February 22, 2011
The Honorable John Kasich, Governor
State of Ohio
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6117
Dear Governor Kasich:
It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents for the past four years. I have loved every minute of the job, and remain passionate about the future of higher education in Ohio. It is now time, however, for me to pursue other opportunities for myself and my family. Accordingly, it is my intention to resign effective March 13, 2011, the end of my fourth full year in this position. My staff and I will work closely with your administration to ensure a smooth transition of leadership.
Governor, you understand what Ohio's colleges and universities mean to the future of our state. Higher education brought you to our state and opened many doors for you. You have repaid the state's investment many-fold by staying in Ohio, building a productive and meaningful life, and dedicating yourself to public service. Fortunately for our state, you are not an exception.
Higher education is in Ohio's DNA. Though we have not always called our system of public higher education the University System of Ohio, we have been in the business of higher education as long as we have been a state. Every Governor and every General Assembly in our history has supported and expanded the higher education opportunities available to the citizens of Ohio.
Our challenge these past four years has not been to build new institutions, though we have built facilities and altered institutional mandates where needed. Rather, our challenge has been to focus our extraordinary higher education infrastructure on helping Ohioans meet the challenges and opportunities of today's global, knowledge based economy.
We are making real, measurable progress. Ohio's "Strategic Plan for Higher Education" is showing results in graduating more students, keeping them in Ohio after graduation, and attracting talent to our state. These highly trained and motivated workers are our state's greatest asset in attracting, retaining and creating jobs. As partners in the Third Frontier program, Ohio's higher education institutions have helped start dozens of new companies and collaborated with hundreds more to create the new products and services that Ohio will sell around the world in the 21st century.
To make this progress possible during a difficult national recession, we have worked hard to focus on our centers of excellence and expand our infrastructure of shared services. As in any large and complex business, the opportunities for productivity enhancements will never be exhausted, but we should be proud that there is an affordable and accessible path to a college degree available to every Ohioan.
I want to thank Governor Strickland for this extraordinary opportunity. I also want to thank the leaders of the General Assembly, including Speakers Husted, Budish and Batchelder and Senate Presidents Harris and Niehaus, for their courtesy, support and confidence. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your administration these past few months. It is my hope that remaining in office during this period of transition provided valuable continuity in an important area of state government. Finally, I am indebted to all the extraordinary men and women who lead higher education in Ohio, including all the trustees, presidents, faculty and staff with whom I have served. It has been an honor to work alongside them and the dedicated staff at the Ohio Board of Regents in this effort.
I wish you and the entire State of Ohio great success in the future.
Sincerely,
Eric D. Fingerhut
Chancellor
Monday, February 28, 2011
More Chancellor news
Chancellor University prepared to relinquish title to its building in Cleveland - Cleveland Business News - Northeast Ohio and Cleveland - Crain's Cleveland Business
Chancellor University prepared to relinquish title to its building in Cleveland - Cleveland Business News - Northeast Ohio and Cleveland - Crain's Cleveland Business
Chancellor University prepared to relinquish title to its building in Cleveland - Cleveland Business News - Northeast Ohio and Cleveland - Crain's Cleveland Business
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
PET vs SPOUSE
Tough call: Pet or spouse? Many say pet
Associated Press
Advertisement | Advertise with Us NEW YORK — Your sweetheart or your pet. Who would you choose to dump if one had to go?
Most current pet owners said they would hold on to their spouse or significant other (84 percent), but a sizable 14 percent picked their pet, according to an AP-Petside.com poll.
Put Sally Roland, 53, of Omaha, Neb., down in the dog-first column. "I'm divorced, so that might explain it," she joked.
The unmarried, like Roland, are more apt to choose their pet over their mate — 25 percent among unmarried pet owners versus 8 percent among the married.
Count Fidel Martinez, 30, of Akron, Ohio, as forever loyal to Killer. That's his mix-breed, 100-pound rescue dog.
"I would absolutely give up my girlfriend for him," Martinez said. "I know it sounds insane but I've had numerous relationships with women. My dog has never let me down."
For the record: Martinez and Killer have been together for seven years. Martinez and his girlfriend have been together for four. The two-legged pair have no immediate plans to cohabitate, he said, but she does like the dog a lot.
Women are far more apt than men to say the human-pet choice would be a tough one (40 percent among women compared with 26 percent among men). Both genders were equally likely to go with their spouse or significant other, according to the poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications.
There was also no difference between dog and cat owners: 35 percent of each said the choice would be a hard one and more than eight in 10 would choose their spouse.
Urban dwellers (47 percent) are more apt to say they'd have a difficult time choosing than did suburbanites (35 percent) or rural residents (25 percent).
Giving up a pet for any reason can be really tough — unless you are the owners of Princess the canine escape artist.
David Rosenthal and his family in Missouri City, Texas, were ready with what they considered an ideal fenced backyard when they welcomed the 2-year-old American Eskimo from a shelter. Then things went from pretty good to not at all.
"She kept getting away," he said. "She'd dig underneath the fence, sneak out through every little crack. It would usually take about an hour or so to corral her."
Even worse, the 49-year-old Rosenthal discovered the hard way that the bushy sago palm plants in the backyard were poisonous to dogs (and humans, too). Princess sampled them and nearly died. Treatment cost about $2,000.
"Plus she was nipping at kids," said Rosenthal, who has three. "We were told it was friendly to kids." So off Princess went, back to the shelter after a year. "It was sad but we knew there was already somebody there to adopt her."
The family now has two other rescue dogs.
About six in 10 adults (57 percent) have had to give up a pet at some point in their lives, with current pet owners (64 percent) a bit more likely to have done so.
The most common reasons had to do with the pet's health: 69 percent said their pet was too sick to live on, 52 percent too sick to be cared for at home. But there are other reasons as well, including about one in 10 (9 percent) who, like Rosenthal, said their animal was too dangerous to keep.
One-third (34 percent) of current pet owners said it would be "extremely" or "very" difficult if they were forced to choose between a pet and a family member who became allergic. Another 20 percent would find the choice somewhat difficult and 46 percent said it would be "not too difficult" or "not difficult at all."
Christopher J. Hampton, 67, in Bellingham, Wash., has loved Pembroke Welsh corgis since he was a kid. He had a 5-year-old he had raised from a pup when he and his wife realized 40 years ago that their year-old son's asthma was dangerously exacerbated by their pet.
"I couldn't give up my son, so that was it," Hampton said.
The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted October 13 to 20, 2010 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,501 adults nationwide including 1,000 pet owners. Results among all adults have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points; for results among pet owners it is 4.0 percentage points.
Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
Associated Press
Advertisement | Advertise with Us NEW YORK — Your sweetheart or your pet. Who would you choose to dump if one had to go?
Most current pet owners said they would hold on to their spouse or significant other (84 percent), but a sizable 14 percent picked their pet, according to an AP-Petside.com poll.
Put Sally Roland, 53, of Omaha, Neb., down in the dog-first column. "I'm divorced, so that might explain it," she joked.
The unmarried, like Roland, are more apt to choose their pet over their mate — 25 percent among unmarried pet owners versus 8 percent among the married.
Count Fidel Martinez, 30, of Akron, Ohio, as forever loyal to Killer. That's his mix-breed, 100-pound rescue dog.
"I would absolutely give up my girlfriend for him," Martinez said. "I know it sounds insane but I've had numerous relationships with women. My dog has never let me down."
For the record: Martinez and Killer have been together for seven years. Martinez and his girlfriend have been together for four. The two-legged pair have no immediate plans to cohabitate, he said, but she does like the dog a lot.
Women are far more apt than men to say the human-pet choice would be a tough one (40 percent among women compared with 26 percent among men). Both genders were equally likely to go with their spouse or significant other, according to the poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications.
There was also no difference between dog and cat owners: 35 percent of each said the choice would be a hard one and more than eight in 10 would choose their spouse.
Urban dwellers (47 percent) are more apt to say they'd have a difficult time choosing than did suburbanites (35 percent) or rural residents (25 percent).
Giving up a pet for any reason can be really tough — unless you are the owners of Princess the canine escape artist.
David Rosenthal and his family in Missouri City, Texas, were ready with what they considered an ideal fenced backyard when they welcomed the 2-year-old American Eskimo from a shelter. Then things went from pretty good to not at all.
"She kept getting away," he said. "She'd dig underneath the fence, sneak out through every little crack. It would usually take about an hour or so to corral her."
Even worse, the 49-year-old Rosenthal discovered the hard way that the bushy sago palm plants in the backyard were poisonous to dogs (and humans, too). Princess sampled them and nearly died. Treatment cost about $2,000.
"Plus she was nipping at kids," said Rosenthal, who has three. "We were told it was friendly to kids." So off Princess went, back to the shelter after a year. "It was sad but we knew there was already somebody there to adopt her."
The family now has two other rescue dogs.
About six in 10 adults (57 percent) have had to give up a pet at some point in their lives, with current pet owners (64 percent) a bit more likely to have done so.
The most common reasons had to do with the pet's health: 69 percent said their pet was too sick to live on, 52 percent too sick to be cared for at home. But there are other reasons as well, including about one in 10 (9 percent) who, like Rosenthal, said their animal was too dangerous to keep.
One-third (34 percent) of current pet owners said it would be "extremely" or "very" difficult if they were forced to choose between a pet and a family member who became allergic. Another 20 percent would find the choice somewhat difficult and 46 percent said it would be "not too difficult" or "not difficult at all."
Christopher J. Hampton, 67, in Bellingham, Wash., has loved Pembroke Welsh corgis since he was a kid. He had a 5-year-old he had raised from a pup when he and his wife realized 40 years ago that their year-old son's asthma was dangerously exacerbated by their pet.
"I couldn't give up my son, so that was it," Hampton said.
The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted October 13 to 20, 2010 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,501 adults nationwide including 1,000 pet owners. Results among all adults have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points; for results among pet owners it is 4.0 percentage points.
Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
BEST COLLEGE VALUES
Schools tout efforts
to keep tuition in
check
Updated 1h 3m ago |
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
As colleges and universities begin setting
tuition for the upcoming academic year, a
few schools are already touting their efforts
to keep costs down.
By Jim
R. Bounds, BloombergDuke University in
Durham, N.C., is on The Princeton Review's list
of 100 Best Value Colleges for 2011. Enlarge
By Jim R. Bounds, Bloomberg
Duke University in Durham, N.C., is on The Princeton
Review's list of 100 Best Value Colleges for 2011.
Last Thursday, the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia announced a
3.9% tuition increase, its "second smallest ...
in 43 years." A day earlier, The University of
the South in Sewanee, Tenn., released the
news that its board approved a 10% cut in
tuition and fees for the coming academic
year.
•100 Best Value Colleges for 2011: Click
the money jar image below on the left.
A cynic might think the schools are angling
to stay below the Education Department's
radar. As part of an ongoing plan to help
keep spiraling tuition charges in check, the
department will annually publish online,
starting in July, a list of schools with the
highest percentage increases in tuition and
fees in a three-year period, along with the 5%
of colleges reporting the highest overall
sticker prices. Schools that don't provide the
data risk losing access to billions of dollars
in federal student aid.
But colleges also recognize that families are
struggling. Nearly two-thirds of incoming
students reported that the "current
economic situation significantly affected my
college choice," says an annual survey of
more than 200,000 full-time first-year
students attending four-year colleges. It was
released last month by UCLA's Higher
Education Research Institute.
TOP 20 'VALUE' PICKS
PUBLIC
1. University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
2. City University of New York - Hunter College (New York, N.Y.)
3. New College of Florida (Sarasota)
4. Florida State University (Tallahassee)
5. University of Colorado-Boulder
6. State University of New York-Binghamton
7. University of Georgia (Athens)
8. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg)
9. Texas A&M University (College Station)
10. University of Oklahoma (Norman)
PRIVATE
1. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pa.)
2. Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.)
3. Wesleyan College (Macon, Ga.)
4. Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)
5. Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
6. Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.)
7. Rice University (Houston, Texas)
8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.)
9. Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.)
10. Wellesley College (Wellesley, Mass.)
KIPP Schools (Knowledge Is Power Program)
“Why is public education still on the decline?”By Tom Boyden | June 21, 2010
The argument of how to best educate America's children has prevailed for over the past 50 years. Since 1957's Sputnik launch, our country placed a major emphasis on improving schooling to provide smarter and more skilled workers for our future. For decades, presidents, educators, experts and business executives made education improvement a priority. Yet public school outcomes have continued to deteriorate. In 1983, "A Nation of Risk" forcefully stated that U. S. education is in a downhill condition.
Why, in 27 years are we continuing to slide? We are no longer the world's leader in secondary education rankings. A CBS News study of high school degrees showed that 20 years ago our country's 17 year olds were ranked first compared to other industrialized countries. More recently, we ranked 21st out of 27 countries. Yet we are near the top in dollars spent on education. The National Center for Education Statistics indicates reading and mathematics scores showed no statistical difference from 1971 to 2008.
If a business demonstrated similar results, that enterprise would fail. "Going Out of Business" signs on schools are not an option.
The U.S. Department of Education stated the gap between blacks and whites on math and reading scores for eighth graders showed no substantial difference between the early 1990s and 2007. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was quoted as saying, "When more than a million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe". Educator/author Jonathan Kozol, after a visit to a Harlem school, noted that it was ranked "dead last" in reading scores of all the elementary schools in the city. It doesn't have to be this way. Some creative educators, business leaders and entrepreneurs have found ways to dramatically improve education results in a relatively short period of time. Inner-city successes include: Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, KIPP schools, Dr. Ben Chavis's Oakland, CA, American Indian school, a myriad of charter schools across the country, and Philadelphia's principal and teacher, Salome Thomas-EL. The Eastmoor Academy High School, located in a high poverty area of Columbus, Ohio, has a 97 percent graduation rate. What is striking is that many of the recent success stories in education are from groups or individuals -- not from the existing school systems.
Joel Klein, New York City Schools chancellor, has worked hand-in-hand with the union to turn around a poorly rated public schools system. Quite an accomplishment for the country's largest school system.
Michelle Rhee, chancellor of Education in Washington, D.C. is credited with a positive transformation of that city's school system. The Washington Times recently stated, "D.C. Public Schools is a long-troubled system, and in recent weeks, Ms. Rhee has announced student gains on math, science and reading standardized tests. She is also trying to turn around the culture of the system itself.''
Working with the teachers' union, changes include implementing a non-seniority evaluation system and merit pay, and agreeing that the school system can fire poor performing teachers -- even those with tenure. Studies indicate commonalities among very successful schools: High levels of student, teacher and parental involvement, strong/consistent discipline, encouraged self-responsibility, high expectations and accountability, measured results, consequence management, strong leadership and highly qualified teachers who create a can-do environment, are knowledgeable about their students, and work longer hours. These disciplines are not any different than what is found in best-selling books on highly effective business management.
New Haven's Dr. James Comer's School Development Program is now in place in over 1000 U.S. schools. He recognized that many inner-city kids enter school "underdeveloped."
This is consistent with Comer's quest to dig deeply for causes of poor education results. He realized that all babies are born with generally the same level of intelligence. Further, children's first three years will predict how they will fare in school. His focus on educating fathers and/or mothers with effective parenting skills starts within the later months of pregnancy up through pre-kindergarten. Similarly, Jenks and Merideth's, "The Black -- White Test Score Gap" says: "Changing the way parents deal with their children may be the single most important thing we can do to improve children's cognitive skills." Could it be that we are focusing on the symptoms rather than major causes?
Truly our challenge is complex, but we have seen bench-mark successes that clearly run counter to the deteriorating general results. We have also learned that the normally adversarial relations between teachers' unions and the school systems can be turned into positive results. Clearly, it is possible to make major headway.
We must take those steps that have improved school results and replicate them throughout the country.
Public education must be a major priority. Answers must be found for the sake of our nation and its future.
The argument of how to best educate America's children has prevailed for over the past 50 years. Since 1957's Sputnik launch, our country placed a major emphasis on improving schooling to provide smarter and more skilled workers for our future. For decades, presidents, educators, experts and business executives made education improvement a priority. Yet public school outcomes have continued to deteriorate. In 1983, "A Nation of Risk" forcefully stated that U. S. education is in a downhill condition.
Why, in 27 years are we continuing to slide? We are no longer the world's leader in secondary education rankings. A CBS News study of high school degrees showed that 20 years ago our country's 17 year olds were ranked first compared to other industrialized countries. More recently, we ranked 21st out of 27 countries. Yet we are near the top in dollars spent on education. The National Center for Education Statistics indicates reading and mathematics scores showed no statistical difference from 1971 to 2008.
If a business demonstrated similar results, that enterprise would fail. "Going Out of Business" signs on schools are not an option.
The U.S. Department of Education stated the gap between blacks and whites on math and reading scores for eighth graders showed no substantial difference between the early 1990s and 2007. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was quoted as saying, "When more than a million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe". Educator/author Jonathan Kozol, after a visit to a Harlem school, noted that it was ranked "dead last" in reading scores of all the elementary schools in the city. It doesn't have to be this way. Some creative educators, business leaders and entrepreneurs have found ways to dramatically improve education results in a relatively short period of time. Inner-city successes include: Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, KIPP schools, Dr. Ben Chavis's Oakland, CA, American Indian school, a myriad of charter schools across the country, and Philadelphia's principal and teacher, Salome Thomas-EL. The Eastmoor Academy High School, located in a high poverty area of Columbus, Ohio, has a 97 percent graduation rate. What is striking is that many of the recent success stories in education are from groups or individuals -- not from the existing school systems.
Joel Klein, New York City Schools chancellor, has worked hand-in-hand with the union to turn around a poorly rated public schools system. Quite an accomplishment for the country's largest school system.
Michelle Rhee, chancellor of Education in Washington, D.C. is credited with a positive transformation of that city's school system. The Washington Times recently stated, "D.C. Public Schools is a long-troubled system, and in recent weeks, Ms. Rhee has announced student gains on math, science and reading standardized tests. She is also trying to turn around the culture of the system itself.''
Working with the teachers' union, changes include implementing a non-seniority evaluation system and merit pay, and agreeing that the school system can fire poor performing teachers -- even those with tenure. Studies indicate commonalities among very successful schools: High levels of student, teacher and parental involvement, strong/consistent discipline, encouraged self-responsibility, high expectations and accountability, measured results, consequence management, strong leadership and highly qualified teachers who create a can-do environment, are knowledgeable about their students, and work longer hours. These disciplines are not any different than what is found in best-selling books on highly effective business management.
New Haven's Dr. James Comer's School Development Program is now in place in over 1000 U.S. schools. He recognized that many inner-city kids enter school "underdeveloped."
This is consistent with Comer's quest to dig deeply for causes of poor education results. He realized that all babies are born with generally the same level of intelligence. Further, children's first three years will predict how they will fare in school. His focus on educating fathers and/or mothers with effective parenting skills starts within the later months of pregnancy up through pre-kindergarten. Similarly, Jenks and Merideth's, "The Black -- White Test Score Gap" says: "Changing the way parents deal with their children may be the single most important thing we can do to improve children's cognitive skills." Could it be that we are focusing on the symptoms rather than major causes?
Truly our challenge is complex, but we have seen bench-mark successes that clearly run counter to the deteriorating general results. We have also learned that the normally adversarial relations between teachers' unions and the school systems can be turned into positive results. Clearly, it is possible to make major headway.
We must take those steps that have improved school results and replicate them throughout the country.
Public education must be a major priority. Answers must be found for the sake of our nation and its future.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
I Majored in PUPPETRY
http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom/msn/careeradvice/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=2504
Weird but true: College degrees
6 unique college degrees, and what you can do with them
By Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder writer
Do you ever wonder who decided potato chips should come in such a loud, crinkly package?
And why a bag of chips? Why not a box? Or a can? Someone had to decide. Luckily, you can take comfort in knowing that the "bag of chips" decision was made by an expert. Packaging, the art of developing appropriate containers for consumer goods, is actually a major at several colleges in the U.S.
Packaging isn't even the strangest college degree. We rounded up some of the most unusual and interesting degrees offered at colleges and universities around the country, and then went a step further to find out what people do with these degrees when they graduate.
Bing: Most popular college majors
1. Racetrack management: The Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona is the only program of its kind, providing students with the background necessary for a number of career paths in the horse racing industry. Should students choose the "animal path," they will graduate prepared to work as a horse trainer or breeder. Those opting for the "business path" will be suited to work on the management side of the industry.
So how do students fare in the real world after graduating from this unique program? According to Douglas Reed, the program's director, graduates do pretty well.
"We have a placement rate in excess of 80 percent immediately upon graduation, and [students] receive jobs in all facets of the industry due to the nature of the two paths and the broad-based knowledge they receive," Reed says. "Some students start at a racetrack in midlevel management or entry-level jobs; others work with the horses either on farms or at the track for a trainer. Still others enter the business in related companies [like those] that process wagers or service the industry." Interested in finding out more about what can be done with the degree? A list of alumni can be found on the program's website.
2. Packaging: Students who enroll in one of the nation's few undergraduate packaging programs don't spend four years learning to think outside the box. They learn to think about the box. A degree in packaging teaches students how to create the most economically, aesthetically, environmentally and technically sound packages for consumer goods.
According to the University of Wisconsin-Stout, graduates of its packaging program go on to work for companies including Snap-on Tools, Frito-Lay, Kohler and FedEx. In a survey on 2009 graduates of the UWS program, in the months after graduation, 95 percent of packaging graduates were employed, 90 percent in a field related to their major.
3. Viticulture and enology: In layman's terms, Cornell University's Viticulture and Enology Program is its school of grapes and wine. Though the school began offering course work in the discipline in the early 1990s, viticulture and enology only recently became an official major. Program coordinator Kari Richards says about 35 students are majoring and 20 are minoring in the program.
"Of the approximately 20 graduates over the past five years, the majority are involved in the industry," Richards says. "Some have continued enology-related studies in graduate school, others travel worldwide to gain experience in harvest and crush, [and a] few will or have returned to the home winery/vineyard."
4. Puppetry: TheUniversity of Connecticut is one of only two schools in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in puppetry arts, and the only school in the country offering a master's program. According to the program's website, enrollment is limited to 22 students, who take classes such as "Trends in Contemporary American Puppetry" and "Marionette Construction."
According to the site, "graduates of the program perform and design for theaters around the world; appear in, build for and manage internationally recognized television programs and films; write books; design toys; teach children; and direct prominent schools and museums."
5. Decision making: Indiana University's Kelley School of Business offers a doctorate in decision sciences, a program designed to help future business leaders analyze information and make decisions. Though the name may make this degree sound like fluff, the course of study is rigorous. According to the program's website, "Decision sciences is devoted to the study of quantitative methods used to aid decision making in business environments. Using mathematical models and analytical reasoning, students examine problems ... and learn how to solve these problems by using a number of mathematical techniques, including optimization methods (linear, integer, nonlinear), computer simulation, decision analysis, artificial intelligence and more."
6. Turfgrass management: Michigan State University is one of a handful of schools in the country that offer a turfgrass specialization. Under its College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, students in the MSU program learn to maintain golf-course greens, athletic fields and parks by taking classes such as "Golf Turf Irrigation," "Management of Turfgrass Weeds" and "Plant Genetics." Graduates of the program have nabbed some pretty notable jobs, too. According to Jill Cords, a career consultant with the college, two alumni faced off at last year's World Series. One alumnus was a groundskeeper for the Texas Rangers, and the other was working for the San Francisco Giants.
Bing: Is a double major the way to go?
Weird but true: College degrees
6 unique college degrees, and what you can do with them
By Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder writer
Do you ever wonder who decided potato chips should come in such a loud, crinkly package?
And why a bag of chips? Why not a box? Or a can? Someone had to decide. Luckily, you can take comfort in knowing that the "bag of chips" decision was made by an expert. Packaging, the art of developing appropriate containers for consumer goods, is actually a major at several colleges in the U.S.
Packaging isn't even the strangest college degree. We rounded up some of the most unusual and interesting degrees offered at colleges and universities around the country, and then went a step further to find out what people do with these degrees when they graduate.
Bing: Most popular college majors
1. Racetrack management: The Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona is the only program of its kind, providing students with the background necessary for a number of career paths in the horse racing industry. Should students choose the "animal path," they will graduate prepared to work as a horse trainer or breeder. Those opting for the "business path" will be suited to work on the management side of the industry.
So how do students fare in the real world after graduating from this unique program? According to Douglas Reed, the program's director, graduates do pretty well.
"We have a placement rate in excess of 80 percent immediately upon graduation, and [students] receive jobs in all facets of the industry due to the nature of the two paths and the broad-based knowledge they receive," Reed says. "Some students start at a racetrack in midlevel management or entry-level jobs; others work with the horses either on farms or at the track for a trainer. Still others enter the business in related companies [like those] that process wagers or service the industry." Interested in finding out more about what can be done with the degree? A list of alumni can be found on the program's website.
2. Packaging: Students who enroll in one of the nation's few undergraduate packaging programs don't spend four years learning to think outside the box. They learn to think about the box. A degree in packaging teaches students how to create the most economically, aesthetically, environmentally and technically sound packages for consumer goods.
According to the University of Wisconsin-Stout, graduates of its packaging program go on to work for companies including Snap-on Tools, Frito-Lay, Kohler and FedEx. In a survey on 2009 graduates of the UWS program, in the months after graduation, 95 percent of packaging graduates were employed, 90 percent in a field related to their major.
3. Viticulture and enology: In layman's terms, Cornell University's Viticulture and Enology Program is its school of grapes and wine. Though the school began offering course work in the discipline in the early 1990s, viticulture and enology only recently became an official major. Program coordinator Kari Richards says about 35 students are majoring and 20 are minoring in the program.
"Of the approximately 20 graduates over the past five years, the majority are involved in the industry," Richards says. "Some have continued enology-related studies in graduate school, others travel worldwide to gain experience in harvest and crush, [and a] few will or have returned to the home winery/vineyard."
4. Puppetry: TheUniversity of Connecticut is one of only two schools in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in puppetry arts, and the only school in the country offering a master's program. According to the program's website, enrollment is limited to 22 students, who take classes such as "Trends in Contemporary American Puppetry" and "Marionette Construction."
According to the site, "graduates of the program perform and design for theaters around the world; appear in, build for and manage internationally recognized television programs and films; write books; design toys; teach children; and direct prominent schools and museums."
5. Decision making: Indiana University's Kelley School of Business offers a doctorate in decision sciences, a program designed to help future business leaders analyze information and make decisions. Though the name may make this degree sound like fluff, the course of study is rigorous. According to the program's website, "Decision sciences is devoted to the study of quantitative methods used to aid decision making in business environments. Using mathematical models and analytical reasoning, students examine problems ... and learn how to solve these problems by using a number of mathematical techniques, including optimization methods (linear, integer, nonlinear), computer simulation, decision analysis, artificial intelligence and more."
6. Turfgrass management: Michigan State University is one of a handful of schools in the country that offer a turfgrass specialization. Under its College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, students in the MSU program learn to maintain golf-course greens, athletic fields and parks by taking classes such as "Golf Turf Irrigation," "Management of Turfgrass Weeds" and "Plant Genetics." Graduates of the program have nabbed some pretty notable jobs, too. According to Jill Cords, a career consultant with the college, two alumni faced off at last year's World Series. One alumnus was a groundskeeper for the Texas Rangers, and the other was working for the San Francisco Giants.
Bing: Is a double major the way to go?
Friday, February 11, 2011
Cleveland Scholarship Programs to rebrand itself as College Now Greater Cleveland
Cleveland Scholarship Programs to rebrand itself as College Now Greater Cleveland
By TIMOTHY MAGAW
8:47 am, February 10, 2011
A more than 40-year-old nonprofit that has steered a quarter-million Cleveland-area students toward higher education is re-branding itself to let the community know it does far more than provide scholarships to the city's poor.
Cleveland Scholarship Programs will unveil its new name — College Now Greater Cleveland — as well as a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic and PNC Bank at an event this afternoon at Cleveland State University. The new name, the nonprofit's leaders say, is a better reflection of what the organization does and who it represents. And with new leadership in place, the group's leaders hope it can attract more fundraising dollars from corporations, foundations and individuals to expand services in the communities it serves.
“Nobody knew who we were,” said David Inglis, president of the nonprofit's board of directors. “We had a real awareness problem.”
College Now assists more than 20,000 students in 76 schools in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties each school year through a variety of programs aimed at increasing college attainment in the region. Aside from offering scholarships, the organization offers college advising assistance, financial aid help and ACT registration.
Last summer, the organization's board of directors named Lee Friedman, former president and CEO of the Cleveland Leadership Center, as its new CEO. Also, several new members have been named to the College Now board.
In a recent interview, Ms. Friedman stressed the importance of raising college attainment in the region. Increasing the number of graduates in Northeast Ohio, she said, would boost the region's economy and provide industries the educated workers they need.
“They can't grow here if they can't hire the work force they need,” Ms. Friedman said.
Several prominent officials are scheduled to attend today's event. Among them are Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, Cleveland City Council President Martin Sweeney, Cleveland Metropolitan School District interim CEO Peter Raskind and Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut.
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Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Crain's Cleveland Business. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification. Comments may be used in the print edition at editorial discretion.
By TIMOTHY MAGAW
8:47 am, February 10, 2011
A more than 40-year-old nonprofit that has steered a quarter-million Cleveland-area students toward higher education is re-branding itself to let the community know it does far more than provide scholarships to the city's poor.
Cleveland Scholarship Programs will unveil its new name — College Now Greater Cleveland — as well as a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic and PNC Bank at an event this afternoon at Cleveland State University. The new name, the nonprofit's leaders say, is a better reflection of what the organization does and who it represents. And with new leadership in place, the group's leaders hope it can attract more fundraising dollars from corporations, foundations and individuals to expand services in the communities it serves.
“Nobody knew who we were,” said David Inglis, president of the nonprofit's board of directors. “We had a real awareness problem.”
College Now assists more than 20,000 students in 76 schools in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties each school year through a variety of programs aimed at increasing college attainment in the region. Aside from offering scholarships, the organization offers college advising assistance, financial aid help and ACT registration.
Last summer, the organization's board of directors named Lee Friedman, former president and CEO of the Cleveland Leadership Center, as its new CEO. Also, several new members have been named to the College Now board.
In a recent interview, Ms. Friedman stressed the importance of raising college attainment in the region. Increasing the number of graduates in Northeast Ohio, she said, would boost the region's economy and provide industries the educated workers they need.
“They can't grow here if they can't hire the work force they need,” Ms. Friedman said.
Several prominent officials are scheduled to attend today's event. Among them are Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, Cleveland City Council President Martin Sweeney, Cleveland Metropolitan School District interim CEO Peter Raskind and Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut.
Reader Comments
cci_hasComments=| UserCommentsStatus=1
Be the first to comment!
Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Crain's Cleveland Business. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification. Comments may be used in the print edition at editorial discretion.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Tips+for+Completing+the+FAFSA
Tips for Completing the FAFSA
Each year, about 15 million students apply for grants, work-study, and loans for college using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid – the FAFSA. By completing it, students apply to the U.S. Department of Education, the largest source of student aid in America. In many cases, the FAFSA is the only application needed for students to obtain aid from their state or college, too.
Recent changes make it quicker and easier than ever to fill out the FAFSA. This video offers tips to help students get started.
Tips+for+Completing+the+FAFSA
(Ed.gov video)
Each year, about 15 million students apply for grants, work-study, and loans for college using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid – the FAFSA. By completing it, students apply to the U.S. Department of Education, the largest source of student aid in America. In many cases, the FAFSA is the only application needed for students to obtain aid from their state or college, too.
Recent changes make it quicker and easier than ever to fill out the FAFSA. This video offers tips to help students get started.
Tips+for+Completing+the+FAFSA
(Ed.gov video)
From The CHronicles of Higher Education
January 30, 2011
When Life Gets in the Way of Paying for College
Bad luck exposes cracks in one family's financial foundation
Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Diane Schillinger, a freshman at the U. of Massachusetts at Amherst, sorts through loan forms and other paperwork. She always expected to go to college, though her plans for paying for it were hazy. "We'll manage to find something," she says.
By Beckie Supiano
Amherst, Mass.
In many ways, Diane Schillinger is having a wonderful freshman year. She quickly learned her way around the sprawling campus of the University of Massachusetts here: where to go for fun, which dining halls offer the best meals. She aspires to be a veterinarian and has made good grades in her science-heavy coursework as a biochemistry major.
But not everything has been going well for Diane. Both her father, a painting contractor and handyman with a high-school diploma, and her mother, a registered nurse with an associate degree, lost their jobs in 2009, and Diane, the youngest of five children, has had trouble finding the $23,000 she needed to pay for her freshman year. She has found the student-aid system a lot harder to navigate than the campus.
Diane entered the university in the fall with enough scholarships and federal loans to cover about $10,000 of the tab for this year. Piecing together the rest took months of paperwork, phone calls, and frustration, and she ran into more than one dead end.
Enlarge Image Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Diane Schillinger goes over some financial-aid information with her father, Mark, at their home in Easton, Mass. "My philosophy always was go to the best school you can get into," he says.
Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Diane Schillinger goes over some financial-aid information with her father, Mark, at their home in Easton, Mass. "My philosophy always was go to the best school you can get into," he says.
Enlarge Image Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
By November, Diane had found a loan to cover the rest of her bill. But she couldn't register for spring classes until the money was in her account, and in the meantime, some classes filled up. As the fall semester came to a close, Diane was on a wait list for her chemistry class and couldn't find an open biology lab that fit her schedule. And she was on track to borrow more than $18,000 for her freshman year alone.
Diane and her parents have always assumed that she'll get a college education, just like her sister and brothers. Her mother and father, she says, "figured they made it so far, but we can make it farther." But the Schillingers' fourth child, Jim, a senior accounting major at Western New England College, has also had trouble paying for his education. Their middle child, Andrew, unable to find a job since graduating last spring from Northeastern University with a computer-engineering degree, is living at home with them in Easton, Mass.
Andrew and his oldest sibling, Dan, who both completed five-year programs at Northeastern, borrowed more than $150,000 each to pay for college—leaving them with current balances that more closely resemble a home mortgage than the typical amount of undergraduate debt. And while the second-oldest Schillinger child, Mary, borrowed much less to go to Brandeis, about $90,000, that's still more than three and a half times what the typical undergraduate with debt takes out in loans.
Not long ago, the Schillingers were living on something like $100,000 a year. Recently, they have had to get by on about half that, plus $20,000 pulled out of retirement funds. Many families are worse off than the Schillingers and, since the economy tanked in 2008, colleges have been besieged with pleas for more student aid—requests that they cannot always meet.
The Schillingers know they could have done more to plan for college costs. But their recent struggles show how parents with every expectation of seeing their children through college can quickly exhaust their options for footing the bill.
A False Impression
Diane has a warm smile and long brown hair she wears in a ponytail. She gets along well with the neighbors in her high-rise dorm and has become especially close with her roommate, Jessie Prucnal. But over dinner on a December evening, the two women say they didn't get off to the most auspicious start.
When Diane got her roommate assignment and sent Jessie a friend request on Facebook, Jessie, who grew up on a farm, wasn't sure what she was in for: Diane's profile picture showed her in a stunning red dress, standing next to a uniformed Marine in front of a limo and a big house. As she looked at Diane's profile and talked with her on instant messenger, Jessie learned that Diane's family owned horses and a second home. She thought Diane was rich and wasn't sure they'd get along.
Jessie's impression wasn't quite right. Diane did get a nice prom dress and is dating a Marine, but the house in the background is across the street from her family's smaller home. And while the Schillingers do own horses and a house in Florida, they were purchased at a time when the family's situation was looking very different.
It was not long ago that the Schillingers felt secure enough in their income to find those expenses reasonable. Diane's mother, Pat, was making good money as a nurse: about $90,000 a year. She was working toward a bachelor's degree, which would increase her earning power further. Since the children were young, the Schillingers have lived in a family-friendly neighborhood in Easton, on a street where every house seems to have a basketball hoop. Their own home is modest, with five bedrooms, some of them quite small. Two are in the basement, which Diane's father, Mark, finished himself after the family moved in.
The Schillingers bought their house in Port Saint Lucie, Fla., in the early 2000s. They thought it would be a good place to retire, and in the meantime, they could rent it out. About the same time, Ms. Schillinger started buying horses for herself and Diane. They now own five.
College for the kids was always in the picture. Pat and Mark believe deeply in the value of higher education. "I always thought," Ms. Schillinger says, "especially when they were young, if you go and get a degree, then when you go for your job you'll start at a decent pay and you won't be scrounging, and you know you'll be able to get somewhere."
She and her husband also wanted their children to go somewhere with a good reputation. "My philosophy always was, go to the best school you can get into, no matter what it costs, because that school's going to do the talking for you," Mr. Schillinger says.
But they did not have the most realistic idea of how those college educations would be paid for. Back when the kids were little, the Schillingers made efforts to save for college, but other expenses came along and drained those savings. So even when the family was in a stronger financial position, they planned to finance their children's college educations primarily with loans.
Ms. Schillinger felt that having her children pay for their own college was probably in their best interest anyway. She had friends who paid for their kids' college, she says, and the kids partied and dropped out. If her children had their own loans, she figured, they would take greater pains in their studies. She and Mr. Schillinger would help by paying for clothes, groceries, and other noneducational expenses that came up.
But she didn't know how much debt that would mean for her children. She had earned her associate degree while working and raising her kids—without borrowing. "I never realized how much—I'm thinking 20, 30 thousand—I never realized how much college costs until Dan graduated," she says.
While the older children have heavy debt burdens, their parents were at least able to help them by co-signing private loans and borrowing parent ones—two options they no longer have. Ms. Schillinger says she never imagined their credit would be too poor to do that for Jim and Diane. In fact, she says, she even hoped she would be able to help her children pay off their loans after they graduated. "It's not fair to them that they're the last two," she says.
Loans Denied
In 2009 the family's finances began to unravel. Mr. Schillinger, now 57, needed shoulder surgery that February, and his employer told him it could not keep his job as a handyman open. About nine months later, Ms. Schillinger, 56, lost her job, just before a double mastectomy to prevent a return of the breast cancer she had beaten a few years before. Her recovery was complicated, and for the next year she was too sick to look for a new job.
Diane's brother Jim, a slight young man with tousled hair, was a college junior when the family's fortunes declined. The Schillingers appealed to the college for more financial aid, and got some, but Jim still faced a gap. In December 2009, Ms. Schillinger took as much as she could from her retirement account, about $40,000, to cover that balance and pay some other expenses, but after paying penalties and a loan she had taken out for her daughter Mary's wedding, she was left with only about half as much.
For most of 2010, the family lived on that sum, along with Mr. Schillinger's unemployment and Ms. Schillinger's yearlong disability payments of $3,000 a month. By this time they had stopped paying the mortgage on the house in Florida—the home is rented out, but that income doesn't cover the mortgage.
Over the summer, Diane applied for a private loan but was denied. She also filed an appeal asking UMass for more financial aid, showing that her family's income was lower than would be expected from its 2009 tax return. In October her appeal was denied.
"We regret to inform you," said a letter to her parents explaining the decision, "that after careful consideration, we have decided that the information provided in your request did not lower the expected family contribution low enough to award a federal pell [sic] grant which this year is all that we have been able to award as there are many more needy families." In November her mother's disability ran out.
UMass officials say they will not comment on a specific student's financial aid, but like many colleges around the country, the university has seen a big increase in financial-aid appeals thanks to the weak economy. "Last year was probably the biggest increase in appeals that we saw," says Suzanne Peters, director of financial aid, "and I think what we're seeing now is families are still in crisis, they're still unemployed."
UMass has increased what it spends on financial aid, but there still isn't enough money to go around, even for the neediest families. And despite their troubles, the Schillingers are not among the neediest.
In October, Diane's father had applied for a federal parent PLUS Loan. The Schillingers expected that application to be denied; their poor credit history had already kept them from getting such a loan for Jim. But the government allows students to borrow more federal loans if their parents are denied a PLUS, so when the expected rejection came through, Diane was able to get an additional $4,000.
Still, she was nearly $9,000 short for the year, and it was almost time to register for classes. Finally her father suggested she try what had finally worked for Jim after he had been turned down for eight or nine private loans: asking their 86-year-old grandfather to cosign for an alternative loan from the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority. That worked. It was too late for her course-selection slot, but at least Diane's bill was finally settled.
Diane's greatest worry, bigger than paying for college, has been what might happen to her family. Her parents have always avoided talking about their problems with her. "You just never think of what's going to happen next," she says. "I guess I think the worst is losing everything."
As the baby of the family, Diane has four older siblings to turn to for advice. But that doesn't mean she'll take it. When she was looking at colleges, she knew paying the bills wouldn't be easy.
Jim encouraged her to start at a community college, save some money, and then transfer, but Diane didn't want to. She knew she wanted to major in biochemistry and start taking her science classes right away. She also believed she'd need every possible advantage to get into veterinary school. And she wanted the experience of living on campus, away from home. After all, each of her siblings had done that. Diane shared the family optimism: "We'll manage to find something," she thought.
Diane did not try to get a job her first semester, so that she could focus on adjusting academically. She has saved some money by renting her textbooks and says she might try to get them online in the future. And her group of friends is good at having fun at no charge, she says. They have taken advantage of free activities the university puts on, like pumpkin carving at Halloween.
Diane also thinks she was being practical by choosing UMass rather than the more-expensive private colleges her older siblings attended. At first she had wanted to go out of state. But her marks on a state test were high enough to qualify for the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Program, which covers the cost of tuition for Massachusetts residents at in-state public colleges. As Diane is quick to point out, the scholarship is not as great as it sounds— tuition at UMass is dwarfed by fees, and her scholarship came to only $1,714 for the year.
Diane also looked for outside scholarships, but the only other free money she ended up getting was from UMass. She had a good strategy, even if it didn't all work out: "You apply for the ones that you can and get the money you can," she says, "and just try to take as small amount as I possibly could out in the loan."
A Frustration, a Mystery
Sitting in their living room on a cold December morning, Diane's parents are still coming to terms with the vulnerability of their situation. Their belief that everything will work out persists, but it is obvious that they are overwhelmed.
The couple readily admit they have not always made the best financial choices, and they are both confused about some aspects of their affairs. But they always thought they would be able to work. "We've never been in a situation like this," Ms. Schillinger says. "We've always had money coming into this house."
As she and her husband contend with the financial decisions they made in the good days, cutting down their expenses is no small feat. They now owe more on the Florida house than it is worth and are trying to arrange a short sale. "I don't have a choice," Mr. Schillinger says. As for the horses, Ms. Schillinger is very reluctant to sell them. Besides, she says, with the economy so bad, it would be almost impossible to find good buyers. "If you go to an auction for a horse and you bring a trailer, ... your trailer is filled because people are abandoning these animals."
Some of the Schillingers' horses are used in lessons and leased by other riders to help earn their keep. Still, they end up costing about $1,000 a month. "I do have a very expensive hobby," Ms. Schillinger admits.
Although Diane is the fifth child the Schillingers have sent to college, the financial-aid process remains a frustration and a mystery to them. Mr. Schillinger, who only recently learned to use a computer, consults reams of binder-clipped papers to answer questions about the family's finances: previous years' taxes, Jim's financial-aid forms, paperwork from Ms. Schillinger's old job. But getting to the bottom of it all seems impossible, even with the help of a cousin with a background in insurance and finance, even with repeated calls to Diane's university.
UMass officials say they do a lot to inform families. "The campus does a range of things to educate students both before they come and when they're here," says Ms. Peters, the financial-aid director. "It's printed pieces we mail directly to students, through the Web site, face-to-face orientation sessions over the summer to help educate the family about the financial-aid process." And "the office is available for parents and students to come by anytime."
After getting a flier in the mail from a company called College Planning Strategies, Mr. Schillinger went to its presentation at a local high school. For a fee, the company helps families navigate the financial-aid process. The main tip the company divulged at the meeting, he says, was to apply early for financial aid.
The family's expenses and debts, Mr. Schillinger says, are "like an anchor around my neck, and I'm drowning. What can I do? I don't know what the answer is to a lot of it, and I'm really discouraged about the whole thing."
But despite everything—the difficulty of finding a way to pay for Jim's and Diane's educations, the debt that all of the children face, Andrew's not finding a job despite months of looking—the Schillingers maintain their belief that their kids will benefit from going to good colleges. When they learn that Jim suggested Diane try a community college, both Mr. and Ms. Schillinger are baffled.
Back to Work
Since that December conversation, things have started to look better for the Schillingers. Out of the blue, Diane got a letter from UMass breaking down her student aid, including an $800 grant she'd known nothing about. A footnote on the letter said, "You have been awarded a one-time Financial Aid Grant in response to your appeal for additional financial aid." No other explanation was provided, but Diane's bill is now settled and shows an $800 credit. And after repeated efforts, Diane was able to line up a full schedule for the spring semester.
Her father has healed from his surgery, and he is looking for work. Her mother recently landed a new nursing job, scheduled to begin in early February. She will work the night shift, which pays the best. The job doesn't guarantee how many hours she can work, she says, but she expects to make about what she did before. And once she is back on track paying her bills, Ms. Schillinger plans to resume taking classes for her bachelor's degree. She hopes that can happen this summer.
The new job is a big step in the right direction for the family's financial health, and one they needed to take. After all, Diane still has three more years of college to pay for, to say nothing of veterinary school.
When Life Gets in the Way of Paying for College
Bad luck exposes cracks in one family's financial foundation
Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Diane Schillinger, a freshman at the U. of Massachusetts at Amherst, sorts through loan forms and other paperwork. She always expected to go to college, though her plans for paying for it were hazy. "We'll manage to find something," she says.
By Beckie Supiano
Amherst, Mass.
In many ways, Diane Schillinger is having a wonderful freshman year. She quickly learned her way around the sprawling campus of the University of Massachusetts here: where to go for fun, which dining halls offer the best meals. She aspires to be a veterinarian and has made good grades in her science-heavy coursework as a biochemistry major.
But not everything has been going well for Diane. Both her father, a painting contractor and handyman with a high-school diploma, and her mother, a registered nurse with an associate degree, lost their jobs in 2009, and Diane, the youngest of five children, has had trouble finding the $23,000 she needed to pay for her freshman year. She has found the student-aid system a lot harder to navigate than the campus.
Diane entered the university in the fall with enough scholarships and federal loans to cover about $10,000 of the tab for this year. Piecing together the rest took months of paperwork, phone calls, and frustration, and she ran into more than one dead end.
Enlarge Image Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Diane Schillinger goes over some financial-aid information with her father, Mark, at their home in Easton, Mass. "My philosophy always was go to the best school you can get into," he says.
Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Diane Schillinger goes over some financial-aid information with her father, Mark, at their home in Easton, Mass. "My philosophy always was go to the best school you can get into," he says.
Enlarge Image Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle
By November, Diane had found a loan to cover the rest of her bill. But she couldn't register for spring classes until the money was in her account, and in the meantime, some classes filled up. As the fall semester came to a close, Diane was on a wait list for her chemistry class and couldn't find an open biology lab that fit her schedule. And she was on track to borrow more than $18,000 for her freshman year alone.
Diane and her parents have always assumed that she'll get a college education, just like her sister and brothers. Her mother and father, she says, "figured they made it so far, but we can make it farther." But the Schillingers' fourth child, Jim, a senior accounting major at Western New England College, has also had trouble paying for his education. Their middle child, Andrew, unable to find a job since graduating last spring from Northeastern University with a computer-engineering degree, is living at home with them in Easton, Mass.
Andrew and his oldest sibling, Dan, who both completed five-year programs at Northeastern, borrowed more than $150,000 each to pay for college—leaving them with current balances that more closely resemble a home mortgage than the typical amount of undergraduate debt. And while the second-oldest Schillinger child, Mary, borrowed much less to go to Brandeis, about $90,000, that's still more than three and a half times what the typical undergraduate with debt takes out in loans.
Not long ago, the Schillingers were living on something like $100,000 a year. Recently, they have had to get by on about half that, plus $20,000 pulled out of retirement funds. Many families are worse off than the Schillingers and, since the economy tanked in 2008, colleges have been besieged with pleas for more student aid—requests that they cannot always meet.
The Schillingers know they could have done more to plan for college costs. But their recent struggles show how parents with every expectation of seeing their children through college can quickly exhaust their options for footing the bill.
A False Impression
Diane has a warm smile and long brown hair she wears in a ponytail. She gets along well with the neighbors in her high-rise dorm and has become especially close with her roommate, Jessie Prucnal. But over dinner on a December evening, the two women say they didn't get off to the most auspicious start.
When Diane got her roommate assignment and sent Jessie a friend request on Facebook, Jessie, who grew up on a farm, wasn't sure what she was in for: Diane's profile picture showed her in a stunning red dress, standing next to a uniformed Marine in front of a limo and a big house. As she looked at Diane's profile and talked with her on instant messenger, Jessie learned that Diane's family owned horses and a second home. She thought Diane was rich and wasn't sure they'd get along.
Jessie's impression wasn't quite right. Diane did get a nice prom dress and is dating a Marine, but the house in the background is across the street from her family's smaller home. And while the Schillingers do own horses and a house in Florida, they were purchased at a time when the family's situation was looking very different.
It was not long ago that the Schillingers felt secure enough in their income to find those expenses reasonable. Diane's mother, Pat, was making good money as a nurse: about $90,000 a year. She was working toward a bachelor's degree, which would increase her earning power further. Since the children were young, the Schillingers have lived in a family-friendly neighborhood in Easton, on a street where every house seems to have a basketball hoop. Their own home is modest, with five bedrooms, some of them quite small. Two are in the basement, which Diane's father, Mark, finished himself after the family moved in.
The Schillingers bought their house in Port Saint Lucie, Fla., in the early 2000s. They thought it would be a good place to retire, and in the meantime, they could rent it out. About the same time, Ms. Schillinger started buying horses for herself and Diane. They now own five.
College for the kids was always in the picture. Pat and Mark believe deeply in the value of higher education. "I always thought," Ms. Schillinger says, "especially when they were young, if you go and get a degree, then when you go for your job you'll start at a decent pay and you won't be scrounging, and you know you'll be able to get somewhere."
She and her husband also wanted their children to go somewhere with a good reputation. "My philosophy always was, go to the best school you can get into, no matter what it costs, because that school's going to do the talking for you," Mr. Schillinger says.
But they did not have the most realistic idea of how those college educations would be paid for. Back when the kids were little, the Schillingers made efforts to save for college, but other expenses came along and drained those savings. So even when the family was in a stronger financial position, they planned to finance their children's college educations primarily with loans.
Ms. Schillinger felt that having her children pay for their own college was probably in their best interest anyway. She had friends who paid for their kids' college, she says, and the kids partied and dropped out. If her children had their own loans, she figured, they would take greater pains in their studies. She and Mr. Schillinger would help by paying for clothes, groceries, and other noneducational expenses that came up.
But she didn't know how much debt that would mean for her children. She had earned her associate degree while working and raising her kids—without borrowing. "I never realized how much—I'm thinking 20, 30 thousand—I never realized how much college costs until Dan graduated," she says.
While the older children have heavy debt burdens, their parents were at least able to help them by co-signing private loans and borrowing parent ones—two options they no longer have. Ms. Schillinger says she never imagined their credit would be too poor to do that for Jim and Diane. In fact, she says, she even hoped she would be able to help her children pay off their loans after they graduated. "It's not fair to them that they're the last two," she says.
Loans Denied
In 2009 the family's finances began to unravel. Mr. Schillinger, now 57, needed shoulder surgery that February, and his employer told him it could not keep his job as a handyman open. About nine months later, Ms. Schillinger, 56, lost her job, just before a double mastectomy to prevent a return of the breast cancer she had beaten a few years before. Her recovery was complicated, and for the next year she was too sick to look for a new job.
Diane's brother Jim, a slight young man with tousled hair, was a college junior when the family's fortunes declined. The Schillingers appealed to the college for more financial aid, and got some, but Jim still faced a gap. In December 2009, Ms. Schillinger took as much as she could from her retirement account, about $40,000, to cover that balance and pay some other expenses, but after paying penalties and a loan she had taken out for her daughter Mary's wedding, she was left with only about half as much.
For most of 2010, the family lived on that sum, along with Mr. Schillinger's unemployment and Ms. Schillinger's yearlong disability payments of $3,000 a month. By this time they had stopped paying the mortgage on the house in Florida—the home is rented out, but that income doesn't cover the mortgage.
Over the summer, Diane applied for a private loan but was denied. She also filed an appeal asking UMass for more financial aid, showing that her family's income was lower than would be expected from its 2009 tax return. In October her appeal was denied.
"We regret to inform you," said a letter to her parents explaining the decision, "that after careful consideration, we have decided that the information provided in your request did not lower the expected family contribution low enough to award a federal pell [sic] grant which this year is all that we have been able to award as there are many more needy families." In November her mother's disability ran out.
UMass officials say they will not comment on a specific student's financial aid, but like many colleges around the country, the university has seen a big increase in financial-aid appeals thanks to the weak economy. "Last year was probably the biggest increase in appeals that we saw," says Suzanne Peters, director of financial aid, "and I think what we're seeing now is families are still in crisis, they're still unemployed."
UMass has increased what it spends on financial aid, but there still isn't enough money to go around, even for the neediest families. And despite their troubles, the Schillingers are not among the neediest.
In October, Diane's father had applied for a federal parent PLUS Loan. The Schillingers expected that application to be denied; their poor credit history had already kept them from getting such a loan for Jim. But the government allows students to borrow more federal loans if their parents are denied a PLUS, so when the expected rejection came through, Diane was able to get an additional $4,000.
Still, she was nearly $9,000 short for the year, and it was almost time to register for classes. Finally her father suggested she try what had finally worked for Jim after he had been turned down for eight or nine private loans: asking their 86-year-old grandfather to cosign for an alternative loan from the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority. That worked. It was too late for her course-selection slot, but at least Diane's bill was finally settled.
Diane's greatest worry, bigger than paying for college, has been what might happen to her family. Her parents have always avoided talking about their problems with her. "You just never think of what's going to happen next," she says. "I guess I think the worst is losing everything."
As the baby of the family, Diane has four older siblings to turn to for advice. But that doesn't mean she'll take it. When she was looking at colleges, she knew paying the bills wouldn't be easy.
Jim encouraged her to start at a community college, save some money, and then transfer, but Diane didn't want to. She knew she wanted to major in biochemistry and start taking her science classes right away. She also believed she'd need every possible advantage to get into veterinary school. And she wanted the experience of living on campus, away from home. After all, each of her siblings had done that. Diane shared the family optimism: "We'll manage to find something," she thought.
Diane did not try to get a job her first semester, so that she could focus on adjusting academically. She has saved some money by renting her textbooks and says she might try to get them online in the future. And her group of friends is good at having fun at no charge, she says. They have taken advantage of free activities the university puts on, like pumpkin carving at Halloween.
Diane also thinks she was being practical by choosing UMass rather than the more-expensive private colleges her older siblings attended. At first she had wanted to go out of state. But her marks on a state test were high enough to qualify for the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Program, which covers the cost of tuition for Massachusetts residents at in-state public colleges. As Diane is quick to point out, the scholarship is not as great as it sounds— tuition at UMass is dwarfed by fees, and her scholarship came to only $1,714 for the year.
Diane also looked for outside scholarships, but the only other free money she ended up getting was from UMass. She had a good strategy, even if it didn't all work out: "You apply for the ones that you can and get the money you can," she says, "and just try to take as small amount as I possibly could out in the loan."
A Frustration, a Mystery
Sitting in their living room on a cold December morning, Diane's parents are still coming to terms with the vulnerability of their situation. Their belief that everything will work out persists, but it is obvious that they are overwhelmed.
The couple readily admit they have not always made the best financial choices, and they are both confused about some aspects of their affairs. But they always thought they would be able to work. "We've never been in a situation like this," Ms. Schillinger says. "We've always had money coming into this house."
As she and her husband contend with the financial decisions they made in the good days, cutting down their expenses is no small feat. They now owe more on the Florida house than it is worth and are trying to arrange a short sale. "I don't have a choice," Mr. Schillinger says. As for the horses, Ms. Schillinger is very reluctant to sell them. Besides, she says, with the economy so bad, it would be almost impossible to find good buyers. "If you go to an auction for a horse and you bring a trailer, ... your trailer is filled because people are abandoning these animals."
Some of the Schillingers' horses are used in lessons and leased by other riders to help earn their keep. Still, they end up costing about $1,000 a month. "I do have a very expensive hobby," Ms. Schillinger admits.
Although Diane is the fifth child the Schillingers have sent to college, the financial-aid process remains a frustration and a mystery to them. Mr. Schillinger, who only recently learned to use a computer, consults reams of binder-clipped papers to answer questions about the family's finances: previous years' taxes, Jim's financial-aid forms, paperwork from Ms. Schillinger's old job. But getting to the bottom of it all seems impossible, even with the help of a cousin with a background in insurance and finance, even with repeated calls to Diane's university.
UMass officials say they do a lot to inform families. "The campus does a range of things to educate students both before they come and when they're here," says Ms. Peters, the financial-aid director. "It's printed pieces we mail directly to students, through the Web site, face-to-face orientation sessions over the summer to help educate the family about the financial-aid process." And "the office is available for parents and students to come by anytime."
After getting a flier in the mail from a company called College Planning Strategies, Mr. Schillinger went to its presentation at a local high school. For a fee, the company helps families navigate the financial-aid process. The main tip the company divulged at the meeting, he says, was to apply early for financial aid.
The family's expenses and debts, Mr. Schillinger says, are "like an anchor around my neck, and I'm drowning. What can I do? I don't know what the answer is to a lot of it, and I'm really discouraged about the whole thing."
But despite everything—the difficulty of finding a way to pay for Jim's and Diane's educations, the debt that all of the children face, Andrew's not finding a job despite months of looking—the Schillingers maintain their belief that their kids will benefit from going to good colleges. When they learn that Jim suggested Diane try a community college, both Mr. and Ms. Schillinger are baffled.
Back to Work
Since that December conversation, things have started to look better for the Schillingers. Out of the blue, Diane got a letter from UMass breaking down her student aid, including an $800 grant she'd known nothing about. A footnote on the letter said, "You have been awarded a one-time Financial Aid Grant in response to your appeal for additional financial aid." No other explanation was provided, but Diane's bill is now settled and shows an $800 credit. And after repeated efforts, Diane was able to line up a full schedule for the spring semester.
Her father has healed from his surgery, and he is looking for work. Her mother recently landed a new nursing job, scheduled to begin in early February. She will work the night shift, which pays the best. The job doesn't guarantee how many hours she can work, she says, but she expects to make about what she did before. And once she is back on track paying her bills, Ms. Schillinger plans to resume taking classes for her bachelor's degree. She hopes that can happen this summer.
The new job is a big step in the right direction for the family's financial health, and one they needed to take. After all, Diane still has three more years of college to pay for, to say nothing of veterinary school.
Who told you first..
(FROM USA TODAY)
For kids set for college, it's time to fill out FAFSA
Faced with epic budget deficits, states are
cutting costs any way they can, and state
grants for college students aren't escaping
the knife. Some states have reduced the
size of awards, some have tightened
eligibility requirements, and some have
said that they'll give out awards "until the
money runs out," says Mark Kantrowitz,
publisher of FinAid.org, a financial aid
website. And these days, he adds, "The
money tends to run out pretty quickly."
By Sandra Block
That means it's more important than ever for
families of college-bound seniors to file the
Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or
FAFSA, as soon as possible. This application i
s the foundation for almost all forms of
financial aid, from scholarships to student
loans.
Filing early will also ensure that you meet
deadlines imposed by individual states and
colleges. If you plan to apply to a state
school in Connecticut, for example, you
need to get your financial aid application in
by Feb. 15. Several other states impose a
March 1 deadline.
For kids set for college, it's time to fill out FAFSA
Faced with epic budget deficits, states are
cutting costs any way they can, and state
grants for college students aren't escaping
the knife. Some states have reduced the
size of awards, some have tightened
eligibility requirements, and some have
said that they'll give out awards "until the
money runs out," says Mark Kantrowitz,
publisher of FinAid.org, a financial aid
website. And these days, he adds, "The
money tends to run out pretty quickly."
By Sandra Block
That means it's more important than ever for
families of college-bound seniors to file the
Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or
FAFSA, as soon as possible. This application i
s the foundation for almost all forms of
financial aid, from scholarships to student
loans.
Filing early will also ensure that you meet
deadlines imposed by individual states and
colleges. If you plan to apply to a state
school in Connecticut, for example, you
need to get your financial aid application in
by Feb. 15. Several other states impose a
March 1 deadline.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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