We’ll be broadcasting via Facebook Live on Thursday, June 14 with David Dixon, this year’s Guiding the Way to Inclusion keynote speaker. Dixon worked in college admission and enrollment management for nearly a decade at Oglethorpe University (GA) before moving to education policy work. He currently serves as a senior legal and policy advisor with EducationCounsel, LLC.
Tune in at 11:30 a.m. ET to talk about the 2018 GWI conference, college access, and why Dixon started working in education policy, strategy, and advocacy.
Yale University’s most popular course ever may be one of the best indicators of the mental health of incoming and current college students.
Psyc 157, “Psychology and the Good Life,” a twice-weekly lecture that tries to teach students how to live happier lives, enrolled nearly a quarter of the entire student body this semester. It is reportedly the most popular course in Yale’s 316-year-long history.
The course is led by psychology professor Laurie Santos who speculates that the college admission process and the high-pressure campus environment it fosters are behind the class’s popularity. In high school, she said, students had to deprioritize happiness to gain admission to school, leading them to adopt unhealthy and harmful life habits that culminate in “the mental health crises we’re seeing at places like Yale.”
About 40 percent of undergraduates at four-year institutions do not complete a degree within six years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. And the number is even higher for low-income students.
One charter school system wants to change that statistic for their alumni. They have retooled their college counseling program and instead of focusing solely on getting into college, they now address what it takes to graduate from college.
Students of color are facing yet another barrier to college access and success.
A recent study from the Center for American Progress (CAP) found that two-year and four-year public colleges spend about $1,000 less per year on students of color than on white students. Collectively, this means public colleges are spending about $5 billion less per year on these students than on their white counterparts.
Jennifer “J.T.” Thomas, a college counselor at Maybeck High School in California and a frequent speaker on this topic at NACAC conferences, kicked off the webinar with a reality check.
“Not everyone gets a full ride…especially in soccer,” Thomas stressed. “If you’re after the money, you’re looking in the wrong direction.”
As college costs continue to increase, community colleges are seeing a rise in the number of upper-middle class students enrolling to save money on their way to a four-year degree.
“This is about social norms,” Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University (PA), told The New York Times. “More middle-class parents are saying, I’m not succumbing to the idea that the only acceptable education is an expensive one.”
College admission officers have a unique job, one that only your fellow admission colleagues can fully understand.
Tune in Friday at 8:45 a.m. ET to discuss life on the road, dissect the challenges recruiters face, and get advice from those in the know.
We’ll be broadcasting live from the Prince George’s County National College Fair with Bree Blades, an admissions officer from the University of California San Diego; Milan Thomas, an admissions advisor with Ohio University; and Ryan Smith, an international recruitment manager at Bath Spa University in the UK.
College Decision Day — the deadline at many institutions for students to accept an offer of admission and make a tuition deposit – is coming up on May 1 and we want to celebrate with you!
For the fifth year, the Reach Higher and Better Make Room initiatives are encouraging schools and communities to host College Signing Day events in recognition of students’ hard work and achievements.
Tune in Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. ET to find out more about the College Signing Day tradition, how you can secure grant money for your school’s celebration, and more.
In an effort to combat stereotypes and poverty, one Arizona college has come up with a creative way to engage its largely first-generation student population.
Sixty-six percent of Arizona Western College’s nearly 8,000 undergrads identify as first-gen students. And according to recent data from the Community College Benchmark Project, 22 percent of Arizona Western’s students have annual family incomes of less than $20,000. The median family income for the school is $34,200.
