College Location

Shawn Roberts

A large part of choosing a college for students is the location of the school. This doesn’t just apply to how far a student wants to live from home either. There are many different kinds of locations a school can be in. There’s college towns which are basically a small city that is built around a college like Eugene, Oregon and the University of Oregon (a commonly used definition is a city with under 250,000 residents). Colleges can also be nearly intertwined with the city such as the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A third kind are rural colleges that seem to be placed in the middle of nowhere and seem to be the entire city like Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi.

Which of these is the best location for a college though? In her article “The Best places in the U.S. for college students" Mariah Brill addresses what factors should be considered. Some of these factors include cost of living of the surrounding area, the job market in the city, diversity, and of course social activities. One of the points made in the article is that no matter how good of a college someone goes to, their job opportunities just won’t be the same if they go to a rural college. She also says that living in a city with high costs of living usually translates into a higher starting salary for the newly graduated students.

In the end it comes down to what one wants to do with their lives upon graduating from college. If the job that you plan on working tends to be urban based, an urban college is probably a good choice.

Is Studying Enough?

Hunter Hammond

According to USA Today, in a survey of 33,000 first year college students about 70% of students reported drinking alcohol on a weekly basis; of that 70% another 49.4% reported spending more time drinking than studying during the academic week. This data puts a new perspective on how many hours students spend on studying for classes.

Many students spend the recommended time working and studying in college and do well; however, at the same time many other students are not so fortunate. Some students go above and beyond what is recommended and do not fare well at all; whereas, some students (such as the students cited to drink more than study) are able to handle the work load despite the strained time commitment.

This poses the question: Is studying enough? Do students succeed in college by merely studying, or is there something that has been overlooked. Historically, and in the poll by USA Today, it is assumed that drinking and lack of hours spent studying leads to failure (or lack of success) in college. CollegeBoard, a student resource site, quotes that college is comparable to a full time job and that it takes at least 40 hours of concentrated work in order to succeed.

What makes students succeed in college? What is the key? If students are able to spend so much time drinking, then where does the study time come in?

Too big

Brandon Carter

Although many believe that large classes are the best way to get the most students in front of the best teachers, this isn’t the case. According to Carl Wieman, who won the 2001 Nobel Prize as a physicist at Colorado, such successes are rare. Many students end up distracted by someone around them or get bored by the teacher.

For example, in classes of this size, it is difficult to hold the attention of students due to the fact that there are so many students. When you get a large number of students in one place it makes it much more difficult for the professor to keep his audience engaged in what he is teaching. Most of the time professors end up teaching to only a small portion of the class.

In addition in the USA Today an article by Justin Pope of the Associated Press discussed what some teachers are doing to try and help students. Some teachers try to depend solely upon technology to help them focus their student’s attention upon the lecture. While many times this technique ends up with students who are more distracted by the technology than helped by it, sometimes students are helped. For example, some teachers at the University of Colorado are finding that by incorporating technologies such as a clicker, a remote used to answer multiple choice questions posed during the lecture, they can now know when students grasp the concept and when they need additional teaching. Large classes may not be the best answer at this point and time, but with effort by colleges and teachers, this may one day change.

College Costs Keep Rising

David Diaz


An article by Tamar Lewin in the New York Times called “College Costs Keep Rising, Reports Said” gives various reasons for the exponential increase in college tuition. The main culprit for this increase, according to Lewin, is the current state of the economy. However, Lewin does not account for the increase in college tuition during economic prosperity in the early part of this century.

Lewin states that the government, particularly the state government, subsidizes colleges. This works great when the government has the money to put into the education system, but when the government is in debt, funding for education is one of the first items that is cut. This forces colleges to find money elsewhere in order to satisfy their budget, and the only other place to find money is the students. In other words, colleges are forced to increase the cost of tuition in order to compensate for the lack of funding provided by the government.

Lewin makes a valid point, except that college tuition has continued to increase through both economic recession and prosperity. If Lewin’s model were completely correct, than tuition should have either remained the same or decreased during economic prosperity. On the contrary, tuition continued to rise through both recession and prosperity, meaning that Lewin did not account for some factors. The factors that Lewin left out were inflation and the growth of colleges. First, inflation has been present in the United States during both recession and prosperity. It causes the price of living to increase. This basically means that inflation causes the price of everything to increase including a college education. Second, more people attend colleges every year. This implies that colleges must expand to accommodate more people. Basically, colleges have to build new buildings every year to provide enough housing, food, and education as well as hire more faculty to service the new buildings and teach the new students. Essentially, colleges must spend more money every year to provide enough space for the influx of students. The extra spending each year is then multiplied by the increase of cost due to inflation. Because of inflation and need for colleges to increase spending every year, the cost of colleges increases every year and the debt is passed on to the students.

Although Lewin makes an extremely valid point in that the poor economy has caused governments to reduce funding for education. This causes colleges to pass the cost of education on to the students by means of increasing tuition. However, Lewin does not mention that colleges spend more money each year due to inflation and the need to expand. With the cost of colleges increasing and the government’s capacity to subsidize colleges decreasing, tuition increases can be expected for a long time to come.

Teachers Need Teaching

Jamie Signorile

Many Universities today are motivated by many different things. Many need to uphold the research aspect of their institutions. This results in schools recruiting great researchers. Yet, many people have not seen the trouble in recruiting good researchers, not all of them can teach.

According to a New York Times article, the government is noticing the quality of teaching has been below average lately. Many teachers say that they have not received the right training they need to deal with students. This might be due to the fact that when research institutions recruit teachers, they require them to research a certain amount of time and usually teach for a small amount of time. Most professors are not told to concentrate on teaching. The stress on each is for research. According to Richard M. Felder, a professor at North Carolina State University, he states that professors do not need much preparation to teach courses. In fact, he says that most do not receive teaching preparation and teach according to his or her knowledge of the course and required text. He argues that teachers are not just born, yet they must all acquire the skills they need to accurately present information to students.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says that most of the universities in this country are doing a below par job in preparing their professors for teaching in classrooms. This is alarming and it is effecting the way students are experience their education. Research is wonderful ,yet not every professor can have the skills to deliver vital information to students.

mediocre college education

Richard Zhang

College is supposed to prepare a student for a future career in his or her chosen field. However, some schools such as the school of Education in various universities does not prepare future teachers for the 21st Century classrooms. A NYTimes article presents that even the College of Education in the prestigious Columbia University produce mediocre teachers. “hundreds of teachers who complained that they did not get enough practical training with classroom behaviors, particularly with poor students.” Many Universities uses the College of Education as a “cash cow” the College of Education is cheap and easy to run with high enrollments. There are certain teaching programs that help prepare the teachers such as Teach for America. However only a fraction of the teachers participate.

The goal of a secondary education is to produce young men and women for a role in society. What use is a secondary education that you wouldn't even be able to use to hold down a job? The point of a secondary education is so that it will help a graduate to hold down a job. Not to give money to Universities. This should be especially true for the college of education where they spark the interests of our children. Universities are a place for exploration of learning and providing society with alumni that will help society progress. Not to steal its students' money.

What kind of college makes the happiest students?

College can be one of the happiest times of a person’s life. What makes a happy college student though? Is it the type of college that they go to, or maybe the major that a student chooses? The Princeton review rated the ten happiest schools in the country. There was no common theme to these schools, the list included public schools as well as private, and Ivy League schools as well as party schools.

The Princeton review also has a list of the unhappiest students, in 2001 Georgia Tech was rated the second unhappiest in the country. The first thought that comes to mind is maybe because it is a Technical schools that is majority male population the students are unhappy. However, very similar demographics are represented at the Franklin W. Olin college of Engineering and that school is ranked sixth on the happiest college students list in the country. That shows that it can’t be the major that a student chooses or the type of college.

The common denominator among schools ranked on the happiest list is the campus life. Students attending the top ten colleges have mostly said that with a high priority on academic excellence at their school there is also a lot more to it. Tradition plays a big part in this happiness as well. The average year of establishment for these colleges is 1856 so it is obvious that tradition is something that all of these colleges have. So what it comes down to when looking for the college that has the happiest students has nothing to do with what major one chooses or the type of college they a person attends. What it really comes down to is the college tradition. This is something that every college needs.

The Key to College: Building Strong and Lasting Relationships

Hunter Hammond


College is a completely different experience from high school; the dynamics of life, relationships, school, and personal life all are changed or modified. Students are changed in college and tested in ways maybe never thought possible. Many students struggle with this change and face the possibility of failing in college due to the level of unfamiliarity.

Kansas State published a comprehensive list which illustrates the signs of well adjusted and mal-adjusted students. Among the mal-adjusted students, it can be observed that an abundance of stress, too much partying, isolation, poor attendance and frequent visits back home are all evident. For well adjusted students, the reverse is seen and strong relationships are cited as the reasoning behind the well adjusting. With this being stated, it can be inferred that a key to success in college stems from having a strong, reliable, group of friends.

Once a student leaves home (for the most part) a steady support system is lost; family, old friends, community, and more are taken away from the equation. The student enters a new world by him/herself with no idea of what to expect. It is imperative for that student to become adjusted to this new life and to find a way to establish a support system, or else it can be easy to slip into despair.



An article from the University of Michigan goes into detail about relationships between students and their roommates. It is cited in the article that students who become friends with their roommates show an increase in confidence and involvement. This is the first step in becoming well adjusted to a college social life and in turn a collegiate life.

For clarification purposes, imagine a student who is struggling with a certain class. This student does not act social, does not leave his room, does not talk to his roommate, does not care about anything outside his sphere of influence. If this student was to do poorly in school or feel upset for being away from home, then who does he have to turn to? Who can this student rely on when things are going rough? The answer is no one.

On the other hand, if there is a student who does have a strong network of "good" (as in not questionable for their integrity) friends, then this student is likely to have a support system to fall back on when life gets hard. This is the key to tackling college life: make relationships, be sociable, enjoy life and the people in your life.

Over stressed

Brandon Carter

Although many students are able to find methods to cope and help them handle stress, there are others that struggle to find the balance between college life and relaxation. Sometimes these struggles cause students to turn to self-destructive things such thoughts of suicide. According to an article by USA Today, over fifty-percent of students in the study admitted to having contemplated committing suicide. Although many times these thoughts are simply brief thoughts with no real value, there are other times where this can be a dangerous problem.

Even though most colleges have strategies for support in place, such as counselors to offer support and guidance to students, they help only if they are willing to come forward with their problems. The lack of prevalence in advertising of these support programs, along with the negative association that comes along with someone needing counseling may push someone away from admitting their need for help. More often than not, students are unwilling to admit they need help. This can lead to the stresses and situations which would lead them to consider suicide or other self destructive actions. This eventually may lead to the student following through with their thoughts. Stress is an ordinary part of life, especially in college, but if it allowed to grow unrestrained, it may lead to harmful consequences. The consequences can be avoided if the proper attention is given to stress.

Online Colleges: A Lack of Innovation

David Diaz

In “Online Programs: Profits are There, Technological Innovation Is Not” by Marc Parry, online college programs are critiqued as being profit earning but not necessarily creative. Parry says that all online studies are either making money or breaking even. He also says that the pedagogical model, or the model used to teach students, hasn’t been changed over the last ten years. However, Parry does not give any reasons why these methods are not the best. In other words, what does an online program lack?

Parry presents many facts about the increasingly popular online college programs. He begins by saying that these programs revolve around text, making it no different than an ordinary class that is based upon a textbook. Next, Parry goes into the financial aspect of online colleges. He says that according to recent studies all for profit colleges have made profit, and nonprofit colleges have either broken even or made profit. Parry concludes by implying that the profit and incentive exist for online programs, but the innovation of the programs is lacking.

Traditionally school is based upon a teacher or lecturing a class on a specific topic from a textbook. Students may use the textbook as a reference for learning the material. Students’ performance is determined by a test. However, this proves to be an inefficient system, as students may not retain information past a test. Online colleges have a unique opportunity to create an extremely innovative and effective new way of teaching by means of modern technology. Some would argue that it is the responsibility of an online program to offer that type of innovation since it cannot offer a teacher or classmates. Although, most online colleges resort to giving students various texts and testing them as opposed to doing anything innovative. If anything online programs have devolved by removing the teacher and the class. The technology exists and the incentive for a strong online program exists, there is no reason for an online program to adapt a variation of a pedagogical model that has proven to be ineffective in the classroom when such an opportunity for innovation exists.

Parry presents various facts about the online college system. Most interestingly, Parry points out that all online programs studied have either made profit or broken even. Parry, however, does not go into detail about the lack of innovation in the pedagogical techniques used by online programs. Essentially online programs give students text and test them. This is a shame considering the opportunity that an online program has to invent new pedagogical methods by using the internet, video, pictures, computer programs, and any number of resources that a computer provides.

Cost Goes Up, Help Goes Down

Jamie Signorile

It is evident to most researchers and the general public that the cost of college is increasing rapidly. However, many people have over-looked the sudden decrease in financial aid. Banks are loaning less money at a time when students need it the most.

According to the Collegeboard, there has been increases in both in-state and out of state tuition fees. From last year they are both up around 6 percent. This is an obvious signal that students have to pay more for college. With this increase, students turn towards financial aid. Ironically, banks are not loaning out vital money that students need. According to The Chronicle for Higher Education, there has been a decrease in the amount of private loans. This, like many things, is due to our economy. The credit markets are dysfunctional and private loans cannot be met. How can our economy get better if our future work force cannot make it through college? This has a large amount of money being left behind. About 11.9 billion dollars could have been supplied to students, according to two distinct college board studies.

There are some resources out there that students can utilize. The money that can be given to students is vital for their success. In these turbulent economic times, students need as much help as they can get. Education is noted as one of the most vital contributions to success in society today. Achieving this goal requires aid that, in this case, is being severely ignored. Mark Kantrowitz understands this problem and on his site, www.finaid.org he provides many resources to help students and family get the help they need. His organization provides great help that offers students options and alternatives, especially when college costs goes way up.

3 year education?

Richard Zhang

3- year college is an increasing trend in recent American Higher Education. In an recent article in Newsweek titled “The 3 year solution” explores this trend. Some small colleges are beginning to offer 3 year degree programs. This is especially attractive to prospect students because they are able to save a full semester of tuition. However, this deprives the students of a full 4 years of fun, sports, and the college experience. Students who participates in the 3 year program would have to take a bit more courses per year than regular college students. This is a play for colleges to adept to changing times. However with age rules and tenure programs this makes college flowing with changing times difficult.

What does this mean for college students? This suggests that college is now more affordable then ever. With more choices on how college life should be like. The 3 year college system seems to be just like an intensified version of a Georgia Tech education; just with less time to explore area of interest. Both educations aims at educating a students one specific area usually their major and not a general education offered by many other schools. It seems that every college is now attempting to offer a Georgia Tech education. They offer specification of an area or major resulting in a specialist rather than a jack of all trades. As more and more college jump on this bandwagon, this means that future college graduates will be more job or major specific. For example, even within Computer Science majors here at Georgia Tech there are 8 different threads where students can choose 2 focuses to combine into a major. This aims at becoming more diversity of education even though it is only one major. This also suggests that colleges will offer more and more specific programs as a counter measure to the changing times.

Ivory Tower: An Evaluation of Writing in the Academic World

Hunter Hammond

According to numerous college professors across the country it is felt that writing should take on a purely academic heir with little or no attempt to reach the general public. Gail Hornstein, professor of psychology and author of Prune that Prose, articulates that it is more important to learn how to write in a way that is both pleasurable for the audience and informative. Dr. Hornstein goes further to explain that too many scholars realize this truth late in life and miss out on many of the opportunities that are contingent upon writing.

By evaluating writing, it is possible to look upon the entire institution of higher learning and evaluate if in fact academia has become too academic. A concept known as the "Ivory Tower" has been coined to describe a sense of academic elitism among those in higher education. This concept is not a new one; however, its relation with academics is slightly different than its usual usage. Empirically, an "Ivory Tower" is used to denote when a society or aspect of society has become elite in their thinking and arrogant in their actions. In context to higher education, the "Ivory Tower" represents a certain mindset.

This is evidenced by looking at writing among academics. According to Dr. Hornstein, the academic community has taken on the mentality that only those who are "proven" to be experts in their field have anything worthy to say. Hornstein believes that it is imperative to always write from the heart and write in a way that reaches across the intellectual spectrum.

While Dr. Hornstein points out a valid and essential argument, it is also important to know that a balance is necessary in all disciplines. Writing academically is important and is something that must be learned (especially for people involved in higher education); it is equally true that people know how to reach a general populace in order to spread knowledge and resources.

The concept and fear behind the "Ivory Tower" is an important thing to recognize; however, it is also necessary to incorporate the "Ivory Tower" into society.

I'll do it tomorrow...

Brandon Carter

Although procrastination is commonly seen as something that affects mostly grades, it affects much more.By definition, procrastination is a behavior which is characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Students feel that as long as the task is done by the due time, they have done a good job but this is not the case. By procrastinating they put more pressure on themselves as more and more work piles up. In a paper by David Glenn, he stated that college students who procrastinate in their academic work are also likely to have unhealthy sleep, diet, and exercise patterns, according to one of several studies presented by scholars at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. According to Marsha Weinberg, a licensed clinical social worker at Counseling and Psychological Services at San Diego State students who procrastinate often experience a lot of stress, worry and fear.

Not only does it affect students in this manner but it also affects their personal life too. Procrastination may cause students to put off talking to their family if they live far from home, saying that they will call them later but then never getting around to it. It can also cause students to strain personal relationships. For example, if a student keeps telling friends or family that they will do things, but then put them off for a long period of time or all together, it may cause the friend or family member to trust them less or hurt their relationship. Stress can not only affect grades, but can be detrimental to other aspects of a student’s life.

Increase In Criminal Activity Amongst Dropouts

David Diaz



An article by Sam Dillon called "Study Finds High Rate of Imprisonment Among Dropouts" says that on a given day one in ten high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention. He compares this to one in 35 high school graduates who are in jail. Dillon continues to cite all sorts of statistics, each showing that the crime rate is significantly greater in high school dropouts than high school graduates. However, Dillon doesn’t give any causes for this influx in criminal activity, nor the specific crimes that these dropout students commit.

Dillon informs the reader about several studies done in the past comparing dropout students to graduates. These studies show that one in ten high school dropouts is currently incarcerated. Minorities tend to have a greater number incarcerated, especially African-Americans. Another study showed that 54 percent of dropouts were jobless compared to 32 percent of high school graduates being jobless and only 13 percent of college graduates being jobless. Again, African Americans had a higher unemployment rate and Hispanics had a lower unemployment rate. Dillon presents substantial evidence to prove that on average a high school dropout makes significantly less money than a graduate, and is more likely to go to jail than a graduate. However, Dillon doesn’t give reasons for these statistics.

Dropout students are more likely to be arrested than a high school graduate or a college graduate simply because the dropout is less likely to have a job. Dropouts on average have a significantly a higher unemployment rate and almost always make less money than graduates. In fact, Dillon actually describes a study that found that the average dropout costs the nation $292,000 in lost tax revenue, jail costs, food stamps, and other aid. Because dropouts make no money or very little money, they have to find other means to survive. In this society one cannot survive without money, meaning that these dropouts who have no money or else very little must resort to crime in order to gain money. Unfortunately the economy just can’t provide dropouts with jobs or means to survive, so they have to survive however they can. For many the only option left is to resort to crime.

Dillon presents interesting studies that have found that a high school dropout is much more likely to go to jail than a graduate. However, he doesn’t give any reasons for this increase in criminal activity amongst dropouts. The reason for this increase in crime is because a dropout doesn’t normally have the money required to survive and must resort to crime in order to survive.

The Virtual Teacher

Jamie Signorile

Technology in education is advancing extremely fast. Many Professors decide to broadcast their lectures. However, many students are using these videos as their alternate forms of education sometimes avoiding the very education they are paying for.

According to The Chronicle of Higher education, there are many students who are taking advantage of the many databases of online lectures. An article by Jeffrey Young specifically cites 3 students who all used online lectures. One student chose this method of studying simply because she did not feel her own professor could teach adequately. Another, simply needed more help in the subject. Basically, Universities that are affiliated with programs have large selections of lectures that are pre-recorded. Each lecture is broken up by subjected matter that can be easily navigated by students. One of the most popular of these databases is iTunes U. short for iTunes University. iTunes is one of the most popular music management programs out. With its online store, one can browse various schools and see what lectures have been posted. The best part of all, it is all free. This has users smiling because it is such a broad database of knowledge that can be accessed for nothing.

Also, the most groundbreaking is the open courseware. Open courseware is an enhanced experience that includes lecture videos, notes, and exams. This draws the most controversy because many students are favoring these over their own courses they pay for at school. This is also rather beneficial. Students who need help can simply go to one of these open courseware resources and watch lectures. Then study the notes and practice with exams. This is truly a revolutionary technological advancement in education.

Thinking Big

Richard Zhang

Research has always been a big part of college. There are an array of different research. Undergraduate, Graduate, Post-graduate, etc. Billions of dollars are poured in to colleges to churn out bright ambitious young men and women who push the limit even further. According to a NYTimes article, in recent years, however, big information technology corporations has complained that college has not prepared students to think big. Students have been thinking too small due to the lack of capacity of the college equipments. For example, Facebook handles data amounts up to 1 petabyte which is about 1000 terabyte. Due to this shortage of capacity, more money has been poured in to rebuilding the computer science facilities so that the college can manage the industry's needs.



Being a student at a research facility as well as a Computer Science major, I am deeply affected by this trend. This means that a college student must think above and beyond what the major teaches them. It is up to the student to expand his or her learning to a higher level. This also means that the future will be exhausting albeit exciting. A college student must now leave college with a big dream they want to realize and come true. However, these facilities are just tools, it is up to the students to use them to learn at full potential. This is also an hint that research will be even more intense than ever, involving more and more data.

Athlete Privileges

Shawn Roberts

Collegiate athletics are a large part of the college experience. Most schools have some kind of athletic program in which students become involved in or get recruited for. These athletes, in many cases, are put on an athletic scholarship to help pay for their education, but are they too pampered? Almost every school has athlete perks that they use to persuade athletes to attend their institution. Many people believe it is unfair to allow athletes to have this kind of special treatment while others disagree. The former argues that they’re students just like everyone else and that being an athlete is an extracurricular activity that should not set them apart. Those for the special treatment conversely say that they should because they bring in large amounts of money to the school and are a major way of advertising a schools prestige.

One of the issues brought up in this argument is that student athletes receive early registration for classes and that this is unfair for all other students. In his article on college athlete privileges Jimmy Young states that this is not the case. College athletes are often unable to take certain classes because of the schedule conflict that their athletic obligations present. In actuality a study showed that even given the early registration, only 81% of athletes had a full schedule at the end of early registration as opposed to the 84% of students who had full schedules after the first day of registration. For now there are only a few rules to limit the extent of which athletes can be aided which are set in place by the NCAA, and as it looks it may not change for quite some time.

Are Scholarships Becoming Extinct?

Hunter Hammond

According to a recent article by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, colleges across the state are losing funding for scholarships. The article explains that most academic scholarships given by state colleges and universities are funded through endowments from third parties. The article cites various institutions across the state which show an obvious decline in available scholarship funds. For example, the University of Georgia lost $163 million in scholarship funding this year. This sharp decline can be attributed to a perfect storm of sorts; the economy is in a recession, the recession causes the donors to withdraw their endowments, and students are in more need of scholarship in the status quo more than ever.

To make matters worse for students entering college, even state funded programs are on the decline. HOPE, Georgia's premier source of scholarship, which provided any student with a B average in high school to receive full-paid tuition to a local university or community college has been on the chopping block for state support. Jamie Signorile points out in his blog that the state has decided to put a cap on the HOPE scholarship. This illustrates how even state funding has been impacted by an ever dwindling economy.

Still worse, independent scholarships (scholarships which are funded through corporations, the government, philanthropies, and other third parties) are being rescinded and cut altogether. The money simply is no longer available. Xinhua News Agency has reported through Istockanalyst that independent third party scholarships are on the decline because of the economy. This means that students are left with an unimpressive pool for scholarship opportunity.

Are scholarships becoming extinct? Yes! Yes, they are. Students need the assistance of scholarships now more than ever; unfortunately, scholarship opportunities are slowly drying up. Hopefully, this is only a temporary trend; however, if a turnaround in scholarships is not looming on the horizon, then an alternative for students will be desperately needed.

Simple financial aid for the poor?

Brandon Carter

While there are many complex programs and scholarships designed for the poor, few may have considered that it is the simplistic programs that have the most impact. A paper entitled “Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the Postsecondary Attainment of the Poor” by the National Bureau of Economic Research, looked at the effectiveness of an array of programs, including common federal and private scholarships, grants and subsidized student loans. The paper concluded that the simpler it is for a student to apply, the more likely he or she will apply. This is critical because the scholarships that are applied for and received, the more likely he or she will go to college as they wouldn’t have the funding to do so without applying.

In addition, in paper the author brings to attention that programs like the Pell Grant sometimes fall short because they require so much paper work. While the program is effective in targeting low-income students who may not have had the opportunity to attend college otherwise, the amount of paperwork required to receive the award could possibly make the program less accessible to those it was designed for. Also cited in the paper was the HOPE scholarship. The author and many others believe that this is one of the more effective forms of financial aid because it is so straightforward. This scholarship is also effective in part because individuals who have a desire to succeed and want to go to college can easily acquire it by keeping their grades up. Helping low income students get into college is the aim of many forms of financial aid and in order to reach the greatest number the application method, as the paper states, needs to be simplified.