Avenues to Success Notes

Here are some college students making really tough choices

I happened to catch the two installments of a really interesting peak into college at a New York State prison on PBS NewsHour.

Here are the links to the first installment, From Ball and Chain to Cap and Gown: Getting a B.A. Behind Bars, aired 7/6/2011, and the second, How to Succeed in Business by Really, Really Trying, aired the following night.

The Bard College program demonstrates what opportunities a true liberal arts education can open up. If works on motivated prisoners, just think what a motivated "normal" college student can do.

Maybe "undecided" as a major isn't all bad, as long as you make the best of the college experience.

The report presents an untapped source very qualified prospective workers.

 

 

 

Is college really the best option?

JACQUES STEINBERG'S November 10, 2009 posting in The Choice (New York Times) poses and interesting question:

Are Too Many Students Going to College?

The editors of The Chronicle of Higher Education have posed that potentially incendiary question and asked a collection of experts to engage in a rolling conversation in response. You can read the dialogue, which was posted Monday, by clicking here.

Click here to continue reading his article summarizing the original posting and the interesting comments.

I would also urge you to follow the link he provided above to read the original dialog and then follow their link to to What Do Parents Think? about the importance of college.

Why do only half of students who enroll in college end up with a bachelor’s degree?

Here is an interesting post, NY Times column Economics Scene highlights the persistence problem in higher education and its cost to society:

"The United States does a good job enrolling teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree. Among rich countries, only Italy is worse. That’s a big reason inequality has soared, and productivity growth has slowed. Economic growth in this decade was on pace to be slower than in any decade since World War II — even before the financial crisis started."

- Read more at Fixing "Failure Factories:" Tackling the Persistence Problem in Higher Education - Student Lending Analytics Blog

Students looking at less costly college choices

Another casualty of today's tough financial climate is the choice of an affordable college. Private schools are slipping way because of their high costs and lower family funds. This leaves an alternative that has been ignored by many, public colleges and universities. They are getting more interest due to their relative low costs.

However, there are some ramifications the increase interest and applications to public schools. You can read about them in a recent posting on CollegeFinancialCoach's Weblog by Peter Schworm by clicking on to MORE AFFORDABLE COLLEGES ON THE ACTION LIST.

National Day of Encouragement

Watching one of the network morning shows this morning I learned that today, September 12 is the  National Day of Encouragement.

The idea came about during the National Leadership Forum at Harding University when a group of high school seniors said the lack of encouragement was one of the biggest problems facing today's student.

For more information, click on the link above.