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Nothing creates more spine-numbing fear than reviewing the annual price of a private research not-for-profit university like George Washington University on College Navigator and seeing the tuition and fees are over $50,000, with a slated annual increase of almost 3.5%, and room and board costs over $12,000, and escalating at a 3% clip.
A recent article on MOOCs appeared on May 12th in US News and World Report on the use of MOOCs in preparing for college and extending students' activity lists to show curiosity about subjects often not offered in high school. (http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-05-12/3-reasons-to-try-out-moocs-before-applying-to-college). Note, I was interviewed for the article and am referenced.
MOOCs might warrant investigation as a student tries to determine a range of subjects to major in, or to just explore areas such as basic programming or history. The Special Reports section contains several articles on MOOCs that might be of interest. (http://www.ivycollegeprep.net/articles/2014/8/22/the-transformation-of-a-college-education.html?rq=MOOC)
The University of Utah will be coming to Orange County on June 8th from 7-8:30PM at the Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa. The address is 3000 Clubhouse Road, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. In December 2015, I wrote an article on the University of Utah Honor's Program and what a phenomenal value it is if a Californian is admitted through the Western University Exchange (WUE). Come to the Dean's 'Unscripted Event' and discover all that the University of Utah might have to offer. Look for the Development Dean Lindsay Cole Young who will be giving insights into the Honor's Program.
Lynn O'Shaughnessy in her blog The College Solution references a number of tools to measure the return on investment for the college graduate. Her toolbox contains such websites as PayScale, College Scorecard, the Brookings Institution's College Grad Value Added Tool, and Educate to Career College Rankings Index. The article is a treasure trove of information on how to decipher value from the college effort.
A column in the New York Times education section announces that Stanford has become unequivocally the most competitive college in the country, likely the world, by accepting no one into the current class. The article explains Stanford's perspective: “We had exceptional applicants, yes, but not a single student we couldn’t live without,” said a Stanford administrator who requested anonymity. “In the stack of applications that I reviewed, I didn’t see any gold medalists from the last Olympics — Summer or Winter Games — and while there was a 17-year-old who’d performed surgery, it wasn’t open-heart or a transplant or anything like that. She’ll thrive at Yale.”
