Summit College Planning

I'm Back!

2010-01-07T10:46:00.003-05:00

To All,

It has been a LONG time since I have blogged last and thought it best to get back at it for 2010! This newest version of the FAFSA form is quite simple to complete and for the most part, really has the same stuff involved (assets, income, dates of birth and so on). I will be anxious to see the award letters that come as a result of the newest "simplified" version!

It never ceases to amaze me that the gap is growing in leaps and bounds annually between what parent's can legitimately afford and what the gov't and schools believe they can afford!

recently I had a parent who's student scored in the top 2 SAT scores in his HS senior class! Yet, it was not even enough to pick up a Scholarship at IU because he missed it by less than 200 pts! What is comical is that the school's attitude is that he did a great job and won't have any problem in getting into college!
THEY JUST DON'T GET IT!!!
It was never about just getting admitted.....it was about getting into the best position to be able to afford to go!

What good is it to graduate HS with dreams and aspirations and then NOT be able to afford to attend!

Make it a better day for someone else!

Jon

2009-09-08T08:34:00.000-04:00

Why College Costs Rise, Even in a Recession

The New York Times
9-5-09

If you have paid a college tuition bill recently, perhaps the sticker shock has abated and your children have been good enough to friend you on Facebook so you can see what they are doing on your dime.

What probably still lingers, however, is the desire to ask some pointed questions of the people who are doing the educating. Where does all that money go? And why can’t the price tag fall for a change?

Earlier this year, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities announced with some pride that the average increase in tuition and fees at private institutions this school year would be the smallest in 37 years — 4.3 percent, just a little higher than inflation.

Is this where we are supposed to stand up and cheer?

To get some perspective, I set out to find a college president with an M.B.A. and some experience outside the academy. I found one at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. Its president, Daniel H. Weiss, is an expert in medieval art, but he also worked as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. So he knows his way around a corporate restructuring.

Lafayette does not have the strongest name recognition and tries to set itself apart through its location near both New York City and Philadelphia, its strong engineering program and liberal arts offerings, and by being one of the smallest colleges to compete in N.C.A.A. Division I athletics.

That it is not a top-tier college by most measures, however, makes Lafayette an excellent test case as it and other private colleges cross the $50,000 annual cost threshold in shaky economic times.

Public universities will always appeal on price, and Wellesley and Harvard are likely to remain oversubscribed forever. But Lafayette and colleges like it could have trouble justifying themselves and their cost soon, and the resistance may not simply pass once the economy improves.

Tuition costs have gone in only one direction — up — during Mr. Weiss’s career. “I genuinely believe that we are at a crossroads here in higher education,” he said. “I think we have reached a ceiling that we’re beginning to bump into.”

Mr. Weiss has not had to make any drastic budget cuts so far. He has frozen many salaries, cut some hours in the student dining halls and scaled back a few building projects.

This will seem rather tame to anyone who has lived through even a medium-grade corporate revamping. “We haven’t been good at cutting when we add,” said Robert Massa, Lafayette’s new vice president for communications, speaking of colleges in general. “We just add.”

Rising tuition and income from endowments have made this possible. But the unique structure of universities has also made it inconvenient to do otherwise. “In some ways, higher education is more like a political environment than the management of a private corporation,” Mr. Weiss said. Except that thanks to tenure, it is difficult to vote anyone out of office. Still, he added, “Alienating some of your faculty members, if you can avoid it, is something you shouldn’t be doing.”

This is just one of the reasons why it is so hard to make big cuts to a college’s budget and reduce tuition in turn. Here are some others:

CUTTING DEPARTMENTS The political challenges with faculty make something as seemingly simple and obvious as cutting expensive and undersubscribed academic departments pretty hard. In fact, Mr. Weiss could not remember the last time Lafayette had done such a thing.

But such cuts are practically inevitable for programs that have fewer students. “Fine arts has studio-based production, so capital and facility costs are high,” said Jane Wellman, executive director of the nonprofit group Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability, speaking of colleges in general. “Piano tutoring is pretty much one to one in a room with a piano. Pianos are expensive. Agriculture is expensive because of the lab costs, which means a barn.”

An English student, however, is generally a profit center. “They’re paying for the chemistry major and the music major and faculty research,” she said. “They don’t want to talk about it in institutions, because the English department gets mad. The little ugly facts about cross-subsidies are inflammatory, so they get papered over.”

About all Mr. Weiss will say about this is that he agrees that Lafayette needs to do a better job of discriminating between the things it can and cannot do well. He is too good on the politics to single out any department. But there is little doubt that he and administrators like him will need to give up on some foreign languages, minor sciences or parts of the arts pretty soon.

FACULTY PRODUCTIVITY Professors at Lafayette teach five classes a year over two semesters and work with students on their independent research projects. At some colleges and universities, the number of classes is lower and at others it is higher. Couldn’t Lafayette lower costs by demanding that the faculty perform less research and teach one additional class?

“The question is what is the quality of that interaction,” Mr. Weiss said. “Our faculty must have the opportunity to revitalize their teaching through research. If you’re teaching the same old course the same old way every year, you’re not keeping up with the discipline and not able to animate your own teaching with that experience.”

Not every academic agrees. “Am I, for example, as a tenured professor or any tenured faculty member necessarily, or even probably, a better undergraduate teacher because I am doing research?” asked Burton A. Weisbrod, co-author of “Mission and Money: Understanding the University” and an economics professor at Northwestern. “The answer to that is not clear at all.”

Nevertheless, Lafayette is so certain in its convictions that it grants faculty members a year off every six or seven years for a sabbatical. How does a college defend such a practice to parents who have had to work ever harder to pay the growing tuition bill?

“What parents should be looking for is the opportunity for their children to have their lives transformed by what happens inside the classroom and out of it,” Mr. Weiss said. And that cannot come, he continued, without access to faculty members who have had the opportunity to recharge their own intellectual reservoirs. “At the end of the day, parents should want their children to have that experience, and we believe that’s the cost of it.”

Still, parents are helping to subsidize those sabbaticals. So the optics around this are all wrong in the current economic environment, even if this is one of those things no one can change.

ADMINISTRATIVE OVERLOAD Lafayette, like many colleges, spends more on nonfaculty salaries than it does on pay for the teachers. How did that happen? Mr. Weiss uses the evolution of career counseling as an example. He does not recall whether there was a placement office when he was an undergraduate at George Washington University in the 1970s. “Now there is the expectation, and I don’t think it’s misplaced, that students can get help in entering the workplace,” he said. If Lafayette did not create a rigorous support system, he noted, its graduates would be competing with students from other colleges and universities that had done so. “And therefore, we’ve invested very significantly in new administrative staff.”

Security is another area where costs have gone up. Just a quick glance at a dormitory bulletin board gives a sense of the breadth of what security departments deal with these days. One posting offered detailed instructions on what to do when encountering a bat, and an eye-opening piece of literature called “Active Shooter Survival Tips.”

THREE YEARS Perhaps the biggest cost-saving measure for private colleges like Lafayette would be to allow students to pay the same price per year but graduate in three years instead of four. Hartwick College in New York is already trying this; 13 students have signed on this fall.

Mr. Weiss said this is worth considering, though he had not looked at how the numbers would work. “Although without sounding in any way defensive, we also do offer time for personal development,” he explained. “And that is part of what college is supposed to be. Not only to learn stuff but to have your life changed. For some students, three years is more than enough, while for others four years is not nearly enough.”

He’s right, of course. Or at least that is how college used to be. The question all of us have to ask now is whether the price of that transformative experience is simply too dear — and whether a basic education ought to be the highest (or maybe only) priority.

Article from Inside Higher Education

2009-09-01T15:28:00.000-04:00

Blow to National Merit Scholarships

September 1, 2009

The University of Texas at Austin is ending participation in the National Merit Scholarship Program, the largest single campus departure in years from the program, which enjoys considerable prestige in some circles but is controversial in others. The university plans to shift the funds to need-based aid.

Last year, Texas was second only to Harvard University in the number of National Merit Scholars it enrolled (281). Some of the scholarships in the program (and all of those at Harvard) are sponsored by companies and other groups, but 213 of those who enrolled at Texas were sponsored by the university, which in recent years has sponsored more of the scholarships than all but a few other universities. (Last year, the University of Southern California sponsored more, 216 -- most colleges don't even top 50.)

The move by Texas comes at a time when some are criticizing the awarding of merit scholarships (and not just through this program) when so many students have clear financial need. Further, some admissions leaders have been criticizing the National Merit Scholarship Program for its reliance on PSAT scores -- and only PSAT scores -- to establish semifinalist status. There is a wide consensus among educators -- including the College Board, sponsor of the PSAT -- that standardized test scores alone shouldn't qualify or disqualify students for scholarships. (That consensus is in some cases more philosophical than operational, as the cooperation of the College Board with the National Merit Scholarship Program suggests.)

In the case of Texas, the decision was based not on concern about testing, but on a desire to focus more aid on students with need.

"We took a look at the economy, and the need level of our student body is up quite a bit. So we decided we needed to redirect the resources so UT stays accessible to everyone," said Thomas G. Melecki, director of student financial services at the university. Texas awards scholarships worth $13,000 over four years to the merit scholars it sponsors through the program (and will keep commitments to all who have been admitted through those starting this fall).

Melecki noted that only about one fourth of the university's National Merit Scholars even bothered to apply for federal financial aid, suggesting most of them don't need the money.

Historically, colleges that have invested heavily in the program have boasted about attracting students with good grades and very high SAT scores (since only those who did very well on the PSAT get considered). Melecki said he wasn't worried about losing talent because "our reputation is going to carry the day." The University of Texas does have other merit scholarships, and some of the students who might have received funds through the national program can still apply for them, he noted.

Further, the university has strong need-based aid programs -- which this shift should bolster -- for the minority of National Merit Scholars who do have financial need.

A spokeswoman for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation said that the organization would have no comment on the move by Texas, but that it planned to talk to Texas officials soon. The last major withdrawal from the program was the University of California, which had been awarding 600 scholarships among six of its institutions until 2005. In the case of the University of California, officials cited the reliance on standardized tests, saying that "using the PSAT exam alone to eliminate the vast majority of test takers from National Merit Scholarship consideration is inconsistent with the principles that standardized tests should be used in conjunction with other factors in measuring merit and that major decisions should not be made on the basis of small differences in test scores."

In April, the National Association for College Admission Counseling announced requests it had made asking the College Board to explain why it has done nothing about the use of the PSAT as the sole qualifying test for National Merit Scholarships, and to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation about why its policies run counter to the stated policies of the College Board and the new NACAC report. Both groups brushed aside the request.

Robert Schaeffer, public education director for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a critic of standardized testing, said the Texas decision was "very significant" because it has for so long been one of the major participants in the program. He predicted that for the reasons Texas and California left, others would follow and said that the testing program runs "the risk of losing more sponsors -- as well as their remaining credibility -- if they do not overhaul their unfair selection process."

— Scott Jaschik

Article from Smartmoney.com...

2009-08-26T23:33:00.003-04:00

How to Save $1,000 on Your Kid's College Costs

(Page all of 4)

Deal of the Day by AnnaMaria Andriotis (Author Archive)

You don’t have to be an economics major to understand how the recession is weighing on retailers and consumers. Just try sending a kid to college.

With about a month left until most colleges reopen for the fall 2009 semester, retailers are beefing up their sales and promotions for all of the tools, housewares and decorations that have become part of modern college life.

That leaves students and their families in the driver’s seat when it comes to snagging deals. They have never been short on motivation.

In addition to paying for tuition and room and board -- which at public universities average $14,333 for in-state students and $25,200 for out-of-state students, or $34,132 at private universities, according to 2008-09 data from the College Board -- students incur additional expenses once they enter campus for items including textbooks, laptops (or netbooks) and dorm room appliances.

According to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2009 back-to-college survey, college students and their parents are expected to spend an average of $618.12 this year, up 3% over last year’s $599.38. Eighty-three percent of parents with students already in or planning to attend college say that the economy is impacting their back-to-college plans, and 48% of them say the economy will cause them to spend less, according to the survey.

The survey also found that families of freshmen will continue to spend the most on back-to-college purchases, on average $820.77, largely because of computer purchases and dorm furnishings.

Saving money on back-to-college purchases is top priority this year for most families, says Jeff Green, the president of a retail consultancy based in Mill Valley, Calif. One of the easiest ways to save, especially for freshmen who have the most expenses, is to compare prices in stores and online, he says.

In the interest of cutting back, we’ve pinpointed some of the biggest expenses (after tuition and room and board) that freshmen students incur once they move on campus. Our list incorporates data from the NRF survey and advice from retail analyst Green and Mike Gatti, the executive director at the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a trade group that studies pricing and consumer behavior. (Students who live at home and commute won’t incur many of these expenses.)

Although the savings presented below are derived from local examples, they are indicative of common pricing patterns throughout the country. Crunching these numbers offers a rough estimate for how much a typical American family might save by shopping around.

1) Textbooks

By now, many college professors have posted their 2009 class syllabi on their respective university’s web sites, and many include the required reading for class.

Students can get a jump on tracking down books at prices significantly lower than those of their college book store. Buying these books used can help you save 70% to 90% off the retail price, Gatti says. Professors often use the same texts for every few consecutive years, and you can often find them on sites like CheapestTextbooks.com, Booksprice.com or Amazon.com. (These sites may also sell new books at discounted prices.) Many college bookstores sell used texts, as well.

Another option is downloading the book online, which is, on average, 50% cheaper than buying the book new, Gatti says. Sites like Coursesmart.com sell subscriptions to digital copies of more than 7,000 textbooks.

TextbookMedia.com permits students to download textbooks for free. You can also rent textbooks at sites like Chegg.com. But these texts can’t be returned for money, unlike the actual books that you can return to the college bookstore or resell online.

When a student returns a new book to the school store at the end of the semester, the store will return an average of 50% of the total cost of the book, assuming several factors – including that a professor has requested the same book for next semester’s curriculum, says Charles Schmidt, a spokesman for the National Association of College Stores.

Here are a few examples based on fall 2009 syllabi of how much you can save by buying used textbooks:

At Texas State University, the fall 2009 core freshman English courses require the eighth edition of the "Scott Foresman Handbook" and the "Arlington Reader," new versions of which cost $74.67 and $38.47, respectively. Used versions start at $37 and $16.70, respectively.

At Western Oregon University, a fall 2009 math course entitled Foundations of Elementary Mathematics requires several texts: the eighth edition of "Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: A Conceptual Approach," which new costs $122.44. A used version starts at $4. In addition, the course requires the eighth edition text "Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: An Activity Approach," which costs $111.15 new; the used version starts at $61.54.

At Rutgers University, a fall 2009 economics course titled Intermediate Microeconomics Analysis requires the third edition textbook, “Microeconomics,” by David Besanko and Ronald Braeutigam. Amazon.com lists a retail price of $145.03 for this new hardcover book; a used version starts at $85. (These prices don’t include shipping.)

Total savings: $57.87. This number represents the average savings at each of the three courses. Savings will vary depending on the number of textbooks a student needs to buy, their prices, and a student’s schedule. A typical freshman load will include two to three courses that will require textbooks like these, so a savvy student’s actual savings on textbooks may be closer to between $100 and $150.

2) Laptops/Netbooks

Student spending on electronics or computer-related items should rise to $266.08 this year, from $211.89 last year, as laptops become a requirement from many colleges, according the NRF survey.

To find the best deal on a given laptop (or netbook), check out comparison shopping sites like PriceGrabber.com or discount stores like Wal-Mart or Target.

You should also make sure your computer doesn’t exceed (or shortchange) your needs. Choosing a netbook over a laptop can be an economical decision, but students should make sure that the device includes or can support the applications they’ll by using. Students who plan to major in the liberal arts or humanities, like English or History, don’t typically need to upload additional applications to their computers, so even the most basic netbook may suffice. Students planning on majoring in math or engineering should look at their upcoming courses’ syllabi to see what programs they’ll need before purchasing a computer.

Savings also can be found when shopping for a refurbished laptop or netbook. These devices were returned by their previous owners, often after displaying a problem like a faulty keyboard or a cooling fan that needed replacing, Gatti says. Manufacturers fix the laptops and resell them at a fraction of their original price.

On PriceGrabber.com, a Dell Inspiron 15 Notebook sells for as much as $600 and as little at $449. Dig a little further by looking at a refurbished version of the same laptop sold by Dell, and you can find it as low as $389. Thinking about a netbook? On PriceGrabber.com, a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Netbook sells for as low as $329 and a refurbished version sells for as little as $299.

Total savings: $301. Assumes the student goes from buying a new Dell laptop to a refurbished netbook.

3) Refrigerator & Microwave

The cost of college meal plans varies according to the type of plan a student chooses, but many of these plans can cost as much as several thousand dollars a year. For example, at Rhode Island College some meal plans range from $1,825 to $1,925 per semester; at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y., meal plans range from $1,525 to $2,100 a semester.

Many universities require that students living on campus (typically, most freshmen) sign up for a meal plan, and they often provide several options, including a fixed number of meals per week or a prepaid account used to purchase meals.

There are many ways to scale back your meal plan without missing out on meals. Most universities permit small refrigerators in dorms, and some allow microwaves. Students can use these appliances to whip up lunch or weekend meals. You can save around 75% when shopping for such appliances by going second hand, Gatti says. Search for lightly-used second-hand appliances on web sites like Craigslist or eBay or in local yard sales or flea markets.

P.C. Richard & Son sells an Avanti 3.1-cubic-foot mini refrigerator for $197.97, while a similar Sanyo 3.6-cubic-foot model had an original listing price of $40 on eBay. Wal-Mart sells a Sharp black microwave oven for $58, while a Craigslist’s poster in New York sells it for $29. Make sure to check the sellers’ ratings when you can.

Total savings: $494. This savings represents the difference between buying the above appliances used, rather than new, added to the average difference between the cheapest and most expensive meal plans offered by the schools above for one semester, minus the cost of a box of 36 Ramen noodle packs for $5.88, a box of eight Progresso soups for $10.63 and two boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese 12-packs for $6.76 each at Sam’s Club – all staples of the college diet.

4) Coffee maker

Depending on your location, a 12-ounce Starbucks (SBUX: 19.35, -0.15, -0.76%) coffee will cost around $1.60 each. At that rate, one cup of coffee five days a week (excluding three weeks of vacation break) will set a student back around $264 for the academic year.

Buying a coffee maker can help you save. You can find a deal on coffee makers on web sites that sell second-hand appliances.

Bed Bath & Beyond sells a Cuisinart four-cup coffee maker for $30. But using Craigslist, you can get a new and unused similar-sized coffee maker by Mr. Coffee for $10.

Then, consider buying a one-pound bag of Starbucks coffee at Sam’s Club for $16.77. Depending on the size of your cup, a bag that size can yield about 40 cups of coffee. Assuming you’ll need around five of these bags to keep you caffeinated for the year, you’ll end up paying around $84.

Total savings: $170. This includes the savings of $180 on the coffee minus the cost of a $10 coffee maker.

5) Linens

Rather than purchasing separate linens and towels, consider shopping for a “bed in a bag,” which includes several pieces you’ll need for your bed and shower for one flat price.

At Bed Bath & Beyond, you can buy an 11-piece dorm room set that includes a comforter, a standard sham, one standard pillowcase, fitted and flat sheets (twin or twin extra long), one standard bed pillow, two towels, a fleece throw, a dry-erase board with marker and a hamper for $80. Buy each of these items separately, and you’ll end up paying more than double. A comforter set by Berkshire (which includes a standard sham) costs $80, a twin sheet set with a standard pillow case costs $50, a bed pillow costs $8, two bath towels cost $20, a fleece throw costs $20, a dry erase board costs $15 and a hamper costs $10, for a total of $208.

Total savings: $123. This is the difference between purchasing the dorm room set listed above and buying each pieces separately.

6) Artwork

Dorm room walls rarely come decorated with much more than a coat of white or beige paint. Students shopping for artwork but who aren’t picky about artists or designs should consider Target and Pier 1, both of which sell hanging artwork for as low as $4 and $10, respectively.

Students with more selective taste should check out comparison shopping sites, like NexTag.com and BizRate.com; search for art you like, and find pieces for 15% off or more. Macy’s sells a framed art print of Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” for $140, while a similar-sized print (without a frame) sells for $89 on MyWhiteWalls.com. Comparing prices online also helps. On NexTag.com, you’ll find wall art made of abstract metal rectangles with silver leaf imprints for as much as $90 but as little as $50.10.

Total savings: $90.90. The combined difference between buying both of these pieces at their highest prices and their lowest prices listed at the sites above.

7) Phone Plans

Today, most students are attached to their cellphones, whether they’re making calls, texting or browsing the Internet, Gatti says.

Prepaid phone plans offer attractive prices, but if students run over their minutes, those plans can get expensive quickly. Pay-as-you-go plans charge a set amount for each day you use your phone. For students who only chat on the phone a few days a month, pay-as-you-go might make sense, but otherwise, the charges can add up.

At T-Mobile, an Individual Plus Promotional plan that offers 1,000 minutes that can be used at any time and unlimited weekend and night minutes costs $40; its pay-as-you-go plan costs $100 for 1,000 minutes. Assuming a student uses up to 1,000 minutes, they could see savings of $60 by going with the individual plan.

At AT&T, an individual plan with 900 minutes and unlimited weekends and nights costs $50. Their pay-as-you-go Unlimited Calling Plan costs $3 for each day of phone use. At Verizon, a basic individual plan costs $40 a month and includes 450 minutes that can be used at any time. The company’s prepaid unlimited plan costs $3 for each day you use the phone. Assuming you use the phone every day, students can save around $40 or $50, with AT&T and Verizon, respectively, by sticking with the individual plan.

Average total savings: $50. The average savings among the three carriers for not using a prepaid plan.

And they wonder why college is soo expensive!

2009-08-10T09:53:00.000-04:00

Allegations of Misspent Financial Aid

August 7, 2009

TUI University inappropriately gave out an estimated $923,000 in financial aid funds to students who either were ineligible for the money or did not earn it because they withdrew from the institution, the U.S. Education Department's inspector general said in an audit released Thursday.

The inspector general's audit recommended that the Education Department's Federal Student Aid office require the for-profit university, which was the online arm of Touro University until its sale to private equity investors in 2007, to repay a minimum of $200,000 to the government and lenders for the money that it has already found should not have been distributed -- a figure that could climb if its recommendations are upheld by department leaders. The IG's office also suggests that the department "consider" taking much more serious action, to "fine, limit, suspend or terminate" TUI's ability to participate in the federal student aid programs.

University officials vigorously disputed the audit's findings and its recommendations, saying they were based on the misinterpretations of federal laws and rules by the inspector general itself. "The university believes that it has properly accounted for all of its Federal student financial aid funds, is taking steps to resolve issues raised in the OIG report, and does not anticipate there will not be any significant repayment liability or adverse impact on the institution upon resolution of this matter," Tom Finaly, the vice president for administration, said via e-mail.

TUI enrolled about 8,300 students in spring 2008, and awarded about $8.6 million in federal financial aid (the vast majority in loans) to 963 of them. The audit, which examined the university's policies and a sample of 98 of its students from the point of its launch as a freestanding institution in October 2007 through June 2008, found a wide range of problems -- enough to conclude that "TUIU had not demonstrated the capability to adequately administer the Title IV programs." Specifically, it found that TUI:

Awarded financial aid to students as if it was using a term-based academic calendar, when in fact it was using a nonterm calendar that allowed students to finish courses at their own pace. Because of this, the inspector general found, the university in some cases disbursed financial aid funds to students for a second payment period before they had completed the coursework to be eligible for the money.
Did not ensure that students were participating in academic activity before giving them financial aid. According to the audit, TUI officials ensured that students were enrolled before disbursing funds, but did not follow up to make sure they were actually participating in the scheduled courses.
Failed to check on whether students had stopped attending classes without informing the university.

That combination of failures, the inspector general found, resulted in what federal officials estimated to be $923,379 that "was either disbursed to ineligible students or not earned by students who withdrew from the institution."

The inspector general recommends that TUI develop and implement policies to conform with its interpretation of federal laws and rules, and repay the government about $8,000 in Pell Grant funds found to have been overpaid to students in its sample and reimburse lenders $184,634 found to have been paid in loans to students in the sample. The audit also recommends that TUI be required to review its entire pool of students to see exactly how much was inappropriately paid -- the $923,379 was an estimate -- and that the university repay that amount. The IG's office also notes that TUI officials said the same policies had been in place prior to the 2007 sale, and suggests that the government require TUI to review periods before the sale for possible overpayments, too.

TUI officials did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment left with a university administrator. But a written response to a draft of the inspector general's audit, which was appended to the final audit as published on the department's Web site this week, challenges the government's findings and recommendations on multiple fronts.

The department's assertion that the university misapplied federal guidelines related to the academic calendar, "which underpins many of the findings in the Report, is not supported by the applicable law and evidences a misunderstanding of the facts," TUI said in its reply. Because of misinterpretations like that, the university said, "the report seriously overstates any non-compliance by the University," adding that "no further action is warranted or appropriate."

"The university has fully established that it has the administrative capability necessary to administer the Title IV programs," TUI said.

— Doug Lederman

GI Bill...Something New on an old program!

2009-08-04T09:34:00.000-04:00

New GI Bill Becomes Law

August 4, 2009

FAIRFAX, Va. -- A much-expanded Post-9/11 GI Bill is, as of Saturday, newly law in the land. President Obama marked the milestone in a celebratory ceremony at George Mason University Monday.

“This is not simply a debt that we are repaying to the remarkable men and women who have served -- it is an investment in our own country," Obama said. "The first GI Bill paid for itself many times over through the increased revenue that came from a generation of men and women who received the skills and education that they needed to create their own wealth. The veterans who are here today -- like the young post-9/11 veterans around the country -- can lead the way to a lasting economic recovery and become the glue that holds our communities together. They, too, can become the backbone of a growing American middle class.

“And even as we help our veterans learn the skills they need to succeed, I know that all of us can learn something from the men and women who serve our country. We have lived through an age when many people and institutions have acted irresponsibly -- when service often took a backseat to short-term profits; when hard choices were put aside for somebody else, for some other time. It's a time when easy distractions became the norm, and the trivial has been taken too seriously. The men and women who have served since 9/11 tell us a different story. While so many were reaching for the quick buck, they were heading out on patrol…. And now, with this policy, we are making it clear that the United States of America must reward responsibility, and not irresponsibility.”

And a generous reward it is. The new GI Bill provides for eligible veterans’ tuition and fees, with the maximum benefit pegged to the highest undergraduate, resident tuition rate in a given state, plus a monthly housing allowance and an annual $1,000 stipend for books. In addition, more than 1,100 colleges are participating in the Yellow Ribbon program, which stretches the tuition benefit at private colleges, in particular, by allowing colleges to enter into a matching program with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to cover any difference between the maximum benefit and total tuition and fees assessed. In another important departure from past policy, and in a bid to increase retention in the Armed Forces, the new bill allows for transfer of benefits to spouses and children when those who have served six years commit to another four.

The primary champion and lead sponsor of the new GI Bill, Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), spoke at Monday’s ceremony, as did former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who advocated for inclusion of the Yellow Ribbon program. VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki estimated Monday that about a quarter of a million veterans will benefit from the newly expanded GI Bill by 2011.

As of now, the Monday morning celebration over, attention will shift back to the administration of the program and how quickly and efficiently those checks get in the mail. Fall semesters, after all, will soon be starting. Receiving GI Bill benefits under the new program is a two-step process: First, veterans must attain certificates of eligibility from the VA, and, second, a college must certify a veteran's enrollment in order for the benefits to start flowing. Tuition benefits are paid directly to the college, and housing and book benefits directly to the veteran.

So far, the VA has received about 140,000 applications for certificates of eligibility and has processed about 112,000 of them, according to a VA spokesman, Steve Westerfeld. Not everyone who’s signed up for a certificate of eligibility plans to enroll in college this fall, however; eligible veterans have 15 years after their last period of active duty to use the benefits. In terms of veterans whose colleges have so far certified them as attending this fall, the VA has received more than 5,000 enrollment claims “and counting," Westerfeld said. The VA anticipates the number of claims will grow substantially throughout August and September, peak times for enrollment.

— Elizabeth Redden

Article posted in INSIDE HIGHER ED ONLINE...

2009-07-31T10:47:00.001-04:00

The Real Costs of Merit Aid

July 31, 2009

When colleges defend the use of financial aid based on academic merit, they almost always make the case that it’s not an either/or question with regard to students from low-income families. An institution can benefit from recruiting top students with merit aid and still maintain its commitment to those with lots of academic talent but not much money. And by attracting students with merit aid, the argument goes, an institution may improve in quality, attract more funds, and even be able to do more for low income students.

A new study -- while not challenging the intentions of those making such claims -- suggests that, in fact, the adoption of merit aid by private colleges may achieve something for colleges that care about SAT averages. At the same time, the impact may be negative when it comes to economic or racial diversity. In fact, the study finds that, 10 years after private colleges begin offering merit aid, they are likely to be enrolling smaller shares of Pell Grant recipients and black students than they were prior to using merit aid.

The study -- “Keeping Up With the Joneses: Institutional Changes Following the Adoption of a Merit Aid Policy” -- has just been published by the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. The author is Amanda L. Griffith, an assistant professor of economics at Wake Forest University.

For the study, Griffith used a database created from an annual survey of colleges conducted by the College Board on selected financial aid policies. The survey data run from 1987 through 2005, and Griffith isolated for analysis those 93 private colleges that were not offering aid at the beginning of the time period, but started doing so during it. Most of them started fairly early in the time period, so Griffith has data 10 years out for most of the colleges that started to offer merit awards. She then used various other databases to examine trends in the demographics and other characteristics of the colleges.

Among the key findings:

Three to five years after colleges start offering merit aid, the percentage of Pell Grant recipients starts to drop at middle and top tier colleges (as measured by selectivity, using SAT scores as a proxy.) Six to 10 years after starting to offer merit aid, these colleges have seen their percentage of Pell Grant recipients drop by an average of five percentage points. The change is much smaller for less competitive institutions.
In the immediate few years after merit aid starts, there is not a notable impact on the enrollment of black students. But after that, top and middle tier institutions start to see a decrease of 1.5 percentage points in black enrollment, growing to 2 percentage points 10 years out. (Much smaller shifts are seen for Latino students.)
Merit aid may have a positive impact on diversity with regard to international students. Many American colleges provide relatively little if any need-based aid to students from outside the United States, so relatively modest merit awards may have a significant impact on enrollments. Within five years after starting merit aid, middle and top tier colleges see a 2 percentage point increase in international enrollments, and bottom tier colleges see an increase of 3.5 percentage points.

What about the impact that many colleges want when they add merit aid -- the enrollment of more top students as measured by factors like SAT scores, which are part of the rankings game? Over all, SAT medians go up after the introduction of merit aid. But for the most competitive institutions that start merit aid, there tends to be a drop in the first year or so -- most likely because institutions of this caliber that are starting merit aid are likely to be doing so because they are losing students to other institutions already. There is a rebound a few years out. Middle tier institutions see a modest gain of 22 SAT points a few years out, which increases to 35 SAT points 10 years out.

The paper notes that “it takes a few cycles of offering merit aid before word gets out and the program begins to attract many higher test score students.”

The SAT gains for bottom tier institutions are small.

The paper ends by expressing concerns about the trends it documents. “It is worrisome, given the already low levels of representation of low-income and minority students at four-year colleges, to find that the introduction of a merit aid policy is associated with a decrease in the percentage of low-income and black students, particularly at the more selective institutions in the sample. This crowding-out is likely due to an increase in merit aid spending at the expense of need-based financial aid. In conjunction with the rising costs to students following the switch to merit, this relationship is something that needs more research.”

— Scott Jaschik

15 highest paid degrees!

2009-07-27T14:21:00.000-04:00

Most Lucrative College Degrees

by Julianne Pepitone

Friday, July 24, 2009 provided by

Math majors don't always get much respect on college campuses, but fat post-grad wallets should be enough to give them a boost.

The top 15 highest-earning college degrees all have one thing in common -- math skills. That's according to a recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tracks college graduates' job offers.

More from CNNMoney.com:

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"Math is at the crux of who gets paid," said Ed Koc, director of research at NACE. "If you have those skills, you are an extremely valuable asset. We don't generate enough people like that in this country."

This year Rochester Institute of Technology hosted recruiters from defense-industry firms like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, as well as other big companies like Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson.

"The tech fields are what's driving salaries and offers, and the top students are faring quite well," said Emanuel Contomanolis, who runs RIT's career center.

Specifically, engineering diplomas account for 12 of the 15 the top-paying majors. NACE collects its data by surveying 200 college career centers.

Visit the College & Education Center

Energy is the key. Petroleum engineering was by far highest-paying degree, with an average starting offer of $83,121, thanks to that resource's growing scarcity. Graduates with these degrees generally find work locating oil and gas reservoirs, or in developing ways to bring those resources to the Earth's surface.

"Exploration for new energy sources is high," Koc said. "The oil and gas industry has done relatively well the past year, even though oil prices are off right now."

Other highly-paid engineering majors include chemical engineers, who employ their skills to make everything from plastics to fuel cells and have an average starting offer of $64,902.

Mining engineers start at $64,404 on average, while computer engineers, who have an expertise in both coding and electrical engineering, pocket roughly $61,738 their first year out of school.

Left behind. Of course, not every student with an engineering degree will score a fat paycheck. RIT's Contomanolis noted that "average" graduates are feeling the pinch of fewer job offers. Still, in a tough job market, graduates with technology degrees have an advantage.

"It's a tech-driven world, and demand [for engineers] is only going to grow," said Farnoosh Torabi, employment expert and Quicken blog editor. "You can't say that about many fields, especially in a recession."

Perhaps that's why more and more college students are picking their majors based on a field's earning power, ultimately "choosing a major that pays," Torabi said.

Top non-engineering fields. Only three of the 15 top paying degrees were outside the field of engineering -- but they each still require math skills.

For computer science majors, who specialize in programming and software, the average salary was $61,407. Graduates with degrees in actuarial science took home about $56,320; and jobs for students in construction management paid about $53,199. Each of these fields has paid well throughout the years, Koc said.

What happened to well-rounded? There are far fewer people graduating with math-based majors, compared to their liberal-arts counterparts, which is why they are paid at such a premium. The fields of engineering and computer science each make up about 4% of all college graduates, while social science and history each comprise 16%, Koc noted.

As a result, salaries for graduates who studied fields like social work command tiny paychecks, somewhere in the vicinity of $29,000. English, foreign language and communications majors make about $35,000, Koc said.

"It's a supply and demand issue," he added. "So few grads offer math skills, and those who can are rewarded."

For the Love of the Game or for the MONEY!!!

2009-07-27T09:21:00.000-04:00

Who’s That on the Court? For $295, We’ll Tell You

By PETE THAMEL
Published: July 26, 2009
LAS VEGAS — After driving three hours to watch a basketball recruit play a game at a tournament in Memphis earlier this month, Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings turned around minutes later and went home.

Just after sitting down with some fellow college coaches, two tournament employees told Stallings that he had to pay $295 for a packet of rosters and information that doubled as an admission fee for college coaches. The coaches in attendance told him that they had been required to do the same thing.
Stallings said he had paid a $10 admission fee and did not want or need the packet, so he hit the road out of principle.

Ryan Luttrell, the tournament organizer, denied trying to force Stallings to buy the packet. But Stallings said he would not cut a deal with Luttrell and left because it would not be fair to the other coaches.

“I’m not protesting or insisting that my moral compass is better than anyone else,” Stallings said. “But mine won’t allow me to do something like that that is that blatantly wrong.”

Tournament organizers and summer basketball coaches have long charged significant fees for packets of information about potential Division I recruits — player rosters, phone numbers and e-mail addresses — that are the lifeblood of the billion-dollar college basketball business.

But with the economy sagging, college recruiting budgets being slashed and tournaments in the April recruiting period being eliminated because of an N.C.A.A. rule change, the costs and the complaints have risen sharply this summer.

Coaches have been especially irate at tournaments where the packet is a mandatory part of admission, in some cases making it cost hundreds of dollars to watch one game. They point to the N.C.A.A., which approves all the tournaments coaches can attend, as an enabler.

Not all packet purchases double as admission costs. But this week in Las Vegas, where five tournaments featured thousands of players, the packet costs ranged from $180 to $275, with cash being preferred.

A black market of bootleg packets and copies of receipts flourished so freely that tournament directors policed copy centers to prevent coaches from making duplicates. At numerous events this summer, coaches have changed out of their university-logoed shirts to watch games disguised as fans to save hundreds of dollars.

“It’s a crazy racket,” said Yale Coach James Jones, who once paid $350 to watch one player play a single game in South Carolina. His other option was to buy the tournament organizer Jeff Schneider’s $600 recruiting service.

“It’s extortion,” Jones said.

Stallings’s experience offers a window into the complicated subculture of recruiting. The Memphis tournament, called the River City Showdown, was put on in part by a local Amateur Athletic Union program, the Memphis Magic. Stallings said Luttrell, one of the tournament’s organizers, told him that part of the $295 was going to help ship the Memphis Magic A.A.U. team around the country to play in other tournaments.

Many college coaches pay the fees because they do not want to alienate the teams’ coaches, who often control the recruiting of their players.

Luttrell denied the tournament was a direct fund-raiser for the Memphis Magic but said he was hired to put on the tournament by Eric Robinson, who runs the Memphis Magic program.

Stallings said that college coaches directly supporting a summer basketball program in which prospects are playing is, “by definition,” a violation of N.C.A.A. rules. “If I’m knowingly giving you money, I’m not allowed to do that,” Stallings said. “It’s really an indirect funneling of money to summer programs, which again is not what the institutions should be doing.”

While not all tournaments have direct financial relationships with summer basketball teams, most coaches are keeping their thoughts to themselves. While many coaches agreed that the cost of tournament packets was egregious, few spoke on the record. Those who declined included the Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the U.C.L.A. Coach Ben Howland and the Ohio State Coach Thad Matta. “It’s one of the important things on our agenda,” said Michigan Coach John Beilein, the head of the N.C.A.A.’s new Ethics Coalition. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo refused to pay $100 for admission to the Summer Jam tournament in Milwaukee earlier this month after one of his assistants had already paid $250 for the packet that doubled as an entry fee. Izzo said the tournament director should visit him if he had a problem.

Antonio Curro, the tournament director, defended his prices, saying that he provided food for the tournament coaches and that he needed to feed his family. Curro also cited the costs of gym rental, employees and referees. He said that three coaches sneaked into the gym to avoid paying the $250 and that he made them purchase the packet because bootlegs were so prevalent.

“Everything we did was legitimate by the N.C.A.A.,” he said. “There is no rule for anyone setting the price.”

The N.C.A.A. spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said, “It is misleading for event organizers to state that the N.C.A.A. allows them to charge elevated prices.”

While Izzo confirmed the story about the Milwaukee tournament, he declined further comment. His silence and the hesitancy of other prominent coaches to speak underscores the importance of their relationships with summer basketball programs.

“That’s exactly what’s wrong with our business,” Stallings said. “There’s a mentality where coaches want to cover themselves and not get out there and say what’s right and call out the people that are wrong.

“That’s precisely why things are the way they are. That’s why we have culture issues in our game. It’s a darn shame. The people who could have influence and do have a voice, they choose not to use it because it doesn’t help them. They don’t want anything unsettling their smooth little boat ride.”

Traditionally strong programs rarely need the expensive packets. Universities like North Carolina, Texas and Connecticut rarely recruit more than a dozen players, so they’re already familiar with them.

At the other end of the spectrum, Texas-Pan American Coach Ryan Marks, whose recruiting budget is $25,000, needs the packets to identify and reach out to undiscovered players. “We could spend a fifth of our recruiting budget on packets in July alone,” he said.

While the packets usually cost hundreds of dollars, they rarely have pertinent information, like players’ jersey numbers.

“I refuse to pay $250 for a blank piece of paper,” the Louisville assistant Steve Masiello said.

Still, the packets and the issues surrounding them have become an accepted part of the recruiting process.

“The N.C.A.A. should get involved,” Jones said. “These events have to be sanctioned. They need to have these guys validate some of the things they’re doing.”

Obama's Budget Changes for Education!

2009-07-14T08:05:00.002-04:00

It was bound to happen, the president/politicals are now targeting the educational finance system. An interesting read to say the least....
Click here for the full article.

Talk with you soon!

Jon

Major Bank to STOP Student Loan Lending!

2009-07-09T12:04:00.002-04:00

I received this article from one of our networking guru's that I thought would be most interesting to read. As of late, we have noticed that many parent's college plans have been radically altered by the economic conditions. Lay-offs or Stock Market Downturns & Lending Restrictions have all seemed to rear their ugly heads at a time when most parent's were NOT ready for them.....
We have always advocated Cash is KING mentality when attempting to pay for college and those who have listened to us, they have NOT been affected in terms of college planning by the recent economic conditions.
Click Here for another article on college loan issues...

Check us out on our website.....

Thanks
Jon

RIP....GORDON

2009-07-05T17:21:00.003-04:00

In hearing of Gordon's death from his father this afternoon, it makes one stop and think about a lot of things. Gordon began with me as a college planning client at the ripe age of 17. Just a junior in HS, Gordon was the kind of kid that you instantly liked. VERY considerate, VERY respectful and just a genuine great kid.
See, Gordon did what a lot of students do and that is he changed his major after his freshman yr in college. He also changed schools from Mechanical Engineering at Rose Hulman to Economics at Purdue.
Some month's back, Gordon came in and asked if he could intern for me. He said that he really liked what I do for families and thought it was what he would like to do when he graduated.
What an honor....to be admired for what you do!
Gordon started in the office this summer and he instantly added something special to the team. He came to work with a suit and a smile. It was yes, sir...no sir...to everything (you just don't get that these days from his generation). A sign of his upbringing to be sure!
I would give him something to read each week to learn more about finance, sales, relationships, ect.. and he eagerly devoured it! He soon began to come in with ideas of how he was going to use some of the concepts I was teaching him when he "got some money"...
As I am writing this entry, my eyes are blurry from the tears and my heart is breaking for his parent's. What it must be like to loose a child early but even more so with a young man like Gordon. I can honestly say that the world is worse off by this particular loss!
Just friday, he was looking forward to the day he could by a mortorcycle & get a newer car because his had 200K miles on it. He was not complaining but just looking forward to his future. I comented that when the day comes, he will enjoy his purchases all the more because he would have earned them rather then having them given to him! He agreed.....

You should be so lucky as to know such a young man as Gordon Riley. I know I am.....

RIP Gordon, We will all miss you greatly!

Your Friend and Mentor....

Jon

WHERE TO GO TO GET THE BEST CHANCE AT MAKING MONEY AFTER COLLEGE?

2009-06-29T08:44:00.002-04:00

An interesting article from SmartMoney Mag. online that helps understand where the most cost-effective places to attend college are in the country in terms of getting your degree to pay off after school by way of a good paycheck!
These studies still don't take into consideration merit aid possibilities and need based aid options of the student and their families but it's a great read non the less.

CLICK HERE>>>>>>

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Thanks
Jon

THEY ARE FINALLY STARTING TO GET IT!

2009-06-25T07:31:00.003-04:00

In the early morning hours I was purusing the various locations on the web for information and at MSN found an entire tab outlining family & COLLEGE! They are finally starting to get just how tough families are finding this whole thing called COLLEGE PLANNING!

This particular article is pretty good.....click here to read!

C-ya Soon!

Jon

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I JUST HAD TO POST THIS!

2009-06-23T16:35:00.001-04:00

ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW!

2 GRADUATIONS IN 2 DAYS....FOR THE SAME STUDENT!

Click here to read more!

More later...
Jon

IT'S NOT WHAT IT SEEMS!

2009-06-23T15:44:00.002-04:00

I recently signed on a college planning client who used to work in the recruiting department of a VERY well known university. In speaking with them, she informed me that not only does a student get examined and judged upon the basic standards of admission to the respective university but also to the college sponsoring the major.

I know, I know...you're thinking. DUH!

Well I found it interesting that a student could have gotten into say Purdue or IU based upon academics for business or Nursing but because they chose say Engineering or Dental Hygiene as their choice, they may get denied....WHY.

Because that particular major for that particular school for that particular class was extremely competitive and your student's scores were not high enough (when compared to the other students in that pool of applicants for that major). They would have been accepted if they had chosen an alternate pursuit!

What this begs you to know is that the college selection and doing your homework ahead of time as to where some legitimate alternatives are......IS WORTH IT!

Case in point:

Anderson University about 5 yrs ago was aggressively marketing and recruiting students (in my opinion).
Anderson University today is seeing a significant increase in their applications & to that point, they are limiting their aid (in my opinion). Good for them, not so good for you!

Be sure to take time and seek competing alternative programs for your particular major so that in the event 1 or 2 programs are not interested, others may be!

Be sure to check us out on the web!

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Thanks,

Jon

MORE WAYS TO USE 529 MONEY!

2009-06-18T08:39:00.002-04:00

You can now use your 529 money on computer & related equipment including internet and it qualify under the IRS code as "Qualified Education Expenses"!

Expanded Definition of Qualified Expenses for Qualified Tuition Programs

The definition of qualified higher education expenses for tax-free distributions from a qualified tuition program is expanded to include amounts paid in 2009 or 2010 for the purchase of computer software, any computer or related peripheral equipment, fiber optic cable related to computer use, and Internet access (including related services) that are to be used by the beneficiary and the beneficiary's family during any of the years the beneficiary is enrolled at an eligible educational institution.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE.....

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BUT WHY SO MANY?

2009-06-15T09:03:00.005-04:00

I often get the same thing from student's who are advised to select 4-6 schools as potential candidates for admissions, "But Why So Many? I only want to go to..". There are several reasons why we advise multiple candidates but I will stick to the 2 highest on the priority scale and then demonstrate an additional reason that has recently came to light.

Show me the money!: In order to best position yourself, one must apply to a few schools that will actually compete for you. Some schools will in fact compete by their award letters, others will NOT. The fact is you will not know until such time that you cannot do anything about it (April,May).
Congratulations VS Apologies!: The last thing you want to get in the mail is a rejection letter and to add insult to injury, it be your only school that you applied to! Make sure to research your selection and make qualified educated decisions about who to apply for and who not to!

Recently, there is also a fringe reason to add additional schools to the list and it's not a pleasant one! I have been reading several recent articles that are alluding to admissions NOT going to the most qualified candidates but rather the ones who are "well connected"! Be sure not to get this sense of conspiracy or paranoia that EVERY school is tainted because they aren't! You just never know which ones are and which ones are not and in the end, you may be qualified but bumped because someones father or mother has deeper pockets or more clout than yours do!

Click here for an article about such a problem at a VERY HIGH PROFILE PROGRAM!

Please understand, I am not saying that just because you get a bad hamburger at McDonald's in Alaska, the whole hamburger chain is bad.......
It just reinforces the reason to have multiple options available to you in the end!

Talk to you again soon!
Jon

PS I am now on Twitter & YouTube so check it out!

WHO CAN YOU TRUST FOR RANKINGS NOW?

2009-06-10T09:03:00.002-04:00

There has been some recent rumblings in the college world that imply that the USNWR annual rankings are inaccurate, that they do not verify their criterion information given them by the universities when preparing the annual rankings materials.
I SAY "NO KIDDING"!
Let me say this, when wall street cannot be trusted and the government is pushing it's various agendas, why should it be suprising to anyone here that a media outlet has grown complacent and borders on corrupt!
We have NEVER used USNEWSWORLDREPORT as a sole influence in locating and picking a top tier education...why, because rarely does it really matter in the "REAL WORLD" if you got your degree from DUKE, CORNELL or WASH U so long as you got your degree and are certified to use the education in your place of occupation. Now I know many will line up to argue this to the enth degree but let's think about this for a second....

When building a house, did you EVER stop to ask the architect where they went to college or just that they did?
When driving a car, did you EVER ask the manufacturer where they received their education or just that they graduated with a degree in their field?
When having surgery, EVER ask the doctor to show you his degree or quiz him on his class ranking?
What about when you go to parent-teacher conferences, do you know where the teacher graduated from and what ranking that school is compared to others?

NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO......

Am I saying one should not value the highest education one can afford, no! I am saying that your choice should not be predicated on whether or not "it's" on the list! For many, their educations will be valued at a much different level such as how much interaction did they receive from their prof's.? Did they truely get support from the career offices when finding their job out of college? How often they actually got to speak with their "Professor" at the undergraduate levels or where the classes taught by TA's who couldn't speak english well? Ect...

Attached are SOME of the articles causing the stir, click here....
Article 2
Article 3

Talk with you again,

Jon

PS We are now on YouTube & Twitter, check us out!

How will they turn out?

2009-06-04T15:48:00.002-04:00

I can't help but stop and think of just how many students that graduate from high school that have to minimize or abandon their dreams of a better life or education because of their current circumstances? Some students don't in fact deserve to attend a college or university because they either don't see the value or CHOOSE not to apply themselves in high school.
There are students that have not only applied themselves in high school but also have dreams of a better life. It is in working with those students that my passion for what I do REALLY comes out!
In reading various articles daily about the economy, the education changes and what is happening across college planning in general, I have come across an article that best sums up what is happening to students in high school that is not only affecting their futures but also OUR economic impact because we are seeing some great and talented minds and their futures torpedoed by their current economic situations.......

Read the entire article........

Thanks and we'll talk with you again soon!

Jon

COLLEGE VS UNIVERSITY....WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

2009-06-03T13:31:00.003-04:00

Definition from Wikipedia.com.....

Colleges vs. Universities .

The difference between a college and a university is that a college just offers a collection of degrees in one specific area, while a university is a collection of colleges. When you go to a university you are going to be graduating from one of their colleges, such as the business college. As to which is better, it depends on what you want. Single colleges tend to be smaller while universities are bigger, but universities are better known.

Explanations from other Contributors:

Be aware that there is a very distinct difference in terminology between the USA and the rest of the world. In the US, there is very little difference academically between a "college" and a "university". Universities are usually larger and often contain multiple "colleges" within them. However, some of the top-ranked schools in the US have a name including "college" (ex. Dartmouth College). In other parts of the English-speaking world, the term "university" equates to the US use of "college" and the term "college" refers more to a trade or vocational school. Wikipedia has a page that describes the differences at wikipedia.org

Depends on the country you are in. Here in the UK, a university can award its own degrees and has a charter giving it various guarantees of independence. A college usually depends on a fully-fledged university validating its degrees, or may even be part of a university, as in Oxford or Cambridge colleges. Or a college may be little to do with degree-level education at all, such as a Further Education college.

Also don't forget Community Colleges. In that usage a college is very different than a University because a community college can't offer a 4 year degree (ie a B.A. or a B.S.). Community colleges can offer trade and technical certifications and training as well as the first 2 years of a four year program but they are unable to grant bachelors degrees.

In Canada a University is an education insitution that can grant degrees. (BA, BSc, MA, PHd, etc). Colleges can grant certificates or diplomas, but not degrees.

Maybe in Canada only, that universities are different with college. Most countries except Canada (developing or developed countries), colleges offers four (4) year course - Bachelor's Degree. Of course, universities are more prestigious and more expensive. Also, universities offers further studies after Bachelor's Degree like Master's Degrees, Doctorate Degree, and Post Doctorate Degree - These degrees can be achieved if you have earned Bachelor's Degree first. Basically, college are small and faculties (such as lecturers) are more focused to students. They usually focused on few courses (for Bachelor's Degree). In universities, professors handles more students and they most likely can't focused on each students. For your information, universities comprises of colleges with different courses. Colleges internationally maybe small, but some colleges (like in usa and others) have better standards than some universities....

Australia is in the same boat as Canada then. Here, Universities offer degrees, but Colleges, (also known as T.A.F.E.,) offer Diplomas and Certificates.

In France, college ?Grande Ecole? is highly reputing than University especially in Engineering. It is part of National Polytechnic Institute taking into account the selection criteria.

A university confers degrees up to PhD. A 4-year college confers Bachelors and Masters degrees. (BA,BS & MA, MS) A 2-year or community college confers the associate degree. ( AA or AS)

Universities offer more degrees than colleges offer.

The difference between a college and a university is that a college just offers a collection of degrees in one specific area, while a university is a collection of colleges. When you go to a university you are going to be graduating from one of their colleges, such as the business college. As to which is better, it depends on what you want. Single colleges tend to be smaller while universities are bigger, but universities are better known.

USA Universities Are More Research Focused Institutions Than USA Colleges

The main difference between a college and a university is that the university maintains research requirements for its instructors and that the university is, in essence, a more research focused institution.

A college can offer many majors with which to direct your studies, however, doctorate programs are more prone to be offered at universities where they have the money to support such programs.

This is probably related to the fact that Universities conduct research, which in turn allows them a certain degree of recognition, attracts a larger student body and affords them the capacity to offer higher learning options than a college can offer.

Answer

While the terms today are often used interchangeably, originally a college was a specific school teaching a specific subject, such as Education, Medicine, etc.

A University is a school made up of numerous colleges.

Answer

In general the difference is the level of degree that they can award. Colleges typically award Bachelor's degrees and Universities can confer Master's and Doctorate Degrees. The distinction has never been 'enforced' by any organization.

College is also used to refer to a specific group within a University. I have a Bachelor's Degree from the College of Engineering of Texas A&M University.

As you can see, there is quality to be had by both colleges as well as universities do don't rule out either of them based upon their titles....

Visit us on our Website: SummitCollegePlanning.com

Talk with you again soon!

Jon

Article from FastWeb about scholarships!

2009-05-28T09:20:00.002-04:00

This is an article on the internal workings and evalaution of Scholarships.

How Scholarships are Judged: An Inside Look

Ensure that your application impresses the scholarship committee.

Wouldn’t it be great to know what scholarship providers look for in an application? Take an inside look at how judges pick their favorites.

At First Glance

The judges’ first evaluation of your application is a quick one—usually only 15 to 30 seconds. Most applications don’t get past this quick but important first stage. Give your application one last review to be sure yours makes it through.

Do you qualify? Nothing makes it easier for judges to say “no” than an applicant who doesn’t meet the minimum requirements.
Is your application neat? An application with coffee stains or messy handwriting won’t make the cut.
Are all of the required documents included? Be sure you’re not leaving out references, transcripts, photographs or anything else the application requires.
Are all of the questions answered? Scan your application to see if you’ve left anything out.

The Second Cut

After an application makes it past the first round, the judges separate “OK” from “great.” The applications that make it through are those that have thorough and well-thought-out responses.

Make sure your responses are complete and answer the question. It’s very important that your grammar and spelling are correct, so check and double-check all of your essays. Do not rely on the spelling correction software built into your computer’s word processing software, as this will miss “valid word” spelling errors, such as substituting “their” for “there” or “they’re” or “principal” for “principle”. Print out your essay and proofread it in hardcopy format, as it is easier to catch these errors in print than on screen.

The Final Decision

This is the most difficult part of the process for judges. They’ve narrowed it down to a few highly qualified students. Now they must examine and compare every detail of the applications.

According to Mark Davis, President of the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, judges pay special attention to:

Academics—It’s important to have a competitive GPA. However, providers also consider how challenging your course load and school are. They also check to see if you’re taking the right courses to reach your goals and how well you did in those courses.
Leadership—If leadership is part of the criteria they’re looking for, judges will examine your activities. They’ll also look for a range of leadership positions.
Service—Some providers are interested in knowing what community service you’ve done. They’ll want to know if you’ve been continuous in your volunteer efforts. If volunteer work is required by your school, they’ll look for activities that go above and beyond the required service job.
Creativity—You can show your creative side if you play an instrument, write stories, paint pictures or act in plays. Demonstrate your ability by letting the judges know if you’ve won any awards.
Special circumstances—If you’ve overcome any obstacles to achieve your goals, the judges want to know about it. Let them know how you achieved all that you’ve done, in spite of the roadblocks you’ve encountered.

It’s not an easy job being a scholarship judge. Deciding who will receive an award is a tough decision. By knowing what’s on the minds of scholarship judges, you’ll have a better chance at being one of those winners.

Thanks again and we hope to see you again!

PS Don't forget to visit our website www.summitcollegeplanning.com

My Best,

Jon

My Interview with for YouTube!

2009-05-24T18:20:00.001-04:00

This is my interview about Summit College Planning done with me and Tony Selzo in Indianapolis.

A Cheaper Version.....

2009-05-18T13:20:00.002-04:00

When I sit down with parent's, they are hoping I can help them find a way to send their child to college without having to mortgage EVERYTHING just to accomplish it. In the past, college really did not have an option to accomplish a degree that was legitimate at an in-expensive school but now that is not the case.
There is a movement for college classes to be taught by professors at earlier stages in the student's pursuit. Colleges like Ivy Tech, IU-Kokomo and others have been successful at offereing a more streamlined approach to a student's degree. We are also noticing student's are attending those schools for the first semester or two and knocking out some of their core classes at a much less cost per credit hour and then transferring.
I think this approach has merit, especially for those students who are not sure of what they wish to pursue or those that are sure and don't want to "waste money" on un-necessary courses they have taken in high school. With certain degrees it has become almost fashionable to apply at Ivy Tech and IU-K and the like to acheive those pursuits because it really doesn't matter so much as where you attended school as much as are you licensed, registered, board certified and the like.
One additional value of schooling like these is that you get to mature as a student! Some student's like myself did not pull a good GPA in high school and in effect were penalized for late blooming so to speak by not being accepted into the colleges of their choice. For many, this allows them to take college level courses and then transfer and have their High School transcripts hold less value then their college transcripts. Kind of a 2nd chance!
If that is your plan then I would advise you to contact Ivy Tech and get advisment on what to take and so on but also the school you are planning to transfer to and let them help you plan a set of classes to help ensure they will in fact transfer and help you instead of waste your time!

Till we speak again.....

Visit my website
www.summitcollegeplanning.com

Thanks
Jon

Why do colleges offer student loan lenders on it's website?

2009-05-14T15:09:00.003-04:00

It may appear to many that the college is actually trying to help "streamline" the process for parent's and students to get access to student loans by providing a "preferred lender list" on it's financial aid website. At some colleges, there is a rebate happening behind the scenes every time a lender receives a loan from the college it has a "preferred" relationship with.
Is the ethical.....Good question!
According to the Attorney General for the state of New York...it's is NOT. I have attached a link below to the full article.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17644168/

Let's play devil's advocate here.

Schools are supposed to be non-profit but if you look closely, you will see where there are profits built in to a number of events, transactions and arrangements they promote. In this particular circumstance it feels a lot like when a farmer takes a hog to slaughter, provides the transportation and claims it is helping the hog!

I have NO objection in getting paid for providing a service (I do that), just simply disclose it. If a provider is offering a student or parent loan to someone who is trying to get into a particular college and then providing a referral fee, finders fee, rebate or whatever, simply make it known.
In this case, the colleges do not make it known and some even goe so far as to give the impression that they are simply making the process less overwhelming......

I truly believe in a college education. I truly believe in bettering yourself through advancement in knowledge, gainful employment and increasing amounts of quality experience. I just have an issue with people, entities and organizations representing themselves in non-credible ways that end up taking advantage of less knowledgeable persons.

Not to sound so doom and gloom!

Talk with you again soon.....

Thanks
Jon

I GOT MY DEGREE NOW WHERE'S MY JOB!

2009-05-12T21:16:00.002-04:00

For years now I have preached that just because you get a degree DOES NOT ENTITLE YOU TO A GOOD PAYING JOB, or EVEN A JOB AT ALL! So many kids have heard from their parents that they are going to college...period for so long that they simply assume that getting that degree entitles them to a job in their field paying them good money, period!

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

I am attaching a link to an article written by a Senior Writer at MSNBC.COM that re-iterates what I have been saying since day one.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30564000//

The article blames the economic times for the restricted and far more competitive job market for graduating seniors but in reality, not everyone gets those high paying jobs straight out of college anyway!
Let's think this thru.....
If you were a CEO and wanted to hire for say, a position in IT. Do you want the average person who barely got in, coasted thru on C's and B's and then graduates in the middle of their class? Heck NO....
You want the best, most qualified for the dollars! This translates to those that have excelled in their degree pursuits and have finished strong in college. Everyone else has to work their way up the ladder as it were which is not a bad way to go but this sense of entitlement is simply dangerous financially for students and parents to have.
A great many kids think that they should be able to go get any degree at any college and not have to concern themselves with the economics of that choice. Then they graduate with some $60, $80 or even $100,000 in student loan debt and find out that the jobs that they were "promised" by everyone except the marketplace have dried up or better yet, they do exist but at a reduced salary of say $35,000 to $55,000 per year and "Uh, Oh" they can't support their bills and their college debt and a living so they don't end up employed in the field they went to school for!
Do the math here....
$60,000 of debt at 20 yrs amortization with a 5% interest rate is $395.97 per month is a payment. Seems harmless right....look again!
$55,000 per year income filing single is a 25% federal & around 3% state so for this example let's assume 28% (15,400 in taxes assuming no contribution to 401K plans). This will leave about $1,523.07 per paycheck (26 pays per year)....still seems like enough, look again!

Bills are as follows:

Mortgage: 950.00/mo

Car: 350/mo

Insurance: 150/mo

Groceries: 250/mo

Eating Out: 200/mo

Cable: 75/mo

Cell Phone: 75/mo

Utilities: 200/mo

Gasoline: 120/mo

Credit Card: 100/mo

School Loan: 396/mo

Misc. Expense (birthdays, holidays, travel, friends, Friday & Saturday nights): 300/mo+

Total:$3,166.00/mo

Total amount of interest to be repaid over the 20yrs = $35,033 for a total repayment of $95,033!

I am NOT saying college is not a good pursuit or option, it is necessary for many careers and professions! It is simply not a gimme at any price!
College Degrees give you access to a job market....nothing more, nothing less! You MUST treat this like a business decision, what is the cost of this transaction and when do I break-even vs begin to show a profit!
If you are getting a degree that pays $25 to $35K per year, you should not be attending a school that you will get virtually no aid at and pay an above average price for. Likewise, if you are getting a degree in a high-paying profession, you should not pay off student loans just yet.
YOU SHOULD SAVE TO PAY THEM OFF.....YOU MIGHT WANT TO USE THE INTEREST AS A TAX DEDUCTION INITIALLY (consult a CPA).

Anyway, I hope this has been a wake up call for many of us that have not been a part of a recessionary period in our lives that jobs were hard to find and college was good at any price!

Come again,
Jon

PS Don't forget to visit my site
www.summitcollegeplanning.com

Athlete's and Academics!

2009-05-07T12:29:00.001-04:00

Classroom Failure, Postseason Ban

(Article from Inside Higher Education)

May 7, 2009

For the first time in its history, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has banned teams from postseason play for their athletes’ poor academic performance.

Football teams from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Jacksonville State University and a men’s basketball squad from Centenary College of Louisiana are the first to be punished because each has a low Academic Progress Rate -- a nationally comparable score the NCAA uses to judge teams based on their athletes’ ability to remain in good academic standing, stay enrolled from semester to semester and ultimately graduate.

Teams are evaluated on the four-year average of their APR. The measure was introduced more than five years ago, but the NCAA first began penalizing teams for poor academic performance last year. The score of all Division I institutions and their teams is updated annually, and publicly released by the NCAA every spring. The latest scores and subsequent penalties were released Wednesday.

Teams whose APRs are less than 925 -- a perfect score is 1,000 -- are subject to “immediate penalties” that can take away up to 10 percent of their athletic scholarships. This year, 124 teams are facing “immediate penalties” and most will have their number of full scholarships reduced for the coming academic year. Some of the more prominent men’s basketball teams facing scholarship reductions include Auburn University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Purdue University, the University of South Carolina at Columbia and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The only two football teams from a Bowl Championship Series (or major) conference facing penalties are the University of Minnesota and the University of Mississippi.

After “immediate penalties,” teams that continue to have low APRs over the years -- the benchmark moves to 900 -- become susceptible to “historical penalties.” During this process, penalized institutions have to submit plans to the NCAA outlining how they intend to improve their academic performance. After two consecutive years of unsatisfactory scores, teams can lose more scholarships and be forced to reduce their number of practices. This year, 30 teams are facing second-year penalties. More than a third of these teams are men’s basketball teams from mid-major conferences, such as those from New Mexico State and Portland State Universities.

Following a third consecutive year of poor scores, teams can lose the ability to participate in postseason play. This is the first year that this penalty has been available for use. Of the three teams facing this penalty, only Jacksonville State has lobbied the NCAA for a waiver from this penalty.

Six teams that faced second-year penalties last year did not advance to third-year penalties this year, even though their APRs were still below 900. Kevin C. Lennon, the NCAA's vice president for membership services, explained that the NCAA evaluates each team and its plan to improve its APR separately. He added that some teams are given more leniency than others and that the NCAA can override a substandard APR to keep a team at a certain penalty level. Football and men’s soccer teams at San Jose State University, for example, continue to have APRs below 900, but did not advance to the third-year penalties and have not been banned from postseason play.

Once a team has a fourth consecutive year of substandard APR scores, its sponsoring institution can potentially lose its Division I status, jeopardizing all of its other sports teams. Next year, institutions will be eligible for this punishment for the first time. In recent weeks, some troubled institutions have responded to the strong potential of receiving this penalty by cutting underperforming teams instead of attempting to solve the academic problem they were facing.

“Our objective is to change behaviors,” said Myles Brand, NCAA president. “Our objective is not to punish and sanction.”

Brand, who has championed a number of sweeping academic reforms during his term as president, said he believed that very few institutions ultimately would cut academically troubled teams to avoid more serious punishment.

Still, he and other NCAA officials acknowledged that smaller athletics programs at less-wealthy institutions are often at a disadvantage to prevent these harsh academic penalties. Judging from the relatively small number of teams from larger programs facing penalties, Brand said he expected future academic penalties would be disproportionally levied against teams from poorer institutions.

"The truth of the matter is that if you're going to participate in high-level intercollegiate athletics, you have to provide for academic opportunities for the students," Brand said. "And that's not inexpensive."

The method the NCAA uses to calculate the APR changed slightly this year. For example, as a result of a recent NCAA policy change, athletes must be in good academic standing at one institution before they can qualify for scholarship money at another. Those athletes who transfer with less than a 2.6 grade point average will cost their institutions APR points. Additionally, this is the first year that athletes’ progress toward degree status is being considered by the APR.

Walter Harrison, chair of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance and president of the University of Hartford, said he believed these small changes have made the APR a more accurate measure of success in the classroom. He noted that they might also account for some of the spike in this year’s divisionwide averages.

The overall Division I APR is 964 -- up three points from last year. The averages for baseball, football and men’s basketball -- traditionally underperforming sports -- rose significantly this year. Baseball rose from 938 to 946, football from 934 to 939, and men’s basketball from 928 to 933.

Cutting across all sports for men, gymnastics beat out fencing this year as the best performing team at 978. On the women’s side, lacrosse narrowly upended crew as the best performing team at 985.

“This is a real sign that academic reform is in place at the NCAA and that our institutions are responding extremely well,” Harrison said of this year’s APR data. “As a result, student-athletes are succeeding at higher and higher rates.”

— David Moltz

Can Myspace & Social Networking Hurt the Admissions Process?

2009-05-04T09:57:00.001-04:00

MySpace in College Admission

You’ve been working hard trying to get into college—researching schools, refining your essay, collecting glowing recommendations, studying on nights and weekends for the SATs or ACTs, maybe even preparing for a campus interview. Throughout all of this process, you’ve made a great impression as a serious, promising college student. Wait, though. Before you can relax on the couch to watch “American Idol,” there’s one more detail to take care of—your online blog.

Blogs, Private or Public Information?
Whether it’s through MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, LiveJournal, or Friendster, students are online—online sharing details with friends, online for everyone to see.

These sites help you keep in touch with friends and allow you meet new people. Many students spend hours each day updating their profiles, messaging their friends and clicking through photo albums. It’s harmless fun, right?

Now, how would you feel if your teachers saw your site? A college admission officer?

“Well, I would be a little angry because there are things in my profile that I don't want them to see,” said Aubrey Fait, a freshman at Saint-Mary-of-the Woods College (IN). “There is some information that I want to keep private between me and my friends, so I would prefer if my parents and college faculty not look at my Facebook profile.”

Other students don’t think what they do in their free time influences their school work, so it shouldn’t matter what information they have online. They may be right: You can be a great student, regardless what you do outside of school. When the embarrassing details of your social life are online for anyone to look up, though, you might want to re-consider what you post.

You might not like it, but you should know that adults—from your schools, families and even law enforcement—are looking at your pages.

The Consequences: What Has Already Happened to Some Students
Most colleges are not surfing the Web for your profile. However, when other people bring students’ blogging to their attention, schools do respond.

At least one college applicant was denied admission in part because of his blog on LiveJournal. The admission dean said the student’s blog, which was brought to his attention, included seemingly hostile comments about certain college officials (Kornblum 2006).
Swimmers at Louisiana State criticized coaches on Facebook and were kicked off the team (Kornblum and Marklein 2006).
A high school freshman in Maryland was reportedly suspended because of online photos (Greenfield 2006).
Police busted an underage drinking party at George Washington University after they found invitations online (Greenfield 2006).

How Your School Might React
Many middle and high schools have banned the use of these social networking Web sites on campus. Some private schools have even banned students from joining these sites altogether.

“I’ve been on MySpace and I can see that for kids it’s like their hangout place, their place to vent, their place to maintain instant contact—it’s hard for them to give it up,” said Judy Oberlander, a counselor at Ojai Valley School (CA). However, “since MySpace was taking a toll on study time and classroom engagement, in addition to the danger of the imprudent things being posted by students, we decided to outlaw MySpace use at school or any time.”

It’s happening all across the country: Students in middle school, high school and college are being suspended and expelled for their online indiscretions. Even if you disagree with these policies, they can affect you. And as much of a cliche as it is, your school officials are just trying to protect you.

The College Admission Effects
With the MySpace bans, students need to be careful of what they post. Some zero-tolerance polices make it fair game to punish someone who is in a photo even holding what appearns to be alcoholic drink. Explaining this type of suspension to a college doesn’t really make a good bullet-point for your resume.

Even if your school doesn’t have these rules, your postings could affect your college admission. Most colleges do not look up students on these sites, but when other people draw attention to these possibly offensive blogs, then schools often take action.

“We have just started letting students know that employers, college admission personnel, and others may be checking their postings...Our students seemed very surprised by this,” said Julie Davis, Thomas Worthington High School (OH).

“In terms of college admission, I talk with the students about the importance of projecting a professional impression through voice mail messages, e-mail account titles and MySpace postings. I tell them a story once told to me by an admission counselor who said a student gave her e-mail address as partygirl@hotmail.com. She didn't get accepted to that college,” said Margi Wieber, college counselor, Providence Academy (MN).

Some college admission officers make themselves available for students on these sites as a convenient forum for Q & A.

“I have accounts on Friendster, Facebook, LiveJournal, Xanga, and MySpace. I do interact with a variety of students via these communities, however, it's our strict policy that the Internet should only help applicants, not hurt them...I, personally, don't think it's fair for college officials to take advantage of [these online interactions]—the one exception being a student's safety,” noted Ben Jones, communications manager for the MIT Office of Admissions.

“I don't ‘research’ applicants online using their pages in these communities—although other schools do, from what I read in the news. My interactions with applicants and current MIT students are initiated by them—not by me.”

Jeannine Lalonde, assistant dean of admission at the University of Virginia, also talks to students online who contact her. “After seeing current UVA students answer questions on MySpace, I decided to step in and offer some advice to the high school students who were posting. I knew it would open the door, but I also knew that seeing an admission officer on MySpace might:

Make a few kids stop and think before posting info about questionable behavior on their sites; and
Make some students realize that admission officers aren’t as scary as they might have thought.”

Sometimes students include Web-based communications such as blogs in their college application. Daniel Creasy, from Johns Hopkins University (MD), explains his experiences with student blogs as part of the application: “Many times, the work the students have done adds substance to their file and truly helps, but there have been occasions where this information raises questions and concerns.”

Creasy also cautions that when students contact admission officers through the school’s message boards and blogs, the information becomes part of the formal correspondence and can be factored in to the admission decision.

Beyond School: Your Job Search

Applying to college isn’t the only thing you should worry about when you post your information online. Your profile can follow you as you try to get a job.

According to the 2005 study by executive job-search agency ExecuNet, cited in the Chicago Tribune, 75 percent of recruiters use Web research as part of the applicant screening process.

The same article notes that a recruiter withdrew a job offer after seeing the candidate’s blog.

One recent grad took down his profile when someone called him about a friend he went to school with. The caller identified himself as an employee at a consulting firm who was “facebooking” all the applicants and contacting their friends to check them out (Sposato 2005).

An intern was fired when the CEO discovered that the intern’s Facebook profile noted that he would “‘spend most of [his] days screwing around on IM and talking to [his] friends and getting paid for it’” (Conlin 2006).

There’s even a verb for people who get fired for what they put on their Web sites—dooced—named after the blog of a woman who was fired for writing about her job in her blog.

Basically, the point is that whatever you post, it never goes away. Once your information is online—even if you take it down—it becomes public information, as your page can be saved on anyone’s computer.

What You Can Do

First, be safe! Never post personal information such as your address, daily schedule, phone number, etc. Check out these safety guidelines from the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use and Wired Safety.
Make your profile private so that strangers can’t look at your information, and be cautious about adding new friends who you do not personally know.
Take down any questionable photos or exchanges between you and your friends. Give it the “Grandma Test.” If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see it, then you don’t want other adults to either. Remember, pictures and references of you on your friends’ pages can be damaging too. You can ask them to take down this kind of information.
Don’t get a false sense of security on sites like Facebook, where you need an academic address, to view pages. It’s easy for faculty, alumni and random people to get on and look at your wall and photos.

People Can See Everything
Although blogs can be fun, remember that what you post is for public view, like broadcasting it on the six o’clock news. So when it’s time to apply for college, give your blog a second look to make sure you feel comfortable sharing everything you have posted with an admission officer and, later, with potential employers because your site becomes permanent, public information about you.

References

Greenfield, Jimmy. “All Up in My Space.” Chicago Tribune, March 28, 2006.

Kornblum, Janet and Beth Marklein. “What You Say Online Could Haunt You.” USA Today. March 8, 2006.

Conlin, Michelle. “You Are What You Post: Bosses Are Using Google to Peer Into Places Job Interviews Can’t Take Them.” BusinessWeek. March 27, 2006.

Sposato, Bree. “MySpace Invaders.” New York. Nov. 21, 2005.

Written by Nicole Verardi.

Article from "Inside Higher Ed"......

2009-05-04T08:55:00.000-04:00

Early Admission From Waiting List

May 4, 2009

The first week in May is traditionally the time that some private colleges turn to their waiting lists. If "yield" -- the percentage of accepted applicants who said Yes to the college -- is a little low, the waiting list is used to fill extra spots. This year that process started early at some colleges.

For most private colleges with competitive admissions, May 1 is the deadline by which those offered admission must have postmarked their replies, so this week would typically be the time period during which waiting list offers start to go out. (For many public colleges and universities, and other privates, the calendar isn't as geared to a May 1 deadline, and for competitive publics this year, flooded with applicants, admission off the waiting list may not be in the cards for many.)

This year, Lawrence University, Union College in New York, and Washington University in St. Louis -- all institutions with competitive admissions -- turned to their waiting lists in recent weeks, before the final tallies were in on how many accepted applicants were coming. Their actions and those of other colleges (plus some rumored but not announced officially) have left students on waiting lists trading information online about which colleges have already started going to that group. In an admissions year in which strategies of many colleges and applicants are in recession-related flux, this is another twist.

Steven Syverson, vice president for enrollment at Lawrence, said that as it became clear two weeks ago that the university would have some extra slots, he decided not to wait until the arrival of mail from May 1, and to send out 15 more acceptance letters, taking people off the waiting list earlier than normal.

Syverson said that he has heard from colleagues elsewhere a growing interest in admitting from the waiting list prior to May 1 because the value of the list seems to "really dissipate" after May 1. Some applicants "simply are tired of the process and want to be done, so once they have sent a deposit somewhere, they're much less likely to be interested in a slot opening up."

Matt Malatesta, vice president for admissions, financial aid and enrollment at Union, said that several factors were at play in its decision to go early to the waiting list. One factor having nothing to do with the recession is that this is Malatesta's first year in his position so he said he wasn't "tied to any practice from the past."

He said that the strategy relates to the limitations of using other approaches in this unusual admissions year. He said that some private colleges, expecting yields to be down a bit as students explore many options, have upped the number of acceptances they sent out originally. But Malatesta said that's risky if you are a college that fills every residence hall and doesn't want to get larger or see classes get larger.

Last year, Union enrolled more students than expected, and repeating that pattern a few years in a row -- while potentially helpful to a college's bottom line -- creates educational problems, he said. So Union didn't up its offers, but with acceptances of those offers running slightly behind last year's (which is where many private colleges have been reporting themselves in the last 10 days), Malatesta said it made sense to make offers to the top 20 students on the waiting list.

Malatesta stressed that these are students "we would love to have taken in the first place." They will be given an extra week beyond May 1 to decide whether to accept Union's offer.

There are benefits for those on the waiting list as well. While the obvious one is that they get in, there is also a financial bonus. Colleges that follow the traditional waiting list calendar encourage those on the list to place a deposit at their first choice among colleges that accepted them. By going to the waiting list as soon as the numbers coming in suggest it would happen anyway, "those who haven't yet decided on another college and who want to come here don't have to put money down at another college."

Some colleges have tried for some of the gains of going to the waiting list early by flagging for those on the list either that such a move was possible (Providence College) or that the yield estimates (while not final) suggested a decent chance that the waiting list would be used some time after May 1 (Vanderbilt University).

Several admissions officials said that going to the waiting list early doesn't mean that those who still haven't been called with good news won't still get the call they are hoping for in the next few weeks. So when the May 1 postmarked mail has arrived, more offers are possible.

Nanette H. Tarbouni, director of admissions at Washington University in St. Louis, said that going to the waiting list early there was a result of a pattern of "under admitting" in the first round, and then adding students. In Wash U.'s case, the completion of a residence hall project after the first round of letters went out was a key factor, when it became clear the project would be done in time to house some of those admitted.

Tarbouni noted an extra benefit of admiting students off the waiting list: "It's always fun to call and hear the happiness and excitement in a student's voice -- you never really get the same experience when initial letters are sent."

— Scott Jaschik

Be sure to visit my website for additional information on college planning...
www.summitcollegeplanning.com

Time keeps on slipping away!!!

2009-05-01T15:53:00.000-04:00

It never fails that people wait too long to begin the process of college selection. "We don't have to worry about college till senior year...MAYBE junior year, right?". NOPE
Day one of student's freshman year in HS. Why?
Because GPA is an ever-increasing component of the admissions process that if you are struggling with it going into your junior year....it become too tough to rectify it by admissions time.
Hint:
Freshman yr end = 3.30 or better
Sophomore yr end = 3.65 or better
Junior yr end = 3.80 or better

WHY stop there?
Because now a days, colleges evaluate the student's GPA at junior yr. end for any proposal for merit scholarships! Found out the hard way with Purdue and cost a student over $20,000.00 over 4 yrs! Missed it by 0.25% by junior yr but graduated well above their cut-off and still was not awarded it!

Don't let time get away from you, keep college planning top of mind while in college and do it early!

More about college on my site www.summitcollegeplanning.com

Till we speak again,

Jon