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College and Internship Experts to Discuss Summer Enrichment Tips for High School Students on #CollegeChat February 7

February 6, 2012 By

The Sun at Solstice

Although summer is officially more than four months away, many teens and their families are beginning to consider how to spend their summers.  Mark Babbitt, CEO YouTern, and Jessica Hertz, Manager of Online Services, University Language Services, will discuss with Twitter attendees summer enrichment tips for high school students during #CollegeChat February 7, 2012 at 9 p.m. ET.

During #CollegeChat, Babbitt and Hertz will describe what types of summer opportunities teens can participate in including:

  • Low cost summer enrichment programs
  • Internships
  • Volunteering
  • High school summer school
  • Online learning
  • Community college classes
  • Four year college and university summer classes

Mark Babbitt is the founder and CEO of YouTern, a community dedicated to matching the best young talent to leading organizations including startups through internships. A passionate supporter of Gen Y talent, Mark is a serial entrepreneur and mentor. Mark has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Forbes and Under30CEO regarding internships, higher education’s role in preparing emerging talent for the workforce and career development. Recently, Mark was honored to be named to GenJuice’s list of “Top 100 Most Desirable Mentors”.

Jessica Hertz has been working at University Language Services since she graduated from college five years ago. University Language Services helps students and applicants make the most of their college experience, from application to graduation. Free online guides and the ULS blog, Campus Commons, give students in-depth information to help them determine where to apply to college, how to get accepted and what to do to succeed. University Languages comprehensive services for students also include SAT prep and professional resume writing for internships and jobs.

About #CollegeChat

#CollegeChat is a live bi-monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter. #CollegeChat takes place on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET. Questions for each #CollegeChat edition can be sent to Theresa Smith, the moderator of #CollegeChat via http://Twitter.com/collegechat , by entering questions online on the CollegeChat Facebook page at http://ht.ly/1XIqV , or by email. More detailed information about signing up for Twitter and participating in #Collegechat can be found at http://pathwaypr.com/how-to-participate-in-a-twitter-chat .

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Spamming: Bad Twitter Advice

October 30, 2011 By

Recently while conducting research on behalf of a financial services company I work with I was quite surprised to see that several of its well known competitors are Twitter spammers.  These companies, who are in the commercial lending business, are mass following other accounts only to then unfollow these companies once they have artificially inflated their followers.  According to Twitter the practice of “aggressive following behavior“, once reported, will be investigated by Twitter for further action including losing your account.

How do I know they are Twitter spammers? Just by looking at the number of companies they follow versus the number that follow them back. Once a Spammer is followed back, they often then drop the company from the list they follow in order to artificially pump up their numbers. In addition, I can also tell they are spammers because they have published very few tweets, but most telling and should be most embarrassing to them, the lists these companies are on. The companies are on very few lists and the majority of lists included titles including the words “Twitter Spammers.”

Is that the kind of influence they are really trying to achieve? Does their CEO realize the damage their “Twitter team” is doing to their brand? Or is the CEO oblivious which says even more about the company. But perhaps most importantly, is this the kind of company you want to borrow from for your business? Do you want to trust this company to safeguard your financial documents and reputation when they are so careless about their own?

Filed Under: public relations, social media, twitter, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Key Factors First Generation College Students Need to Focus on for College Success on #CollegeChat October 4

October 3, 2011 By

Shonda Goward, a college admissions advisor and founder of First Generation University, will discuss what key factors first generation college students need to focus on for college success during #CollegeChat October 4, 2011 at 9 p.m. EDT.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, one third of students entering college today are first generation students. First generation college students are defined as students that are the first members of their immediate family to attend college.  In addition, one fourth of students entering today are both first generation and low income. Unfortunately, many first generation students are living on the edge and maybe within one crisis -whether it be financial, family, scholastic, or health- from dropping out of college.

During #CollegeChat, Goward will address the difficulties facing first generation college students and the steps they can take to be successful including:

  • Why it is critical to investigate programs for first generation students before selecting a college.
  • Why first generation students need more guidance than second generation students.
  • Why it is critical for students to have family support and why this is often difficult.
  • Why it is important to have an educational plan. What should be in their educational plan.
  • How students should properly manage their finances.
  • How students should map out their study time.

The founder of First Generation University, Shonda Goward, is passionate about first generation college students because she was one. Shonda attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an out-of-state student, and graduated with a double major in Journalism and Mass Communication and Political Science.  However, being a first generation student definitely presented challenges that were vastly different than those of her peers. Upon completing a Master of Arts degree in English, Shonda began working in higher education as both an Instructor of English, and Admissions Officer, and saw many students excited to be admitted to a university, but wholly unaware of what to do next or how to succeed in the classroom.  First Generation University is a reflection of her personal commitment to giving first generation, and other non-traditional students, agency when it comes to their success

About #CollegeChat

#CollegeChat is a live bi-monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter. #CollegeChat takes place on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. PDT/ 9 p.m. EDT. Questions for each #CollegeChat edition can be sent to Theresa Smith, the moderator of #CollegeChat via http://Twitter.com/collegechat , by entering questions online on the CollegeChat Facebook page at http://ht.ly/1XIqV , or by email. More detailed information about signing up for Twitter and participating in #Collegechat  can be found at  http://pathwaypr.com/how-to-participate-in-a-twitter-chat .CollegeChat can also be found on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/collegechat .

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#CollegeChat Transcript: Tips on the Common Application

August 17, 2011 By

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#CollegeChat Transcript: Debt Ceiling Fall out on Financial Aid

August 2, 2011 By

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Debt Ceiling Fallout for Students 2011/2012 Financial Aid on #CollegeChat August 2

July 29, 2011 By

Bus3
Creative Commons License photo credit: Public Notice Media

With the debt ceiling deadline only days away, millions of college students plans for paying for college are in limbo. On August 2, 2011 at 9 p.m. EDT,  Mark Kantrowitz, a nationally recognized bestselling financial aid expert and author, and Sharon McLaughlin, a college planning consultant and former college administrator, will discuss with Twitter attendees the potential impact the debt ceiling crisis will have on financial aid for 2011/2012 during #CollegeChat .

During #CollegeChat, Kantrowitz and McLaughlin will discuss what forms of financial aid are at risk including Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, Perkins Loans and PLUS Loans for Parents. In addition, they will also discuss what impact the debt ceiling crisis may have on colleges themselves including layoffs and shutdowns.

In addition, the panel will  discuss what options are available for students to fund their education in the event their federally based financial aid is impacted.

Kantrowitz is the publisher of FinAid.org and author of the new e-book “Secrets to Winning a Scholarship”. He is also the founder of FastWeb.com, the largest and most popular free scholarship matching service. McLaughlin is a college planning consultant and financial aid expert and founder of McLaughlin Education Consulting (http://www.headforcollege.com). She is also a former college administrator with more than twenty years of experience in student enrollment services. Sharon draws her expertise from her work at private and public colleges in New England, both as a college admissions and financial aid administrator.

About #CollegeChat
#CollegeChat is a live bi-monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter. #CollegeChat takes place on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. PDT/ 9 p.m. EDT. Questions for each #CollegeChat edition can be sent to Theresa Smith, the moderator of #CollegeChat via http://Twitter.com/collegechat , by entering questions online on the CollegeChat Facebook page at http://ht.ly/1XIqV , or by email. More detailed information about signing up for Twitter and participating in #Collegechat can be found at http://pathwaypr.com/how-to-participate-in-a-twitter-chat .CollegeChat can also be found on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/collegechat .

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#CollegeChat Transcript: Is Higher Education’s Future Online?

July 19, 2011 By

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#CollegeChat: Is Bill Gates right?

July 18, 2011 By

“Hot Topics” is back on #CollegeChat  July 19, 2011 at 9 pm Eastern and 6 pm Pacific. During “Hot Topics” we will be discussing whether Bill Gates is right.  Is the future of higher education online?

Last August during the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, Techcrunch reported that Bill Gates spoke about the not too distant future:

Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world,” Gates said. “It will be better than any single university.”

But college needs to be less “place-based,” according to Gates. Well, except for the parties, he joked.

But his overall point is that it’s just too expensive and too hard to get these upper-level educations. And soon place-based college educations will be five times less important than they are today.

Free Education Online

There are already examples of Gate’s vision of free education online. According to Guidetoonlinsschools.com recent post, “Web-Based Education: Cheaper, More Accessible, Better Quality” :

If you were going to look for present day examples of Gates’ free, non place-based education, two good places to start are the Khan Academy and MIT’s OpenCourseWare. Khan Academy is a non-profit website, which has over 2,000 free videos covering K-12 subjects and topics like SAT prep. The videos reflect Gates’ ideal: at about 10 minutes each, they’re short in length but high in quality.

MIT’s OpenCourseWare project has been an experiment in free, web-based college courses. For each class, students can access lectures, syllabi, and other course materials. These materials were also designed to be stand-alone and easily digestible—lecture notes replace clunky textbook chapters, and the best materials from several traditional MIT classes are combined to create one comprehensive online course. In 2010, OpenCourseWare had almost 100 million page views.

Background Reading

http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/articles/community/transparency/education-online#ixzz1SUKvzzSK

Bill Gates: In Five Years The Best Education Will Come From The Web

http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2010/01/value-of-online-degree.html

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring121/columbaro121.html

New to Twitter?

In order to participate in the chat, attendees will need to have a Twitter account.  To sign up for a Twitter account, go to http:// twitter.com. The easiest way to follow the chat is to use TweetChat (http://tweetchat.com). Simply log in to TweetChat with your Twitter information (email or username followed by password) and then enter in CollegeChat without the “#” and you will be placed into the chat room with only those participating in #CollegeChat. More detailed information about signing up for Twitter and using TweetChat can be found at http://pathwaypr.com/how-to-participate-in-a-twitter-chat .

About #CollegeChat

#CollegeChat is a live bi-monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter. Questions for each #CollegeChat edition can be sent to Theresa Smith, the moderator of #CollegeChat via http://Twitter.com/collegechat, by entering questions online on the CollegeChat Facebook page at http://ht.ly/1XIqV , or by email. CollegeChat can also be found on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/collegechat.

 

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#CollegeChat Transcript: Are We in a Higher Education Bubble?

June 21, 2011 By

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#CollegeChat: Higher Education Bubble? Is College Worth it?

June 20, 2011 By

Over the last few months there has been a lot of media coverage over whether we are in a higher education bubble and if so, is a college degree today worth the expense.  During the June 21, 2011 edition of #CollegeChat we will discuss this issue.

NPR took a look at the issue in their recent article “Making Headlines Since the ‘70s: Is College Worth it.” As part of their story, NPR interviewed Kevin Carey, policy director for the think-tank Education Sector. Carey argued that the recent stories debating whether college was worth it was not a new story at all but one that creeps back up during economic downturns.

“It’s missing a lot of really important long-term trends,” he says. “If you look at wage data, what you see is that people with college degrees are making more and more and more money, and basically everyone else is either staying the same or falling back.

Carey went on to point out that college graduates “are the only segment of the economy where employment has actually gotten better during the first five months of this year.”

“If you’re a parent and you’ve spent your whole life trying to get your son or daughter into a good college and spent a lot of money, the last thing you want to hear is that that was a bad idea and they’re going to be coming home and they’ll be unemployed soon,” he says. “And so people gravitate toward stories that speak to their fear and their anxieties.”

Pay Pal founder Peter Thiel has also joined the debate by offering 20 talented college students under 20 an opportunity to earn $100,000 over two years by leaving school and beginning a company instead. According to Thiel’s interview with TechCrunch, he believes:

“There’s been a sea-change in the last three years, as debt has mounted and the economy has faltered. This wouldn’t have been feasible in 2007,” he says. “Parents see kids moving back home after college and they’re thinking, ‘Something is not working. This was not part of the deal.’ We got surprisingly little pushback from parents.” Thiel notes a handful of students told him that whether they were selected or not, they were leaving school to start a company. Many more built tight relationships with competing applicants during the brief Silicon Valley retreat– a sort of support group of like-minded restless students.

Dale J. Stephens is a 19-year-old  entrepreneur and one of the first recipients of the Thiel fellowship. According to his recent CNN byline “College is a Waste of Time”, he is also the founder of UnCollege, a social movement supporting self-directed higher education and building RadMatter, a platform to demonstrate talent.

In his CNN byline, Stephens reported:

College is expensive. The College Board Policy Center found that the cost of public university tuition is about 3.6 times higher today than it was 30 years ago, adjusted for inflation. In the book “Academically Adrift,” sociology professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa say that 36% of college graduates showed no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning or writing after four years of college. Student loan debt in the United States, unforgivable in the case of bankruptcy, outpaced credit card debt in 2010 and will top $1 trillion in 2011.

For Stephens leaving college made sense. He wrote:

We must encourage young people to consider paths outside college. That’s why I’m leading UnCollege: a social movement empowering individuals to take their education beyond the classroom. Imagine if millions of my peers copying their professors’ words verbatim started problem-solving in the real world. Imagine if we started our own companies, our own projects and our own organizations. Imagine if we went back to learning as practiced in French salons, gathering to discuss, challenge and support each other in improving the human condition. leaving college and accepting the Thiel fellowship made sense.

What’s your take? Join us Tuesday, June 21, 2011 to discuss.

Background Reading

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/18/137257390/making-headlines-since-the-70s-is-college-worth-it

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education/

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/03/stephens.college/index.html?iref=NS

http://www.thecollegesolution.com/are-we-in-a-higher-ed-bubble/

About #CollegeChat

#CollegeChat is a live bi-monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter. Questions for each #CollegeChat edition can be sent to Theresa Smith, the moderator of #CollegeChat via http://Twitter.com/collegechat, by entering questions online on the CollegeChat Facebook page at http://ht.ly/1XIqV , or by email. CollegeChat can also be found on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/collegechat.

 

 

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