College » Carol J. Carter

The New Reverse Transfer

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The number of students transferring from four-year colleges to 2-year colleges has increased. Some have transferred due to financial hardship during this rough economy. Community colleges are cheaper and class sizes are typically smaller.

Community colleges can be an import stepping stone. It is extremely important to leave with an associateâ€™s degree, because it makes it so much easier if you decide to go back and earn a baccalaureate degree. Reverse transfer students should still graduate with a mindset of success with a track record (4 year and 2 year combined) which show their accomplishments and point to their potential for real contributions in the world of work.

Questions to consider:
1. If youâ€™re still in high school, have you decided what type of college you will go to?
2. Has this article affected your decision?
3. If youâ€™re already in college, does this sound like an advantageous move for you? What will you save financially if you spend four years at a state college versus a community college?

ARTICLE:

February 18, 2009, From the Chronicle of Higher Education, February 18, 2009

Stephanie Jamiot is a community college transfer student, but not the kind one might expect. Instead of following the steady flow of students who move from two-year institutions to four-year institutions, she is one of a growing number of so-called â€œreverse transfersâ€ who leave four-year universities to attend community college.

Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland — Ohio’s largest two-year institution and the one Jamiot currently attends — had an 11 percent increase in the number of â€œreverse transfersâ€ this spring compared to last. These students mostly come from public and private institutions around Ohio. Nationally, the American Association of Community Colleges notes that a third of all two-year students previously attended a four-year institution. The recession has led to surge in community college enrollments this year, and some experts believe these “reverse transfers” are an important and sometimes overlooked portion of that growing student body at two-year institutions.

â€” David Moltz

To view this entire article you must subscribe to http://chronicle.com

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Economic-Stimulus Law Creates Jobs for Students, Too

CAROL’S SUMMARY: President Obama signed an economic-stimulus law back in February giving $200-million for Federal Work-Study. This will help create more work-study jobs for students with financial need.

Work-study jobs help students with financial need go to college and are predicted to help the economy because the studentsâ€™ wages go to either tuition or housing. Tuition money helps pay faculty salaries that they use toward goods purchased and housing money turns over into the local community-boosting the economy.

Questions to consider:
1. Have you considered a work-study job?
2. Who could you talk to for more information on work-study jobs at your school?
3. How will work study prepare you for success in the world of work?

ARTICLE:

By BECKIE SUPIANO,

From the Chronicle of Higher Education, February 19, 2009

Washington

The $200-million for Federal Work-Study in the economic-stimulus law that President Obama signed this week is expected to help an additional 130,000 students, each earning an average of $1,500 a year, according to government estimates. The money, despite rumors to the contrary, will not be pegged to a new community-service requirement.

Rather, an Education Department official said, the money “will be distributed to colleges by April 1 based on existing formulas and information that colleges have already submitted” to the department. Colleges will then be able to give undergraduate and graduate students the money next academic year.

Congress has not yet set the overall level of support for Federal Work-Study for fiscal year 2009. In recent years, the program has received about $980-million, and higher-education lobbyists believe lawmakers will not lower that amount. So the extra $200-million could push the total pot of money over a billion dollars, a height it reached in 2001.

To view this entire article you must subscribe to http://chronicle.com

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Princeton Student Finds Passion in Garbage

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Dumpster-diving isnâ€™t just for those down on their luck. A student at Princeton shares his experience dumpster-diving while practicing freeganism to help reduce waste. There is a lot you can learn about yourself and others through looking at patterns of consumption. Of course, some of these findings may not be so appealing, but they are interesting nonetheless.

Questions to consider:
1. What was your initial reaction to the idea of dumpster-diving?
2. What do you think of freeganism?
3. What else can we do to help reduce waste in our society?
4. How can these findings help us as a society to be more aware and leave less of garbage footprint?

ARTICLE:

By STEVE KOLOWICH, From the Chronicle of Higher Education, February 20, 2009

As a Princeton University student, Alexander Barnard has access to cafeterias staffed by an award-winning dining service. But he can still tell you the best time to scavenge grocery Dumpsters for edible food.

“Between 9 and 10 p.m.,” he says. “After the stores close, before the garbage trucks come around.”

Mr. Barnard, a senior majoring in sociology, gets many of his meals from the garbage, which is where he says too much of America’s usable food ends up. He is a practitioner of “freeganism,” an activist movement organized under the principle of “limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources,” according to Freegan.Info, an outreach group with which Mr. Barnard is affiliated.

“Freeganism is not just about being cheap,” he says. “It’s not just about living off the waste of society. It’s about trying to make an impact.”

To view this entire article you must subscribe to http://chronicle.com

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes

In lead author Ellen Greenbergerâ€™s study â€œSelf-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factorsâ€ she explores the sense of entitlement students have toward their grades. Hard work is confused with quality work.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Study: College success starts early

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Study shows that how a student progresses in elementary and middle school is a major factor on college preparation. High school can not be solely responsible for preparing students for college. Preparations need to be made early on by raising the level of rigor at each educational level.

Questions to consider:
1. What can you do to help your student prepare at an early age?

ARTICLE:

College preparation begins in elementary and middle school, too, authors say
By Tara Malone
Tribune reporter
December 11, 2008

Fewer than 2 in 10 of the nation’s 8th graders are on track to be academically prepared for college, and high school may be too late to bring them up to speed, according to a study released Wednesday.

The report found that how students fare in middle school is a leading predictor of their ability to succeed in college or the workplace after high school. Research by Iowa City-based ACT suggests that students who are not academically prepared going into high school are unlikely to make up ground even with rigorous schooling and academic help. The trend cut across demographic and economic lines.

Visit www.chicagotribune.com for the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Surprising Impact of Student Loan Crunch

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities released a survey suggesting that the student loan credit crunch has had a surprising and serious impact on the plans of students at private colleges. Many students were unable to obtain a private loan and were forced to turn to parents, credit cards, working more, switching to part-time students, and/or dropping out.

Questions to consider;
1. Do you know how youâ€™re going to pay for college?
2. Do you know where to find scholarship information?

ARTICLE:

Cries of financial distress from students unable to find private student loans have been relatively few and far between this fall, despite lots of newspaper headlines about a lack of availability of such loans. Read the rest of this entry »

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Rising Enrollments Buoy Some Colleges, Burden Others

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The current economic crisis has some colleges in a panic. Private colleges that rely on tuition to pay for a majority of their operation costs are getting hit hard with declining enrollment. Returning students are finding out they canâ€™t afford to finish right now and freshmen classes are smaller than last year.

Questions to consider:
1. How has the economic crisis affected your educational plans?
2. What do you plan to do about it?

ARTICLE:

Most Colleges Fill Classrooms Even as Students Struggle to Pay
By PAUL BASKEN,

http://chronicle.com

Section: Money & Management
Volume 55, Issue 14, Page A1

The nation’s economic crisis is bringing colleges higher borrowing costs, smaller endowments, tighter budgets, and fears over the availability of loans for their students.
Yet one of the most critical factors in colleges’ health â€” student enrollment â€” appears to be largely holding strong, at least for now.

Tuition and fees are the top source of revenue at private four-year colleges, with smaller institutions relying on those funds especially heavily. The loss of even a handful of students can bring some institutions to the brink of collapse.

To view this entire article you must subscribe to http://chronicle.com

Share this Article with Your Friends:

At Community Colleges, a Call to Meet New Students at the Front Door

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Sense, a survey of community college retention, noted that these schools typically lose about half of their students before the studentsâ€™ second year. The goal of the survey was to find out why.
The results show that many students are unaware of the services their college offers during the first weeks of their first semester. In hopes of higher retention, the Sense suggests that community colleges reach out to their new students earlier and more aggressively with orientation, academic advising, and financial aid.
Questions to consider:
1. Did you feel welcome at your school during the first weeks of your first semester?
2. What could your school do to make students feel welcome and promote retention and success?

ARTICLE:

From the issue dated March 28, 2008
By LIBBY SANDER

http://chronicle.com

Section: Students
Volume 54, Issue 29, Page A25

Community-college students, like students anywhere, begin to form their impressions of an institution the instant they set foot on its campus. And often what they find during those first few weeks can determine whether they come back for more â€” or turn heel and leave.

The findings from a new study, the Survey of Entering Student Engagement, may offer some clues as to why those who leave do so, and what officials can do to make them stay.

The survey results, which were released this week, show that a large number of students are unaware of their college’s core services in the opening weeks of their first semester. And only one in five said they felt welcome at their institutions the first time they came to campus.

To view this entire article you must subscribe to http://chronicle.com

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Indianapolis Metropolitan High School helps its grads in college

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Indianapolis Metropolitan High School counselors consider helping former students navigate college part of their job. Most of their students are the first in their family to go to college, so they donâ€™t have a voice of experience to turn to. Counselors are available by phone or email to answer questions and check in a couple times a semester to see how the students are doing.

This type of program is rare, but when it comes to helping students pursue their educational goals-the more help the better.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you have someone to turn to for questions about college?
2. Would you propose a program like this for your childâ€™s school?

ARTICLE:

January 31, 2009
By Andy Gammill
andy.gammill@indystar.com

Felisha Dugan didn’t know what to do last fall when she arrived at Indiana State University and couldn’t afford any of her textbooks.

Fearing she’d fall behind in her classes, the 18-year-old turned to an unlikely source of help: a college counselor provided by her high school. Dugan, a biology major, attended Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, which has a guidance counselor to help former students navigate their way through college.

Visit www.indystar.com for the entire article

Share this Article with Your Friends:

Dreamers and Doers

Posted January 4, 2009 at www.nytimes.com

Nicolas Naranjo knocked on Evan Kimbrellâ€™s door at midnight. At other colleges, this might have been a prelude to a fraternity prank or an invitation to help float the keg at the end of a party. But Mr. Naranjo, who had just arrived in the United States from his native Colombia some weeks before, wanted to talk about starting a business. He had an idea about a hop-on, hop-off bus service for college tours around the Boston area. Mr. Kimbrell had tried to start a bus company the previous year and knew the pitfalls â€” and was happy for the break from his studies to talk business. Read the rest of this entry »

Share this Article with Your Friends: