HigherEd Compass

HigherEd Compass use data-centric process to show students the right college path & find success in life. We help consumers be smart in HigherEd decisions.

01/09/2022

Fewer high school graduates are enrolling in college. This is a trend going back several years, now exacerbated by the crushing economic blow of the pandemic. The bulk of the decline is with the low-income students facing economic challenges to afford a college education. A significant share of these individuals would have gone on to study at a nearby community college, which is the one higher education sector disproportionately impacted by the enrollment decline.

If this trend continues, the pandemic is likely to further amplify the economic division between the haves and have-nots. This trend will have a potentially dangerous socio-economic outcome decades down the line by way of more people needing economic assistance and the further splitting (rather than narrowing) the fault line in the discourse of common understanding and respect for one another in the real world.

New reports from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and some states show an “unprecedented” decline in college enrollment among high school graduates—especially the most underserved.

11/25/2021

The extent to which colleges and universities can prepare their students obtain the necessary skills to thrive in the digital economy will be a key metric in how relevant an education in American higher education will be. Look around us. Especially as the pandemic accelerated our dependence on everything digital, from the increased use of Amazon or Zooming on conference calls, a college graduate's employability will be increasingly dependent on whether the graduate has the skills and experience in the digital field. Are colleges doing an adequate job? Some are starting to, but many are not yet prepared.

Two promising new models blend skills training and work experience.

11/07/2021

Recently, Amhert College eliminated legacy enrollment, an admissions office practice that gives a leg up to those applicants whose family members previously attended the said institution. Amhert's decision follows that of other elite colleges and universities. When legacy admissions go, does that mean we now have equity in admissions, giving black and brown, low-income students a fair chance to be admitted as white students? Maybe not, but dropping legacy admissions is a good first step.

But when fancy schools like Amherst kill legacy preferences, they do get a little fairer.

10/20/2021

Some pretty good basic history and facts about what higher education was and what higher education is today. There are some troubling signs today with so many students owing so much to get a degree.

College in the United States is expensive. The cost of higher education just keeps going up. Tuition costs at both public and private universities have doubl...

09/25/2021

Start with this list when looking for a college or university to attend. Stay out of debt. One institution of higher education that goes under the radar is Berea College. It is a unique college where it requires every student to work while attending college. While it may not be the best fit for some students, know that no one takes on student loan debt while a student there.

A “no loans college” is just what it sounds like: It helps students afford the cost of attendance without taking student loans. Here's how to find one.

08/18/2021

Many people have asked whether college is worth it? Now others are questioning the value of master's degree level education as well. While in general, a master's degree as a whole does provide a financial bump for the entirety of the group, the financial gain is not as much as those who obtain a bachelor's compared to just a high school diploma. Furthermore, there are a number of graduate degree programs that are, to put it bluntly, not worth the price of the education relative to the financial gains one attains upon graduating with the degree. For instance, there are some with (a pricey) master's of arts degree who earn as much as a waiter. What everyone who seeks a master's degree needs is a full understanding of the cost of postgraduate degree and the realities of paying back the student loan that many people take on to obtain their education. There just is simply not enough financial literacy on the matter.

The desperate economics behind the pursuit of an even higher education.

07/07/2021

At a time when college enrollment is in decline (it's been happening even before the pandemic hit), the rule change giving NCAA student-athletes the path to profit from their participation in college sports will likely create unintended consequences beyond imagination. Money is encroaching upon the pursuit of learning and in general, that is not good. The line of amateur and professional sports is a bit more blurred as well. In principal, we at HigherEd Compass do not agree that student-athletes should be profiting from their college sports participation. But at the same time, we are aware that, at least for the big sports (e.g. college football and college basketball), universities' gains are millions of dollars every year. And the argument of fairness that student-athletes are not getting anything out of it is worthy of debate. But has anyone thought of the rippling effect on colleges and universities' mission -- that is, of learning and educating students of all stripes? The fact that, during a time when colleges and universities are hobbled by the effects of pandemic on their budget, in addition to general decline in enrollment (decreasing their overall revenue), something will likely have to give to pay student-athletes. Will it be budget for academics, budget for financial aid to low-income students, or something else that is central to the mission of higher education?

The high court’s decision was overdue. It will also usher in a new world.

06/23/2021

College enrollment declined by nearly 5% from a year ago this spring. This decline was worse than what higher education instutions experienced in fall 2020. At the same time while undergraduate enrollment was lower, graduate enrollment increased marketedly. As one analyst in higher education policy states, this divergence is the higher education equivalent of the widening economic gap that already existed prior to the pandemic. Sadly, the longer a student stays away from college, the likelihood of him ever returning is commensurately lower. This will likely result in continuing the socio-economic divergence in our society where the rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer.

Undergraduate college enrollment fell again this spring, down nearly 5% from a year ago. "It's really the end of a truly frightening year for higher education," one researcher says.

06/01/2021

This is perhaps not so much of a surprise. But it is a good reminder of the extent to which college degree attainment has multiplier effect -- generationally. That is, college graduates whose parents also attained college degrees, on average, earn more after college than those who don't have parents who attained college degrees.

If you're a college graduate, whether or not your parents also have a college degree likely will affect your lifetime income and wealth.

04/25/2021

Applications for admission across most top tier universities increased for fall 2021 enrollment. Applications to Harvard in increased by 42% year-over-year, NYU increased by 17%, and Dartmouth by 33%. With the pandemic closing down SAT and ACT testing centers, in addition to high schools going virtual over the initial months of the pandemic, the vast majority of colleges and universities drastically changed the way they considered applicants for admissions, including making standardized tests optional. By not requiring SAT or ACT test scores, the updated, pandemic-related admissions policy of highly selective institutions encouraged more students to apply to those institutions. It is possible that students who did well in high school (in terms of GPAs and extracurriculars) but did not perform as well on standardized tests increased the number of colleges and universities they applied to, in part because the applicants could exclude the weakest of their high school portfolio (i.e. SAT and ACT scores) from consideration. The question for future years is whether these top tier colleges and universities will continue to make SAT and ACT optional. A few institutions, including Amherst and Princeton, have already said they will for the following year.

By waiving SATs and ACTs, highly selective schools invited an unprecedented wave of applications, upending the traditional decision process.

04/03/2021

The president is considering erasing student loan debt of up to $50,000 per individual. Unless that debt cancellation is paid for by the rich, we do not suggest a debt cancellation that large. Why? Research has shown that people who tend to take out such large sums of student loan are those that obtain master's level degrees or higher (e.g. medical and management degrees) who will earn substantial amount of money over their lifetime. While it might be initially challenging at the outset of someone starting out in the labor market with those degrees, the challenges they face do not compare to those who attended college but did not finish. In fact, a number of research shows the extent to which people who struggle the most with student loan repayment are those who went to a nearby college -- often community college -- but did not finish due to life circumstances getting in the way of their college education (for instance, taking time off from school to help their family pay the bills). And most of these individuals had a debt burden of less than $10,000.

President Biden appears to be giving serious consideration to broad debt forgiveness.

03/17/2021

It may sound like a cliche to say hard work matters. In Rehan Station's situation, his perseverance led him to acceptance in Harvard Law School against all odds. Life circumstances created road blocks after road blocks. Facing no choice, he worked as a garbage collection worker to help pay the bills for his family and for himself. During this time, he also attended the University of Maryland where he recently graduated with a 4.0 grade point average. In the fall, he will enter Harvard Law School as Class of 2024. What an uplifting story.

Rehan Station is a college student who went from being rejected by every school he applied for to being accepted into Harvard Law school.WATCH FULL EPISODES:...

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