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Time magazine recently ran a cover story feature on the challenges of applying to college. While most media coverage of the college application process focuses on the ultra competitiveness of the ritual, Time focused on the liberation of college choice.

With so many great colleges and universities to choose from, finding the best fit is an individual choice that should focus on what a student wants out of the college experience as opposed to the weight the school name carries. In essence, Nancy Gibbs and Nathan Thornburgh, authors of “Who Needs Harvard?” encourage high school students to look beyond the name to the actual benefits the school has to offer.

In addition to providing a much needed wake up call to parents of high school students, high school guidance counselors and high school juniors and seniors, the pair provides some tips for approaching the college search process. Read the rest of this entry »

The following story about transitioning from high school to college was provided by Brian Quick.

The reason most students attend college is to get a degree. Beyond that, they want to expand their knowledge, they want to learn, and they want to belong. To that end, there are 10 things college students should do to get the most out of their college experiences.

10. Try not to take on too much responsibility. Now, this doesn

According to David A. Kaplan, Newsweek writer, the competitiveness of the college admissions process is born of stark demographic realities.

“In recent years, several million students graduated from high school

Six years since No Child Left Behind was signed into law, most states are failing to pass muster with the government over student testing and may lose money unless they improve quickly.

“The Education Department says 34 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have major problems with the tests that were supposed to be in place in the just-ended school year. They will get federal approval only if they correct the problems in the coming year. In addition, Nebraska and Maine had their testing systems rejected outright.” Read the rest of this entry »

A college education has historically been out of reach for a number of American ethnic groups. Things have changed drastically in the last century or so, but it is far from perfect. Higher education is still hard to come by for many of the nation’s minority groups. Historically black colleges and Hispanic-serving schools have been providing access to higher education for years. Now, tribal colleges are presenting the same opportunities to Native American students.

Tribal colleges

“Students in a handful of big-city school districts have a less than 50-50 chance of graduating from high school with their peers, and a few cities graduate far fewer than half each spring according to researcher Christopher B. Swanson.”

The study estimates the likelihood that a ninth grader will complete high school on time and with a regular diploma. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored the study.
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Today’s high school students spend a lot of time online. Whether they are socializing on the many social networks such as myspace.com or xanga, or conducting research for their homework, teens are internet savvy. To capitalize on students’ connectedness, many colleges and universities are now recruiting their future student bodies online.

Blogs are one of the leading web-based recruitment tools used by colleges and universities. Students can log on to read about the day-to-day activities of current students, or get a behind-the-scenese peak at the school. The school’s web site is also a valuable for providing prospective students information about the school.

College sites now rank higher than high school visits from campus representatives and direct mailings in importance as recruitment strategies, said Steve Kappler, an executive director of Stamats Inc., a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, firm that providees consulting services to about 100 colleges and universities a year.
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North Carolina has made aggressive efforts to combat years of disastrous job losses as key industries moved overseas. The target is the state’s public education system. The first step was a focus on preschool through eighth grade encouraging better teacher training, setting standards and making the curriculum more rigorous. The next step looks at high school.

“What we’re trying to provide is the best work force in the world,” says North Carolina Gov. Michael Easley. “Not just in the country

Segregation in the nation’s public school districts has taken center stage recently as the Omaha school district has decided to split into smaller school districts along racial lines. Citing segregated communities as the reason behind the decision, Omaha hopes the move will help schools better address the needs of students as they try to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. Other states are pointing to similar school district make-up and considering similar situations. Does NCLB encourage segregation?
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Counselor Companion has sought opportunities to create dialogue among high school guidance counselors about the many issues, concerns and challenges facing today’s high school students as they prepare for college and life beyond high school. For a growing number of students, 30 percent of high school students to be exact, a life beyond high school is marred by the lack of a high school diploma. Time magazine tackles the issue of the rising high school dropout rate and what it means for America.

In today’s data-happy era of accountability, testing and No Child Left Behind, here is the most astonishing statistic in the whole field of education: an increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly one out of three public high school students won’t graduate, not just in Shelbyville but around the nation.

For Latinos and African-Americans, the rate approaches an alarming 50 percent. Virtually no community, small or large, rural or urban, has escaped the problem.

There is a small but hardy band of researchers who insist the dropout rates don’t quite approach those levels. They point to their pet surveys that suggest a rate of only 15 percent to 20 percent.

The dispute is difficult to referee, particularly in the wake of decades of lax accounting by states and schools. But the majority of analysts and lawmakers have come to this consensus: the numbers have remained unchecked at approximately 30 percent through two decades of intense educational reform, and the magnitude of the problem has been consistently, and often willfully, ignored.
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