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Colleges and Universities: News & Videos about Colleges and Universities - CNN.com Unemployed workers heading back to school Janice McFadden's story hardly stands out. Bill and Melinda Gates go back to school When Bill Gates gets worked up about something, his body language changes. He suspends his habit of rocking forward and back in his chair and sits a little straighter. His voice rises in pitch. Today the subject is America's schools. College costs rise The total cost of going to a private four-year college rose to $34,132 on average for the 2008-09 academic year, according to a report released Wednesday. Commentary: Don't use SATs to rank college quality A recent controversy at Baylor University has brought new attention to the widespread misuse of standardized college admission tests to rank the quality of America's colleges and universities. Hidden College Costs: Rising Fees Compared to pricey private colleges, state schools can be a bargain. But extra fees are adding to the financial burden U.S. Colleges' Green Grade: C- Campuses may be getting greener, but college curriculums are falling behind in teaching students the basics of global warming and sustainability Tips for minimum wage earners The Federal minimum wage is increasing to $6.55 an hour today. But for most folks facing higher prices on everything from a gallon of milk to a gallon of gas, it's still getting harder to make ends meet. More colleges move toward optional SATs Jen Wang of Short Hills, New Jersey, took her first SAT when she was in sixth grade, long before she would start filling out college applications. Wake Forest Drops SAT Requirement Wake Forest University will no longer require applicants to take the SAT and ACT exams, boosting a movement to lessen the importance of standardized tests in college admissions Commentary: Tax-free hypocrisy from higher education There is an industry in this country that is making billions in profit while average Americans are struggling to fill up their gas tanks. Taking the kids: Exploring the heart of college country Secretly, I'm congratulating myself. From six figures to student loans After nearly 20 years in the energy industry, Jay Mulki was earning a handsome six-figure salary and managing a department of 50 employees. But Mulki longed to work fewer hours and pursue another dream: to teach marketing at a university. College costs keep rising The average total cost of a private four-year college rose to $32,307 for the current school year, but the rate of increase has slowed compared to public school prices, according to a report released Monday. Taking the kids: Touring college campuses Laurel Herter wishes she'd canceled the college tour trip as soon as she heard the dismal forecast. Many American colleges balk at U.S. News rankings If presidents of some of the nation's top liberal arts colleges get their way, they will no longer be included in the U.S. News and World Report's influential collegiate ranking system. Sallie Mae's private side The lure for private-equity firm J.C. Flowers' $25 billion buyout of student-loan giant Sallie Mae may be its fast-growing and lucrative business providing private education loans -- loans that exi... Top colleges get more affordable A college education may be getting less expensive at some of the most prestigious schools. Highest paid college presidents Running a university or college can make for 20-hour days and intense pressure to please a long list of factions from donors, board members and alumni to faculty, students and parents. Average college cost breaks $30,000 The average cost of a four-year private college jumped to $30,367 this school year, the first time the average has broken the $30,000 mark. College costs: Up, up and away The cost of higher education looks like it's climbing ... again. Who needs Harvard? It's the summer before your senior year, and you're sweating. Healthcare, energy drive up college costs State university tuition has leaped 40 percent in the past five years, hitting the three out of four American college students who attend public universities. Healthcare, energy drives up cost of college State university tuitions have leaped 40 percent in the past five years, hitting the three out of four American college students who attend public universities. Dorms of the future Solar-powered showers, biometric root beer dispensers and waterless urinals. The dorms of the future are already here. Professor paychecks NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A study released by the U.S. Department of Education this week found that full professors at four-year public colleges and universities earned an average of $89,001 in the academic year 2004-05. College president pay: The $million club NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - For the first time, compensation for private college presidents has broken through the million-dollar barrier. The 10 most expensive colleges Tuition at the most expensive four-year college is up only 2.7 percent from last year. But a small increase on an already big number is still gob-smacking. College costs going nowhere but up As nervous as college freshmen may be, their cash-strapped parents are probably trembling more. Colleges across U.S. helping displaced students Colleges throughout the United States are accommodating students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The business of dorm decorating Denim fashions may be all the rage this fall, but Erica Green cares more about dressing up her dorm room than dressing up herself. Green, an incoming junior at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, plans to spend more than $500 on furnishings, from bright blue butterfly chairs and rugs to a TV-DVD combo unit. Goodbye, Perkins loan? College students take note - your government loan options might be shrinking. Paying for college College acceptance letters are coming soon to a mailbox near you. In other words, it's about that time when parents and students begin to get nervous about the final step to the college application process: financial aid. The new math of college admissions SALEM, Ore. (CNN/Money) - Here is a pop quiz: Buying into Harvard Congratulations, your kid did well on the SAT. But the girl next door did even better. Four Myths about College Costs THE COST OF A COLLEGE DEGREE continues to climb seemingly beyond the means of many families, rising far faster than incomes or inflation. Total expenses for the 2004-05 academic year shot up 7.8% t... Most expensive colleges Quick: What will $36,750 buy you? College costs spike again NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If only salaries would rise as rapidly - and as consistently - as college costs. Getting out youth vote registers on campuses College students are expected to turn out in record numbers to vote in November's election. What you may not know is that it's against the law for colleges and universities to fail to encourage student voting. Bush carries message to college students President Bush touted his domestic agenda in the key states of Arizona and Ohio on Wednesday, the day after he delivered an optimistic assessment of the state of the union. Welcome To The Bazaar Colleges across the country are competing for top students like never before. Their main weapon: cold, har The Nott's Memorial Building, dedicated in 1878 and named after Union College's former president Eliaphet Nott, looks like a gigantic 16-sided stone cylinder. This isn't as bad as it sounds once yo... 'I Have At Least Nine Jobs' What's it like to be president of the university at the heart of Silicon Valley? College presidents seem increasingly beleaguered by their jobs these days, and no wonder. Unlike a corporate CEO, a university president has little formal power. He can't fire faculty, boss around ... Class Struggle Does it matter if you're white or black? From a rich family or a poor one? When it comes to college admissions, i Thomas Jefferson considered himself the father of the University of Virginia, and like any father he left a complicated legacy. "Our university is the last of my mortal cares and the last service I... Tapping the Last Big Labor Pool The right training programs can turn people in dead-end jobs, as well as the unemployed, into ba It wasn't one of the usual explanations for a plant closing. In early May, Dana Corp. announced it was shutting down an injection-molding facility in Marine City, just northeast of Detroit, where s... Is Harvard Worth It? Conventional wisdom says yes. But with the price of a degree from America's most famous university and othe For America's high school seniors, April is the cruelest month. That's when colleges flood the postal system with news of who has won a place in next fall's freshman class. For more than a few fami... How To Apply Yourself To win a good college aid package, you may need to look beyond a high school adviser. When Miles Rodriguez entered his senior year of high school, he naturally turned to his school counselor for advice on college. He soon found out that he was on his own. "The counselor didn't even ... The New Face Of Financial Aid You want your kid to go to a good school but you need a little financial help? Join At 16, Katherine Haynie put together a car stereo and fell in love with audio engineering. So when she applied to college, she set her sights on the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technolog... THE INSIDE SCOOP ON GETTING INTO A SCHOOL COLLEGE ADMISSIONS OFFICERS TELL YOU WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT IN AN APPLICATION--AND PROV Paying for your kids' college education is one thing. At least you can decide how to save your money and where to invest it. Getting them into the school of their dreams is an entirely different ma... MONEY'S GUIDE TO 1,115 COLLEGES THE DETAILED INFORMATION IN THESE LISTINGS CAN HELP YOU PINPOINT THE RIG This 19-page list provides basic information on 1,115 four-year colleges and universities. It excludes most schools that didn't qualify for the analysis that determined our best-buy ranking, as exp... TOP 10: WHAT MAKES THEM GREAT TO KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A COLLEGE, CHECK OUT THE LEADERS OF OUR EIGHTH ANNUAL The students shown here are revving up their minds and muscles at Caltech, ranked by MONEY as America's best college buy for the second straight year. Like other schools that earned a place in our ... COLLEGE COSTS DON'T HAVE TO BREAK YOU PARENTS EVERYWHERE ARE PANICKED ABOUT SOARING COLLEGE COSTS, BUT U 1. TEMPTATION THE SMARTEST WAYS TO INVEST FOR COLLEGE TODAY ONE OF THESE STRATEGIES CAN HELP YOU PAY THE BILLS, WHETHER YOUR CHILDREN ARE READ No matter how long parents have known their children will go to college, most are caught unprepared for the cost. According to a recent survey of 1,062 parents conducted for MONEY by ICR Survey Res... A QUICK LOOK AT THE TOP 10 THE COLLEGES THAT LEAD OUR VALUE RANKINGS PROVIDE THE BEST EDUCATION IN AMERICA FOR THE Our top 10 colleges share this critically important characteristic: Compared with schools of similar quality, they cost the least. The winners range in price from tuition and fees of $18,216 at No.... THE CASE FOR GOING BACK TO GRAD SCHOOL LAST JANUARY, THREE years into her career at Sun Microsystems, Aphrodite Aujero realized that she had to relive a bit of her past to have the future she wanted. An engineering change-order analyst,... CUT COLLEGE COSTS IN HALF--OR MORE SCHOOLS ARE MORE WILLING THAN EVER TO BOOST FINANCIAL AID OFFERS. HERE ARE Parents of college-bound kids usually focus their attention on ever-rising tuitions. For instance, costs are up another 6.5% for the 1995-96 academic year, to an average of $10,333 at private schoo... TOURING THE TOP 10 TEN BEST ALL OFFER STUDENTS SOMETHING SPECIAL--FROM INDEPENDENCE AT NEW COLLEGE TO GREAT Seven of money's 10 best college values are public schools, up from six a year ago. This is great news for students who live in the same states as these schools, because their families will pay bar... STUDENTS TELL WHAT MAKES A COLLEGE GREAT OUR POLL SHOWS COLLEGE KIDS PREFER SMALL SCHOOLS AND CLASSES--AND WHAT MAKES A COLLEGE great? To parents it's a school that delivers top-quality education at reasonable cost, such as one of this MONEY Guide's top 100 values (see page 14). To students, however, a ... MONEY'S GUIDE TO 1,049 COLLEGES USE THE INFORMATION IN THESE LISTINGS TO CLOSE IN ON LEADING FOUR-YEAR SCHOOLS IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR HELP IN DECIDING WHICH OF THE nation's thousands of colleges would be best for your child, welcome. The 20-page list starting on page 71 gives basic information on 1,049 leadi... SMART MOVES FOR LATE STARTERS THESE TIPS--VALUABLE FOR ALL ASPIRANTS--CHART A SHORTCUT TO SUCCESS FOR HIGH As students begin their senior year of high school, most parents think that their kids are already lagging behind in the college admissions game. (If your child is savvy enough to want to get an ea... HOW TO SHOP FOR A GREAT DEAL SCHOOLS ARE MORE WILLING THAN EVER TO BOOST THEIR FINANCIAL AID OFFERS. HERE ARE To celebrate his acceptance by Stanford University last spring, 18-year-old Jeremy Brown, pictured at left, exuberantly climbed a tree. But the high lasted only until he let himself face financial ... DON'T LET COLLEGE COSTS RAIN ON YOUR RETIREMENT THE $150,000 NIGHTMARE FACING EVERY PARENT IS HOW TO GET JUST Ever wake up in the wee hours with your mind churning along the following lines: Your kids are now how old? Boy, college isn't that far off. Assuming an annual inflation rate of 3% or 4%, within te... FINALLY, COLLEGES START TO CUT THEIR CRAZY COSTS MOST SCHOOLS HAVE HIT THE WALL ON TUITION INCREASES. SO THEY ARE OKAY, Michael Hammer, how do you handle this one? Here's a line of business whose customer base is shrinking. Rivals battle for market share by offering deep discounts. If they hold the line on pri... Why PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE RARELY WORTH THE MONEY Forget the myth that private schools are the best. Our survey shows many public s With prep school costs running nearly as high as the $26,000 a year that Ivy League colleges command these days, most families who send their kids to private or parochial schools must sacrifice new... Avoid These Hidden Money Traps Helpful advice for your college search from our exclusive poll of students As you and your son or daughter search for the right college, keep these surprising facts in mind: -- While most college students today are happy with their schools, undergraduates at colleges with... MONEY's Guide to 1,010 Colleges By comparing the vital data in these listings, you can home in on the school Need some help in deciding which of the nation's thousands of colleges would be best for your child? You've put yourself in good hands. The 21-page guide that begins at left provides basic informat... Inside the Top 10 A close look at the schools that offer the best deals reveals an array of academic and social styl Our 10 top college values have one thing in common: All of them are bargains when compared with schools of similar quality. Beyond that, they are extraordinarily different, so when you choose among... Commuter Schools Worth a Look Here's a surefire strategy that can cut your college costs as much as 60%: Have your child live at home and enroll at a local college. That will eliminate room and board expenses of as much as $7,0... How to Cut Your Costs Here are top money-saving strategies for students of all abilities and aspirations, If you think you can cut your child's college bills only by being needy enough to qualify for financial aid, you're in for a pleasant surprise. There are many other means of slashing thousands of d... THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CALENDAR Plot your path to the school of your choice. The process of choosing and applying to colleges actually begins when your daughter or son enters high school. This calendar -- written from your child's perspective -- will help him or her organiz... The Best Deals in Public Education Honors programs offer Ivy League quality at state school prices. CHECK OFF THE THINGS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IN A COLLEGE: -- SMALL CLASSES -- TOPFLIGHT PROFESSORS -- THE CHANCE TO DO INDEPENDENT RESEARCH -- PLENTY OF PERSONAL ATTENTION -- ROCK-BOTTOM TUITION -- ALL... Give a college this safety test No campus is completely free of crime. But you can make sure the schools Colleges are beginning to come clean about campus crime. Thanks to the federal Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act -- passed in 1990 with the support of student crime victims and their fa... Black Colleges at the Crossroads Despite growing enrollments, the nation's traditionally black schools face Crystal Warwell's strong record at Robinson High School in Tampa helped her win unsolicited offers of scholarships from the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. But Warwell, w... Why College Prices Rise So Fast To put it bluntly: because parents are willing to pay the ever-higher bills. Forget what you learned in Physics 101. When it comes to college costs, what goes up just keeps going up. Tuition soared 126% during the 1980s, more than twice as much as the consumer price index, ... MONEY's College Value Rankings Here is our honor roll of four-year colleges. All are bargains when their prices Drumroll, please. MONEY's fourth annual ranking of 989 leading colleges and universities has identified New College of the University of South Florida as America's best college buy. It edged out Ri... The 10 Best College Buys in America Presenting our fourth annual ranking of the schools that give you the most With four years at the most expensive colleges now costing more than $100,000, making sure you get the most for your education dollar is more important than ever. Our 10 best college buys aren't ne... MONEY's guide to 1,003 colleges You've come to the right place to size up schools. On the following 20 pages, we provide basic statistics for 1,003 public and private four-year colleges and universities that welcome students with... A THREE-YEAR DEGREE CAN CUT COSTS IN HALF Here's a clear case of less is more: If your child completes a bachelor's degree in three years instead of four, you and your Einstein can save far more than one year's tuition. That's because your... HOW TO SLASH COLLEGE COSTS If your child gets a bachelor's degree in three years instead of four, you can knock 50% or more off Here's a clear case of less is more: If your child completes a bachelor's degree in three years instead of four, you and your Einstein can save far more than one year's tuition. That's because your... FIXING THE ECONOMY WHERE WILL THE JOBS COME FROM? Big companies are destroying them, small firms aren't hatching them, and wages JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! That percussive sound bite uttered by George Bush as the reason for his ill-fated trip to Tokyo has become the watchword of America's anxiety about its economic future. The giant ... america's 10 BEST college BUYS The 10 schools that lead MONEY's third annual ranking of best college buys represent a remarkable cross section of American higher education: technical institutes and liberal arts colleges, intimat... hunting for VALUE in an AGE of AUSTERITY Money troubles complicate your search for a school. Kristin Lindeberg, 18, of Minneapolis could have gone to the well-regarded University of Minnesota (in-state tuition and fees: $3,289). But the school had proposed dropping its humanities departmen... sizing up the BIG STATE SCHOOLS Under budget pressure, the publics fight to maintain quality. America's public colleges and universities still offer some of the best bargains in higher education, despite being caught in a painful squeeze. Demand has never been greater -- the nearly 600 stat... the BARGAIN in your own BACKYARD Two years at a community college can knock thousands of dollars off the If someone told you there was a secret strategy that could get you a college education at nearly half-price, you'd probably dismiss him as a daydreamer. Yet that strategy exists. You simply spend y... Erik Keeslar joined the Navy to get help with his tuition bills. Millions of dollars are also available from Colleges call them non-need-based awards, merit money or just plain scholarships. Whatever the name, they can sharply reduce a bright and ambitious student's college costs, or even eliminate them e... how to avoid the COLLEGE MONEY TRAP Check out these low-cost alternatives before spending a dime on expensive The growth of any industry tends to spawn new businesses that feed off it, and higher education, now a $140-billion-a-year enterprise, is no exception. During the past two decades, helping parents ... MONEY'S college VALUE RANKINGS America's best college buys -- and how we found them Almost every parent of a college-bound child asks: Which colleges will deliver an education that's worth every penny that I'll have to pay? To help answer that question, MONEY's college ranking tea... MONEY'S guide to 1,000 colleges The tables on the following pages deliver basic information you need to size up 1,000 public and private four-year colleges and universities that welcome students without regard to their religious ... How You're Getting Stiffed by the STUDENT LOAN MESS The mismanaged student aid program is costing taxpayers a bundle -- $3.4 bil It took 10 years, but last fall Gary Lynn (right), a 34-year-old marketing consultant in Troy, N.Y., finally paid off his $9,959.62 in student loans. Or so he thought. The U.S. Department of Educat... COSTLY DISCOUNT SHOPPING Although I have no quarrel with most of the suggestions contained in your December feature ''How to Cut Expenses by 20%,'' I do object to the blanket recommendation to send children to public colle... the harsh facts of campus life today FOR TOO MANY STUDENTS TODAY, THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE MAY INCLUDE CRIME, They will sit on verdant lawns, your children, speaking of Dylan Thomas, pre- Columbian art, hydrostatic equilibrium and Durkheim's theory of anomie. That may be the college life you dream of givin... MONEY's college value rankings THESE 100 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS DELIVER THE BEST EDUCATION FOR THE BUCK. The cost of college has long been a major concern of American parents, but never more so than today. The average bill for a year at a state school was $5,248 in the 1990-91 academic year; the priva... MONEY's guide to 1,011 colleges BOX: Grants Galore america's 10 best buys college Low price alone doesn't qualify a college as a bargain. To make MONEY's list of America's best buys in higher education, a school must also possess outstanding students, faculty and facilities. On ... Paying the Bills the budget crunch hits the campuses WITH COLLEGES HURTING FOR MONEY AND CUTTING BACK ON FACULTY This is the decade of reckoning for America's 2,127 four-year colleges and universities. The pool of high school graduates is shrinking, from 2.7 million in 1989 to an estimated 2.5 million in 1994... finding a school that fits GETTING ANSWERS TO THESE CRUCIAL QUESTIONS WILL HELP YOUR CHILD MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE. By thoroughly investigating colleges now, your child can avoid having to switch schools later on. Each year, an astonishing number of students decide that they made the wrong choice. Based on past ... the state of the states PUBLIC UNIVERSITY SYSTEMS ARE THRIVING DESPITE THE PAIN OF WIDESPREAD BUDGET CUTS. It is no longer any secret that public universities can provide a solid education -- in some cases rivaling what students can get at elite private institutions -- at a bargain price. During the 198... how to win the financial aid game LEARNING THE UNSPOKEN RULES CAN IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING THE MONEY Marianne Ragins has what it takes to triumph in today's race for financial aid: a real need for money, coupled with brains and persistence. Ragins, 18, one of five children of a widowed seamstress,... SHAKING THE BLUE-COLLAR BLUES Unskilled workers took a beating in the Eighties. Happily, more people are enrolling in post-secon USED TO BE if you were free, white, and 21, you just about had a lock on the American dream. The job at the local plant or department store was waiting for you after high school. Before long you sa... THE FRANTIC RUSH TO FILL THE FRESHMAN CLASS Colleges are so hard up for new students -- yet so strapped for scholarship money to offer these recruits -- that the admissions game is getting frantic and, to some observers, a little dishonest. ... WHY UNIVERSITIES ARE SHRINKING Facing lower enrollments, colleges are scrimping. But students and their future employers will ga YOU WOULDN'T GUESS it by looking at the monstrous tuition bills, but when parents drop off their kids on campus this month, they'll be driving through the gates of Shrinking U. Even the most presti... America's 10 Best College Buys Not all are public -- some aren't even cheap -- but they give good educational value. The marketplace for higher education, like securities markets, has pockets of opportunity: schools that, like undervalued stocks, are worth more than you have to pay for them. This fact was verifie...