Vol.15 No.2 October 2000
2000 Election Special....
Presidential Candidates
on Education
EVERY FOUR YEARS, the American People cast their ballots for the next President of the United States. Public opinion polls confirm that this year, as in recent national elections, no issue is more important to voters than the condition of education. So this month, CB takes a look at the higher education positions of the two leading candidates for president, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Albert A. Gore, Jr.
Fortunately for higher education constituents, both candidates pledge they will be an "Education President" committed to improving educational opportunity and the performance of higher education institutions, and both are dedicated to increasing federal spending to further those goals.
BUSH'S HIGHER ED PROPOSALS
Texas Governor George W. Bush has posted an impressive education record in his home state. For example, the National Education Goals Panel cited Texas as one of two states (along with North Carolina) to make the most concrete progress in achieving the National Education Goals established by President George Herbert Walker Bush and the nation's 50 governors in the early 1990s. (None of the education goals was achieved by the nation as a whole by the 2000 target year.)
Governor George W. Bush argues that he will bring the same approach to national education issues, while respecting the established role of local and state government in determining education policy.
Governor Bush says, "The federal government must be humble enough to stay out of the day-to-day operation of local schools, wise enough to give states and school districts more authority and freedom and strong enough to require proven performance in return."
Governor Bush believes that improving primary and secondary education is also a key to improving the quality of the nation's system of higher education, and Bush has proposed a "comprehensive, specific education reform plan" to strengthen public elementary and secondary schools. The Governor says that he wants to raise "the academic ambitions of every school in America, creating a culture of achievement."
As far as higher education itself, Governor Bush "is committed to ensuring students have more access to and more choice in higher education."
NEW PROGRAMS
As president, George W. Bush would better prepare students for college while increasing access to higher education, with:
· "College Challenge Grants." As President, George W. Bush would appropriate $1.5 billion over five years to cover one-third of state costs in creating a merit scholarship program to reward students who take an advanced or recommended curriculum in high school;
· Increased Pell Grant funding. A Bush Administration would increase the maximum Pell Grant for first-year students from $3,300 to $5,100, thus encouraging an estimated additional 800,000 low-income students to enroll in college. The program would cost $6 billion over five years;
· Enhanced Pell Grants. Bush would also offer Pell-eligible students an extra $1,000 if they take rigorous math and science courses in high school and pass the AP math and science exams, or pass a college math or science course while in high school. The program will cost $1 billion over five years.
These later two proposals will specifically help low-income students. Governor Bush is concerned about holding down college tuition, which has risen over 200 percent in the past two decades, and will work to find ways to limit future increases. Governor Bush told The Chronicle of Higher Education, "I will focus on helping American families save, coordinating student-loan and grant programs more efficiently and demanding that colleges be fiscally responsible in minimizing tuition costs."
The Texas governor believes that one of the United States' greatest strengths is found in higher education's faculty and students. "I want to make sure that higher education is affordable and accessible to every American," he said. Bush believes that college tuition levels and student indebtedness are the Achilles Heel of the system, which he calls the best in the world. A Bush Administration also would:
· Expand Education Savings Accounts. Governor Bush proposes expanding current college savings plans, by raising the maximum contribution to tax-free education savings accounts to $5,000 per child (up from $500,) and allowing funds to be used for K-12 expenses, not just college tuition;
· Offer Complete Tax Exemption for Savings. A President Bush would grant complete tax exemption to all qualified pre-paid and tuition savings plans and extend coverage to independent prepaid tuition plans so parents can choose to invest in tuition at the college of their choice, state or independent;
· Streamline Existing Programs."Candidate Bush wants to simplify the existing higher-education student aid programs, which he describes as "complex and cumbersome." He praises the current Pell Grant Program as a "simple, well-proven delivery system of aid;"
· Provide Deep Tax Cuts. Governor Bush believes his $1.3 trillion across-the-board tax cuts, paid out of the projected federal budget surplus, and the doubling of the child tax credits, will give families additional money to dedicate to the advanced training of their children;
· Affirmative Access. Governor Bush has campaigned against "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and would replace current affirmative action programs with what he calls "affirmative access." The Texas governor opposes quotas which he says "divide and balkanize" students. But he believes that government has an affirmative obligation to see that every student has equal access to higher education.
Governor Bush points to the innovative legislation in Texas, which he signed after affirmative action was struck down by the courts, that insures any Texas student who graduates in the top 10 percent of his or her high school class is admitted to any public university in Texas.
MORE WITH GORE?
In many ways, the education positions of Vice President Albert A. Gore, Jr., parallel those of Governor Bush, except, as he says, he promises "more" federal spending for education programs at all levels. Candidate Gore argues that, "Education must become not just a period in our lives, but a way of life in the 21st century."
Gore is running, in part, on the education legacy of the Clinton/Gore Administration, a record which witnessed "the largest increased investment to expand access to higher education since the G.I. Bill."
The Clinton/Gore Administration sought to make college more affordable with HOPE scholarships and through Lifelong Learning Credits. It increased funding for Pell Grants by 52 percent over eight years and decreased interest rates on college loans. The Clinton/Gore Administration also created the Direct Student Loan Program which helped to make students loans more accessible at some colleges, while saving taxpayers $4 billion.
GORE INITIATIVES
As President, Al Gore has promised to expand these programs and he has called for:
· A College Opportunity Tax Cut. President Gore would seek to enact President Clinton's proposed College Opportunity Tax Cut, which would provide families with a choice between a tax deduction up to $10,000 or a 28 percent tax credit up to $2,800 in tuition to make college, graduate school and other courses more affordable. Under the Gore formula, the 10-year program would cost $36 billion;
· Help Families Save Tax-Free for Higher Education. Candidate Gore has proposed new 401 (j) accounts to allow individuals and their employers to save for job training, higher education or lifelong learning for themselves or their families, and to let those savings grow tax-free;
· National Tuition Savings Plan. Candidate Gore has also proposed a National Tuition Savings Plan to help families save for education that is inflation-free and tax-free. The program will link existing statewide college savings and prepaid tuition plans;
· Affirmative Action. Vice President Gore supports current affirmative action programs as the best way to insure diversity in higher education and to close the "opportunity gap" which still divides our nation.
CHOICE IS YOURS
Both candidates clearly know the importance of higher education for the nation's future. And both have offered substantive proposals to increase access for college-bound students. The Bush plan seems to offer more help for low-income students, and both give a boost to the middle class.
Whichever higher education plan appeals to you, in the final analysis, what ultimately happens depends in part upon your going to the polls this November to vote for the candidate whom you feel will best improve higher education in the United States and give the greatest access and opportunity for the next generation of college students. So don't forget to vote! [back to top]
THE COUNSELOR'S CORNER
How To Get The Most Out Of
Your Campus Visits
THE COLLEGE SEARCH PROCESS can be an exciting and fun adventure. But it can also be frustrating with so many choices and decisions ahead of you. Let me offer you a few tips on what else you can do beyond the official tours in order to find the real college.
1. Take along a tape recorder. After each visit, record your impressions, not facts. Facts you can always check, but your impressions cannot be reproduced later. By the time you have seen your third college of the day, you will be surprised by how well the various bits of information and sights become scrambled together. Feel free not to censor your own feelings; just don't share the tape with anyone else.
2. Library. Don't ask how many volumes are in the library. You know that you will probably not read even 1 percent of its holdings. Instead, ask or check to see if the library is open- or closed-stack. An open-stack library allows you browsing privileges and the freedom to explore the stacks, which is essential to your intellectual growth and exploration. Check the periodical room for journals in your areas of interest. Once again, are they available for browsing? [back to top]
3. Bulletin boards. They may be messy but they tell you a lot about campus life and the tone of the place. Read to see if there are groups representing diverse positions on political and societal issues. If all the groups represent your particular viewpoints, it is probably not a good college for you. You might as well spend all your time talking to yourself. Find a place, instead, that allows disagreement and dialogue. Even if you never change your position, it is good for you to know that your ideas can stand up to challenge.
4. People. People watching can be a lot of fun. What do you watch for? Do students walk in groups or alone? Do they seem happy? Are they sociable? Do they look preoccupied and stressed out? Pretend to be lost (you actually might be lost) and ask for directions and see how willing people are to help you. Do they all look like you? It can get boring looking at yourself for four years. How diverse is the student body? (Look beyond ethnic diversity. How about personal styles?) How comfortable are you with the overall atmosphere of the college?
5. Dormitories. It is best to leave parents outside or send them on a bogus errand. You probably won't want them to see the wonderful housekeeping skills you will be acquiring. Try to be realistic. Remember that you will not be moving into palatial quarters, but you deserve to have pleasant living conditions. Talk to students you meet. It is all right to ask about safety and security. In fact, you should ask about these, but keep things in perspective. [back to top]
6. Dining halls. Try to eat a meal in a college dining hall. After all, you will be spending four important years in this place. Sit down at a table with students and listen to what they talk about. This should give you an idea as to what is important to the students. The quality of casual (especially mealtime) conversations is crucial to your satisfaction at any college. If this experience is not good, you might not only starve gastronomically, but intellectually as well.
7. Classes. Get a schedule from the admissions office and ask for instructions to decode it. Don't let them send you to a specific class; you know that no one would deliberately send you to a bad one. Chances are you will get some bad classes along with the good ones in your four years at any college. In a way, it would be better to ask for the worst class to attend. That way, you would at least be prepared for the worst case scenario. See how teachers relate to students. How do students interact with each other? Is the classroom dialogue only between the teacher and students, or is it among the students as well? Is collaborative learning encouraged?
Ask students how accessible the professors are. Student-faculty ratio is less crucial than you think. More important, how willing and eager are the professors to talk to students and help them learn. If you are at a university with graduate programs, find out whether professors or graduate students teach the majority of the classes for underclassmen. Also, ask about opportunities for independent inquiry (such as, undergraduate fellowships, independent studies and so on).
8. Bookstore. What else does the bookstore stock besides text-books? Are there more mugs and college paraphernalia than books? Will you be able to find leisure reading books and magazines there? Are the employees knowledgeable and helpful? [back to top]
9. Facilities and activities. Check out the ones pertinent to you. Extracurricular activities are important to your overall collegial experience. Pick up calendars of events from the last few months to get a sense of the variety of extra offerings on campus and in nearby towns. To get answers to the questions suggested below, you should talk to individual departments and not just the admissions officials.
· Performing arts. If you are a performing artist wanting a liberal arts education and not pre-professional training, think carefully before you assume that a school with a conservatory or drama school might be better for you. Ask yourself how important participation is and whether you will be able to compete with the professional students for a role in a play or a place in the orchestra, for example. Find out if practice rooms are available to everyone, even those who are not music majors and whether private lessons are available to non-majors.
· Academics. If you are interested in a discipline that requires special facilities and equipment, ask how old they are and whether undergraduates have access to the newer and more advanced equipment. If you are interested in the sciences, definitely find out how accessible the more sophisticated equipment will be to an undergraduate and what research opportunities will be available to you.
· Athletics. If you are an accomplished athlete and participation will be important to you, you should make an appointment to see a coach as well as visit the facilities. Ask about alternatives to varsity teams, in case you don't qualify for varsity your first year. If you are just interested in staying physically fit, you should also look at the facilities and ask about their availability to you as a non-varsity person. Ask about intramural, club sports and outdoor opportunities.
10. News. Try to find several issues of student publications to get a sense of what the hot issues on campus are. School officials often wish you wouldn't ask for them, but this is a good way for you to find out what is really happening. However, to have a proper perspective, you should get students' reactions to these hot issues.
Ginger F. C. Miller is director of Howard Greene and Associates, New York City. [back to top]
TESTING TABS
AP Over-Advertised?"A new Yale University study of how well AP credits are accepted by colleges, concluded only 50 percent of the AP test-takers ever receive college credit. However, the College Board which administers the program gives scores of "3" or above to two-thirdb of its test-takers and ranks them as "qualified" with the expectation that colleges will agree.
The study of AP, conducted by William Lichten, a fellow at Yale's Institute of Social and Policy Studies, disputes whether all colleges agree to recognize the credit. Lichten recommends that the College Board re-identify the "3" rating as "possibly qualiied" for college credit.
AP officials dispute the study's results and charge that the study mis-measured what AP does in its crediting process. Some colleges allow individual academic departments to make decisions on what AP scores to accept. And the more selective colleges are the ones most likely to decline recognition of all but the highest AP scores. But some less selective colleges, such as Auburn and Penn State also have acted skeptically for student who score below a "4."
The Yale full study, published by the Education Policy Analysis Archives, can be located at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n29 .html on the World Wide Web.
Forget the Tests. Standardized testing has become optional altogether at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, the nation's first college for women. It is the last of 300 colleges, about 22 percent of all colleges, to make the SAT or other standardized tests optional in the admissions process. With help from the Mellon Foundation, Mount Holyoke will study if the decision makes any difference in the quality of students it educates. Meanwhile, the College Board reports 27 percent more SAT test-takers over the past six years. [back to top]
CURRICULUM CAPSULES
New Majors. Beginning with the fall 2000 term, Mount Mercy College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) began offer a new bachelor's degree in health services administration and an interdisciplinary bachelor's degree in music and business administration.
Beginning with the fall 2001 term, Penn State University (University Park, Pennsylvania) will add a bachelor's degree in bioengineering to its catalog.
Florida International University (Miami, Florida) now offers new bachelor's degrees in geography and health sciences.
Siena College (Loudonville, New York) has added a new bachelor's degree in biochemistry.
New Books. The Quick Internet Guide to Career and Education Information is a directory and tutorial on finding information on college, financial aid, training and careers on the Internet. By Anne Wolfinger, JIST Works, Inc., $16.95.
The Unofficial Guide to Distance Learning lists distance learning opportunities at schools and colleges nationwide. By Shannon Turlington, ARCO/IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., $16.95.
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ADMISSIONS WATCH
Big Numbers. The University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) also posted a near recordóthe largest entering class in several years and the largest total first-day enrollment since 1993. UND's freshman class totaled 1,847, up from 1,762 last year, while the total university first-day enrollment was 10,725, up from 10,167 last year. The university's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences showed the greatest gain in students with an 18 percent increase in enrollment. [back to top]
Great Gains. St. Mary's University (San Antonio, Texas) this fall welcomed its largest freshman class in history. More than 650 freshman accepted admission to St. Mary's, an increase of one-third over a year ago. Applications were at an all-time high as well. The university credits its laptop initiative with the increase in interest. Beginning this fall, all freshmen are provided with a notebook computer as part of an initiative to make all students "wired" within four years. [back to top]
Record Numbers. Washington University in St. Louis is among the hottest institutions in the admissions field these days. This year, the school attracted 18,600 applications for 1,280 first-year openings. Applications have more than quadrupled over the past dozen years and more than doubled in the last four. The quality of admitted students is soaring as well. [back to top]
Yale's Yield. Yale College (New Haven, Connecticut) has shown a record yield rate among its highly competitive applicants this year. Yale offered admission to 1,352 students or just 16 percent of its 12,887 applicants; of those admitted, 66 percent elected to attend. This is the sixth straight year that Yale's yield rate has increased. [back to top]
The entering Yale class has median SAT scores of 730 verbal and 720 math. "This class represents an extraordinary array of academic and extracurricular accomplishments, " said Richard H. Shaw, Jr., dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid.
Yale's 678 women and 674 men in the class of 2004 hail from 48 states and 44 nations. New York sent the most with 228; followed by 164 from California and 98 students from Connecticut. The average new Yale student qualifies for a direct Yale grant of $16,147.
The most popular intended majors are biology and life sciences, economics, engineering, English, political science, and history. (The historians may remind the political scientists that since 1981 either the nation's president.or vice president has been a Yale graduate.)
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Harder and Harder. It's getting much tougher to get into the top schools, private or public. For example, in 1980, 16 percent of applicants were accepted at Harvard; in 1998, only 12 percent were admitted. In 1980, Stanford accepted 19 percent of applicants; in 1998, only 13 percent. In 1980, the University of Michigan accepted 72 percent of applicants; in 1998, just 59 percent. In 1980, the University of California at Berkeley accepted 70 percent; in 1998, just 28 percent. [back to top]
Great White North. More and more U.S. students in search of a good education at a lower cost are headed north to Canada, where the average tuition and cost of living per academic year is just $10,470, compared to $15,680 for out-of-state students at public U.S. institutions, and $22,530 at private U.S. colleges and universities.
Currently, 6,000 U.S. students are studying in Canada. For example, 1,500 U.S. students are among the 28,000 from 140 nations enrolled at McGill University in Montreal. Overall, 58 percent of U.S. McGill applicants were accepted. McGill's admissions director, Robin Geller, told USA Today that most academically qualified U.S. students are admitted and receive a rigorous education.
Overall, Canada issued 35,988 visas last year to students from other nations, up from 31,435 in 1995-96. However, for every U.S. student who heads north, four Canadian students come south of their border to study. [back to top]
Online College Fairs. The day is coming when attending a college fair or open house is as easy as logging on to your computer. Beginning this fall, the National Association for College Admission Counseling invites students, families and counselors to visit an online college fair (www.OnlineCollegeFair. com) at scheduled times to chat with school representatives, view the participating campuses and join live sessions on admissions topics moderated by experts.The site will also offer open houses, more in-depth sessions hosted by individual colleges. NACAC is offering these opportunities in cooperation with Interaction Software, Inc. The schedule of online events is posted on the web site.
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Florida Ranking Online. Want another take on U.S. colleges and universities? The Center for Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Florida has released another system of rankings that places colleges into first through third tiers, based on nine categories ranging from research and development budgets to SAT scores of students.
Listed alphabetically, U of Florida's top 10 private universities are: California Institute of Technology, Columbia U., Duke U., Harvard U., the Johns Hopkins U., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Standofrd U, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.
Listed alphabetically, U of Florida's top public universities are: the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
See the entire listing at www.thecenter .ufl.edu/research2000.html.
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The Internship Advantage
Increasingly, students and their parents are asking about internship possibilities at a college or university. With plenty of opportunities available, today's interns are not only getting invaluable insider experience into a potential career, some are getting something else: paid.
The intern field is extensive. Some professions, such as CPAs or teaching, require formal internships. In other areas such as architecture, an internship gives a student serious insight into what it takes to succeed.
To find out about internships students should:
· Start at the college career counseling office. Students should also ask questions of professionals they might know in a field of interest;
· Try www.internshipprograms.com or summerjobs.com or fastweb.com or monster.com;
· Students should get their bid in early each semester since the best jobs are quickly taken;
· Get a resume and introductory letter ready to send to prospective clients;
· Be flexible, be motivated, be realistic about a student's role with a company. Learn all you can;
· Follow leads with each internship if interested in that career, or be ready to move on to the next internship.
For more information, see Internship Success by Marianne Ehrlich Green, director of the Career Services Center, University of Delaware (NTC/Contemporary Publishing Co.), $12.95. [back to top]
CB Wins Award! COLLEGE BOUND, has kicked off its 15th year with an "Award for Publication Excellence" from Communications Concepts, the sponsors of the APEX 2000 Award for Excellence. A huge thank you to all our writers, editors, designers and printer... and especially to our subscribers.
COLLEGE BOUND's Editor: R. Craig Sautter, DePaul University; Associate Editors: Connie Amon, Jennifer C. Patterson; Assistant Editor: Larry Busking; Circulation: Irma Gonzalez-Hider; Illustration: Louis Coronel; Board of Advisors: Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford (NY) Central School District; Howard Greene, author, The Select; Terence Giffin, Choate-Rosemary Hall; Frank C. Leana, Ph.D., educational counselor; Virginia Vogel, Educational Guidance Services; M. Fredric Volkmann, Washington University in St. Louis, Mary Ann Willis, Bayside Academy (Daphne, Ala.).
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