Happy National Coffee Day!

Embedded from BestInfographics.co

When free tuition

Isn't really free. Tennessee continues as the benchmark. By Robert Kelchen, writing in Washington Monthly.

Not-so-Free College and the Disappointment Effect

But free college programs in the public sector often come with a key limitation—the amount of money that the state has to fund the program in a given year. Tennessee largely avoided this concern by endowing the Tennessee Promise program through lottery funds, and the program appears to be in good financial shape at this point. However, two other states are finding that available funds are insufficient to meet program demand.

• Oregon will provide only $40 million of the $48 million needed to fund its nearly tuition-free community college program (which requires a $50 student copay). As a result, the state will eliminate grants to the 15% to 20% of students with the highest expected family contributions (a very rough proxy for ability to pay). 

• New York received 75,000 completed applications for its tuition-free public college program, yet still only expects to give out 23,000 scholarships. Some of this dropoff may be due to students attending other colleges, but other students are probably still counting on the money.

Happy World Tourism Day!

Which Country Fits Your Manners? [Infographic] by the team at NeoMam

Another ranking of college towns

Although there's no Tennessee town in this list, there are a few nearby: Athens, Blacksburg, Charlottesville. I've been to most of these some time or another throughout my career, although Fargo is a notable exception. Fargo? Yeah, it's on the list. So's my alma mater. From MSN.Com.

The 20 best college towns in America

Boulder, Colorado, is the top-ranked college town in the US, according to a new list from the American Institute for Economic Research. 

The city of roughly 200,000 (for its metro area population) earned the top spot thanks to its accessibility — more than 20% of commuters take public transportation or cycle around Boulder Creek Corridor — and diverse and educated population. 

Boulder also has an active bar-and-restaurant scene, with plenty of coffee shops and microbreweries.
AIER compiled its list using nine economic, demographic, and quality-of-life factors. It defines college towns as having fewer than 250,000 residents.
Aside from the overall ranking, we included cities' individual scores for noteworthy metrics including rent, earnings, and bars and restaurants. We chose the one metric that the city scored the highest in out of the nine.

Tennnesee Promise students succeeding

Paving the way for the Drive to 55. From The Tennessean.

Tennessee Promise students more likely to succeed in college, less likely to drop out, new data shows

Students using Tennessee's free community college scholarship are significantly more likely to succeed in college than their peers outside the program, according to data released Thursday. 

Fifty-six percent of Tennessee Promise students who entered college in 2015, the program's first year, had graduated, transferred to a four-year university or remained in school two years later. Only 39 percent of recent high school graduates outside of Tennessee Promise had done the same — a difference of 17 percentage points. 

The data, part of a wide-ranging analysis done by the state's community college system, the Tennessee Board of Regents, provide the clearest picture yet of the landmark program. 

Proposed by Gov. Bill Haslam in 2014, the program was the first in the nation to offer almost every graduating high school senior in a state the chance to go to college tuition-free. 

In an exclusive interview with the USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee on Thursday, Haslam said the new analysis "shows that the time and the effort and the dollars we're putting into this are not being displaced.

"When we launched Tennessee Promise, one of the legitimate questions was, ... 'Can these students succeed?'" the governor said. "I think the results show that these students are succeeding at a decidedly better rate."

Happy National Comic Book Day!

From Visually.

Infographic Friday

From Visually.

Looking to retire

In a college town? AARP lists ten good choices. One of the closer ones is in South Carolina. And I know the Chancellor, there.

10 Great Places to Live and Learn

Beaufort, S.C. 

Beaufort is a textbook example of moss-covered antebellum architecture and Southern charm. Home to the University of South Carolina, Beaufort, it has about 70 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, not including part of the downtown, which is itself listed as a historic district. Beaufort is also known as an art town, with a host of museums and galleries. Anyone 60 and older who isn't working full time gets free tuition at USCB's two campuses. The university has one of the country's biggest OLLI programs, with 1,600 members and 400 classes and programs annually.  Population: 13,130. Institution: USC, Beaufort. Median home: $226,600. Median monthly rental: $1,648.

Stuck on the last line for your emails?

Try thanking the reader. From Money.

This Is the ONLY Way You Should Sign Your Emails

But is there a right way to end an email?

Turns out, there totally is. And it's how you should sign every email, experts say.

Just write “thanks.” 

The logic is simple. “Thanks” doesn’t come across as stiff, or cloying. It's appropriate for practically every type of exchange — you can use it to end a note to any level, department, or role at your company. And, importantly, it's more likely to get a response than any other kind of signature. 

Earlier this year, email scheduling app Boomerang analyzed more 350,000 email threads to see which “closings” got the best response rates. Sign offs that included some variation of “thanks” got a response 62% of the time, compared to a 46% for emails that lacked “thankful” closings.“Closing an email with gratitude is a good bet, especially when you are requesting information or hoping to get someone to respond to your email,” says Brendan Greenley, a data scientist at Boomerang. “These ‘thankful’ email sign-offs even outperformed tried and true closings like ‘best’ and ‘regards’.”

The most beautiful campus in Tennessee?

Also the most expensive. From Travel + Leisure.

The Most Beautiful College in Every State

Vanderbilt University in Tennessee

Rural and stunning Sewanee was a close runner-up, but Vanderbilt is just too gorgeous to pass by. Impeccable grounds and landscaping, most obvious in places like Alumni Lawn and Bishops Commons, set the campus apart. Majestic columns (on display at the Wyatt Center) and clean red-brick facades add to the school’s impressive beauty.

Good news for English majors

Liberal arts degrees may lead to more fulfilling, and ultimately more lucrative, careers down the line. And they're appealing to first generation college students. From The Atlantic.

The Unexpected Value of the Liberal Arts

Look more closely, though, and this old stereotype is starting to crumble. In 2016, the National Association of Colleges and Employers surveyed 5,013 graduating seniors about their family backgrounds and academic paths. The students most likely to major in the humanities or social sciences—33.8 percent of them—were those who were the first generation in their family ever to have earned college degrees. By contrast, students whose parents or other forbears had completed college chose the humanities or social sciences 30.4 percent of the time.

Pursuing the liberal-arts track isn’t a quick path to riches. First-job salaries tend to be lower than what’s available with vocational degrees in fields such as nursing, accounting, or computer science. That’s especially true for first-generation students, who aren’t as likely to enjoy family-aided access to top employers. NACE found that first-generation students on average received post-graduation starting salaries of $43,320, about 12 percent below the pay packages being landed by peers with multiple generations of college experience. 

Yet over time, liberal-arts graduates’ earnings often surge, especially for students pursuing advanced degrees. History majors often become well-paid lawyers or judges after completing law degrees, a recent analysis by the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project has found. Many philosophy majors put their analytical and argumentative skills to work on Wall Street. International-relations majors thrive as overseas executives for big corporations, and so on.
For college leaders, the liberal arts’ appeal across the socioeconomic spectrum is both exciting and daunting. As Dan Porterfield, the president of Pennsylvania’s Franklin and Marshall College, points out, first-generation students “may come to college thinking: ‘I want to be a doctor. I want to help people.’ Then they discover anthropology, earth sciences, and many other new fields. They start to fall in love with the idea of being a writer or an entrepreneur. They realize: ‘I just didn’t have a broad enough vision of how to be a difference maker in society.’”

Infographic Friday

Courtesy of: Visual.ly via TechGYD

The higher education bubble?

Slowly deflating? Maybe, but this article points out that the most rapidly shrinking section of higher education is the for-profit sector. That's probably a good thing. From The Atlantic.

This Is the Way the College ‘Bubble’ Ends

For the past few decades, the unstoppable increase in college tuition has been a fact of life, like death and taxes. The sticker price of American college increased nearly 400 percent in the last 30 years, while median household income growth was relatively flat. Student debt soared to more than $1 trillion, the result of loans to cover the difference. 

Several people—with varying degrees of expertise in higher-ed economics—have predicted that it’s all a bubble, destined to burst. Now after decades of expansion, just about every meaningful statistic—including the number of college students, the growth of tuition costs, and even the total number of colleges—is going down, or at least growing more slowly. 

First, the annual growth rate of college tuition is at its lowest rate on record. Second, the annual growth rate of student debt is lower than any time in the last decade. Third, the number of college enrollees has declined for five consecutive years. Fourth, the college premium—the extra income one should expect from getting a bachelor’s degree—is higher than it was in the 1990s, but it's stopped growing this century for young workers. Altogether, the numbers paint a clear picture: The higher-education market is not bursting, like a popped soap bubble; but it is leaking, like a pierced balloon.

Save the date!

79th Annual ACHE

Conference and Meeting

Imagine

October 23-25, 2017

Doubletree by Hilton Portland

Portland, Oregon

Looking to move to a big city?

Maybe think twice about Memphis. Also on the list of cities to avoid is Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Orlando, and Rockford. Rockford? I should add that I had a great visit to Memphis this past spring. From Shebudgets.com.

20 US Cities You Do Not Want To Live In

Memphis, Tennessee 

It’s one of the most famous places in the south, and people would love to live here. It’s close enough to Nashville to be near the stars, but far enough away to be relatively comfortable. However, the crime rate here is very high. This is not a huge city in comparison with other cities in the country, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the crime rate and the number of violent crimes that are reported each year. Additionally, the numbers are not falling with time.

ETSU designated ‘adult friendly’ institution

East Tennessee State University has been designated an “Adult Friendly Institution” by the Coalition of Adult Learning Focused Institutions. 

The coalition is sponsored by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and includes about 70 institutions nationwide that strive to advance programs and services for adult students, evaluate their adult degree programs and share best practices. In becoming part of the coalition, ETSU is demonstrating its commitment to offering specialized services to meet the unique needs of adult students.

“We’re really proud of this designation,” said Dr. Richard Osborn, dean of Continuing Studies and Academic Outreach at ETSU. “The university worked hard for over a year to earn it. Adult students can be confident that ETSU constantly works to ensure that they are successful.”

Adult, Commuter and Transfer Services (ACTS) at ETSU offers assistance for adult and transfer students returning to college. ACTS staff understand adult students’ specific needs and life challenges and are available to guide them through the process from start to finish.

“The fact that ETSU has a dedicated office (ACTS) as well as an academic department (School of Continuing Studies & Academic Outreach) to meet the needs of incoming and matriculating adult students says a lot about ETSU’s recognition of the importance of adult learners in higher education” said Dr. Carla Warner, ACTS director.

To be more accessible, a “connect” button was recently added on the ACTS website that allows current and prospective adult students to live chat with an ETSU staff member. ACTS also offers a Reconnect Incentive Grant for returning students who have earned a minimum of 30 hours with a cumulative GPA of 2.25 or higher.  The Reentry Student Scholarship and the Nontraditional Student Scholarship are also open to adult students who qualify. The School of Continuing Studies and Academic Outreach offers several degree options geared toward the working adult student.

“This designation is recognition that ETSU is a destination institution for adult students,” said Dr. Joe Sherlin, vice president for Student Affairs. “When adult students come through the door at ETSU, they have a team of committed staff who will work with them to achieve their educational goals and celebrate when they accept their diplomas at graduation.”

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning is a national leader in the fields of adult learning and workforce development. More information is available at www.cael.org.

For more information about ETSU’s Adult Commuter and Transfer Services, call 423-439-5641 or visit www.etsu.edu/acts and ask to speak with Dr. Carla Warner or Jennifer Rice.

Infographic Friday

by newhousedesign.

From Visually.

The pool of high school graduates

Keeps shrinking. Some states, like Georgia, are an exception but nationwide, the picture looks grim for small colleges and universities. From The Hechinger Report.

Universities and colleges struggle to stem big drops in enrollment

All of these changes are a response to a crisis few outside higher education even know exists: a sharp drop in the number of customers bound for small private, nonprofit colleges like this in particular, and also some public universities and other higher-education institutions.

A dip in the birth rate means there are fewer 18- to 24-year olds leaving high schools, especially in the Midwest and Northeast. This has coincided with an even more precipitous decline in the number of students older than 24, who experts say have been drawn back into the workforce as the economy improves, dragging down enrollment at community colleges and private, for-profit universities that provide mid-career education. 

The result is that the number of students in colleges and universities has now dropped for five straight years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse, which tracks this — and this year is the worst so far, with 81,000 fewer high school graduates nationwide heading to places like Ohio Wesleyan, whose entering freshman class is down 9 percent from last year. 

How dramatic is the falloff? There were just over 18 million students enrolled in higher education nationally in the semester just ended — 2.4 million fewer than there were in the fall of 2011, the most recent peak, the National Student Clearinghouse reports. 

“That’s unprecedented in the history of as long as data has been kept on higher education,” said Kevin Crockett, senior executive at the enrollment-management consulting firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz. 

There’s no upswing likely until 2023, and even then the recovery will be slow, projects the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. When it comes, it will be comprised largely of low-income, first-generation-in-college racial and ethnic minorities. These are the kinds of students institutions have generally proven poor at enrolling, and who will arrive with a far greater need for financial aid and expensive support.

Thoughts on jargon

Highlighting three of the more overused phrases. From The Open Forum.

THE HISTORY OF JARGON

Low-Hanging Fruit 

The expression "low-hanging fruit" is also among the top most irritating office lingo that showed up in surveys. 

"Low-hanging fruit" refers to what's easily achievable without much effort. This expression first appeared as early as the 17th century in various poetic or literary works as a vivid metaphor. According to Investopedia, the exact phrase "low-hanging fruit" likely first appeared in print in a 1968 article in the Guardian newspaper, gaining popularity in the following decades, and "becoming a staple in corporate management and sales lingo" by the early 1990s. It even appeared in a 2009 Dilbert cartoon as an example of "the vacuous way managers speak." 

In 2016, writer Zack Crockett authored an article on Priceonomics showing the explosion in usage of this expression. But his research shows that the expression has now become totally irrelevant by the change in apple tree genetics grafting. When the expression was first popularized, the majority of apple trees were tall and the only fruits that were easily within reach were those that hung low on the branch. But today, as Crockett writes, the majority of apple trees are dwarfs. 

Yet another reason for abandoning this stale buzzword.

From Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

Happy Labor Day!

Infographic Friday

by optimaltargeting.

From Visually.