Weekly Update: September 17
BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK
OPERATION VARSITY BLUES TRIALS BEGIN
The first trial for parents implicated in the college admissions scandal began on Monday. In opening statements, their lawyers blamed not only Rick Singer for duping the parents, but also the college admissions process as a whole for being susceptible to this type of manipulation.
In other Varsity Blues updates, Georgetown’s former tennis coach was the latest to plead guilty on Wednesday, in advance of his scheduled trial in November.
WANT TO START A 529? GO TO SCHOOL IN NYC
Starting this fall, every public school kindergartner in New York City will receive $100 in a 529 account. The new initiative is aimed at closing the wealth gap in NYC. In addition to the initial deposit, students will have the opportunity to earn up to $200 in rewards. With the initial deposit as well as rewards and donations, the program is expected to yield $3,500 per student on average by the time the children reach 12th grade.
While New York is the largest public school system, it isn’t the first to start this type of initiative - in 2011, San Francisco began opening accounts with $50 for every student entering the public school system.
Though these amounts may not seem like much, studies show that students with at least $500 in a savings account are three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate than students with no savings
WHAT IS THE BEST COLLEGE TOWN IN AMERICA?
ESPN’s new bracket hopes to determine America’s best college football town! Vote every Wednesday for your favorite team, current college, or (hopefully!) future college town as they work to determine the winner this fall.
And if you’re attending a game in a college town, you might want to avoid staying at an Airbnb! This Wall Street Journal article shared information from a study showing that Airbnb hosts “jack up their prices” for their biggest rival teams because of “affiliation bias”—in other words, the hosts just can’t stand the visiting team’s fans.” And many of the units end up going unrented, which ultimately hurts the owners because they lose money - but at least they know they were loyal!
BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
I loved this article from the New York Times about raising resilient children. If the past year and a half has taught us anything, it is that resilience is key! As we know firsthand, resilient kids are more likely to bounce back and even to thrive when they are faced with disappointment (like a waitlist decision from their dream school!), and this article lays out some actionable steps that parents can take to increase their children’s resistance. I know that I’ll take advantage of these tips, and I encourage every parent to think about how they can model resilience for their kids.
The Wall St. Journal article we covered last week about the widening gender gap in higher education has received a lot of attention in the past few weeks, spawning several response articles. This one from The Atlantic explores the history of this gap, and the role of ideas about masculinity in discouraging boys from seriously pursuing higher education. Not only do boys enroll in college at lower rates than girls, but in middle and high school, girls tend to spend more time studying, get in trouble less often, and get better grades across all subjects. The article suggests that the answer to this issue doesn’t happen in college admissions - instead, we need to address the gap that appears in early adolescence to control the ripple effect for higher education.
OFFICE HAPPENINGS
Shannon attended a networking event this week with so many amazing professionals from the DC area! We love being able to make connections and refer our students to people that we trust for tutoring, testing, evaluation, and more. Stay tuned for some collaborations and events that we have in the works!
We are busy with so many virtual tours and information sessions. We had hoped for some in-person tours this year, but you can’t beat the convenience of the virtual options! For a list of upcoming virtual fairs, tours, and information sessions for students and parents, see our latest post, and bookmark it for later - we’ll add new events as the dates are released. Let us know what you think of these virtual events!
Enjoy the weekend!