It’s part of any tightening budget: being honest about priorities. When there’s less money coming in, it just makes sense to, say, skip eating out. Imagine, though, that you’d been given money specifically to go out for dinner, and you used it to pay the electric bill instead. The original donor of your eating out funds might be a little upset that you used the money for something else, despite the urgency. This is the situation that a few colleges are facing, but it’s grant money–not walkin’ around money–that’s being reallocated, and the donors aren’t happy. (more…)

A friend of mine who was recently handed an online geology course to teach at a local community college mentioned something that I found interesting: he’s having quite a bit of trouble getting students to use the discussion boards and forums. He requires a minimum number of posts and responses for students to meet participation requirements, but found that fewer than ten percent were doing anything more. An informal survey showed that upwards of eighty percent had facebook or MySpace accounts that they updated regularly, and some even used these sites to talk with others in the class. Why aren’t they using the class’s site? (more…)

Chatting with a friend of mine last night, it came up that she’d been expelled in high school. I won’t go into the details (amusing as they were in hindsight), but it’s been her cross to bear over the years. Colleges tend to frown on behavior-issue-laden pasts, and with admission rates dropping, it can be harder than ever to get into a good school. An online college education could be the way to go to avoid spreading your trouble-maker history around. (more…)

I remember pulling long hours in study lounges stabbing at white boards and chalk boards. Call it nostalgia, but I miss those days of collaboration, when we’d take turns making coffee runs while cramming for tests. Homework was so much more fun when six friends were stymied together. This sense of unity made us feel justified when assignments were confusing–after all, six of us didn’t get it, and there’s strength in numbers.

This kind of study-group solidarity may be going the way of the dinosaur. Much like Web 2.0 has changed the way we use the Internet, new online study sites are changing the way students study together. (more…)

In the face of huge budget cuts (to the tune of $312 million as proposed by CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in response to California’s 14 billion dollar budget shortfall), the California university system is cutting enrollment for 2009. The trouble is, more students have applied this year than ever before. (more…)

One of the biggest draws for student loans is the fact that you don’t pay until after you graduate. This allowed poor college students breathe a bit more easily while working part-time jobs and struggling to make ends meet. Sallie Mae has introduced new terms on their private loans that requires monthly interest payments while students are still in school. While this definitely helps to lower the total amount of interest paid on the loan, the additional requirements and the monthly payments may make this loan less appealing. (more…)

I recently wrote about aiming for the stars when it comes to college admissions. The moral of that post was to go for the gold in spite of money worries when applying to schools. What does one do, though, when these schools neither solidly accept or decline one’s application? This dreaded purgatory is also known as: the waiting list. (more…)

More and more people are borrowing for their education. This can be a great option, or–as I’ve warned before–it can be a cross you’ll bear for the rest of your adult life. In addition to more people borrowing to pay for their degrees, more people are defaulting on their loans, with the default rate jumping from 5.2 percent to 6.9 percent in the past year. (more…)