Admissions Academy Blog

The Value of a College Degree

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on August 5th, 2009 in Academics, Articles of Interest
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CNN this week featured an article about a recent college graduate who is suing her alma mater, Monroe College, claiming that their career services office hasn’t done enough to place her in a full-time job. She claims that the career center showed favoritism to students with a 4.0, rather than her 2.7 GPA, and she’s suing to reclaim both her four-year tuition and extra damages for the stress that her failed job search has caused her.

Whether or not the suit has merit, it does open up a conversation about what college is, or should be, for. In their statement, Monroe College replied that, “it is clear that no college, especially in this economy, can guarantee employment.” Four-year colleges are institutions of higher learning, and while Census data shows that the earning power of college graduates is higher than that of only high school graduates, colleges at best can provide career assistance, not guaranteed career placement.

Some have argued that this article reinforces the idea that a bachelor’s degree is becoming increasingly less meaningful, that in order to secure a professional job with a living wage, students have to attend graduate school. But one of the New York Times blogs took up this issue not too long ago:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/what-is-a-masters-degree-worth/. The argument that an M.A. now is like B.A. years ago, or that a B.A. now is like a high school diploma years ago, misses a more important point. Why do students graduate from colleges with educational experiences that do not adequately prepare them for the “real world”? To take it a step further, why are students allowed to graduate from high school with meaningless educational experiences? Standardized testing pass rates are on the rise in New York City, for example, but the feel-good news misses the fact that the number of students who are advanced or highly proficient is shrinking.

If anything, the suit may be indicative of a larger problem in the U.S. educational system; students shouldn’t have to go to graduate school to get an education that prepares them for jobs. Advanced degrees hold value when they provide students a skill set that can’t be taught in college, or when they’re used as a means for students to change career paths. But if a generic master’s degree is a band-aid for what should have been taught in high school and undergraduate college, then perhaps it’s time to demand better of our school systems.

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Essay Writing: Start Early and Be Yourself

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on June 23rd, 2009 in Admissions, Articles of Interest
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Summer is here, and for many students, now is the perfect time to begin brainstorming and writing college essays. Although most colleges have not yet released their applications for the upcoming admissions cycle, the topics for a student’s core personal essays are already available. Instructions for UC’s two personal statement essays for freshman and transfer applicants are available here. For the nearly 400 colleges that accept the Common Application, students can preview the essay prompts here.

Application essays serve a unique and important role in admissions as the only piece of a student’s application that conveys his or her own voice and experience. Academic records, standardized test scores, teacher recommendations, and even interviews tell part of the story, but only in essays can students speak directly to admissions officers in their own words.

For students struggling to begin or unsure what direction to take with their writing, The Choice, a blog from New York Times education writer and author Jacques Steinberg, offers an insider’s view of what makes an essay successful by Martha Merrill, dean of admissions at Connecticut College.

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Budget cuts and California’s community colleges

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on May 21st, 2009 in Articles of Interest
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After the failure of California’s special election initiatives on Tuesday, lawmakers and Governor Schwarzenegger have resumed their debate over California’s budget, including massive proposed cuts to education. Today, the Chronicle reported on the effects these cuts may have on California’s community college system. If the Governor’s budget proposal is adopted, the community college system will lose roughly 11% of funding. Community college leaders say that will translate into an enrollment drop of least 250,000 students, more than all students served by the UC system combined.

The cuts come at a time when demand for community college courses is surging, with laid off workers returning for job retraining and other students looking to community colleges as a path to CSU and UC admissions. Community college districts in San Diego, Sacramento, and Merced have seen 10%, 30%, and 50% increases in enrollment numbers over the year before, respectively.

Read the California Community Colleges’ official response to the special election and budgetary crisis here and more about increased demand for community college courses here.

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