The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Wall Street Still Holds Allure For Top College Grads

Wall Street’s allure may have dimmed for some of America’s sharpest young minds in recent years, but a quick look at the top ofDartmouth College’s class of 2012 shows that the appeal seems to remain strong. At its commencement on Sunday, Dartmouth recognized four valedictorians who graduated with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. Three are headed to work on Wall Street at major investment banks, and one will go to the giant business consulting firm that advises them. At other top schools, like Harvard and Princeton, finance remains the leading field, though its edge over other sectors has shrunk. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/us/wall-street-appeal-remains-high-with-top-graduates.html?partner=rss&emc=rss 

To Attract New Residents Some Small Cities Are Offering To Help Students Pay Their Loan Debt

In Niagara Falls, N.Y., a man shortly will attempt a daring feat—and he isn't Nik Wallenda: Seth Piccirillo, Niagara Falls' new director of community development, will attempt to lure young professionals to live in his city's beleaguered downtown, which for decades has been hemorrhaging residents--young ones especially. He'll do it, he says, by offering to help them pay down their college loans. Here and there around the U.S.—from rural Kansas to Detroit—communities concerned over shrinking, aging populations are attempting novel experiments to attract the young and zippy. If they're not offering to pay off student loans, they're dangling other incentives aimed at budding professionals. Read more at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/towns-paying-off-student-loan-debts/story?id=16543649#.T9jHPBdfGwC

No Plans For College And No Job Prospects For These High Schoolers

For this generation of young people, the future looks bleak. Only one in six is working full time. Three out of five live with their parents or other relatives. A large majority — 73 percent — think they need more education to find a successful career, but only half of those say they will definitely enroll in the next few years. They are the youth of America, the world’s richest country, who do not have college degrees and aren’t getting them anytime soon. Whatever the sob stories about recent college graduates spinning their wheels as baristas or clerks, the situation for their less-educated peers is far worse. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/business/more-young-americans-out-of-high-school-are-also-out-of-work.html?_r=1&ref=education 

 

Special Offer Provides Incentive For Students To Aim For Four-Year Graduation

At Indiana State University, there’s going to be a new program to help students graduate by offering to cover the costs of their tuition if they need to take a fifth year. The deal sounds too good to be true; and in a way, it can be considered as such. The catch for receiving this incentive is incoming freshmen for fall 2012 have to sign a pledge that they promise to basically do what they’re supposed to do in college in the first place: take 30-32 units a year, talk to their advisor to ensure they’re staying on track, and other stuff that 31 percent probably did out of common sense. Read more at:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2012/05/30/graduate-in-four-years-or-your-fifth-year-is-free

Tech Companies Hit Campus To Recruit Future Tech Stars

On college campuses these days, the top nerds are getting a taste of what it's like to be star jocks. The technology boom has created an acute shortage of engineers and software developers. The industry has responded by taking a page from the playbook of professional sports: identify up and comers early, then roll out the red carpet to lock them up. Read more at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577408431211035166.html?mod=djemWMP_h

The Moral Judgments College Students Attach To Career Choices

Many of these students seem to have a blinkered view of their options. There’s crass but affluent investment banking. There’s the poor but noble nonprofit world. And then there is the world of high-tech start-ups, which magically provides money and coolness simultaneously. But there was little interest in or awareness of the ministry, the military, the academy, government service or the zillion other sectors. In whatever field you go into, you will face greed, frustration and failure. You may find your life challenged by depression, alcoholism, infidelity, your own stupidity and self-indulgence. So how should you structure your soul to prepare for this? Simply working at Amnesty International instead of McKinsey is not necessarily going to help you with these primal character tests. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/opinion/brooks-the-service-patch.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120525

Pay For Public University Presidents Grew Modestly Last Year

Three chief executives of public colleges earned more than $1 million in total compensation during the 2010-11 academic year, according to a survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The median total compensation of the 199 public college presidents surveyed was $421,395, up 2.9 percent from 2009-10, the survey found, while the median base pay, $383,800, increased 1.3 percent. With state financing for public universities dwindling, executive pay has become a volatile issue in some states. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/education/median-compensation-for-public-college-heads-grew-3-in-2010-11.html?_r=1

Reich Tells 2012 Grads That They Are...Well...Screwed

Members of the Class of 2012. As a former secretary of labor and current professor, I feel I owe it to you to tell you the truth about the pieces of parchment you’re picking up today. You’re f*cked. Well, not exactly. But you won’t have it easy. First, you’re going to have a hell of a hard time finding a job. You’re still better off than your friends who didn’t graduate. Read more at:
http://www.nationofchange.org/commencement-address-won-t-be-given-1337443678 

 

Community Colleges And Four-Years Team Up For More Hi-Tech Grads

New Hampshire's community colleges and four-year campuses are working together to turn out more high-tech graduates, promising to double the number in the next 13 years. Last year, the four University System of New Hampshire schools and the 11 community colleges awarded about 8,200 degrees and certificates, including 1,100 degrees in science, technology, engineering or math. Under an agreement signed Tuesday, the latter number would increase by 50 percent by 2020 and double by 2025. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/articles/2012/05/15/nh_colleges_commit_to_increasing_high_tech_grads/

Job Outlook Looking Better For 2012 Grads

The class of 2012 is leaving college with something that many graduates since the start of the Great Recession have lacked: jobs. To the relief of graduating seniors – and their anxious parents – the outlook is brighter than it has been in four years. Campus job fairs were packed this spring and more companies are hiring. Students aren't just finding good opportunities, some are weighing multiple offers. Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/13/2012-college-grads-enter-_0_n_1512709.html#s439957&title=Erin_Dunphy_Ithaca