The transition from high school to college can be more than a little challenging. From a different kind of course load to navigating dorm life, that first year can be daunting.
Continue reading Headed Off to School? Consider These Tips from a ‘College Freshman Survivor’
Should students reveal their undocumented status in their personal statement?
NACAC members Ethan Sawyer (also known as The College Essay Guy) and Aliza Gilbert discussed this tricky question on a recent episode of Sawyer’s podcast.
Continue reading Undocumented Students and the College Essay
Looking to break down some of the barriers that prevent students from moving beyond high school?
We’ll be broadcasting via Facebook Live at noon on Tuesday, June 19 with Ben Castleman, a #NACACreads author and a co-creator of a new guide Nudges, Norms, and New Solutions. This guide is a free tool for educators as they develop strategies to assist students in the transition from high school to college.
Tune in at noon ET to talk about the guide, Castleman’s new nudge hotline, and how behavioral science can be used to combat summer melt and encourage student success.
Continue reading Facebook Live: Join Us Next Week to Learn about ‘Nudges, Norms, and New Solutions’
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.
You can watch the full conversation live on NACAC’s Facebook page.
Continue reading Join Us for a Facebook Live Q&A with GWI’s Keynote Speaker
Have low-income students been effectively shut out of public four-year institutions of higher education?
A new report by the National College Access Network (NCAN) examines this question and the results aren’t pretty.
Only 25 percent of residential public four-year institutions meet NCAN’s measure of affordability, data show.
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.”
Continue reading Popularity of Happiness Course Shines a Spotlight on Student Mental Health
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.
Continue reading Charter School System Embraces New Approach to College Counseling
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.
The student-athlete’s path to college is unique and requires hard work on and off the field.
This was the message of “Making Sense of College Soccer Recruiting,” a free webinar recently hosted by Soccer Chaplains United.
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.”
Continue reading Free Webinar Examines the College Soccer Recruiting Process
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.”
Continue reading Community Colleges Report Serving More Middle-Class Students