College-Bound Buzz (August 2014)
What’s going down for the college-bound? Well, if you are a matriculating college student, you’re probably already on campus. If you’re in the high school class of 2015, you’re probably working on your college application essay, right? Everyone else is preparing for a better academic year than the one that now lingers in our memory through a haze of BBQ smoke and sun block! We see a litany of lists ranking the top colleges by any number of metrics. But how many critics have the courage to identify The 35 WORST Colleges In America PERIOD When You Consider Absolutely Everything That Matters? Here are the top (bottom) 10, but read the article for the full list and fine print: And what can any high student work on right now for greater college readiness? Our wise friends at NextStepU suggest keeping your mind on your money. Here is just one money…
Return on Investment in College
Recently, Money Magazine identified Money’s Best Colleges based on the idea of Return on Investment: To find out which of the nation’s roughly 1,500 four-year colleges offer the most bang for your tuition buck, MONEY screened out those with a below-average graduation rate and then ranked the 665 that remained on 18 factors in three categories: educational quality, affordability, and alumni earnings… Congratulations, Babson! Money used Payscale.com data, which assembled its own rankings. Congratulations, Harvey Mudd! But is ROI even a meaningful question when considering colleges? I ask the question not because I have an answer, but rather because anyone engaged in the college admissions process should have a clear idea of what they are shopping for. Consultant Parke Muth addresses the issue by analyzing various trends that impact higher education. If you’re grappling with the question of how to evaluate different college choices, you might be interested in this sweeping…
Why Going to College Pays Off
One way going to college can set you up for a great career is if you plan to work for the public sector. As the map below illustrates, every state’s highest paid public employee works for an institute of higher learning: The author of this article hits the nail on the head: You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach. If you’re not a football or basketball player, don’t worry… there’s always the private sector!
Ivory Tower: The Movie
Looking for a horror movie? The documentary Ivory Tower tackles a topic that terrifies most parents… As tuition rates spiral beyond reach and student loan debt passes $1 trillion (more than credit card debt), IVORY TOWER asks: Is college worth the cost? From the halls of Harvard, to public colleges in financial crisis, to Silicon Valley, filmmaker Andrew Rossi (PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES) assembles an urgent portrait of a great American institution at the breaking point. Through profiles at Arizona State, Cooper Union, and San Jose State —among several others—IVORY TOWER reveals how colleges in the United States, long regarded as leaders in higher education, came to embrace a business model that often promotes expansion over quality learning. But along the way we also find unique programs, from Stanford to the free desert school Deep Springs to the historically black all women’s college Spelman, where the…
College-Bound Buzz (July 2014)
What’s going down for the college-bound? A lot if you’re applying to schools this academic year. The 2014-15 Common Application will be available on August 1, and you can create your account at that time. But you don’t need to wait until then to start working on your application essay since we already know the prompts! How much is a college education worth? Many authorities project that someone who has earned a bachelor’s degree will earn an extra million or so dollars on average over a lifetime of work. Others see less potential economic gain… much, much, much less: After accounting for the cost of tuition, four years of lost earning potential, and the minimal increase in salary an undergraduate degree provides, 30-year-old local man Patrick Moorhouse has, at this point in his life, earned $11 more than he would have had he not attended college at all… And if this whole hyper-competitive…
2014-15 Common Application Essay Prompts
Basking in the hot sun to get a deep golden tan may have been discredited by doctors, but summer still has its uses. For example, summer is just about the best time for most high school students to prep for the SAT & ACT. But that’s not all: summer is also the best time for rising seniors to work on that all-important admissions essay! One of the keys to an AMAZING college essay is selecting the right prompt. Fortunately, the prompts and directions haven’t changed from last year, so here are your options for the 2013-14 Common App: Instructions. The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer…