College tuition and fees have risen by 893 percent since 1980, nearly five times the 179 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index and almost twice the increase in medical costs. Many colleges and universities plan tuition hikes for fall 2013.
Uncounted credits cost time, money
March 27, 2013 by
A third of students transfer at least once, almost always losing credits along the way. The average associate degree graduate has earned 80 credits for a degree that requires 60. Full-time students average 3.8 years to complete a two-year degree. Bachelor’s degree graduates average 136.5 credits and 4.7 years for the 120-credit, four-year degree.
Colleges take transfers, deny credits
March 22, 2013 by
Some colleges demand transfers pay a non-refundable deposit before learning how many of their credits will be counted. It’s common for transfers to learn half their credits are useless.
Project Win-Win helped colleges boost their graduation rates by analyzing data bases to find students who’d completed degree requirements — or come close — but hadn’t received the degree.
CC pilots a no-cost-for-books degree
March 14, 2013 by
Business students won’t need to buy books or other materials to earn an associate degree at Virginia’s Tidewater Community College. Faculty have agreed to use “open educational resources.”
What do transfer students want?
March 1, 2013 by
What do transfer students want? They want to get credits for their credits. Many universities reject credits earned elsewhere, even though students were told the classes would count. That raises costs and lowers the odds students will complete a degree.
Study: Hybrid class works for college students
February 27, 2013 by
College statistics students in a hybrid class — online instruction plus a one-hour face-to-face session — performed slightly better than the control group and spent 1.7 fewer hours per week on the course, write William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, Kelly A. Lack and Thomas I. Nygren in Education Next.
“The effect of the hybrid-format course did not vary when controlling for race/ethnicity, gender, parental education, primary language spoken, score at the standardized pretest, hours worked for pay, or college GPA,” the authors report.
Half the students who participated come from families with incomes less than $50,000 and half are first-generation college students. Less than half are white, and the group is about evenly divided between students with college GPAs above and below 3.0.
Carnegie Mellon designed the hybrid course, which was taught at public universities in New York and Maryland.
Students in the control group received three to four hours of face-to-face instruction each week.
Moving to the hybrid model could cut the costs by 19 percent to 57 percent, depending on whether professors do all the teaching or assign sections to teaching assistants, the authors estimate.
‘I am the first’
February 20, 2013 by
In her college admissions essay, Sara recalled her disastrous start as a counselor in the summer bridge program for new students at her San Jose charter school, Downtown College Prep. An incoming 12th grader, she couldn’t control her group of new ninth graders. She wanted to quit — but she didn’t. Sara and her fellow counselors stuck with it, took control and turned their rowdy crew into winners of the spirit award.
When Sara started at Santa Clara University, she felt that she didn’t belong. But she stuck with it, joined clubs and made a place for herself. She had to leave for a year when the money ran out. She worked, saved, came back to finish her bachelor’s degree and now works at a high-tech company.
I met Sara when I was reporting and writing Our School, a book about DCP’s struggles to prepare disadvantaged students for college. I saw her last week at DCP’s event promoting their college success report, I Am the First. The school spent two years surveying its graduates — successful and struggling — to determine what influences college success for low-income, first-generation college students.
At the event, students and graduates held up signs: “I am the first in my family to learn English . . . I am the first in my family to go to high school . . . I am the first in my family to join a college fraternity . . . I am the first to study law.”
DCP is 90 percent low-income and 96 percent Latino; 80 percent of students enter with below-grade-level skills in reading and math. Forty-one percent of parents haven’t completed high school (or, often, started it).
Nearly 500 students have graduated since the first graduating class of ’04. The graduation rate for the first three classes is 40 percent — more than four times the rate for low-income students nationwide.
Those who drop out can talk to a school counselor about how to return to college. One graduate worked for three years in a factory, tightening screws, before going back to community college. He’s been accepted at a University of California at Santa Cruz. He wants to be a history teacher.
What leads to success?
“Empowered” students who take responsibility for their education are more likely to “advocate for themselves” and earn a degree, the survey found. DCP will encourage students to take leadership roles, such as Sara’s stint as a summer bridge counselor.
College counseling should include career counseling: For first-generation students, job one is qualifying for a job.
Teachers are the most important influence on students’ college plans, so DCP plans to make “every teacher a college counselor.”
The school also will devote more energy to helping parents handle the college transition. Sixty percent of DCP students live at home while attending college to save money.
“A college plan must include a financial plan,” the college counselor stressed. Two-thirds of students who leave college do so for financial reasons.
Finally, “college is an inside game.” Students need to be taught the unwritten rules. What do you do about a dreadful roommate? How do you form a study group? When should you ask a professor for help? DCP will “teach college as a second language.”
California colleges add online courses
February 20, 2013 by
To meet soaring demand and control college costs, California colleges and universities will expand online courses.
Also: How to avoid college ripoffs.
2-year colleges try online honors program
February 18, 2013 by
Known for low tuition — and low prestige — community colleges hope to attract top students by offering an online honors program in partnership with a for-profit company. Students will have to compete for spots in “American Honors” and pay more for smaller classes and better advising.
Low-return college degrees
February 17, 2013 by
Teaching makes Salary.com’s list of 8 College Degrees with the Worst Return on Investment.
A day-care center teacher averages $27,910 per year. If she earned a bachelor’s at a public university — and received no grants or scholarships — she’d get a 43 percent return on investment. The ROI is 13 percent for a pay-your-own-way private college degree.
Of course, K-12 teachers do better. The median salary of a high school teacher is $54,473, according to Salary.com. That would generate an 85 percent return on investment for a public degree, 25 percent for a private degree.
Other low-return majors are sociology, psychology, communications, fine arts, religious studies, hospitality and nutrition. Generally, the “helping professions” pay badly.
8 degrees that will earn your money back are: math, information technology, human resources, econ, biology, engineering, marketing and English. English? Communications is a loser but English is a winner? (I majored in English and Creative Writing.)
Salary.com says English majors can end up as speech writers ($78,011 median pay) with a 122 percent public ROI. Communications manager ($88,498) earns a 139 percent ROI. Web content managers ($79,674) get to 125 percent. Nobody gets a positive return on investment for private college.
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