Lawrenceville School

In the 1950s and 1960s, a group of women infiltrated Lawrenceville School, an upper class boarding school in New Jersey. These women were not students though; they were the wives of the teachers at Lawrenceville. They held weekly coffee breaks for the students and acted as mother-figures in the otherwise entirely male school. These “Ladies of Lawrenceville” played a huge role in the school and the lives of the students.

Lawrenceville School became co-ed in 1987 and most of the Ladies of Lawrenceville became a thing of the past. However, a few are still strongly connected to the school. Jean Stephens still bakes cookies for the students and coaches the drama club. Ginnie Chambers stays in contact with 810 former students by sending them annual Christmas cards. Edith Eglin is a trustee emerita.

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I recently posted a blog about the Top 10 Best Value Colleges in the U.S. It made sense to me why these were good schools. They have reasonable tuitions, are respectable schools, and the average student debt is lower at these schools than the national average student debt upon graduation. But according to an article in CBS’ Moneywatch, maybe I should rethink my opinion of these schools.

Evidently the people at the Princeton Review who ranked the top public and private  best value schools forgot to take something very important into account: Scholarships.

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The country’s economy has officially been in a recession for more than two years. This has made paying for a college education increasingly difficult for many students. It is not only harder to find a job, but it is becoming more difficult to find financial aid as government aid programs and private scholarships decrease in number. For many students, attending college is becoming more and more of a distant dream, due to financial limitations only.

In an effort to help students get the most bang for their buck, Kiplinger has released their list of the best values in higher education for the 2009-2010 school year. Kiplinger is a private company based in Washington, D.C. that publishes business forecasts and personal finance advise. They ranked the schools based on overall value, which is a combination of cost and quality of education.

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Image courtesy of CNN.com

The cost of getting a higher education in the United States is on the rise. Granted, students are not going to be pleased about this, but most just have to just grin and bare it.

Unless you were one of the 26 students who were arrested at San Francisco State University last week.

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More and more students are attending college, a new report by Pew Research Center revealed. In fact, almost 40 percent of 18-24 year olds were enrolled in college classes last year, which was a record-setting percentage. Experts believe this increase was driven by more students attending community colleges than ever before.

“We have anecdotally got this sense that there’s been this college enrollment boom,” said Richard Fry, a research associate at Pew Research Center. “But now we’ve got confirmation, and we know that at least among young adults, the increase seems to be a two-year college phenomenon.”

Part of the reason for this surge in college attendance is that more students are graduating high school than ever before. By October 2008, 84.9 percent of 18-24 year-olds had completed high school.

The increase is not limited to only two-year, community colleges. Enrollment at four-year colleges and universities is also on the rise; roughly eight million students are attending these schools. However, the increase is still the most noticeable at two-year schools.

Why?

This could be due to the economic recession. Community colleges cost less than larger universities and allow students to get a head start on their academic careers.

The most important thing about this new report is that it shows that students are starting to bridge the education gap in the hopes of finding better jobs. Hopefully we will continue to see an increase in the percentage of students who attend college every year.

Via New York Times.

It is common knowledge that college tuition prices are skyrocketing. Every year, it becomes more and more expensive to earn your college degree.

If you go to a college that is in the state you live in, you qualify for in-state tuition, which is usually much cheaper than out-of-state tuition. At the University of California, out-of-state students pay almost $20,000 more each year for tuition than in-state students pay.

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They say that private education is a high paying and growing job market today. Well, for 23 college presidents, this is definitely true. These presidents, who all are employed by private, non-profit colleges and universities, make more than one million dollars every year, according to a report released by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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As a college student, I have three main financial concerns: earning money, spending money, and saving money for college. Thanks to Upromise, two of my concerns are now combined into a system that makes saving for college so much easier!

Upromise is a free service that both parents and students can use to “earn” money for college by spending money on things you do everyday.

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When I first started college, I was told that tuition would run about $4,000 a year. What they failed to mention is that fees, living expenses, books, and other necessary parts of college would run my first year total up to nearly $10,000! That’s a pretty big difference, and certainly one that my family was not expecting. Evidently my experience is a pretty common one.

Many students start college with a tuition figure they expect it to cost and end up paying a lot more than that number, which can lead to large student debts. If only there was a company that would help students see what their real costs for college are going to be. Oh wait, now there is!

A new website, StudentAid.com is offering students a “personalized, side-by-side comparison of the net costs of college and student aid eligibility to help students and their families choose colleges that fit their career goals and bank account.”

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Pay one price and take all you want. That’s the idea behind StraighterLine’s alternative to college education. It’s a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet of college courses. And the fee is $99/month.

“StraighterLine is the brainchild of a man named Burck Smith, an Internet entrepreneur bent on altering the DNA of higher education as we have known it for the better part of 500 years,” Washington Monthly remarks about the school’s creator.

He’s completely shifting the way we attend school. While a class at a time suits the learning style of many students, there are just as many who want to ingest the information, take the test and keep moving. And for those who want credentials, not four or five years of traditional college experience, then StraighterLine will be quite appealing. Read the rest of this entry »