We talk a lot about winning scholarships, researching and competing for them, but we haven’t touched at all on losing them. What types of circumstances justify a school or organization rescinding a scholarship?

When Students Fail to Make the Grade

Thousands of high school and college students win lucrative merit scholarships each year. Though it may seem obvious there may be some students that fail to realize that they can be taken away. Scholarships awarded to academically remarkable students are typically attached with the contingency that students must maintain a certain minimum GPA. Particularly for renewable scholarships, students must be clear on the terms of their award. Students that may have produced outstanding work in high school may struggle in the college realm.

Scholarship verbiage often contains directions such as “must maintain GPA of ____ in all courses related to student’s major.” In the case of a Computer Science major, do sub-par work in Discrete Math and you stand to lose your scholarship.

When Scholarship for Service Agreements Fail

Some scholarships come attached with a contingency that binds students to a term of service, such as:

• Corporate scholarships that require recipients fulfill internship responsibilities, or to agree to a career with Company X following graduation.
• Government scholarships like the David L. Boren Scholarships are very competitive and for a reason—they fund a full year of intensive study abroad. However, the hitch is that students must be willing to work for the Department of Defense or Homeland Security following graduation.
• Government or university scholarships for teachers and nurses that require grads work in underserved school systems or medical facilities.

So, what happens if you’ve completed school (scholarship is spent), and you decide you have no interest in working for Company X or pushing a pencil for the DoD, or spending the first two years of your nursing career in a free clinic? In most cases you’re responsible for full repayment of the scholarship.

When Switching Majors Can Really Sting

There are many cases in which choosing a college major is really not that critical a decision in the larger scheme of things—what’s most important is the bigger choice: to go to college and persevere while there. However, students that accept scholarships—need-based or merit-based—attached to college or university departments of study may find themselves locked into a career. Here’s a scenario: when you applied for your music scholarship you were so sure of your choice of Music major. Now, you’re a junior and having serious second thoughts—you’d prefer to switch to English Literature and may still have time to pull it off.

Chances are good you can kiss your scholarship goodbye and may be expected to repay what you already “used” toward that music major you failed to stick with.

The bottom line is this: scholarships have a bottom line. They are loosely termed “free money,” but most come bundled with terms and criteria you must be willing to seriously consider. If you cannot hold up your end of the scholarship bargain will you be able to finish school without it?

Billions in “Remittances” Sent Back Home—Could They Cover Tuition?

If all the Hispanic students suddenly enrolled in college tomorrow, they would likely outpace enrollment for nearly every other population of student. There would also likely be economic disasters in more than one Latin American country.

Hispanic students comprise the largest group not enrolling in college. This lackluster claim to fame fuels all kinds of debate among higher education experts—especially elusive: Why?

Hispanic student statistics on high school graduation and college enrollment (2002):

• 52% graduate high school (outside GED; compare to 78% white students).
• 20% graduate prepared for college (compare to 40% white students).

Leading factors suggested for low Hispanic enrollment include:

• Low test scores and GPAs.
• Family and job responsibilities
• Language barriers
• Lack of proper college preparation/guidance
• Poverty

Education experts—mostly middle to upper income whites—tend to explain the low college enrollment rate with very canned symptoms. Most of these bypass (read “ignore”) a much more profound and primal cultural priority—family remittances.

Aid Sent Home Rivals Revenue of Top Corporations

Doubt the meaning of family remittances? Millions of Hispanic immigrants working in this country send money back home to impoverished family members. According to some reports the value of money sent from the U.S. each year to relatives in countries such as “Mexico, Brazil and Colombia,” is nothing short of crucial foreign aid, which (alarmingly) exceeds the aid provided by the U.S. By 2010 the estimated amount of remittances annually is expected to reach $100 million, the biggest chunk of it going to Mexico.

“Remittances have benefits at all levels of Latin American economies - virtually keeping some poorer countries afloat.” (BBC)

Does Remittance Equal Dollar Value of College Tuition?

Does this mean that if the U.S. provided ample economic support to poverty-stricken Latin American countries that maybe Hispanic families could use their money to put children in college? One report says that of those Hispanic families that send money back home most send “between $100 and $200 per month.” Simple math puts this between $1200 and $2400 a year, the latter close to the cost for community college tuition, according to the national average ($2,272, College Board).

Why not just take out student loans? Another oft-ignored cultural anomaly is the perception of debt among most Hispanics. A recent survey of students’ perceptions of financial aid and debt showed that Hispanic students thought college not really worth the value and considered loss of jobs and debt high costs to pay for a college education.

Western Union’s Corporate Influence Could Sway Education Attitudes

As far as remittances go, senders rely on wire services, such as Western Union, one of the larger services. The billions of dollars that criss cross the globe everyday may also be symbolic of the fees attached to such services. A few years ago, Western Union could charge $9 for a wire transfer—which would add up to another formidable chunk of change taken from pockets that could use it for education—once again. But business is business and competitors have crashed the high fees. Now transfers cost more like $3.

WU’s Corporate Responsibility website advertises its projects in countries such as Mexico where it supports a “sustainable job” program. In the U.S. WU participates in the JAG program (Jobs for America’s Graduates, Inc.)—a high school literacy program. And the company sponsors educational scholarships, (although I fail to find a link to an application or any detailed information). Companies such as this possess huge potential to influence their customers.

Tide Will Turn

Evidence points to changes in Hispanic college enrollment regardless of continued debate, and regardless of continued challenges: studies show Hispanic students are the largest population to attend large urban high schools, which typically denotes disadvantaged, at best. Statistics continue to show active gains in Hispanic college enrollment, the most rapid growth of all ethnic groups: enrollment has increased by 68%, with significant change for the better at four-year institutions.

Change takes time. No one is able to automatically shift cultural beliefs and norms, though we like to believe we can. The practice of family remittances proves a deep loyalty, drive, and hard-working ethic. Imagine such priorities divided equally between family and education.

What SAT Scores Reveal and the Demise of Marriageable Males

Girls, young women, there are too many of you on America’s college campuses. That is in comparison with your male counterparts. The college world has been waiting patiently for the scales to rebalance themselves, but male enrollment remains lackluster, so intervenes humankind.

Male Affirmative Action

Our report, The White Man’s Guide to Getting a Minority Scholarship, examines the possibilities for a white male qualifying for minority scholarships. It is a controversial topic, at best, and not one we take lightly.

But, what exactly has happened to the populations of males, many white, on college campuses, that continues to inspire the marginally offensive concept?

SAT Scores—Education’s Favorite Metric

Back in the mid-90s legal action against College Board and Educational Testing Service served to correct what educational experts had alleged for years—that the PSAT, the test that makes high school students eligible for National Merit Scholarships—was designed to appeal more to males than to females. The corrected test was designed with a writing component, which seemed to offer an equitable correction.

It’s been understood for decades that females perform better in the classroom than males, but on tests the opposite was true. In 1995, based on university research, the following SAT truths were proven:

“The SAT falls far short of its sole advertised claim — the accurate prediction of first year college grades — by consistently underestimating the academic performance of females.”

So college admissions systems based on test scores of course tended to favor males.

Why the Shortage of Males on Campus, though?

Current research suggests that because girls—from all backgrounds—adapt more readily to classroom environments many are quite prepared for college when it rolls around. Secondary school systems lag alarmingly behind in proper college preparation. But if females can keep up, it may just be a symptom of Education’s bigger ill that a larger percentage of males than in the past are not making it to college, a problem that is complicated even more because it apparently cuts across all other demographics.

Does the SAT continue to influence college demographics? Here’s a basic comparison test. Consider:

• Males tend to score higher on the math portion of the SAT.
• Females tend to score higher on the reading portion of the SAT.
• Given an average math SAT score and an average reading SAT score from a college campus, how closely do the scores reflect the gender demographics of the campus?

Armed with statistics on average math and reading SAT scores from almost any college campus in the U.S., I chose a few colleges with scores significantly higher in both categories and a few with scores relatively even. My questions: in cases where math scores far outpace reading scores will I find a larger population of males on campus, and when the scores in reading are significantly higher will I find more females? At the same time, when SAT averages for both categories are somewhat even will the gender demographics be also fairly split?

A couple of obvious choices:

• Sweet Briar College (women’s college)—math: 548, reading: 586
• Hampden-Sydney College (men’s college)—math: 573, reading: 571

• Bowdoin College—math: 690, reading: 690 –577 males, 655 females.
• Carnegie Mellon University—math: 718, reading: 657—60% male, 40% female (CMU admits more women to try and balance its heavy engineering and comp sci degree programs)
• College of the Atlantic—math: 586, reading: 624—55 males, 133 females (very small college enrollment)
• Evergreen State College—math: 539, reading: 587—25% males, 75% females.
• Lafayette College—math: 665, reading: 620– 1,095 males, 1,051 females
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology—math: 755, reading: 712—44% females (undergrad)
• Ohio Wesleyan University—math: 605, reading: 606– 1,111 males, 1,076 females.
• Reed College—math: 661, reading: 698– 55% female and a strong Humanities curriculum.

Drive for Balanced Campuses—Better Social Life and the Fear of a Diminishing Educated (“Nubile”) Male Population

For the most part the above SAT scores are indicative of the demographics, but a more telling statistic may be the comparison between the numbers of male and female applicants at any one institution versus those actually chosen for admission. This is likely where major turns of the screw occur. While the debate seems focused on “gender parity,” a much murkier, and at times sophomoric, rationale is at work: for example, the unspoken “fear” that the decreasing population of male students will translate into a less educated, less marriageable male population for their well-educated female counterparts.

• At MIT females face a much easier time of admission—over 7,000 males apply annually, compared with over 2,000 females, but the ratio of those actually admitted is 758 males : 736 females.

• At Lafayette College, the formerly male student body has emphasized female enrollment and now is close to “gender parity.” Nearly 800 more male applicants than female are considered annually, but enrollment is almost balanced.

• The College of William and Mary is one that has made headlines in the last few years for its high “rejection” rate for women. Men have a much easier time with admissions: over 2,000 more applications from females are received annually, in comparison to males, but the ratio of students admitted is 1,596 male : 1,696 female.

The William and Mary syndrome has become the way of admissions at many smaller, private schools.

Why is it that we always want to fix things?

Some conservative pundits think that favoritism in college admissions is perfectly fine—we just must be upfront about it. “I’m a bigot—that’s okay, because I’m being honest about it.” The Admitting-it-Makes-it-Okay Theory. Hmmmm.

Do we really have that much of a problem just enrolling students based on the merit of their applications and interests? What are the roadblocks to unbiased college admissions? What trips us up and makes us favor one type of student over another? And what, pray tell, keeps some admissions officers up at night fearful of a less than worthy male (viable mate) population?

I wonder when the education ecosystem, unnaturally manipulated, might begin to exhibit signs of a new kind of stress.

Scholarships for Low Income Students at Elite Universities

I know you’re out there. The statistics prove it. While only a fraction of you actually applies to Harvard or Princeton, many more probably flirt with the thought then dismiss it—too unrealistic, who would believe it, right? SAT records prove a much deeper pool of academically eligible low-income students than most educators would have us believe, or maybe no one expected, and expectations do play a part, don’t they?

The List

Here’s the list of colleges and universities—and it’s constantly growing—that provide full scholarships to academically talented low-income students (and you’re out there):

• Harvard
• Princeton
• Stanford
• Amherst College
• University of North Carolina
• University of Virginia
• Williams College
• University of Washington
• University of Chicago (starts Fall 2008)

One study showed that based on SAT scores, low-income students from over 10,500 high schools in the U.S. possessed scores that would make them eligible for Harvard’s admissions requirements, but that students from only 5,000 (that’s half, 50%) of those schools actually applied. If there was only 1 student counted from each of those schools, then over 5500 students chose something else.

Why?

Deeper factors contribute to the college choices made by underserved students, factors like family and parental opinions, even self-perception.

See Yourself to a Free and Elite Degree

1. Picture Yourself [ here], now fill in the blank with one of the names off that list right up there. Imagine yourself everyday on that campus; get a real good picture in your mind. Call or write for the catalog and cut out pictures of the campus—pin them up in your room, tape them to the fridge.

2. Reach out and contact someone on the campus. For example, many colleges and universities have student and faculty bloggers. Logon and ask questions, post a comment, become engaged with a piece of the college life. In the case of faculty blogs, this is an excellent way to make an academic contact, a possible mentor and someone who may be able to actually lend some gentle guidance and advice. A couple blogs I quickly found:

• A Harvard Economics Professor
• The Amherst Chirp
• Stanford School of Medicine student blogs

Just a few ideas… Take your catalog, your admission form, and contact information to your high school career counselor and tell him or her to picture you [ there].

Scenario: What If Every Student Went Directly to College, What Then?

The rhetoric is that education is important, but is our economy really prepared for the scenario in which every student does choose to attend a four-year college? First responses are “Sure, no problem.” But if you take up a strong cup of coffee and sit down with some friends to jaw over it, it’s likely you’ll dig up some pretty big reasons why this scenario could backfire, economically.

If everyone suddenly chose to go to a four-year college and earn a degree—Utopian at best, but a mind-bending what-if….

• Would we lose employees in the McDonald’s down the street?
• Would Ford and Chrysler be forced to move operations to countries where there was still a manufacturing work force?
• Would there be builders to make houses with hammers and nails?
• Would asphalt be laid for new super highways?
• Would there be someone to tow your car when it breaks down?

Let’s ease up just a bit on this farfetched concept and try this one: What if every graduating high school student next year entered college right out of high school; just one class of graduating seniors? (Again, Utopian because as rumpled as secondary schools are, too many seniors fail to graduate or be adequately prepared to enroll in college). Right now there is a population that does, in fact, graduate and go directly to school, but there is also a population that divides work with school, and a population that enters the work force. Without the population of high school students that foregoes college to enter the work force, how many jobs would go unfilled?

Get a Technical or Trade Education–Millions of Skilled Jobs to Fill

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2012 there will be an upsetting shortage of laborers in a number of key sectors: healthcare, IT, and manufacturing and production, are among them. The reasons are multi-pronged. Since education has re-routed students to college, as opposed to trades, there are fewer and fewer skilled laborers entering the work force. By 2012 more workers in these sectors will retire, leaving jobs unfilled.

Doesn’t sound so competitive, does it?

Since jobs will be unfilled because students are heading to college or dropping out of high school—leaving them totally unprepared for anything but unskilled jobs—then it’s necessary to see the numbers associated. The BLS reports that, between new job creations and retiring workers, over 56 million new and existing jobs will possibly sit vacant! Some of these will require two or four-year degrees, but plenty of them only require career or “on-the-job” training. Are we encouraging well qualified technical students? Is anyone in education brave enough to counsel students, perhaps underachieving in academics, to consider a skilled and well-paying trade as opposed to the alternative—dropping out?

Scholarships Available for Trade/Professional Programs

There has been some recent excitement in some types of career programs: cosmetology (notice increasing number of Aveda Institutes, for example), massage therapy (a high-demand skill), and HVAC, which goes hand in hand with the construction industry. All of these professional trades require a term of specialized schooling and increasing numbers of sources are funding scholarships and grants for interested students.

Lack of Vocational Choices

Once upon a time vocational schools were innately partnered with many public high schools. Students with a drive for auto mechanics, agriculture, and carpentry and construction could spend part of their high school careers learning a trade—a well-paying one, at that. In the 90s, though, in Education’s zeal to see every student remade into a robotic scholar, vocational schools were severed from the public systems and most are defunct, non-existent.

Political Waffling

In 2006, President Bush signed back into action the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act. The act is designed to allow for increased support for technical and vocational education programs. Currently there is some buzz on the Presidential campaign trail that favors cutting budget spending on technical education. So what’s it going to be?

Education’s One-Track Mind

But as much as one might try to force a square peg into a round hole, there are some students failing out of school simply because they are not the next great academicians. Twenty years ago, he or she had the option to pursue farming or auto repair or welding or computer repair and networking versus so called college prep, but most have no such choice. A growing chorus of career counselors and educators is brave enough at least to suggest we explore steering some students into trade schools versus four-year liberal arts colleges, inspire them to success as opposed to failure. In fact, in surveys, some high school drop-outs cite “boredom” and lack of challenge as significant factors in their decisions to part ways with academia.

Maybe if some of these students had had options for careers, they might have felt less pressure to vacate a one-track system.

In some cases students may have options for scholarship funds to vocational schools—like the state of Kansas Vocational Scholarship—but without the proper guidance in high school many will not likely find these sources on their own.

The New Innovators—Trade and Technical Students Will Drive Economic Growth

If innovation and entrepreneurship will be key to worker success in the future, as many predict, then students with the hutzpah to step off the beaten path and machete a pathway to a vocational or technical career will be the most successful among the innovators and entrepreneurs. God knows they will have to be their own best advocates—no one else is at the helm.

The Undercurrent in Undergraduate Education

As exciting as college prep can be, there is an alarming undercurrent that threatens almost half the population of incoming freshman—attrition. How do colleges and universities keep disillusioned students from dropping out?

The number of college freshman dropouts is typically cited between 1 in 4 or 1 in 5, with some sources positing arguments that nearly half of all college students fail to graduate. Surveys of high school students show no lack of interest for a college degree, in fact 95% of high school students when asked about college indicated a “very strong desire” to complete a degree program.¹ If only a fraction of those respondents actually earns a degree, then what happened to change their attitude and/or desire?

A complex array of contributory factors may be to blame, and a growing stable of remedies offered for their cure. But what are the fundamental causal factors of college freshmen attrition and how can they be more directly halted?

High School Grads Poorly Prepared for Campus Challenges

High schools are generally motivated to make sure students go to college. The drive to go to college has little to do with the success rates of students, however. In fact, a mountain of research clearly illustrates that the motivation to excel in college has little to do with the reality of contemporary campus living. The real meat of the drop out problem is the academic preparation, or lack thereof, that students receive prior to arrival on campus.

High School Seniors that “Blow Off” School Likely to Suffer on Campus

A common practice among high school seniors is to take that last year as easy as possible, blow it off, waste it in easy courses. Perhaps this worked, once upon a time, but today’s high school senior slumming it his or her last year is doing more harm than good, report most studies.² College advisers these days urge high school seniors to avoid “resting on their laurels,” and instead spend their senior year immersed in courses that pose academic challenge. This is the best method for college prep, say administrators. A Department of Education study proved the importance of academic challenge in regards to college performance:

“…the academic intensity of a student’s high school course work was the top factor influencing whether students earned a college degree — more than family income, high school grades, ethnicity or test scores.”³

Even for students that work very hard and then take it easy their final year of high school the odds are not so good. This is a wasted year, time in which every bit of a student’s good work can be undone. Given the fact that studies show students lose learned knowledge over the course of a summer break, it’s understandable how they could become quite academically bankrupt, after a full year of cushy coursework and time off from serious studies. Their GPAs are still high, but academic agility is low.

High School Students Fail New College Admissions Standards

College admissions standards have also become a major hurdle to clear for students. Add on a “lost” year of academics and students that for all intents and purposes should be college-ready, are unable to make the academic cut. Colorado State University system’s administrators decided, out of sheer necessity, to ease new admissions requirements for incoming freshman in the Fall of 2007, or risk losing about 20% of their incoming freshman class.⁴

Why the Strong Desire to Go to College?

Problem: 95% of high school students expect to earn a college degree and indicate a strong desire for the same, but, regardless, more and more incoming college freshman are disastrously unprepared and unmotivated to achieve that goal. What, then, drives them in herds onto America’s campuses every fall?

Those same student respondents that expressed the “of course” attitudes about college, also responded that their primary motivators for pursuing college were: good job, good salary.⁵ Somewhere between the illusion of the American Dream and a Bachelors degree lies the truth. Do students simply expect to earn a degree with little work? It makes sense that students whose educational experiences up through secondary school have been somewhat boring, unchallenging and downright lackluster, may expect that their college experience will be similar. Given this illusion, then of course, most students see a college degree in their future, and are justifiably caught very off guard when their first semester of college rolls around and kicks them squarely between the eyes.

What High-Performing High Schools Know That Others Don’t

Samples of select high school teaching methods and policies, chosen for their success rates with college-ready students, reveal fundamental strategies that consistently nurture college campus-ready high school students:

• High quality, experienced, and flexible teachers.
• Teachers capable of evaluating the teaching-learning paradigm and prepared to adjust techniques given the results.
• Auxiliary mentors, tutors, and after school study assistance, available and engaged.
• Advanced college preparatory coursework “beyond state and district standards.”⁶

Any suggestion from naysayers that these methods would fail in certain high schools is moot– these methods belong to and were observed in practice in a handful of “high-performing” schools in high minority, high poverty areas. Which means, essentially, that if these methods work to develop the skills of high school students in disadvantaged schools, they should work in almost any high school in America. Furthermore, the study that distilled these findings was ultimately presented as a primer for education lawmakers.⁷

Some Students Face Deeper Challenges on Campus

Academic shortcomings notwithstanding, there are student populations that statistically struggle even harder.

Why First Generation Students Face Further Adversity

First-generation college students, especially minorities, face challenges stemming first and foremost from lack of familial support. In fact, the majority of ethnic minority students rate “parental influence” as a number one factor in their “educational choices.”⁸ This is not to say that parents do not want a college education for their children, but parents without experience of academic life beyond high school are less prepared to provide the emotional and psychological support and motivation necessary to keep their first-in-family student on campus. These types of students may also feel disenfranchised from higher education, and out of place with students whose families take college as a matter of course.

Male Freshman May Struggle with College Structure

Males are, on the average, less agile than their female counterparts when it comes to standardizing their on-campus lives, including organizational skills, prioritization and time management, and defining successful study habits and methods. Course assignments tend to fall behind and concrete goals are elusive. When these factors fall apart or are non-existent, males may be unable to remain academically buoyant, further supporting the alarming statistics: for every 100 women that graduate college, only 73 men will do the same.⁹

If so many college freshmen are surprised by the rigors of college academics—in combination with the traditional transition to campus life—that they are at risk for dropping out, then what’s being done to change the freshman experience?

Since America’s high schools are failing to adequately renovate curriculum or recruit (and pay for) the type of teachers necessary to maintain a high-performing program, then it must become the responsibility of colleges and universities to provide the necessary student support.

Freshman Survival: Retention Programs Stem Anxiety

Some college and university administrators are quite concerned that the drop out rate among college freshman is their responsibility. In response, retention programs have begun to spring up. Whether grassroots, campus-created, or pre-packaged Freshmen Survival courses administered by professional educational coaches, retention programs essentially guide students with bumpy campus transitions and connect them to the resources—academic, social, religious, medical, financial—they will need to succeed on campus.

Preparedness for college life goes well beyond the pale of sheer academics. Fueling the need for transition programs. High school students are equally unprepared for the responsibilities of a more “adult” world. Common challenges that await freshman on traditional college campuses:

• Financial matters
• Study and time management
• Personal organization and prioritization

“Give Them Time, They’ll Find Their Way Around”

Students most likely to drop out do so before they reach their sophomore year. Some leave for holiday breaks, Spring Breaks, and summer vacation, and never return, some with little indication they are leaving. The general excitement about college quickly wanes, but many administrators still believe much of the work is done once kids are on campus. As bright an idea as retention programs seem, they are only being used on a fraction of America’s campuses—29%.¹⁰

Factors in College Retention: What Programs Can Be Put in Place to Help Students?

Over the last few years college administrators, as well as students, have tackled the issues inherent to student retention. A large number of colleges and universities of all kinds, collectively assigned the following practices as primary in retention programs:¹¹

• Freshman seminars and courses.
• Academic assistance, from mentors and tutors to remedial courses.
• Available advisors willing to engage with students and offer sooner-than-later guidance on academic goals.

Alternative indicators suggest that there are other factors that make a difference in student engagement and transition:

• Evidence suggests that students with campus-based jobs are less likely to drop out. Perhaps they are more disciplined with study skills and time management.¹²
• Remediation programs, or high school level courses that help bring students up to speed with essential freshman courses. Remedial coursework remains popular in community college systems, a controversial issue in higher education, but possibly a strong reason why an increasing number of students are opting for 2+2 programs, or community college to four-year transfer programs. Some supporters of remedial programs insist the concept must be accepted among four-year colleges, as well, to stem the dropout rate or discourage transfers to community colleges.¹³
• Available advisers are seen by students as “concerned person[s] in the campus community” able to interact and connect with freshman. Student responses have suggested this type of “quality interaction” may be one of the simplest solutions for new students away from home for the first time and feeling lost in the shuffle.¹⁴

Retention Tools

Colleges and universities unable to design and develop their own retention programs may utilize pre-packaged programs or resources from a number of providers:

• Of the 29% of schools that have retention programs, 13¹⁵ so far participate in the “Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year.” Policy Center on the First Year of College administers this program with a mission to inspire college and university campuses to become “engaging” environments for first year students. With tools provided through the Foundations of Excellence program, institutions may conduct careful self-assessment of all aspects of campus life, including “policies and practices.” Eventually changes are developed—the outcome, a totally synthesized campus that embraces first year students and their experiences, instead of excluding and isolating.
• The National Resource Center for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition provides written materials, seminars, conferences, and networking opportunities for institutions interested in creating a “first year experience” worth hanging around to savor. The Center is best known for its University 101 course, an innovative and very successful program that guides new students in their shift to campus life.
• The Center for the Study of College Student Retention provides a stable of resources for institutions. Administrators have access to research specific to the issues, as well as a general guide designed to lead any institution through development of a retention program.

High Dollar Freshman “Coaches” Hit a Mother Lode

Plenty of lip service is paid to for-profit “coaching” services prior to college—professional assistance with admissions forms, guidance during college and financial aid processes, as well as scholarship and grant assistance. But some colleges and universities are paying top dollar for another kind of coaching service—retention coaches.

First year coaches function as a freshman’s guardian angel; they provide motivation when students feel down, guidance in mapping academic goals, and offer tips and advice for improving study habits, managing time, coexisting with roommates, and building successful relationships with campus faculty and advisers.¹⁶

A mere handful of student coaching businesses exist, but plenty more are sure to follow—the money making potential is great and this segment of the education market, so far untapped. But with service fees of “$800 to $1,400 per student”¹⁷, what colleges and universities are paying? Apparently, plenty.

Freshman Attrition: No Easy Answer

Given the disparity of issues facing contemporary college freshmen, it’s clear there is no one easy answer to halt freshman dropouts. Students begin their college careers with little understanding of the impending rigors. Apparently high schools, save for a few high-performers, dish up less than desirable college preparatory curriculum. Admission to a college would also seem to validate a students’ academic record, but this is misleading, as well.

Retention programs are likely to continue spreading among college campuses; they must. Sources suggest that the federal government may soon challenge higher education on the dropout issue, perhaps with fines for high numbers of students that fail to make it to graduation.

First year on campus, given all the factors at work, is a tricky balancing act. Groundwork for first year transitions must be built. On the other end of the spectrum, is it just a dream that U.S. high school education will make the sweeping changes necessary to lead kids to college level academics; to inspire them as opposed to bore them?

¹ National Freshman Attitudes Report, Noel-Levitz, 2007, accessed August 30, 2007,

² Perez, Gayle, “Educators Support Temporary Lower Admissions Standards,” August 17, 2007, accessed August 27, 2007, http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1187335298/6.

³ “Study: One in Five Drop Out of College Before Sophomore Year,” Albany Democrat-Herald, February 21, 2006, accessed August 27, 2007, http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2006/02/21/news/oregon/state03.txt

⁴ “Study: One in Five Drop Out of College Before Sophomore Year,” Albany Democrat-Herald, February 21, 2006, accessed August 27, 2007, http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2006/02/21/news/oregon/state03.txt

⁵ National Freshman Attitudes Report, Noel-Levitz.

⁶ “Preparing All High School Students for College and Work: What High-Performing Schools are Teaching,” ACT, February 23, 2005, accessed August 30, 2007, http://www.act.org/news/releases/2005/2-23-05.html .

⁷ Implications for Policymakers, ACT, 2005, accessed August 30, 2007, http://www.act.org/path/policy/pdf/success_implications.pdf.

⁸ Szelenyi, Katalin, “Minority Student Retention and Academic Achievement in Community Colleges,” 2004, accessed August 29, 2007, http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-4/minority.html .

⁹ National Freshman Attitudes Report, Noel-Levitz.

¹⁰ Draeger, Justin, “An Examination of First-Year College Students,” NASFAA, 2007, accessed August 26, 2007, http://www.nasfaa.org/publications/2007/examinationoffirst-yearcollegestudents.html .

¹¹ Wesley Habley, Randy McClanahan, What Works in Student Retention? All Survey Colleges, ACT, 2004, accessed August 30, 2007, http://www.act.org/path/postsec/droptables/pdf/AllColleges.pdf .

¹² Cermak, Katherine, “On-Campus Employment as a Factor of Student Retention and Graduation,” DePaul University, February 19, 2004, accessed August 26, 2007, http://oipr.depaul.edu/open/gradereten/oce.asp .

¹³ Gehrman, Elizabeth, “What Makes Kids Drop Out of College?” Harvard University Gazette, May 4, 2006, accessed August 26, 2007, http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/05.04/13-dropout.html

¹⁴ “Many U.S. Colleges Overlooking a Potential Cure for College Dropouts,” ACT News, June 23, 2004, accessed August 26, 2007, http://www.act.org/news/releases/2004/6-23-04.html .

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¹⁷ DeBare, “Executive Style Coaches Put College Students on Track to Success.”

Now Accepting Applicants!

This year we have $10,000 ready for the grand prizewinner of our Blogging Scholarship Contest.

The eligibility requirements are pretty simple:

• U.S. Citizen
• Attending school full-time in a post-secondary institution
• Have your own blog or be a blogger at a community blog

This was a very fun contest for us last year, and we know it will be even better this year. The award will be presented at the Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, November 8-9. We hope to see you there!

Don’t forget to APPLY TODAY…