Universities Weblog

The Ivies and other elite universities are engaged in a bidding war for low-income students. Or at least they're engaged in a war to see who can capture better headlines. Harvard just revealed it will increase the minimum threshold for what it considers "low income" to $60,000. This follows recent announcements by Stanford, Princeton, Penn and Yale, which have pledged to eliminate loans for low-income students. Harvard's move raises the bar from its previous perch of $40,000.

This comes from the Boston Globe:

Parents from families with annual incomes of less than $60,000 will not have to contribute to the cost of their child's education at Harvard University, a 50 percent increase over the previous income threshold.

It cost nearly $42,000 to attend Harvard for the current academic year.

Read the rest here.

As a college professor, my classes are filled with top-caliber athletes: football players, baseball players, cheerleaders, and more. By far, the athletes with the most grueling training schedule are the rowers, especially the female athletes.

And unfortunately, they also, by far, had the worst athletic facilities available, with access only to a rotting boat house and a few hand weights.

The men's facilities were new and shiny, although their record was far below the females'.

The University of Cincinnati has finally recognized the worth of their women's rowing team, and has responded with a 650,000 award to build a new training site.

Unfortunately, it took a law suit by the women to force the school to recognize the unfair practices.

In their lawsuit, the women's crew team alleged that the university spends millions of dollars on equipment, staff and facilities for men's sports while shortchanging women's sports.

The rowers said the school was violating Title IX, the 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in any educational program receiving federal funds. They sought equipment and the construction of a boathouse, along with other, unspecified damages.
Still, this is a major victory for women's sports teams, that even today, receive shabby treatment when compared to men's sports.

What is it like at your school? Are all athletes treated equally and fairly?

(Photo Source: Villanova)

In the old days, students often narrowed their college choices to a few, or even one, college that they were passionate about. (In fact, I applied to only one place myself.)

These days, that's just not cutting it. Students are going for quantity, often applying to more than a dozen institutions, in the hopes of 'getting in somewhere.'

'Dream schools' are being traded in for 'any school.'

According to The New York Times, seniors a generation ago applied to three to five colleges. But now students trying to get into the most selective universities frequently apply to as many as a dozen, and the numbers are up for students applying to all types of institutions.

jeanette Rader, a guidance counselor at Fleming, said students apply to more colleges because schools are "harder to get in now, more competitive and more students are going to school."

Is this the best way to go? Or does this method reduce the college experience to simply one more task to complete? Are students missing out on a truly passionate education?

How many schools did you apply to?

(Photo Source: Lazy Students)

Everyone who had LSU, UCLA, Florida and george Mason as your Final Four raise your hand.

I'm waiting….

Put down that hand, liar.

An 11-seed in the Final Four. No one-seed, which hasn't happened since 1980. Favorites Connecticut, Duke, Villanova and Memphis are gone. Is this an aberration, or does parity rule?

The NCAA tournament produces plenty of upsets each year, but it's becoming harder to determine what constitutes an upset. If a 10-seed from a mid-major conference beats a seven-seed from a power conference, is that an upset? Technically yes, but it's not a shocker. Every tournament seems to produce a 12-seed win over a five-seed. This year it happened twice. Should we still be surprised?

Parity does rule. Talent is spread across more teams, and dominant programs no longer dominate. So expect upsets, but don't really consider them upsets. Just enjoy the tournament.

George Mason. Bracket-busters. So much for my UConn pick.

(Source: Kenyon College)

Meet the new minority group on campus: men.

Women now constitute 56 percent of college enrollments nationwide, causing admissions officials angst. What to do? According to a New York Times editorial, some colleges-particularly those where the gender balance isn't quite 50/50-give preferential treatment, however slight, to men. Call it a tiebreaker.

Read the editorial here, and then see Inside Higher Ed's take on the issue here.

(Source: University of Pennsylvania)

Following the lead of Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton and others, the University of Pennsylvania announced its new policy of replacing loans with grants for low-income families. Students from households making less than $50,000 will thus graduate debt-free.

You can read Penn's announcement here.

Many students do not realize that they will lose their financial aid if they are ever convicted of possessing or selling drugs: something that has happened to nearly 200,000 university students so far.

Recently, the group Students For Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) has teamed up
with the American civil liberties Union to fight this practice.

The groups offer many reasons why this law should be abolished, but perhaps the most compelling is the following:

Putting up roadblocks on the path to education does nothing to solve our nation's drug and crime problems; it only makes them worse. Forcing students convicted of drug charges to drop out of school makes them more likely to fall into drug abuse or commit crimes (thus becoming costly burdens on the criminal justice system) and less likely to become productive taxpaying citizens.

Anyone who would like to join in the effort to fight the policy, or would like to seek justice for having their financial aid taken away, can contact the group here.

What do you think? Should the current policy be changed, or is a drug conviction an offense serious enough for this kind of punishment?

(Source: UCLA)

Applying to college can be emotionally taxing. It can also be financially taxing, especially if you apply to several institutions. Such is increasingly the case, according to a New York Times article.

Here's a snippet:

A generation ago, high school seniors applied to three, four or five colleges. But now students aiming for the most selective universities frequently apply to as many as 10 or 12; a significant number of students, especially in the last three years or so, apply to many, many more, guidance counselors and college admissions officials said.

The growth of the common application, which more than 270 colleges accept, has contributed as well by making it easier to apply to a large number of institutions; so has an increase in the number of colleges that waive fees for online applications. Most colleges charge about $50 to $75 per application. And some students cast a wide net to increase their chances of snaring a substantial merit scholarship.

Read the rest here.

We've all suffered through those "Girls Gone Wild" video commercials, perhaps even dreading catching a glimpse of one of our students (or of ourselves!) in the promos. Many college women have regretted appearing in these videos, and lament that they would never 'normally' act that way.

Then when are the cameras catching this shocking behavior? Most often, it's during Spring Break.

Apparently, college women lower their inhibitions and are nearly 100% more likely to engage in promiscuous–even dangerous–behavior during this famed week of collegiate partying.

Alcohol and sex play a prominent and potentially dangerous role in spring break trips of college co-eds according to an American Medical Association (AMA) poll released today. Eighty-three percent of the respondents agreed spring break trips involve more or heavier drinking than occurs on college campuses and 74 percent said spring break trips result in increased sexual activity.

Women are fed up with the marketing tactics and images from the alcohol industry and spring break tour operators," said Dr. Hill. "Public health advocates should also be fed up since aggressive spring break marketing endangers the health and safety of college students."

Of course, men are just as likely to use this time as an excuse to go 'wild,' but it's women who most often pay the price, whether it's in the increased danger of rape, or the chance of finding their image in a porn-style video marketed to millions.

Many female students are fighting to change the perception, and experience, of Spring Break, with efforts ranging from sobriety contracts to spending the week developing charitable efforts rather than suntans.

With Spring Break just around the corner, it's time to consider exactly what the week means for students, both female and male. Is it a harmless time of silliness, or does it carry potential danger that should be realized?

(Photo Source: Panama City Beach)

(Source: Stanford University)

The rich may get richer, but the poor go free. That's the goal at Stanford, which has introduced a policy of waiving tuition for families making less than $45,000 annually. The move follows similar actions at Harvard and Princeton.

Consider:

Stanford University, worried about losing talented students to sticker shock, is eliminating tuition for undergraduates from the some of the lowest-income families.

"Many families…may be discouraged by the stated tuition, so we want to be more forceful with this new program in encouraging talented low-income students to consider Stanford," he said.

Read the rest here.