The admissions team at Reed College, known for its free-spirited students, learned in March that the prospective freshman class it had so carefully composed after weeks of reviewing essays, scores and recommendations was unworkable. Money was the problem. Too many of the students needed financial aid, and the school did not have enough. So the director of financial aid gave the team another task: drop more than 100 needy students before sending out acceptances, and substitute those who could pay full freight...
The wretched economy has taught many of the nation's college-bound seniors a hard lesson: You can't always get what you want. In a survey to be released Tuesday, 71% of high schools reported that more of their students are forgoing their "dream schools" this year than in previous years. And there is little doubt money is a big reason...
Whether the money is flowing or being cut, one constant of public higher education discussions is the question of who is getting more money from the state -- and why. Presidents, trustees and alumni debate the equity of funding formulas, and plot strategies so that their institutions might also be favored by those who control the purse-strings. Two new studies suggest that strategy may go only so far and that, in some respects, public universities are like real estate: They benefit from location, location, location...
Donations to education organizations and nearly every other type of charity faltered in 2008, as contributions declined by 5.7 percent last year after adjustment for inflation, according to the new edition of Giving USA, which is scheduled to be released this morning. It was the steepest decline in the history of the survey, which has been conducted since 1956...
The University of Illinois has refused a request by the Chicago Tribune for test scores and grade-point averages of applicants who appeared on its admissions clout lists, saying the release would violate privacy rights even if the students are not named...Experts point to a 2002 decision in which the University of Wisconsin was forced to turn over test scores, grade-point averages and class rankings. In that case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that when a request does not seek personally identifiable information, there is no overriding public-policy interest in keeping records confidential...
