Looking back

My good grades may have been a fluke! Like taller people are more successful, good looking students earn better grades. From The Pacific Standard.

ATTRACTIVE STUDENTS GET HIGHER GRADES

In the latest attempt to tease out the benefits of being beautiful, two researchers examined the academic records of students at a large American university. They compared the grades they received in online courses—ones in which the teachers never saw their faces—with those conducted in person. 

"More attractive students earn higher grades when they are seen than when they are not seen," report economists Rey Hernandez-Julian and Christina Peters of the Metropolitan State University of Denver. This result, they add, was "driven mainly by courses taught by male instructors." 

Hey, your paper may be a C-minus, but your cheekbones are A-plus. 

As we have ruefully noted over the years, researchers have consistently found good-looking people are treated better than the rest of us. They tend to have higher incomes; if they're on the wait staff of a restaurant, they get bigger tips. 

But as Hernandez-Julian and Peters note, it's possible (if unlikely) that this is explained not by pro-beauty bias, but rather because attractive people, for some reason, do superior work. To investigate this possibility, they studied the academic records of 4,543 students at their own school, which they describe as "a large, public, open-admission institution."

Vanderbilt is the 9th

Hardest college to get into. Hardly a surprise. The hardest is California Institute of Technology. From Niche.com. Go here to see the list as a map.

2017 Hardest Colleges to Get Into in America

Explore the hardest colleges to get into ranking based on acceptance rates and SAT/ACT test scores using data from the U.S. Department of Education. Compare the most selective colleges with the lowest acceptance rates and highest SAT/ACT test scores

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Is one of the fastest growing cities in the county. Greenville, South Carolina--just across the mountains from here--is listed as well. Unsurprisingly, nearly all are in the South and several in Texas. From CNN.Com.

These are the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee  

Population increase: 4.7%
Murfreesboro sits roughly 35 miles from Nashville, and has seen home values rise 12.5% in the past year, according to Zillow.

Infographic Friday

Save the date!

Tennessee Alliance for Continuing Higher Education 

Annual Conference

"All Shook Up"

November 8-10, 2017

Memphis, Tennessee

This is now in the job description

For deans of continuing education. As well as other deans. This is one of the biggest changes I've seen in the field. From The Chronicle of Higher Education.

What Every Dean Needs to Know About Fund Raising

"There’s only so much you can squeeze out of tuition," says James W. Dicker, vice president for advancement at Temple University. The expectation that fund raising will be a significant part of deans’ jobs will only grow, he says. Now, that expectation is often made clear upfront. At Temple, for instance, Mr. Dicker met with candidates for dean positions in Temple’s law and art schools during the selection process. 

Yet courting donors is not always a natural fit for deans. Academic leaders may have very different skill sets than the ones that make development professionals successful. They are used to imparting their knowledge and sharing their expertise. But good fund raising depends on listening to donors and asking the right questions to understand their motivations and passions. Their professional training has probably not included fund-raising fundamentals: identifying prospective donors, the process of soliciting gifts, or an understanding of the most effective ways to reach donors (for example, spending time making a one-on-one visit to an alumnus versus hosting an alumni event and making small talk with a lot of people). 

Despite the steep learning curve many deans may face, they can have a significant effect on an the amount of private dollars an institution can garner. They are the ones who can best articulate the mission of a college and what a gift could do to advance it. And they’re often the ones donors want to meet to discuss their passion for a specific academic or research program. Some, of course, turn out to be natural fund raisers.

Even we English majors

Made fun of philosophy majors. But Katy Tur makes the case for not only philosophy, but the liberal arts in general. From NBCNews.com.

Katy Tur on Her Philosophy Degree: ‘It Allows Me to Ask Questions’

Katy Tur's advice for undergrads studying philosophy? Don't let anyone tell you your major isn't useful. 

"I graduated with a B.A. in philosophy and it was by far the best major I could have taken in college," the NBC News correspondent, a graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara, explained in an interview for College Game Plan. 

"A lot of people in this business take journalism as a major. Others take communications," she explained.
For Tur, philosophy offered something different — something she utilizes daily while covering the Trump administration. 

"It allows me to ask questions, and that is what I do every day," said Tur.

Happy National Senior CItizen Day!

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Three states get a pass

Kentucky, Tennessee, and...Indiana. Indiana? Honorable mentions go to North Carolina's Blue Ridge and South Carolina's High Wire. From Esquire.

THE BEST WHISKEYS IN EVERY STATE RIGHT NOW

A whole lot of people think bourbon can only legally be made in Kentucky. That's not true. But the oft-repeated myth shows how indelible the relationship between Kentucky and bourbon is, a relationship that dates back to Alexander Hamilton and a despised whiskey tax that drove distillers from the mid-Atlantic region to the friendlier Southern state. 

The absolute best whiskey in America still comes out of Kentucky, whether you believe it is Pappy Van Winkle, George T. Stagg, or perhaps a more offbeat selection. Likewise, Jack Daniels is, if not the best, the most famous whiskey in America, and the best-selling too. Jack has stamped Kentucky's neighbor to the south, Tennessee, as another state uniquely linked with the good stuff. 

But what about whiskeys from other states? Are any worth a damn? There are now around 2,000 distilleries in America, at least one in each state. As this "craft" micro-distilling boom is only about a decade old, many of today's companies have not yet had the time (or resources) to create a good whiskey. Furthermore, some craft distilleries don't produce their own whiskey. Instead, they use the same "sourced" juice, usually courtesy of a giant factory called Midwest Grain Products in Indiana, and simply slap their own label on the bottle. We won't count those for our purposes. 

So can any of these smaller outfits (that actually distill their own product) one day help their state wrest the long-held whiskey crown from Kentucky and Tennessee? The search for the next great American whiskey begins with distilleries in the other 47 states, plus D.C., that aren't Kentucky, Tennessee, or Indiana.

Happy National Rum Day!

From Visually.

The top cities for college grads

Include Houston (#1) and Dallas (#5) in Texas. I might have thought Nashville or Charlotte might have made the list. From CBS Money Watch.

5 U.S. cities where college grads can thrive

Ah, spring -- the weather warms, the future brightens and an army of freshly minted college graduates fans out across America to apply their dreams and degrees to the working world. Whether those dreams take flight or crash to the ground depends, of course, on the individual. But the location where that person chooses to live can play a significant role. 

To that end, Bankrate analyzed the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. to see how conducive they are to launching young careers.

"It's important to remember your job isn't your life. You want to be happy where you are, and you want to be able to afford where you're living," said Sarah Berger, who writes about finance and budgeting for Bankrate under the moniker The Cashlorette.

The Dark Triad?

Sounds like a run-down bar from Harry Potter. Still, is it any wonder psychopaths are drawn to study business? Marketing seems a natural fit. But, it's another study from outside the U.S. From MSN.Com.

Psychopaths Are Most Likely To Study This In College

Psychopathy is a real mental health condition that often goes undetected in people, which means you could be living next to, or with, a psychopath and not even know it. So how do you tell a psychopath from your average Joe? Well, according to a new study, it may help to see what they studied in college; psychopaths are more likely to be into business courses.  

The study, published online in Personality and Individual Differences, found that individuals with the Dark Triad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) are more likely to have studied business and economics. These results show that your personality, particularly having a “dark” personality, may influence your educational choices. 

The findings are based on answers from over 400 Danish students who took a personality test while also providing information about their academic choices. According to The Indy 100, the study was specifically done before the students started their studies, so that any personality differences could not be attributed to the course’s socialization effect, but rather give true insight into the tie between course selection and personality.

Happy National Left Hander's Day!

The world acording to lefties
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Infographic Friday

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Win early

Lose late. The grain of salt taken with this study is that it looks at outcomes in Europe, not the U.S. Still, this is what we liberal arts graduates always preach. From The Atlantic.

The Downside to Career and Technical Education

Yet new international research points to a significant downside of such programs: Students may benefit early in their careers, but are harmed later in life as the economy changes and they lack the general skills necessary to adapt. 

The study raises concerns about the trade-offs that could come with significantly expanding career and technical training in the United States—at least any version that substitutes for broad knowledge and skills transferable across jobs. 

“Individuals with general education initially face worse employment outcomes but experience improved employment probability as they become older relative to individuals with vocational education,” write four researchers in the study, which appeared in the winter 2017 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Resources. 

Many European and developing countries provide extensive vocational education, including apprenticeships with involvement from industry, the authors note. That stands in contrast with the U.S., which has reduced or eliminated separate vocational tracks in most high schools.

Tennessee Alliance for Continuing Higher Education

To register Click Here

Those zany Millennials

Maybe all they really want is job security. Who doesn't? From CBSNews.com.

What millennials really want in the workplace

Different surveys have widely varying opinions on the millennial generation -- those between the ages of 18 and 30 who are entering or already in the workforce. Some imply this is a group of slackers living in their parents' basements. Others show them as ambitious, hardworking and struggling to pay off college debt with several part-time jobs. 

How do they see themselves? A new report from the blog Squared Away shows a lot of "youthful optimism" among this generation. But is it justified? 

"The changing job market is making it increasingly difficult for young adults to get their careers off to the right start," said Kim Blanton, writer and editor for Squared Away at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. 

That's because the employment landscape is changing. Millennials are often accused of changing jobs just to earn more money. But that may not be their choice, said Blanton, citing a recent Federal Reserve survey showing that young adults prefer jobs that are "permanent and steady," not ones like driving for Uber or freelancing, which aren't secure and could change from month to month even when they make more money. 

Surprisingly and contrary to popular belief that millennials jump jobs for money, they actually "prefer steady employment to higher pay," according to the Fed survey.

Save the date!

Happy National Lighthouse Day!

From Visually.

Infographic Friday

16 Ways to Stay Cool When Sleeping [Infographic] by the team at NeoMam

Cheap eats?

Where's the funnel cake? From Travel + Leisure.

The Best Cheap Eats in Every State

Tennessee 

Ribs are a dish you want to be sure to try in Memphis, but getting them on the cheap can be tough.  

That's why Khan recommends going for the rib sandwich at Payne's BBQ, where you'll get slow-cooked ribs sliced and topped with barbeque sauce and stuffed into a bun at $7. 

It's my party

And I'll raise tuition if I want to....Could the optics be any worse for the UC Board of Regents? From The Daily Beast.

University of California’s Board of Regents Partied Hard, Billed the State, Then Raised Tuition

On the night of Jan. 25, members of the University of California’s Board of Regents piled into San Francisco’s lavish Intercontinental Hotel for a dinner party. By the end of the night, the 65-person party had racked up a $17,600 bill, or roughly $271 per diner—which they charged to the university. The next day, the same Regents voted to raise tuition by 2.5 percent or $336 for each in-state student. 

From 2012 until May 17, 2017, the UC Board of Regents expensed luxury banquets totalling over $225,000, the San Francisco Chronicle first reported Sunday. University President Janet Napolitano’s office reimbursed the dinners in full, using UC funding. The news comes in the wake of a damning state audit that revealed $175 million in undisclosed funds belonging to Napolitano’s office. UC students say they’re not going to stomach the costs any more.

Some good news

For Memphis. You're safer there than you might believe. However, Detroit and New Orleans offer more danger. From MSN.com.

The American Cities That Are Not as Dangerous as You Think

SAFER: MEMPHIS 

If you're a country-music fan or you grew up listening to Elvis on repeat, then venturing to this Tennessee town is probably on your bucket list. Even though Graceland is definitely a place you'll want to snap a selfie to show your grandma, SmarterTravel doesn't recommend you linger in the area after dark. They advise being mindful of your belongings and locking your car up when you visit the mansion during the day, too, just to be extra safe. 

Another note from Smarter Travel: 'When you want to check out the attractions downtown, you'll find that many of them are in close enough proximity to each other to make it practical to walk. However, there are cabs and trolleys that will get you safely to your destination, as well. It's safer to use a cab or trolley at night, rather than walk too far through the downtown area, especially if you're alone.'