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Even though the 2012 NAICU Annual Meeting is history, you can continue to benefit and learn from the many presentations and speeches that were offered, and are now available on line.
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College Preparation/Choosing a College
Prepaid college plans: shrinking options, rising risks
Reuters
January 11, 2012The Illinois plan is in worse shape than most prepaid plans, but it isn't unusual in facing problems. Prepaid plans, popular college savings vehicles offered at one time in about 20 U.S. states, are increasingly running on empty. About half of them have stopped taking new money, and many of the rest are struggling. It means that the majority of Americans, including those in places such as Illinois and Tennessee, don't have access to a state plan, and the minority who do need to be very wary.
Is higher tuition what the public wants?
Washington Post - College Inc. Blog
January 10, 2012Choosing a college isn't, in the end, so different from buying an outfit at the mall. The customer wants a good deal. Nothing says "good deal" like a discount. Colleges keep raising tuition so that they can offer ever-deeper discounts to prospective students. Offering the customer a 40 percent discount on an impossibly high list price accomplishes two things. It tells the customer the product has considerable worth and that it is being offered at great value.
Groups help fund college for many
Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch
January 8, 2012Brighten Your Future is among about 35 college-access programs across Ohio that prepare and advise students from lower-income families who are going on to higher education. Among the programs, fewer than half have their own endowments to give students scholarships, said MorraLee Keller, director of technical assistance at the National College Access Network. These "last dollar" scholarships fill the final gap for students who still demonstrate financial need even after receiving all other tuition assistance for which they qualify.
The admissions dating game
Boston Globe Magazine
January 8, 2012I know I may lose out to the girl from China who spent her summer feeding starving kids in Darfur, or maybe the 4.0 grade-point average 2,400 SAT music prodigy who's been writing symphonies since he was 6. If that happens, I'll feel terrible; yet, if I get in, someone else will feel that way. If I don't get in, I'll tell myself that admissions officers can't really know who will succeed and who will burn out. (That's why Harvard rejected John Kerry and Warren Buffett but accepted Ted Kaczynski.)
Number of lists ranking colleges proliferate — and some don’t make sense
Washington Post
January 6, 2012Colleges have long been rated on all sorts of things, but in the last few years the number of lists has exploded. Many are compiled by start-up Web sites, media outlets or marketing companies using creative mash-ups of statistics, pseudo-statistics and online reviews submitted by anyone with an e-mail address. It seems that anyone anywhere can rank anything using any information - and student newspapers will write about how their schools fared while national media outlets will blog it as news.
Eight tuition-free colleges help college dreams come true
Culpepper, Va., Star Exponent - Column
January 3, 2012Getting a college education is still a wise choice. On average, college graduates make 41% more money than high school grads and the unemployment rate for those with a college degree is exactly half the rate for high school graduates. The bad news is that CNN Money reports the average 2011 college graduate finished undergraduate school carrying $25,250 in student loan debt. To help make college dreams come true for students who otherwise could not afford it, free college is available from eight very unique colleges.
Applicant success belies SAT's value
Charlotte, N.C., Observer
January 3, 2012Wake Forest University was the first highly ranked research university to announce the move away from the SAT in 2008. Since then, the university in Winston-Salem has become more racially and socio-economically diverse. Pell Grant recipients almost doubled. Students of color increased from 18 percent to nearly 23 percent. Along the way, the university also noticed an uptick in the number of students with an exemplary high school track record, which, research shows, is the best predictor of college success.
Students can get a deal on college tuition
Courier-Post, Camden, N.J.
January 1, 2012Never pay retail, especially if you're a good student. While college tuition continues to rise, so does the amount of aid that can significantly reduce the actual cost. The price cutting is especially deep at private schools as the economic slump continues and families look for more affordable alternatives. Up to 90 percent of students at private schools now get some aid from those schools, with the average grant covering up to half the sticker price of tuition, according to a survey of 381 schools by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
Early Decision Tougher Than Ever
Forbes Magazine
January 1, 2012The first results from this year's college admissions race are in. Colleges sent out their early-admissions decisions last week. And the acceptance picture was depressingly similar to what it was last year - only tougher. Admission to "top" schools is difficult - the early-decision "edge" is eroding. Early-decision applications were up at most colleges this year. But the number of slots in each freshman class reserved for early-decision kids held steady. Which means that the acceptance rate was slightly lower at most colleges.
As Jan. 1 Application Deadline Nears, an Argument for a Yearlong Breather
New York Times - The Choice Blog
December 27, 2011Gradually, the idea of a "gap year" after high school is catching on, and more and more students are stepping off the educational treadmill, pursuing interests, talents or jobs for reasons other than just helping them get into their college of choice, and reminding themselves in the process of what their education is really all about. The reason for all of this interest is that much evidence has shown that students who take a gap year bring more to their college experiences and derive more from them as well.
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