If You Want to Take Your Horse to College...

Adrian College (a private, four-year liberal arts college located in southern Michigan) recently announced a partnership with a local boarding stable that makes it possible for students to bring their horses to school with them.

That news item got us wondering how many other U.S. colleges and universities offer a similar service. Here's a list of some of the schools our research turned up:

Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, New York) allows students enrolled in its riding program to board horses at the school's Riding Center.

Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, Massachusetts) allows students to board horses at its Equestrian Center. Students are encouraged to apply for stable space early, as demand often exceeds supply.

Sweet Briar College (Sweet Briar, Virginia) allows students to board horses at its Riding Program facilities. Priority goes to upperclassmen enrolled in the Riding Program.

Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana) has stables where students who belong to the school's barn cooperative can board horses. There is often more demand for stable space that the school can meet, so students are encouraged to apply for space early.

Students at Stanford University (Stanford, California) can board horses at a special student rate at the University's historic Red Barn.

Baylor University (Waco, Texas) is currently building a new equestrian center which will have over 20 stalls. A women's equestrian team was recently added to Baylor's roster of intercollegiate sports.

A surprising number of schools that do not have their own on-campus stables list some kind of affiliation with a local commercial stable. These local stables often serve as the base of operations for a school-affiliated riding team or club. If you're interested in bringing your horse to college, or simply in riding while you're at college, contact the colleges and universities you're interested in to see what facilities are available.

Providence College Drops SAT/ACT Requirement

Providence College has become the latest institution to adopt a 'test-optional' admissions policy that makes SAT and ACT scores an optional part of the undergraduate application.

Applicants who want to submit SAT or ACT scores may do so, but those who choose not to submit scores will receive equal consideration in the admissions process.

Providence College has followed a holistic admissions policy for years. School officials say that their experience shows that a student's high school curriculum and grades are a better predictor of college success than standardized test scores are.

The shift to a SAT- and ACT-optional admissions policy is part of Providence's efforts to remain accessible to economically disadvantaged students. College officials are concerned that lower-income students may be discouraged from applying to Providence if they think they need to take test prep courses or take the SAT or ACT multiple times in order to be competitive for admission.

For Providence's Class of 2010, the 25th to 75th percentile SAT scores were 1120 to 1290.

Providence College is a four-year liberal arts college located in Providence, Rhode Island, with a student enrollment of approximately 3,800. It was founded with the primary mission of providing a quality liberal arts education to first-generation immigrant and multicultural students. It is the only U.S. college or university run by the Dominican Friars.

Source: "Providence College Drops SAT/ACT Requirement as Second Initiative Designed to Close 'Student Accessibility Gap'" - press release, Providence College (Providence, RI), July 26, 2006

Florida Students Pack Summer Sessions

The St. Petersburg Times reports that a growing number of Florida college students are using summer classes to catch up on degree requirements and to shorten the time they need to complete their programs.

Over 176,000 students are enrolled in summer classes this year at Florida's 11 state-supported universities. Three schools -- the University of South Florida, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Florida -- have over 27,000 students on campus this summer.

Florida officials see summer sessions as a way of coping with the rapidly growing enrollment at Florida's universities. A state law already requires students to take at least nine credit hours during a summer session in order to receive a degree.

Source: "College in Summer," by Shannon Collevecchio - the St. Petersburg Times, July 24, 2006

Black Enrollment at UCLA Hits 30-Year Low

Blacks will make up less than two per cent of the freshman class entering UCLA this fall, marking the lowest level of black enrollment at that institution in over thirty years.

Black enrollment at the University of California's flagship campuses has declined sharply since 1996, when California voters passed a referendum barring the use of race in admissions decisions. Backers of that law say that under-performing public schools that fail to prepare students for competitive college admissions are to blame for this trend.

Meanwhile, Yanina Montero, UCLA's vice chancellor for student affairs, calls the current state of black enrollment "a crisis." "We are not able, with these numbers, if they continue to decline, to have a critical mass of African-American students on campus to provide them with a positive experience, as well as maintaining the quality of the educational environment," she told National Public Radio in a report broadcast on July 24.

Source: "Black Student Enrollment at UCLA Plunges," by Elaine Korry - Morning Edition, NPR, July 24, 2006

Study Concludes SAT Test Procedures Basically "Reliable"

BoozAllen Hamilton consultants have concluded that the SAT is a 'reliable' testing process but could be improved if certain safeguards were put in place. The recommended safeguards included providing number 2 lead pencils to test-takers and adding an 'anchor point' to test answer sheets to ensure correct alignment in OCR readers.

The College Board asked BoozAllen Hamilton to look at its test administration and scoring procedures in the wake of this spring's controversy over incorrect scoring of some of last October's SAT exams. The consultants were asked to look at overall exam procedures rather than at what happened specifically with the October test.

Critics say that the study failed to address their core concerns about the SAT's validity and fairness.

Source: "Report Finds SAT Scoring Now 'Reliable' Overall," by Mary Beth Marklein - USA Today, July 20, 2006

Women's Colleges Get High Marks for Educational Quality

Female students at women's colleges give their educational experience a higher rating than women studying at co-educational institutions do, according to a recent study by Indiana University's Center for Postsecondary Research.

Female students who took part in the study were more likely to describe educational experiences such as actively participating in classroom discussions, working with peer groups, and having discussions with faculty members outside of class as 'frequent' if they attended a women's college.

Researchers noted that women's colleges also seemed to provide female students with more and better faculty mentoring and more opportunities to play a leading role in student government and other organizations.

“There’s an ethos created [at women’s colleges] where women are taught, ‘this is what you are supposed to do,’ ” Jillian L. Kinzie, associate director of the Center for Postsecondary Research, said. “You are supposed to speak up in class, supposed to do well in math, supposed to take advantage of educational opportunities.”

Source: "Validation for Women's Colleges," by Elia Powers - Inside Higher Education, July 14, 2006

Study: CC Transfers Take Longer to Finish BAs

A study by a Vanderbilt University professor has found that only 14 per cent of college students who begin their studies at a community college actually finish their programs and receive a bachelor's degree within six years.

One reason for this low completion rate is the difficulty students experience in transferring community college credits to four-year institutions.

Vanderbilt assistant professor William Doyle found that only about one-half of the students he surveyed were able to transfer all of the credits they earned at a community college to a four-year college or university. The degree completion rate among these students was good, with 82 per cent going on to receive their degrees within six years.

Students who were not able to transfer all of their community college credits had a markedly worse completion rate. Only 42 per cent finished their degree programs within six years, whereas 36 per cent were still taking classes at that point.

It's disturbing to see these research findings come out at a time when a growing number of students are opting to start their degree programs at community colleges. As we've noted ourselves, there are good reasons to go this route. Attending a community college can help students reduce their educational costs, and in some cases a freshman might receive better academic training at a community college than he or she would get at a large university.

We suspect that the transfer agreements presently being worked out between many state universities and community colleges will reduce the problems students encounter in trying to transfer credits. It will be interesting to see what the degree completion rates for transfer students in these state systems look like several years from now. We expect they will be much higher than they are today.

That said, there are at least two other key factors that determine a transfer student's success or failure in finishing a degree: personal motivation and planning. The students in Dr. Doyle's study who were able transfer all of their credits probably didn't achieve that outcome by accident. They probably thought ahead about what courses and credits they needed for their degrees and selected appropriate classes at their community colleges. We would encourage anyone planning to transfer from a community college to a four-year institution to do the same.

The lesson that college applicants should draw from Dr. Doyle's study isn't that it's a bad idea to begin your studies at a community college. For some people, it's a wise choice. However, students who follow this course must be prepared to be more proactive in managing their progress toward their degree. They may not have as much advising support as their peers at four-year colleges do, and they probably have a far narrower choice of appropriate classes. These are not insurmountable problems. Smart students will do what research they can ahead of time to map out what they need to do to position themselves for a successful transfer.

Source: "Few Transfers Get Bachelor's," by Kathy Lynn Gray - the Columbus Dispatch, July 13, 2006

Small Colleges Use Football Programs to Draw Male Applicants

A growing number of small colleges across the U.S. have discovered a relatively easy, even fun way to attract more male applicants: football.

The New York Times reports that nearly 50 colleges have either created or resurected football programs over the past decade. JoAnne Boyle, president of New Jersey's Seton Hill University, explained how the move had paid off for her school. "I could have started a spiffy new major of study, spent a lot of money on lab equipment and hired a few new high-powered professors," Dr. Boyle told the Times. "I might have gotten 25 more students for that....Instead, I started a football team, brought in hundreds of paying students, added a vibrant piece to our campus life and broadened our recognition factor."

As has been widely reported over the past year, the applicant pools and student bodies at many small colleges are increasingly dominated by women. This worries college administrators both because they see gender balance as a campus diversity issue and because applications from all students tend to drop off if a school is perceived as overwhelmingly female.

Shenandoah University, a four-year institution of about 3,000 students located near Winchester, Virginia, saw its undergraduate enrollment go from 35 per cent male to 41 per cent male after it added a football program. University President James A. Davis told the Times that "I said no to football for 15 years, but I was wrong. Football is the best draw of qualified male applicants that there is anywhere."

Football appears to attract more working-class and minority applicants to colleges, too. Mike Kemp, the football coach at Utica College in upstate New York, told the Times that the football program that Utica began in 2001 had proven a valuable means of reaching out to high school seniors from blue-collar backgrounds who might not otherwise have thought seriously about attending college.

"I come across high school football players from blue-collar backgrounds, and as seniors in high school, they're not sure what they're going to do," Kemp told the Times' reporter. "They're considering a college here or there. But if you give them a chance to keep playing football, then they get motivated to come....We kind of trick them into seeing that getting an education is the real benefit."

Does this mean that the University of Chicago, the U.S. school most famous for not fielding a football team, might change its ways? Probably not. Unlike the schools described in the Times story, Chicago has no problem attracting enough male applicants to maintain a roughly even balance of male and female students.

For many smaller and lower-profile U.S. colleges and universities, however, a football program might be just the ticket to maintaining the number and quality of students that a college needs to provide a lively educational experience.

Source: "Small Colleges, Short of Men, Embrace Football," by Bill Pennington - the New York Times, July 10, 2006

Chicago's Uncommon App Goes Online July 18

The University of Chicago plans to have the 2006-2007 version of its The Uncommon Application up and running starting Sunday, July 18.

To access The Uncommon Application, go to: https://uncommonapplication-y.uchicago.edu/

To get an idea of Chicago's admissions process, see last's year's Uncommon Application Blog: http://uncommonapplication.blogspot.com/

2007 Common App Now Online

The 2006-2007 Common Application is now online. Applicants can use it to submit printed or online applications to 299 different U.S. colleges and universities.

The Common App has created five new forms to support specific application needs. These include a Common Early Decision Agreement, an Arts Supplement, an Athletic Supplement, and an International Supplement to the Secondary School Report.

Another change to this year's Common App is the addition of a question about disciplinary history to the application form.

23 colleges and universities joined the Common Application this year. They include:

The California Institute of Technology
Catholic University
Creighton University
Drexel University
Geneseo College (SUNY's honors college)
The University of Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
The University of Pennsylvania
Seton Hall University

Many other outstanding educational institutions, including 6 of the 8 Ivy League schools, accept the Common Application. (Brown and Columbia are the two Ivies that do not.)

Many of these schools require their own, supplemental application form in addition to the Common App. Make sure that you understand what the schools you are targeting expect, and that you complete and submit all of the necessary application forms, essays, recommendation letters, and school reports.

For more information, go to the Common Application website: www.commonapp.org.

Julliard Adds Bachelor's Degree Program for Guitar

The Julliard School has created a new Bachelor of Music Degree Program for Guitar, with classes beginning this fall.

The program is headed by renowned classical guitarist Sharon Isbin, who created Julliard's gradate programs in guitar in 1989. Isbin will also give private lessons to students and teach master classes in guitar performance.

Applications for the bachelor's program in guitar must be submitted by December 1, 2006. Class size will be limited. For more information about the program and application requirements, including the audition repertoire, see "The Julliard School to Begin Its First Undergraduate Bachelor of Music Degree Program in Guitar" - press release, The Julliard School (New York, NY), June 22, 2006
(http://www.juilliard.edu/update/press/current_releases.html).