HigherEd Compass

The extent to which colleges and universities can prepare their students obtain the necessary skills to thrive in the digital economy will be a key metric in how relevant an education in American higher education will be. Look around us. Especially as the pandemic accelerated our dependence on everything digital, from the increased use of Amazon or Zooming on conference calls, a college graduate's employability will be increasingly dependent on whether the graduate has the skills and experience in the digital field. Are colleges doing an adequate job? Some are starting to, but many are not yet prepared.

How Higher Ed Can Prepare Students for Today’s Digital Jobs Two promising new models blend skills training and work experience.

Some pretty good basic history and facts about what higher education was and what higher education is today. There are some troubling signs today with so many students owing so much to get a degree.

Why College Is So Expensive In America College in the United States is expensive. The cost of higher education just keeps going up. Tuition costs at both public and private universities have doubl...

Start with this list when looking for a college or university to attend. Stay out of debt. One institution of higher education that goes under the radar is Berea College. It is a unique college where it requires every student to work while attending college. While it may not be the best fit for some students, know that no one takes on student loan debt while a student there.

57 ‘No Loan Colleges’ to Help You Avoid Student Debt A “no loans college” is just what it sounds like: It helps students afford the cost of attendance without taking student loans. Here's how to find one.

Applications for admission across most top tier universities increased for fall 2021 enrollment. Applications to Harvard in increased by 42% year-over-year, NYU increased by 17%, and Dartmouth by 33%. With the pandemic closing down SAT and ACT testing centers, in addition to high schools going virtual over the initial months of the pandemic, the vast majority of colleges and universities drastically changed the way they considered applicants for admissions, including making standardized tests optional. By not requiring SAT or ACT test scores, the updated, pandemic-related admissions policy of highly selective institutions encouraged more students to apply to those institutions. It is possible that students who did well in high school (in terms of GPAs and extracurriculars) but did not perform as well on standardized tests increased the number of colleges and universities they applied to, in part because the applicants could exclude the weakest of their high school portfolio (i.e. SAT and ACT scores) from consideration. The question for future years is whether these top tier colleges and universities will continue to make SAT and ACT optional. A few institutions, including Amherst and Princeton, have already said they will for the following year.

College Admission Season Is Crazier Than Ever. That Could Change Who Gets In. By waiving SATs and ACTs, highly selective schools invited an unprecedented wave of applications, upending the traditional decision process.

The president is considering erasing student loan debt of up to $50,000 per individual. Unless that debt cancellation is paid for by the rich, we do not suggest a debt cancellation that large. Why? Research has shown that people who tend to take out such large sums of student loan are those that obtain master's level degrees or higher (e.g. medical and management degrees) who will earn substantial amount of money over their lifetime. While it might be initially challenging at the outset of someone starting out in the labor market with those degrees, the challenges they face do not compare to those who attended college but did not finish. In fact, a number of research shows the extent to which people who struggle the most with student loan repayment are those who went to a nearby college -- often community college -- but did not finish due to life circumstances getting in the way of their college education (for instance, taking time off from school to help their family pay the bills). And most of these individuals had a debt burden of less than $10,000.

Groundwork being laid for Biden to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt President Biden appears to be giving serious consideration to broad debt forgiveness.