A NACAC past president is one of six educators selected for the US Department of Education’s School Ambassador Fellowship program.
Patrick O’Connor, associate dean of college counseling at Cranbrook Schools (MI), will lend his expertise to conversations about national education policy as part of the program.
Other fellows selected for the 2017-18 cohort include educators from Colorado, Wyoming, California, and Washington, DC. This year marks the first time in the program’s 10-year history that a school counselor has been selected for the fellowship.
The number of international students studying at US colleges and universities hit an all-time high of 1.08 million during the 2016-17 academic year.
But data captured in the most recent Open Doors report suggests that those numbers are beginning to flatten after more than a decade of continued growth.
A new initiative from the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success seeks to boost college-going rates among members of the US armed forces.
Starting next year, a group of Coalition colleges will waive their application fees for veterans and current service members applying for the 2019-2020 academic year.
In an effort to make the college application process more affordable, a growing number of US colleges and universities now allow students to self-report their test scores.
With help from counselors and students, The Princeton Review is tracking the trend. A list of institutions that accept self-reported scores is posted on the company’s blog.
Macalester College (MN), Amherst College (MA), Pace University (NY), and the University of Chicago are among a growing number of institutions that offer stipends to students who pursue unpaid internships.
The strategy, featured in a recent New York Times article, is growing in popularity because it allows low- and middle-income students to foster critical connections in their field of interest without worrying about making ends meet. According to data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, roughly half of all interns are offered a job by the company where they worked.
What messages are your students receiving about potential careers?
New survey results released by the Pew Research Center show that more than a third of Americans would tell a high schooler seeking career advice to enter a STEM-related field.
Another third would tell students “to simply follow their passion or do something they love,” according to a blog post by Mark Strauss, a Pew writer and editor focusing on science and society.
NACAC president-elect Stefanie Niles has one piece of advice for high school seniors: Take time to do your research.
“I believe there is more than one ‘right’ college for every student, but there are definitely wrong choices, too,” Niles noted in a recent Q&A with The Sentinel. “Students and their families should visit campuses, talk with students, faculty members, and alumni about their experiences, ask questions about research, internships, and study abroad opportunities (if these are of interest), and read about academic programs and campus life.”
The majority of US parents expect their children to attend college, but most neglect to budget for the costs associated with higher education, national survey data shows.
“Despite the wide array of approaches families might take to build a plan to pay for college, most don’t have a plan,” according to this year’sHow America Pays for College study. “Although nearly nine in 10 families have anticipated their child’s college attendance since preschool, fewer than half that many agree they had a plan to pay for all years of college before the student enrolled.”
An estimated 65,000 undocumented immigrants graduate from US high schools each year.
In 2001, Julissa Arce was one of those students.
“I graduated in the top 5 percent of my class,” she wrote in her memoir, My (Underground) American Dream. “I was all smiles. My whole family was proud of me. And all of us were worried.”
Join us Jan. 9 for a #NACACreads discussion of Arce’s book and the challenges undocumented students face as they make their way to and through higher education. Arce will participate in the hour-long Twitter chat, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET.
