Editor – Page 24 – College Admissions News

‘The Agile College’ and the Adaptive University

10May

By EditorNo Comments

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...

10May

By EditorNo Comments

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 ...

10May

By EditorNo Comments

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

10May

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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 ...

10May

By EditorNo Comments

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

9May

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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

9May

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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...

9May

By EditorNo Comments

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

9May

By EditorNo Comments

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...

9May

By EditorNo Comments

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...

8May

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Financial Aid

Rethinking the Admission Process

Rethinking the Admission Process iStockWe’ve just passed the point in the higher education admission cycle where, traditionally, college applicants receive a flurry of decisions all at once—an increasingly stressful time for students that often coincides with spring break. It caused me to think about how we do business and I was encouraged to learn that, in conjunction with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), NACAC has launched a commission “to reimagine financial aid and college admission in the pursuit of racial equity in postsecondary education.” It is intended to rethink everything.And, indeed, it is time we do. The pandemic has highlighted many inequities in society and specifically within higher education. It is now incumbent upon all of us to s...

How to take advantage of college admission changes during COVID-19

8May

By EditorNo Comments

College Planning

How to take advantage of college admission changes during COVID-19

How to take advantage of college admission changes during COVID-19No matter when COVID-19 finally disappears, the college admission practices that changed due to the pandemic, will not completely disappear. In a recent webinar, I discussed how the pandemic has impacted college admissions in significant ways and how families can take advantage of these changes going forward. [embedded content] COVID-19 and College Admissions Here are some COVID-19 developments that you should know about: 1. The vast majority of colleges and universities are now test-optional. That includes more than 90% of all highly selective and elite schools. 2. Because two-year-old tax returns are used when completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the CSS Profile, many a family’s financial informatio...

8May

By EditorNo Comments

Financial Aid

What is the University's Purpose?

What is the University's Purpose?The recent Chronicle of Higher Education/Deloitte report, “The College Business Model in a Crisis,” rekindled my concerns about the ultimate purposes of our enterprise and how these purposes can more effectively guide planning and operational decision-making. The questions are no longer hypothetical, if indeed they ever were. Will problem-solving triggered by the hyper-disruptive COVID-19 event reaffirm core academic values or will it spawn new business models that, over time, will undermine them?The report provides useful insights on higher education’s business model and how to fix it, but institutional purposes are not addressed explicitly. This blog describes the problem and introduces some emergent practical concepts and tools for balancing “miss...

Court moves beyond the past in favouring English

8May

By EditorNo Comments

Graduate Admissions

Court moves beyond the past in favouring English

Court moves beyond the past in favouring EnglishSOUTH AFRICA The South African Constitutional Court’s recent unanimous decision upholding Stellenbosch University’s policy favouring English is important in both substance and tone for its evolving narrative on language, race and historical wrongs.To fully understand what was at stake in the case, one has to go back to Stellenbosch’s beginnings. Achieving university status in 1918, the intent was to offer higher education to Afrikaans-speaking students. As time went on, Stellenbosch became an elite stronghold of Afrikaner tradition and a major force in preserving apartheid separatism.That history still haunts the institution even though, as of 2018, only 58.1% of the students were white and not all of them were Afrikaners.With the end of a...

Researching whether a college will close

7May

By EditorNo Comments

College Planning

Researching whether a college will close

Researching whether a college will closeFor most colleges and universities, competing for high school seniors has been a cutthroat Hunger Games exercise for many years. Before the pandemic hit, the majority of colleges were failing to meet their freshmen admission goals every year. At the start of the pandemic, some respected higher-ed observers predicted that many colleges would close by the summer, but that hasn’t happened. So far, most schools are still open for business. Whether this will last, remains an open question. Whatever happens, it makes sense to do your own research on whether colleges on your child’s list are financially stable. Resources to evaluate a college’s financial health To help you with that task, I’m sharing some new and old resources that attempt to divine how fin...