Private VS Public High School

Many parents ask if for college admissions purposes it's better to attend a well known private school versus a public school. The key to this question is, "for college admissions purposes." The truth is, parents should not make ANY decisions based purely on college admissions odds – that's the wrong way to address a crucial choice that involves far more variables than simply college admissions. One valid reason to send your son or daughter to private school is if you want him or her to have smaller classes, specific classes not offered at your particular public school, a different social environment, athletic opportunities not found at your local school, etc. The worst reason to send a student is in the vain hope of bettering college admissions odds. Most of the Ivies admit roughly 25% of their populations from private schools and roughly 65-70% from public (the rest from parochial or home-schooled), but that merely reflects the fact that more kids from publ ic school apply — again, the acceptance rates are usually about equal.
Even a student who is No. 1 in a top public school will not be accepted to top colleges if he or she has low scores on the SAT and SAT Subject Tests. Another thing to consider is the competition: at top private schools like Andover and Exeter, only the top students get into the very top colleges. It's actually HARDER to be in the top 5-10% of the class at a place where almost everyone is qualified versus a big public school with some "dead weight." In short, you should make this decision based on the options, comfort level, course offerings, sports and specialty offerings for your child rather than trying to outwit college admissions officers who will not be impressed just by a big name private school.
Most importantly, students will perform better – and be happier – at a school where they feel most comfortable. If a student truly loves Andover, and the family believes that the expense is warranted, then Andover is the right choice. If the local public school has great teachers, neighborhood friends, a full line up of AP courses, and a safe environment, then it may be worth more to a student than any of the famous prep schools.

COLLEGE FRESHMAN FACING GROWING FINANCIAL WORRIES

Record numbers report that financial aid is playing a role in their choice of campus and that they need part-time jobs, according to UCLA's annual national survey.

The economic crisis is pushing growing numbers of college freshmen to look for part-time jobs, scrounge for financial aid and turn down admission offers from schools that were their dream campuses, according to a national survey by UCLA researchers.

Even in the early days of the current recession, money worries were evident among the students polled for UCLA's 43rd annual "American Freshman" survey, which is being released today. The study found that 43% of students viewed financial aid as very important or essential to their choice of a college. That figure was up from 39.7% last year and was the highest in the 36 years the question has been asked.

 
 Changing viewsA record proportion, more than 49%, reported that they will need a job this year to help pay expenses, up from 47% the previous year. And 8.5% of students said their ultimate choice of college was strongly affected by not being offered financial aid by their first-choice campus, the highest such response since the question was first asked 24 years ago.

"When you've got these economically tough times, students are forced to see the impact of that," said John H. Pryor, managing director of UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, which conducts the survey, the nation's oldest and most comprehensive assessment of student attitudes. This year's report was based on responses from 240,580 freshmen at 340 four-year colleges and universities.

In other trends, the survey also found the class of 2013 to be increasingly liberal and politically engaged compared with students in recent years. This year's freshmen voiced more support than did previous classes for legalizing gay marriage and marijuana, but less interest in boosting defense spending. They also reported drinking beer and liquor slightly less in high school than their predecessors did.

Most students answered the questions during freshman orientation, as the national financial crisis was beginning this past summer and fall but was not at its worst, Pryor said. He said he expected the next survey to show students' financial concerns growing "drastically higher unless there is some miraculous turnaround."

The economic findings resonated with Stephanie Tardif, a junior at Occidental College. Tardif has worked various jobs during college, including as a server at Starbucks and an usher at Dodger Stadium, but said she was feeling the recession's effect in Los Angeles. "It's pretty difficult finding a part-time job now," she said.

She said she and other students also worry that the economy may not improve by the time they graduate. "In a year and a half, I have to be working and supporting myself," said Tardif, who is from Ventura. "I'm not expecting to land an amazing job right away. I'm just fearful I won't be able to land any job at all."

At UC Santa Barbara, freshman Azucena Gutierrez said she works eight hours a week as a teacher's assistant at a campus child-care center but has been unable to get the extra hours or second job she needs to cover her expenses.

Though grants and substantial loans help pay her main fees and dorm costs, "there are all these other expenses you don't consider at first," said Gutierrez, whose family lives in Farmersville in the Central Valley. "There are books I have to buy and supplies and everyday things."

The survey also contains questions about students' personal goals, often depicted in the report as a struggle between "developing a meaningful philosophy of life" and "being well off financially." During the counterculture years of the '60s and '70s, students often emphasized the importance of having a meaningful life philosophy, an interest that receded over the next two decades as financial concerns surged. In the last three years, students increasingly have said that both areas are important, a change that analysts attributed mainly to women's rising interest in financial success.

Slightly more than half (51.4%) of current freshmen said it was important to develop a life philosophy and more than three-fourths (76.8%) said it was very important or essential to do well financially.

Pryor said those surveyed may have been reacting emotionally to the financial downturn by simultaneously showing distaste for Wall Street careers, while still hoping for personal financial security. In the past, students' financial goals often seemed based on acquiring fancy cars and other luxuries, while this year's appeared focused on holding a steady job "to be comfortable and provide for your family," he said.

The share of students who described themselves as liberal, 31%, was the highest since 1973 when campuses were gripped by concerns over the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. In addition, 3.2% said they were far left, slightly more than last year.

Fewer than a quarter of students, 22.5%, described themselves as conservative or far right, down from 24.6% the year before, and 43.3% said they were middle of the road, down slightly from the previous year.

In a presidential election year when college-age voters turned out in high numbers, 35.6% of current freshmen said they frequently discussed politics. That share surpassed the previous record of 33.6% in tumultuous 1968. However, current freshmen significantly lagged behind their parents' generation in saying that it was very important to keep up with political affairs.

The students also showed increased support for what are often viewed as liberal causes: 66.2% are in favor of same-sex marriages; 41.3% favor legalization of marijuana; only 28% want more military spending, a large drop since the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Self-reported drinking during the high school senior year fell to new lows, with 38% saying they drank beer occasionally or frequently and 43.9% wine or liquor. But, Pryor cautioned that these somewhat more sober students may be drinking more now that they've reached college; other studies show alcohol abuse to be widespread on college campuses.

Larry Gordon

LA Times

Best Value Colleges for 2009

TOP 10 BEST VALUE COLLEGES FOR 2009
 
PRIVATE

1. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pa.)
2. Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.)
3. Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)
4. Rice University (Houston, Texas)
5. Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
6. Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.)
7. Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.)
8. California Institute of Technology (Pasadena)
9. Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)
10. Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.)

——————————————————————————–

PUBLIC

1. University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
2. New College of Florida (Sarasota)
3. College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Va.)
4. State University of New York-Binghamton
5. Florida State University (Tallahassee)
6. North Carolina State University (Raleigh)
7. University of California San Diego
8. City University of New York — Hunter College (New York, N.Y.)
9. University of Georgia (Athens)
10. The College of New Jersey (Ewing)

Source: The Princeton Review

Facebook and MySpace used for College Admission

Gone are the photos of Jennie van den Boogaard at the "Rocky Horror Picture Show."
You also won't find any curse words on her Facebook profile page.
"My sister works in advertising, and she is always telling me that colleges will look at my Facebook (page)," said Van den Boogaard, an 18-year-old senior at Satellite High.
Students such as Van den Boogaard, one of FLORIDA TODAY's Verge student journalists, are being more cautious about what they post on social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace in fear of giving college advisers or future employers the wrong impression.
A recent report by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions found that one out of every 10 admissions officers visits an applicant's social networking Web page as part of the admissions process. The survey was made up of 320 admissions officers from the nation's top colleges and universities. Recruiters and employers also are tapping into the sites to screen prospective hires.
Alison Potter Bell, director of college counseling at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne, encourages students to not only be cautious of what they put online, but also to create an e-mail address that gives a good impression.
"These days 90 percent or more of the college application process is online," Bell said. "Making sure all the potential electronic information a college has access to puts the student in the best light is important."
Bell added: "Having an e-mail address that sounds 'cute' or is trying to make a statement of some sort may not create the best first impression."
She said one student had an e-mail address that read, "ihatecountry@ . . ."
"While he may have been making a statement about country music, if the person reading his online application came upon this and interpreted it differently, it could create an immediate negative impression," Bell said.
A quarter of the college advisers who said they viewed applicants' sites said the posts generally had a positive impact on their evaluation. But 38 percent reported that they came away with a negative impression.
Not every college is peeping. Officials from the University of Central Florida and University of Florida said admission advisers from their schools don't use social networking sites when reviewing students' applications.
"We wouldn't do it because it would be information that would be completely unverifiable," said Pat Herring, director of admissions at University of Florida. "You could never trust any of the information on there."
Still, students are aware of the risk.
"I think we are definitely cautious of what we put online," said Kendall Lightly, an 18-year-old senior at Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School. "I mainly use it to keep in touch with friends who have moved away. If it's something important, I don't put it online."
Some students, though, haven't gotten the message. A review of some Brevard students' Web sites found offensive language, scantily clad girls and boys showing obscene hand gestures.
Although Jimmy McClellan, a Cocoa High senior, said his MySpace page has nothing objectionable on it, he doesn't think it should play a part in his acceptance to college. The 17-year-old student has already been accepted to the University of Central Florida and is waiting to hear from the University of Florida.
"This should not be something that would decide if a student gets accepted in to college," he said. "The Internet and texting is so impersonal, you never know what the true meaning is to some posts, such as sarcasm. Content can be taken the wrong way."

UC cuts freshman enrollment for fall by 6%

The hardest-hit campuses, Irvine and San Diego, will see 12% reductions. Berkeley's class will grow 1.7% and Merced's 17%. Numbers of community college transfers will be allowed to rise.

LA Times, January 14, 2009

Saying they could not avoid a painful decision, University of California regents voted Wednesday to trim freshman enrollment for next fall by 2,300 students, or about 6%, as a response to reduced state funding during the worsening budget crisis.

"None of us likes this," regents Chairman Richard Blum said of the student cut. But he placed responsibility for the action on state legislators, particularly Republicans opposed to tax increases. "For those who want to yell, go yell at Sacramento," Blum said.
 Under the plan, six of UC's nine undergraduate campuses will see significant cuts to their ranks of California freshmen in the fall. UC Irvine and UC San Diego, the hardest hit, are slated for reductions of about 12%, or 550 and 520 slots respectively, because they enrolled more than their targeted number of students in recent years, officials said. At four other campuses, the cuts range from about 10% at UC Riverside to 6.6% at UC Santa Barbara.

The campuses that attract the most applications, UCLA and UC Berkeley, will stay close to current levels, with Berkeley growing by 80 freshmen, or about 1.7%, and UCLA declining 35 spots, or less than 1%. UC Merced, the newest and smallest school, will grow by 155 freshman, a 17% rise.

While making freshman admissions a bit tougher, the regents encouraged more students to transfer as juniors to UC from California community colleges. They boosted the number of such transfers by 500, or about 4%, for the fall. No change was made to graduate student numbers, or to the percentage of out-of-state undergraduates, which runs about 6%.
The governing board voted 19 to 2 for the enrollment changes during a meeting held by teleconference. Regent Eddie Island and student regent D'Artagnan Scorza voted against the changes.

The regents also unanimously approved a salary freeze for 285 top UC administrators and an end to bonuses for those and other employees. Most of those affected by the salary freeze earn more than $200,000 a year, and some twice that.

Island, in a passionate statement, said the enrollment cut would damage public support for UC and disproportionately hurt African Americans. He questioned whether the $20 million in projected savings is "a big enough number to justify the harm that is going to result from this reduction."

But UC President Mark G. Yudof, who presented the plan, described it as "very moderate" and said delays would cause more painful cuts in the future. He said that UC receives no state money for the equivalent of 11,000 of its 226,000 students and that cuts proposed for next year's budget would worsen matters.

"If I had my way, the decrease in admissions would be zero," Yudof said. But with funding reductions looming, he added, "there is no free lunch."

Despite an expected slight decline in the number of high school graduates, UC freshman applications are about 3% higher than last year. Experts say the financial crisis is pushing more families to the public university rather than to more expensive private schools.

Officials emphasize that students whose high school grades and test scores meet UC's eligibility standards will still be offered places somewhere in the UC system. Yet students will find it harder to gain entrance to their first choices, and the plan assumes that many will then decide to attend non-UC schools.

UC Student Assn. President Lucero Chavez said her group is worried that lower enrollments will particularly hurt low-income and minority students, but decided not to oppose the regents' action. Instead, she said, the association will urge the Legislature to provide money to restore enrollments to previous levels.

She said, however, that the group would fight a proposal to raise basic fees for the coming school year by 9.4%, or about $662, for most in-state undergraduates. That would bring their average bill to $8,670, not including housing, books and other expenses.

State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, the La Cañada-Flintridge Democrat who is chairman of the assembly's higher education committee, said he was pleased about the pay freeze for top UC administrators, which is similar in spirit to his bill to freeze salaries for many state workers who earn more than $150,000.

But Portantino, whose daughter is applying to UC and other schools this year, said enrollment trims would make California weaker in the long run. "The harder we make it for Californians to go to school and get an education, the harder it is to meet the demands of the economy," he said.

Cal State, California's other public university system, has already moved to reduce its overall 450,000-student enrollment by about 10,000 next year.

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