A recent heavy rainstorm flooded an apartment complex near Central Michigan University, displacing a number of students. Several had nowhere else to stay. To the rescue: Central Michigan’s Student Emergency Fund, a financial reserve provided by private donors to help students manage unexpected emergencies such as illness, death of relatives, eviction or medical bills. “The […]
While most institutions use financial aid systems to award and distribute regular financial aid, that isn’t always the case with emergency aid. Usually, each student’s situation must be evaluated to determine whether emergency financial help is warranted and if so, at what level. That process isn’t always built into the standard financial aid system—so institutions […]
The 23-campus California State University system has eliminated two of the largest barriers facing incoming freshmen pursuing non-STEM majors: intermediate algebra requirements and noncredit remedial math. Students can instead take personal finance, game theory, statistics and computer science to better align with their degree, says Jeff Gold, assistant vice chancellor of student success initiatives, research […]
In 2002, 1.2 million students were earning college credits while still in high school. A decade later, the number of those participating in dual enrollment courses had almost doubled, hitting 2 million, according to the most recent federal data. And as a 2015 ACT policy brief detailed, the programs continue growing. Colleges and universities in […]
As the term “free college” draws applicants and ever-more media attention, states, cities and colleges are learning the realities of these large-scale aid programs. In Oregon, due to an $8 million deficit in state appropriations for its $40 million Promise program, only 4 out of 5 eligible students (recent high school grads and GED holders) […]
Who could conceive that the Granite State would adopt as its motto part of the historic volunteer toast offered by General John Stark in his response declining the invitation to head up the 32nd reunion of the Battle of Bennington – "Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils." Now more than […]
It is propitious on the 200th anniversary of the birth of beloved American naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, that we reflect on lessons he learned in the woods. He put it this way: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I […]
High school students spend a lot of time worrying about getting into college, but according to a new study, nearly half also worry about being able to stay there once admitted. That's one finding from a survey of more than 2,000 students from around the country. Conducted by Ipsos in May and released this summer, the […]
Sara Goldrick-Rab’s mission is to make higher education the accessible and affordable place that families want and need it to be. In Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream (2016, University of Chicago Press), Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University, describes what […]
Texas four-year public institutions saw a sizable decrease in international student interest for fall '17, with application numbers down 12.5 percent from fall '16 numbers: Dropping from 44 percent international yield to 33 percent, or the equivalent of about 10,000 applications. Some administrators are sourcing the Trump Administration and fluctuating immigration policies as reason for […]
