Could taking a break from formal education help more students find success in college?
Explore that question and share your own insights tonight during a #NACACreads discussion of Gap to Great.
The chat will kick off on Twitter at 9 p.m. (ET).
Continue reading Join Tonight’s #NACACreads Chat with Author Andrea Wien
Editor’s note: A version of this post originally appeared on Admitted in March 2016.
Spring break is just around the corner at high schools across the country and many juniors will use the time to check out college campuses.
For one dad, the season brings back fond memories. L. Jay Lemons recently shared tips for making the most out of campus visits.
Lemons, president of Susquehanna University (PA) — a NACAC member institution — knows of what he speaks. In addition to leading a liberal arts institution, in recent years he’s toured dozens of college campuses as a parent.
Parents, take note: Admission officers can tell when you pretend to be your child on the phone.
And butting in to answer questions directed at your son or daughter during a campus visit does more harm than good, a recent survey of more than 350 US admission officers shows.
Overall, 75 percent of survey respondents said that parents should only be “somewhat involved” in the college admission process.
Continue reading Survey: Students (Not Parents) Should Drive College Admission Process
A new study confirms what many admission professionals already know —students are cost-conscious when selecting a college.
Nearly 19 percent of students who turned down the chance to attend their top-choice school in 2016 did so because of the cost of attendance, according to new data from Royall & Company, a firm that assists colleges with enrollment management and fundraising.
“I think enrollment leaders and the public in general have had a suspicion that cost factors were driving a lot of enrollment decisions,” Royall’s Managing Director Peter Farrell told Inside Higher Ed. “This verifies it in an empirical way.”
Looking for a new way to reach prospective international students?
EducationUSA — a US Department of State network with more than 400 international student advising centers in over 170 countries — is inviting US colleges and universities to submit recruitment videos.
Videos should be about one minute in length and will be added to EducationUSA’s YouTube channel.
Continue reading EducationUSA Seeks Recruitment Videos from US Colleges
Reviewing and comparing award letters is an important part of the decision-making process for college-bound students.
Learn how to help families understand and interpret financial aid offers next week during a Twitter chat organized by the National College Access Network and the American Council on Education.
The hour-long discussion kicks off at 3 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, March 28. Follow along and ask questions using #AwardLettersChat.
Continue reading Learn More about Financial Aid Award Letters
Background: Schools across the nation continue to grapple with the achievement gap, and the literature suggests that academic gaps between white children and their non-white counterparts grow as students make their way through school. Stereotype threat — the sense of apprehension individuals feel when they are afraid their actions or parts of their identities will confirm a negative stereotype about the group to which they belong — is one factor social scientists believe contributes to the achievement gap.
The Study: A 2016 study by Geoffrey Borman, Jeffrey Grigg, and Paul Hanselman examined how one type of intervention, called self-affirmation, could offset the effects of stereotype threat. Exercises in self-affirmation offer students the chance to affirm their self-worth by thinking, writing, or speaking about the skills, values, or roles they view as important.
Continue reading Data Dive: Addressing Stereotype Threat and the Achievement Gap
A new public awareness campaign seeks to bring attention to the financial aid barriers justice-involved youth face when pursuing higher education.
#CollegeNotPrison — a initiative of The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) — made a splash on social media this week with a short video sharing the story of Alton Pitre.
As a teen, Pitre was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. He spent nearly two years behind bars before the charges were dropped and the case was dismissed.
Pitre, now a senior at Morehouse College (GA), is an advocate for criminal justice reform. He also speaks out about the need to make college affordable for more young people. In the video, Pitre, 25, notes that while a college education offers great long-term rewards, cost keeps many young people from completing a degree.
Editor’s note: A version of this post was first appeared on Admitted in 2015.
Parental expectations that are too high can end up undermining student success in the classroom, research shows.
The findings, published in 2015, are derived from a five-year study of more than 3,500 middle and high school students in Germany.
Researchers examined the results of annual math tests given to students. They also asked parents to list the grades they hoped their children would earn, as well as the grades they thought their children could reasonably obtain.
The study showed that while realistic expectations helped kids perform well, unrealistically high expectations harmed student achievement.
Continue reading Parental Expectations That Are Too High Can Harm Students, Researchers Say