IQx.com – Colleges Information Online

Tag: students

  • Dr. Jill Biden – Continuing to Teach

    “Continuing her 28-year career as an educator, Dr. Jill Biden returned to teaching today at a DC-area community college. Dr. Biden will work as an adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College this semester, teaching two English courses.

    “I am thrilled to return to the classroom to continue working with community college students, whom I greatly admire and enjoy teaching,” said Dr. Biden. “I have always believed in the power of community colleges to endow students with critical life skills, and I am pleased that I can make a difference by doing what I love to do, teaching people who are excited to learn.”

    Dr. Biden has been a teacher for over 28 years, having spent 15 years teaching English Composition at Delaware Technical & Community College. Prior to that, she worked as a Reading Specialist and English teacher in the Delaware public school system. While working full-time and raising a family, Jill earned two master’s degrees: a Master’s degree in English from Villanova University (1987) and a Master’s degree in reading from West Chester University (1981). Jill earned a Doctorate in Education from the University of Delaware in 2007. Her dissertation focused on how to retain students in community colleges.

    In addition to her work as a professor, Dr. Biden recognizes the critical importance of quality education to the nation’s economic well-being and to our communities, and will continue to promote these issues in the coming months. Last week, Dr. Biden welcomed over 200 DC Public School students to the Vice President’s residence as the first guests to her new home.”

    Taken from whitehouse.gov

  • Going to College Reminder(s)

    You have already been accepted to a college and have decided to attend that college. There are three main points that you must remember.

    1st – Contact your roommate.

    That first conversation is very essential for getting to know each other. It builds your relationship as roommates, and for figuring out who is going to be bringing what. A good roommate can make your life amazing, but on the opposite, an ill suited roommate could make your life miserable.

    2nd – Have everything you need purchased and packed.

    Knowing what to bring is just as important as knowing what not to bring. Obtaining the correct book(s) is important as well as what type(s) of computer(s) you may want, and that they/it is convenient.

    3rd – Make sure you understand your financial situation.

    The last thing you want to have happen is for money and budget to get in the way of your academic progress. Make sure your finances are in order — and that you understand all you need to do while you’re in school.

  • College Pressure

    “Pomona College banned two pro-life students from campus last week after they videotaped the question-and-answer session during a Planned Parenthood representative’s talk and asked the representative tough questions about recent Planned Parenthood scandals.

    However, Pomona rescinded its ban this week after facing strong opposition from students, faculty, and alumni. The pro-life students, David Daleiden, 20, and Kyle Kinneberg, 21, are members of the youth-led right-to-life advocacy group Live Action.

    Daleiden and Kinneberg both attend Claremont McKenna College, part of the Claremont College Consortium together with Pomona and three other undergraduate institutions. A hand-delivered letter from Pomona’s Dean of Women Marcelle Holmes notified the students of the ban, claiming their videotaping had been “against college policy.” But Daleiden, President of Live Action’s Claremont chapter and Director of Research for the national organization, said Pomona never produced the specific policy they said his group had violated, and that he and Kinneberg were denied their due process rights under the Claremont Colleges’ Policy on Demonstrations.

    “When alumni found out about this Orwellian situation, they were outraged,” explained Daleiden. “Pomona accused us of conspiring to ‘disrupt the proceedings, intimidate participants, and chill the free exchange of ideas,’” Daleiden said. “But nothing could be farther from the truth. We were entirely respectful when we asked our questions-as our video shows.”

    The videotaping in question took place on February 19, during a presentation by Serena Josel, public affairs manager for Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles (PPLA). Administrators told Daleiden that after the event, PPLA contacted Pomona College about his conduct. Daleiden notes that PPLA has extensive ties to Pomona, which regularly promotes internships and raises money for the abortion provider.

    “It’s understandable that Planned Parenthood’s Serena Josel was angry at us for our recording-she made several spurious and even contradictory arguments defending Planned Parenthood’s lack of accountability for mandatory child abuse reporting,” Daleiden continued. “But campus disciplinary procedures should never be used as a tool for political retribution.”

    “We are grateful to the Claremont McKenna alumni and administration who reacted quickly to correct this abuse,” Kinneberg added. “This is not the first time pro-lifers have been persecuted for questioning Planned Parenthood, but victories like this should inspire us never to be afraid to stand up for the truth.” ”

    Taken from LifeSiteNews.

  • How will schools help fund families?

    How exactly do all the schools start to help poor families, or even middle class?

    Harvard took the lead. Two years ago, Harvard implemented a policy in which students whose parents earn a $60,000 or less no longer pay for tuition or room and board. Stanford has just adopted the same policy, adding that students whose parents earn $100,000 must only pay room and board. Stanford Financial Aid has not provided a formula for evaluating aid for students who come from families with income over $100,000.

    Princeton has taken a similar approach in which it evaluates aid on a case by case basis rather than the more formulaic sliding scales that Yale and Harvard have decided to use. At Stanford and Princeton, students in the income bracket range between $60,000-100,000 can expect to pay $11,000 or less, approximately the cost of room and board.

    But at Harvard and Yale, students in the income range $60,000-120,000 can expect only to pay on a sliding scale between 1 and 10% of their income ($600-12,000), which is significantly less than students at Stanford. Students at Harvard and Yale from income brackets between $120,000 and $180,000 can expect to pay between $12,000-18,000. Cooper has refused to make comparisons between higher income students at Stanford and Harvard, saying she does not want to mislead them about their potential aid package. She cautioned that aid will be evaluated on an individual basis with a number of factors including home equity, other siblings in college, and cost of living taken into account.

    The new financial aid policy isolates the upper-middle class. Universities are increasing tuition fees for students who do not receive financial aid. It is called “Take from the Rich and Give to the Poor”. While the financial aid policies have made it less expensive than some state schools for students from households less than $100,000, colleges generally remains much more expensive for students from households with income well over $100,000. State schools also usually offer merit aid, which can often significantly decrease the expense for top students.

  • Common Degrees and Their Abbreviations

    A few common degrees and abbreviations:

    • Associate’s degrees: AA (Associate in Arts), AS (Associate in Science), AAS (Associate in Applied Science), AGS (Associate in General Studies)

    • Bachelor’s degrees: AB or BA, BFA, LL.B, BSc or ScB or BS or SB, BASc, BPhil, BBus, BSBA, BPE, B.Math, BSW, BVSc, B.Eng, BBA, B.Tech

    • Master’s degrees: M.P.P., MA, MFA, LL.M, MS or MSc, MCM, M.Div., MPIA, MPS, MAS, MMus, MSSc, MBA, MPA, MHA, M.Ed or EdM, M.Eng, M.J, M.Des, Drs (Netherlands)

    • Extended Research Master’s degrees: mag.art. (Denmark)

    • Licentiate degrees: LDS, JCL, LP

    • Specialist degrees: Ed.S., SSP, SClP

    • Logistician’s degree: CPL

    • Engineer’s degrees: Ch.E., C.E., E.E., Env.E., I.E., Mech.E., Nucl.E., Sys.E.

    • Professional Doctoral degrees:DMD or DDM, DDS, BM BS, DPT, ND, D.C., OD,

    DVM, V.M.D, M.Div., M.D., D.O., Au.D., PharmD, J.D., D.C., P.Th.D., D.Th.P., D.P.M., DProf (UK)

    • Research Doctoral degrees: J.C.D., Ph.D., EdD, EngD, DTech, DBA, DPA, DHA, Dr.-Ing(Germany), DPS, D.D., D.Min., D.Th. or Th.D., J.S.D. or S.J.D. or LL.D., DPM, DSc or ScD, DSocSci, M.D., DSW

    Abbreviations for degrees can place the level either before or after the faculty or discipline, depending on the college. One example is that DSc and ScD both stand for the doctorate in science. Various other abbreviations also vary between universities.

  • College Immigrants

    Why do immigrants come to the United State for education? Do they stay in US or do they go back to their own home countries? Why should we care? Well, because immigrants are critical to the country’s long-term economic health. Despite the fact that they constitute only 12% of the U.S. population, immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley’s technology companies and contributed to more than 25% of our global patents. They make up 24% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce holding bachelor’s degrees and 47% of science and engineering workers who have PhDs. Immigrants have co-founded firms such as Google, Intel, eBay, YouTube, Facebook and Yahoo!.

    Are those young and well-educated going back home after they graduate from universities here? Since a lot of young educated people come from China or India, people tried to find hard data on how many immigrants had returned to India and China. No government authority seems to track these numbers. But human resources directors in India and China say “what was a trickle of returnees a decade ago had become a flood.” Job applications from the U.S. had increased tenfold over the last few years, they said. To get an understanding of how the returnees had fared and why they left the U.S., a team at Duke, along with AnnaLee Saxenian of the University of California at Berkeley and Richard Freeman of Harvard University, conducted a survey. Through professional networking site LinkedIn, they tracked down 1,203 Indian and Chinese immigrants who had worked or received education in the U.S. and had returned to their home countries. This research was funded by the Kauffman Foundation. Their new paper, “America’s Loss Is the World’s Gain,” finds that the vast majority of these returnees were relatively young. The average age was 30 for Indian returnees, and 33 for Chinese. They were highly educated, with degrees in management, technology, or science. Fifty-one percent of the Chinese held master’s degrees and 41% had PhDs. Sixty-six percent of the Indians held a master’s and 12.1% had PhDs. They were at very top of the educational distribution for these highly educated immigrant groups — precisely the kind of people who make the greatest contribution to the U.S. economy and to business and job growth.

    Nearly a third of the Chinese returnees and a fifth of the Indians came to the U.S. on student visas. A fifth of the Chinese and nearly half of the Indians entered on temporary work visas (such as the H-1B). The strongest factor that brought them to the U.S. was professional and educational development opportunities.

    They found life in the U.S. had many drawbacks. Returnees cited language barriers, missing their family and friends at home, difficulty with cultural assimilation, and care of parents and children as key issues. About a third of the Indians and a fifth of the Chinese said that visas were a strong factor in their decision to return home, but others left for opportunity and to be close to family and friends. And it wasn’t just new immigrants who were returning. In fact, 30% of respondents held permanent resident status or were U.S. citizens.

    Eighty-seven percent of Chinese and 79% of Indians said a strong factor in their original decision to return home was the growing demand for their skills in their home countries. Their instincts generally proved right. Significant numbers moved up the organization chart. Among Indians the percentage of respondents holding senior management positions increased from 10% in the U.S. to 44% in India, and among Chinese it increased from 9% in the U.S. to 36% in China. Eighty-seven percent of Chinese and 62% of Indians said they had better opportunities for longer-term professional growth in their home countries than in the U.S. Additionally, nearly half were considering launching businesses and said entrepreneurial opportunities were better in their home countries than in the U.S.

    Friends and family played an equally strong role for 88% of Indians and 77% of Chinese. Care for aging parents was considered by 89% of Indians and 79% of Chinese to be much better in their home countries. Nearly 80% of Indians and 67% of Chinese said family values were better in their home countries.

  • School Funding

    A lot of universities are struggling with endowments that are now underwater. If the current financial downturn continues, the problem will only get worse. Most states adopted a uniform law that prohibits withdrawing money from endowments that fall below their “historic dollar value” — the money given to create the endowment, plus any later gifts. The law is designed to protect endowments by preventing institutions from dipping into the principal. An endowment is supposed to be a perpetual source of revenue, with institutions drawing off only the earnings. The rule affects newer funds most severely, since they have had less time to invest a gift and build the endowment’s value.

    Some donors may have intended for the principal to remain intact, but was it their intent that the students they want to help won’t get any help? Certainly there is a need to loosen the strings attached to the gifts.

    In the University of North Carolina system, where as many as 70 percent of the endowments at one campus are underwater, some of the system’s 16 schools are going back to donors and asking them for one-time donations to pay for what would normally be covered by the endowment.

    The University of Wisconsin system suspended payments this month from 38 underwater endowments, taking away $700,000 that would have gone for scholarships and other programs at campuses across the state. At New York University, about $10 million of $16 million in scholarship endowments is untouchable.

    Because of funding problem, Brandeis University originally planned to close its Rose Art Museum and sell its more than 7,000 works, including pieces by Willem de Kooning and Jasper Johns. After much criticism, the school backed off.

    There are ways to get around the law. In creating an endowment, nonprofits can enter into an agreement with the donor that allows for the use of principal in emergencies. They can also ask the donor to change the endowment’s terms retroactively, which requires a trip to court if the donor has died.

    Since early 2007, 26 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that give nonprofit organizations more flexibility in using money from endowments that are underwater. Because of the economic meltdown, 12 other states are considering such laws, according to the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws.

  • College Letters

    With this economy in this shape, college admissions officers sent out record marketing letters. I know a few high school kids who receive at 20 letters per day from colleges, universities and even vocational schools. The admissions office is now busy with their acceptance notifications–sending out fancy certificates, T-shirts, tubes of confetti, or Internet links to videos of fireworks–in an effort to inspire loyalty and lock in commitments from today’s worried high school seniors. Even a traditionalist school like Kalamazoo College is printing its hand-drafted and hand-signed letters on better-quality paper and is sending out bigger packets so that acceptances will look more impressive.

    For some students, that personal touch is what really makes the difference. Old-fashioned personal letters that show an admissions officer actually read the essays may actually made the difference. For others real things could be the trigger for the final decision. Which school do you want to go? Should it be the school that sent you a personal letter or the school that sent you a T-shirt? What about other things such as:

    • This year the school’s acceptance package from St. Bonaventure University in western New York contains a T-shirt.
    • MIT sent out a tube filled with a poster and confetti to its early admissions.
    • A lot of schools are shipping bumper stickers, decals, and other knickknacks.
    • Ithaca College sent out “Phat package”–a foot-long envelope emblazoned with the words “Something big is about to happen.”
    • Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa. sent out a fancy new translucent envelope holding a green linen folder embossed with the college seal and the words: “You have been accepted.”
    • Baylor, Rutgers and Elon sent out suitable-for-framing acceptance certificates.
    • St. Bonaventure upgraded the college’s T-shirt package this year.

    What about dean letters? Are you going to cry? We have had tears and cheers at inappropriate places and times, this is unnecessarily upsetting many students and their classmates. School’s preference for electronic rejections aggravated feelings of worthlessness. The new electronic rejections–some of which are little more than “Admissions decision: Deny”–feel much harsher than the traditional letters enclosed in ominously thin envelopes. Some posters on collegeconfidential.com have complained that after all their hard work on essays, electronic rejections can feel especially brutal. Someone said he felt awful when he logged on to read “Admissions decision: Deny” and then got what he called a “hard, cold” formal rejection in the mail.

    Schools hire webmasters and web designers to design new digital letters. For example videos through email a link to a video of cheering crowds and the words “Congratulations. You’ve been accepted to Elon!”. Binghamton University added flash animation to its E-mail last year. The University of Georgia greeted accepted students with a link to an animated graphic of fireworks, says this year’s fireworks will be flashier than ever. Bryn Mawr launched its video acceptance last year, is promising an even better video this year. California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo provides a flashy acceptance video because studies show an average applicant applies to anywhere from nine to 12 other schools and will choose from about six offers. In addition, as a science and tech school, Cal Poly attracts applicants more fluent in text messages and Tweets than snail mail.

    At IQx.com, we are going to publish some of the example acceptance and rejection letters. You will have a taste of the new buzz.

  • SAT (1)

    SAT Exam

    Because almost every college and university in the United States accepts the SAT exam as part of the admissions and placement process, more than two million students take the test every year. The SAT exam is divided into the SAT Reasoning Test and the SAT Subject Tests.

    The SAT Reasoning Test assesses a student’s critical thinking, analyzing, and problem-solving skills, all of which are necessary to succeed in higher education. This test is divided into three categories: Writing, Critical Reading, and Mathematics. The Critical Reading section is further broken down into three sections, two of which are 25 minutes and one of which is 20 minutes. The Mathematics section is broken down in a similar fashion as the Critical Reading Section, with two 25 minutes sections and on 20 minute section. Time allotted for the Writing section is 60 minutes: 35 minutes for multiple choice questions and 25 minutes for students to write an essay. All of the sections are scored from 200 to 800 points. The SAT exam is administered seven times a year in the United States, U.S. Territories, and Puerto Rico. It is also administered six times a year in other countries.

    The SAT Subject Tests assess a student’s knowledge, as well as his or her ability to apply that knowledge, in specific subject areas. There are currently twenty subject tests, all of which fall under the general subjects of English, history, math, science, and languages. The tests assess how well a student has mastered a subject, but the content of the exams is not based on any specific curriculum or textbook. Colleges and universities use these exams in the admissions process, as well as to advise students and for placement purposes. Some schools require specific exams while others will allow the student to choose the subject tests he or she wishes to take. All of the SAT Subject Tests are 60 minutes and are comprised of multiple choice questions. It is recommended that students take the exams at the end of their junior year or the beginning of their senior year, or as soon as the student has completed the high school class related to the subject test (for example, Physics or World History).

    Students may register for the SAT exam online or via mail. Tests are administered on Saturdays; if a student cannot take the exam on a Saturday because of religious observance, he or she can take the exam on a Sunday. Students who are registering to take the exam on a Sunday for the first time, are younger than thirteen, are requesting to test closer to home (because the nearest testing site is at least 75 miles away), or plan to test in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, or Togo, must register with a paper application via mail. There is a fee of $41.50 to take the SAT Reasoning Test, which includes up to four score reports sent to colleges and universities. For the Subject Tests, there is a basic fee of $18.00, a fee of $8.00 for each additional exam, and an additional $19.00 for Language Tests with Listening.

  • UC Schools New Ethnic Acceptance Plan

    Recently announced by Mercury News, UC Schools will now be accepting a lower percentage of asian and oriental heritage. In addition to this, UC schools have agreed to accept more African Americans, Hispanics and Caucasians. This is because students with asian background are taking up a larger majority of the UC universities every year. California wants its colleges to be more diverse and therefore implementing this plan. UC has also agreed to eliminate SAT subject tests as a requirement and to consider “lower-ranking” students more.