Vol. 21 No. 1 September 2006

CB's Summer
Round-Up...

Welcome back to the 21st admissions cycle with College Bound: Issues & Trends for the College Admissions Advisor (and collegeboundnews.com). We hope you had a great summer. This month we catch up. Here's some important admissions and financial aid news you might have missed while you were chasing the sun. Happy school year!

State News
The news over the summer was in the states...

Increased Spending on Student Aid. States across the nation stepped up support for student financial aid in 2004-2005 by 8 percent, according to the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs' 36th annual survey. Students in the 50 states and U.S. territories received $7.9 billion in grants and scholarships, up from $7.3 billion the year before. Students do not need to repay 85 percent of the aid.

All together, 37 states increased student financial aid funding last year, while 7 decreased it. Tennessee led the way with a 216 percent jump to $138 million, fueled by a new state lottery. Volunteer State students benefited with 40,000 new Hope scholarships of $1,500 to low-income students as a supplement to other aid.

Merit-based aid in the states increased 348 percent over the decade from 1994 and 2004. Need-based aid increased by 99 percent during the same period. It makes up 73 percent of all financial aid. But just eight states account for 67 percent of need-based aid: California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

In addition, the 50 states and territories gave students another $1.3 billion in non-grant student aid in 2004-2005 such as work-study, loans and tuition waivers.

According to a chart in the 28-page report of five-year changes in total grant aid, in the District of Columbia aid is up 4,120 percent; Idaho is up 393 percent; Indiana is up 161 percent; Kentucky is up 231 percent; Michigan is up 112 percent; Nevada is up 502 percent; New Hampshire is up 142; Rhode Island is up 129 percent; South Carolina is up 175 percent; Tennessee is up 509 percent; Texas is up 124 percent; Utah is up 129 percent and West Virginia is up 304 percent.

This year, some 14 states say they plan to spend some of their extra revenue on higher education, including: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

California Student Debt. And in the Sunshine State, more than half of the students who graduate from California state colleges and universities carry at least $20,000 in debt, the California Postsecondary Education Commission said in June. That kind of debt may be affecting career choices and keeping people out of careers such as nursing or teaching, the Commission fears.

Florida Reductions. The U. of Florida is reducing the funds it uses to attract National Merit Scholars, according to a recent St. Petersburg Times. Beginning this fall, Merit Scholars will receive much smaller aid packages. Why? Because, Florida is already attracting plenty of top scholars without the inducement. In 2004, the U. of Florida ranked second behind Harvard in the number of Merit Scholars it brought to campus.

Meanwhile, Hispanic Student Enrollment Grows in Florida. According to the August 10 Tallahassee Democrat, the Hispanic university enrollment increased overall from 9.4 percent in 1990 to 16.2 percent in 2005. Florida International U. had 20,859 Hispanic students in 2005, more than double the 9,631 in 1990. At Florida State U., the numbers have tripled in 15 years with 3,756 Hispanic students enrolled in 2005. At Florida Atlantic U., U. of Central Florida, U. of Florida and U. of South Florida, the increase in Hispanics from 1990 to 2005 topped 300 percent. And at Florida A&M U., the state's historically black public university, its 144 Hispanic students in 1990 expanded to 185 students in 2005.

In addition, this year the Florida Legislature initiated a new grant for students who seek to be first in their families to earn a college diploma.

Bidding War in Illinois. As in other states, many top performing high school students in Illinois automatically opt for their flagship university when they head off to college. But merit scholarship offers from other Illinois colleges and universities are diverting some of those top students.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, merit aid has jumped 221 percent nationally to $2.1 billion over the past decade. In Illinois, merit aid has risen to $44.6 million, a 41 percent increase in the past five years. And all but two of the state's schools provide more merit aid than need-based aid ($36 million). That imbalance has many people upset.

"Merit aid goes to people who don't need it," Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, told the paper. Nationally, 31 percent, or $5.5 billion in merit aid went to students whose families earned above $92,000 a year; nearly 60 percent went to families earning more than $60,000. About 80 percent goes to white students.

And while institutions such as Western Illinois and Chicago State have boosted their merit aid outreach, the flagship U. of Illinois Urbana Champaign plans to quadruple its merit offers over the next five years, in part to draw more top students from out-of-state. Most of that will come from private sources. At the same time, need-based aid has grown even faster than merit aid. The same trend holds at the U. of Illinois Chicago.

Meanwhile, 22,356 students, a record number, applied for admission to the U. of Illinois Urbana Champaign this year.

Michigan Restrictions. Beginning in 2007, Michigan high school graduates will no longer be able to receive state-funded scholarships to attend out-of-state schools. Restrictions on the Michigan Merit Award will save the state about $3.5 million and could affect more than 3,500 students. Qualifying students who stay in Michigan to go to college will continue to receive grants up to $3,000 a year. Meanwhile, Western Michigan U. in Kalamazoo is increasing tuition by 6 percent this fall to $3,433 for in-state students. The school added another 6 percent to student financial aid programs.

SUNY Network. The State University of New York system graduate and four-year undergraduate program budgets received an 11.3 percent increase this year to $1.36 billion. The system is comprised of 64 campuses, including four research universities.

Washington Tuition Waivers. The state of Washington has launched a $4.1 million program that gives low-income students pursuing critical-needs fields such as health care a free, two-year education. Sponsors hope to eventually give all state residents two free years of higher education.

[back to top]

[back to top]

THE COUNSELOR'S CORNER
Chill Maxims for Frenzied Parents
(and Students)
AS THE RACE FOR THE "RIGHT COLLEGE" starts, here's some advice for parents and students to help them run the course successfully.

1. Focus on making a match. Find the next great place. As much as educational purists and people like me want college admissions not to be a business, it is. Think of these terms: enrollment management, tuition discounting, marketing, 6,000-person wait-lists, enough early plan alternatives to sink a battleship, cross-applications, yields. Admissions will remain an escalating arms race until parents and students focus on student talents and needs.

Where can the student go to have the opportunity (there are no guarantees even if you pay north of $40,000 a year) to make the most of what he or she has? Tons of places. Take back control of the situation. Vote with your feet and tuition dollars. Erma Bombeck, a University of Dayton alum, said the grass is always greener over the septic tank. Make sure you know what is under the green, green grass of Super U. This is, after all, appropriately called "a college SEARCH."

2. Take the see-what-is-out-there adventure attitude to heart. Be open to the possibilities. Hold onto the wonder and excitement factors. The college and the student should be better and different as a result of enrollment. Look for places that will develop the individual. That is a healthy approach. The caveat: applying to tons of places worsens the situation for all. Remain open-minded. Stretch, but with an eye on reality. Make a sincere vertical list. No school should appear on your list unless you would truly be happy to go there. Anything less than that attitude is gamesmanship.

Gamesmanship makes the college admissions world worse for everyone. In August, I look my seniors squarely in the eyes and note: "the student next to you applied to your first-choice school. On his own, or encouraged by his hovering parent, he did it just to see if he could get in. He didn't really want to go to Whoopee U. He got in. You didn't. Doing that at 27 schools has made a mess of the world of admissions. This is not good for anybody."

3. Realize that good mentoring-in school, in a career, in life-is an amazing and extraordinary gift. Much of the best college mentoring takes place out of the classroom. Much of it takes place with people other than professors. Look at the entire college environment. In a 7-day, 24-hour-a-day week, think about how little time is spent in a college classroom.

4. Read, really read, good materials on college educations. This isn't voodoo. Highly-educated parents frazzle at what they think is the unknown. Do your due diligence. Approach the process armed with good information. Learn what preparation students need to have the best shot at getting out with a degree (See, for example, the U.S. Department of Education's The Toolbox Revisited). Read what experts say about the current mayhem (Jay Mathews' Harvard Schmarvard or Lloyd Thacker's College Unranked, for example). Check out the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), a real world view of what really happens in classrooms and on campuses. Consult intelligently written works about what should be taught, how it is being taught and how to maximize college-learning opportunities (such as Derek Bok's Our Underachieving Colleges).

5. Early on and regularly, talk-really talk-about learning and college opportunities with your student. We've always understood as a nation that learning was to be valued (though at first we didn't grasp that it should be for all varieties of individuals). Jefferson wanted three things listed on his epitaph. One of those was that he founded the University of Virginia. The rest of the world is rapidly and successfully copying the best parts of education models and goals we can't seem to hold onto. We've somehow gotten the notion that learning is simply a school-product designed solely to get a career and make a buck. If we don't encourage learning and foster the ability to adapt as information and situations change, the rest of the world is going to clean our clocks, to paraphrase Thomas L. Friedman in The World Is Flat.

6. Stay calm. Visit colleges with your student. Remember, it is the student who is going to college-not you. Be open and honest about what the family can and/or is willing to undertake in terms of college financial support. Empower your student to own the process. Parents who take over the college search and application process tell their students that they are incapable of managing the college search and application process. That's an awful message to give someone who is about to be completely on his own.

7. College isn't about "getting in." It's about getting out with a degree. It's about learning information and having a career. However, if a student can only discuss USB circuit cards or price-to-earning ratios, we're all doomed. Give me a college that teaches students to think, read, write, speak, analyze and take action in a purposeful way. Make it a place that develops in students the ability to alter their course when the situation merits a change and conduct themselves and their undertakings in an ethical way. That would be a college offering a world-class, lifelong learning experience designed to maximize individual, national and international assets for the long haul. That is my kind of place.

Mary Ann Willis is a COLLEGE BOUND advisor and college counselor at Bayside Academy in Alabama. A version of her "maxims" was published at www.makingitcount.com.

P.S. New Free Guide. A new guide for high school and college professionals to help them assist underserved students, independent students, those with disabilities and foster youth is now available free. The "It's My Life: Postsecondary Education and Training" resource guide is available at www.casey.org.

[back to top]

NEWS YOU CAN USE
Where The Boys Aren't. It's all the talk. Men lag behind women in many areas of college achievement, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education. Fewer men today receive a B.A. than women; it takes them longer to do so; and they earned poorer grades along the way.

A July New York Times series on the plight of men on campus also revealed men study less and socialize more than college co-eds. Men skip classes more often, do their homework less often and are more likely to turn in assignments later. It's a Bart Simpson thing, one male explained. "For men, it's just not cool to study," he told The Times.

As a result, women are taking more top honors at small liberal arts colleges across the land and large state research universities.

Even though more men are going to college than ever before, they make up only 42 percent of all U.S. undergraduate college students. Women are also taking the lead at graduate and professional schools. The gap is more severe the lower the economic level of the student's family.

"This generation, and especially the boys, is technology-savvy but interpersonally challenged," Joyce Bylander, associate provost at Dickinson C., told The Times. "They've been highly structured, highly programmed, with organized play groups and organized sports, and they don't know much about how to run their own lives."

To find more research on the gender gap, see www.boysproject.net, run by Judith Kleinfeld at the U. of Alaska.

The New Ivies. What colleges would you put on a list called "The New Ivies?" The 2007 Kaplan/Newsweek "How to Get into College Guide" includes such a new list-described as "colleges whose first-rate academic programs, combined with a population boom in top students, have fueled their rise in stature and favor among the nation's top students, administrators and faculty-edging them to a competitive status rivaling the Ivy League."

The list in alphabetical order: Boston C., Bowdoin C., Carnegie-Mellon U., Claremont Colleges-Pomona and Harvey Mudd, Colby C., Colgate U., Davidson C., Emory U., Kenyon C., Macalester C., New York U., Notre Dame U., Olin College of Engineering, Reed C., Rice U., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Skidmore C., Tufts U., U. of California-Los Angeles, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, U. of Michigan-Ann Arbor, U. of Rochester, U. of Virginia, Vanderbilt U., Washington U. The 264-page guide is available in bookstores and can also be ordered on Kaplan's Web site www.kaptest.com/store/ or by calling toll-free 1-800-KAP-ITEM.

Inflation Woes. Over the past four years, family incomes have risen less than 6 percent. However, tuition at public four-year colleges and universities has soared at 32 percent. As a result, student debt is climbing as well. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 62 percent of undergraduates are assuming debt, with the average amount now reaching $19,800.

War Closed Colleges. The war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah closed several colleges in the area this summer including the American U. of Beirut where at least 200 overseas students were evacuated. The university had reopened at press time. The U. of Haifa in Israel shut down and has reopened. Most of the U.S. students were moved to the Hebrew U. of Jerusalem. Harvard and Michigan State U. were among the U.S. overseas programs that evacuated all their students.

The Israeli gap year programs about which CB reported in the June issue are proceeding, with the exception of canceling activities in the north of the nation near Lebanon. For updates, see www.MasaIsrael.org.

[back to top]

ENROLLMENT TRENDS
The new incoming class at St. Joseph U. includes 143 enrolled minority freshmen, an 8 percent increase over 2005. Minority applications increased by 20 percent over the last year. School officials believe the increases are the result of the university's "conscious and deliberate decision" to revamp its diversity-related efforts, said Sundar Kumarasamy, assistant provost for enrollment management.

Lincolnesque. Abraham Lincoln's hometown is the location of a reconfigured U. of Illinois at Springfield with tall ambitions of becoming one of the nation's top small, public liberal arts universities. Founded in 1969 as Sangamon State U., it was absorbed by the U. of Illinois system in 1995 and initially catered to upper-classmen and graduate students. Currently, the school houses some 4,500 students, half of whom are undergrads. This is the first year for traditional freshmen. Next year's first-year class is targeted at 500 students. Class size averages just 15 students. Its top majors are business administration, computer science, psychology, accountancy and educational leadership. In-state tuition and fees total $6,700.

Creative Applications. According to a Boston Globe article this summer, Tufts U. will begin asking applicants for the freshman class entering in fall 2007 questions that are designed to measure creativity, practical abilities or the potential for leadership. "If you want to admit people who are going to be leaders in tomorrow's world, which every university says it does, focusing on [grade point average] and SATs does not get you very far," Robert J. Sternberg, Tufts' new dean of arts and sciences, told the Globe. He is a psychologist who is directing the pilot project, based on research he did as a Yale professor. The new questions will be optional, and each student will choose only one or two.

Black Studies Minor. This fall, Washington C. in Maryland began offering students a minor in Black Studies. The interdisciplinary program will include courses from various departments including economics, education, English, foreign languages, history and music. Unlike other programs, the focus of study will not be restricted to the United States, but will explore issues of history and culture wherever in the world black people voluntarily or involuntarily moved from Africa.

Over the past decade, Washington C. has grown from 875 students to 1,300.

New B.F.A. The School of Visual Arts in New York City will begin offering a BFA in Visual and Critical Studies in the fall of 2007. The SVA program will combine academic and studio-based courses "in equal measure," and is intended to increase students' cultural literacy by cultivating their ability to understand and interpret the art, philosophy and visual thinking of the past and present, as well as to make art. Students will be prepared for a career in fine arts, including museum and curatorial studies, or to pursue an advanced degree.

Writing and Democracy. The New School in New York City began a new undergraduate program this fall called Writing and Democracy. The program will explore the connections between democracy and citizenship and the skills of reading, writing and rhetoric.

[back to top]

COLLEGE BOUND's Publisher/Editor: R. Craig Sautter, DePaul University; Chief Operating Officer: Sally Reed; Illustration: Louis Coronel; Board of Advisors: David Breeden, Edina High School, Minnesota; Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford (N.Y.) Central School District; Howard Greene and Matthew Greene, authors, The Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning Series; Frank C. Leana, Ph.D., educational counselor; M. Fredric Volkmann, Washington University in St. Louis; Mary Ann Willis, Bayside Academy (Daphne, Ala.).

In This Issue

Feature Articles
CB's Summer
Round -Up
-State News

Testing Tabs

COUNSELOR'S CORNER
-Chill Maxims for Frenzied
Parents (and Students)

NEWS YOU CAN USE
-Where the Boys Aren't
-The New Ivies...
-Inflation Woes
-War Closed Colleges

ENROLLMENT TRENDS
-St. Joseph U.
-Lincolnesque
-Creative Applications
-Black Studies Minor
-New B.F.A.
-Writing and Democracy

Have Great New School Year! Keep in Touch...

P.S. To renew your subscription go to
Renew Subscription
or to order Who Got In? 2006 go to
Order Who Got In? 2006
or call 773-262-5810.