The People's Counselor

02/16/2025

The letter mentions a wide range of university programs and policies that could be subject to an OCR investigation, including “hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”

In a sweeping and unprecedented letter issued over the weekend, the Office for Civil Rights declared race-based scholarships, cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies illegal.

12/12/2024

What will happen if the Department of Education is abolished?

Money may go to the states as block grants with less oversight, which could be a good or bad thing depending on the state and local school districts. But one big issue would be ensuring equitable education access.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to abolish the Department of Education. Here’s what the agency does and how eliminating it could play out.

10/18/2024

The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed Oct. 7 in the Northern District of Illinois by two college graduates with divorced parents, says that the private universities made students with divorced parents pay more by taking into account the income of both parents when determining institutional financial aid, even when only one parent had custody.

The lawsuit also names the College Board, the nonprofit that administers college applications, as a participant in the alleged conspiracy to lower the amount of financial aid that universities offer students.

The class action lawsuits alleged that the 40 universities conspired with College Board to offer financial aid based on the income of a divorced parent even if they don't have custody.

05/01/2024

Today, I sat in on a training session held by Dr. Ken Ginsburg, a physician, adolescent development specialist, and Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. He is also the founder of the Center for Parent and Teen Communication and has created a toolkit called Reaching Teens. I am so excited to be working with Dr. Ginsburg as a Reaching Teens champion for my organization, helping colleagues be even better advocates for our Scholars!

Check out the Center for Parent & Teen Communication’s website for great ideas for building stronger relationships with your adolescent children.

Your guide to parenting teens.

02/26/2024

FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL? It is possible through the generosity of Dr. Ruth Gottesman. Imagine if other billionaires were this thoughtful about equity.

“The 93-year-old widow of a Wall Street financier has donated $1 billion to a Bronx medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, with instructions that the gift be used to cover tuition for all students going forward.

The donor, Dr. Ruth Gottesman, is a former professor at Einstein, where she studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test and ran literacy programs. It is one of the largest charitable donations to an educational institution in the United States and most likely the largest to a medical school.

The fortune came from her late husband, David Gottesman, known as Sandy, who was a protégé of Warren Buffett and had made an early investment in Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate Mr. Buffett built.

The donation is notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it is going to a medical institution in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough. The Bronx has a high rate of premature deaths and ranks as the unhealthiest county in New York. Over the past generation, a number of billionaires have given hundreds of millions of dollars to better-known medical schools and hospitals in Manhattan, the city’s wealthiest borough.”

Dr. Ruth Gottesman, a longtime professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is making free tuition available to all students going forward.

02/02/2024

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund scholarship is open! Deadline is February 15, 2024 at 5pm EST.

Eligibility Requirements

- Must be of Hispanic heritage
- U.S. citizen, permanent legal resident, or DACA
- Minimum of 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent) for high school students; minimum of 2.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent) for college and graduate students
- Plan to enroll full-time in an accredited, public or not-for-profit, four-year university, or graduate school, in the US, for the 2024-2025 academic year
- Submit the FAFSA or state-based financial aid forms (if applicable)

Apply here:

Hispanic Scholarship Fund

02/02/2024

If you are looking for low-cost or free college prep summer programs for your high school student, here's a great table with lots of options. You can sort the list for free programs, programs with available (limited) scholarships, virtual or in-person, by age range, etc.

College prep summer programs are an awesome opportunity for students to explore their interests while learning about college life.

A list of academic pre-college summer programs with generous financial aid opportunities. Sort by host institution, format, duration, college credit offered, and month(s) when the application opens.

10/11/2023

Check out this video from one of my colleagues discussing how to choose recommenders for your college and scholarship apps. And note that both our College and Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Program applications are open now!

Cooke Foundation Dean of Scholar Support Janoah Williams shares four important tips for you to get the best recommendations for your applications to college ...

10/10/2023

“Research shows that an HBCU education is more than worth the student’s investment. According to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Black HBCU students are up to 33 percent more likely to graduate than Black students at predominately white institutions (PWIs). And the advantages don’t stop after graduation. The same study shows that Black HBCU students tend to earn higher wages and are more likely to experience upward mobility at work than their PWI counterparts.”

Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed AB 1400 into law, which offers a grant to students who transfer to a regionally accredited HBCU.

10/02/2023

Princeton announced Sept.

08/16/2023

Excuse me?

This is why we need to be fierce advocates for access, but also for advocacy, when it comes to students with financial need.

After nearly two years of litigation, UChicago settled claims it conspired with top colleges including Brown and Yale to limit financial aid packages.

07/20/2023

Great news for youth in the foster care system in California! California state schools are truly some of the best in the nation.

Foster youth across California will now be able to attend college, free of charge, after new legislation, SB 307, was signed into the state budget Monday. The new Fostering Futures program will cov…