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Vol. 19 No. 8 April 2005 Community Colleges
These are just some of the findings in a new report from the U.S. Department of Education called "Moving into Town-and Moving On: The Community College in the Lives of Traditional-age Students." The recent federal study tracked 25,000 eighth-graders in U.S. schools in 1988 and followed them through 2000. Federal researchers also noted: With the exception of Latinos, minority students are no more likely to first enter community colleges, as has been the case for the last 30 years. Neither gender nor race/ethnicity, nor second-language background nor first-generation status ends up playing a statistically significant role in explaining who starts out in a community college. But socioeconomic status does play such a role. Lower-income students are more likely to attend community colleges. And the more oriented a twelfth-grader was to majoring in an occupational field, the more likely the student was to start out in a community college. Yet, at the same time, while there has been some improvement in mathematical skills, 44 percent of entering first-year students did not reach Algebra 2 in high school, compared with 11 percent of those who entered four-year colleges. These statistics "drive home the importance of community college relations with secondary schools," said the report. And, "the extent to which cooperative and outreach programs can move more high school students to the level of Algebra 2 and beyond in mathematics would signal a major change in academic momentum of the entering community college population." NEW ATTENTION Likewise, organizations, states and foundations are now also paying closer attention to community colleges. For example, to bolster the academics in community colleges, the Lumina Foundation based in Indianapolis recently initiated Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count giving $50,000 to 27 community colleges in five states to enhance their programs. States throughout the country are rethinking their community college offerings. For example, in 1999, the late Frank O'Bannon, then governor of Indiana, created the Community College of Indiana. According to the Indiana Alumni Magazine, there's been a 40 percent growth in the last four years. The initiative utilized resources from Vincennes University and the Ivy Tech campuses located throughout the state. In Florida, some community colleges are beginning to offer four-year degrees. Edison Community College for example, recently became Edison College. Other community colleges throughout the country are forging new partnerships with high schools in their area at one end by allowing high school students to begin college-level courses and four-year institutions at the other to enhance transfer options. State appropriations though have had a hard time keeping up with the new demands. A survey last fall of the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges found that "the competition is fierce for scarce state tax dollars" and 94 percent of the state directors surveyed predicted tuition increases. Rural community colleges face the greatest budgetary strain. And, according to an April 30 Chronicle in Higher Education, 175,000 students could not enroll in California's community colleges this year because of space limitations. In North Carolina 56,000 students were reportedly turned away. The American Association of Community Colleges periodically conducts surveys of "hot programs." (Its latest survey found allied health program identified with registered nursing the most prevalent "hot" program cited.) A recent report though called "Pathways to Persistence" by Thomas R. Bailey and Mariana Alfonso argues that more research is needed about ways to strengthen community colleges. Among the practices they state will increase students' likelihood of graduating or complete their educational goals: advising, counseling, mentoring and orientation programs and developmental education and other services for students academically under-prepared. The key to success for students opting to enroll in community colleges appears to be an effective state transfer policy, according to the Institute for Higher Education Policy. "The success of community college-baccalaureate transfer is central to whether students enroll in and complete college in a timely manner," IHEP said, "as well as whether college is affordable to students and taxpayers." Admissions Watch Yale's president, Richard C. Levin, said the university took note of how applications from lower-income students increased when Harvard made a similar move for families earning $40,000. Only 15 percent of Yale students currently fall into the $45,000 and under category. Other well-endowed schools have also taken this step, including the U. of North Carolina, which exempts families earning $37,000 or less, Rice U., which set the limit at $30,000 and Princeton U. which started the trend. The Harvard Watch. There are "more students in the applicant pool this year who are likely to be eligible for the new Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, which requires no parental contribution from families earning $40,000 or less and a greatly reduced contribution from those who earn from $40,000 to $60,000," Sarah C. Donahue, director of financial aid, told the Harvard University Gazette last month. And this year's applicant pool included a 45 percent increase from those seeking an application fee waiver due to financial hardship. A record 22,717 students applied to Harvard for fall 2005, up 15 percent over last year's 19,752. Nearly 11,000 of the applicants scored 700 or above on the SAT Verbal section while 12,000 scored that high on the SAT Math portion. About 2,100 had a perfect 800 on the SAT Verbal test and 3,100 scored 800 on the SAT Math test. Applications from African American students rose by over 28 percent. Hispanic student applications increased by over 15 percent. Public Universities Pitch Afar. According to a recent New York Times report by Greg Winter, public universities in various sections of the country are looking well beyond their borders for new students. With an eye on the declining demographics of the traditional-age students in their states, universities in Alabama, Maine, Vermont and even New York are looking to states where the student population is growing such as Georgia and California. But the universities say they are selective, visiting high schools in areas where they feel students have heard of them or who share their "values." UMASS, for example, banks on its athletic reputation in Atlanta, Stony Book U., is betting its research laboratories are known in Tennessee, U. of Vermont pitches its location and "ethos." For more info, see the February 5 New York Times. Texas B-on-Time. The boom in college-age students is putting new pressure on available space at some state universities. Only 39 percent of students graduate in four years; another 24 percent take five years to gain a degree; and 10 percent take five to six years. So, some states are examining ways to make sure students graduate "on time." Texas is leading the way with an innovative loan forgiveness program for students who get good grades and leave on schedule. The Texas-B-on-Time program rewards students who take a college-prep curriculum in high school, maintain a 3.0 grade point average at four-year colleges and complete 75 percent of their credit hours each semester. The program also discourages students from taking more courses than necessary. The only problem is that there is not enough money in the state budget to meet demand. Finish-in-Four Scholarships. Southern Illinois U. in Carbondale announced last month that undergraduate students who enter the university as freshmen and graduate in four years will receive $500 in their last semester of study. The university will also offer guaranteed scholarships for teachers and is creating new Community College scholarships. "Finish in Four Scholarships, which will begin in fall 2005, are designed to encourage more students to complete their studies sooner, saving their families, SIU, the taxpayers and the State of Illinois considerable sums of money," SIU President Wendler explained. Top Colleges for Latinos. Hispanic magazine released its annual list of best 25 colleges for Latino students. In order, they are: Stanford; MIT; Harvard; Duke; Cal Tech; Columbia; Brown; U. Chicago; Rice; Notre Dame; UCLA; U. Texas, Austin; U. California, Berkeley; U. Florida; U. Southern California; U. California, Santa Barbara; U. California, Davis; U. California, Irvine; U. California, San Diego; Texas A&M; U. Miami; Rutgers; U. California, Santa Cruz; NYU and Florida International U. For further info see: March 2005 Hispanic. The Secrets to Getting In? It's really no secret. High-level college oriented content in core courses at a level beyond most state and district standards; qualified and experienced teachers certified in their subject area and with a master's degree or higher; teaching that is flexible with teachers who frequently ask and answer questions, and help students make connections to the content using current events and popular culture and outside classroom support for students through tutors, teachers and other helpers. At least, this is the conclusion of the ACT and the Education Trust in a new report "Crisis at the Core" that studied nine high schools across the U.S. already meeting high standards and overcoming the odds with a diverse student population. For a copy, see www.act.org/news/releases/2005/2-23-05.html. Rising Droput
Rates And unless the problem is addressed, the U.S. faces increasing dropout rates, declining assisted second-chance opportunities and a deteriorating economic position for those who dropout, researchers concluded. Nationally, the graduation rate peaked at 77 percent in 1969. From 1990 to 2000, the completion rate declined in all but seven states. In 10 states, it declined by 8 or more percentage points. Recent completion rates range from the high of 88 percent in Vermont to the low of 48 percent in the District of Columbia and 55 percent in Arizona. The report concluded that ways to increase retention have been demonstrated, including 11,000 Alternative Schools, 33 Talent Development High Schools and Communities in Schools. But the report also found "a scarcity exists of guidance and counseling personnel." THE COUNSELOR'S CORNER They must, at a minimum, demonstrate the tangible results of college preparation: good grades, high test scores and strong extracurricular activities. But the score-oriented, quantitative approach to admissions, prevalent in the last decades, needs now to be replaced with a more strategic approach to gaining admission to quality schools. THE STRATEGIC PROCESS Good colleges have always wanted student bodies with intellectually curious students, and base their selections on proven academic abilities and intellectual track records, special abilities, including arts and athletics, as well as socio-economic background and legacy status. But strategic matching or "positioning" is a focused process that unites each student's core values, goals and unique attributes, while at the same time matching these with what specific colleges need, but aren't getting. (For example, at Stanford University science, engineering and pre-professional students abound, but there's a need for writers, musicians and fine artists.) It considers the strengths and weaknesses of the competition in the applicant pool. "Positioning" aligns a student with the stated needs of the college by delivering an application that matches the college's unmet needs with what a particular student offers the college. How is strategic matching different from traditional education consulting? The approach is more data intensive. Counselors track quantitative statistics such as admittance rates, test scores, geographic and minority representation. They conduct qualitative interviews with current college students, administrators and experts to determine the current "unmet" needs of a particular college in a given year. Students are individuals. But unfortunately colleges can't admit everyone who looks worthy. Students must communicate what it is about them that will be of possible value to a specific college. This means managing the "hard" data-grades and test scores. But it also includes positioning the "soft" interests such as a hobby or activity outside of class. For example, a high school junior volunteers in a community soup kitchen and also has a penchant for designing and building architectural-model houses. A student can begin to see that these seemingly unrelated activities could be positioned into one theme: Here is someone who could create homes in the community for low-income residents. Then, after talking with a student about what type of skills
and education he or she would need to reach such a goal, it is
necessary to determine which colleges could actually advance
those goals. What are the likely matches? Then students must
highlight their strengths on each application for an admissions
committee, illustrating their special talents. 1. Interviews with the student, but also the parents, coaches, teachers and others describing the student's personality and attributes. 2. Identity development of the student's vision, values and desired goals. This may lead them to say they want to "create something new through science" or "change our political system to improve people's lives," "make a difference in my community" or "live a comfortable and happy life." 3. Identifying colleges that fit these values of a student. This requires performing data analysis, such as a college's needs assessment to identify any potential weaknesses or needs that are not being met by existing applicants; psychographic profiling of a current applicant pool; admissions data tracking over a 10-year period; outcomes-based assessments of colleges including but not limited to Ph.D. productivity, jobs, graduate school admission rates and qualitative interviews with current students, administrators, alums and experts on particular colleges. 4. Collecting and examining all extra-curricular activities and classifying them in order of importance for getting into one of the selected colleges be it athletics, leadership, art or music talents, intellectual projects (research papers and science experiments), community service, academic awards and honors work. 5. Advising students on how to use these activities to describe themselves to appeal to the unmet needs of each college. 6. Advising students about specific scholarships and research projects they could apply for to signal to colleges that a student is better prepared than others. 7. Identifying and highlighting special talents such as sports or music or storytelling. Making sure that the student "proves" this ability is the key to showcasing these abilities. 8. Developing a market position for the student that is based on his or her general "comparative advantage" versus other students, and based generally on what colleges are looking for, but not getting. Then making sure the application supports the positioning. 9. Offering a college interview preparation, so students are natural and stay "on theme" with their main arguments reflecting their strengths. 10. Writing a letter to those writing recommendations that highlights the student's strengths, key skills and "proof points." Then the recommendations can support this theme in their letters to the college. With a strategic focusing, admissions officers quickly get a picture of who the applicant is, even if it doesn't tell the whole story. And in an age when there are so many applications for admissions offices to read, it helps an individual student stand out. David Montesano is director of college planning at College Focus in Seattle, Washington, and can be reached at david@collegefocususa.com. SCHOLARSHIP SCOOPS Minority Iowa Teachers. Wartburg C. in Waterloo, Iowa, offers free tuition and books for minority students who want to earn their teaching certificates and who agree to teach in the Waterloo schools. The program began in 1991 and is continuing with a new grant from the McElory Foundation. Nearly 30 percent of students in Waterloo's public schools are minority students. For more information, contact leslie.huth@wartburg.edu. Young Authors. Elder & Leemaur publishers recently launched a scholarship program for promising young authors to help "bring awareness of the employment opportunities in the field of writing." Students submit an essay of less than 500 words on academic topics. College and high school students headed for college in 2005 are eligible. For info see: http://www.elpublishers.com/contest/uwsotherscholarhips.php. Make A Difference Dollars. The Microsoft Corp. is challenging secondary school students around the world to design technology-based projects to benefit charitable organizations with its second annual You Can Make a Difference scholarship program. Previously it was available only to students from the United States and Canada. But this year the program includes high-school and secondary-school students around the world. The You Can Make a Difference scholarship awards a total of $50,000 (U.S.) in grants to 10 students -- five male and five female -- who create the best proposal for a software project designed to benefit a charitable organization. Winners will receive a personal scholarship of $2,500, as well as a budget of up to $1,500 to implement the proposed project. A $1,000 technology grant also will be awarded to each winning student's school. In addition, the 10 finalists will be paired with a mentor from Microsoft to help them implement their project. Each student who submits a proposal will receive a free copy of Microsoft's award-winning Visual Studio® .NET 2003 Academic development tool. Entry proposals in English can be submitted starting March 15 via theSpoke.net, Microsoft's online community for technology students. The deadline for entries is April 30. Students can submit their materials in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian or Spanish by visiting one of the localized versions of theSpoke.net. Questions about the program should be sent to ycmd@thespoke.net. To apply, submit an online application by April 30, 2005. Web Link. For help in figuring out scholarship options, try www.scholarshiphelp.org. TESTING
TABS Does it really matter to admissions officers which test an applicant submits? "We accept ACT and SAT scores on an absolutely equal basis," the Times quoted William Fitzsimmons, director of admissions at Harvard. "They're all imperfect measures, and there's always a lot we don't know, like whether a student has had an SAT tutor ever since seventh grade," he added. Merit Scholar Destinations. Who had the most Merit Scholars in 2004? Here's the top 20: Harvard, 312 students; U. Florida, 259; U. Texas at Austin, 242; Yale, 224; Stanford, 217; U. Chicago, 198; Washington U. St. Louis, 197; Princeton, 192; U. Southern California, 183; Rice U. 173; U. Oklahoma, 170; Arizona State U., 162; Northwestern U., 152; New York U., 150; Vanderbilt U., 144; U. North Carolina Chapel Hill, 135; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 134; Texas A&M U., 128; Brigham Young U., 118; U. California at Los Angeles, 115. Colleges on the national list included: Number 25. Carleton, 82 students; 40. Oberlin, 52; 44. St. Olaf, 50; 45. Harvey Mudd, 48; 47. Dartmouth, 47; 47. Grinnell, 47; 51. Macalaster, 46; and 58. Whitman, 38 students. Study Underwater? For decades, music students have sung in the shower. Now students studying for the SAT have a similar option. The Intuitive Learning Company is manufacturing a shower curtain with 100 SAT-worthy words with definitions and their parts of speech to study while lathering up. No kidding. Students can find it at www.amazon.com. A Novel Idea. And Wiley has published an "adventure" novel called The Marino Mission by Karen B. Chapman that uses 1,000 SAT-level words complete with definitions at the end of each page. ($12.99). NEWS YOU CAN USE Visa Changes. The Department of Homeland Security is relaxing visa restrictions on foreign students and scientists working in sensitive technical fields. International students with F visas will be allowed to maintain security clearances for the full length of their academic programs, up to a maximum of four years. And, according to International Student News, the U.S. State Department recently announced plans to relax their visa regulations for the Visa Mantis Clearance Program. "This program is designed to provide easier visa allocation to international students who are coming to the USA to study in certain fields," it said. For more info: http://travel.state.gov/visa/laws/telegrams/telegrams_1425.html and http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=17628. The Final Four. According to a March 14 Time, Illinois, North Carolina, Michigan State and Syracuse universities are the academic powerhouses among college basketball teams. The rankings were scores using the 2004 NCAA graduate rates. COLLEGE BOUND's Publisher/Editor: R. Craig
Sautter, DePaul University; Chief Operating Officer: Sally
Reed; Contributor: Marc Davis; Circulation: Irma
Gonzalez-Hider; Illustration: Louis Coronel; Board
of Advisors: Rosita Fernandez-Rojo, Choate-Rosemary Hall;
Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford (N.Y.) Central School District;
Howard Greene, author, The Greenes' Guides to Educational
Planning Series; Frank C. Leana, Ph.D., educational
counselor; Virginia Vogel, Educational Guidance Services;
M. Fredric Volkmann, Washington University in St. Louis,
Mary Ann Willis, Bayside Academy (Daphne, Ala.). Back Issues | Who Got In? | Links | Home ©2000-2001-2008 COLLEGE BOUND Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved. s.sautter@sbcglobal.net |
In This Issue Feature Articles COUNSELOR'S CORNER SCHOLARSHIP SCOOPS TESTING TABS NEWS YOU CAN USE HAPPY SPRING! P.S. To renew your subscription or order Who Got In? 2004 go to www.collegeboundnews.com or call 773-262-5810. |