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Vol. 20 No. 1
September 2005
CB's Summer Round-Up...
Web Now Primary College Search Tool
JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, the Internet
became a new and easy way to aid in the college search. Students
consulted it, along with traditional ways of learning about colleges
and the college admissions process. But traditions prevailed.
Students consulted counselors, made visits, read printed brochures
and guide books, talked to friends. Much of that still happens.
But now, only a decade later, most college-bound students
are turning to the Internet first to find out about and apply
to colleges. "It has changed from the Internet being a supplement
to the Internet becoming the first source," said Judy Hingle,
director for professional development at the National Association
of College Admission Counseling in a June 10 article in the The
Chronicle of Higher Education.
As a result, colleges have gone all out to make their web
sites informative and inviting to college-bound students. Some
have realized that web contact with prospective students requires
new techniques and outreach.
Drexel U. in Philadelphia, for instance, creates an individual
web page for each of its prospective students, which is personalized
with university news of specific interest to the student, such
as items on their possible major and about events on campus.
"It's really customized or tailored information for a student,"
Drexel's vice president for enrollment management, Joan T. McDonald,
told The Chronicle. "The use of technology is terrific
in recruiting students, but you have to have the staff to be
there to respond." And students expect quick responses.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, has even
launched its own student "blogs" to help prospective
students get a better feel for campus life. Three students, selected
by the university, write uncensored accounts of their college
adventures and answer e-mails from college-bound students and
their parents.
"It's really been a great way to connect students to
the campus in a virtual format," Glenna L. Ryan, Rensselaer's
director of enrollment services, explained.
Of course, individual college web sites also provide students
with detailed information on the background of faculty members
and courses offered, as well as access to student newspapers
and other publications that help bring campus life into focus.
NEW WEB SOURCE FOR ATHLETES
High school athletes are turning to a new Web site
to find college sports programs that provide the best chance
to earn a quality college degree. The research tool was created
by Jeffrey W. Lucas and Michael J. Lovaglia, two sociologists,
who compare schools using what they call a Student Athlete Performance
Rating. So far, the rating includes football and men's basketball
in the Bowl Championship Series leagues. For more info see: http://www.sociology.uiowa.edu/bestschoolsforathletes/index.htm.
NEW ONLINE "COUNSELORS"
At the same time, the online admissions process is
being made simpler by a number of other outside sources, such
as those found at http://collegeboard.com/csearch
or www.destination-u.com,
which promises to be a student's "online counselor,"
for $49.50. These services allow students to find schools that
fit their interests and needs through a matching of student to
college profiles. "For the cost of about one application,
isn't it worth having good advice going in?" asks Destination-U's
chief executive officer Greg Waldorf. Evidently, more college-bound
students think it is.
ONLINE COURSES INCREASE
Other sources are reporting that the number of students
taking online courses has doubled in the two years from 2002
to 2004 to 937,000. According to a report from Eduventures Inc.,
a research and consulting company, the greatest growth came among
the for-profit colleges, although most online courses are found
in traditional non-profit colleges. Eduventures expects the rate
of growth in students taking courses online this year to be about
7 percent, and says that it's one way non-profit colleges can
stem their recent losses to the for-profits.
DUKE'S IPODS
Meanwhile, on campus, last year's experiment to give
an iPod to every new Duke student had educational benefits in
many classes, a university study found. Although iPods were not
useful in all classes, 50 courses and 1,200 first-year students
put them to work. About 60 percent of Duke freshmen used its
digital recording capabilities for lectures and interviews. Only
28 percent employed the iPod's hard drive storage capabilities.
Many faculty members applauded the device's convenience and portability.
In the future, Duke will only use free iPods when they are requested
for specific courses. See www.duke.edu/ipod.
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Majority Attend Several Colleges
WHILE COLLEGE-BOUND STUDENTS are
struggling to find the one best college suited for them, a new
U.S. Department of Education report indicates that most students
actually end up attending more than one college before they graduate.
In fact, a surprising 59 percent of students who earned B.A.
degrees in 2000 transferred from their initial college or attended
two colleges at once, according to the report, "The Road
Less Traveled? Students Who Enroll in Multiple Institutions."
As a result, most students are taking longer to graduate.
Nearly 60 percent of students who started out at a community
college transferred only once. But problems with transfer credits,
among other issues, meant it took them eight years, on average,
to graduate. Another 28 percent transferred twice and took 11
years to earn their B.A.
Students who start at a public four-year college are as likely
to transfer as those who attend a private four-year school. About
28 percent of them attended two institutions, while 13 percent
went to three schools. You can find the report at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005157.
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Colleges Fielding Diverse Classes
Colleges are booming these days. Enrollment is up 15 percent
in the decade beginning in 1993, according to a new report from
the U.S. Census Bureau, "School Enrollment--Social and Economic
Characteristics of Students: October 2003." The number of
students grew from 14.4 million to 16.6 million during the decade.
Minority groups are gaining a larger place on campus. Hispanic
enrollment shot up from 4 percent to 10 percent in 2003. Black
student enrollment grew from 10 percent to 13 percent, and the
number of Asian-American students jumped from 4 to 7 percent.
Find the Census report at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html.
Meanwhile, two Princeton U. researchers have tried to calculate
the effects of eliminating all race-based admissions policies
and concluded that drastic reductions would result in some minority
enrollment at elite colleges and universities. Published in the
June issue of Social Science Quarterly, the findings predict
that the number of African-American and Hispanic students would
decline, the number of Asian-American students would jump and
the number of white students would remain stable.
The researchers predicted the acceptance rate for black students
would skid from 33.7 percent to 12.2 percent; for Hispanics drop
from 26.8 percent to 12.9 percent and that Asian-American students
would be the beneficiaries of those declines. You can purchase
the entire article at www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/ssqu/86/2.
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Career Schools Booming
WHAT HAPPENS TO MANY of the students
who drop out of high school or graduate with low academic skills,
many with high aspirations but coming from poverty-level homes?
According to a July 12 report in The New York Times, many
are seeking to improve their situations by enrolling in commercial
and for- profit schools.
According to the Times, "enrollment at commercial
degree-granting schools grew 147 percent between 1995 and 2002,
the most recent numbers available, to nearly 600,000 students."
Part of the rapid growth is being fueled "by the rise
of education conglomerates," part by Internet degree options
and the targeting of "struggling students who had not been
sought out by traditional institutions."
QUALITY WORRIES PERSISTS
After some for-profit schools were prosecuted for
financial fraud by the federal government in the late 1980s and
early 1990s and new regulations were imposed, the number of commercial
schools "plummeted." Too many students were dropping
out and were caught unable or unwilling to repay federal loans.
Too many schools were recruiting students bound for failure and
profiting from student aid windfalls.
After the shakedown, the quality of training in basic and
more advanced skills remains, for the most part, unknown, the
Times concluded. The paper quoted Gail O. Mellow, president
of La Guardia Community College, as saying that when it tried
to help students from one failed commercial school, it found
"their level of preparation was so low that they were not
passing our basic placement tests."
Yet, things may have improved somewhat in recent times, the
Times concluded. Career colleges of less than four years
now post a 65 percent graduation rate, the Times reported,
in contrast to a 51 percent graduation rate for private nonprofit
colleges and a dismal 27 percent graduation rate for all public
colleges and universities. So proponents argue that horror stories
at the commercial schools, which persist, need to be put into
some perspective.
THE APPEAL
Students are attracted to commercial schools through
aggressive advertisements on TV, on buses and subways, by the
promise of adequate financial aid (mostly Pell and state grants)
and by more promises of a better-paying job at the end of the
process. Many students find their expectations met and gain degrees
in specialized work-related fields, then find jobs. Many others
do not.
The Times quoted one satisfied graduate from the Bronx
who said the administrators and teachers at Monroe College, "held
my hand in a way that helped me to succeed."
"Our institutions do quite well with what they do, because
it is consumer-driven," Bruce D. Leftwich, of the Career
College Association, told the Times.
MISLEADING JOB CLAIMS?
However, the National Consumer Law Center has issued
a report charging that many for-profit colleges are still making
false or misleading claims about program completion rates and
job placements from their programs. Its report is called, "Making
the Numbers Count: Why Proprietary-School Performance Data Doesn't
Add Up and What Can Be Done About It." But, not surprisingly,
the Career College Association has disputed its findings.
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CB Marks 20th Year of Reporting
WELCOME BACK to another school
year and college admissions cycle! With this issue, CB marks
the beginning of our 20th year of in-depth reporting on college
admissions and financial aid news and trends that impact the
work of high school college counselors and college admissions
officers.
Over the past two decades, COLLEGE BOUND has brought you first-in-the-nation
reports on numbers from each admissions cycle. We have covered
the demographic dips and surges that have impacted admissions
cycles. We have tracked admissions trends in colleges small and
large, and the rise of early admissions, new programs, new scholarships
and the immerging use of the Web.
We have followed the path of state and federal student aid
issues, discussed the shift of help from grants to loans, documented
issues of minority representation, provided monthly counseling
tips from experts, followed admissions stories in sources across
the world and presented hundreds of other stories of use to college-bound
students, their families and those who counsel them. We've even
leaped on to the Internet, where all CB subscribers can get easy
and immediate access to past and present issues at www.collegeboundnews.com.
CB thanks our long-time subscribers who have been with us
from the beginning two decades ago. And we pledge to all our
subscribers, in high schools and colleges and counseling offices
across the U.S. and in more than 40 nations, that we will continue
to do our best to keep you informed on emerging admissions and
aid trends and bring you the latest data on our ever-changing
admissions landscape.
Thanks for subscribing and have a great school year!
Sally Reed & R. Craig Sautter
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THE COUNSELOR'S
CORNER
Financial Aid Strategies & Resources
IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY (and it is often
too late) for college-bound students to think about financial
aid. Several of the most important sessions at the National Association
for College Admissions Counseling annual conference in Milwaukee
last fall centered on financial aid. Here are a few of the insights
from Marc A. Nivet, at the time director of state outreach for
The Sallie Mae Fund, the non-profit arm of the billion-dollar
loan company.
ABOVE ALL DON'T BE INTIMIDATED
The idea of paying for college is intimidating for
all of us-students, parents, counselors. But it doesn't have
to be difficult, and you don't have to be an expert. The Sallie
Mae Fund and the federal government offer lots of proven resources
to help you and your students work out financial aid problems.
MISSION ACCESS
The Sallie Mae Fund's mission is simply to increase
access to higher education. "Project Access" is its
newest initiative trying to increase the number of people who
know that college is possible for them, and that shows them how
they can pay for it. The Fund also runs a "Paying for College
Program."
Also, a "Latino Paying for College Bus Tour" began
not long ago at a high school where there were 6,000 students
and just four guidance counselors. Fund experts did a workshop
directly for about 500 of the students and another for their
parents. The Fund is taking the program to the 22 most populated
Hispanic areas around the country, hoping to reach at least 10,000
a year.
The Fund also recently commissioned a study of how Latino
students find out information about paying for college. It turns
out that they find out about information really late in their
senior year. That causes lots of problems getting aid. So the
Fund is trying to reach them earlier by focusing on junior high
school, and sophomores and juniors in high school to reach them
earlier.
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
The Sallie Mae Fund also runs "The First in My
Family Scholarship Program." Counselors often ask about
their "B" and "C" students, those who work
hard and are the first in their families to go to college. These
students are eligible for this scholarship program and can apply
online. All you have to do is make your students aware of this
option.
Most people think that Sallie Mae is just a loan company.
But the Sallie Mae Fund has lots of scholarships that people
don't know about.
Also, there are many state grants that people don't know exist.
The states can't afford to publicize them and many are under-utilized.
And remember, "Work Study" opportunities can sometimes
be aligned with what students are studying, usually on-campus,
but sometimes with non-profits off campus.
WHAT ABOUT MIDDLE-CLASS
STUDENTS?
What can middle-class students do to get financial
aid? The assumption is, "Don't just poor students get grants?"
The answer is "No." Everyone should apply for financial
aid, whether they believe they are wealthy, middle class or in-need.
Financial aid is not for low-income students only. Unfortunately,
many people think it is.
Too many students pick their school because the costs are
lower, not understanding how financial aid works. In fact, they
can go to a more expensive school, and based on the aid they
receive, they can qualify for financial aid. The cost of attending
an elite college in some cases may be just a little more than
the local community college after all the grants and loans are
taken into account. There is a lot of money available for those
students, but they have to apply for it and not cut off their
own options too soon.
Another problem is parents wait too long to fill out their
taxes. They need to get them in as close to January 1 as possible
so they have time to get all the paperwork in for scholarships
and loans.
College-bound students and parents have to get away from thinking
only about income, because there are so many scholarships that
deal with other things. They also need to become wiser and only
take out loans for educational items they really need and not
build up unnecessary debt.
The trick is learning how to find accurate and useful scholarship
information. There are lots of good places to go, but there are
also bad ones that charge you too much for way too little. But
there are good free resources out there. Utilize them.
WORKSHOP LEADERS AVAILABLE
The Sallie Mae Fund wants to be invited into your
high school to do financial aid workshops. Representatives will
come if you can get an audience of at least 100 students, parents,
teachers or counselors. They will also raffle off a $500 scholarship
for one of your students at that event, something that has been
going on since 1997. The Fund can do a workshop for you, your
school, your students and parents or get you materials to help
you at your workshops. If you have smaller groups, the Fund can
send out DVD's that cover the same topics and other resources.
Finally, you should know that The Sallie Mae Fund is looking
for your ideas about how to reach your students and other constituencies
to expand access to college. You can find a place on the Fund's
web site for you to submit ideas.
For more information, see www.thesalliemaefund.org and download
materials. Or go to FAFSA.gov for basic entry financial aid forms.
You can also find links on scholarships through these web sites.
Marc A. Nivet is now with the
Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in New York.
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P.S. Student Loan Debt
The American Council on Education has issued a new report
that states in the decade between the 1992-93 school year to
2003-04, the number of student loans grew from 4.8 to 10.8 million.
Then, students borrowed $19.8 billion; 10 years later that had
risen to $50.5 billion. About 48 percent of all students from
families making $100,000 or less took out loans for the 2003-04
school year. Find the report, "Federal Student Loan Debt:
1993-2004 at www.acenet.edu.
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FINANCIAL AID FLASH
Direct Lending Split. Who is providing the most
loans through the federal direct lending program? According to
Department of Education figures, Ohio State U. with $265 million,
followed by U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities, U. of Florida, Arizona
State U. and U. of Michigan.
Which schools have abandoned direct lending to join the school-as-lender
program with private lenders who offer lucrative incentives for
the school? Michigan Sate U. with $53 million, followed by U.
of Missouri at Kansas City, Case Western U., the Michigan State
U. Detroit College of Law and Wayne State U.
Colorado's
Opportunity Fund. This summer, Colorado launched its new
College Opportunity Fund which seeks to encourage more Coloradoans
to attend college by giving $2,400 stipends directly to some
college students. At the same time, state colleges have signed
four-year performance agreements with the Colorado Commission
on Higher Education to improve graduation rates and other performances.
In return, the colleges are left free to reset their tuition
rates. The agreements may help them edge around a state constitutional
amendment that sets limits on educational spending. Critics seeking
to reform their own state systems are closely watching the new
voucher and performance experiment.
Motorola
Mobility. If you know a college student who is thinking on
the cutting edge of communications technology, tell them to think
about entering Motorola's "MOTOFWRD" scholarship contest.
Among other things, the winner earns a $10,000 cash scholarship
for thinking of the best idea of new ways to promote "seamless
mobility" of information, entertainment and communications.
Deadline: November 15. For details see: www.motorola.com/motofwrd.
Siemens
Westinghouse Competition. Make sure top mathematics and science
students know about the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math,
Science & Technology. Grand winner takes away $100,000, but
others win scholarships along the way. Deadline: October 3. For
more info see: http://www.siemens-foundation.org/competition.
Army
Medical Scholarships. Students who want to graduate from
medical or dental school debt free should investigate The F.
Edward Hebert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program
at http://healthcare.goarmy.com.
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NEWS YOU CAN USE
Comings and Goings. Richard C. Shaw, Yale U.'s
dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, has traveled
to the Pacific coast to assume the same position with Stanford.
During his tenure at Yale, Levin helped the number of applications
for 1,300 slots grow from 12,900 to 19,500. Wells C. in Aurora,
New York, is no longer an all-women's school. As of this fall,
Wells started admitting men. More will be encouraged to apply
for next year. Middlebury C. in Vermont announced it is assuming
management of the Monterey Institute of International Studies
in California.
Improving
the Admissions System. That was the theme of a two-day "Summit
on Admissions" this summer for college deans and high school
counselors hosted by the Education Conservancy in Portland, headed
up by Lloyd Thacker, author of College Unranked: Affirming
Educational Values In College Admissions. EC reports over
4,000 copies of the book have been sold. Harvard U. Press is
reissuing the book. For more info, see www.educationconservancy.org.
Fires
Kill Students. Each year 1,700 fires ravage college housing
and kill 75 people, mostly students. That's why the American
Society of Safety Engineers is concerned that students going
back to school check their new rooms and housing for fire safety,
establish escape routes, obtain fire extinguishing equipment
and practice fire prevention. The top causes of campus fires?
Arson, cooking, smoking, open flames such as candles, electrical
distribution and equipment. For more tips go to: www.asse.org/newsroom.
European
Higher Education Reform Spreads. The European Union has set
a goal of becoming the world's top knowledge-driven economy by
2010. So despite defeat of a recent European constitution, an
attempt to modernize and standardize European universities has
spread to 45 nations.
With the admission of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova
and the Ukraine, the so-called Bologna process has reached far
into the East to help develop former Soviet societies.
According to a recent report in The Chronicle of Higher
Education, the result is likely to be a new European Higher
Education Area which will synchronize degree structure with three-year
B.A. degrees, common requirements and quality controls.
The reforms will allow students to move among European universities
with greater ease, promote greater access to higher education
regardless of "social or economic background" and attract
students from outside of Europe. That could mean greater competition
for U.S. universities where according to the American Council
on Education, international applications for U.S. graduate programs
dove by 28 percent last year.
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Counselor's Bookshelf
Barron's Guide to the Most Competitive Colleges,
4th edition, updates data for 70 of "the most academically
competitive four-year colleges for 'high-achieving students.'"
There is a chapter on "application strategies" as well
as college essays written by recent grads. Edited by The College
Division Staff of Barron's Educational Series, Inc., Barron's
Educational Series, Inc.; ISBN 0-7641-3197-4, $18.99; see: www.barronseduc.com.
Is Separate Unequal? Black Colleges and the Challenge to
Desegregation, Albert Samuels; University Press of Kansas;
$34.95.
A History of American Higher Education, John R. Thelin;
The John Hopkins University Press; ISBN 0-8018-8004-1; $19.95.
The Community College Experience, Amy Baldwin; Pulaski
Technical College; ISBN 0-13-117297-2; $25.33.
Supertest: How the International Baccalaureate Can Strengthen
Our Schools, Jay Matthews and Ian Hill, Open Court; ISBN
0-8126-9577-1; $29.95.
Crash Course for the New SAT: The Last Minute Guide to
Scoring High on the New Test, Third Edition, Jeff Rubenstein,
Princeton Review/Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-375-76461-5; $9.95.
The Distance Learner's Guide, second edition, Western
Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications; Edited by Sally
M. Johnstone and George P. Connick, Pearson Education, Inc.;
ISBN 0-13-114540-1; .
"Annual Directory of New England Colleges and Universities
2005," Connection: The Journal of the New England Board
of Higher Education, Volume XIX, Number 3, Directory 2005;
$20.00.
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COLLEGE BOUND's Publisher/Editor: R. Craig
Sautter, DePaul University; Chief Operating Officer: Sally
Reed; 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.).
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