For-profit

Brandon Carter

Although many will say that universities exist only to assist in educating the public, they may have not considered that more for-profit colleges are starting to appear and hurt the education sector. According to Christopher Lucas in his book American Higher Education, he points out that for much of the early years colleges existed in order to provide an education and nothing else. However he also points out that there are certain universities that began to appear in the late twentieth century that are solely for-profit. For example, according to Kim Strosnider, at trade attorney, for-profit universities make up a 3.5 billion dollar-a-year industry that is mostly run by national corporations.

In addition, colleges like these hurt the education system in general more than they claim to help. One such way they hurt the college sector is by taking up more than their appropriated share of funding. While they may help to keep a competitive market in the college sector, these college are built to earn a profit. They take as much money as they can get from government handouts, which a majority of the time is greater than what community colleges receive, and lessen the amount of aid available to other colleges. In turn, other colleges have less money to offer as aid to students. Also, these for-profit colleges aren’t always the most honest ones. Several former and current students are starting to bring class action law suits against some of the colleges for the misrepresentation of job placement. One student is suing due to landing a job in retail after piling up $80,000 in student debt.

Tuition Hurts Colleges Too

David Diaz

According to Jack Kadden in his New York Times ariticle “Bleak News for Colleges, Too”, colleges are being hurt just as bad by the increase in tuition as students. However, Kadden claims that colleges are offering more discounts and because of that enticing more students to attend college. Although, Kadden only shows that these increases in discounts are actually helping colleges. He does not show how increasing tuition is actually hurting colleges.

Kadden begins by saying that over 58 colleges are charging over $50,000 in tuition a year. He goes on to say that colleges offer more discounts to allow students to attend. He does point out the fact that these colleges expect less revenue because they have to offer more discounts to students. However, he doesn’t point out how increasing tuition hurts colleges.

With tuition prices sky high, colleges can’t expect to get the number of students that they have in the past. This is because students can’t afford the increased tuition price. Some colleges have created a compromise in that they discount the tuition to most students, but that cannot be said of all colleges. Also, these particular colleges expect to receive less revenue because of the discounts and must make due without it. However for the other colleges that don’t offer tuition discounts, they make due with receiving fewer students or in the case of particularly good schools, receive the same number of students because of their reputation. The interesting relationship here is that a college receiving fewer students can survive on a smaller budget and so these colleges aren’t hurt by the increased tuition price. Likewise, schools with a great reputation that can get away with increasing tuition receive the expected number of students and the revenue to provide for these students. The only schools hurt by increasing tuition are those that offer discounts and must make due with less revenue. Schools that don’t offer any tuition discounts expect to receive fewer students, but receive the revenue to provide for these students. One could argue that these schools are hurting because they receive fewer students, but financially they aren’t nearly as bad off as those offering discounts. Schools that have great reputations aren’t hurt at all because they receive the number of students at the price that they ask for.

Kadden is correct in that colleges are hurting due to the high tuition prices in that some must discount tuition and make due with less revenue. However, other colleges that don’t offer discounts make due with fewer students or make due based on a reputation.

The University C.E.0

Jamie Signorile

Researchers have always put such high emphasis on the money that is earned from institutions. However, a small amount of researchers give attention to the amount of money Universities grant to their employees. College presidents receive great payment while students at college barely afford to attend.

Recently, in an executive compensation survey, researchers have discovered alarming statistics. The president's of the top private research universities are receiving ridiculous salaries. It is noted that the average salary is approximately $ 627,750. This is a large amount of money, and this is similar to that of a large company's C.E.O. According to The New York Times, 23 presidents have salaries exceeding 1 million dollars.

These presidents are receiving large payment packages, yet all that is mentioned in the media is the constant increase in tuition. Every year it becomes more difficult for students to afford school. College costs increase every year. However, it seems like presidential salary is increasing. It is noted that the average salary increased by 5.5%. This argument, I believe, has strong parallels to that of our current economic situation. Many companies have C.E.O.s who are receiving enormous pay while their companies disintegrate and beg for mercy from the government. It has gotten so bad that the president had to put a cap on salary. The whole deal just seems wrong. College students in many ways are like the workers at these failing companies. Many cannot catch any breaks and simply are not given the opportunities to be successful, however, those at the top are receiving all of the awards. Presidential pay, and other employee pay can be adjusted to reasonable amounts and maybe the difference can be given to students who desperately need the help.

2-year community colleges on the rise

Richard Zhang

In a recent article in the NYTimes, Tamar Lewin discovers that enrollment in 2008 is at a record high. What drove this record was the increasing amount of high school graduates going to 2-year community colleges. These students, who usually would have been high school drop outs, are believed to go to school fueled by the inaccessibility of jobs and the negativity of being branded as a high school drop out. Although the changes in dropout rates between 2007 and 2008 is small, only about 1%, the recent trend is on the decrease. However enrollment in 4 year colleges remains flat at 8 million. This is good in terms of higher education because the more and more citizens are receiving a secondary education.

However, this would mean that there will be more competition for regular college students. With enrollment numbers sharply on the rise, the competition is intense. 2008 hits a record mark in college enrollment rate. A number of national university reported record number of applications. Students are having a harder time entering the college of their dreams. Many students are taking record AP's from their high school in hoping that it will give them an edge when applying for college. It used to be that 1 or 2 AP's is considered adventurous and 3-5 AP's is considered overachieving. Now, however, 8-9 is not out of the norm, some even reaches 15 or above in the number of AP's. Yet many still attend state funded schools that cost less, and avoiding lower ranking colleges to obtain the best education in this economy. d

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.