How Much College Debt is too Much?

Students are increasingly having to borrow money to pay for their education. As someone who has worked in education as well as borrowed to pay for my own schooling, I generally say that student loans are good deals. The interest rates are fairly low (you can lock in rates as low as 4% presently, but that doesn't mean you will always be able to do so) and the time and flexibility you have in paying them back is abundant. However, as debt loads continue to increase (PDF), it is pertinent to examine how much debt is too much.

According to the College Board report linked to above, for 2003-04 college graduates, the average debt students incur is $19,300. According to the report, however,

"Despite median debt levels of under $20,000, 23 percent of borrowers from private nonprofit colleges and 14 percent of those at public four-year colleges graduated with $30,000 of debt or more. Forty percent of those who graduated from four-year programs at for-profit institutions had this much debt. On the other hand, 38 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients from four-year public colleges did not borrow at all and another 30 percent had less than $10,000 in debt when they graduated."

Reports of students going into what some might call obscene levels of debt are not uncommon. What drives students to incur so much debt in order to get a college education? Imagine that you really want to go to Name Brand University and in order to do so, you will have to borrow copious amounts of money. You will probably ask yourself at some point if the degree from said University is worth it. However, your borderline obsession with getting a degree from Name Brand U may blind you to the reality of what it means to owe $50,000. Additionally, as the USA Today article points out, students don't just borrow to pay for education costs, they also end up borrowing from credit card companies to subsidize their outside spending. Instead of being on the hook for $50,000, students may instead owe $60,000 when you include credit card debt (an entirely different, less forgiving type of debt).

The federal government is mulling increasing the Pell Grant, but in reality, any increase will have little effect on borrowing. College costs (tuition, books, room and board) have "risen 81 percent, more than double the inflation rate, between 1993 and 2004" (NYT). It is therefore important to consider what you feel is a tolerable level of debt. The articles I referenced in this post can give you some perspective on what other students have borrowed, how they are coping with it, and what you can do to minimize overburdening yourself with loans.

The Long Wait for an Admission Decision

It may seem like a lifetime has passed since you submitted your applications for admission. In many instances, the wait is not over. If it has seemed like a lifetime up until this point, then figure on at least another lifetime or two until you officially hear. In the meantime, I have posted some notes on what you should be focusing on until the decisions start rolling in. In this post, I want to point you to some interesting articles I have been reading lately about higher education.

1. A fascinating story on the state of diversity at UC Berkeley from the New York Times (NYT). The demographics, in California at least, of higher education are changing rapidly. How is this affecting traditional minority students? What do students think about issues of diversity?

2. Another NYT piece on rural colleges and universities. As students become accustomed to more modern luxuries, e.g. Starbucks, massive cineplexes, and ethnic cuisine, how do rural colleges compete with their urban and suburban contemporaries?

3. College Rankings, courtesy of the Washington Monthly Magazine. Why should you care about another ranking system? Start with their premises for what make a college or university excellent, "how well it performs as an engine of social mobility (ideally helping the poor to get rich rather than the very rich to get very, very rich), how well it does in fostering scientific and humanistic research, and how well it promotes an ethic of service to country." It is a compelling way to think about education. I would like to explore this ranking system more in depth in a future post.

4. Wired article on an education program designed to teach students the art of making video games that have meaning. Think world peace over world domination, or swords to plowshares.

Have a great weekend!

Sources of Information for Studying Abroad

There are a myriad of places to go on the Internet for students interested in studying abroad. I will post links to a few below for readers to peruse:

The first place to go is to your college's Study Abroad or International Programs office. They will have information about programs specifically designed to work in conjunction with the curriculum of the college you attend. You can also check with the department that houses your major to see if there are programs specific to your major. (Editor's note: This was how I found the study abroad program I participated in).

If you will be studying at either the University of California or the California State University, then you are in luck because the systems each have overarching programs that are available no matter which campus you attend. Again, check with your individual campus to learn about special campus-specific programs, of which there are plenty.

You can also look at general purpose sites, which link to programs that are offered no matter the college you currently attend. These also have information on the study abroad process, what to expect, how to prepare, how to choose a program, etc.

Some organizations have developed their own programs, which are not necessarily connected to any Universities in the U.S.

Additionally, there are organizations that are dedicated to certain types of abroad experiences, like field studies. This organization works with students interested in science and environmental abroad opportunities.

My advice is that if you have an inkling that studying abroad is something you might like to do, plan ahead. Start talking to your University's study abroad office as soon as you can. Planning is paramount so that you don't increase your time to graduation and are fully prepared for the adventure you will take. I encourage you to find out more and if interested, I highly recommend studying abroad.

Studying Abroad

Studying abroad allows you to travel the world as a student, earn credits toward graduation, get invaluable cultural experience, and have an incredible time doing so. What isn't to like about that? Most colleges and universities have programs that allow students to study in a foreign country while paying the same tuition as they would normally pay. Transportation to and from your country of destination will be the one significant cost beyond typical college expenses. You will also have to pay for housing, which varies widely throughout the world. However, you would most likely be paying for housing anyway.

The limiting factor in studying abroad is one's tolerance for difference. Can you handle living in the third world (most of Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia) or would you feel more comfortable in the developed world (Europe, Australia, as well as parts of Latin America and Asia)? Do you feel comfortable studying in a country where English is not the predominant language? Is a robust nightlife and cultural scene your flavor or would be happy studying somewhere less urban and more rural? It is questions such as these that prospective study abroad students must ask themselves.

Most colleges, including 2-year community (or junior) colleges, offer study abroad programs. If for some reason the college you attend does not offer study abroad programs, there are often people on campus who can point you in the direction of legitimate abroad organizations and programs. In the next post, I will share some online resources for students interested in finding out more about studying abroad.

The Importance of Feedback

Hello. I apologize about not posting for a while. I have been busy with putting on an event for applicants to the College where I work. Luckily, it is done and I have somewhat more sane days. The experience of running a program, however, serves as the inspiration for this post.

In creating anything and putting it out there for people to look at, you make yourself vulnerable. Vulnerability isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is hard to judge one's work without letting others get a chance to peruse it. We often have an internal gauge of how we are doing and we should listen to that gauge very intently. However, we also need to hear about our work from others. Specifically, what did we do that worked well. What didn't work so well? What is another way we could have approached the situation?

I have solicited feedback on the event I put on for the College from the students attendees, the faculty and staff who worked the event, as well as students who represented the College. Not all of the feedback has been glowingly positive. I don't expect that it would. People have different ways of doing things. One of the great things about feedback is that you can get an idea of how other people view the situation or problem you have been wrestling with. In doing so, you can see how you might approach a problem or situation differently with this new perspective. One of the most important aspects of feedback is our willingness to listen to it and learn from it.

As you spend your college careers writing papers and working on projects, you will get a lot of feedback. When you do, keep in mind that it is usually in your best interests. You can tell the feedback that isn't constructive, but the majority of it is good. It is all with the intention of helping you become a better person, writer, scholar, and student. Don't fear feedback, embrace it. You will be a much better student (and person) for it.

Online Distance Education Courses and Degrees - Pros

Online and distance education courses and degrees are starting to become a fixture at many colleges and universities. There are many good reasons for the explosion of offerings. Let me give you some reasons why I think this is the case.

1. Ease of attending "virtual" classrooms - If you are employed full-time, have a family, or other responsibilities that make getting to a traditional classroom challenging, then online or distance education is immediately attractive. You can log in at whatever time is convenient to you and post responses to the week's questions, submit your assignments, and email a professor or fellow student. If you live far away from a college that offers a program or class you want to take, being able to enroll in an online or distance version is your only option.

2. Interactivity is potentially increased - This was mentioned in the last post, but it is important enough to repeat. In many online formats, student-student and student-professor interactivity is higher than it is in traditional formats. Student-student interaction is often the most interesting because many traditional classrooms stick to the teacher knows best dichotomy. Most of the discussion comes from the front of the room, with few questions and little discussion coming from the back of the room. In many ways, the discussion flow is opposite in an online course. It is amazing how much you can learn from classmates when they are truly given a chance to speak.

3. The potential exists for learning to increase - Note: This point is based on personal experience, and not based on any scientific studies. I have found that online courses force you to do all the reading, reflect on it, and discuss your views on the topics at hand with your fellow students and the professor in ways that aren't always possible in a traditional classroom. In doing so, you often find yourself defending and then altering your views as you take in the views of your classmates. You re-examine the readings in light of what other people are writing. In this way, you are engaging the learning material more substantively than if you merely read it and listen to the professor talk about it. The other side of the coin is that online courses can be more demanding than their traditional counterparts.

Is an Online Course or Degree Right for You?

Online courses and degree programs are more demanding than most people realize. They require that a student be a capable independent learner who is self-motivated to complete projects, papers, and readings without someone constantly hounding them about it.

Online "classrooms" do not have the anonymity of a large lecture hall or even a moderate-sized class. The expectation (in most cases) in online courses is that students will participate. Your grade is partially based on your participation. Unlike traditional face-to-face courses, you must do the assigned reading. Because you are graded (partially) on participation, you don't want to be seen as uninformed and lacking in preparation for the week's discussion. It is fairly obvious who has read and prepared for the discussion and who hasn't. If the students can see it, then it is a safe assumption that the professor can as well.

Students must be comfortable with communicating asynchronously, as most online courses use discussion boards to hold conversations about the week's readings and assignments. As well, technophobes need not bother. Online learning requires that one be comfortable with discussion boards, chat rooms (in some instances), email, and digital distribution. In the next post, I'll talk about some of the advantages of online learning.

What to Make of Online Education

Online education is a growing segment of higher education. It is difficult to pin down exactly what percentage of students are getting degrees through programs that deliver instruction, testing, and discussion online. However, all you have to do is a search in Yahoo! or Google for online education to know that it is a big business. There are probably ads on my site that reference it. Separating the quality programs from the 'out to make a buck' ones can be difficult. However, it is certainly doable and here are a couple of things to look at:

1. Look at accreditation. At bare minimum, you want to see that the institution is accredited by a regional accreditation body, e.g. WASC, MSA, NWCCU, NCA, NEASC-CHIE, SACCS-CC. Regional accreditation is required by graduate schools and most employers. Be careful of alternate accrediting boards that sound like they are regional. If the institution's accreditation isn't from the six I listed above, then skip it.

2. Does it look to good to be true? This is an important question to consider. If a program is promising a degree with a minimum of hassle and courses to be taken, then back off. Likely, they have not been regionally accredited to offer the degree and are suspect. There may be specific instances where an alternate accreditation is acceptable, but you should know about that before ever searching for a program.

I have some experience with online education, and if you have a question, feel free to post it in the comments.

Toying with Blog Format

I am going to try an adjustment to my blog writing. In lieu of writing longer posts, I want to write shorter, less in-depth pieces. Doing so will have the effect of keeping blog postings fresh and somewhat more frequent. This doesn't mean that I won't occasionally write a longer piece, but I am going to try something a bit different for a while. I welcome any and all feedback from readers and am excited about continuing to make this blog accessible for students, parents, and professionals.

Applying for Financial Aid

Editor's Note: This was written by Samantha Kahn, a financial aid counselor with years of experience in all kinds of institutions.

As of January 1st, the FAFSA for the 2007-2008 academic year is available on the web. The US Department of Education strongly advises families to apply for financial aid online rather than with a paper application, because it cuts down on errors and incomplete applications.

Completing the FAFSA online includes three steps. The first is that you and your parent must apply for a USED Personal Identification Number, which you can use as your electronic signature on the FAFSA and on loan applications. Applying for a PIN takes no time at all, you can do so at: http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/appinstr.jsp

Be prepared to provide your SSN, address, and other common items. They'll process your application and send you an email with instructions on how to get the PIN. You'll probably receive this email within 72 hours after submitting your application.

Note that the student and the parent each need their own PIN. PINs are essentially a permanent electronic version of signatures, so each person applying needs his or her own. If you and your sibling are applying at the same time, you need a PIN, your brother needs a PIN, and your parent needs a PIN. Your PIN will never change regardless of your own status as a parent or student (or financial aid officer).

The FAFSA itself is a long and complex document, into which you have to put a lot of data. Don't worry, though; it's highly encrypted and your demographic and financial information is safe. However, it's a good idea to use the worksheets provided by the Department to gather all the information together. This way you can sit at the table with your tax returns and bank statements, write in the numbers, and type them in when you go to the FAFSA website.

If you have to use a public computer, such as one at a library, you MUST prepare in advance with the worksheets. Expect it to take at least 45 minutes to complete the FAFSA online.

Here is the link for the FAFSA worksheets: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/before012.htm. Look for the link for the 07-08 FAFSA worksheet in color. The FAFSA is color coded by year for the students - 07-08 The student information sections will be in yellow. Parent info is always purple. It's important to not put the same information in both sections!

You can go to that link and print out the FAFSA worksheet, which will be eight pages. Then you can fill in the boxes with your year-to-date figures off your's and your parents' 12/31/06 paychecks and statements.

Once you have your PIN and between January 1 and the earliest filing deadline (which will probably be March 2 for schools in California, but that information can be checked on college websites), you can go online and enter all the data from the worksheets. If you are not sure what the filing deadline is for any of your prospective colleges, MAKE SURE you know before you miss the deadline! Some schools' filing deadlines for the best/most financial aid eligibility can be as early as February 1.

You will need to put in the school code for all the colleges to which you areapplying (there should be space for at least six on the FAFSA). Codes can be found on the FA pages of the prospective schools' websites or even more easily at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw0607/fslookup.htm

You can make corrections to the FAFSA and should do so when you and your parents complete your respective tax returns. Don't wait to complete the tax returns before applying for financial aid. This is the only document which is more important to submit on time than it is to submit it correctly. If you don't have financial information when you have to complete the FAFSA, DO NOT put in zeros. Estimate as well as you can; you want the college to offer you the best aid based on the best information.

If your family has experienced some financial setback that isn't reflected in your tax information, such as a layoff late in the year, or high medical expenses that can't be deducted, you should complete the FAFSA so it reflects the tax information and then contact the colleges to which you've applied and advise them of this disparity.

The National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE)

Quick check of hands, how many of you have heard of the above NSSE? If not, it is time to get acquainted with it. We have previously talked about rankings in this blog and I promised we would return to the subject. The NSSE is not so much a ranking system as it is a measure of how colleges and universities are engaging their students along five different dimensions:

1) Level of academic challenge
2) Active and collaborative learning
3) Student-faculty interaction
4) Enriching educational experiences
5) Supportive campus environment

Students are surveyed (PDF document) about their experience along these different dimensions. From reading the survey, it is obvious that NSSE takes a thorough look at student engagement. Unlike other surveys, NSSE does not give numerical ranks to each of the colleges that participate. Instead, what you will find in their report is how institutions are doing on average based on their Carnegie category (Doctoral, Master's, and Baccalaureate). If you are considering attending an institution like the University of California, then you would be interested in NSSE data on Doctoral (Very High research activity) whereas if you were looking at a California State University, you would want to look at Master's data for the size of the University (Large, Medium, or Small). You can download the 2006 report here.

This data, like the Princeton Review's system we examined earlier, is qualitative in nature. However NSSE data is collected and analyzed through statistical research and interpretation methods. NSSE does not compile silly lists, as does Princeton Review. It is a serious attempt to understand the quality of education that the nation's colleges and universities are providing. Colleges who participate in NSSE do so for a variety of reasons. They may be looking for ways to improve their education, understand their student's perception of their education, or they believe in the goals of the NSSE.

As a student or parent, I suggest you look at the variety of questions asked in the student survey, determine which of those measures are most important to you, and then look at the results to see how institutions of the general type you are interested in are doing according to their students.

Why You Shouldn't Apply to Too Many Colleges

I hope that all is well with your applications and that you are now resting a bit. I wanted to share some interesting data I have been collecting. As part of my job, I have been running a survey in which I ask students, among other questions, how many colleges and universities they applied to. This was the topic of an earlier post and at the end of that post, I mentioned I would return to the topic. So here we are.

While the survey is not scientific and only has data from over 40 respondents, the results are interesting. The number of schools that people are applying to vary widely. The extremes were a total of 2 schools applied to on the low end and 16 applied to on the high end. The mean number of schools applied to is 5.875 or 6. The mode is 6, however 5 and 7 applications are the most frequent numbers cited. Again, this is not a scientific survey, it is merely a sampling of students.

What does this mean? Well, it is hard to say with any accuracy. But I have some comments. Firstly, applying to 16 schools is overkill. You can only attend one (1) of those schools. Applying to so many indicates an applicant who has not done their homework. They should be able to easily cut that number down to the average, or 6 in this sample. If you think about it, you should be able to narrow down a list of schools you are interested in to at most 10. From that 10, you should be able to pare it down to as low as four, as high as six. You know realistically what kind of a shot you have at many of these schools. You also know that a number of them are safety schools. You shouldn't need so many safety schools. One is enough. You really have no intention of going to a safety school unless there is some unforeseen catastrophe.

Applying to more schools than is reasonable is a problem for all the concerns we discussed previously. In addition, I would like to make this a bit more personal by saying that when one applies to more than 7 or 8 schools, they are being selfish and lazy. Lazy because, as mentioned above, you didn't do your homework. You are being selfish because you are taking up precious time that admissions reviewers could spend on serious applications. As well, you are taking potential spots of admission from people who really might love to attend a particular school. What if the person who would really love to attend the school you just whimsically sent off an application to is someone you know? What if it is a good friend and because of your meaningless application they were not offered a spot of admission? How would either of those situations make you feel?

I don't mean to be impudent in this post. Rather I hope to be applying a dose of reality to a situation that, by many estimates, has gone out of hand. Admission to college has become increasingly stressful and difficult. I believe one (of many) causes of this is due to the fact that students over-apply to colleges. Talk to your friends and people you know about this. Get their feedback. Maybe I'm making too much out of nothing. Feel free to post a comment. I encourage dialogue.

November 30th has Arrived

Today is the final day for many of you to submit your applications for admission to various colleges and universities. In California, the University of California campuses and some of the California State University campuses stop accepting applications after today. A fair number of Cal. State University campuses will accept applications beyond November 3oth, check here for more information. Many of you have already submitted your application and are now playing the waiting game. What does one do in the interregnum between application submittal and notification of admission (or not)?

I suggest focusing on enjoying and continuing to succeed in your final year of high school. College is an entirely different experience than high school has been. Many, myself included, feel like college is much more rewarding. If you particularly enjoy high school however, then live it up. Academically, the most important thing you can do during this time is to continue to practice the study habits that have gotten you to a place where you can reasonably expect to get into a good college. Practice makes perfect, or so they say. In the case of studying, writing, and success, I think "they" are right.

I hope that this blog has given you some food for thought and I intend to continue writing about topics relevant to the college search, including making a decision about which college to attend, issues facing education that students need to be aware of, and many others. I hope you will continue to join me in this peregrination.

How Many Colleges to Apply to

In recent years students have been applying to more colleges and universities than they have historically. This is often thought of as a sound strategy given how competitive admissions has become at certain colleges. However, this practice is compounding the competitiveness in college admissions.

If you apply to seven different schools, each of these schools will treat your application as a serious one. They have to spend time and effort reading and evaluating the application. We all know, however, that not all applications are serious applications. In other words, students apply to some schools as "safety" schools which, barring an unforeseen disaster, they have no intention of enrolling. The number of safety schools students are applying to has also been increasing. Many of these applications are in fact vacuous. They have no real intention behind them.

Practically, for schools you have no intention of enrolling at, your application is in fact contributing to the increased competitiveness. For every application that is genuine, there maybe as many as one application that is not genuine. But to admissions offices, it doesn't matter. Colleges only have so many offers of admission they can award based on the size of their freshman class. Thus, if you have two applications, and the admissions rate for a particular college is 50%, one of those two people won't be admitted. What happens if the person who is admitted is the person who has no intention of enrolling while the person who wanted to attend that college got a denial? The college just lost a potential member of their freshman class and someone's heart got broken.

When you play this scenario out on a large scale, you can begin to see how the rise in the number of applications submitted by single students is increasing competition. Imagine at the hypothetical college I mentioned above that instead of just two applications there were ten, and that only five of them were genuine. If the 50% acceptance rate holds, then five will be admitted and five denied. However, when more applications start pouring in, colleges have to adjust their acceptance rates to accommodate the increase. Instead of accepting 50%, the college could now accept 40%. In that case, four students will be admitted and six denied. This might be a great situation for the college's rankings in US News and World Report, but it is not a good one for serious applicants.

More to come...

College is Not a Panacea

I apologize for not posting in the past couple of weeks. Things have been quite busy at both work and home. Thanks for sticking with me!

You might be wondering what I am referring to in the title of this blog post. What I mean is that going to college is not going to solve all of your problems. You will still have your family, your friends, and most importantly, yourself to deal with. College may provide you some physical and mental space to reflect on the various things that cause you to groan, but it will not make them magically go away.

I have spoken to many students who just can't wait to go to college so they can get away from the circumstances of their lives. However, just as one moves from place A to place B for college, one's problems also move from place A to place B with you. You can never escape from the things that ail you without confronting them head on. It often seems like it would be easier to confront our problems if we weren't so enmeshed in them. But this is precisely why they are problems. They are a part of you, and are related to how you see the world and your relationship to it. You will still see the world the same way when you go to college.

Does your mom become less overbearing when you don't live in the same house? Perhaps in the sense that she isn't physically looking over your shoulder all the time, but not really in the sense that she calls your cell every 3 hours. You see, the problem - your mother's overbearing nature and your inability to deal with it - remain. As I said, the only hope going to college provides is that it can give you time to reflect and consider new ways to constructively deal with your problems. Making new friends might aid you in this process, but the hard work - change - is all up to you.

Welcome to adulthood!

Application Time is Upon Us

We are right in the middle of the application crunch. Many people are aware of the looming deadlines and have either already submitted all their applications or are working on them presently, or perhaps are waiting until Thanksgiving to get started. If I had one suggestion it would be not to wait. This process is stressful enough as it is. Waiting till the last minute may be your modus operandi, but consider what you are doing.

Applying to college is probably one of the more important milestones in your life up until now. You are making a determination about where you will spend the next four years of your life. This isn't math homework, or even a history project. This is your future. As an example, let's think about the personal statement. Writing a personal statement that is not a laundry list of everything you have done, but instead a coherent essay that addresses your motivation, challenges faced, and evidence of sustained engagement in academic and non-academic activities takes a lot of time and thought. Astute application readers, and most of them are fairly good at what they do, can tell the pretenders from the contenders.

Likewise, given the often limited space you have on a college application to list activities you have been involved in is not something to be taken lightly. If you only have one line left to list an activity and yet have four more activities you would like to list, what do you do? Do you put Powder Puff, Math Club, Lion's Club, or Student Newspaper? To answer that, you need to carefully consider what else you have listed and which activity conveys the true spirit of who you are.

Too often students try to create a false image of who they are to the admissions committees instead of accurately portraying themselves. They believe that in order to get admitted, one needs to be involved in particular types of activities or organizations. There is nothing wrong with listing Powder Puff, provided that it is something you are passionate about and have participated in for years. As someone who has read applications, I want to know who you are, not who you think I want you to be.

Preview Days & Other Ways to Visit a College

Colleges and Universities are dying for you to visit them. I cannot tell you how many times both college administrators and students have told me about the impact visiting a college has on them. It turns all your internet research, US News Rankings, and friends' often uniformed opinions into reality. You can walk the grounds, see where students hang out, eat the food, and generally get the feel for a college. You wouldn't buy a car without test driving it, would you? Also, wouldn't you likely test drive more than one car before making your final decision? It has always perplexed me how many students do not visit the top colleges on their list.

As it turns out, colleges and universities make it as easy as possible to provide you opportunities to visit their campuses. Many colleges hold an Open House style event, sometimes called Preview Day, during the time they are initially accepting applications. These are events where you can hear some information about your major, get an introduction to the college or University, have lunch, and take a tour. These are often a bit more relaxed because you may or may not have applied to the college or university. After you have applied, and the colleges really want to make you think twice about attending their institution, they will host another, more formal day to woo you. And believe me, colleges and universities are dying to woo you. If you are admitted to a college, then they want you to attend. You are a precious commodity.

If you are unable to make one of the official college or university events, then you can always schedule a tour of the campus. If you choose to take this route, I suggest you schedule your tour at a time when there are students on campus (not Christmas break). To be safe, when you call the tour office, ask them if school will be in session (even summer school works) when you are thinking about visiting. Colleges without students are not real exciting and you won't get a true feel for the campus without other students around. To return to my car analogy, you wouldn't test drive a car that didn't have an engine, would you?

A College Far Away from Home

Last week we explored going to a local college. Now let's examine the other side of that. What does it mean to go to a college far away from home? There are many factors to consider in the distance equation.

Perhaps the most important factor is your comfort with and ability to be away from family and friends for long periods of time. I have known students who because they went to schools far away only made it home twice during the academic year (a period from August to May - 9 months). Will you be satisfied with electronic communication, or maybe more realistically, will your parents and family (think grandma) be satisfied and competent with email, IM, and/or Skype? If they aren't can you put up with constant grumbling about being so far away?

It is possible that you could come home more, but this will require money and time. Notice that I just added two more factors to the equation: money and time. If you are looking at a school that is going to stretch your budget, then you have to think about the reality of making it home more than a couple of times a year. Even if you aren't stretching your budget, you have to think about time. When you go home, you want to visit and have fun. Will you have the time to also work on reading, writing, and preparing for classes? I wouldn't count on the flight or drive home to be a time when you can do any quality studying.

A last, though not only, factor to consider is your ability to thrive in new social settings away from friends and others you feel comfortable around. Do you make friends easily? Do you feel comfortable being around total strangers without family or old friends to rely on? Many students are just dying to "start over" and others can't imagine having to go through the whole headache of making new friends. Most people are somewhere along the continuum between these two extremes and will probably do just fine. But before making the distance decision, consider some of these factors first.

Going to a College Close to Home

Most colleges, no matter their prestige or location, have a significant portion of their student population that come from the local area. Depending on where you are located, the local area could mean a city, a county, neighboring counties, or a state (as with rural states like Montana, or even some of the small Northeastern states, like Vermont). For many students, choosing a college that is relatively close to home is important. I went to a univeristy that was about 60 miles from where I grew up. I considered that local, but not too local.

The reason I said that my university wasn't too local has to do with something that I believe is a very important process that occurs in college. Part of being 18 or 20 (in my case - I was a transfer student) and going to college is about maturation. A healthy individual is able to have a life and experience both outside and inside their family. Part of development is independence. It was my opinion when I chose my university that becoming independent required that I get some distance between myself and my family. I didn't want to always be coming home on the weekends, although I wanted to have the option to fairly easily come home when I did want to see my family.

If you choose to go to a very local college, and by that I mean a college where you would probably live at home and commute to campus, developing independence is not as easy. It is still possible and occurs all the time. However, if mom still makes your dinner and washes your dirty clothes, you are not really graduating into adulthood. Therefore, if you are considering going to a very local college, I ask you to think about this notion of independence as I have described it. Does it sound like something that is important to you? Do you believe that you can develop a healthy independence and still live at home (or at least live within a 15 minute drive from home)? Maybe you are like I was when I chose where to go to college, you want to the distance to form an independent identity, but you also want to be able to come home and eat mom's good cooking once in a while.

College is Like Sesame Street

I watched a program on Sesame Street's international appeal last night and found myself thinking about a college education. Sesame Street is a world-wide phenomenon. Its aims are grand - equalize the playing field between the children of the haves and have nots by providing free, high quality educational fare. Scientific studies have shown it to have a positive effect on learning among children, one of the few examples of television having a positive impact. How is it related to a college education?

Consider the program I linked to. It details the efforts of the Sesame Street Production folks to bring programming to the children of third world and ethnically divided countries. In war torn Kosovo, for instance, Sesame Street is bringing both ethnic Serbian and Albanian children on the air together. In Israel, it brings Israeli and Palestinian children together as friends and playmates. In South Africa, one of the muppets on the program has HIV. In short, Sesame Street is bringing the world's diversity into focus, breaking down barriers that have long stood.

Colleges and Universities have been places that have nurtured such diversity for some time now. In fact, it is becoming more difficult to find colleges that don't have a fair representation of peoples from the different ethnic, cultural, and social groups that make up America. In my view this is positive. People from different backgrounds are brought together with the same goal, learning. College is a laboratory for the greater American society. Yes, people tend to hang out with others like them, but the opportunity to intermingle and make friends with those completely different than yourself is ripe. I suggest you look at a college's diversity if that is something that interests you. Remember, if circumstances force you to go to a college that isn't as diverse as you want, there are opportunities (e.g. National Student Exchange and study abroad) to study elsewhere (where diversity is plentiful) while continuing to earn credits at your home college.

Personal - Started a New Job

I wanted to share, in the interest of full disclosure, that I have started a new job in the field of education. I am working at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Here I am serving as Interim Coordinator of External Affairs in the College of Business. The position is temporary and may turn into something permanent (with a different title). In this position I will be coordinating and developing the college's recruitment efforts as well as looking into the college's internship programs. I am excited to start the position and will continue to post new blog entries. They might not be as frequent as I hoped, but I aim to continue writing.

Pressure from Family & Other Sources

Many students I have worked with faced pressure from their families to attend a top school or choose a certain major. Often I hear about engineering and medicine as majors that parents expect their children to follow. With schools, it is either a top public university or else. These expectations can be difficult for students because they may or may not have the same wishes for their college experience as their parents. In some cases, there exist cultural ties that bind students to the expectations of their families and parents. How can students handle these extenal expectations?

Students know better than outsiders how strong the expectations are. In some cases, failure to meet expectations can bring shame to the student and the family. In these instances, following what has been laid down is not an option. It is my suggestion to students in these circumstances to take a "both/and" approach to their education, especially if they do not love what they have to do. If you must major in engineering for example, then consider minoring in something that is fun and interesting to you. You don't need to minor, you will have room in your schedule to take miscellaneous classes that interest you. However, why not come out with a diploma that has both a major and a minor?

There are other acceptable ways to be a "both/and" student. Consider studying abroad if that interests you. You can continue your education in the field given, but also enhance your overall educational experience. Being active in clubs and organizations that interest you is a great way to make your education more relevant to your likes and interests. Most colleges participate in exchange programs that allow you to study not only internationally, but within the U.S. and Canada as well. If you always had in your mind going to a different college or a different state, it might be possible through programs like the National Student Exchange to do so for a semester, quarter, or year. These are all things that prospective employers and graduate schools view as positive. All of these options will not only allow you to satisfy the expectations of your parents, but to make sure that your education is satisfactory and fulfilling to yourself as well.

Picking a Major - A Labor of Love

Last night I watched a program ("Gates & Buffet Go Back to School") in which Bill Gates and Warren Buffet held a Q&A session with students on the campus of the University of Nebraska. These are the two richest men in the world, with a combined net worth of over $110 billion dollars. They were asked a myriad of questions but one stuck in my mind as particularly relevant for students trying to figure out their major and what they want to do with their lives.

Gates and Buffet were asked how they measured success. Buffet said that one of the ways he measured success was by how he felt about what he was doing. He said that every day he wakes up and is excited about his life and work. Why? He loves what he does. He is driven by his passion. Gates, nodded in agreement, and spoke himself how he has the best job on earth. Both intimated that the money isn't what drives them. Rather, it is the passion to pursue their dreams and do what they love. I got the impression that even if they were poor, they would still be happy because they believe in and love what they do. Their wealth, then, is not of a material, but rather a spiritual nature. To drive home the point, both men have pledged to donate nearly all of their fortunes to help people throughout the world who are less fortunate than themselves.

How does this apply to the soon-to-be college student searching for a major? I think it is pretty obvious, however I cannot tell you the number of students who have told me that they want to major in something that makes them a lot of money. When I tell them fields with high earning potential, many of them are disheartened because those majors aren't interesting to them. I then start a new track in the conversation by asking what it is that they love. What interests them? What are they passionate about? Nearly every one of us has something that matters deeply to us. It is my conviction, as well as Gates' and Buffet's, that if you honor your passion and do what you love, the rewards, both material and spiritual, will follow.


Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
- Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

Alternatives to U.S. News' Rankings

We have explored the most popular ranking publication, U.S. News and World Report, and how its methodology is a direct translation of their values. I challenged readers to examine US News' methodology to see if their values matched with those espoused in the methodology. What is one to do if U.S. News' values don't jive with your own? If you are still partial to rankings and similar such endeavors, you are lucky. There are many ranking systems. For the next couple of days, I want to examine some alternatives.

The Princeton Review has been publishing a narrative ranking system since 1992. Their system is quite different from U.S. News' in that the primary source of information they use in devising their rankings are the words and experiences of students. As an example, U.S. News uses "Faculty Resources," which includes faculty salary, class size, degree obtained, student/faculty ratio, and percentage of full-time faculty to examine the quality of an institution's faculty. Princenton Review directly asks students in its survey about their experience of the faculty (whether they are good teachers and whether they are accessible). It is difficult to say with any certainty that the objective measures that U.S. News uses to assess faculty quality actually say anything about the quality of a school's faculty. However, Princeton Review's method could produce equally spurious results. What if there was a campaign by students to answer these particular questions either negatively or positively. That could compromise the results. Whether this happens, is difficult to tell, athough Princeton Review claims to do their best to avoid and detect such possibilities.

Princeton Review publishes their full listings in book format and allows you to access some of the information on their website (subscription required for some content). They have some interesting lists they create based on their survey results, such as "Dorms Like Dungeons" and "Students Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton" (or Reagan, if you prefer). Princeton Review has a different way of going about understanding the quality of colleges. I encourage you to review their methodology to see if their values are consanguine with your own. Never get all your information from one source, whether it is a ranking or one person who's sister went to a college you may be interested in. Finding the right college is a challenging process that requires thoroughness and time.

Rankings and their Inherent Values

When I posted earlier on values and questioning what was important to you, I did this because choosing a college is a highly personal and subjective process. One person's reason for going to college X are going to be different from another's reasons. There may be some overlap, but the manner in which two people go about discovering colleges, figuring out what's important in the college they attend, and visiting the colleges will often times be different.

Given that the college search is a personal, subjective process, it stands to reason that college rankings, like those I posted about yesterday, should be used very carefully. Each of the ranking systems decides on a number of factors that they believe connote quality. When you look at these rankings, you should look at each of their factors and how much weight they give to them. Would you give the same weight? Or would you look at something completely different? What if you desparately want to go to a highly ranked school, but you disagree with the categories that a publication uses to determine their rankings? I am afraid that most students do not do enough homework when examining the rankings.

In that spirit, I think it is important to point the way towards doing one's homework. How many of us skip U.S. News and World Report's "Methodology" section to get to the actual numbers and ranks? Well, as you can see, I have linked to their methodology section for you to peruse. They give their full justifications as to why they think these factors are important and how much weight they give to them. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Next week: An alternative to traditional rankings

College Rankings

U.S. News and World Report's annual college ranking guide, "America's Best Colleges" has shown up and a new group of prospective college students are wondering what to do about it. While U.S. News' guide is probably the most well known, there are many, including the Princeton Review and others. As a student, how should you approach these guides? The answer to this question depends on your priorities and the reason you want an education.

As someone who has spent his career helping students determine what college is right for them, I know that these ranking schemes play an important role to a subsection of students. The reason rankings are so important to many students is because they think that going to a top ranked college is going to get them a number of things, including a good job, internship opportunities, access to graduate school, and other unforseen benefits. However, it is not clear that going to a top ranked school will actually do all of these things for you. A degree from an Ivy League institution, while attractive on paper, is not enough to get you a job. Jobs require interviews. Employers not only look at where an applicant went to school, they also look at your grades, social skills, prior experience, references, and personality. The same is true of graduate school. You are not chosen for a job or graduate school based solely on the U.S. News' ranking of your college. It may play a factor, but it is not nearly as important as some would like to believe.

We live in a society that places value on name recognition. Did you buy those clothes at Nordstrom or Target? Is the brand Nike or Payless? You get the idea. Therefore it should come as no surprise that colleges face the same problem. The desire of a college to increase its rankings has led to a number of strategies (as well as consultants) aimed at doing so. Such strategies include manipulating the amount of financial aid given to students based on grades and income, creating early decision and action programs, all-out alumni fundraising, and others. See the November 2005 Atlantic Monthly section "College 2005" for an enlightening look at college rankings. I write this post not to dissuade you from looking at rankings, but merely to inform you of the reality behind them. I believe they can serve of some value, just not the sole determinant of where one should apply to and attend college.

This is a topic that I will return to. It is an important issue facing not only students, but the entire field of education.

Transfer Admission Agreements

In California, if community college students take certain courses and get a certain GPA (usually 2.8 or 3.0 or higher) they can pursue programs that guarantee admission to select four year universities. Not all four year insitituions offer such a program, but many do. Some majors, such as engineering or business, may also limit the availability of guaranteed slots. The key to these programs is identifying early in one's community college career that they want to transfer to a particular school (or two) in a particular major. Once this has been identified students can go to their community college's transfer center to find out if there exists a transfer agreement with the schools they are interested in. As I mentioned, not all four year institutions participate in such programs because the demand would far exceed available space, but many do.

In the University of California, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside have active agreement or guarantee programs. As an example of what one Transfer Admission Agreement program looks like, see UC Davis. In the California State University, many CSUs have guarantee or agreement programs. It is imperative to check with the community college you plan on attending to find out what campuses they have agreemements with. If you really want to go to a particular school, purusing an agreement brings a sense of comfort and accomplishment. Outside of California, many community colleges partner with local four year institutions to ensure a healthy flow of students from the community college to the universities. As always, those who ask are rewarded. Don't wait until the last minute to inquire. People at the community colleges are there to help students be successful. Community colleges guage success in many ways, one of them being the number of students who transfer to four year universities.

The Community College Path

Community colleges offer students an alternative path to getting a Bachelor's degree. A former community college student myself, I can attest to the excellence of the education I received in preparing to transfer to a four-year university. Community colleges allow you to take preparatory work towards your major as well as complete general education courses to satisfy graduation requirements. While at the community college one can also earn an Associate's degree as well as certificates in applied fields (ranging from television and radio broadcasting to biotechnology). Community colleges are thus a wonderful opportunity for students unsure about their desire to immediately go to a four year institution out of high school.

One of the primary reasons students attend community college is affordability. Consider the case of California, where I live. At a California community college, resident tuition is $26 per unit (assuming 12 units per semester, that would be $624 per year). At the California State University, resident tuition is a little more than $3000 per year, and at the University of California, it is around $6200 per year. Because of a myriad of reasons, people are forced to pay for tuition and books out of their own or their parents' pockets. Given that, community college looks much more affordable. Though affordability is important, it is not the sole determinant in choosing a community college.

Another reason students choose community college over four-year institutions has to do with the different admission requirements for high school and community college applicants. High school applicants to the University of California and the California State University must take exams such as the SAT (or ACT with Writing) and SATII (though in some instances no exam is required, but is recommeded). For community college applicants no exam is required for admission. Likewise, the GPA requirement for high school students coupled with the exam requirements is more stringent than it is for community college students.

Meeting minimum requirements, as is well documented, does not guarantee admission, especially at the high school level. While this is also true of community college admission, it is less difficult for community college students to get admitted to the most competitive campuses, e.g. UC Berkeley, UCLA, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Diego State, etc... While getting into some of these campuses with less than a 3.5 GPA in high school might be difficult, at community college, it is a slightly different case. With a 3.5 GPA in community college, plus all the required GE and major prepatory coursework, you stand a pretty good chance of being admitted to highly competitive four-year institutions. The competitiveness is still there, though it is not nearly as intense.

Tomorrow's post will focus on one of the gems of the community college, the Transfer Admission Agreement or Transfer Admission Guarantee.

What's Important to You...continued

I was asked by a friend and colleague to elaborate on the values I mentioned in the previous post. In that post I was attempting to help students clarify what's important to them (what they value). How does one know what they value? Answering this question requires much thought and careful attention.

First, let's start with a definition of values: "Principles, standards or qualities considered worthwhile or desirable by the person who holds them." Each of us hold many values. Common ones include the golden rule, respect for elders, and loyalty to family. These values are important because they guide your day to day decision making as well as larger life decisions, such as where to go to college and when/if to start a family, among others. Values are deeply held and therefore I want to make a distinction between a value and something that makes you feel good.

You might look at the above paragraph and think that values are things that make you feel good when you abide by them. But we all know that what makes us feel good is not necessarily what is good for us. Consider the way buying something you really want makes you feel. You often get a light, happy feeling upon purchasing the product. Did you necessarily need that thing, or do the good feelings you get after purchasing it last very long? Pretty soon, you need to buy something else because your good feelings are gone and you feel the desire for something else. Thus I would argue that while purchasing something makes you feel good for a little while, it is a fleeting thing. Values may change, but they aren't fleeting.

When examining values, your task is not merely to come up with things that make you feel good or bad. Try to go a deeper with your thoughts. What is it about these things that makes you feel good or bad? Are they values you truly hold? As an example, let's examine values relating to family. For many students the question of where to go to college is tied up with their relationship to their family. How important is your relationship with your family? Is it important that you see your family regularly or would seeing each other more infrequently be okay? Will you be unhappy if you mostly communicate with your family on the phone, via email, or IM?

In the process of examinig values do not confuse fear with values. For many people, myself included, going off to college in a diffferent geographic area than the one I grew up in (where my family was located) was a scary prospect. Yet I knew that my relationship with my family was strong enough that physical distance would not interfere with my happiness or ability to be successful in school. Not everyone feels this way. It is crucial that in the process of figuring out what your values are that you not take things lightly. Do not assume that just because you like something, or the prospect of not having something causes fear or apprehension, that it is therefore a critical value. Examine it more deeply.

"Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there." -- Marcus Aurelius

What's Important to You

As with any important decision, one of the first things one must do is figure out what is important to them. Having a set of values allows you to make your decision with those things most important in mind. We often do this implicitly without thinking about it, but I feel it is helpful to make the thoughts explicit.

To make your values explicit, start by writing them down in list form. Think specifically about the college decision. What types of factors will help you narrow down a list of schools? For some students factors might include proximity to family, reputation of the school or major department, opportunities to do research or internships, affordability, opportunities for social experiences (not just partying) housing availability, and others.

Once you have a list, start to number the values you have listed from one to however many you have on your list. This will take time and in fact, you will probably find yourself changing the numbers as you think about it more. Therefore, I suggest you use a pencil. You don't have to get the numbers right in one sitting. You should revisit your list in a few days or weeks to see if anything has changed or if you want to add another value. Continuously tinkering with this values list will help you to be more focused in your college search.

One of the most important factors in making a good decision about which college to attend is how well one knows oneself. This might sound overly philosophical, but it is not only a key to a successful college search and decision process, it is a key to a fulfilling life.

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power." -- Tao Te Ching