Links for 1/13/11

Michael Poliakoff

the verdict of sociologists Richard Arum from New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia in a recent interview with the New York Times. The details are grim. After tracking a cohort of 2,300 students who started college in fall 2005 and graduated in spring 2009, they report that 36% have moved back home with their parents, almost one-tenth carry over $60,000 in debt. It gets worse: two-thirds earn less than $35,000 and 45% earn less than $15,000…

"large numbers [of students] don't seem to be learning very much."…

Michele McNeil

What $1 Million in Education Stimulus Money Buys

4.2 jobs.

Mark Kantrowitz

529 college savings plans owned by a dependent student or the student’s parent are reported as a parent asset on the Fafsa. In a worst case scenario this will reduce eligibility for need-based financial aid by up to 5.64 percent of the college savings plans.

That still leaves you with 94.36 percent of your money, a significant financial advantage over someone who did not save.

Every dollar you save is a dollar less you will need to borrow (er, 94 cents). Every dollar you borrow will cost you about two dollars by the time you pay back the loan. It is literally cheaper to save than to borrow…

Lee Burdette Williams

Our students are different people late at night. In our classrooms and offices during the day or the library or practice rooms in the evening, they are smart, charming, ambitious, clear-headed and reasonably nice to one another. But like a collegiate version of Teen Wolf, as the clock ticks closer to midnight, they become unrecognizable to us…

If we were to design a similar staffing structure in the retail world, we would be out of business in short order. Imagine a convenience store that closed at noon, a shopping mall that shuttered its doors on the weekends, a train schedule that ignored common commuter times. Imagine a restaurant that served exquisite dinners… at 2 p.m. Or a pub that opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 4 p.m. None would survive, and on the way to their demise, people would say, “Geez. What were they thinking?” But on our campuses, many of us miss the big stuff that happens daily (and nightly) for our students…