Category Archives: in the news

campus security, college guidance, college planning, in the news

Are you concerned about campus security?

UnknownAlthough the thought of your child attending college brings forth feelings of pride and anticipation, if they are going to be living on campus, it’s understandable why it may also evoke a certain amount of concern. We all have read the news stories of unfortunate crimes that have happened at various colleges and universities across the country prompting you to investigate the security and safety of your child’s prospective colleges.

As matter of fact, just this past January, the Huffington Post published an article that featured the “Top 10 safest colleges within the United States”. Some of the schools on that list included Southern University at New Orleans, Virginia Western Community College and Erkskin College and Seminary in Due West, South Carolina. However, if your child is planning to attend another school, thanks to the Office of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education, there is something called the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool that provides up-to-date information on alleged criminal offenses that have been reported to campus security offices across the country (you can read more about this at Ope.Ed.Gov/security).

But, if you would like a checklist of things to inquire about as it relates to your child’s college campus and its level of security, we have provided you with five things that can help to put your mind at ease below:

Ask if there is 24-hour campus security. Every college campus has security officers and most of them have patrol cars, but not all of them necessarily have 24-hour security that is available should your child need to be escorted to their car or dorm room very late at night. Therefore, it’s important to not assume that there is this kind of assistance available. Make sure to ask.

Look to see if the campus is well-lit (at all times). Something as simple as a broken light in a parking lot or in an alley in between builds can lead to a criminal act. That’s why it’s vital that you tell your child to make sure that the campus is well-lit at night and if they see any broken lights to immediately report it to campus security or the administration.

Inquire about self-defense classes. One wonderful thing about college is that there tends to be classes for just about anything that your student can think of. So, encourage them to see if there are self-defense classes that are offered on campus and if so, let them know how smart it would be of them to take a few.

Mention Safe Place USA. There is a a great deal of petty theft that tends to happen on college campuses. While paying the cost of a home security system for a dorm room doesn’t make the most logical sense, there is an alternative. If your child needs a place to store expensive jewelry and other really valuable items, one option to consider is Safe Place USA. It’s a company that specializes in providing in-room safes for universities. (SafePlace-USA.com)

Ask if it is mandatory to wear student/staff IDs. Another thing that sometimes leads to criminal activity is when people who are not students or staff are hanging out, constantly, on campus. One way to determine who is supposed to be on the grounds and who is not is for students and staff to have their ID on their person at all times. It might seem a bit tedious to do, but if it can help to keep people safe by making everyone aware of who is entitled to be on campus and who is not.

college planning, in the news

5 Tech Tips for college-bound students

Unknown-3College environments are richer in technology today than ever before. Where students used to use card catalogs and microfilm for research, they now use online databases. Where professors used to write lecture notes on blackboards, they now use electronic slide shows. Technology is growing and evolving by the day, and students need to keep up with this progress in order to make the most of their college years.

Remember these 5 tech tips for college bound students and get off to a great start.

  1. Always Try Before You Buy
    Technological investments can be very expensive, and you don’t want to drop large amounts of your own money on something that isn’t going to work for you. Whether you’re shopping for a new computer, a software package, or any other tech item, be sure to try before you buy. You might not realize by simply reading product descriptions that a given product isn’t going to suit your needs. Take advantage of free trials, and talk to friends about taking their tech items for a spin before you commit to a purchase.
  2. Talk to Professors About Software
    There are a number of software packages that may benefit you in school, and some of them are available at a significant discount to students. Try to talk to college professors about what kinds of software may benefit you. Tech needs vary from student to student, and the software suite that works for your friend in finance may not be useful for your curriculum. You want to use technology to your advantage, and your professors can show you the best way to do so.
  3. Take Advantage of Networking Opportunities Online
    One of the greatest advantages of modern technology for students is the capacity for networking. Through email, social media, and a number of other avenues, you can easily stay in touch with everyone you meet in college. These people can become your best friends now, and they can become valuable professional contacts in the future. Never underestimate the importance of networking, and use technology to your advantage while you study to build connections with the people you meet.
  4. Look for Ways to Save
    Technology can be expensive, but clever students can save money by shopping smart and making the most of their tech potential. Tune into special sales and promotions like Cyber Monday, when tech items are sold at significant discount. Use your technology to its fullest potential while you study. Rather than buy heavy and expensive texts, see if your required literature is available for download in e-book format. Avoid spending on planners and other organizational tools by using your computer, smart phone, or tablet to fill this purpose. There are dozens of ways to make your technology work for you and save money at the same time.
  5. Learn as Much as You Can
    Learn as much as you can about technology while you’re in school. Getting into web design and SEO, learning how to implement keywords, and knowing how to reverse a Google penalty are all valuable skills in a world in which industry is governed by technology. Prepare yourself for a career in the digital world by becoming an expert on modern technology while you study in college.

Staying abreast of technology and using it to your advantage is imperative in today’s digital age.

 

college guidance, college planning, in the news, parenting

Parents should encourage AP classes

The College Board released a press release and accompanying report related to the Class of 2012 Advanced Placement® results. While participation and performance increased compared to the Class of 2011, many High School students with potential for success in college-level AP® Courses still lack access. Parents of college-bound teens should encourage their students to take advantage of AP classes offered in high school. Following is a short excerpt from the press release, along with a link to view the complete report.

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UnknownNEW YORK — Ensuring that all academically prepared high school students have access to rigorous college-level course work that will enable them to persist in and graduate from college is critical for the United States to remain competitive in a global economy — particularly in crucial STEM-related disciplines. Educators are increasingly adopting the rigorous standards found within the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) to help the nation’s high school students develop the critical thinking, reasoning and communication skills that are essential for college success.

Data released today by the College Board as part of The 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation revealed that more high school graduates are participating — and succeeding — in college-level AP courses and exams than ever before. Succeeding in AP is defined as achieving a score of 3 or higher on the five-point AP Exam scale, which is the score needed for credit, advanced placement or both at the majority of colleges and universities.

“By exposing students to college-level work while still in high school, Advanced Placement dramatically improves college completion rates,” said David Coleman, President of the College Board. “Today we applaud those educators who have worked tirelessly to bring the power of AP to more communities and more students than ever before. But we must not forget the hundreds of thousands of students with the potential to succeed in Advanced Placement who don’t even have access to its coursework.  If we hope to achieve our long-term college completion goals, we must ensure that every student has access to a rigorous education.”

Current research on AP course work confirms AP’s comparability to introductory college courses in content, skills and learning outcomes. Research consistently shows that students earning placement into advanced course work based on AP Exam scores perform as well as — or better than — students who have completed the introductory course at a college or university. In fact, students who succeed on an AP Exam during high school typically experience greater overall academic success in college, and are more likely than their non-AP peers to graduate from college and to graduate on time, experiencing lower college costs than the majority of American college students.

The 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation is available at apreport.collegeboard.org.

You can also download the condensed version of the report located within the press release:

National Release _ APRN_FINAL

 

in the news, infographics, online learning

America’s Most Innovative Colleges

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In late June 2012, CampusTechnology.com revealed the winners of its 2012 Innovators Awards, which are given out to IT leaders who have come up with extraordinary technology solutions for campus challenges. This infographic gives us a snapshot of the leaders; I bet you will be surprised who scored an award!

Innovations on Campus
Put Together By: OnlineUniversities.com

college planning, financial aid, in the news

College Debt = Higher Tuition and less Merit Aid

The Wall Street journal posted an article today, “Tough Times for Colleges–and College Towns”, about the tough times that colleges are facing.

The outlook isn’t good. Bain, which markets its consulting services to universities, and Sterling Partners, which invests in education companies, examined the balance sheets from 2006 to 2010 of schools in their report. They found many schools operating on the assumption that the more they build, spend and diversify the more they will prosper. They have become overleveraged, with long-term debt increasing at an average rate of about 12% a year and average annual interest expense growing at almost twice the rate of instruction-related expense.

Schools have been trying to plug the gap by jacking up tuition at rates that aren’t sustainable. The result is a fiscal hurdle that dozens of second- and third-tier public and private schools won’t be able to clear. Hundreds of schools—including some of the most prestigious institutions in the country—have tightened their belts.

It looks like the colleges are struggling, much like the students and families. Unfortunately, you know that the financial problems that colleges are experiencing will be passed along to the students by either tuition hikes or reductions in merit aid. That is not good for students and their families, especially the ones who make too much to quality for need-based aid.

What does that mean for this year’s crop of seniors? You better investigate the financial outlook of your college choices carefully and do some digging on their past merit-aid distributions over the last several years, especially if you are counting on that to pay for college.

Continue reading College Debt = Higher Tuition and less Merit Aid →

college planning, in the news

Does your student hate math?

College prep doesn’t start junior or senior year when your student starts preparing for the college application process. It ideally starts in middle school when parents and students begin to think about the future and ask questions about the student’s readiness for college. It’s not surprising either that students tend to steer away from the difficult majors, especially those requiring math.

According to survey results released recently by the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, students see barriers to pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees. This is indeed cause for concern since America is behind other countries in the number of students studying and entering these professions. According to an article in the Huffington post:

Sixty percent of respondents ages 16 to 25 to the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which seeks to gauge innovation aptitude among young adults, named at least one factor that prevented them from pursuing further education or work in science, technology, engineering and math fields (known as STEM). Thirty-four percent said they “don’t know much about these fields,” while a third said “these fields are too challenging.” Twenty-eight percent said they weren’t “well-prepared in school to seek out a career or further … [their] education in these fields.”

Alleyoop

Alleyoop, a college readiness network for students and their families, is addressing this issue by providing help in these specific areas:

What is College Readiness?

What does college readiness mean to us? It is so much more than getting accepted. An astonishing five out of six middle and high school students will not succeed in college. The cost in terms of lost potential (and tuition) is huge. College readiness is our mission, and it is our belief that it starts with mastering math.

Why Math?

Teens who master math are more likely to be successful in high school (and success in high school leads to success in college). We conducted dozens of parent and teen interviews and one theme was persistent – teens need help with math. Alleyoop offers teens the ability to practice their subject of choice at their own pace, whether they are struggling or just want to get ahead. Soon we’ll be adding virtual college guidance, English curriculum and career exploration!

How Do We Prepare Teens for College?

We are here to help teens succeed in school now and college later with our personalized learning plans, step-by-step math videos and one-on-one tutoring. We recommend just the help teens need, exactly when they need it. Alleyoop is structured as a game, with missions (a learning plan) built around achievements and Yoop rewards. We are teen tested, partnering with teens to build an environment that reflects how they like to learn. It’s empowering, it’s relevant and it’s a game.

Math Doesn’t Suck

Danica McKellar is a New York Times bestselling author, internationally-recognized mathematician and advocate for math education. A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA with a degree in Mathematics, Danica has been honored in Britain’s esteemed Journal of Physics and the New York Timesfor her work in mathematics, most notably for her role as co-author of a ground-breaking mathematical physics theorem which bears her name (The Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem).

Danica has written a book, Math Doesn’t Suck, to help middle school students (especially girls) realize their math potential, even when they think it might be difficult. An excerpt from her book explains her motivation:

I was terrified of math.

I remember sitting in my seventh grade math class, staring at a quiz as if it were written in Chinese—it might as well have been a blank sheet of paper. Total brain freeze.

Nothing made sense, I felt sick to my stomach, and I could feel the blood draining from my face. I had studied so hard, but it didn’t seem to make any difference—I barely even recognized the math problems on the page.

When the bell rang and my quiz was still blank, I wanted to disappear into my chair. I just didn’t want to exist.

If you had told me that ten years later I would be graduating from college with a degree in mathematics, I would probably have told you to get your head examined.

As it turns out, though, no head examination necessary! I did in fact develop a love of math through the eighth grade and into high school, and made up tons of cool tricks and ways of remembering things along the way—tricks that I’m now going to share with you in this book!

Does your student hate math?

If you have a student that hates math or says they don’t understand it, perhaps it’s just because they haven’t been educated properly or found the right tools and explanations to help them succeed. Alleyoop and Danica McKellar’s book might open the door and lead them to pursue a STEM degree in college. At the very least, these tools will help prepare them for college by improving their math skills.

 

financial aid, in the news

Obama’s solution to help student loan borrowers

I received this email from the Institute for College Access and Success. It was a press release issued on President Obama’s speech yesterday.

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Yesterday the Obama Administration announced important and timely new steps to help struggling student loan borrowers.  We applaud the Administration’s steps to make more federal loan borrowers aware of Income-Based Repayment and to provide additional repayment relief for up to 1.6 million current students, including a lower monthly payment cap and loan forgiveness after 20 rather than 25 years of responsible payments.

IBR has already helped nearly half a million borrowers lower their payments and avoid default, but many more borrowers are struggling to keep up with their payments in these tough economic times and could benefit from IBR and the proposed Pay-as-You-Earn option.

By encouraging more borrowers to convert their bank-based federal student loans to more cost-effective Direct Loans, the changes announced today will also help more people qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Those working for a public or nonprofit employer could see their remaining debt forgiven after just 10 years of payments. Borrowers with bank-based federal loans must already convert them to Direct Loans for their payments to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

The Administration took two additional steps to help students and families decide where to go to college and how to pay for it.  The new model financial aid disclosure form, or draft “shopping sheet,” is designed to make it easier to compare the real cost of different college options.  The new Student Debt Repayment Assistant will help current borrowers with both federal and private student loans, as well as those about to enter repayment, better understand their options.

With these changes on the way, it’s more important than ever to make sure that the millions of borrowers who could benefit from IBR know it’s out there. With the class of 2011 about to face their first student loan payments, there’s no time to waste.

IBR has been available to borrowers since July 2009. For more about how IBR and Public Service Loan Forgiveness work and how to apply, see our consumer website:www.IBRinfo.org.

For more on the Obama Administration announcement, please visit the White House website.

in the news, parenting

Parenting responsible students

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If you’re like me, you’ve been watching the news coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I know it’s a very volatile subject, but I came across this post on Facebook this morning by an anonymous student. I have to say, his or her parents must be VERY proud:

If you don’t want to reach for the glasses, here is the text of his statement:

I am a college senior, about to graduate completely debt free. I pay for all of my living expenses by working 30+ hours a week making barely above minimum wage. I chose a moderately priced in-state, public university. I started saving money for school at age 17. I got decent grades in high school and received two scholarships which cover 90% of my tuition. I currently have a 3.8 GPA. I live comfortably in a cheap apartment, knowing I can’t have everything I want. I don’t eat out every day, or even once a month. I have no credit card, new car, iPad or smart phone–and I’m perfect OK with that. If I did have debt, I would NOT blame Wall Street or the government for my own bad decisions. I live below my means to continue saving for the future. I expect nothing to be handed to me, and will continue to work my a** off for everything I have. That’s how it’s supposed to work. I am NOT the 99% and whether or not you are is YOUR decision.

At some point, we ALL have to claim responsibility for our actions. If you want your student to become an independent responsible adult, teach him that all actions have consequences and that he always has a choice. That is how to succeed in parenting responsible students.