Wednesday, March 19College Admissions News

Author: Editor

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today
College Rankings

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today Vaccinating young adolescents The F.D.A.’s authorization yesterday of the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds is a huge milestone in the battle against the virus, crucial for reducing its spread, reopening schools and returning to some sense of normalcy. But what will the plan for young adolescents look like? States and school districts across the country are now scrambling to figure out the best way to proceed. With the school year ending soon, it will be a race against the clock to schedule both recommended doses before summer break. Officials are also making plans to offer vaccines at pediatricians’ offices, day camps, parks and even beaches. Parents, whose consent is required by law, are perhaps the biggest complicating factor in vaccinatin...
Poll: US Families Want More Postsecondary Options
Financial Aid

Poll: US Families Want More Postsecondary Options

Poll: US Families Want More Postsecondary Options iStockAlthough most American parents want their children to complete a bachelor’s degree, a significant number of families would like other options for their students, according to a new national survey. The opinion poll, which was released last week by Gallup and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, found that 46 percent of respondents preferred an alternate postsecondary path for their child, such as community college, skill training, military service, or paid employment. In addition, although 84 percent of parents of current middle and high school students said they were satisfied with the four-year college, two-year college, and/or technical training programs currently available, 45 percent wished more alternatives were offered. The su...
The Virtual Renaissance
Graduate Admissions

The Virtual Renaissance

The Virtual RenaissanceWith May 1st having come and gone, I find myself remembering with some amusement my thoughts on March 16, 2020 - the day that the Admission and Financial Aid teams at Babson College packed up and prepared to be virtual until we could “flatten the curve.”Of course, we were concerned about the health and safety of our friends and families, and we were sad that the students would miss the rest of the semester, but we believed that they’d be able to reunite at Commencement in May. While we had no idea what this short break could do to enrollment (how will students deposit without seeing our campus in all of its spring splendor?), we believed we’d make up for it with summer in-person tours and information sessions. And, of course, fall would be completely normal and we wo...
2 Oklahoma Boys Pulled From Class for ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-Shirts
College Planning

2 Oklahoma Boys Pulled From Class for ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-Shirts

2 Oklahoma Boys Pulled From Class for ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-Shirts Two brothers, 8 and 5, were removed from their Oklahoma elementary school classrooms this past week and made to wait out the school day in a front office for wearing T-shirts that read “Black Lives Matter,” according to the boys’ mother. The superintendent of the Ardmore, Okla., school district where the brothers, Bentlee and Rodney Herbert, attend different schools had previously told their mother, Jordan Herbert, that politics would “not be allowed at school,” Ms. Herbert recalled on Friday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma has called the incident a violation of the students’ First Amendment rights. On April 30, Bentlee, who is in the third grade, went to class at Charles Evans Elementary in a Black Lives ...
Cal Survived Covid. Now, Back to Its Usual Problems
College Rankings

Cal Survived Covid. Now, Back to Its Usual Problems

Cal Survived Covid. Now, Back to Its Usual Problems BERKELEY, Calif. — The football and men’s basketball seasons were long over, but other sports at the University of California, Berkeley, were in full array — water polo in the pool, rowing in the estuary, baseball on the diamond. The Covid-19 pandemic had thrown most fall and winter sports into the spring, erecting logistical hurdles across campus. About two dozen teams and hundreds of athletes vied simultaneously in April for fields, courts, pools and arenas. Locker rooms, like most of Cal’s classrooms the entire school year, remained closed. Trainers and other support staff were spread thin. Things were hopping. They were not normal. On the last Saturday of April, the women’s lacrosse team held its final home game of the season at Memo...
‘The Agile College’ and the Adaptive University
Graduate Admissions

‘The Agile College’ and the Adaptive University

‘The Agile College’ and the Adaptive UniversityThe Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes by Nathan D. Grawe Published in January of 2021. Every conversation about the future of higher education in the United States either starts or ends with demographics. And since 2018, that conversation likely included mention of the economist Nathan Grawe. It was in January of that year when Grawe published Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. The careful data-driven analysis and non-polemical style of that book, written by someone from within higher education (Grawe is a prof at Carleton College), resulted in Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education being perhaps the most influential academic book of the past few years. Now Grawe is back with rap...
Uncategorized

Ultimate Guide to College Grants and Scholarships for Minorities

Ultimate Guide to College Grants and Scholarships for MinoritiesScholarships and grants are a valuable tool for students who need funds to pay for college. These programs typically have criteria that consider your background and interests. One major category of gift awards is minority scholarships and grants. Minorities are groups that have historically faced societal disadvantages or challenges due to factors including: ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and disability. Students whose backgrounds qualify them for these awards can access financial assistance that they don’t need to pay back. Like all scholarships, minority scholarships will usually have additional merit or need based criteria for selection. Minority scholarships are offered by colleges, private organizations ...
College Rankings

How Some Colleges Screwed-Up Online Learning

How Some Colleges Screwed-Up Online LearningIt is an unfortunate, but true, fact that bricks-and-mortar, classroom-based universities and colleges have attempted to jury-rig online delivery onto their classroom model.  The 2020-21 COVID pandemic forced the closure of traditional campus and classroom schools.  Masks and social distancing that was mandated to thwart the spread of infection forced sit-down schools to close entirely or to severely curtail student attendance.  So almost all undergraduate colleges, in the attempt to generate some student attendance and tuition revenue, jumped onto the online wagon, whether they had online capability or not. Points must be given for trying to innovate and quickly adopt online, distance-learning courses into their classroom-based delivery system a...
The Unintended Consequences of Universal Preschool
Graduate Admissions

The Unintended Consequences of Universal Preschool

The Unintended Consequences of Universal PreschoolOne of the hallmarks of President Biden’s $1.8 trillion American Families Plan is its ambitious proposal to create something tantamount to universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. The plan calls for a national partnership with states that, when fully implemented, could put five million children into high-quality programs and save the average American family $13,000 per year. The proposal has a long way to go before becoming a reality. And with the Senate split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, there is a chance the program may not materialize at all. But even the prospect of universal preschool, long embraced by other developed nations, is ginning up a great deal of attention and interest from the public, especially after a hard ...
Online Colleges

A Medley of Multimodal Projects

A Medley of Multimodal ProjectsKay Sohini Kumar is a comics maker based in New York and a Ph.D. candidate at Stony Brook University. Follow her at @KaySohini on Twitter, or check out her website. When I started teaching a class on “Global Film Traditions” this Spring, I mentioned to my students that they could do a multimodal project in lieu of a final paper. Halfway through the semester, New York declared a state of emergency, our university shifted to remote instruction, and the classroom as we knew it changed. We were asked to revise our syllabi to adjust to the needs of remote teaching. Some of my students were returning to their home countries, some had moved in with their families, some were still working under trying circumstances, and others were struggling with proper access to th...
Academics criticise 'harassment' of university whistleblower
Financial Aid

Academics criticise 'harassment' of university whistleblower

Academics criticise 'harassment' of university whistleblowerGLOBAL Academics from across the globe have condemned Murdoch University’s treatment of a whistleblower who spoke out about international student exploitation, saying they are “appalled” at what they see as an “extraordinary” attempt to intimidate him and others into silence, writes Christopher Knaus for The Guardian.The Australian university is suing Associate Professor Gerd Schröder-Turk for criticising its treatment of international students during an episode of the ABC’s Four Corners programme. Schröder-Turk alleges the university retaliated against him within days of the programme airing, and he is now attempting to engage Western Australia’s whistleblower protections.But the university has launched a cross-claim...
Celebrating Heroic Women Breaking Glass and Winning Gold
College Rankings

Celebrating Heroic Women Breaking Glass and Winning Gold

Celebrating Heroic Women Breaking Glass and Winning Gold Women have made history, shattered glass ceilings, and forged paths in an array of fields spanning from STEM and space exploration to the arts and sports. Through their achievements women have fought for and advanced equality. Some of these remarkable women and their achievements are featured in a new special exhibit housed in the White House. In partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH), the U.S. Department of Education, and the Office of the First Lady, the White House is honoring and celebrating the achievements of women during and beyond Women’s History Month. Celebrate their legacies and lasting impact with us.   From performing heroic work in World War II to demonstrating groundbreaking at...
Let’s Talk about Title IX
Online Colleges

Let’s Talk about Title IX

Let’s Talk about Title IX What is Title IX? Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in any federally funded education program or activity. In other words, schools that receive federal funds are legally required to protect students against sex discrimination. Experiencing sex discrimination in any form can derail a student’s opportunity to learn, participate, and thrive in and outside of the classroom. Sex discrimination, including sexual harassment and sexual violence, is a threat to equal access to educational environments for students of all ages. Why are we talking about it? President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of ...
New higher education literacies for a sustainable future
College Planning

New higher education literacies for a sustainable future

New higher education literacies for a sustainable futureGLOBAL As the world becomes more interconnected and interdependent, nations face increasing pressure to improve their political, economic, social, technological and environmental infrastructures in order to compete in an increasingly globalised world.Within this context, perhaps the most fundamental and important component of any nation in the 21st century is its educational system. As societies become more complex – economically, socially, technologically and otherwise – so must their educational systems.To this end, nations have responded by creating diverse educational systems that now consist of many different types of educational institutions, including trade schools, technical colleges, community colleges, liberal arts colleg...
A Letter to America’s Teachers
Financial Aid

A Letter to America’s Teachers

A Letter to America’s TeachersI never could predict what might happen in Mr. O’Neil’s art classes; I just knew I couldn’t wait for the next assignment.  Back then I didn’t realize all the ways this dynamic educator, a rare man of color leading our diverse classroom of second graders, was serving as a pioneer and role model for me and my peers in John Barry Elementary School.  But I’ll never forget how his teaching made me feel.  As a second grader, I remember looking up — watching him encourage, challenge and guide us – and thinking: “I want to be like him.” In the years since embracing that calling and starting my career as a classroom teacher, I’ve kept that sense of purpose and wonder.  And my goal in all the administrative roles I’ve held is to facilitate great teaching and learning: t...