How Much Is Too Much for College?

CAROL’S SUMMARY
College expenses have sky-rocketed. Authors Thakor and Kedar believe that when you graduate from college and a get a job, 25% of your earning will go for taxes and 15% should go to down payments for a car and eventually, a home. When the costs of college are way out of proportion to earnings in the first ten years, debt can become unmanageable. There are many options right now for students:

1) Begin at a community college. The community college is one of the best educational values around. If you start at a community college, build your basic college level learning skills, figure out your interests and abilities then you can transfer to a strong four year school or an Ivy League school, often with plenty of financial aid.

2) Go in state. A great deal of money can be saved by going to school in state. With the money you save, you can study in Shanghai, Dubai or Paris for a semester. You can take internships in cities like Chicago, San Francisco or New York City. These experiences will stand you in good stead as you build your career skills in addition to your knowledge skills.

3) Sacrifice. People who do well over the arc of their careers often sacrifice today so that they can have more in the future. In the book, The Millionaire Next Door, the authors chronicle many people who became millionaires by driving really old cars, taking the bus and shopping at places like Target and Walmart. So, delay gratification, quit spending on things you donâ€™t need and ride the bus or take your bike to school.

4) Work. Even if your parents can afford to help you pay for college, insist that you pay for at least half of your education. Why? Because if you donâ€™t have a stake in what you are doing, you are likely to waste your time by being undirected and unfocused. If you are paying for college, chances are you will figure out who you are, what you want and where you want to go in your life. Recommended work hours for college is 12-15 per week with a fifteen unit course load.

5) Plan for a bright financial future. Survey your options. Set your goals. Ask yourself what kind of life you want to live in five years, ten years, twenty years? What will you need to do to create that life? Who will you need to be? What will you need to earn? How hard will you need to work? What changes do you need to make today to make that happen?

Finally, your commitment to your own success matters much more than how much money you have or donâ€™t have today or what your IQ is or isnâ€™t. If you believe in yourself and you are willing to get an education and work hard, the world will be your oyster in any kind of economic climate.

ARTICLE
New York Times
by Rebecca R. Ruiz
In a Huffington Post article, Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, authors of â€œOn My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girlâ€™s Guide to Personal Finance,â€ pose the question, â€œHow High is Too High for the Cost of Higher Education?â€

For years the subliminal messaging most of us received was that â€˜no price tag is too high for a quality higher education.â€™ As we rethink virtually everything in this post-AIG, post-Madoff, post-housing bubble world, it may be time to ask if that graduation cap tassel is really worth the financial hassle.

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Korean School Preps Students for Ivy League

The article below discusses an elite and rigorous Korean preparatory school that sends many of its graduates to Ivy League universities here in the United States.Â This story is far from unusual: many elite colleges and graduate schools have an international population topping 30% of their total class size.

With increased global competition for these already-coveted spots at Ivy League schools, what can American students do to stand out?Â Test scores and grades are clearly important, but are not the answer in and of themselves.Â As the article notes, the South Korean students are not merely academic “robots” – they have a wide array of interests outside of the classroom.

LifeBound’s Director of Business Strategy, Kelly Carson, is currently completing her MBA summer internship at our offices while enrolled at Harvard Business School.Â She describes the admission process this way:

“You definitely need to do your best to get great test scores and have an impressive academic record.Â Unfortunately, as many schools note, these metrics are what can keep you out, rather than what will guarantee you a spot.Â Once you’ve surpassed a basic level, it’s your job to distinguish yourself from the rest.”

“Use your admissions essays to tell a compelling story about yourself – who you are, what you’re passionate about, and why, specifically, this school is the one for you. If you can tell a story that demonstrates a clear history of leaderhsip and makes the admissions panel connect with you and want to know more about you, you’re head and shoulders above many other applicants.”

As Kelly notes, you need to be in touch with what you are passionate about to tell a compelling story on your admissions essay.Â As our Gifts and Talents for Teenagers text emphasizes, being in touch with your strengths, weaknesses and passions can make you a compelling candidate – no matter what school you may apply to.

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Korean School Preps Students For Ivy League

by Anthony Kuhn

All Things Considered, July 2, 2009 Â· With admissions getting more competitive every year, spots at top American colleges are becoming a globally coveted commodity. In Seoul, one elite South Korean prep school has become the envy of many upper-crust U.S. prep schools with its success at getting its students into Ivy League colleges.

The Korean school’s formula is simple: Select the country’s brightest and most ambitious students and work them extremely hard.

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As Fiscal Year Ends, Big Questions Loom for Colleges’ Financial Futures

CAROL’S SUMMARY
More than 40 states made mid-year cuts totaling nearly $60 billion according to the Center on Budget and Policy. July 1st begins a new fiscal year and, while fiscal year-end numbers are only one measure of overall stability, it is one people scrutinize and often value the most. If the value dips too low relative to debt load, bondholders could declare the institution in default and demand payment. The high unemployment rate and low personal revenues from income taxes make this situation even worse. All but two states increased their unemployment rates in May. State personal income tax in May was 20% lower than the same period last year.

This may mean that incoming freshmen this year might face a reduction in many services they need to succeed. If these patterns continue, it will be even more important for high schools to prepare students well for college and the world of work. Students themselves will need to have a lot more initiative and personal responsibility to find the help they need at college or within the community. They need to realize that the current economic climate makes getting a college degree more important than ever and that the costs of dropping out may be higher than ever. High schools can start early to communicate that message in ways that are positive, proactive and empowering.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK

Will the stock market close on a high note tomorrow, the last day of the fiscal year for most colleges? Will that last big gift come in before the books close?

As always, the answers could help determine whether some colleges will face demands to pay off their debt faster than planned or be subjected to extra monitoring by the U.S. Department of Education. Others might encounter more scrutiny from their accreditors, or pay higher rates of interest when they borrow cash to cover day-to-day expenses.

To view entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i40/40june.htm

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U.S. May Need to Prune Number of Research Universities, Lobby Group Says

CAROL’S SUMMARY
Robert M. Berdahl, former President of Berkeley and current President of the Association of American Universities, is making a case for fewer research universities which could be much more focused in their efforts to product world-class scientists and brain-leaders. Mr. Berdahlâ€™s association represents 60 American Universities which award the majority of all doctoral degrees, including 55% in science and engineering. These very institutions have been hard hit by the recession and their endowments have been decimated. Berdahl argues that if we donâ€™t focus our efforts and make some pointed choices, we can lose our competitive edge.

While there are opponents to this proposal, the nation should also ask itself:

If there were more focused research institutions, could we have more effective state colleges and non-research colleges? In other words, could we have more colleges which, like University of Phoenix, are student-centered, teaching-based and focused on helping students from a wide range of academic, emotional and social levels succeed?

Imagine a freshmen experience at a state university where professors who arenâ€™t under so much pressure to â€œpublish or perishâ€ actually taught introductory classes instead of teaching assistants. Imagine a way for class size to be smaller and for undergrads to have more access to professors who might otherwise be too busy in pursuit of the universityâ€™s research goals. Imagine a scenario where 40% of the freshmen who typically drop out freshmen year actually staying in college and went on to get summer internships, graduate and secure gainful employment. What impact would that have on our economy of the future? How many more people would have health care with a college degree? How many more people might contribute to their communities in addition to their home and workplace? How many more grads with a degree might feel the need to give back, financially and with their time?

It seems like there are many possible benefits to targeting and focusing on the best research institutions in America. If we do that, it opens up the possibilities for asking what is possible for a better education for the massesâ€”especially turning around the tidal wave of those who start college as one of the 1.5 million developmental English students or the 2.5 developmental math students. Letâ€™s consider both options as that debate continues.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By PAUL BASKEN

Amid tighter budgets and stronger international competition, the nation may need “fewer but better” when it comes to research universities, the head of those institutions’ chief lobby group said Thursday. The United States, at a time of tighter budgets and stronger international competition, may not be able to afford its current crop of research universities, the head of their chief lobby group said Thursday.

To view entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/06/20810n.htm

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South Korea Powers Ahead With Globalization Plans

CAROL’S SUMMARY
South Korea is making a bold claim to be the Mecca for college learning for students from Asia and around the world in the next few decades. They are devoting $600 million dollars over the next five years to a â€œWorld Class University Projectâ€ which features 9 Nobel prize winners who are moving to South Korea as faculty. Their â€œBrain Korea 21â€ project is designed to define â€œcenters for excellence in information, technology, bioengineering and other knowledge-based fields.â€

For this model to succeed, policy makers will need to work closely with educators at the high school and college level to learn first-hand about both opportunities and challenges. Opponents of this movement say that the current college structures are â€œhierarchicalâ€ systems which block creativity and innovation. Sounds like some of the same concerns about big, failing companies in America Jim Collins featured in his new book, WHY THE MIGHTY FALL.

One thing is for sure: for higher education to succeed and flourish in any country by setting a new standard for quality work, strong critical thinking skills, workplace know-how and lifelong success, many will have to rethink the staid and inflexible methods of old. Students today need to be challenged and so do faculty. That means learning new skills, understanding the value of social networking and and the new options which technology affords through project-based learning and collaboration.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higer Education
By DAVID MCNEILL
Seoul, South Korea

For government officials here, it’s a vision worth savoring: Within the next decade, South Korea becomes Southeast Asia’s top higher-education destination, poaching thousands of Chinese, Indian, and Japanese students from American universities and overtaking rivals Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

The higher-education system’s historical insularity fades away. A handful of South Korean universities climb into the premier global academic league. Local students elect to stay at home to attend a branch campus of an American college.

To view entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i40/40a00104.htm

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Where AP teachers go to learn what they teach

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
AP teachers are dealing with a high influx of students across the country taking college level courses in their junior and senior years. Some teachers complain that AP students are in â€œover their heads,â€ while others go for special training in collaborative and project-based learning skills in an effort to reach students with different learning styles. In the days of old, AP courses were geared for the verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical child. Today, bright students learn differently. Whether their abilities will all show up in AP classes remains to be seen. Whether students are taking AP classes or not, there are a few basics they need to be college-ready:

1) Understand the value of effort in success. Many students who test well and are considered â€œbrightâ€ donâ€™t learn to challenge themselves and struggle in the post-school environmentâ€”career and life. Those bright students and average students who really apply themselves do better over the arc of their careers than those who donâ€™t.

2) Embrace challenge. Many â€œbrightâ€ students get addicted to the 4.0. It is far better to take difficult teachers who challenge you than those teachers who â€œgiveâ€ Aâ€™s. Students who learn to challenge themselves look for opportunity, create interesting experiences and provide high value in the world of work.

3) Risk: Grow beyond your comfort zone. We all learn by growing and doing things that make us feel uncomfortable, but few students get the value of life experience in addition to book learning. Do the things that you resist with people whom you are not necessarily drawn toâ€”you will grow and at the same time prepare yourself for the working world. Students around the world are doing this in spades.

4) Ask: What else? If we spent half of our energy in this country on solving some of the worldâ€™s greatest problems and thinking about what, over the course of two or four years in college can really make you unique, more students would be world-ready than simply college ready.

It is time for all of us to get the 20,000 foot perspective on college-readiness. It is not about getting ready for college, it is about getting ready for college, career and life. Those abilities and skills are inextricably linked. If we continue to prepare for academics alone, we are preparing students for the world of the past. If we focus on project-based learning, connections which students can make in school and out, and people who can actually stretch and broaden their world, they will be ready for the interconnected, global world they are about to enter. AP classes or not, we owe them that readiness.

ARTICLE
St. Petersburg Times
by Ron Matus

Twenty-six high school teachers stood with straws in mouths and spoons at the ready. Bowls of M&Ms rainbowed before them.

Pretend the M&Ms are fish, the instructor said, and pretend the straws are fishing poles.

The teachers sucked up the M&Ms with the straws. They scrapped for them with the spoons. As the candy disappeared, a lesson about regulation and natural resources took its place.

This is what Advanced Placement teachers do when they step away from the front lines of an education revolution.

To view the entire article visit
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article1012101.ece

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Studies Explore Whether the Internet Makes Students Better Writers

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
What influence does all of the brief-communication like texting, blogs, and twitter have on studentsâ€™ ability to perform well in writing tasks for college, career and life? The article below cites a Stanford study exploring this very topic. While students are, arguably, writing more today than ever, the writing is of a brief nature. To get ready for college and career writing, students will need to think more thoroughly at the outset, review their work once the write it and often consider two or more drafts to get it high-quality. This is a process which most students will have to learn and high schools will need to teach so that students can be college-ready.

In the world of work, writing is often expedient. However, there are many times when writing cannot be done quickly without a high cost. Students will need to develop the judgment to know the difference.

Finally, faculty will need to understand the ways in which students writeâ€”texting, blogs, Twitter, FaceBookâ€”so that they can help bridge the gap between what they do now and what they need to learn. If faculty cannot make this leap, they likely will not connect with students in ways that will be lasting.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By JOSH KELLER

As a student at Stanford University, Mark Otuteye wrote in any medium he could find. He wrote blog posts, slam poetry, to-do lists, teaching guides, e-mail and Facebook messages, diary entries, short stories. He wrote a poem in computer code, and he wrote a computer program that helped him catalog all the things he had written.

But Mr. Otuteye hated writing academic papers. Although he had vague dreams of becoming an English professor, he saw academic writing as a “soulless exercise” that felt like “jumping through hoops.” When given a writing assignment in class, he says, he would usually adopt a personal tone and more or less ignore the prompt.

“I got away with it,” says Mr. Otuteye, who graduated from Stanford in 2006. “Most of the time.”

To view the entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i39/39writing.htm

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The Value of Education in a Recession

The new employment statistics are out and, not surprisingly, they weigh in favor of those with college degrees especially in this economy:

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6 Lessons One Campus Learned About

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Northwest Missouri State piloted the entire curriculum on-line last year using the Sony Reader, the article below states. While there were many growing pains, the university should be given credit for pioneering in an area which is most certainly the future of learning and project-based study. If publishers want to prevent their industry from being the next automotive example, they need to do these things:
Â 1) Buy or partner with Kindle, Sony and makers of these machines. Publishers will need some stake in the hardware business so that they can develop the necessary learning platforms.
Â 2) Work with the gaming theorists. Students today have grown up on games, and we have a lot to learn about meaningful, dynamic ways to retain information from the gaming companies and people who produce these programs.
Â 3) Live and breathe with students– talented students, struggling students, learning disabled students, returning adults and everything in between. Technology allows us to moderate content for these learners to truly produce individuated instruction.
Â 4) Work with your authors. Training, as the article below indicates, is a huge area for both students and faculty. “Star” authors can help negotiate this divide and teach people on-line, in-person and through sessions like Web X.
Â 5) Don’t think book. Think learning experience and realize that technology opens the door for students to have experience as well as knowledge–two things they desperately need to be competitive in the global
world. In the future, publishers will look more like producers of television shows than creators of static books that need revisions every two or three years, as both students and professors will participate in this dynamic process. We need to consider how learning and teaching will be different because of the opportunities that technology affords.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

Northwest Missouri State University nearly became the first public university to deliver all of its textbooks electronically. Last year the institution’s tech-happy president, Dean L. Hubbard, bought a Kindle, Amazon’s e-book reading device, and liked it so much that he wanted to give every incoming student one. The university already runs an unusual textbook-rental program that buys thousands of printed books for students who pay a flat, per-credit fee. Mr. Hubbard saw in the gadget a way to drastically cut the rental program’s annual $800,000 price tag, since e-books generally cost half the price of printed textbooks.

To view the entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=HrghYKYs4hspNRWQYd6YzpqydhgtTXZs

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The Impact of Student Employment

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

As the article below indicates, working 10 or more hours a week had a positive effect on high-ability students in the areas of critical thinking/ overall academic success and a negative effect for low-ability students. Low ability students, when stressed, tend to drop classes and work more, endangering their loans and scholarships. Students who work 20 hours or less a week report higher levels of engagement in all five areas surveyedâ€”student/faculty interaction, critical thinking, engaging in collaborative learning, etc. A second survey followed additional areas like moral reasoning, socially responsible leadership and overall psychological well-being. Students who work more than 20 hours a week, whether low ability or high ability were at greater risk academically.

The bottom line: More students entering college need to be better prepared academically in order to handle work, academic load, personal life and career preparation. If students come in underprepared, they are much more likely to be done in by the very jobs which are helping them make ends meet.

ARTICLE
Inside Higher Ed
ATLANTA — The idea that college students who work on the side are at a disadvantage is almost quaint. Not because there’s no evidence that spending many hours on things other than academics can impair students — such evidence does exist — but rather because the days are long past when many college students had a choice but to work. As tuitions have risen and more and more undergraduates are enrolling later in life, nearly half of all full-time students and 80 percent of part-time students work — numbers that are likely only to grow in the future.

To view entire article visit
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/08/work

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