Ever notice what dominates media coverage of higher education? Does the media highlight curricular innovations, scientific breakthroughs, promising faculty research or student achievements? Not much. Instead, we see two principal themes recurring endlessly: Who gets in, and what should they pay?

Take these recent stories for example. First we have a frontal attack on legacy admissions. Texas A&M decided that this strategy is discriminatory and eliminated legacy status as a favorable category. Just how many A&M students actually benefited from this practice? I have no idea, but suffice it to say that on a campus of 44,000 students, giving such an "advantage" to a relative handful would not tip the diversity balance out of whack.

Next is yet another bashing of the SAT. Pitzer College in California no longer requires scores from applicants with a GPA over 3.5 and a class rank in the top 10 percent. Can't we just agree to accept this test—any standardized test—as one variable among many, or to eliminate such a measure altogether? Constant tinkering is getting us nowhere. But again, we obsess over the SAT because, to some extent, it determines who gets in.

And here's one that combines "who gets in?" with "what should they pay?". Yes, college costs are out of control, but as I pointed out in an earlier post, most people have limited and therefore erroneous views of what colleges cost and what families actually pay. The headlines persist nonetheless.

For a more balanced perspective on college costs and financial aid, visit studentmoneytips.com. You'll find good advice that cuts through much of the hyperbole the media continually feeds us.

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