that are “Stocked With Jocks.” You probably would conclude that these American institutions of higher learning have their priorities weirdly out of whack. And you would be right."

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