Mixed race students confront college admission dilemmas

Wow. As if college admissions decisions weren't difficult enough as it is:

At the beginning of the college application season last fall, Natasha Scott, a high school senior of mixed racial heritage in Beltsville, Md., vented about a personal dilemma on College Confidential, the go-to electronic bulletin board for anonymous conversation about admissions.

“I just realized that my race is something I have to think about,” she wrote, describing herself as having an Asian mother and a black father. “It pains me to say this, but putting down black might help my admissions chances and putting down Asian might hurt it.”

“My mother urges me to put down black to use AA” — African-American — “to get in to the colleges I’m applying to,” added Ms. Scott, who identified herself on the site as Clearbrooke. “I sort of want to do this but I’m wondering if this is morally right.”

Within minutes, a commenter had responded, “You’re black. You should own it.” Someone else agreed, “Put black!!!!!!!! Listen to your mom.”

No one advised marking Asian alone. But one commenter weighed in with advice that could just as well have come from any college across the country: “You can put both. You can put one. You’re not dishonest either way. Just put how you feel.”

Until this year, questions about race on most college applications were much simpler. A student who was white with a distant American Indian ancestor , for instance, would most likely have identified himself as white.

But students can now choose from a menu of new boxes of racial and ethnic categories — because the Department of Education started requiring universities this past school year to comply with a broad federal edict to collect more information about race and ethnicity. The change has made it easier for students to claim a multiracial identity — highlighting those parts of their backgrounds they might want to bring to the fore and disregarding others, as Ms. Scott considered doing with her Asian heritage.

So the number of applicants who identify themselves as multiracial has mushroomed, adding another layer of anxiety, soul- (and family-tree-) searching and even gamesmanship to the process.

The new options have forced colleges to confront thorny questions, including how to account for various racial mixes in seeking diversity on campus. Is a student applying as black and Latino more desirable in terms of diversity than someone who is white and black? Or white and Vietnamese? Should the ethnicities of one’s distant relatives be considered fair game, or just parents? And what should be done about students who skip the race question altogether — a sizable number of whom, some studies have shown, are white, and do so either in protest or out of fear that identifying as merely white could hurt rather than help their chances in this new environment?

Some scholars worry that the growth in multiracial applicants could further erode the original intent of affirmative action, which is to help disadvantaged minorities. For example, families with one black parent and one white parent are on average more affluent than families with two black parents. When choosing between two such applicants, some universities might lean toward the multiracial student because he will need less financial aid while still counting toward affirmative-action goals.

Read the whole thing.

The effect of the huge increase in multi-ethnicity students reaching their college admissions years is another thing I never really thought about from this perspective, although I did have a Nordic god of a step-cousin go to school as a Native American for free. But what about those whose ethnicity is Asian and African-American, as with the student in this article? Or how about a politician with a white mother and an African father who identifies (and is identified by others) as African-American?

And should it really even matter in college admissions?

Student sues counselor over college recommendation letter

Whoa. For those of us who teach high school, here's a reminder about how truly important those recommendation letters can be:

Shannon McCoy's collegiate future looked bright. As a swimmer with two state champion titles and a respectable 3.0 GPA at Lafayette High School, she received scholarship offers from several four-year institutions.

McCoy also received an award for the "highest standards of excellence that embody the Rockwood spirit" four times during her high school career.

But her plans were nearly scuttled by her own high school's guidance counselor, according to a lawsuit filed by her parents late last month.

Beth A. Brasel, the counselor, filled out a recommendation form addressed to Colorado State University describing McCoy as below average in five key areas - initiative, character, integrity, leadership and commitment to service.

The university pulled the scholarship, although it was later reinstated.

Mary McCoy, Shannon's mother, said the family has filed the suit in order to figure out what exactly went on in school's guidance counseling department.

"The reason we're pursuing this civil suit is because there are things we don't know what happened or why," she said.

Kim Kranston, chief communications officer of Rockwood school district, declined to comment, saying the district has not yet been served with the suit.

According to the suit:

Brasel had never met McCoy when she filled out the form.

After receiving the news of the rejection from Colorado State in March, McCoy found herself in a bind.

She had already turned down swimming scholarships from several other universities, including University of Nebraska and the University of North Carolina, after she signed an NCAA National Letter of Intent to accept the scholarship at Colorado State University in November 2009.

All the scholarships offered were based on McCoy's resume as a high school swimmer.

In addition to winning two state championships, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch named McCoy to its all-metro swimming team four times, twice to the first team. Lafayette High School also awarded McCoy Lancer Student Athlete awards three out of her four years at the school.

When McCoy signed the letter of intent, Colorado State University's athletic department issued a press release announcing McCoy's intent to swim for their university.

After receiving the news from Colorado State, McCoy and her parents spent three months unsuccessfully trying to find a suitable substitute.

A resolution finally came in June when Colorado State reversed their decision, accepting McCoy on a full athletic scholarship for the incoming class.

The university based their decision on documents filed by McCoy to appeal her initial rejection by the university.

Though McCoy will attend Colorado State in the fall with a swimming scholarship, her parents filed suit based on financial, emotion and psychological harm they claim they and McCoy suffered during her period of uncertainty.

Mary McCoy, who is not a lawyer, is representing her daughter in the lawsuit with the help of an out-of-state attorney who is a relative. The suit was filed against the school district, Brasel and John Shaughnessy, the principal of Lafayette High.

The suit claims that the guidance counseling department of Lafayette School conspired to bar McCoy from receiving her scholarship through submitting a "derogatory and inaccurate" recommendation form.

According to the suit, during the three-month time period between McCoy's rejection from Colorado State and the reversal of the decision, McCoy and her parents suffered direct and indirect consequential damages.

The suit seeks a total of $75,000 in compensatory damages, punitive damages and pre-and post-judgment interest.

"If the department procedures are found to be flawed, our main goal after finding out why this happened is to correct it so this doesn't happen again to any other student," Mary McCoy said.

The McCoys may get an attorney in the future, she said.

"There's so much we don't know," McCoy said. "We don't know where we're heading, as far as that goes. We haven't even thought that far in advance."

So as I read this, I wondered: what is the case law on this subject? And I found this discussion about the liability of counselors in giving erroneous advice here:

The complaint indicates that, as a direct result of receiving the recommendation form, the Colorado State University admissions office declined to admit Shannon to the university, leaving her without any other viable options for receiving a college scholarship to a four-year institution. In 2003, the Wisconsin Supreme Court applied governmental immunity to a guidance counselor sued by a student to whom the counselor had provided inaccurate information regarding student athlete scholarship eligibility requirements, causing the student to lose a four-year university scholarship. Scott v. Savers Property & Casualty Ins. Co., 663 N.W.2d 715 (Wis. 2003). Before Scott, the Iowa Supreme Court recognized a cause of action for educational malpractice by a student against a guidance counselor based on the counselor's negligent representation that a course would satisfy the National Collegiate Athletic Association's core course requirements for eligibility. As a result of the counselor's mistake, the student was ineligible, and his athletic scholarship was revoked. The court concluded that a school district can be held liable for educational malpractice just as an attorney can be liable for legal malpractice. Sain v. Cedar Rapids Comm. Sch. Dist., 626 N.W.2d 115 (Iowa 2001).]

So there's not much there about a teacher's (or counselor's) liability in filling out recommendation letters.

I write recommendation letters all the time. I work over them, writing each one very specifically. I have been told that some teachers use a boilerplate, but I think that is wrong and makes the whole recommendation letter pointless.

However, every so often there is a request from a kid that I cannot in all honesty recommend very highly. So I have been known to say no rather than lie or exaggerate.

Before I DO agree to write a recommendation letter, I ask the student to provide me with a college resume (our college counselor has all the kids who wish to go to college do this and a listing of the classes they've taken, since it has sometimes been a while since I had that student in class. I am very careful to be honest in filling out the recommendation on what is known as the "Common Application" that is used to attend many highly selective schools. One part of this form contains a survey of personal and academic qualities with a range of check-boxes running the gamut from "poor" to "one of the top students in my career" or something like that. In all of my time filling out these applications, I have checked that top box three times. All three kids were National Merit Finalists, yes, but also amazingly selfless peer helpers, active in their community, and deep thinkers and lovers of knowledge. These were kids who had their heads on straight and their hearts on fire. I cannot in good conscience check that box very often, no matter how "nice" a kid is.

I have no idea if what the counselor wrote was honest or a vendetta, of course, but I will say this: getting into a college or attaining a scholarship is serious business. If you are not willing to put in the time to write an honest yet positive recommendation, just say no when kids ask you. You'll be doing yourself a favor.

Banning basketball teams from post-season play for lacking enough students

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former professional basketball player in Australia, has suggested that NCAA men's basketball team that do not graduate at least 40% of their players should be banned from post-season play. From the New York Daily News: (And here's a link to his actual statement.)

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is urging the NCAA to ban from the Big Dance teams from schools that fail to graduate 40% of their basketball players. That's the right call.

According to a study released this week, 12 of the 64 schools in this year's tournament fail to meet that minimal benchmark - and many have an even more abysmal record on helping black players toward degrees.

At Maryland, No. 4 Midwest seed, just 8% of players graduate. Among black players, the number is a beyond-scandalous 0%.

At Baylor, No. 3 seed in the South regional, 36% graduate. Among black players, just 29%.

At Kentucky, many people's pick - including President Obama's - to get to the Final Four, 31% graduate. Among black players, just 18%.

With numbers like those, Kentucky wouldn't be in the tourney at all, if the President's own secretary of education has his way. And he should. These programs owe their players far better.

An institution of higher education's job is to prepare young people for the global workforce, not the neighborhood playground.

Yet, as NAACP President Benjamin Jealous pointed out in joining Duncan yesterday, the likes of Maryland (0% black basketball player graduation rate) and California (0%) and UNLV (13%) appear happy to exploit talented young people to generate a month-long bonanza of ratings and school spirit and revenue - but care far less that they complete their educations.

Some schools get it right. Marquette graduates all its white and black basketball players. So do Notre Dame and Wake Forest.

But others, to use Duncan's term, "use and dump" players. The result is that a tiny fraction make the NBA - and hundreds leave school without the skills necessary to build careers.

So turn on the tournament. Enjoy the upsets and last-second finishes. Good luck in your office pool. And just think, for a minute, about what happens to the kids when they leave the court.

Some go on to great things; others get hung out to dry. It doesn't have to be that way.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/03/18/2010-03-18_march_sanity.html#ixzz0ikfGpg5H

I read an article which included responses from some of the coaches who might suffer the most under this policy. One of my favorite responses by a coach BLAMED SECONDARY SCHOOLS in this country for the problem. Look, pal, you're the one who offered a college scholarship to a kid who was obviously unqualified to actually be a student on your campus, and you didn't care. All you wanted to do was win. This attitude would be fine if this was the minor leagues of the NBA and the athletes were getting paid. But that's not how it works. The NBA is spared the expense of running a developmental league on its own dime, and so they're happy. But colleges are, first of all, schools, and they should seek to accept the students who will actually be able to attend class and benefit from that experience by being able to earn a degree.

But it's not just college coaches who have things backwards. Someone I know was given a permission slip for a tournament by a student who was failing his class horribly. The teacher has a public policy of not signing permission slips for students who are failing. Now let's remember that usually it doesn't seem to matter what policies teachers actually have if they are inconvenient, and the teacher figured that probably the student would go to the tournament anyway. Instead, my colleague got a long email fusillade from this student's track coach, vehemently attacking him for denying this student a "chance at a college scholarship."

Let's get real: with a GPA of 1.5-- the required (and horrifyingly low) GPA to participate in sporting activities in the area-- and with the student failing not one but TWO classes required for graduation, the idea of a college scholarship at all seemed about as unlikely being struck on the head by a meteorite. What the coach was probably really mad about was that, if his athlete didn't go to the tournament, the coach might not have as many chances to win.

Did the coach care that the athlete was failing? Did the coach care that the student obviously wasn't preparing himself for this hypothetical college scholarship to be put to good use? No. And that is a real travesty.

So Secretary Duncan's proposal is a small but significant step in the right direction. Of course he's spitting into the wind of the money tree that is March Madness, but give him points for trying on this issue.

The SAT changes the rules again...

and again, colleges balk.

This March, high school juniors taking the SAT will have the option of choosing which scores to send to colleges while hiding those they do not want admissions officials to see.

Students in White Plains take an SAT prep course. A new policy will let students choose which scores to release to colleges.

The new policy is called Score Choice, and the College Board hopes it will reduce student stress around the SAT and college admissions.

But when it comes to college admissions, few things are ever simple. Some highly selective colleges have already said that they will not go along with Score Choice, and the policy is stirring heated debate among high school counselors and college admissions officials.

Some argue that it is really a marketing tool, intended to encourage students to take the test more often. Others say that, contrary to the College Board’s goal, the policy will aggravate the testing frenzy and add yet another layer of stress and complexity to applying to college.

“In practice, it will add more anxiety, more confusion, more testing for those who can afford it and more coaching,” said Brad MacGowan, a college counselor at Newton North High School in suburban Boston and a longtime critic of the College Board and standardized testing.

Many students take the SAT more than once, and the College Board automatically sends colleges the scores of every SAT test a student takes.

Under Score Choice, students can choose their best overall SAT sitting to send to colleges, but they will not be able to mix and match scores from different sittings. (Each sitting includes tests in critical reading, mathematics and writing, with a top score of 800 in each area.)

There is no additional charge if a student selects Score Choice, which also applies to SAT subject tests, formerly called SAT II and given in areas like history, sciences and languages.

Score Choice is not a new concept. From 1993 to 2002, students were allowed to take as many SAT subject tests as they wanted and to report only their best scores to the colleges they applied to.

In ending that policy in 2002, the College Board said that some students who had stored their scores had forgotten to release them and missed admissions deadlines. It also said that ending Score Choice would be fairer to low-income and minority students, who did not have the resources to keep retaking the tests.

Now, the College Board sees things differently.

“It simply allows students to put their best foot forward,” said Laurence Bunin, a senior vice president with the College Board.

With Score Choice, Mr. Bunin said, students can “feel very comfortable going into the test center because, goodness forbid, if for whatever reason they don’t feel comfortable, it won’t be on their permanent record forever.”

William R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions at Harvard, shares that view.

“In some respect,” Mr. Fitzsimmons said, “Score Choice will help defuse some of the pressure and give students a sense that not everything is riding on the tests, which really is the case.”

But Jerome A. Lucido, the vice provost for enrollment policy and management at the University of Southern California, said, “Students will like it because they’ll have a sense of control, but my sense is that it’s not worth the trade-off in terms of complexity and more gamesmanship.”

A major concern has to do with how colleges will handle Score Choice.

Admissions officials at some highly selective colleges — the University of Southern California, Stanford, Claremont McKenna and the University of Pennsylvania, among others — have said that, Score Choice or not, they want all the scores — from the SAT and the ACT.

It is in the students’ best interest to send all scores, these officials say, because their practice is to combine the highest subscores from all of the score reports.

“Our plan is to first tell students to relax,” said Bruce Poch, vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College. “The habit here is like many colleges, which is to see it all, but consider for admission purposes the highest individual score.”

Gary Meunier, a counselor at Weston High School, in Weston, Conn., said one reason he favored Score Choice was that while he believed that most schools did look at the highest subscores, he had also seen schools rule out students with any scores below 500.

“Some kids, their performance in the classroom far exceeds the way they perform on standardized tests,” Mr. Meunier said. With Score Choice, “they get a couple more shots at it,” he said. “For those kids, they take it with a little less anxiety. At one test, if they blow it, no one’s going to see it.”

Some critics of the new policy note that the SAT’s main rival, the ACT, which has been drawing increasing numbers of test takers, has long had a de facto Score Choice policy.

“Was this a student-centered decision?” said Richard H. Shaw, dean of admissions at Stanford, referring to the College Board’s reason for introducing Score Choice. “Or was it business-centered because they’re worried about losing market share?”

Mr. Shaw added that he was equally opposed to the ACT’s de facto Score Choice. “I don’t want to give them any credit whatsoever,” he said. “I think they started this.”

Score Choice was developed in response to student demand, Mr. Bunin said. “The students were clear,” he said. “They thought that having some control over their scores would reduce their stress.”

The College Board surveyed more than 3,000 high school students from a range of income groups and ethnicities, Mr. Bunin said. It also surveyed 700 counselors from a diverse group of high schools across the country, and 70 percent favored Score Choice, he said.

But other counselors, as well as admissions officials, have expressed concern that the policy will give affluent students who can afford to take the SAT many times an even greater advantage.

Among the questions being asked about how Score Choice will work is this one: What if a student opts for Score Choice and tries to apply it to a college that requires all the scores?

Mr. Poch of Pomona said: “My own view is that tests are a transcript. I don’t get to choose which grades appear on a transcript any more than I get to suppress a driving record from an insurance company.”

I don't know. What do you think?

College: the great gatekeeper

As a mother, I feel the anxiety building, and this is years away for us, which makes it all the worse, if you consider the trends.

An independent report on American higher education flunks all but one state when it comes to affordability — an embarrassing verdict that is unlikely to improve as the economy contracts.

The biennial study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, which evaluates how well higher education is serving the public, handed out Fs for affordability to 49 states, up from 43 two years ago. Only California received a passing grade in the category, a C, thanks to its relatively inexpensive community colleges.

The report card uses a range of measurements to give states grades, from A to F, on the performance of their public and private colleges. The affordability grade is based on how much of the average family's income it costs to go to college.
Almost everywhere, that figure is up, according to the survey. Only two states — New York and Tennessee — have made even minimal improvements since 2000, but they're still considered to be failing. Everywhere else, families must fork over a greater percentage of their income to pay for college. In Illinois, the average cost attending a public four-year college has jumped from 19 percent of family's income in 1999-2000 to 35 percent in 2007-2008, and in Pennsylvania, from 29 percent to 41 percent. Low-income families have been hardest hit. Nationally, enrollment at a local public college costs families in the top fifth of income just 9 percent of their earnings, while families from the bottom fifth pay 55 percent — up from 39 percent in 1999-2000.

And that's after accounting for financial aid, which is increasingly being used to lure high-achieving students who boost a school's reputation, but who don't need help to go to college. The problem seems likely to worsen as the economy does, said Patrick Callan, the center's president. Historically during downturns, "states make disproportionate cuts in higher education and, in return for the colleges taking them gracefully, allow them to raise tuition," Callan said. "If we handle this recession like we've handled others, we will see that this gets worse."

Scott Cristal of Columbia, Mo., said he wasn't surprised by the study's findings. Cristal, who has sent two daughters to college and has another two yet to pay for, said that he is trying to expand his business to help pay the tuition bills, but that it's been hard because of the slowing economy.

"We're going to play it by ear, be optimistic, hope for the best and just ride it out as best we can," Cristal said. "I think that's what everybody in America's doing right now."

States fared modestly better in other categories such as participation, where no state failed and about half the states earned As or Bs — comparable to the report two years ago. One reason for the uptick is that more students are taking rigorous college-prep courses, the study found. In Texas, for instance, the percentage of high schoolers taking at least one upper-level science course has nearly tripled from 20 percent to 56 percent.

But better preparation for college hasn't translated into better enrollment or completion, with only two states — Arizona and Iowa — receiving an A for participation in higher education.

And the discrepancy in enrollment between states is still great: Forty-four percent of young Iowans are in college, while just 18 percent of their counterparts in Alaska — one of three states to get an F in the category — are enrolled.Callan said the United States is at best standing still while other countries pass it in areas like college enrollment and completion. And as higher education fails to keep up with population growth, the specter lurks of new generations less educated than their Baby Boomer predecessors.

"The educational strength of the American population is in the group that's about to retire," Callan said. "In the rest of the world it's the group that's gone to college since 1990."

The credit crunch is certainly going to affect the number of families who will be willing -- or able-- to mortgage their lives to send their children to college. I wonder if anyone in higher education has thought of that?

And now: the "Pre-college" Program

This seems fascinating, via the New York Times:

WHEN Jeremy Grant of Roslyn, N.Y., was 16, he decided not to return for another summer of sleep-away camp, opting instead for a precollege program at U.C.L.A. In the mornings he took courses in SAT prep and public speaking; in the afternoons he hopped on a van to the beach, a museum, or a TV game show.

“It was the best summer of my life,” recalled Mr. Grant, now a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. “It boosted my confidence to learn that I could get along on my own.”

At winter fairs in high schools around the country, precollege summer programs are now being pitched to teens and parents, many of whom see these “taste-of-college-life” programs as a vital part of the college planning process. Recession or not, interest in these programs, which can run as high as $7,800 for six weeks (excluding airfare), is intense, with many programs fully booked by early spring.

When it started offering precollege programs in 1986, Summer Discovery, which organized Mr. Grant’s trip, sent just 170 students to U.C.L.A. Last year, the Long Island-based company had programs at 10 universities (three overseas), with more than 2,000 high school students participating.

Another company, Summer Study Programs of Melville, N.Y., sent 150 students to Penn State University when it began a precollege program there in 1992; this past year 600 attended the program, which includes college courses taught by accredited professors, Kaplan SAT prep classes and organized leisure activities. The company also has added programs in Paris and Boulder, Colo. Precollege programs let students choose classes that, in some cases, give them college credits — and dress up a college admissions application. Students stay in dorms, use college gyms and dining halls. Perhaps best of all, to hear teens tell it, they live and travel without parents or camp counselors lording it over them.

“We let 15- and 16-year-olds operate more like young adults,” said Bob Musiker, executive director of Summer Discovery (888-878-6637; www.summerfun.com), adding that the responsibilities involved in a precollege program (picking courses, doing laundry) and the diverse mix of participants in the programs (like a “mini-United Nations”) widen students’ horizons.

“This is college but college on training wheels,” said Jason Lubar, executive director of American Collegiate Adventures (800-509-7867; www.acasummer.com) of Chicago, which offers a precollege program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison that starts at $2,795 for two weeks and goes up to $6,795 for six weeks. While students may choose courses taught by university professors and mingle with college students on a big campus in a colorful college town, there is still a higher level of supervision to ensure safety.

Precollege programs also benefit the university at a time when the college is open for summer session but when facilities are underutilized, said David Black, academic program manager at the University of Wisconsin. “These programs showcase Wisconsin as a first-class university,” he said. He added that they may also generate admissions applications from out-of-staters.

Read the whole thing.

Here in the Land Between the Coasts, we're always the last to hear about anything that isn't featured on American Idol. This thing seems like a cash cow for the schools, and yet another chance for students to test their wings, although the price definitely puts it out of reach for most students I know. I am sure students of more modest means would benefit greatly from programs like this.

An intriguing theory regarding the spiralling cost of college

Could our country decrease the number of H-1B visas if college were more affordable? Here's the theory from Jim Rapoza:

Now that the U.S. Congress is in session, we are once again seeing a push by the major technology companies to get an expansion to the H-1B visa program. As always, we are hearing the same complaint that America isn't producing enough qualified engineers and computer scientists to fill the needs of major American companies.

In the past I argued that it seemed crazy to say that there aren't enough technology workers available, when every one of us knows a few highly skilled technology workers who are either unemployed or underemployed.

But I do agree with the technology companies on one point. America isn't producing enough new qualified technology workers. And the main culprit is our failing higher education system.

I personally know a young man who is currently working toward an accelerated bachelor's and master's degree in engineering. An honors student in high school, he is currently in his sophomore year at a state school where he is maintaining grades consistently above a 3.5 average.

So far, so good. Sounds like a perfect future candidate for those desperate tech firms. But this year he seriously considered dropping out of the program and may face a similar decision next year.

What's the problem? As a middle-class kid living at home with his single mom, he can barely afford to continue at the state college he is attending.

Sure, as an honors student he received a decent number of scholarships. And he gets a good amount of student loans. But the scary thing now is that even at a state school, this young man is facing a bill well over $12,000 per semester. With the scholarships barely making a dent in this bill, by the time he gets his master's he could be facing a student loan debt over $100,000.

This boggles the mind. Twenty years ago I attended a private university for much less than this. And at that time friends of mine attending these same state schools paid very little per semester and left college with almost no student loan debt.

How could things have changed so much? The state school system was supposed to be the path to success for the middle class. Now they can't afford to attend without mortgaging their future. It would be one thing if salaries had grown similarly, but a kid getting out of college today isn't making that much more in initial salary than those who graduated in 1990.

And, oh yeah, it doesn't escape the notice of this young man that a majority of his professors come from overseas, where in the vast majority of cases they attended college for free. Can you believe that we are raising a generation of bright kids who sit around wishing they had been born in another country so they could get an education in the field that they love?

I look at the amount of money that some of these technology firms are putting into pushing to get H-1B visas expanded (and to expand their own presence in other countries) and I wonder what that money could do if it were redirected to help the future technologists of America.

How many kids who are now thinking about leaving could finally get their degrees without the fear of crushing debt? How many future technologists who have given up on even attending college could feel safer making the decision to get a science degree?

In a recent statement in support of expanding H-1B visas, Roger Cochetti of the Computing Technology Industry Association said, "It's all part of keeping America competitive."

Well, I'm sorry, but when it comes to keeping America competitive, the key battle isn't in letting in more smart people from other countries; it's in making sure that the future smart people from here don't end up getting left behind.

Amen. When I went to a private university in the 1980s, with the help of loans and scholarships, I managed to eke out a degree even though we were a one-income working class family. It really wasn't a question of not being able to afford college, since I had also been accepted at three state schools that were rolling in oil money. Now I see my students facing the prospect of 10 times as much debt as I accumulated just to go to a regional university.

Most of the pressure seems to be states cutting back on their support of higher education in their budgets, or at least that's what the officials at these colleges claim. It's ridiculous. A state that cuts back on education soon finds itself short of educated workers.

It's elementary.

The Admissions Squeeze: Bridesmaid Schools Benefit

Ever heard of the phrase, "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride?" Apparently the continued fallout from the Common Application has caused acceptance rates at Ivies to fall, but has made some "safety schools" the beneficiaries of a boomlet. From the Alan Finder of the New York Times:

Lehigh University has never been as sought after as Stanford, Yale or Harvard. But this year, awash in applications, it churned out rejection letters and may break more hearts when it comes to its waiting list.

Call them second-tier colleges (a phrase some administrators despise) or call them the new Ivies (this, they can live with). A swath of 25 to 40 universities like Lehigh, traditionally perceived as being a notch below the most elite, have seen their cachet climb because of the astonishing competitive crush at the top.

“It’s harder to get into Bowdoin now than it was to get into Princeton when I worked there,” said William M. Shain, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me., who worked at Princeton in the 1970s, which is one of those benefiting from the spillover as the country’s most prestigious colleges turn away nearly 9 out of 10 applicants.

At Lehigh, known for its strength in engineering and business, about 12,000 students applied this year. That is a whopping 50 percent increase in applications over seven years ago and more than 10 times the seats available in a freshman class of 1,150. The median SAT score of admitted students has climbed about 10 points a year in recent years, officials said.

Students have generally been quicker to adapt to the new realities than parents have been, many guidance counselors said.

“My sense is that parents are a lot more concerned with how the name is going to look to neighbors and family members, and there is a real sense among parents that it’s almost embarrassing if your child has to settle for a lower-level school,” said Carolyn Lawrence, a private college counselor and the author of a blog, AdmissionsAdvice.com.

Some students who might have readily won admission to Lehigh, Middlebury College, Colgate University, Pomona College, Emory University or New York University just a few years ago are now relegated to waiting lists, left to confront the long odds that an offer of admission might materialize over the next month.

John Dunham, a senior at the private Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., had trained his sights on Bucknell University and Lafayette College. He was rejected by Bucknell and put on the waiting list at Lafayette. His college counselor pushed him toward Kenyon College in Ohio, or, as the counselor put it, “the Williams of the Midwest.”

But Mr. Dunham, a solid student who played football and baseball in high school, decided to play baseball on an athletic scholarship at Central Connecticut State.

“People are definitely broadening their horizons, because it’s gotten so competitive,” Mr. Dunham said.

The logjam is the result of supply and demand. The number of students graduating from high school has been increasing, and the preoccupation with the top universities, once primarily a Northeastern phenomenon, has become a more national obsession. High-achieving students are also applying to more colleges than they used to, primarily because of uncertainty over where they will be admitted.

Supply, however, has remained constant. Most of the sought-after universities have not expanded their freshman classes. The result, said Jonathan Miller, a senior at Mamaroneck High School in suburban Westchester County, N.Y., is that many classmates perceive institutions like Tufts University, Bowdoin, the University of Rochester and Lehigh in a new light. “I would say that high school students are looking more and more at these schools,” he said, “the way they used to look at the Ivies.”

An A student with good SAT scores, Mr. Miller said that he considered applying to Brown University, among others, but that his guidance counselor discouraged him, emphasizing the tough odds. Mr. Miller decided instead to apply early admission to Tufts, and by December, had been accepted. He said he was delighted.

Some students who have accepted offers from these colleges were rejected by the most prestigious universities. Others, keenly aware of the extreme competition at the top, decided at the outset to focus on colleges more likely to admit them.

“I’m sure part of what we’re seeing is people are saying, ‘Well, if the Ivies and Duke are inaccessible, where do I go to get a similar academic experience?’ ” said Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions and financial aid at Rochester.

There are other reasons, too, why these colleges and universities find their stock climbing. To position themselves in the fiercely competitive market, they have hired stronger faculty; built new libraries, science complexes, dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories; and created international programs and interdisciplinary majors. Many have also sought to transform themselves from regional institutions to national ones, recruiting across the country.

At Middlebury, applications have increased by 1,000 in each of the last two years; nearly 7,200 students applied this year, compared with 5,200 in 2005. At Kenyon, about 4,600 students applied this year, while 2,000 did six years ago. Colgate received 8,752 applications this year, compared with 5,852 a decade ago.

And at the University of Vermont, a state institution, nearly 19,000 applications poured in this year, compared with 7,400 seven years ago. Many of the most prestigious public universities like Michigan and Virginia have also become much more selective, especially for out-of-state applicants.

The academic profile of students enrolling at these colleges is improving, based on average SAT scores and other data.

“We’re getting a remarkably gifted group of students,” said Gerard P. Lennon, associate dean in the college of engineering and applied sciences at Lehigh, who has taught at the university for 27 years. The median SAT score in the combined verbal and math parts of the test is now 1,320 out of 1,600. (That is not counting the writing section of the test.)

But the spillover at the second level has also created its own spillover; some students who not long ago would have won admission to these colleges no longer are.

The admission rate at Pomona, in Claremont, Calif., was about 15 percent this spring; it was 38 percent 20 years ago. Bowdoin’s rate was 18.5 percent this year and 32 percent eight years ago. At Lehigh, 31 percent were accepted this spring, compared with 47 percent in 2001.

High school guidance counselors have become the reality instructors, encouraging students and parents to think more broadly about colleges.

“Now a kid who is applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton is also applying to the Lehighs and Lafayettes,” said Brett Levine, director of guidance at Madison High School in New Jersey. “It’s the same tier, basically.”

Several of my current and former students have had this experience. The "wait-list" has become the bane of their existence, and there has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Here's what I tell kids: don't just be swayed by a name. Think about what you really want. When I graduated from high school, I knew I wanted a private university with a personal touch. So even though I had been admitted to Big State U and State Party School (where most of my friends were going), I went with something smaller (and unfortunately more expensive), but I think I still reap the rewards of my experience there to this day. A lot of my students want to go to the Local Overpriced Wannabe Ivy that my husband attended for grad school, but frankly, it's just not worth the money.

Don't be swayed by a name. Think about where you will bloom and be challenged. That's my advice for college.

It's that time of year when kids (and teachers) are losing it

Is it spring? Already? Must be-- the temperature just jumped an average of forty degrees around here. Therefore, a few friendly public service announcements from your harried local high school teacher:

1. Rejection and acceptance letters from colleges are arriving in mailboxes all over the country. Genuine anguish and elation will ensue. Beware of this season, and if you know any high school seniors, treat each of them solicitously like a bear with a sore paw until the all clear is blown in May. Listen for, as Inigo Montoya so aptly put it, "the sound of ultimate suffering" being emitted from a teenager near you, and respond with kleenex and double mocha lattes. Or chocolate.

2. Senioritis has blossomed like a mushroom cloud over many a school building. Pranks are in the works. If you teach in a rural area, consider this your greased-pig alert-- it's probably the only one you will get from a reliable source. Other unfortunate farm creatures who may get swept into the maelstrom include cows, who will go up stairs but resist going down stairs; horses, which actually are just furry containers to temporarily hold then emit enormous amounts of "numbers one and two" upon pristine hallway floors; and chickens, who apparently have wings for no reason whatsoever except to fry them and coat them in a yummy sauce consisting of "El Muerte" hot sauce and butter. If you teach in a more urban setting, the kids will still probably try to procure the barnyard animals, or set loose snakes in the building, or mice. The mind reels.

3. Advanced placement tests will begin to be given the first week of May. An enormous sigh of relief will be issued all across the country which may accelerate global warming on May 11. Hopefully this breath will not reek of numerous double mocha lattes with a shot of motor oil from QuikTrip.

4. It is also NCLB testing time. My kids' elementary school has now offered eight-- EIGHT!!-- parents' meetings about these dread invaders from the state department of education.

To misquote a famous poem (apologies to William Carlos Williams, and indeed all English majors everywhere):

so much depends
upon
a magic test score
or letter

glazed with portent
and rainwater

beside the white
chickens.

(Who've been
traumatized
by the senior
class.)



You have been warned.

Getting homeschoolers into college just got easier

One of the biggest hurdles homeschoolers have faced in some areas is getting into college. But some colleges have started to make it easier:

David Sample wanted to attend the University of California, Riverside but thought it was a lost cause because he had been homeschooled.

The UC system is known for being tough on nontraditionally schooled applicants. For them, the best tickets to UC have been transferring in after taking community college classes or posting near-perfect scores on college entrance exams.
"For homeschoolers, it was basically a shut door for us because of the restrictions," Sample said.
Last fall, however, Riverside joined a growing number of colleges around the country that are revamping application policies to accommodate homeschooled students.

The change came just in time for the 18-year-old Sample to apply and get accepted with a substantial scholarship.

Under Riverside's new policy, homeschoolers can apply by submitting a lengthy portfolio detailing their studies and other educational experiences.

Sample's package showed he had studied chemistry, U.S. history and geometry, rewired a house and helped rebuild a medical clinic in Nicaragua.

The U.S. Department of Education reports that 1.1 million, or 2.2 percent of all students in the nation, are homeschooled.

Some private colleges have eagerly recruited those students for years and tailored application processes to include them. Homeschoolers still face challenges when applying to many public universities, but their chances of being considered are improving.

In 2000, 52 percent of all colleges in the country had a formal evaluation policy for applications from homeschoolers, said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Four years later, the number jumped to 83 percent. During that time, 45 percent of colleges reported receiving more applications from homeschoolers, he said.

Major schools that now post application procedures for homeschooler [sic] on their Web sites include Michigan State University, Oregon State University and the University of Texas.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is also willing to consider homeschoolers. The highly regarded school does not require a high school diploma. As part of its admissions process, it considers scores from college entrance exams and asks applicants to submit a 500-word essay, detail five extracurricular activities and offer two teacher evaluations.

"We evaluate every student based on who they are," said Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at MIT.

UC Riverside is actively recruiting homeschoolers, said Merlyn Campos, interim director of undergraduate admissions.

"There are a lot of students out there that are very prepared for a college level education," she said. "They are kind of being forced into going into a community college."

As leery as I am of some homeschooling arrangements, having seen some that were covers for neglect of children and some that never ensured any sort of literacy, I have seen others that have done an admirable job. We have seen homeschoolers acquit themselves admirably in the National Spelling Bee and National Geography Bee, as well as to write wonderful books such as this or this.

Students who demonstrate qualifications should be admitted to college, and it is obvious that young Mr. Sample has had a rich and varied educational background. I hope these young homeschoolers are able to transition into the regimentation of the college classroom and enrich our country with their talents.