Posts filed under 'College Trends'
According to a recent survey by Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana), cell phone use – and smartphone use, in particular – is on the rise amongst college students. After speaking with 300 students, researchers found that while 99.7 percent owned a mobile device of some sort, 27 percent owned a smartphone.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a smartphone is generally defined as a mobile phone that has its own OS and/or has an e-mail, web browser, and other applications.
“College students are increasingly adopting cell phones – particularly the smartphone – as the core communication and entertainment device for their hectic lifestyles,” said Michael Hanley, the journalism assistant professor who in charge of the mobile communications research program at Ball State. “In the few years since instant messaging (IM) leaped from the computer to the cell phone, a new mobile lifestyle has evolved. And save for studying, the computer is quickly being left behind.”
That’s a bit extreme if you ask me. You can’t assume students are cutting down on their surfing habits at home just because they now rely upon mobile Internet or that one form has overtaken the other; it just means that students’ day-to-day lives require more on-the-go connectivity than in the past. While it used to be easy to wait until you were home to log-on for example, these days many professors e-mail about last-minute assignments and canceled classes making it in your best interest to stay on top of your inbox – especially if you find yourself busy with after-school activities, internships, and the like.
As someone who got a smartphone during her last year of university, I would definitely recommend the tool for any student that finds him/herself on the run and away from the nearest computer terminal or WiFi hotspot. I was able to keep up-to-date with my classmates about group projects, stay in touch with friends, and find out right away if my class was cancelled or my office was closed due to weather. And while it did cut down on some of my surfing time at home, that’s only because I was using my smartphone to check my feeds during my commute.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
April 9th, 2009
Used to using YouTube for quick comedic clips, moving music videos, and film from family and friends? Well, it looks like you’ll have to reevaluate your view of the site from now on. While colleges and universities have been uploading clips of their courses and professors for quite some time, April marked the formal introduction of YouTube EDU, a YouTube landing page that puts you in touch with educational videos from schools all over the nation.
While the page looks a bit chaotic at first, it does boast a directory that will link you to the school channel you’re interested in. So far this list includes such top names as Harvard University, Stanford University, and Virginia Tech, with videos covering everything from physics to cooking lessons. It’s definitely worth checking out whether you’re already in college or just starting to consider the possibilities.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
April 6th, 2009
The New York Times recently addressed the financial aid climate of college admissions in an article that is quite disturbing to me. Financial aid has always been an issue and great concern for pretty much the entire college-application population. But because of the state of the economy, it is definitely at a low point.
While financial aid is still available to some, it is certainly not as available as it once was. This is, of course, completely understandable. However, in the article, some admissions offices revealed that they are looking to admit applicants who don’t apply for financial aid or those who come from wealthy families:
This year, many of these colleges say they are more inclined to accept students who do not apply for aid, or whom they judge to be less needy based on other factors, like ZIP code or parents’ background.
Although such colleges admit to applying this mindset only to those “students at the margins, the ones who would probably be ‘maybes,’” it’s a scary factor, for sure. Now, in addition to being faced with a million different emotions and issues with affording college, parents must also grapple with knowing that their pleas for aid may affect the acceptance of their children into their college of choice.
Colleges want those students who will be able to pay tuition in full, especially as endowments do not increase. What we have here is rising tuition and an attitude that is blinded by the green monster of the almighty dollar. Now, more than ever, this makes colleges seem more like businesses than institutions designed to better students’ (and the country’s) future.
This is certainly a sign of the times that those with more academic potential but less endowment potential would get rejected from their prestigious dream college. Could this be a trending discriminatory practice?
-Amanda Fornecker
April 3rd, 2009
The media has more than done its job of portraying spring break as a by-the-numbers week of partying, drinking, and fun in the sun. But not every college student is down for spending a week just relaxing and even those who are, don’t always do things by the book. Just take a look at these four examples of spring breaks with plenty of style:
mtvU Spring Break 2009
What: Concert series
When: March 8 – 21
Where: Panama City Beach, Florida
Plenty of spring break parties will borrow tunes from today’s top artists, but how many can actually boast that they’ll have them playing live? mtvU Spring Break 2009 is the place to be if you’re looking for just that. Students from across the country will enjoy the surf and sand while top artists like Flo Rida, All American Rejects, and Panic at the Disco give live performances.
Mission: Possible
What: Community service
When: March 7 – 14
Where: Denver, Colorado; Jonestown, Mississippi; St. Louis, Missouri; Browning, Montana; Portland, Oregon; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Neah Bay and Tacoma, Washington
Rather than flying off to beaches and resorts, 102 students from around the country will take part in the Mission: Possible program’s community initiatives. Working with children, teens, and schools in the area, these students will have the chance to cleanup and improve the community to which they are assigned. They’ll also get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn about a new culture from the inside-out.
Adult Swim Presents: The Williams St. Country Fair and Beach Party
What: Fair and beach party
When: March 12 – 16
Where: Panama City Beach, Florida
A free fair full of fun, games, and all of your typical carnival accoutrements, the Adult Swim Presents: The Williams St. Country Fair and Beach Party also boasts a few one-a-kind staples of its own. Not only will the hip-hop group Jozi be performing, but the comic duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (Tim and Eric Awesome Show) will as well.
Alternative Spring Break
What: Environment service project
When: March 14 – 21, and March 22 – March 28
Where: Grand Canyon National Park, Montana
Want to spend a week at one of the most beautiful places our country has to offer? Then Alternative Spring Break in Grand Canyon National Park is the destination for you. Sixty students, split into two one-week sessions, will meet to walk the park’s trails, work on vegetation projects, and clean up graffiti.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
March 6th, 2009
College students have been staging protests for as long as there’s been a campus to stand on. But last night at New York University (NYU, NYC, NY) dissatisfied students took their demands to another level, barricading themselves into the cafeteria floor of the Kimmel Center for Student Life. The students, calling their movement “Take Back NYU,” have a website dedicated to their effort and have listed their demands. (They even Tweet.)
Now, full disclosure: I’m an NYU alumna. Over my four years I had the privilege of attending a school with students who were passionate about their beliefs and who were willing to take a stand, even if it was unpopular. I witnessed many a protest and while some of them I less-than-loved as their chants interrupted my finals, I always supported them on principle.
I can’t say the same this time.
I’ve read over their list of grievances and demands, and many are the same things students asked for when I was in school. I can even agree with them on some points. A public release of the school’s budget? Reasonable, considering that tuition rates are on the rise. Allowing workers and T.A.’s to collectively bargain? Something NYU students have protested about for many years. There’s just one problem: their method.
Boycotting aspects of NYU life and staging protests in front of NYU buildings is a valid way of showing the administration that you and other students have concerns that are not being addressed through usual channels. Forcefully taking over an entire floor of an NYU building and barricading yourself and the area from security and NYU students who would otherwise use the space, is a juvenile move that’s more akin to a temper tantrum than a calculated protest. If anything, this decision may make coming to an agreement even harder as I doubt NYU will want to give students the idea that they can get what they want simply by acting out.
College is a time to work on your communication, leadership skills, and maturity levels and these students have thrown that to the side for a bullhorn, viral marketing, and a giggling slumber party in a school space. I have a hard time taking them seriously when they’re not going about their efforts maturely. And while I do support one of two of their demands I do not support them at all.
*Picture courtesy of CBSNews.com
– Genevieve M. Blaber
February 19th, 2009
What do you get when you invite more than 100 college students to Capitol Hill? A chance to strengthen the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease.
Earlier this month, student leaders from the top 100 campuses competing in the ONE Campus Challenge (OCC) came together for the Power 100 Summit, hosted by ONE, a global advocacy and campaigning organization. OCC is a nationwide competition among colleges and universities where students earn points by engaging in social activism.
The elite three-day conference consisted of speakers and workshops at George Washington University campus and culminated with a lobby day on Capitol Hill. Students were joined by members of Congress and leaders of international organizations such as Oxfam and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
One of the activities in the jam-packed conference included a screening of “Sons of Lwala,” a documentary that tells the story of two brothers, Milton and Fred Ochieng’, and their community’s efforts to bring health care to the small, rural village of Lwala, Kenya. Students were able to talk directly with the brothers after the film:
“We know personally the devastation of disease, and we know the tremendous power of people coming together to do something about it,” said Milton Ochieng’.
With the education and training they received at the conference, student leaders deepened their understanding of extreme poverty and preventable diseases like AIDS and malaria and acquired skills to be more effective advocates on their campuses. The goal is for them to return to their campuses energized and ready to engage other students in new ways, utilizing the ideas, relationships, and techniques they learned at the summit.
But can college students really make a difference in something as broad as global poverty? ER’s Dr. Greene believes they can:
“College students have tremendous energy and creativity to bring to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease,” said actor Anthony Edwards, board chairman of Shoe4Africa, an organization that specializes in creating unique health initiatives and promotes AIDS awareness.
That vote of confidence was echoed by model and designer Lauren Bush:
“We believe that students have incredible transformational power to create widespread awareness of global diseases and extreme poverty,” added Lauren Bush, co-founder of the FEED Project, which raises money to alleviate hunger through the World Food Program. “Small actions, done by lots of people, can make the world a better place, and that’s what these students are doing.”
Click here to learn more about the ONE Campus Challenge and Power 100 Summit.
– Robyn Tellefsen
February 18th, 2009
That’s what some students at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) are saying. According to a recent article in The Cornell Daily Sun, married Cornell students are finding that the domestic life not only brings them together in matrimony but academically as well.
Kelly Camin and Brian Gainor’s commitment to each other partially manifested itself in their mutual commitment to succeeding in their studies. Camin recalled that, before their engagement, her fiancé had a tendency to procrastinate. After their engagement, however, they both “worked harder to push each other.”
In fact, as The Cornell Daily Sun reports, studies by groups and publications like the National Council on Family Relations and The Journal of Marriage and Family have said that marriage gives students a different approach to college life that results in better grades than their single counterparts.
But before you tell your significant other that they “shoulda put a ring on it” consider this: married life isn’t always bliss for college students. Some of those interviewed in the article found that wedding bells ushered in uncomfortable living situations, tighter finances, more social pressures, and a willingness to make sacrifices so that one partner could attain their degree.
If you’d like to read more, check out the original article at The Cornell Daily Sun.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
February 13th, 2009
Move over Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary, there’s a new user-generated knowledge database in town known as Leximo.org. Created and maintained by Ian Balina and Asad Mahmood, two juniors from The George Washington University (Washington D.C), Leximo.org is on a quest to amass the definitions of every word in every language with the help of users like you.
We’re not just building a community around it,” said Balina, a computer engineering major. “The number one thing people want to do online is talk to other people, so we’re basically trying to bring that aspect to Leximo and dictionaries because we think that people want to interact together, instead of just by themselves.”
– From GW University’s school paper, “The Daily Colonial”
In a system similar to the one used by Urban Dictionary, users’ submissions are subjected to review by other community members, allowing the accurate definitions to gain priority over the error-laden, or just poorly written, ones.
But with somewhere in the range of 475,000 to 600,000 words in the English language alone, and a little over 93,000 total words added to the site so far, Leximo.org has pretty far to go.
Want to make a contribution? Then head to Leximo.org and sign up.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
February 11th, 2009
Windows PCs have dominated the market for decades, but Macs have been invading college campuses thanks to a hip image, better spyware reputation, and preferred provider agreements with many colleges. Despite this, Macs get the snub from most computer science departments — where PC-centric programming and courses continue to reign supreme.
But that’s starting to change.
The University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah) just announced that it will be offering a series of Apple-geared classes so that students can learn how to use, maintain, and update computers that use Mac OS X. The news comes just in time too! At the end of January, Veritude, a staffing service provider, released a new report on IT hiring trends for the coming year; according to their data, 17 percent of employers are looking to hire Mac developers — a 12 percent increase from the last survey they conducted.
So while the economy may not be greatest right now, the job outlook for Apple gurus is starting to ripen up.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
February 5th, 2009
You might not give retention rates a lot of thought when you’re thumbing through guide books, but for colleges around the country, it’s their bread and butter.
For the past 26 years, ACT, Inc. — yep, the non-profit org responsible for the test by the same name — has been surveying post-secondary institutions to see how many of their freshmen stick around for their second year. While the nationwide retention rate has never been at 100 percent, and probably never will be, the 2007-08 academic year saw a startling two percent drop down to 66 percent.
This may sound alarming at first, but as the ACT points out, the numbers don’t factor in students who chose to take a semester off or those who transferred to another post-secondary institution. Retention rates track how many students stayed at a particular school — which is a good thing to consider when you’re looking at colleges but a poor indicator of the college drop-out rate.
In fact, while many of the private institutions saw a dip in retention rates, two-year public colleges saw a slight increase leading some to speculate that the current economy may influence students to choose less expensive schools that allow them the ability to transfer to traditional four-year colleges after two years, or just settling for a two-year education which usually culminates in the awarding of an associate degree.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
January 22nd, 2009
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