Watching the River Rise...

Sorry I've been quiet on the blog this week... (two weeks in a row! Eek! Was in Europe last week, visited Queen's University in Belfast and Oslo University in, well, Oslo. :))

As you may have figured out from previous blogs we're located in Moorhead, MN and less than a block from the rapidly rising Red River of the North. A few of our staff have homes directly in the flood path (who wouldn't want a home on the river, right?) and the rest of us have friends and family directly affected by this so we've been out filling, tying and lifting sandbags all week.

It's been amazing- the comradarie among everyone out helping out, and the THOUSANDS of college students out giving all they've got to the effort. Frankly, a few of us worried that some college students would see this as a free week off and not come out and help but that has not been the case at all. At one point I was the oldest person in my sandbagging line! (I'm only in my late twenties!) So, like a local said in the Fargo Forum, "I'm going to throw a sandbag at the next person who complains about the college kids in the area and ask anyone who complains about high school kids to kiss my wet, muddy, sandy @$$".

See a view of the river from our office: http://www.inforum.com/pages/floodcam

We're waiting now for a load of sandbags to be delivered across the street from the office and are going to head out and start piling them up... I don't want to swim to work this week! :)

Good Things From Bad Situations...

I'm sitting in my office right now watching the Red River of the North get higher and higher and higher... it's currently predicted to be about 20 feet below it's flood crest which is supposed to come on Friday at 41'.

And it's raining.

What good can come of this? I was thinking about that on my (rather sleepy, jet lagged) drive to work this morning. It's forcing the community out and together. It's unfortunate that it sometimes takes crisis to bring people together, but it does seem to have that effect.

Where I really see this is in the local colleges, all three of them have cancelled classes today with the instructions to students to go help fill sandbags. Now, I don't know how many are helping given that Spring Break is over and my 10:30 pm flight last night was filled with college students returning from Mexico... but I do know that both of our part time people here who are college students called this morning to tell me they wouldn't be in today because they're out sandbagging.

So I really hope that these local college students are out helping out where they can, and lending a hand to their community, or adopted community right now. It's really an experience that, while the whole situation is unfortunate, will probably influence your actions later in life- being more willing to help out someone in need.

(I had a rude awakening this past week myself in Norway when I was hopelessly lost and was brought back to my group through the kindness of a stranger. I wondered if I'd ever do that for someone else...)

I'm glad the colleges are lending a hand- they're a huge part of whatever community they're in and the civic involvement that students can have should almost be mandatory (I think.).

Imagine what a world we'd live in in everyone pitched in every time someone truly needed help...

Cool!!

Not gonna lie, some colleges really have cool admissions websites.

It's almost making me want to go to a few of them because they really do their job well in that the college looks unique, appealing and, well... cool! There is enough information to intrigue me but not overwhelm and who isn't a sucker for pretty pictures!

On top of that there are a few that lay out the information most pertinent to students in an easy to find fashion. This is important in my book. The Apply Online link and Request Information links should be easy to find. Right up there is also Financial Aid, tuition and scholarship info. You shouldn't have to call the school (unless you want to) to find this information.

Then there are the fun things. Green Mountain has a list on the admissions site to 50 Things to Do Before You Graduate. Sounds like this campus has a good time!!

Got some time? Hit up www.anycollege.com/search and look at a few schools websites. What do you find that you like or don't like?

Quiet blog...

Sorry the blog has been quiet this week- 12" of snow and 50mph winds kept me at home Tuesday and part of yesterday due to highways getting closed!

More good stuff coming!!

Hurray, US Dept of Education!

Not too often that you see that as a blog title, right?


Last week they did something really cool- yet very simple- for people using the web to try and navigate some of the higher education websites that they have. The web address for the Department of Education has always been http://www.ed.gov/- which makes sense to many of us who work in higher education, but not always to the every day person who is trying to figure out their (or their child's) Federal Financial Aid. The other government departments aren't abbreviated like that, for example there is http://www.justice.gov/ or http://www.treasury.gov/... but http://www.education.gov/ took you to an error page.


Not anymore! They have updated it to take you to the REAL US Department of Education page.

Why is this such a big deal? As also shown in this article, there are many websites that will take advantage of students who don't know as much about the FAFSA (free application for Federal Student Aid... free being the key word) and will charge them to file it through their site. Yep- that's right you can pay a fee to file your FREE application for Federal Student Aid through other sites. These sites were coming up instead of the education site

One service advertises that for the "low fee" of around $80 they will help you fill out your FAFSA, review and submit it. Maybe I'm biased working in higher ed, but I've been doing my own for years (including when I was a dependant student) and I thought the thing was pretty easy to do myself. Even students who I worked with who had never done it before found out it was easy after they got over the initial jitters of filling the form out. The FAFSA literally puts what line on your tax form you'll find the information on so you can go right down the line and fill everything in!

Some people do have really complicated taxes (or rather, parents do) and at that point if you can't figure out where to go/what to do that is what your college financial aid department is there for. They know that thing inside and out and can help you out- for free!!

So back to my original point. These outside companies were often coming up fairly high on the search pages when www.education.gov would send people to an error page, and the new Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, finally got on the tech folks around the Dept of Ed and had them update the links.

Because really, searching for a college is hard enough that getting error messages from the sites you depend on for information is not something you need!

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

No really.





Guys- what's happening? We ran our demographics for the site last week and this is what we found on scholarship applications:


73% to 27% female to male?

But that's been shown in many new studies that the big push for girls to get a higher education and into math and science courses has paid off- to the point that many universities are reporting less than 40% of their 4 year degrees are being awarded to men.

A few speculate that it's due to men earning more in the workforce so going straight to work after high school is viable since they can still make a good living, whereas it's seen that women must have a degree in order to have a good income... I'm not sure about that since I haven't done a lot of research, but it's just what I've read.

Anyone else seeing this anywhere? Guys... any response to what's happening??

Saving (Earning?) Money in College

First- thank you all so much for reading! I couldn't believe how many hits this blog has had lately! So a HUGE thank you, I hope you're finding it interesting. If you read it frequently will you follow it if you can? It lets me know who I'm writing to! Again, THANK YOU!

OK- I tossed this blog idea around for quite some time before I decided on actually writing it. I wasn't sure if there was too much of a "well, duh" element to it, and when I laid these plans out for students in the past it was met with some... well, ok... a lot of resistance.

Back story: when I was in student services students frequently came to me complaining that they had no money. They would frequently ask if there were any types of county assistance programs or aid for people in their situation. First off my answer was: unless you have several children and are in pretty dire straits then no... because you are already receiving aid from the government in the form of your student loans. And typically those places that give out aid figure that if you can afford to attend college, you can afford to feed yourself.

That being said, I would ask students about a few lifestyle changes that they could consider making. This is where the resistance comes in, because it does require something of a lifestyle change. But then again, I figure you're attending college and life doesn't always go on as normal... and hey, if you learn some good financial habits while you're in college then you're going to set yourself up pretty well for life. (OK, I will step off the soap box now.)

Here is what I suggested to the students:

#1- Lay out a budget. Exactly (don't round) how much is coming in.
Then lay out what you spend money on. The key here is being truthful with yourself. Do you eat at McDonalds 3 times a week at $5.13 each time? That's then $15.39 per week you're spending there. The idea here is not to do any cutting yet, but simply to know exactly where your money is going. If you have online banking it's helpful to print out your last month's transactions.

#2- Prioritize. Do you have a rent payment? That should be up in the top 3. Do you have school bills? Them too. Discretionary spending (restaurants, music, entertainment, and yes, beer) go towards the bottom.

#3- Figure out where you can save. What would that $15.39 get you at the grocery store? I bet it would cover a loaf of bread, some sandwich meat and some kind of dressing... and enough for the entire week, not just 3 days. Reaction: "I don't have tiiiiiime to make a sandwich in the morning" or " I don't liiiiiike sandwiches". I timed myself making a packed lunch one day. I did it (and put everything away) in less than 2 minutes. It's just a matter of making yourself do it.
Eating out, for the record, is defined in my book as anywhere you did not make the food.

#4- This goes with #3. At the grocery store, can you buy unprepared foods? Because the frozen lasagna dinner is going to be quite a bit more expensive and you'll get less leftovers from it (i.e. dinner for 4 nights rather than 2) than simply making the whole thing yourself. Yep- learn to cook. Reaction: "I can't cook". Well, this is a great time to learn. BONUS: it will impress a future significant other. Trust me. Another tip? Go in with friends. Get 5 people, each contribute $2 and you can make a pretty fantastic dinner for all of you! (Spaghetti: $1.00, Sauce: $2.50, Ground beef: $4.00, bread sticks $2.50= dinner for 5 for $10)

#5- Can you walk (or bike) anywhere rather than busing or taking the car? This one is from my experience: my first undergrad school I walked EVERYWHERE. I was about as broke as they come and didn't have money for bus fare, so I hoofed it. And you know what? I got in pretty dang good shape doing it. Reaction: "I don't have tiiiiime" or "I can't walk that far!" (That was from a student lived less than a mile from campus) It might take you a little time, but figure out what you spend on gas, and if you can get around that by getting up 15 minutes earlier and walking you're going to save a bunch of money. I know it's not possible in every situation but it's something to really consider if it's possible. Oh, a second hand bike works pretty good for this too.

Part two to the car: Beyond gas, cars have expenses. You need to change the oil sometimes (Yes, you really do...). They break. They need new tires. The less wear and tear you put on your car the less you have to do these extra added expenses!!

#6- Just say no. Your friends won't hate you if you have to say no to going out one night because you simply can't afford it. They might even have a little more respect for you! Is it crappy that you can't always afford to hit the bar/club/dinner with your pals? Yep, but if it's a night at the club or your rent payment, well... I'd rather have a roof over my head all the time than one night.

#7- CDs/MP3s/Video Games are not a necessity. Reaction: "Yes they are!" No... they're not. I almost fell off my chair and refused to help a student figure this out once when he told me the week before he bought an $80 video game and this week he couldn't figure out how to find money for groceries. No sympathy whatsoever.

#8- Share the rent. I learned the hard way in college that having roommates is much cheaper than living alone. I lived alone, which admittedly was nice but expensive, for a while then simply couldn't afford it and had to suck it up and live with someone. I didn't always like it but it really opened my eyes to different lifestyles and forced me to grow some new social skills. Reaction: "I don't know anyone here!" Honestly, that's OK. If you're generally compatible on the first meeting you will be OK. Remember this doesn't have to be your best friend (and I don't recommend living with that person either), just someone to share the rent with.

Reflection: I did have one student take my advice on the grocery store and walking bit. Within a month he came into my office, said he was actually SAVING money now, had lost 10lbs and felt better than he had in a long time which was also reflecting in his grades. Funny how that works!

OK, enough saving money, let's MAKE some money now. This often entails trying to find a job... which adds one more thing to your plate while you're in school. The unfortunate thing about growing up is having to juggle more than one thing at a time, such as being at classes and then being at work.

#1- Try for a job on campus. This will eliminate driving/bus and the gas it takes to get there. Also, campus jobs are more likely to let you do homework during slow times. (Depending on your boss, of course.)

#2- If you can't get one on campus see if you can get one within walking distance of your house or the school.

#3- Donate plasma. Hey, $20 is $20, right?

#4- Did the Freshman 15 put you out of a few pairs of jeans? Bring them to a second hand store and see if you can get some cash for them. (Just make sure you still have something to wear!:))

#5- Try to find a job where you can work full time in the summer or over breaks. I know that's not fun but if you can squirrel away some money over that time you can work less hard during the other times.

Lastly:
Overage on student loans is tempting. I know it is. It can allow you to not work during college or get a little nicer apartment... but if you can get away with holding a part time job to pay the rent instead of taking the overage do it. You will thank yourself down the road. I did that and now I'm looking at an extra almost $5,000 to pay back, which translates into a few more years (YEARS!) of loan payments.

More college students with fewer high school grads?

This morning on my drive to work I heard an interesting feature on the radio about how this year will be the peak year for graduating high school students in the state of Minnesota with 64,000 students expected to graduate. In just three years that number is expected to fall off to 58,000.

However, colleges are still expecting just as many applications and enrollments out of that group due to a higher percentage of the kids graduating attending college. In order to achieve that higher percentage some of the Minnesota colleges are reaching out to students as young as 7th and 8th grade to get them started thinking about college.

The interesting thing I thought was that it's not really a recruitment effort... it's more to get some kids (and many who would fall into the category of less likely to attend college being from low income, first generation American or first generation college student families). They're trying to reinforce the idea that college is for everyone, you CAN attend college and it is within your reach to go.

I think that is pretty cool. That makes the job of the high school counselor much easier when helping the student figure out life after high school in that college is more of an automatic choice. (Yes, I am of the mindset that everyone should at least try college. Every college might not be for everyone but there are so many types of colleges out there that there has to be one that will appeal to each person... plus you don't know until you try!)

I knew quite a few people who always said "College isn't for me, I hated high school and I will hate college so I'm not going." Personally, I've experienced three types of colleges though work and attending them and none of them had the feel of a high school. So again, to present the idea at a young age that college is something different and that is attainable is something that I think is great that these theatres are doing!

When did you really start thinking college was an option? Have you run into the mindset of "I'm not going?"