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MEN’S BASKETBALL

AP TOP 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 15, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:

Record Pts Prv

1. Syracuse (60) 19-0 1,619 1

2. Kentucky (4) 17-1 1,558 2

3. Baylor (1) 17-0 1,503 4

4. Duke 15-2 1,380 8

5. Missouri 16-1 1,335 9

6. Ohio St. 16-3 1,312 5

7. Kansas 14-3 1,218 10

8. North Carolina 15-3 1,172 3

9. Michigan St. 15-3 1,119 6

10. Georgetown 14-3 884 11

11. Indiana 15-3 858 7

12. Murray St. 18-0 825 15

13. UConn 14-3 807 17

14. UNLV 16-3 651 12

15. Virginia 14-2 649 16

16. San Diego St. 15-2 621 22

17. Florida 14-4 596 19

18. Mississippi St. 15-3 590 20

19. Creighton 16-2 471 23

20.

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Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce released a new report showing that the United States is not producing enough college-educated workers to meet economic needs and reduce income inequality.

As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, the report, by Anthony P. Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose, found that the nation has been producing too few college-educated workers for more than three decades. Furthermore, it looked at the pay difference between college graduates and high school graduates (called the “wage premium”) and argued that if the nation continues to underproduce college graduates, the gap in earnings among Americans of different educational attainment levels will only get worse.

“The data are clear,” said Carnevale in a press release. “The demand for college-educated workers is growing much faster than the supply…

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Last month, I wrote a couple of posts about this reality:  many students are graduating from college without absorbing much of an education.

From a parents perspective thats a lot of wasted money. And, of course, there are serious ramifications for students who have spent their college years living in a Bud Lite commercial. Here are the two posts:

Today I want to share with you a thoughtful column in The Chronicle of Higher Education today that attempts to explain, from a professors perspective, why so many college students seem impervious to learning. While professors should certainly be taking some of the blame for student underachievement, William Pannapacker, an associate English professor at Hope College in Michigan, explains the harsh realities of educating undergrads in the 21st century.  You can read his column here:

I am sharing just three of Pannapackers observations:

1. <

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In my last post, I promised to share some resources that can help you evaluate the generosity of colleges and universities. If you missed it, here is that post:

Today Im going to focus on the College Boards website, which is a quick and easy resource for anyone interested in getting financial aid statistics on any college or university.

To get started, type the name of any school into the College Search box on the College Boards home page. You will have access to a variety of statistics on the institution.

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I gave a presentation on Shrinking the Cost of College last night on CollegeWeek Live.

I talked for about 30 minutes from my office and then I answered questions from the audience.

Here are some of the topics that I covered:

• Where you can find the greatest source of college grants.
• How you can improve your chances of getting college scholarships.
• How you can tell before you apply whether a school will be generous.
• Can you negotiate after receiving a financial aid package?

Its not too late to see the free presentation through CollegeWeek Lives on-demand feature. You will have to register, but its free. It should take you 30 seconds to do that. After registering, click on Events and youll see yesterdays event CollegeWeek Live PAYING FOR COLLEGE that included other speakers as well.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

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A hundred thousand? Two hundred? With this year’s college application season winding down, there’s been another round of scrutiny about how expensive a college education has become. A recent article in the New York Times highlights a couple of studies that try to quantify the costs and benefits of attending the pricier private schools, as the yearly tuition plus cost of living at some selective liberal arts colleges has risen well above $50,000.

Last year the Wall Street Journal also explored the rising costs of higher education. In the article “Rethinking the Costs of Attending an Elite College,” the author reports that nearly half the parents surveyed in a 2008 Gallup/Sallie Mae poll said they hadn’t ruled out any colleges based on cost, and one parent quoted in the article said her kitchen ceiling was falling in while the family held off on repairs in favor of saving more. Read more…

What are your chances of getting into your dream college?

I wanted to share with you a great tool that you can use to help assess what your chances are for getting an acceptance letter from any college on your list.

You can find the tool at COLLEGEdata, which is a website shock full of resources for parents and high school students who want to learn more about the college process. (Full disclosure: I have just started writing a financial aid newsletter for the site.)

The COLLEGEdata tool that I want to mention today is called College Admissions Tracker. You can check the admission profiles of thousands of students who have applied to individual colleges and universities across the country.

One of the coolest things about the tool is the use of scattergrams. The scattergrams show acceptances, rejections, deferrals and wait list status of teenage applicants for individual colleges.

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