Vol. 18 No. 5 January 2004

CB'S 18TH ANNUAL SURVEY
Part II Survey Results...Financial Aid
The Top Concerns of Parents
ARE MORE INCOMING STUDENTS requesting financial aid? "Yes," according to 62 percent of the colleges responding to date to COLLEGE BOUND's 18th Annual National Survey of College Admissions Trends. And, nearly all the colleges described the top financial aid concerns of their students and families.

CB annually surveys a cross-section of institutions in American higher education from the large public universities to the small private colleges. To date, over 100 colleges have responded. (The full report will be available in Spring in CB's annual Who Got In? 2004)

MORE AID NEEDED
To be sure, the need for financial aid has always been an issue. As Susan C. Minger, Cornell C., said, "Families are always concerned about similar issues each year such as student loan debt and comprehensive fee increase."

But a sizeable number of institutions in this year's survey said more of their incoming students were requesting financial aid.

Adam Sapp, Claremont McKenna C., said "financial aid was huge in how kids decided. There was a trend to scoff at loans."

Christopher Hooker-Haring, Muhlenberg C., said that parents worrying "about cost and affordability" was the admissions trend for 2003.

Simply stated: "'$' is a big factor," according to Michael Poll, Belmont Abbey C.

Comments from other admissions officers also tell the story of the incoming freshmen this year.

TOP WORRIES
So what were the top financial aid worries of students and families?

"Getting any," quipped Julie Hoffmann, Butler U., where the tuition this year is $20,990.

Three concerns stand out among admissions officers this year according to CB's survey.

1. The Cost. "The overall cost," said Karen Sagall, Dartmouth C., where nearly 47 percent of students receive financial aid with an average aid package of $19,352.

The "rising cost of tuition and room and board relative to the poor economy," added Paul Marthers at Reed C.

"Increased concern about price," said Patricia Murphy, Dickinson C. Echoes Kevin J. Hastings, Knox, C., students are alarmed by the "high cost of college in the face of economic uncertainty."

This concern is found in all sectors. Families are worried about "the overall cost of small private schools," said Andrew K. Strickler, Kalamazoo C. And the same is true in public universities where families are also worried about the costs.

Emil Rinderspacher, U. of Iowa, for example, reported families there also are disturbed about "the rising costs of tuition." In a word: the "affordability" of college is a top issue, said Mark Erste, Franciscan U.

2. How to Finance a Higher Education. In addition to the costs, families are apprehensive about how they are going to pay for higher education. Jennifer Ballard, Linfield C., noted that families simply are concerned about "how to finance a college education."

Mr. Sapp, Claremont McKenna, added families are worried about "paying anything, given the economic uncertainty."

Just "financing the education," said Bill Edwards, Duquesne U., is a major concern.

"How can I afford this?" "Where can I find additional grant/scholarship assistance?" "How do I manage family cash flow while my child is in college?" These are the questions Christopher Hooker-Haring is asked at Muhlenberg C.

Families also are nervous about "what types of aid are available?" said Maureen Donovan, Northeastern U. "Who should be the borrower, the student or the parent? How will a decrease in funding for federal aid programs affect my financial aid package? How can I appeal my financial aid package?"

Dianne Crozier, Union C., stated that "a frequently asked question is whether financial aid is renewable." (Union, for example, like others, offers need-based aid that can be renewed-if the student applies on time and his/her financial need stays the same. Should a family's need increase during the upper-class years, Union continues to meet that student's need.)

Families also are uneasy about "meeting the short-fall between financial aid and actual college costs," said Nava Lerer, Adelphi U. "Many families seem truly surprised that the financial aid 'package' will not cover all costs."

3. Worried About Debt. Families are further concerned about the "amount of student loan indebtedness," said Carol Lunkenheimer, Northwestern U. In fact, the chorus about their concern about debt was loud and clear.

What's the top worry? In a word: "Loans," said Richard Bory, The Cooper Union.

"Increase in loan amounts and decrease in 'gift aid,'" agreed John Sullivan, Coe C.

"Debt burden," said Kenneth G. MacKinzie, Boston U. "Parent repayment now; student repayment later." (Seventy-three percent of freshmen at BU receive aid excluding parent loans. Average aid package is $20,044.)

"The amount of self-help and student debt," said Elaine Maury, Carnegie Mellon U.

"Keeping loan indebtedness to a minimum," said Diane H. Kahaumia, The Evergreen State C.

"Students don't want loans," said Garrett Knoth, Hope C.

Families are disturbed about "having a large debt from loans after graduation," said Carlena F. Bean, Husson C.

Families are troubled about "how are they going to pay for their tuition cost without borrowing," said Tarri Vihtelic, University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Finally, as Zarrin Kerwell, Northeastern Illinois U., explained it, the cause for concern about debt is real. The "reduction in state financial assistance," he said, has meant the "higher need to borrow student loans and private loans."

"For freshmen and sophomores and their families, it is a major concern that Federal Stafford Loan limits are significantly less than the cost of tuition and fees," said Nancy Krom, U. of North Dakota.

And students and families are worried about "having a huge debt from loans after graduation," said Carlena F. Bean, Husson C.
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IMPACT OF THE INCREASED CONCERN
The impact of the concern about financial aid is manifested in several ways.

"More students are making their decision based upon cost," said Carol. A. Rowlands, Lafayette C.,

Mr. Marthers, Reed C., noted that there was a greater need for financial aid this year, adding that colleges were creating "larger incoming classes to pay the bills."

Students at public universities are requesting more financial aid as well. G. Smithson, Ohio State Lima, said that she saw, "more aid requests and more schools offering almost free tuition for first-year students with credentials."

"Families are looking for additional merit scholarships," said Jim Makin, Moravian C.

"Families of athletes seem to resist work-study because of athletic commitments," said W. Kent Barnds, Elizabethtown C., adding that "borrowing" is a concern to students and families.

In addition to reduced loans, families are anxious about in-state students maintaining grades for state-funded scholarships, according to Ivey Harrison, Presbyterian C.

Families want to make sure "aid levels are renewable each year," said Karen P. Condeni, Ohio Northern U., adding they want that continued support. While they are "hoping for a continued improved economy, families are still anxious," she observed.

Families are anxious about "one parent losing a job," said Carol Rowlands, Lafayette C.

FINANCIAL AID ADVICE
What advice do admissions officers make regarding financial aid? "Apply for scholarships," John Jacobs, University of Nevada Las Vegas, stated simply.

"Apply early to be considered for scholarships," advised David C. Cook, SUNY at Buffalo.

"Fully investigate scholarship opportunities and deadlines for each college applied to," noted Kevin J. Hastings, Knox C.

"Get aid applications in ASAP," warned G. Smithson, Ohio State Lima.

"Be aware of scholarship deadlines," said Ivey Harrison, Presbyterian C.

Andi Jones, Valparaiso U., advised students and families to "wait until financial aid awards are made (after filing the FAFSA) before ruling out private colleges." Added Karen P. Condeni, Ohio Northern U., "Keep options open regarding cost factors until you have all the info to decide."

And finally, Janet Boucouvalas, U. of Maine, had this to say: "Don't be fooled by the 'sticker price' of a university or college. Find out more about available scholarships and financial aid. And don't assume that private schools offer more quality based on price. Some of the most outstanding programs in the country are at public universities."

NEW SCHOLARSHIPS FOR FRESHMEN
CB's full survey results in Who Got In? will profile individual colleges and their new merit scholarships. Some are specific to areas of interest and not always where you might think they'd be. Moravian C., for example, has a President's scholarship for natural science interest/major. Some are for specific people. Butler U. has a new merit scholarship for "Latino Leaders." Boston U. provides a university scholarship of half tuition for top international students and engineering scholars awards of half-tuition for top engineering students.

In addition, some colleges have increased the amount of the scholarships available. At Muhlenberg C., for example, the value of its top-end Presidential Merit Award increased to $12,500 per year.

The best advice: Check the web sites of individual colleges and in the spring the printed version of CB's Who Got In?
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Rich Get Richer?
The nation's wealthiest colleges are receiving a disproportionately high level of federal student aid meant to help the poorest students, a recent New York Times article has charged.

The Times found that "the federal government typically gives the wealthiest private universities, which serve the smallest percentage of low-income students, significantly more financial aid money than their struggling counterparts with much greater shares of poor students."

The Times cited several Ivy League schools as examples. Brown, for instance, received $169.23 for every student who applied for financial aid as part of the low-interest Perkins loan program in 2000-01. Dartmouth received $174.88; Stanford got $21.80. However, the median for all of the nation's 4,000 colleges was only $14.38, and 200 colleges received less than $3 per applicant. The University of Wisconsin raked in the smallest amount, just 21 cents per student.

Meanwhile, Ivy League colleges received 5 to 8 times the median for students in their work-study programs. And despite some of the nation's largest endowments, their students received 5 to 20 times the median in grant money for poor students.

The revelations come at a time when Congress is beginning a Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act which regulates student aid programs and are certain to raise fundamental questions about the fairness of the nation's student aid programs.
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Average Test Scores

Criminal Justice (Bachelor's.) Adelphi U.

Marine Science BS, minors in Arab Studies and in Multi-ethnic studies. American U.

Sports medicine, international business. Belmont Abbey C.

Journalism. Bethel C.

Health sciences, business law. Boston U.

Information systems, bachelor of humanities and arts, bachelor of sciences and arts. Carnegie Mellon U.

EE-Economics/engineering dual degree program. Claremont McKenna C.

Film and media studies minor. Colgate U.

Athletic training, middle level education. C. of Charleston.

Multidisciplinary engineering. The Cooper Union.

Archeology. Dickinson C.

Entrepreneurial program in business. Duquesne U.

Theater, criminal justice. Elizabeth C.

Minors in geographic information systems and multimedia authoring. Elon U.

Chinese studies, American studies. Emory U.

Professional golf management; athletic training/sports medicine; social work (BSW); and biomedical mathematics. Florida State U.

Religious education. Franciscan U.

New program in "Culture, Brain and Development." Hampshire C.

Physical therapy expanded to six years from five. Husson C.

Discovery externships. Kalamazoo C.

Major in mathematical finance, minors in business and management, journalism, dance. Knox. C.

New concentration in writing within English major. Lafayette C.

Environmental studies (policy or science). Linfield C.

Criminology and criminal justice. Longwood U.

Recorded music. NYU.

Chinese, East Asian studies, art history minor. North Central C.

Health and wellness. Northeastern Ill. U.

Legal studies, European studies. Northwestern U.

Athletic training. The Ohio State U.

Mathematics and biology. Ohio State Lima.

Minor in marketing. Ohio Northern U.

Cinema studies, comparative American studies, first-year seminar program. Oberlin C.

Black studies major, business honors program, biomedical informatics. Portland State U.

Dance performance. Rhode Island C.

U.S. cultural and ethnic studies minor. St. Lawrence U.

Information systems major, global studies minor. Saint Michael's C.

Biology. Southern Virginia U.

Computational science, environmental science. SUNY Brockport.

Information technology. U.S. Naval Academy.

Human communication science, music-open studies, bioengineering, gender and women's studies. U. of Illinois.

Arabic language study, Japanese, cognitive science. Swarthmore C.

International studies major, a new learning community for writers, a new major in performing arts entrepreneurship. U. of Iowa.

Information systems engineering. U. of Maine.

Accounting controllership, specialization in childhood education and family, support in general studies education. U. of Michigan-Dearborn.

Jewish studies, screenwriting. UNC-Chapel Hill.

Music therapy, managerial finance and corporate accounting. U. of North Dakota.

Human relations, entrepreneurship and venture management, human resources management, supply chain management, industrial engineering pre-medicine. U. of Oklahoma.

Information systems technology, geosciences. U. of Tulsa.

3+3 law program for BA/BS and JD. Valparaiso U.
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What's Popular?
There was a time when philosophy was considered the queen of the disciplines. Today? Not one college to date in CB's Annual National Survey of College Admissions Trends noted philosophy as a popular major on its campus. Foreign languages weren't noted either. We're not sure what that means. But admissions officers did indicate trends emerging about majors on their campuses in other subjects.

Karen P. Condeni, Ohio Northern U., said she sees a "greater interest in placement opportunities and starting salaries and greater interest in health-related programs."

Carol Lunkenheimer, Northwestern U., noted an "increased interest in liberal arts degrees."

Elaine Maury, Carnegie Mellon, also noticed "larger numbers of applicants in the humanities and social sciences."

At Purdue U. "more students are applying to business, health-related and computer-related majors," said Jerry Ripke.

And the U.S. Coast Guard has seen more applications from female students.

In addition, did you know that commercial aviation is one of the most popular majors at U. of North Dakota? Meteorology at Valparaiso U? Naval architecture at the U.S. Naval Academy?

CB tallied the most popular majors cited by colleges. Overwhelming, the top four: Business, psychology, biology, education. The next six: Communications, English, engineering, economics, political science, nursing.

Below are a few more examples of popular majors on individual college campuses:

American U.: International studies, business administration, public communication, political science, psychology.

Amherst C.: English, history, political science, psychology, biology.

Boston C.: Communications, English, finance, accounting, education, nursing, chemistry, biology, political science, psychology, economics.

Boston U.: Communication and journalism, business administration and management, engineering, health and rehabilitation services, psychology.

Carnegie Mellon U: Engineering, computer science, science, fine arts.

Colgate U.: Psychology, English, economics.

Dartmouth C.: Economics, psychology, government, biology.

NYU: Business, theater, pre-med, film.

Northwestern U.: Biology, economics, political science, history, journalism, theatre, music performance, engineering.

The Ohio State U.: Psychology, biology, English.

Purdue U.: Engineering, liberal arts, engineering technologies, education.

Swarthmore C.: Economics, biology, English, psychology.

UNC-Chapel Hill: Business, biology, journalism, communication.

U. of North Dakota: Commercial aviation, elementary education, nursing, psychology.

Wabash C.: English, history, political science.

Yale U.: History, biology, economics.
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Minority Affairs
WHILE THE debate over Affirmative Action raged in the courts over the last year, nearly 62 percent of the colleges responding to date to CB's annual survey admitted more U.S. minority students in 2003 than in 2002.

David Burgess, Portland State U., where 20 percent of student enrollment is comprised of minority students, said, "The number of underrepresented students at PSU continues to grow." PSU has also seen an increase for its minimum requirement for automatic admissions increase from 2.5 GPA to 3.0 GPA.

About 15 percent of the schools admitted fewer minority students and 19 percent admitted about the same number of minority students as last year.

CB also asked colleges what percent of their college is made up of minority students. Aside from the HBCUs, the range was from 3 percent (Ohio Northern U.) to 47 percent (Northeastern U.) Creighton U. noted that minority enrollment is up at its school by about 20 percent. Reed C. noted it had a two percent increase of minority students.

Some of those colleges that admitted more minority students in 2003 and the percentage of the college made up of minority students include: American (17 percent); Belmont Abbey (25 percent); C. of Mt. St. Joseph (15 percent); Cornell C. (11 percent); Creighton U. (16 percent); Dartmouth (27 percent); Dickinson C. (8 percent); Elon U. (8 percent); Emory U. (30 percent);The Evergreen State (18 percent); Hope C. (7 percent); Kalamazoo C. (12 percent); Lafayette C. (14 percent); Linfield C. (11 percent); Longwood U. (15 percent); Marygrove C. (35 percent); Moravian C. (10 percent);

NYU (13 percent); Northeastern U. (21 percent); Oberlin C. (19 percent); Providence C. (9 percent); Reed C. (18 percent); St. Lawrence U. (8 percent); Saint Michael's C. (6 percent); Union C. (13 percent); U.S. Coast Guard Academy (20 percent); U. of California, Davis (13 percent); U. of Maine (4 percent); U. of Nevada Las Vegas ( 29 percent); UNC-Chapel Hill (21 percent); U. of North Dakota (6 percent); U. of Oklahoma (21 percent); U. of Texas-Arlington (46 percent); and U. of Texas at Austin (41 percent).
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NEWS YOU CAN USE
Depression and the Internet. Students who spend too much time online often have other problems such as depression, argues a paper published in a recent issue of Media Psychology. Students who over-use the net often have feelings that they can't stop. Feelings of depression were also evident in these users. Some 465 students from Midwestern universities participated in the study. The typical Internet user put in an hour-and-a-half on the net.

Plagiarism Grows. A survey of 18,000 students at 23 colleges across the nation reveals that 38 percent have plagiarized material from the Internet. That's up 28 percent from three years ago, according to Donald L. McCabe, the Rutgers University management professor who conducted the study. And 22 percent of the students were serious cheaters, using unauthorized notes or copying from other students during tests. Half of all cheaters also viewed their behavior as either trivial or didn't see it as cheating.

Part of the problem appears to be that students are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism (copying or paraphrasing without attribution). Institutions have to do a better job of educating their students on what constitutes cheating and why it is not acceptable, the study concluded. The problem also seems to result because students, who are under greater pressure to get good grades, see rampant cheating in the business and political worlds, according to McCabe. Professors are picking up on the trend and are trying to rout out cheaters. More than 20 percent in McCabe's survey are using technology such as www.turnitin.com to detect cheaters.

Distances Expanding. In 1994-95, about 754,000 U.S. students were involved in distance learning. By the 2000-1 school year, that number had mushroomed to 2,876,000, according to a new U.S. Department of Education report. That translates into 118,000 distance courses in 2000-01. Over 55 percent of two and four-year colleges, 2,320, offered distance education in 2000-01, up 44 percent from the last study. Public institutions are more avid distance learning users than private colleges. To view the report, see http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003017(.)

High-tech dorm life. The Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago opened a $28 million high-tech dormitory this fall designed by former student and architecture super-star Helmut Jahn. The residence features 65,000 feet of glass for 360 student suites and apartments. (A computer-monitored laundry service alerts students via the Web when their laundry load is ready!)
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Upcoming Deadlines

COLLEGE BOUND's Publisher/Editor: R. Craig Sautter, DePaul University; Chief Operating Officer: Sally Reed; Contributor: Marc Davis; Circulation: Irma Gonzalez-Hider; Illustration: Louis Coronel; Board of Advisors: Rosita Fernandez-Rojo, Choate-Rosemary Hall; Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford (N.Y.) Central School District; Howard Greene, author, The Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning Series; 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.).

In This Issue

Feature Articles
The Top Concerns of Parents

Rich Get Richer

Average Test Scores

COUNSELOR'S CORNER
New Majors or Programs

What's Popular?

Minority Affairs

NEWS YOU CAN USE
-Depression and the Internet
-Plagiarism Grows
-Distances Expanding
-High-tech Dorm Life

Upcoming Deadlines

COMING UP...
To place your advanced order for copies of the 18th annual edition of Who Got In? 2004 COLLEGE BOUND's National Survey of College Admissions Trends, available later this spring, send a check or purchase order to COLLEGE BOUND, PO Box 6536, Evanston, IL 60204; call 773-262-5810 or see www.collegeboundnews.com. (CB now has Paypal available on its web site for credit card orders and renewals.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!