Weekly Update x2: July 7

Schools are out now and summer is well underway! While I might not want to go back to being a kid, I do miss days when it seemed like summer lasted forever! Time really did move at a different pace then. Hope everyone can stop and savor the special moments of their summer.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

UNC FIRES PROFESSOR THEY SECRETLY RECORDED

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gave notice to Professor Larry Chavis that his contract would not be renewed. In April, they notified him that they had recorded his lecture without his knowledge or permission. When Professor Chavis asked for a meeting to discuss the matter further, and wanted to know the reasons why he was under investigation and his contract was not renewed, the university said they would schedule a meeting, but never did. Professor Chavis is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and an advocate for Indigenous and LGBTQ rights.

EMERSON AND HAMPSHIRE COLLEGES ANNOUNCES SERIOUS CUTS

Blaming the student protests, the botched FAFSA roll-out and implementation, and low enrollment numbers, Emerson College announced layoffs of faculty and staff and cuts to any new hiring. College president, Jay M. Bernhardt, said in an email that the incoming class that deposited was “significantly below what we had hoped.” Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, also announced cuts to their staff benefits, citing many of the same reasons. Small colleges across the region face some of the same threats, simply because there are fewer and fewer students as the population of graduating seniors declines across the country.

SAT AND GRE TEST ADMINISTRATION COMPANY FLOUNDERING

ETS (Educational Testing Service, the long-time administrator of the SAT, AP, GRE, and TOEFL exams) has offered all employees who have been there a minimum of two years a buy-out. The decline in both SAT and GRE test-takers have caused serious problems for the company, and they recently signed a new contract with the College Board in which they would no longer administer the SAT. Originally, that was 30% of their revenue. An anonymous source said that employees were devastated, noting that “folks [were] earnestly sharing self-harm and suicide-prevention hotlines” within hours of the news.

MORE CONCERNING SHENANIGANS HAPPENING WITH THE  TESTING COMPANIES.

Two weeks ago, we shared the news that the Department of Education has hired the president of the College Board to oversee the continued work on the FAFSA. Well, we have since learned that a second College Board executive, Chief Information Officer Jeff Olson, is joining the DOE team. Like Jeremy Singer, Jeff Olson will take a leave of absence from the College Board for the duration of his time at DOE, and then will return to the company. Many are concerned about how student data and privacy will be handled, given how the College Board hungers for such information to do its business. There are also concerns related to possible conflicts of interest related to the College Board’s financial aid platform, the CSS Profile. Many private colleges and universities use the CSS Profile alongside the FAFSA to determine student aid packages.

CONSTRUCTION OF 25K-SQUARE-FOOT RECREATIONAL FACILITY BEGINS AT GMU

George Mason University has broken ground on an $11 million new recreational facility, set to be open by the Spring 2025 semester. The Activities Community Wellness Center will be home to the Green Machine pep band, and will also contain a full-sized basketball court for intramural games, other activity courts, yoga and exercise spaces, offices, conference rooms, and storage.

VILLANOVA BEGINS RENOVATION OF NEWLY ACQUIRED CABRINI UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

Villanova University will begin work at Cabrini University after officially assuming ownership of the 116-acre campus on June 28th. The Radnor, PA campus will be closed for a minimum of two years before reopening as the "Villanova University Cabrini Campus.” Villanova announced their plan to take over Cabrini University last November, after the small, 67-year-old school was unable to bounce back from financial woes as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cabrini held their final commencement this spring. Founded by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and named after the first American naturalized citizen, Saint Mother Frances Cabrini, the university had a core curriculum centered on social justice and was one of the first schools to make community service a graduation requirement.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We have talked a lot about teens and social media. Its pervasiveness and brain-rewiring algorithmic powers are not really in dispute any longer, but there is a deeper and darker side to it than most adults know — and that’s quite terrifying. This article from Rolling Stone provides an in depth look at Snapchat, the role it plays in connecting teens (and young children) to the world of drugs and sex, and how there is almost nothing law enforcement can do. Cute filters aside, it seems that Snapchat may offer a very different experience for its users based on age, dangerously so.

Some busy high school students can only fit campus visits into their calendars over the summer. These can still be valuable experiences, even though the campus environments may not be teeming with students as they are during the academic year. Almost every college has summer school, and so visitors will still have the chance to observe some sense of the student experience that way. It’s also important to note that there may not be as many tours during the summer, however, as that tends to be when admissions staff take their vacations. And, depending on the school, visitors might not be able to see a specific building like a particular dorm or lab, so it’s important to ask the school how a summer visit may differ from a fall or spring visit.

This article offers a nice guide to how to get the most out of a visit and also shares a great point that sometimes a visit will come after being accepted — and that’s ok. As always, no matter when the visit takes place, try to make it an official one. This means signing up with the admissions office and attending school-sponsored programming, not just taking a casual walk around. After your tour has concluded, though, we often recommend asking random students you come across why they chose that school, what they like about it, and what they would change. Most students are happy to give you a fair and honest assessment based on their experiences.

A new study has come up with a list of some of the best choices of majors that are most likely to snag students a stable job post-graduation. It will be of no surprise that majors like engineering, nursing, medical technology, plant and animal sciences and education lead to some of the most reliable jobs. Students majoring in the humanities ended up struggling to find work and often the work found is relatively low-paying. Sadly, art history majors had the highest rates of unemployment.

But what the study also found was that the jobs in industries with low employment rates were also ones where people became burned out and people were simply less satisfied because of the lack of work-life balance. Choosing a major can be challenging because of the pressure to have a “good job for a stable future”, but it’s important to also spend time thinking about what will bring contentment. Of course, there is no reason a teenager would know the answer to this question now, especially when adults don’t even know that for themselves!

So how can we let students know that it’s ok to not have the answers; to be able to sit with the unknown? The future is made up of things — jobs, careers, professions — that don’t even exist yet, so maybe we give them space to learn not only a specific trade, but also critical thinking and problem solving skills. Maybe we do everything we can to instill true love of learning and discovery — a genuine “growth mindset” so that when they need to pivot in the future (and I have no doubt that they will need to!), they can. As quickly as things are changing, I suspect that the ability to turn on a dime and head in a new direction will be the gold standard of a truly educated person — or perhaps it always has been.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

As schools have ended for the year, juniors might now be thinking of themselves as seniors — or “almost seniors”! We have been busy finishing up the Rising Senior Meetings with students and their parents. This is when a student finalizes their college list, with their parents’ blessings, and we help make sure it’s a solid and balanced list of schools. Students are also very busy working on their Common App(R) essays and preparing for their supplemental essays. We love seeing the creativity and self-reflection that our students are finding within themselves!

To read more about testing and the college board, check out these posts!

Weekly Update: May 30

Not long now, everybody! The end of the school year is almost here! Just hang on a little bit longer!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

NORTHEASTERN: NYC STYLE

Marymount Manhattan College, a small liberal arts school in New York City known for their theater programs, just announced a merger with Northeastern University. After the merger, Marymount Manhattan will be renamed Northeastern University-New York City. This will probably open up more opportunities for Northeastern applicants, who are often given the option to begin their studies at Northeastern at an alternate campus if they aren’t admitted through the traditional process. The merger still needs approval from regulators and accreditation agencies, which could take up to two years.

WANTED: COLLEGE PRESIDENTS

It’s not a job for the “faint of heart”, says Rev. John I. (or as students know him, “Father”) Jenkins, head of the University of Notre Dame for the past 19 years. As he gets ready to step down next month, the school will be looking for new leadership — as are many schools across the country! Along with Harvard, UPenn, Yale, Cornell, and UCLA, among others, 12 of the 58 private colleges in Massachusetts are currently without a president. The pressure to be as politically savvy as possible and of the highest academic caliber as possible is a tough blend to find, but seems to be what is now needed to qualify. Few will make the cut, but will even fewer apply?

THE PRICE OF PROTESTING

The administration at Trinity College Dublin has now rescinded a bill they presented to the Student Union. They had originally claimed that students had cost the university €214K ($232K) in “lost revenue” due to student protests. The university asserted that the protests blocked the entrance to the Book of Kells, a 1,200 year old illustrated manuscript, which attracts over half a million tourists each year. Student groups decried the school’s attempt to silence student voices.

A COLLEGE AND IT’S PROTESTORS COMPROMISED AND CONGRESS DIDN’T LIKE THAT

After a week of protests at Northwestern University with an encampment on the school’s green, the president and the students found a compromise and the protest ended. Unlike many other campus’ protests, this one was fairly peaceful. Students disbanded, removing all the tents except for one aid tent, and no arrests were made. Apparently, the U.S. Congress did not like this and demanded that Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill, present himself before Congress this Thursday. Evidently, “some members are expected to rake him over the coals for making a deal with students instead of bringing the hammer down.”

COLLEGE ATHLETES MAY FINALLY GET THEIR DUES

We’ve covered issues relating to NIL (name, image, and likeness) for years, and the latest update comes in the form of an agreement stemming from three antitrust lawsuits alleging $2.8 billion in damages. Now, however, current and former athletes may soon get paid! That said, details are still in the works with the lawyers, and it could take months before the agreement is finally considered settled. The agreement does not take on the issue of employment — the NCAA will likely continue to try and persuade Congress to pass a bill that would keep athletes from becoming employees.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

What does it mean to be a “sell out”? For a long time, the term had the connotation of being someone who has traded in their moral values or integrity in exchange for more immediate gratification — perhaps money, or something else just as vulgar. But, like all human thoughts and ideas, meanings change with time. This article in the New York Times points a post-structuralist finger at young people and examines how they are re-defining the notion of “selling out”. If you go straight for the big bucks in order to position yourself in a place of power and influence to someday help make the world a better place, have you really sold out?

And to rebel against the “old” ideas of what it takes or requires to make the world better — or even to decide what “better” is — is all part of dismantling the false notion of structuralism in the first place. And kids these days do seem to be doing just that!  Paging Foucault and Derrida! But seriously, given the instability in the world for the past 20+ years — 9-11, wars, recessions, political divisions, a pandemic, more economic uncertainty — it’s not unreasonable for young people to try and do everything they can to establish a little bit of security for themselves while also trying to balance their strong desire to also create something better. While this article focuses on “elite” college students, I would posit that the desire to have stability and the power to change things for the better is not only limited to the students who attend “highly rejective” schools.

Sticking with the idea about jobs after college, Jeff Selingo’s latest newsletter reflects on how now, more than ever, people are debating the “value” of college — perhaps even to the point of wondering if college could ever guarantee a job as part of their education!

As summer gets closer, are you lining up your summer reading? Are they beach books? Romance? Something with some international intrigue or an adventure to the other reaches of the solar system? Maybe it’s the time when you are free to dig into some dense classics or the long list of “should’ve read” books you keep tacked to your bulletin board. This piece in the Washington Post is a lovely ode to the joy of reading — something we hope everyone finds time to do.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Speaking of summer reading — did you know that some college applications ask students to share lists of books they’ve read recently? This is also a common interview question! The beginning of summer is a great time for rising seniors to get a head start and make sure they have a few books to discuss if needed.

Students shouldn’t just mention any books, though — It’s always really helpful if at least a few of the texts can be connected to their individual interests, as a way to strengthen their narrative. To make sure all of our rising seniors are prepared, we have been working on putting together our 2024 Summer Reading List, with recommendations broken down by interest — stay tuned for that!

Lastly, as this year’s admission cycle winds down, college offices around the country are already thinking about next year and what it will bring. As we have already mentioned a number of times, this year’s FAFSA nightmare (still ongoing) and last year’s Supreme Court ruling are likely to change the way admissions officers shape their incoming freshman classes.

One aspect that has become significantly more relevant in recent months involves geography, and zip codes in particular. I have never heard so many admissions officers discuss the impact of applicant zip codes as I have lately! No kidding, it’s a huge topic right now. I would bet that the average parent has absolutely no concept of what a big impact zip codes are having behind the scenes (the thought process is that students from certain zip codes have distinct advantages over those from other zip codes, and that incorporating zip codes into the decision-making process is a legal way to achieve a more diverse class).

I was happy to weigh in on this for U.S. News readers last week — check out How Your Hometown Could Affect Your College Prospects — it explores how colleges will use geographic methods to grow a diverse student body.

This is so Vienna-specific, but every time I hear the zip code discussion I think about the nuances of 22182 and it makes my head spin. For what it’s worth, the admissions officers have been very clear about how they are assessing applicants in the context of their home zip code, not their school zip code.

As a 22182 resident, I’m zoned to Colvin Run, Cooper, and Langley. Arguably some of the best schools in the state. I chose to live here specifically for the schools and the opportunities for my children.

Yet there is a whole other part of 22182 on the other side of Tysons that is so, so, different in terms of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. And some students from that area attend an elementary school that is ranked 3/10 on GreatSchools. But it’s the same zip code!

While this is a local example, there have got to be so many other places like this across the country. It really makes me wonder about the consequences of this newfound emphasis on zip code and how it will impact students in zip codes like 22182. Only time will tell!

Can’t wait to start your reading? Look at some of these past posts; you’re sure to find a book you love!