Online Art School

During my last two posts, I have focused on picking college majors. This is the last post that I’m going to devote to majors for awhile. Here are my previous posts:

Chosing a College Major

College Majors: 5 Things You Need To Know

Is getting a head start on a college major a good thing?

Not according to a study on college majors that was conducted by Ofer Malamud, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago.  He looked at the career choices of college graduates who attended school in Great Britain and Scotland and made some fascinating discoveries.

In Great Britain, students need to select an academic major while still in high school. In contrast, Scottish undergrads take a broad variety of courses before specializing in their last two years.

Curiously enough, the British college graduates who had to pick majors as teenagers were less likely to hold jobs related to their fields of study. Scottish grads, however, who had more time to explore majors before settling on one, were more likely to end up at jobs related to their academic work.

Here’s what Inside Higher Ed observed about the findings:

The students at Scottish institutions seem more likely to have chosen to study fields that successfully aligned with their career interest, says Malamud, success that he attributes to the time and freedom they’re given to experiment with a broad range of fields, and to learn both what they like and what they’re good at.

With many state schools experiencing deep budget cuts, I’m afraid an increasing number of students are going to have to choose majors before they are ready.

I’ve been cranking out college blog posts for the past two years. (It makes me tired just thinking about it.) During this time, I’ve been pretty much picking college topics to write about that interest me as a mom and journalist.

I hope that the topics that I’ve chosen, including scholarships, college costs,  financial aid, SAT and ACT tests, college rankings, have been helpful to all of you who have dropped by. I am assuming that I’m on target at least some of the time since the number of my blog visitors continues to grow.

Yesterday, however, it occurred to me that I should ask my college blog readers what they’d like me to cover.  I figured this is a good time to pose this question because I will be attending a huge college conference late next week in St. Louis (my hometown). The annual convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling will be crawling with smart, savvy higher-ed folks who know far more than I do about any college issues.  I particularly like talking with the experts who will candidly share with me the real scoop about what’s going on in the higher-ed industry. And folks, it is an industry.

College eBook Giveaway

Anyway, if you have topics that you’d like me to cover on my college blog in the future, please post a comment on this blog post. I will send an electronic copy of my college eBook (it’s in PDF form) to the visitors who post the best comments/questions. The eBook, Shrinking the Cost of College: 152 Ways to Cut the Price of a Bachelor’s Degree, which is only available on my website, is a money-saving workbook that can help families, regardless of their incomes, make college more affordable.

Can’t wait to hear from you.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller, and she also blogs about college for CBSMoneyWatch and USNews.com.

Victor Aiyewa could barely speak during our interview. Instead of rushing over to talk with reporters after practice, Aiyewa stayed to do extra conditioning. When I finally spoke to him, we had to wait about five minutes so he could catch his breath.

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UW’s Victor Aiyewa helps to pull apart the pile after a Syracuse fumble Saturday at Husky Stadium.

It’s this unflappable work ethic on, and off the field, that’s helped Aiyewa transform himself from an unproven commodity who only played one season of football at his high school in Fresno, Texas, to the starting strong outside linebacker for the Huskies. Despite playing safety his first three years at the UW, linebackers coach Mike Cox decided to use Aiyewa, and has been impressed with the results.

“Every week he gets a lot better, because playing linebacker becomes more natural for him,” Cox said. “He didn’t even get to go through our spring practice because of injury and he’s getting a lot of work right now, and you can see the improvement really starting to carry over right now.”

Even more impressive than Aiyewa’s transformation on the football field has been his transformation in the classroom. Aiyewa currently holds a 3.67 GPA and has been twice honored as a member of the All-Pac-10 Academic Team.

“When I graduated from high school I wasn’t at the top of my class, and my family showed me what kind of percentile I was in,” Aiyewa said. “I was kind of, you know, embarrassed about it. I didn’t take [academics] seriously in high school, but I knew how important it was. So when I got to college, I made a personal effort to take the best advantage I can and try and be in that top percentile.”

It’s clear that Aiyewa has attacked his studies with the same passion that he uses on the football field. He is very proud of his academic prowess, and is able to put it in perspective.

“It’s just a personal ambition,” Aiyewa said. “It carries over all throughout life. Being able to learn the stuff in class helps you in the real world when you have to meet people, talk to people, social networking and all that kind of stuff. Over the years I’ve just realized how academics helps you in all aspects of life.”

Aiyewa’s natural intelligence has certainly helped him on the football field. He was able to make his switch from safety to linebacker thanks to his proficiency at picking up new schemes and assignments quickly.

“I learn defenses pretty well,” Aiyewa said. “It was easy for me to make that adjustment … I love the switch. I just want to play and help the team and continue to get better. Also, coach Cox is a great coach, spending extra time with me and helping me learn the stuff.”

Now, Aiyewa is playing at a higher level than he ever has before. In two games he has recorded 18 tackles, already matching his previous season-high.

“I feel like he’s really stepping his game up,” cornerback Quinton Richardson said. “That’s a huge transition, and I think he’s doing a hell of a job at it. He’s doing really good in run and pass support.”

This is Aiyewa’s final season of college football, and he’s already planning for the next step. He isn’t sure what it is exactly that he wants to do after he graduates, but another degree could be in store.

“Initially when I came here I wanted to do pre-pharmacy,” Aiyewa said. “But talking to people, I realized that I have great people skills. I know that after the season I’ve still got more schooling to do, so I’m just trying to work that out.”

Whatever life throws at him, if Aiyewa is able to adapt as well as he has on the football field and in the classroom, he should be just fine.

“I never really have to worry about him picking things up, because he picks things up very easily,” Cox said.

As many of you know, I’m not a fan of college rankings. I think most rankings are lame and their methodology is creaky.

When a mom emailed me yesterday complaining about the rankings, I decided to use this as an opportunity to share one of my biggest pet peeves about the college rankings of U.S. News & World Report, which frankly are the only rankings that really matter to families.

Here’s the pet peeve:  the magazine’s rankings are a beauty contest.

Reputation has always been the biggest factor in US News & World Report’s college rankings. That’s a major reason why the schools that have a great reputation – deserved or not – monopolize the top spots.

Until this year, reputation has accounted for 25% of a college or university’s ranking.  How the magazine accesses reputation is what’s crazy.

How is San Diego State Doing on a Scale of 1 to 5?

Every year, the magazine sends out three surveys to each institution in a particular category, such as national universities or liberal arts colleges. Three administrators in the office of the president, admissions and provost are supposed to fill them out. The folks stuck with this chore are supposed to grade each of their peers on a 1-to-5 scale.

Any guess which schools get a heap of “5″ scores?’

Beyond the automatic high scores of some schools and the crappy scores of others, what has always irked me is that universities and colleges are supposed to know what’s going on at their “peer” institutions.

You can’t tell me, for instance, that administrators at the University of Michigan can assess the academic quality of hundreds of its peers including Kansas State, University of Alabama, University of Chicago, Rutgers, MIT, Harvard and San Diego State.

Changing the College Ranking Reputation Scores

The magazine got a lot of flack for basing so much of its ranking on these dubious reputation assessments. I suppose that’s one reason why the magazine dropped the reputation rating down slightly to 22.5% of the total score in its latest rankings roll-out. The magazine also shrunk the opinions of the schools themselves to 15% and it added the opinions of high school counselors (7.5%).

Frankly, I don’t think high school counselors are in any better position to measure the reputation of individual schools across the country.   Many counselors know little about the schools outside their own state. In fact, they may know little about schools beyond their own state institutions – if that.

So, as always, be careful how you use college rankings.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.com and US News & World Report. Follow her on Twitter.

Yesterday I shared an easy way to to obtain early decision statistics from individual colleges and universities. Here is the post:

Finding the Success Rate of Applying Early Decision

As I promised at the time, I want to delve into the specifics of a high school senior, I’m going to call her Sarah, who wants to apply early decision to The College of New Jersey. I’d love to hear whether you think Sarah should apply ED.

Sarah has a 3.7/3.8 unweighted GPA.  She’s a very hard worker, but she’s taken only honors classes and no AP courses except an AP literature class this fall. Her combined SAT scores are around 1900. The teenager, who wants to be a special-ed teacher, is madly in love with The College of New Jersey.

Part of the family dynamics is that the girl is a twin. Her brother, a late bloomer has an unweighted 3.4 GPA, but he continues to improve academically and he earned a great SAT score — 2100. Sarah has been the better student, but The College of New Jersey sent her brother an invitation to a reception for possible merit scholars and not her!

This snub might seem shocking unless you take a look at  TCNJ’s Common Data Set. In the section of the Common Data Set that states what admission factors are most important,  the school clearly states that while grades are “considered,” test scores of applicants are “very important.” The rigor of the high school record is also “very important.”

You can discover more about using the Common Data Set to learn about a school’s admission factors here:

Common Data Set 101

Applying Early Decision

Sarah wants to apply Early Decision, which should boost her changes of getting into this very selective public liberal arts college and she doesn’t want to consider any other schools.  If Sarah’s family had unlimited cash, I’d say go for it, but that’s not the case here. Here is an excerpt from the dad’s email:

We went along with this (Early Decision intention), but now I have lost my steady income as a psychologist and am piecing together consulting work…hence, we are concerned that even the modest full freight of TCNJ will be a lot.  I want her to consider other schools to see what kind of merit packages they might offer (even privates, where her scores and grades are above their admitted means)–but she won’t hear of it.  My wife is concerned about her emotional status if we push the issue…

Here’s my suggestion:

Because of the family’s tenuous finances, I’d tell Sarah she can’t apply early decision. If she got in through early decision, Sarah would be committed to attending the school regardless of whether the family received any financial aid or merit awards. In this case, it’s better to see what other colleges would offer too.

I’d recommend she apply to The College of New Jersey during the regular admission process and apply to other schools as well.

What do you think?

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.com and US News & World Report. Follow her on Twitter.

It took me all afternoon, but I finally figured out how to record a video and post it on YouTube. You have no idea how long it took just to figure out how to insert a title. I’m hoping that I can now get the darn thing on my own college blog.

It’s my first video so it’s definitely not polished, but I trust that I will get better as I go along. If I get the hang of it, I think chatting about college will be a lot easier than writing all the time.

In other news: I’m announcing the winners of the free copies of Debt-Free U: How I Paid For An Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching Off My Parents. I picked two people who commented on yesterday’s post about the book. The winners are “John N” and “M.” Congratulations.

I will be sending the runners up an electronic version of my eBook, Shrinking the Cost of College.