BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

UC BERKELEY IN NUMBER ONE SPOT ON FORBES’ COLLEGE RANKINGS

Forbes released its college rankings this week, with Berkeley as number one! Berkeley is the first-ever public school to top the list. Forbes cites the world-class education that Berkeley students receive, many of them at a fraction of the cost of top private schools, as the reason for the UC school’s number one ranking. The new rankings represent a change in Forbes’ criteria - they now consider schools that “educate the greatest number of students from the broadest range of backgrounds” - something that large schools like the UCs can do more effectively than schools like Harvard, which dropped to number seven on the Forbes list.

HARVARD DROPS FOSSIL FUELS FROM ITS ENDOWMENT

Harvard is not the first campus to divest from fossil fuels, many thanks to the pressure from students and faculty. But with the largest endowment of any school in the U.S., Harvard's withdrawal may have a big impact for activists. The student activist group that pushed for this decision was Divest Harvard, which in 2019 staged a protest by interrupting the Harvard-Yale football game. Yale has also recently adopted what it calls “ethical investing principles,” in which several major oil and gas companies are considered ineligible for investment by the institution.

AMAZON COVERS COLLEGE TUITION FOR US EMPLOYEES

In a newly competitive market for hourly employees, large companies like Amazon have been working to provide more incentives for employee retention. Amazon recently announced that it will pay 100% of college tuition, including books and fees, for hourly employees beginning in January 2022. Employees can begin to take advantage of this benefit 90 days after employment.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY CLASSES CANCELLED AFTER RANSOMWARE ATTACK

On Friday, officials at Howard University discovered a ransomware cyberattack that took the school offline for the entire holiday weekend, with online and hybrid classes cancelled on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Students headed to nearby stores and restaurants off-campus in order to access wifi during the week. Without internet, professors have also been confused about how much work to assign and what to expect from their students. The university is still trying to figure out whether student data was accessed during the attack.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We posted on social media earlier this week about this Wall Street Journal article, which illuminates a widening education gap between men and women across the country. We’ve talked before about the decline in college enrollment over the past five years, but this article highlights that men have been responsible for 71% of that decline. Women now make up nearly 60% of the college-age population in the U.S.

That 60-40 split is a scary line for colleges - it usually marks the point at which both women and men are reluctant to attend a school with an imbalanced population. But given that women are more likely to apply to college, more likely to complete their applications, and more likely to enroll and stay enrolled, it is becoming increasingly difficult for colleges to maintain close to a 50-50 split.

The efforts to do so mean that men are more likely to receive offers of admission than women, which the article calls a “tacit affirmative action for boys.” There are definitely schools, both public and private, where we see this happen - and often have to remind young women with whom we work that there is this additional chip stacked against them - one which is usually not discussed. The article suggests that people aren’t talking about this difficulty because it is unpopular to work toward support for men in higher education - particularly white men.

The New York Times also published a response this week, noting that despite the fact that women have outnumbered men with college degrees since the 1970s, men are still more likely to have leadership roles and to make more money in the corporate world. Rather than asking about why boys aren’t enrolling in college, this article asks us to consider why girls need additional education to get the same jobs that boys are getting without attending college.

College disability services offices are contending with a new population of students this year: COVID-19 long-haulers. There are still a lot of questions about long-haul COVID, but we know that many sufferers experience physical symptoms of dizziness or difficulty breathing, as well as brain fog and difficulties with memory and concentration. President Biden announced in July that long-haul COVID cases could qualify as a disability, and colleges will need to continue to consider how their disability services can assist these students. An increase in accommodation request may illuminate existing challenges and lack of resources that colleges face when it comes to accommodating students with disabilities.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We’ve found out about a lot of cool student opportunities this week and are excited to share them with you!

The Girl Scouts are partnering with PepCo to offer a panel of early career women professionals in STEM careers, particularly in the energy industry. This event takes place next Tuesday and is open to all Girl Scouts - it could be a great opportunity to hear about young women’s experiences in STEM!

Next, the Daughters of the American Revolution are launching a High School Essay Contest. Students are asked to write about a person, famous or unknown, who contributed to the founding of the nation, and to use primary source material. DAR will be providing first, second, and third place awards. This is exactly the type of award that looks fantastic in the Honors section of the Common Application.

And finally, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has another really great opportunity for local high school students. SOY is a seven-week fundraising challenge focused on helping 9th-12th graders develop their communication, project management, and presentation skills while raising funds and awareness for LLS’s mission of curing blood cancers. So for everyone who complains about how they can’t find activities because of Covid - here is your chance to add some leadership to your resume :) One of our client dads is hoping to find five more potential candidates to participate, so please let us know if you are interested (whether you work with us or not) and we’ll send you his way!

Have a great weekend!