Personal essay writing services: genuine or illegal for students?

Articles by Cullen Nedrich

Here is a lot of controversy recently about the ethics or lack thereof, where to buy online articles concerned. Today there are numerous online article writing services, and offer personalized services in writing an article for sale. But is it ethical to use?
headacheEssay writing a headache for many people and they just can not bring himself to write a good connection, no matter what. Although this is a requirement in school, not many people can develop the ability as the others. So, after college, when they have to write an essay, is usually a source of stress and headaches. Many people just do not like to do it.

The solution is this, where the custom writing services in those reputable companies that offer professional articles come at a price. You pay, and they write the essay for you. When they finished, they give you the connection for any application you want. And it is up to you to turn in.

debateThere is much discussion about how the ethics of such service and is it legally right for students to buy newspapers. One side of the argument presented the idea to move it to the shop, legally, while the other claims that he bought as a plagiarism of these papers and put them in the classroom at the college.
favorThe problem is with the purchase of paper and turning it into a class in college than their is a clear ethical problem. It teaches students that they do buy something for work that they do not want. This will encourage them to try to buy their way in many areas of life. Which is something not to encourage the entire College. He was there to encourage work hard, make a career for yourself, you do not buy your way in life. Is

On the other hand AgainstOn arguments that the whole process is completely legal moral perfection. People look at this way, the author claims that services are a legitimate company. They believe that the delegation of tasks to people much better to do it well, and allows them to not waste precious time, trying to write a good connection. This is particularly useful for large students in other fields like mathematics, do not really have to write an article on the value of their future.

businessWhether up the argument for or against the service, one fact remains true. There are many such services available online that offer to buy quality articles at all, for your personal use. It’s a growing business.

There are many discussions on the use of custom services and using article writing these articles in school. Some believe it is immoral, while others believe it is incredibly effective way to manage your time in school. Either way, these services have people take advantage.

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'Education Does Not Begin Or End At The Schoolhouse Door'

A lot of us in education policy get lost within our own locus of control. In my case, it's all about teachers. After all, teacher quality is the strongest school-based indicator impacting student outcomes.

Sounds good, right? Yes, and no.

While it is inevitable that one focuses on what one can control professionally, it is important to have a sense of the bigger picture. That goes for us in education. After all, research has shown that the influence of schools on student outcomes pale in comparison to family and social factors outside of schools' direct control -- especially, but not only, in the early years of childhood. So while it is critical that we concentrate education policy efforts around attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers, we also must attend to a variety of factors outside of schools that impact students' ability to learn and succeed.

This report (Promoting A Comprehensive Approach to Educational Opportunity) from Cross & Joftus, funded by the Mott Foundation, provides an important reality check to our typical tunnel vision. It also provides a series of recommendations to better coordinate a largely fragmented web of federal programs focused on children. It reminds policymakers and high-level government managers -- who have responsibility for interdisciplinary public policies -- that they need to think holistically and work in concert.

There are existing organizations and movements afoot -- Broader, Bolder, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Coordinated School Health Program, the Coalition for Community Schools, National Assembly on School-based Health Care, The Rural School and Community Trust, come to mind -- that take such a broader view of education and what it takes to fuel student success.

Some excerpts from the Cross & Joftus report:

The dominant assumption of American educational policy is that schools, by themselves, can fully overcome the impact of social and economic disadvantage on children’s development into thriving citizens.

The ... No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) ... perpetuated and gave further credence to the assumption that schools could fully mitigate the impact of low socioeconomic status on students’ achievement and that schools were also the chief cause of poor performance.

First, since at least 2000, there has been a broad scientific consensus that “virtually every aspect of early human development, from the brain’s evolving circuitry to the child’s capacity for empathy, is affected by the environments and experiences that are encountered in a cumulative fashion, beginning in the prenatal period and extending throughout the early childhood years.” As James Heckman, a Nobel Prize economist, wrote, “Life cycle skill formation is a dynamic process in which early
inputs strongly affect the productivity of later inputs [especially schools]. Put another way, “education” does not begin or end at the schoolhouse door, and the “education” that children receive before they enter school significantly affects their success after they go through that door.

Second, the evidence does not support the view that the substantial gap closing that had occurred by the mid-1980s was entirely the result of schools, though schools did indeed contribute.

Third, despite the ongoing debate about whether or not schools alone can level the education playing field, the federal government has long been engaged in a schools-plus approach.

Read Deb Viadero's blog post at Inside School Research on the study as well.

Image courtesy of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension

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How Much Can Hiking the Sticker Price Hurt Poor Kids?

They just give up. Period.

My husband drew my attention to a new study published in the April issue of Psychological Science in which researchers provided low-income Chicago 7th-graders in two randomly selected classrooms with one of two kinds of information: Classroom A received information about need-based financial aid opportunities, indicating that college was a possibility for them while Classroom B was provided information about the enormous costs associated with a college education, indicating that college was not a viable option (specifically they were told that the average college tuition costs $31,160 to $126,792).

The researchers then assessed students' motivation levels and mentality towards school using questionnaires about goals, grades, and time usage.

The students in Classroom A expected to do better in school and planned to put more effort into studying and homework, compared to the students in Classroom B, who did not view college as a realistic possibility.

In a sensitivity analysis the researchers repeated the study with Detroit classrooms, and changed the second condition from info about college costs to no info at all. Results again indicated that students provided financial aid information had a more open mindset toward their future.

The authors conclude "part of the reason children begin to fall behind is that effort in school is understood to have meaning only when it leads to a path to the future. When the path to college feels closed because of a lack of financial assets, school-focused aspirations and planned effort suffer."

For more, see the work of Daphna Oyserman, University of Michigan.

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What is the Evidence on High-Tuition High-Aid Models?

Inquiring minds want to know... and those of us optimistic about the future of education in this country, and the future of our children, are here to provide that service.

Given declining state support to higher education, it's not at all surprising that even the most "public" state flagship universities are considering high-tuition high-aid models-- ones that jack up tuition on all or a subset of students in order to provide more aid to students from lower-income backgrounds. Sounds good, right? Those who can will pay more, and those who can't will get more aid.

As with any policy, especially one so appealing on the face of it, it's worth turning to any available empirical evidence to assess whether it should be enacted. So let's do it.

1. University of Michigan- Ann Arbor began using this model back in 1997. UM is known as the most truly affordable college in the Big 10 by virtue of its gobs and gobs of financial aid. So, is it working? "In 2008, UM reported that tuition has increased 27 percent for incoming freshmen in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts since fall 2004. Tuition cost $10,447... University officials said they've increased financial aid by a greater percentage than the annual tuition increases." But since 1997, the number of low-income UM students has decreased by 10%, while the number of wealthy students has increased by 8%. What's going on? According to the financial aid director at UM “Our cost scares people away… it’s hard for [prospective students] to reconcile that, yes, we may be more expensive, but we give more financial aid."

2. Miami University of Ohio. With a president who understood that unfortunately "high tuition makes people think a school has a lot to offer" this institution raised in-state rates to match out-of-state ones, but also offered automatic grants up to nearly $13,000 to in-staters to offset the cost. The prez promised that net costs for Ohioans wouldn't go up-- that for them costs would remain the same. A year later, applications and enrollment immediately went up. Sounds great, right!? Except over the course of that same year there was an 8 percent decrease in applications from students with high amounts of financial need, and in-state enrollment dropped 13%.

These problems are recognized by the student body at the University of Washington, where a similar model is being considered. See here for an example.

3. Two important facts from financial aid research:

A. Low SES students are particularly price sensitive and have difficulty identifying the amount of aid they can expect to receive (hey, with a FAFSA like that who's surprised?). (See the work of Don Heller). We've never found a successful way to get low-income families accurate info on net cost, so as to influence their choices, early on, before they count themselves out of higher ed.

B. "A $1,000 increase in tuition decreases the attendance rate of low income youth by an estimated 5.2 percentage points more than middle- and high-income youth." (Thomas Kane) If the aid did not match the increases in tuition dollar-for-dollar, not only in theory but in reality, what follows is pretty clear.

Moreover, many of the biggest names in financial aid research and leaders of great public institutions tend to agree. Here are the voices of a few:

Edward St. John (U. Michigan): "The reality of high‐tuition/high‐aid [does] not match the vision advocated by progressives. Institutions leverage student aid to generate tuition revenue, replace tax dollars but adding to inequalities created by the shift in public finance. While rising tuition is a fact of life in public universities, student aid remains ambiguous and uncertain."

University of California System: In 2006, UC declined to go high-tuition/high-aid to protect access for low-income and minority students. UC reviewed the relevant research in advance, and its report declared: "Practically speaking, return-to-aid does not always compensate for the effect of tuition increases. In spite of efforts to increase financial aid in keeping with increase in tuition, high-tuition universities generally do not have student bodies as diverse as their less expensive public cousins....Thus in spite of the University’s excellent intentions and unusual efforts to offset the negative effects of fee hikes, the Compact moves the University toward a high tuition-high aid model that may not be able to prevent reduced access."

Brian Levin-Stankevich, President of Eastern-Washington University: He declined to go high-tuition, high-aid, noting that "the sticker price alone can be a deterrent to even considering college." But, he found an alternative, raising class size and using more technology. (Point of fact: there is no good evidence that smaller undergraduate classes are cost-effective, producing better outcomes worth the price. That said, they are politically popular!)

Patrick Callan: The Miami model, according to Callan, was a “poor execution of a poor idea.” “Everyone thought that high tuition, high aid programs worked well until we heard from privates about their issues with access for low-income students,” said Callan. “It would be a serious mistake for schools to look at the Miami situation and conclude that this is the best way to help low-income students.”

Bruce Johnstone notes that actually translating high tuition into high aid is operationally complex and hard to implement. It would also be hard to know if a university wasn't actually spending the money in that way. Other research, by Griswold and Marine supports this -- tuition pricing and aid allocations are often poorly coordinated.

And just for balance here are the voices of advocates of high-tuition/high-aid models...

James Garland, Miami University of Ohio. “Imagine if there were, in its place, a food subsidy program by which the government paid that $27 billion directly to supermarkets. Under such a program needy families would benefit little, because most of the savings would be passed on to customers who didn't need help. That would be an inefficient use of public money. But this is precisely what happens in public higher education. When states pay their universities to hold down tuition charges, they are indirectly subsidizing wealthy and poor students alike."

Ron Ehrenberg of Cornell University. A recent article about the Madison Initiative quoted Ehrenberg as saying "it’s to be expected that flagship institutions will have to borrow from the private model to maintain quality in an environment of diminishing resources. That said, there are potential pitfalls. “This [increase] is actually going to hit a relatively large fraction of the students, and the downside risk is that there may turn out to be a lot of political opposition to it,” said Ehrenberg, a professor of economics. “There’s always sort of the fear that if you raise tuition you’re going to lose public support, and that’s going to make state appropriations go away even faster,” he added."


Research by Jim Hearn and others has shown that time and again this model becomes popular under conditions of financial stress. But stressful times are times to get creative, to think harder about efficiencies, and to take unpopular stands. They are not the time to leave the poorest citizens among us out in the cold, while we "save" our own children, and our own behinds.

Postscript: I give tons of credit to the Economic Opportunity Institute for a very good brief on the topic.

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UPDATE: Higher Ed Cop Out #1

It's a trend! According to the New York Times: "Facing fallen endowments and needier students, many colleges are looking more favorably on wealthier applicants as they make their admissions decisions this year."

Says Morty Shapiro, "There's going to be a cascading of talented lower-income kids down the social hierarchy of American higher education, and some cascading up of affluent kids."

Darn straight-- remember cop out #1? Need-Sensitive Admissions. Lovely.

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UPDATE: Madison Initiative

UW-Madison's chancellor is in the midst of spreading the good word about her Initiative for Undergraduates. On the surface, much of the campus seems supportive.

In private, it's a different story. I received nearly 30 unsolicited emails from students today. Here, is an excerpt from one:

"I went to the Madison Initiative Forum tonight...[The Chancellor] said early in the forum that students should claim independence from their parents (to get financial aid)-- not even considering the tax implications for the parents. One of the administrators walking around during the small groups part heard my group talking about that and got her to correct her statement....There weren't many students present and most of them seemed opposed to the plan. Engineering students were especially vocal on account of their already having to pay differential tuition and all of the faculty benefits going to Letters & Sciences. A lot of people were also skeptical that their additional funds would go to hiring new faculty that would actually interact with undergrads. I came away from the Forum less impressed with the proposal..."


I think the voices of students are quite important in this discussion, and I urge those for the program and those against to make their opinions heard. This is, after all, one of the last remaining universities of the people.

Keeping you posted....

BACKGROUND: "Sifting and Winnowing"

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Ideas Worth Exploring

You'll have to forgive me for not writing a nice post in complete sentences this morning, as I'm running/flying between Santa Monica and Nashville with hardly any time to spare. But since the policy conversations in Washington these days feel friendly to good ideas, I want to throw some out there -- and see what kind of support we can generate. I'm not claiming any of these are uniquely mine, just that I think they're worth researching further and potentially backing as policies. Here we go:

1. Tie loan forgiveness to college completion. Create incentives for students to choose a loan over long hours of work while in college, and give them a reason to be sure and finish a credential.

2. Forgive student loans as a way to stimulate the economy. Instead of sending people checks, let them keep the money they already have.

3. Do NOT tie need-based grant aid to college completion.

4. Start teacher induction/mentoring programs for junior professors. If we know new k-12 teachers need help getting started teaching kids, why would we think new assistant professors are prepared and able to teach 18-year-olds?

5. Make one during or post-college service option (e.g. for loan forgiveness) serving as a 'college coach' in a high-poverty high school.

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Wacky Wednesday (Yes, I Know It's Thursday)

Wacky Wednesday. That's what the locals call Wednesday afternoons when teachers in Wyoming's Laramie County School District 2 send the kids home early in order to participate in professional development (Casper Star-Tribune: "Teacher learning debated in Wyo").

Judging from a new report by the National Staff Development Council, though, the district's elementary teachers have been out front in the United States with their in-school training. According to the report, American teachers spend about 80 percent of their time teaching and only about 20 percent on those other things that teachers do -- planning lessons, talking to other teachers and improving their skills. Seldom do they engage in as much at-school training as the teachers in Laramie County 2.

In most European and Asian countries, meanwhile, teacher training is commonly part of the regular school week. Teachers in those countries typically spend less than half of their working time teaching, according to the council's report. Yet the students in many of those countries, who spend less time in class than American students, outscore their American counterparts in math and science, the report said.

Now, given that so much professional development in American schools is of the spray 'n' pray, one-size-fits-all variety, skepticism is most certainly warranted. But given this evidence that the Laramie district's approach to PD was of much higher quality, it is unfortunate that the local school board took the easy route out of this PR challenge by eliminating this sanctioned time for educators.

It seems to me that the middle ground to this false choice -- between eliminating time during the school day for teacher to participate in professional development or cutting learning time for kids -- would be to lengthen the school day -- or the school year. It's an idea that Education Secretary Arne Duncan has discussed. A school superintendent in Mississippi has even proposed year-round schools.

The National Staff Development Council report can be found here.

And here is some good analysis here on the length of the school year from Kevin Carey at the Quick and The Ed.

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Obama Gets It Right

God, I love having smart people in the administration!

This morning I listened as Bob Shireman and Ceci Rouse unveiled an ambitious, thoughtful plan to increase college completion rates among low-income students. DOE is on the right track-- the story is completion, rather than access, and to make advances requires some serious restructuring of incentives.

The part of the plan to Restore America's Leadership in Higher Education that I'm most excited about is the creation of reliable Pell Grant -- making its funding mandatory rather than discretionary, and indexing the maximum grant to grow at CPI + 1%.

What's more, they're proposing a five-year $2.5 bil incentive fund to stimulate state-federal partnerships to increase degree completion. The best part? These folks actually get that we DO NOT KNOW what will work, and therefore whatever states try out needs to be rigorously evaluated. Build the knowledge base and we'll improve policy and practice. Exactly the shot in the arm higher ed needs, if only they hold true to a good definition of rigor and require states to contract out those evaluations. I'd also suggest that evals of ongoing, rather than simply new, programs be allowed -- why waste time when we can start learning now?

Lastly: one thing I didn't hear that I'd like to -- let the financial aid experiments continue. The last administration called a halt to institutional efforts to try out innovations, and this was a mistake. We need to know more about how aid can better be distributed, not less. Let 'em go on.

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Treatment of Transfers

What to do, what to do about those pesky community college students? Their graduation rates are so low, they lack big ambitions, they bring those families and kids and jobs, they're "older," they're poorer, they're loan averse... no wonder their transfer rates to 4-year schools are so low!

Sound familiar? To those of you familiar with the extended policy and academic debate about the educational opportunities created by or diverted by community colleges, well, it should.

I reported Friday about the increasing numbers of students changing colleges. And yet, and yet...here's an excerpt from a recent New York Times online chat with a couple of admissions gurus from 4-year colleges:

QUESTION: I’m curious as to how admissions criteria are altered or shifted in importance for a transfer applicant compared with a freshman applicant.

QUESTION: How are transfer applicants from community colleges viewed in the admissions process? What advice would you offer these applicants?

ANSWERS:
Mr. Poch of Pomona: There are huge variations in transfer student possibilities from institution to institution. Some have lots of room and some little or none. USC enrolls more than 1000 transfer students each year. Pomona has room for 10 to 15. Obviously different factors affect both of these patterns and common answers will be hard to find.
Transferring to Pomona is tough. There are proportionally many fewer spaces than there are for first year students in huge part because of the high graduation rate of our incoming first years. Space doesn’t open up. We look at the high school record, especially for those seeking to transfer as sophomores. We look closely at the college record and the extent to which the student has pursued a general education program which would leave them time to dedicate the time they and we would wish to their electives and their major when they enroll at Pomona. We will explore the reasons for transfer and to understand as best we may about why Pomona and how the student sees life changing in our educational environment. Are they transferring FROM something or TO something?

Mr. Brenzel of Yale: Our unusual system of residential colleges makes the freshman year and sophomore years critical to our undergraduate program. So we maintain only a very small transfer program, limited to 24 places each year.

Mr. Syverson of Lawrence: In the case of transfers, the bulk of the academic evaluation focuses on the college record. We welcome transfer applicants from community colleges and treat them essentially the same as transfer applicants from four-year colleges.

What is wrong here? Oh, let me count the ways:

1. Mr. Pomona--A nice back-handed slam against USC for admitting plenty of transfer students, by not-so-subtly suggesting that only poor retention rates could lead to another places for transfer students (Pomona's 6 year grad rate is 93%, USC's is 84%). Not true: underclassmen require different classes and services than upperclassmen. Schools often find they can fit more upperclassmen on a campus even when retention rates are quite high.

2. Mr. Pomona again-- Oh, beware that wayward transfer student who is just trying to escape from a crappy school and come running to yours... Yeah, we all know about those community college transfer students banging on the doors of 4-year schools like Pomona, just dying to run from their community college

3. Mr. Yale-- Yeah, I'm sure the 1st two years of Yale make it so different that students who did their first two years elsewhere could never merit your precious degree.

4. Mr. Lawrence-- Why treat applicants from community colleges the same as those from 4-year colleges? Why is this something you are showing off, like it's a good thing?

Bottom line- why aren't more kids transferring? Open your eyes: it's all about preserving privilege. Make the kids spend more time on our campus before they can get a degree (read: pay more money to our school). Keep out those bottom-dwelling community college goers who might try to sneak past the gates. Watch out, in all fairness, students who had an opportunity to earn a BA must be treated the same as those coming from a school that doesn't grant one!

At least there it all is, in the New York Times!

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Need-Sensitive Admissions: A Follow-up

Yesterday's New York Times has a "data" piece in the Education Life section titled "How Sensitive Are They?" It lists private schools with need-blind and need-sensitive policies, and statistics on the % of incoming freshmen who have their need fully met by an aid package, and the average % of need met (across all incoming freshmen with any need as determined by the college). In most cases, it looks like need-sensitive schools meet close to 100% of the need of incoming freshmen, and in turn most of their students have their need fully met. In contrast, schools that are need-blind meet a smaller % of demonstrated need and have lower proportions of their freshmen with need fully met.

Ok... again, duh: With fewer low-income kids to serve, you can meet more of their need. Why, oh why, didn't the Times include a column indicating the % of incoming freshmen receiving Pell grants, and the graduation rates of their minority (proxy for Pell in absence of another) students??? Talk about taking a one-sided approach to the story...

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Hate Starts Young

Where do kids learn such things (Students Chant 'Assassinate Obama' On School Bus)?

(A) School
(B) Home
(C) Right-wing talk radio

I can't choose between B or C, but I'll bet you it's not at school.

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A Topic Deserving of a Thesis

Attention graduate students: good thesis topic here. Take note!

Inside Higher Ed reports a growing interest among colleges, particularly those in the South, at recruiting Jewish students. Wow, has the world changed. (For more on that, see Karabel's The Chosen.)

Why is this happening? Here's what the colleges say: "...We’re seeing a lot of other schools recognize the value and recognize the contribution that these students are making to a college campus..."

But of course, we must ask, what does "contribution" mean? Thankfully, the reporter does raise this issue--might colleges, faced with declining enrollments and revenues, be acting strategically to target a population with high rates of college-going, and relatively higher incomes?

It would be great to know more. Specifically: How widespread is this trend? What are the discussions like inside administrative offices? Which schools are successful at upping Jewish enrollment? What are the effects? How do the Jewish students feel on these campuses? That and so much more.

So, student-- go for it! And report back on your findings, please.

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What Keeps Me Going

I'm in my 5th year as an assistant professor, and I'm just starting to figure it out. Tonight I received an email that helped clarify things quite a bit...

It comes from a student who took the very first sociology of education class I ever taught. I don't want to identify him so suffice it to say that he's a first-gen college student, an underrepresented minority, who had never traveled outside of Wisconsin when we met. Upon graduation he planned on a career in law, but was accepted by Teach for America and sent to New York City. (Again, he had NEVER been outside of WI....)

I've long wondered what happened to him. Here goes:

"Professor Rab:

Hey I am so sorry and this email is long overdue. I just wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going with me. This past year I completed my 2 years with Teach For America and received my masters in elementary education from Pace University. This past summer I worked for Teach For America as a corps member adviser training the new teachers and it was an awesome experience.

I have decided to remain in the classroom teaching 4th grade at PS XXX in the Bronx. I would like to pursue administration in the future. I have been placed in a lot of leadership positions at school as only a 3rd year teacher: data specialist, data inquiry team chair, school leadership team co-chair, grade team leader, etc. My plate is really full this year but well worth it. I am in the process of applying for grad school's again for a masters in supervision and administration. Following those 2 years I would like to get my PHD in Supervision and administration as well.

I have to say that meeting you and being in your sociology of education class really did inspire me from you being so young and talented at the time and me even being interested in education. Thank you! I hope all is well with your family and work."

And that's it-- I'm staying where I am. Right here. Where clearly, despite my best efforts, I matter.

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Palin's College Choices

Here's a quick post that follows up on Sara's recent post ("Palin Is A Swirling Student!") about Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's college education.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times ran a story ("Sarah Palin's college years left no lasting impression") that suggests that few professors and classmates can recall Palin from her college years. Even more interesting is the insight it provides into how Palin selected some of the colleges she attended. My guess is that Palin's is not an atypical approach. One of the reasons given in the article is that her family couldn't afford -- especially from Alaska -- to make the campus visits that often are a normal luxury available to students from wealthier families.

Palin's parents -- a high school science teacher and school secretary -- could not afford the college tours so common today. Their four children were expected to, and did, work their way through college.

"We didn't have the luxury of spending a week driving around visiting universities to see what they're like," said Kim "Tilly" Ketchum, a high school friend. "We were looking at pictures of campuses."

Palin and Ketchum picked the University of Hawaii at Hilo from a brochure.

Only after arriving in Hawaii did they realize that Hilo had rainfall approaching 100 inches a year. "The rain," Ketchum said, "was disturbing."

They attended orientation but never even enrolled.

The Wasilla girls soon moved to sunny Honolulu and enrolled in Hawaii Pacific University, a small private liberal arts school. They lived in an apartment in the Waikiki Banyan and took a bus to school.

Palin, a school spokeswoman said, attended full time as a business student.

The girls studied on the beach, tried surfing and pulled straight A's, Ketchum said. "We took the basic classes -- chemistry and biology, this and that."

But there was a problem. "When you're used to having some cooler weather, you get tired of the heat," Ketchum said. "We went one semester there before we realized we needed to go someplace else."

They transferred to tiny North Idaho College, on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Palin's older brother, Chuck Jr., had gone there before transferring to their father's alma mater, the University of Idaho in Moscow.

At North Idaho, Palin and Ketchum found what they had missed in Honolulu. They lived on campus before moving to separate apartments their second semester. "It was all very quaint," Ketchum said. "You kind of felt safe."

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U. of California Proposes Sweeping Admissions Changes

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the University of California System is considering changes to its admissions policies that would "de-emphasize test scores and give the system's nine undergraduate campuses greater flexibility in choosing their freshman classes." The plan was proposed by faculty leaders concerned that an over-emphasis on student test scores disqualifies capable and deserving low-income and minority students from being admitted to UC campuses.

Since the 1960s, California's premier public-university system has promised admission to at least one of its campuses to the top 12.5 percent of the state's high-school graduates, as determined primarily by grades and test scores. Under the faculty plan, the proportion of students who are guaranteed a spot would be reduced to about the top 10 percent. The remaining spots would go to students chosen by individual campuses, which would more closely consider applicants' personal backgrounds.

The changes may not impact top UC campuses -- such as Berkeley and UCLA -- because those schools already employ a comprehensive review of each student's application and they are highly selective institutions.

Mark Yudof, the new president of the UC System, recently arrived from Texas, says that he is "sympathetic on the merits" of the proposal but wants to see more details.

Read more:
Chronicle story
LA Times story
SF Chronicle story

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