Higher Education

Looking for Arizona boarding schools

A boarding school is not that tough as it is made out to be. It teaches one to be independent, social and yet stay focused on their studies while having fun with their peers. It’s a time in one’s life when they also learn to be responsible as well.

When kids begin to act up for whatever reason, the option of looking for a list of boys or girls boarding schools seems to be the best course of action, as it gets tough for the parents to manage that work-life balance that most of us spend most of our lives trying to achieve. Perhaps there will be apprehension on the parents at first, as every parent does not want to be separated from their children and this step often works for the best in the long run.

What could alleviate the parent’s tensions is if they could collect a list of Arizona boarding Schools or from whichever state, and visit them to see if their child will get along with the values and academic standards of the school in question.

Although the distance might cause parents to miss their children a lot, and while some kids might not like the restrictions posed in a boarding school, the thing is that they learn the ways that will help them thrive in the real world when the time comes to strike out on their own.

Raise SAT scores with tutoring

Obtaining a college education, even though not mandatory, in getting a job can earn you more than you could ever dream, as compared to those who haven’t attended college to earn their degree. For most people who wish to attend college after high school, adequate SAT prep tutoring can help one get a scholarship in a decent college even though there might be financial issues to contend with.

Not only is it important to raise SAT scores in order to stand a chance amongst the competition but it also helps to take the Advanced Placement tests that cost about $ 86  per exam, and which offers college courses at the high school level.

So in order to deal with these academic challenges, one needs to be mentored for success by being shown the best way to study according to set timelines that are unique to each student. It’s no surprise that all of us have been created uniquely and thus our set of strengths and weaknesses are different from everyone else. So if you are studying for SAT or involved in AP tests preparation one must seek the best counsel that is available in your area.

Preparing for college is daunting to say the least, and therefore more than just helping them to get the highest SAT scores, they must be guided in order to achieve a positive change not only academically but also in other areas of their lives.

MIT Cuts Teams to save $1.5 Million

The athletic department of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is cutting eight teams, including men and women’s ice hockey and gymnastics, skiing, competitive pistol, golf, and wrestling to save $1.5 million. Students and coaches feel disappointment, as well as uncertainty about how cuts will affect the school’s top national rankings.

Students and faculty alike have expressed concern that the programs contribute to the prestige and admissions totals at the school—which, in the long run, earns them funding and alumni donations. Together, these factors influence the school’s national rankings—which have always placed MIT as one of the nation’s top institutions. Anticipating cuts, MIT students held protests and held fund-raisers in attempts to avert program cuts, but the programs were dropped to relieve the budget of the athletic department.

Prior to cuts, MIT’s athletic department supported 41 teams. While the student body feels overall disappointed about the cuts, the school responds that even under the brightest economic conditions, budget-wise, 41 teams were difficult to maintain. In addition, leadership asserts that the cuts will strengthen the remaining 33 teams.

Online Education: Huge Growth Creates Concerns

As the economy has tightened in recent years, online education has seen explosive growth. Once viewed as an up and coming industry, online schooling is now booming. While the industry grows for students of all age groups, online institutions seek to provide answers to concerns and solutions to issues including accreditation and quality of learning.

The number of Americans who enrolled in at least one online course doubled from 2003 to 2009—and online students now include school-aged children as well as adults. More than 4 million Americans enrolled in at least one online course last fall as compared to 2 million in the fall of 2003. For the large online institutions, such as University of Phoenix, new enrollment has jumped by about 20 percent just over the past year. Online students now include K-12 as well as adult learners. As of February 2008, a total of 18 states had charter school programs online.

The explosive growth has lead to questions and concerns about the quality of instruction. For school aged children, state officials and parents alike question the best approach to ensuring that online classes provide youths with the same standards—or higher ones—that those met by traditional classroom studies.

Internet college courses face frequent complaints regarding poor quality. While some schools provide quality online courses for as little as $500 per class, others charge up to $9,000 to $10,000 for master’s degrees, despite being unaccredited–therefore receiving no recognition from employers or other colleges. In a recent survey, nearly half of professors who had taught an online course indicated that online students received an inferior education. Many online institutions are taking measures to ensure quality instruction, such as limiting student count to 20 per class and requiring instructors to respond to students within a 24 hour time frame.

Denver Jury Says Ward Churchill Wrongly Terminated

Controversial political activist and former University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) professor Ward Churchill has been vindicated. Yesterday, a Denver jury ruled in favor of Churchill, saying the university had wrongfully terminated him in 2005 over divisive remarks made in his essay “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,” which CU alleged contained falsified scholarship and used as the basis for his firing.

The jury awarded Churchill only $1 in damages, however, sending a message that Churchill remains a polarizing figure, though Churchill later said the size of the award was inconsequential. “I asked for justice,” he said.

The question of whether his tenured position as chairman of the CU ethnic studies department will be reinstated remains up in the air. A CU spokesperson said that administrators would oppose a reinstatement request by Judge Larry Naves of the Denver District Court. The spokesperson added that reinstatement would most likely draw sharp faculty opposition, as a faculty committee was instrumental in the decision to fire Churchill in the first place.

It’s hard to believe, though, that Churchill would seek reinstatement after the maelstrom created by his fallout with CU. Churchill’s almost $100,000 annual salary is enticing, sure, and he had a 17-year history with the school. Still, the incident suggests that the academic climate at CU would not be receptive to future Churchill dealings, to say the least.

UC San Diego Admissions Faux Pas Rankles Rejected Students

Misdirected emails have been causing headaches inside the corporate sphere for many years, but combine an ill-timed email gaffe with anxious high school seniors waiting on college admissions offices, and you’ve got an unusual recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened earlier this week when UC San Diego set emails welcoming its incoming freshman class to campus for a tour. Only instead of sending the email to just the 18,000 accepted students, an administrative staff member accessed the wrong database and sent the email to the 28,000 who had been rejected earlier this spring as well. Oops.

The email, which began, “We’re thrilled that you’ve been admitted to UC San Diego, and we’re showcasing our beautiful campus on Admit Day,” was rescinded in a matter of hours and an apology was issued–but not before causing a lot of confusion and disappointment among the students who thought their rejections had been overturned. Tracy Bettles, the mother of one of the students who received the email erroneously, told the LA Times, “It was really thrilling for a few hours; now he’s crushed. Unless you have a high school senior, or remember what it’s like, you don’t know. It’s really tough on them.”

Making a tough admissions season–which saw steep budgetary cutbacks and tight enrollment caps at many public universities–even tougher, the UC San Diego misstep is a very public reminder of the need for administrative discretion in higher education. According to the LA Times, schools such as Cornell, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Northwestern University have made similar blunders in the past, but UC San Diego’s is the largest.