The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

ACT Presents Strong Challenge To SAT

On the first Saturday in December, thousands of high school students will undergo that American rite called the SAT. A week later thousands more will take the ACT. Despite burgeoning criticism of standardized testing, both exams remain key hurdles for getting into college. The College Board -- which owns the SAT -- and American College Testing -- which owns the ACT -- are now engaged in an undeclared war for market share and mind share. And remarkably, the vaunted, venerable SAT is on the defensive. Not until the last decade did the ACT pose a real challenge to SAT supremacy. Read more at:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/20/news/companies/sat_act_college_tests.fortune/

Are Colleges Trying To Sell Students A Harry Potter Fantasy

I was surprised when many top colleges delivered the same pitch. It turns out, they’re all a little bit like Hogwarts — the school for witches and wizards in the “Harry Potter” books and movies. Or at least, that’s what the tour guides kept telling me. Leaving home and beginning life in a new place is a nerve-racking experience, and nothing seems more reassuring than imagining that college will be the realization of a fantasy world I’ve been imagining since childhood. Obviously colleges have picked up on this. But they’re trying too hard. They’re selling the wrong thing. And my friends and I won’t be fooled. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06edelson.html?_r=2

Preferential Admissions For Men Serves A Purpose

Now we have a new reason to be upset at the admissions preferences. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently announced it would investigate whether women have to meet higher admissions standards at many colleges, especially small private liberal arts colleges that have a hard time attracting men. The question is not whether the admissions bias is happening. (It is.) Rather, it's whether colleges should be pressured to give it up.  It's why colleges admit good but less competitive student athletes or talented musicians. It is why colleges admit students underrepresented in college. Men — white or black or Latino — are underrepresented in college. Read more at:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/12/column-why-men-warrant-a-break-on-college-admissions-.html

Aggressive Recruiting Helps Keep Enrollment Steady

In an economy where money is tight and everyone's looking for a bargain, Florida's most expensive universities are attracting more students than expected. The state's private universities, while battling decreased endowments and budget cuts, have been aggressively recruiting students this past year, even those who might think a $22,000-a-year price tag is out of reach. They're holding open houses to educate prospective students about what they offer. They're limiting tuition increases and offering incentives.Their efforts are showing signs of success. Most of the state's private colleges were able to maintain their enrollments or see modest increases. Read more at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1346447.html

Never Too Early For A Test Preparation Course

Test preparation has long been a big business catering to students taking SATs and admissions exams for law, medical and other graduate schools. But the new clientele is quite a bit younger: 3- and 4-year-olds whose parents hope that a little assistance — costing upward of $1,000 for several sessions — will help them win coveted spots in the city’s gifted and talented public kindergarten classes. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/nyregion/21testprep.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

New Allegations Of Enrollment Abuse At Phoenix

After federal regulators accused the University of Phoenix of systematic enrollment abuses in 2004, the school's parent company paid out nearly $10 million to resolve the allegations. Phoenix allegedly had broken the law by tying recruiters' pay to enrollment numbers, But some of the school's recruiters have continued to use high-pressure, deceptive tactics, according to a dozen current and former students and two former recruiters who spoke to ProPublica and Marketplace as part of a joint investigation. The students said Phoenix counselors misled them about whether credits would transfer to other schools, pretended to befriend them and lied about financial aid. Read more at:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/11/university-phoenix-allegations-enrollment-abuses-persist

School Counselors Overloaded On College Admissions Work

The struggling economy has taken a toll on those directly responsible for advising students about the college admission process. Nearly half of public schools have raised the caseloads of high school counselors this year, compared with last year, with the average increase exceeding 53 students, according to a study by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. In many respects, the report, “2009 State of College Admission,” seeks to quantify the extent of the frenzy engulfing many of today’s college applicants. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/education/20college.html?_r=2&hpw

Next Big Thing Is Segway Campus Tours

The University of Michigan says it will start offering Segway personal transporters for tours of its tech and science-oriented North Campus. The College of Engineering says it acted on student advice and bought 10 of the battery-powered, self-balancing, two-wheeled scooters made by Bedford, N.H.-based Segway Inc. College student affairs director Jeanne Murabito says the Segways will allow visitors to see the sprawling campus more quickly and visit more places. Read more at:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091014/SCHOOLS/910140386/1026/rss06

To Boost Revenue Bring In More Out-Of-State Students

Massachusetts’ financially strapped flagship university plans to aggressively recruit out-of-state students, who pay twice as much in tuition and fees as state residents, to help fund an ambitious effort to boost the college’s academic reputation and elevate its national profile. The number of out-of-state students, who currently make up 20 percent of undergraduates, is expected to roughly double to 6,500 students - or nearly 30 percent of all undergraduates - by 2020. By comparison, out-of-state students account for 35 percent of undergraduates at the University of Michigan. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/10/11/umass_amherst_targets_out_of_staters_to_boost_profile_funding/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Education+news 

The Pros And Cons Of Using Student Blogs

Dozens of colleges — including Amherst, Bates, Carleton, Colby, Vassar, Wellesley and Yale — are embracing student blogs on their Web sites, seeing them as a powerful marketing tool for high school students, who these days are less interested in official messages and statistics than in first-hand narratives and direct interaction with current students. But so far, none of the blogs match the interactivity and creativity of those of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they are posted prominently on the admissions homepage, along with hundreds of responses from prospective applicants — all unedited. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/education/02blogs.html?_r=1&emc=eta1