LATEST NEWS:It was San Diego State’s administration and campus police who called in the DEA for an investigation that quickly focused on Fraternity Row and Theta Chi, in particular, where six members were running a slick drug business that included recruiting younger members as “apprentices” to learn the operation. Lovely. Suppose they learned that in business class? Meanwhile, parents and students protested yesterday on campus that the university should be focusing its efforts on drug abuse treatment instead of tough enforcement. Ahem. Because drug dealers are just misunderstood?
Posted Wednesday: It has not been a good week for college kids - or the grown-ups who love them. First came horrifying news of an alcohol-fueled brawl in a UC Berkeley sorority parking lot and the stabbing death of a promising student, who would have graduated with honors later this month.
Then, came news of a massive drug bust at San Diego State, where more than 100 people - including 75 students - were arrested yesterday. SDSU’s Theta Chi (that’s their emblem to your left) and five other fraternities have been suspended, pending investigation of claims that members were openly dealing drugs in their frat houses and on campus. The arrested students were suspended, banned from final exams, and evicted from campus housing. Among them: one potential felon-to-be who would have graduated this month with a degree in criminal justice, and another who would have received his master’s degree in … wait for it … homeland security. Read the rest of this entry »
Back when our moms were in college, dorms were single sex and gentleman callers had to wait in the “beau room,” under a house mother’s watchful eye, till their dates were ready. Now, an increasing number of colleges - Penn State, Wesleyan, Brown, UC Riverside and Oberlin - are offering not just coed floors but coedrooms. It’s not about hanky panky, students say, although when that happens, it’s called “roomcest.” Idea is, the coed option allows best friends to room together even if they’re different sexes.
OK, your thoughts? Punch a button or click “comments” and weigh in.
As everyone should know by now, high schoolers everywhere are freaking out over ever-intensifying college apps competition. How competitive? UC Berkeley just rejected more than 10,000 students with 4.0s.
Now comes word from the other side. Pennsylvania’s Wilkes University wants students so badly it’s wooing them on billboards, pizza boxes, gas stations, MySpace and even on MTV and Comedy Central. The $120,000 ad campaign featured seven prospective students in all, with ad copy designed to convey the idea that this school REALLY knows its students. Here are a few examples, including a MySpace ad devoted to Homecoming Queen Katie Murtaugh (above) and more after the jump. Now you tell us. Charming or creepy? Read the rest of this entry »
Universities have started paying close attention not just to their academic offerings but the epicurean ones too, according to a New York Times piece that described a typical day at Bowdoin College’s dining hall, complete with curried butternut squash soup, vegetable ragout over polenta, Dijon-crusted chicken, and Vietnamese pho. No? Then how about the Maine lobster, New York strip steak and grilled sesame-crusted tuna with wasabi mayo at Virginia Tech? Presumably that picky eater you have at home will develop a suitably refined palate before he takes the SATs, because we think there are green things in some of those recipes, and food may actually touch other food on the plate. Read the rest of this entry »
Spring is high stress season for high school seniors, as they wait, agonize and, occasionally, weep. So we think you’re going to enjoy this letter which was published in the New York Times and appears now on the CollegiateChoice.com web site …
Dear Admissions Committee:
Having reviewed the many rejection letters I have received in the last few weeks, it is with great regret that I must inform you I am unable to accept your rejection at this time. Read the rest of this entry »
Fat envelope? Or slim dasher of hope? This is the time of year when the size of your mail matters enormously, when parents chase down alarmed postal carriers and teens crumple at the P.O. box. We’re talking, of course, about college rejection season. And this year it’s bad, worse even than last year - and that was really bad. How bad? According to Forbes Magazine, a girl who scored a perfect 2400 on her SATs and 800s on her SAT2s got wait listed at Yale. She’d applied early decision, and been deferred. We’re fervently hoping she’s holding a fat envelope now, because otherwise, what hope is there for anyone else?
So we’re going to offer up some words of wisdom from the folks immersed in this business (our favorite rejection survival tip, by the way, is — scroll down — #2). Then please, click “comments” and share your thoughts. Read the rest of this entry »
Naturally, the College Board is concerned.(You thought the College Board was a board of college representatives, right? Um no. It’s the corporation that make the exams and reaps its gargantuan revenues.) Read the rest of this entry »
Sure hope your kid wasn’t planning on transferring to Harvard anytime soon. The Crimson gods just announced they will not accept any transfer applications for 2008-09 or 2009-10. Pity they didn’t announce it before starry-eyed Ivy-dreamers filled out their applications, got their references together and mailed everything in. Join the venting on the College Confidential discussion boards, or click here to follow in Rory Gilmore’s footsteps and apply to Yale.
1. “Don’t take a ridiculously hard course load your first semester,” writes Mochamaven. “You will be adjusting to an entirely new situation, and having a more moderate workload will really make your transition to college life easier. In high school you may have wowed people with your 7 APs in a year, but in college people don’t think a freshman juggling a whole bunch of advanced courses is cool — they think you’re nuts. Because you are.” Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Americans who pack their kids off to college directly from high school. In England, Australia and Canada, teens frequently take a “gap year” off to travel, work and get some real life experiences, before they buckle down to another four years of studies, followed by decades in a cubicle. (OK, just managed to really depress myself.)
The big question, of course, is how one spends a gap year, so it doesn’t turn into 12 months of loafing around. That question will be answered, we’re told, at this Saturday’s Gap Year Fair at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco (1835 Ellis St.). The free fair runs from 2 to 4 p.m. and includes reps from Global Quest, Thinking Beyond Borders, Sojourns Abroad and other philanthropic and education abroad programs geared toward teens.
Anyone out there have any experience with gap years? Click “comments” and share…
Is your kid spending his childhood on the soccer field? Is your family’s summer a series of non-stop swim meets? There’s no doubt that youth sports have taken over family life. If your kid is playing year-round everything because he or she loves it, that’s one thing, but if it’s because you think there’s an athletic scholarship or professional sports glory waiting in his future, you need to read this morning’s New York Times story, “Athletic Scholarships: Expectations Lose to Reality.”
Parents sacrifice weekends and vacations to tournaments and specialty camps, spending thousands each year in this quest for the holy grail. But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college athletics…
“People run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could always reach the next level,” said Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. “They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000?”
And what’s never discussed is the downside to playing college ball, track, swimming, etc. - the painfully early morning weight training, long practices and travel time. There’s a reason colleges routinely hire tutors for their star athletes. Read the rest of this entry »
