http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/best-values-in-public-colleges-2012.html.

To get the most out of this article start by reviewing their criteria and note the ratings for some public universities vary substantially when considering as an in-state student or out-of-state student. Despite substantial cuts the University of North Carolina appears to continue to protect the classroom. A lesson the University of California should study. Good news UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego are in the top 10 this year which has not always been the case in past years. Note Kiplinger ranks private universities as well. Again the key to considering rankings whether Kiplinger, US News, Colleges that Change Lives or others is to first understand their criteria.

The University of California admissions process has rolled out two major changes for this year’s applying seniors both adding only STRESS to the already pressure-cooker process. FIRST, they proudly announce that UC’s will now guarantee to 9% of high school seniors at each high school admission to a UC (up from 4% last year). BUT the only school accepting those students is UC Merced! Those additional 5% would all be accepted at Merced if they applied regularly. Nothing against UC Merced, its a fine school but it like all UC’s does not have every academic major.  Is this a change to help qualified seniors get into a UC or is it a ploy to increase enrollment in UC Merced? You be the judge. NOTE also that this year the most competitive UC’s have all increased their available space for out-of-state students, many by as much as 8%. It does a senior no good to win a ticket on a flight if its not going where he needs to go! SHOULD the student pick the school or UC just slot them into to the flight to nowhere because it has an empty seat. SECOND, UC Board of Regents voted years ago that this year’s seniors would not have to take the Subject Tests. But now they say they will look at them and for competitive engineering programs (every UC that has one is competitive) recommend math and science subject tests. The UC’s didn’t have the backbone to JUST SAY NO to the College Board test machine despite their earlier decision that subject tests unfairly disadvantage certain segments of applicant pool. Money talks more than high school seniors?! 2012 finds UC admissions looking more like “the Great OZ” hiding behind his curtain than a transparent admissions process recognized for non-biased decisions focused on fair review  of the applicants.

Today’s Chicago Tribune names two law schools University of Illinois and Villanova University who have admitted submitting inflated LSAT and GPA figures for their incoming classes to the American Bar Association and US News magazine. The pressures are great to have a high ranking vis-a-vis competing institutions AND to have your ranking continue to rise. We don’t know how many give false reports. For this and other reasons,I counsel my clients that the US News rankings should not be a major factor in selecting a school to attend. For the complete story see:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1007-chicago-law-20111007,0,6214332.column

According to today’s New York Times article: “More than half of the admissions officers at public research universities, and more than a third at four-year colleges said that they had been working harder in the past year to recruit students who need no financial aid and can pay full price, according to the survey of 462 admissions directors and enrollment managers conducted in August and early September.”

Money Taken: tuition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/education/21admissions.html?_r=1

Money Given: scholarships intended to entice students from west and east coasts to midwest and pacific northwest colleges/universities trying to gain a footing in national market. This later effort has had lowered yield at some of the east coast private schools that are outside the always popular NYC and Boston areas.

An interesting book by Mitchell Stevens entitled Creating a Class discusses the application review process putting it in three steps: (I add my comments to each of his categories)

1. Reading and Rating Applications: In my opinion this process drives the creation of a balanced list of schools to apply to. At stretch schools they will be rated relatively low as compared with their safety school. Because this is an inexact science, a continuum of 10-12 schools is a prudent plan.
2. Storytelling (giving the application a memorable third dimension): This is not unlike branding a product. What I describe as putting the “why” behind what you did with consistency across essays, teacher rec’s and application itself. There are thousands of Eagle Scouts…no information really…what did being a scout mean to who you are now? That will be useful information.
3. Class Crafting: Less can be done here. But I do encourage my students to apply to different regions of the country so they are not competing with the exact group of students with each application. ALSO I encourage my students to not apply to all the schools their friends apply to…most colleges do not have the luxury of admitting multiple students from same high school. In essence this then goes back to building a diverse list of colleges.
The process is not so mysterious after all.

In an article in Inside Higher Ed on August 9, 2011, the Ohio Plan is discussed. Ironically, much of the reform levels the playing field with for-profit universities that are thriving as traditional non-profits struggle:

While details of the Ohio plan will not be final until Thursday’s presentation, released July 18 calls for immediately freeing all universities from certain regulatory restrictions, such as state health and safety codes, and eliminating enrollment caps. The draft also calls for giving the universities complete control of the management of their employees and exempting them from the purview of the state personnel board of review.

The universities would then be measured annually on a set of metrics that include student outcomes, such as graduation and retention rates; degree production in science, technology, engineering, and math fields; and the percentage of students participating in internship programs, as well as financial measures such as endowment size, affordability measured as a percentage of the consumer price index, and the unallocated cash balance as a percentage of total operating expenses. None of the proposed metrics in the draft plan deals with faculty or research productivity or service to the state.

Ohio Plan

Quoting from an article in today’s Inside Higher Education at …..newsroom@insidehighered.com

Earlier this month, the Los Rios Community College District — which has four colleges in the Sacramento area — released a study of its transfer students. It found that “many more Los Rios students are transferring to in-state private and out-of-state public and private colleges and universities than to UC and CSU campuses.” In 2009-10, Los Rios transferred 2,222 students to UC and CSU campuses and 3,213 students to “in-state private and out-of-state public and private colleges and universities.” (Los Rios researchers did not count transfers to for-profit institutions; doing so likely would have made the state universities’ share of transfers even smaller.)

The most popular transfer destinations were in-state private institutions — Chapman University enrolled 151 students, the University of the Pacific enrolled 120, the University of San Francisco enrolled 106, and the University of Southern California enrolled 98. Some of the most popular out-of-state public transfer destinations were located in neighboring states — the University of Nevada at Reno enrolled 55 students, the University of Oregon enrolled 44, Arizona State University enrolled 34, and Oregon State University enrolled 31.

OPTIONS CONTINUE TO SHRINK FOR CALIFORNIA KIDS SEEKING AN AFFORDABLE POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION!

“If you want to change the world, you need to change the way you learn about it.” Quest University, Canada www.questu.ca

There’s more to learning than 5o minute lectures delivered by a professor who knows no student by name. Both established and newer colleges have much more innovative learning programs…experiential learning, block schedules, capstone projects…look for them and decide which excite you.

You might assume this is the report for Harvard! Nope! These are this year’s numbers for Northeastern University who collected more applications than USC. Why? “It comes down to our relevance as a university,’’ Mantella said. “Experiential learning really resonates with this generation, especially in this economy, with their concerns about job opportunities and getting an edge up. We are just so well positioned for today’s prospective students.’’ Good to  see students are picking relevance over reputation per se, with relevance will come a meaningful reputation.  No slam intended to USC, but all colleges and universities must put the needs of their customers first, tradition won’t carry the day any longer. For more on Northeastern see today’s article in the Boston Globe. http://Boston.com

Roughly comparable high school students may choose between Cal Lutheran and Humboldt State…68% will graduate in six years from Cal Lutheran and only 43% from Humboldt. Similarly, comparable students may choose between UCDavis and Cal Poly SLO…81% will graduate in 6 years from Davis, only 69% from Cal Poly SLO. These differences reflect (crudely at best) that something very different is going on inside these schools. Note those students who are great students graduate at close to 90% after six years wherever they go…UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Stanford or Pomona. Query if the school can really take full credit for that number. Lesson: look more deeply into the educational program of the school you are considering.