Going to College Before You Go to College

Good article here from Brian O'Connor about how to lower your college costs by getting college credit before you get to college. This is a topic that I discuss in my book, and it's good to see articles promoting the same ideas. I also like this bit of advice, that students and parents often don't consider:

"[There should be] no waffling around about a major, [such as] starting with art history, going to pre-med for a month, and then switching to accounting. Students need to pick a direction and stick with it [in order to graduate as quickly as possible, with the lowest costs]."

Binghamton Lecturer Critical of Athletics Is Fired

This New York Times article reports that a SUNY Binghamton instructor was fired after saying that the athletic department was pressuring her to give higher grades to the athletes. The University denies that she was fired specifically for this reason, and I believe that she has since been rehired. Now why aren't more instructors speaking out about these kinds of practices?

Underworked Faculty and Overstaffed Administration

Dick Morris has posted a very interesting essay about why tuition prices are unnecessarily expensive at most schools, and what York College in Pennsylvania is doing to keep costs down.

I Love College - Asher Roth

This blog needs more hip hop videos.

Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities

This is a new book by William Bowen, Matthew Chingos, and Michael McPherson. It's getting a lot of press coverage, but I haven't read it and so I can't vouch for its usefulness. I'm a bit skeptical about it, because it only focuses on public colleges, and only 21 of them at that. But I'm open-minded and would love to hear if this book adds anything new to the debate about college value and college graduation rates.

2009 Tuition Increase is Higher Than Ever

Andrew Gillen at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity reports a startling fact:

Since general inflation is actually negative this year for all items -- while college prices have increased -- tuition prices have gone up by 9% at public colleges and by 8% at private colleges (compared to last year, after adjusting for inflation).

This increase is the highest ever for private colleges, and the second-highest ever for public colleges.

You can read his analysis here.

In a Recession, Is College Worth It?

I'm happy to say that I was quoted today in the USA Today cover story, "In a Recession, Is College Worth It?"

It's a great article that only omitted one piece of important information: higher college costs do not usually lead to higher payoffs! So, you can get a degree at an accredited institution that employers will recognize -- but it can be helpful to do that while spending as little on the degree as possible.

College Athletes Sue NCAA

The athletes have finally realized that if the NCAA is going to profit from their image, they should get a piece of the profits. Article here.

Downturn Dims Prospects Even at Top Law Schools

The New York Times reports here that law school may be a horrible investment right now, with jobs for new lawyers almost impossible to find, even at the most respected schools.

What Will They Learn?

There's a very interesting new site called What Will They Learn from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. This site rates the academic quality of 100 colleges, based simply on graduation requirements. And what it says is shocking (at least to anyone who hasn't read my book). For example, Harvard gets a D and CUNY gets an A. Check it out at the link above; this could be the best new education website of the year, just because it forces people to look at schools in a new way.