The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Weighing The Value Of The Best College Education Against Financial Security

My daughters are 15 and 13, and my wife and I have been planning for their college expenses for a while. With just a few years to go, however, it’s starting to feel really serious. Part of these conversations includes the very interesting experience of working through the basic assumptions I’ve made about the value of a great college education compared with the reality of paying for it. On one side of the argument we’ve been taught that getting the best education money can buy is the best investment you can make. On the other side sits the fact that the skyrocketing cost of education can be a major hurdle to the thing that we say we value the most, financial security. Read more at:
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/start-your-college-value-conversation-now/

Ignore The Rankings And Other Advice From College Choice Experts

Last week, The New York Times held its first-ever College Life Fair. The one-day event, which was free to attendees, was held at Navy Pier in Chicago and served as a meeting ground for thousands of high school students and hundreds of colleges and universities, large and small, public and private, domestic and international.The fair also featured speakers who took the stage to offer some of their expert advice. I listened to many of those speakers, and wanted to share some of those tips with readers of The Choice. Read more at: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/new-york-times-college-life-fair/?partner=rss&emc=rss

 

Out-Of-State College Recruiters' Pitch Aimed At Worried California Students

Their pitches were simple and tailored to the audience. Come to my college, the out-of-state recruiters recently told high school students in Lakewood, and you will be taught in small classes and you'll graduate in four years. We'll even throw in a few thousand dollars just for being from California. Their attempt at wooing California high schoolers was a not-so-subtle move in a state whose public universities have been hit with severe budget cuts — $1.6 billion in 10 years — leading to tuition hikes, enrollment caps and fewer courses. Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-out-of-state-20120604,0,4111457.story

End Of Open Admissions At CUNY Creates Demographic Shift

More than a decade after the City University of New York ended open admissions to its four-year colleges, a marked shift has occurred at its top institutions as freshman classes now enter with far better academic credentials and also a different demographic mix. The ethnic changes at CUNY’s top colleges confirm the predictions made during the battle over ending open admissions, one of the city’s most charged political disputes of the 1990s: Proponents said the colleges would rise in status, while opponents said black and Hispanic enrollment would fall. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/nyregion/at-cunys-top-colleges-black-and-hispanic-freshmen-enrollments-drop.html?_r=2&hpw

Students Perform Better In College After Taking A Gap Year

Sam Helderop received an acceptance letter from Michigan's Hope College this spring, but has no intention of going -- at least not in the fall of 2012. The college has allowed him to defer his admission, and Helderop will take a gap year to teach English with the DaLaa project in a remote village in Thailand. higher education experts say that giving students an opportunity to explore the real world helps them mature. And early research reveals that once they restart their academic studies, they actually perform better than those who go straight from high school to college. Read more at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/gap-year-momentum-grows-studies-show-higher-performance/story?id=16339935#.T7JpL-hYun9

Parent Of Prospective Student Asks What College Is For

There’s also a bigger debate raging that hovers over all our concerns. What exactly is a university education for? Is it, narrowly, to ensure a good job after graduation? Or is the point of a university degree to give students a broad and deep humanities education that teaches them how to think and write critically? Or can a college education do both? Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/your-money/career-or-deep-learning-pondering-the-purpose-of-college.html?pagewanted=2&ref=business 

 

Out-Of-State College Students Are One Solution For State Budget Cuts

Pinched by state budget cuts, the University of California system has set its sights on a lesser tapped resource: well-off students from beyond the Golden State. The system accepted nearly twice as many non-California freshmen for this fall as it did two years ago, opening its doors to students willing to pay a premium to attend the state's top universities. UC officials are aggressively courting non-resident students through college fairs and highschool counselors.  The UC Students Association says the push robs in-state students of access and prioritizes affluent families who can afford private-school tuition levels. Read more at:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/03/4461864/uc-looks-beyond-california-to.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/03/4461864/uc-looks-beyond-california-to.html#storylink=cpy

 

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/03/4461864/uc-looks-beyond-california-to.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/03/4461864/uc-looks-beyond-california-to.html#storylink=cpy

Juggling Kids, Jobs And Courses Make It Tough For Women To Return For Degrees

Her story exemplifies an issue that seems unique to Utah and doesn’t bode well for the state’s economic prospects. Facing a range of cultural hurdles, Utah women have not entered or completed college at the same rate as men for years. Just 26 percent of Utah women held a bachelor’s degree in 2008, versus 32 percent for men, according to a 2009 Utah Foundation study. While women are a 55 percent majority of undergraduates nationally, in Utah they are closer to a 45 percent minority. The gender gap in higher education has caught the attention of administrators and policymakers who want to learn why and how to get more women through college. Read more at:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53987346-78/college-utah-women-didn.html.csp

Consumer Groups Critical Of Colleges Over Confusing Acceptance Letters

As many high school seniors face a May 1 deadline to decide where to go to college, families are struggling to understand financial-aid letters, which can be murky and confusing. While the federal government requires banks and mortgage companies to disclose interest rates and total payments on loans, financial- aid letters for college -- which can cost as much as $240,000 for four years -- are unclear about how much families will have to pay. The Education Department, consumer groups and guidance counselors are pushing for a standard format for award letters to make them less confusing. Read more at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-24/colleges-confuse-students-with-letters-offering-aid-that-s-debt.html

For Many Prospective College Students The Waitlist Grows

While no one tracks the number of college applicants nationwide who are wait-listed, admissions experts and high school guidance counselors agree that the ranks have swelled in the last five years. That leaves more students consigned to the halfway house of admissions, where they are unable to celebrate an admission or mourn a denial. The number of schools using waitlists is on the rise, according to the National Association for College Admissions Counseling. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-wait-list-20120423,0,5864844.story