research and stats

  screenshot of figure from 2014 National Association of Colleges and Employers Salary Survey The 2014 National Association of Colleges and Employers Salary Survey bears good news and bad news. The good news? Median starting salaries are up almost universally across the board, with the exception of a slight decrease for business majors. The bad news? While salaries jumped up about 1.2%, they were expected to increase by nearly 5%. As the report indicates, it's quite possible that salaries are leveling off again.  

  "arrow" by flickr user alan berning, cc license In the past few years, many reports have come out about how state funding for colleges have decreased significantly. While this is a multi-year trend, it was exacerbated by the recession. Some states budgets haven't looked the same since; Louisiana (-34.4%), Arizona (-24.4%), and Nevada (-21.8%) still remain far below their pre-recession higher education funding levels. These reports often link these cuts in higher education funding to higher tuition costs. This is almost certainly true, but it leaves out a key part of the story.

  screenshot of gradnation.org/report/dont-call-them-dropouts Yesterday, America’s Promise Alliance and its Center for Promise at Tufts University released Don't Call Them Dropouts. This report discusses recent research that was tasked with understanding the experiences of young people who leave high school before graduation. This report emphasizes the resilience of students in the face of experiences that interrupt and challenge their access to education. Usually, College Parents of America doesn't discuss reports on high school students or their high school graduation rates. However, in reviewing this report, we've found that many of the challenges that high school students say interrupted their education have also been known to interrupt college education.

 image by flickr user guillaume lemoine, cc license Consider this scenario: a student receives a Pell Grant for his or her freshman year of college. That student proceeds to do well in school, with at least a 3.0 GPA. However, when it comes time to file the FAFSA (necessary for accessing another year of Pell Grant funds) during their freshman year, the student skips the process. Seems strange, right? That's what some researchers think, too. 

  image by flickr user Sal Falko, cc license Today, the New York Times published the topline results of a report by the Institute for Policy Studies. The report, The One Percent at State U: How University Presidents Profit from Rising Student Debt and Low-Wage Faculty Labor, details how public universities that pay a top-25 salary for their president have experienced a faster increase in student debt levels than other public universities.

  image by flickr user utah state library (cc license) Looking for an early jump on your Sunday paper? College Parents of America recommends that you try these recent stories about higher education. 

 screenshots of graphs in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Economic Letter on Is It Still Worth Going to College?  "College is still worth it" may very well be the best way of describing the catchiest of current catchphrases in higher education research. But, as parents are sending in deposit checks to schools, it's good to remember some of the economic justification of a college degree. Spoiler alert, parents: "college is still worth it" is one phrase that continues to hold true.

  Duke's Trinity College Library Reading Room, image by flickr user Duke Year Looks Looking for an early jump on your Sunday paper? College Parents of America recommends that you try these recent stories about higher education.

  "Happy Graduation!" by Gates Foundation, cc license Data that can be extremely useful for students looking to choose a school has become abundant. College rankings of all sorts and sizes are posted on every corner of the internet, while reports like Payscale’s College Return on Investment demonstrate the difference between economic returns on college choice and major choice.   Yet, while quality data has thankfully alleviated some of the difficulties of pre-college choice optimization, there remains a considerable data gap in helping students seeking to optimize their in-college years for post-college quality of life. Today, however, a new report has provided a framework that may eventually bridge that data gap.

  agnes scott college library. image by flickr user jkdatlanta (cc license) Looking for an early jump on your Sunday paper? College Parents of America recommends that you try these recent stories about higher education.