Original Story: CNBC.com
Parents dropping their kids to college in a car stuffed with blankets and tinned food is a common sight on the streets of university towns across the world.
But one company is attempting to put the bling into university travel by offering a £25,000 ($41,562) package to students wanting to arrive by a private charter flight and fast cars.
Uni Baggage - an Irish charter jet company that transports student belongings across the U.K. and worldwide - has upped its game, looking to tap wealthy students who want to arrive at their new place of study in style.
"Our customers are constantly asking us for the full service. Rather than just book a shipping order they want us to look after the whole process of getting to uni, so we went the extreme and did it in luxury," Paul Stewart, founder of Uni Baggage, told CNBC by phone.
Stewart said he had already received two enquiries from students wanting to take a Rolls Royce Phantom to university since launching the service on Monday morning. He could not disclose the name of the institution the students were going to, but said the package would cost them £15,000.
Read MoreCompany offers free, $1 million vacation
Wealthy students can also book a private jet from one part of the country to another, and then get a flash car - such as an Aston Martin or Ferrari - to their college for a £25,000 fee. Their belongings are transported separately.
In comparison, U.K. university tuition fees are around £9,000 a year and Uni Baggage's regular shipping service is £16.99 per 30 kilograms of items.
Stewart admitted that he expects demand for the luxury packages to be "very little", at around 20 users in a year, with most demand likely to come from wealthy students from China and America.
"We do a lot of shipping for Chinese and American students and they are the two international markets that spend a lot of money with us," Stewart said. "Wealthy students coming to the U.K. that land at the airport and don't want to get a taxi can arrange a luxury car with us, and we will bring their things over from the U.S. or China."
Read MoreInside the $80,000 private-jet safari
The company currently offers an international shipping service and Stewart said it would consider requests for students wanting a private jet from abroad, but stressed the price would be a "substantially higher".
Uni Baggage also offers a helicopter trip for £20,000 and a horse-and-carriage experience for £10,000, although Stewart admitted this was for short distance journeys.
Showing posts with label College Students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College Students. Show all posts
Friday, September 5, 2014
Friday, November 2, 2012
For-Profit Colleges in Financial Trouble
story first appeared in The Wall Street Journal
As consumers wise up about education spending, for-profit colleges are getting schooled.
Institutions such as Apollo Group Inc.'s University of Phoenix, DeVry Inc. and Washington Post Co.'s Kaplan—who only a few years ago reported double-digit student gains on a regular basis and posted hundreds of millions in profits—now are hemorrhaging students.
The storm was supposed to have passed for for-profit colleges when proposed regulations restricting access to federal student aid were watered down, and then overturned earlier this year. But some schools are still hurting, and it looks like the pain won't let up any time soon. Successful schools are often invested in new technology fields, offering concentrations in things like Wind Turbine Repair and Solar Panel maintenance.
They are facing increased competition from nonprofit and state schools and growing skepticism about the value of a high-cost education. Just last week, industry bellwether Apollo said it would close nearly half of its brick-and-mortar locations to save on overhead.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. After years of government scrutiny and bad press about recruiting practices and questionable academic quality, schools worked to improve their reputations by tightening admissions standards, beefing up student support services and pouring money into rebranding. They received a slight reprieve this summer when a federal judge struck down a series of regulations that could have restricted schools' access to the federal student aid that supplies most of their revenue.
But the hoped-for recovery has failed to materialize as students rethink college entirely, and nonprofit schools muscle in to compete for market share.
Now, some analysts say pockets of the industry may never recover, with school closures and further losses all but certain.
Under the old model, schools boosted enrollment by getting students—generally working adults seeking a quick career jump-start—in the door, often with little regard for whether they eventually earned a degree.
As consumers wise up about education spending, for-profit colleges are getting schooled.
Institutions such as Apollo Group Inc.'s University of Phoenix, DeVry Inc. and Washington Post Co.'s Kaplan—who only a few years ago reported double-digit student gains on a regular basis and posted hundreds of millions in profits—now are hemorrhaging students.
The storm was supposed to have passed for for-profit colleges when proposed regulations restricting access to federal student aid were watered down, and then overturned earlier this year. But some schools are still hurting, and it looks like the pain won't let up any time soon. Successful schools are often invested in new technology fields, offering concentrations in things like Wind Turbine Repair and Solar Panel maintenance.
They are facing increased competition from nonprofit and state schools and growing skepticism about the value of a high-cost education. Just last week, industry bellwether Apollo said it would close nearly half of its brick-and-mortar locations to save on overhead.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. After years of government scrutiny and bad press about recruiting practices and questionable academic quality, schools worked to improve their reputations by tightening admissions standards, beefing up student support services and pouring money into rebranding. They received a slight reprieve this summer when a federal judge struck down a series of regulations that could have restricted schools' access to the federal student aid that supplies most of their revenue.
But the hoped-for recovery has failed to materialize as students rethink college entirely, and nonprofit schools muscle in to compete for market share.
Now, some analysts say pockets of the industry may never recover, with school closures and further losses all but certain.
Under the old model, schools boosted enrollment by getting students—generally working adults seeking a quick career jump-start—in the door, often with little regard for whether they eventually earned a degree.
Kevin Kinser, an associate professor of higher education policy at the State University of New York at Albany said that colleges could be very profitable as a business, even if not as an educational institution.
No longer. Apollo said last week that enrollment fell by nearly 14% to 328,400 in the fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31. Student counts have dropped by nearly a third since their May 2010 peak of 476,500. The school says the money saved from closing classrooms will be rededicated to its online programs.The school blames its dwindling enrollment in part on increased competition from more traditional education providers, as well as the fact that many potential students don't move beyond University of Phoenix's free "orientation," a trial period of instruction before tuition is due, spokesman Mark Brenner says.
The economy has also put pressure on schools, which normally benefit from economic downturns as adults seek to bolster their résumés with new skills and degrees. This time around, the weak job market coupled with rising college costs has made many prospective students leery of investing in school without guaranteed returns.
The U.S. Department of Education recently reported the first drop in college enrollment in more than a decade—albeit one of less than 0.2%—based on data for students enrolled in fall 2011. But for-profit colleges saw enrollment fall by 2.8%.
Meanwhile, as states seek to reduce government spending, legislators see financial aid that ends up at for-profit schools as an easy target for cuts. In California, lawmakers this summer decreed that students at 154 schools—nearly all of them for-profit colleges—will no longer be eligible for the state's need-based Cal Grants, citing the schools' low graduation rates and students' heavy debt burdens.
To boost graduation rates and keep student-loan defaults in check, Apollo and peers are now competing for higher-quality students who have a better shot of graduating. But nonprofit schools are successfully courting the same market segment, with more students turning to online degree programs at schools including University of Maryland University College, Southern New Hampshire University and Liberty University, which don't have the reputational baggage for-profit schools do.
That leaves for-profit colleges fighting for an even smaller sliver of a shrinking pie.
Piper Jaffray analyst Peter Appert says nonprofit institutions have been slow to make a meaningful shift online, but now that they have, students are paying attention and there is a "sea change" in the market.
Enrollment in the online arm of Southern New Hampshire University, which has a ground campus in Manchester, N.H., more than doubled from last October, now hitting 16,700. University of Maryland University College, meanwhile, saw enrollment in its online programs increase by 5% in the last year, to 97,001 students.
Not all for-profit colleges are struggling. Some specialized and niche schools are still posting gains. Grand Canyon Education Inc., a Christian school with a traditional campus in Arizona and online operations, has seen enrollment soar by 60% since 2009, hitting 44,435 as of June 30. And American Public Education Inc., which targets people in the military and public safety, increased course registrations by 45% to 92,900 in that time. Michigan child abuse defense attorney programs are holding steady.
But another dark cloud looms: The Education Department says it is considering its legal and regulatory options in the wake of the July court decision striking down parts of the so-called "gainful employment" rule, which aimed to evaluate programs on how well they prepare students for employment, though industry insiders say it is unlikely much will happen in Washington until after the election.
Still, many institutions are under close watch. ITT Educational Services Inc. and Corinthian Colleges Inc. have both notified investors of a broad inquiry by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while Universal Technical Institute Inc.and Bridgepoint Education Inc. have disclosed U.S. Department of Justice investigations into how schools incentivize staffers to land new students.
Robert Danford fits the profile of the typical for-profit customer. When the 24-year-old was looking for a program in graphic design this fall, he considered Career Education Corp.'s Collins College, where he had briefly studied a few years earlier. But he says the sales pitch and high cost—he says he took out $12,000 in loans for his first stint there—soured him on the school.
A Career Education spokesman says the school's admissions officers are trained on integrity and not to promise outcomes or access to financial aid when working with prospective students.
Mr. Danford enrolled instead in the nonprofit Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, Ariz., where he is paying a few hundred dollars per credit hour and takes courses part-time while working at a nearby Office Max. He says he intends to earn an associate degree and hopes to enroll in a bachelor's degree program down the line
No longer. Apollo said last week that enrollment fell by nearly 14% to 328,400 in the fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31. Student counts have dropped by nearly a third since their May 2010 peak of 476,500. The school says the money saved from closing classrooms will be rededicated to its online programs.The school blames its dwindling enrollment in part on increased competition from more traditional education providers, as well as the fact that many potential students don't move beyond University of Phoenix's free "orientation," a trial period of instruction before tuition is due, spokesman Mark Brenner says.
The economy has also put pressure on schools, which normally benefit from economic downturns as adults seek to bolster their résumés with new skills and degrees. This time around, the weak job market coupled with rising college costs has made many prospective students leery of investing in school without guaranteed returns.
The U.S. Department of Education recently reported the first drop in college enrollment in more than a decade—albeit one of less than 0.2%—based on data for students enrolled in fall 2011. But for-profit colleges saw enrollment fall by 2.8%.
Meanwhile, as states seek to reduce government spending, legislators see financial aid that ends up at for-profit schools as an easy target for cuts. In California, lawmakers this summer decreed that students at 154 schools—nearly all of them for-profit colleges—will no longer be eligible for the state's need-based Cal Grants, citing the schools' low graduation rates and students' heavy debt burdens.
To boost graduation rates and keep student-loan defaults in check, Apollo and peers are now competing for higher-quality students who have a better shot of graduating. But nonprofit schools are successfully courting the same market segment, with more students turning to online degree programs at schools including University of Maryland University College, Southern New Hampshire University and Liberty University, which don't have the reputational baggage for-profit schools do.
That leaves for-profit colleges fighting for an even smaller sliver of a shrinking pie.
Piper Jaffray analyst Peter Appert says nonprofit institutions have been slow to make a meaningful shift online, but now that they have, students are paying attention and there is a "sea change" in the market.
Enrollment in the online arm of Southern New Hampshire University, which has a ground campus in Manchester, N.H., more than doubled from last October, now hitting 16,700. University of Maryland University College, meanwhile, saw enrollment in its online programs increase by 5% in the last year, to 97,001 students.
Not all for-profit colleges are struggling. Some specialized and niche schools are still posting gains. Grand Canyon Education Inc., a Christian school with a traditional campus in Arizona and online operations, has seen enrollment soar by 60% since 2009, hitting 44,435 as of June 30. And American Public Education Inc., which targets people in the military and public safety, increased course registrations by 45% to 92,900 in that time. Michigan child abuse defense attorney programs are holding steady.
But another dark cloud looms: The Education Department says it is considering its legal and regulatory options in the wake of the July court decision striking down parts of the so-called "gainful employment" rule, which aimed to evaluate programs on how well they prepare students for employment, though industry insiders say it is unlikely much will happen in Washington until after the election.
Still, many institutions are under close watch. ITT Educational Services Inc. and Corinthian Colleges Inc. have both notified investors of a broad inquiry by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while Universal Technical Institute Inc.and Bridgepoint Education Inc. have disclosed U.S. Department of Justice investigations into how schools incentivize staffers to land new students.
Robert Danford fits the profile of the typical for-profit customer. When the 24-year-old was looking for a program in graphic design this fall, he considered Career Education Corp.'s Collins College, where he had briefly studied a few years earlier. But he says the sales pitch and high cost—he says he took out $12,000 in loans for his first stint there—soured him on the school.
A Career Education spokesman says the school's admissions officers are trained on integrity and not to promise outcomes or access to financial aid when working with prospective students.
Mr. Danford enrolled instead in the nonprofit Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, Ariz., where he is paying a few hundred dollars per credit hour and takes courses part-time while working at a nearby Office Max. He says he intends to earn an associate degree and hopes to enroll in a bachelor's degree program down the line
Friday, May 18, 2012
Therapeutic Pups
Story first appeared in USA Today.
Just down the hall from the reference desk at Emory University's law library in a room housing antique legal texts is Stanley the golden retriever puppy, barking his head off.
Stanley rolls around on the floor and chews on a squeaky toy while zombie-like law students wander in, a giant grin breaking out on their weary faces when they see the cuddly pup. Puppy therapy — just in time for finals week.
From Kent State University in Ohio to Macalester College in Minnesota, more and more pooches are around campus during exams to help students relax and maybe even crack a smile or two.
One student came in and a staff person commented they had never seen that student smile. It has had positive effects, helping them to just have a moment to clear their minds and not have to think about studies, not have to think about books.
Pups are in counseling centers for students to visit regularly or faculty and staff bring their pets to lift spirits. Pet-friendly dorms also are popping up where students can bring their dogs or cats from home.
Want to check out a pet? It's possible at Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, which both have resident therapy dogs in their libraries that can be borrowed through the card catalog just like a book.
Some dogs, like Harvard Medical School's resident shih tzu Cooper, hold regular office hours. A researcher owns Cooper and said she got permission to bring him to campus after her husband read that Yale Law School had a therapy dog on campus named Monty.
Cooper, who sports a crimson scarf with paw prints on it, is so popular that undergraduate students have been petitioning for him to spend time on their side of campus. Many of them take the shuttle across the river to the medical school just to visit the pup on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
You can release some of the emotions to a pet that you can't to a human. A pet keeps it confidential. You don't have to worry about someone else saying something snide.
Most schools, like Emory, partner with organizations that train companion dogs so that the canines get their social training while students get stress relief. Others, like Harvard, have faculty members bring their dogs — which are certified to be therapy pups — to campus certain hours during the week.
The service is almost always free for students.
Research shows that interaction with pets decreases the level of cortisol — or stress hormone — in people and increases endorphins, known as the happiness hormone. Scant research exists on how pet programs on college campuses help students cope with stress.
That's why a nursing professor at Kent State hopes to garner a grant so she can conduct research as part of her "Dogs on Campus" program. She launched the program in 2006 with just her dog and has since added 11 other therapy canines to the team that visits dorms regularly throughout the year.
The dogs are certified therapy dogs.
She has plenty of anecdotal evidence that her program works. As soon as there's a tragedy on campus — a student dying in a car wreck, for example — dorms scramble to book the dog team to help comfort upset students.
"I don't care if it's 10 at night, we go to that dorm and sit on the floor. The kids are crying, and they grab the dog and put their face in the fur and just let it go," said Adamle.
Since 2006, Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, has asked faculty and alumni to bring their dogs to campus during finals as part of the "Dog Day Afternoon" program. At Kenyon College in Ohio, the counseling center and dorms offer puppy play dates with Sunny the yellow lab and Sam the poodle-Chihuahua mix.
Last month, Indiana University students romped around with dogs in the first ever "Rent-a-Puppy" day. For $5, students could book time with one of 20 puppies from the local animal shelter — and could adopt them if they couldn't bear to say goodbye.
A first-year Emory law student took a break from studying for exams at the library on a recent afternoon to visit Stanley and Hooch, two golden retrievers training to be companion dogs for disabled owners. The private university brought in the dogs as part of a new program to help students cope with the stress of exams.
Just down the hall from the reference desk at Emory University's law library in a room housing antique legal texts is Stanley the golden retriever puppy, barking his head off.
Stanley rolls around on the floor and chews on a squeaky toy while zombie-like law students wander in, a giant grin breaking out on their weary faces when they see the cuddly pup. Puppy therapy — just in time for finals week.
From Kent State University in Ohio to Macalester College in Minnesota, more and more pooches are around campus during exams to help students relax and maybe even crack a smile or two.
One student came in and a staff person commented they had never seen that student smile. It has had positive effects, helping them to just have a moment to clear their minds and not have to think about studies, not have to think about books.
Pups are in counseling centers for students to visit regularly or faculty and staff bring their pets to lift spirits. Pet-friendly dorms also are popping up where students can bring their dogs or cats from home.
Want to check out a pet? It's possible at Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, which both have resident therapy dogs in their libraries that can be borrowed through the card catalog just like a book.
Some dogs, like Harvard Medical School's resident shih tzu Cooper, hold regular office hours. A researcher owns Cooper and said she got permission to bring him to campus after her husband read that Yale Law School had a therapy dog on campus named Monty.
Cooper, who sports a crimson scarf with paw prints on it, is so popular that undergraduate students have been petitioning for him to spend time on their side of campus. Many of them take the shuttle across the river to the medical school just to visit the pup on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
You can release some of the emotions to a pet that you can't to a human. A pet keeps it confidential. You don't have to worry about someone else saying something snide.
Most schools, like Emory, partner with organizations that train companion dogs so that the canines get their social training while students get stress relief. Others, like Harvard, have faculty members bring their dogs — which are certified to be therapy pups — to campus certain hours during the week.
The service is almost always free for students.
Research shows that interaction with pets decreases the level of cortisol — or stress hormone — in people and increases endorphins, known as the happiness hormone. Scant research exists on how pet programs on college campuses help students cope with stress.
That's why a nursing professor at Kent State hopes to garner a grant so she can conduct research as part of her "Dogs on Campus" program. She launched the program in 2006 with just her dog and has since added 11 other therapy canines to the team that visits dorms regularly throughout the year.
The dogs are certified therapy dogs.
She has plenty of anecdotal evidence that her program works. As soon as there's a tragedy on campus — a student dying in a car wreck, for example — dorms scramble to book the dog team to help comfort upset students.
"I don't care if it's 10 at night, we go to that dorm and sit on the floor. The kids are crying, and they grab the dog and put their face in the fur and just let it go," said Adamle.
Since 2006, Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, has asked faculty and alumni to bring their dogs to campus during finals as part of the "Dog Day Afternoon" program. At Kenyon College in Ohio, the counseling center and dorms offer puppy play dates with Sunny the yellow lab and Sam the poodle-Chihuahua mix.
Last month, Indiana University students romped around with dogs in the first ever "Rent-a-Puppy" day. For $5, students could book time with one of 20 puppies from the local animal shelter — and could adopt them if they couldn't bear to say goodbye.
A first-year Emory law student took a break from studying for exams at the library on a recent afternoon to visit Stanley and Hooch, two golden retrievers training to be companion dogs for disabled owners. The private university brought in the dogs as part of a new program to help students cope with the stress of exams.
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Friday, December 9, 2011
Are Asian's Discriminated Against When Appling To College?
Story first appeared in The Detroit News.
Lanya Olmstead was born in Florida to a mother who emigrated from Taiwan and an American father of Norwegian ancestry. Ethnically, she considers herself half Taiwanese and half Norwegian. But when applying to Harvard, Olmstead checked only one box for her race: white.
For years, many Asian-Americans have been convinced that it's harder for them to gain admission to the nation's top colleges.
Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges' admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission. Critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination.
The way it works, the critics believe, is that Asian-Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other ultra-achieving Asians who are stereotyped as boring academic robots.
Now, an unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications.
For those with only one Asian parent, whose names don't give away their heritage, that decision can be relatively easy. Harder are the questions that it raises: What's behind the admissions difficulties? What, exactly, is an Asian-American — and is being one a choice?
Olmstead is a freshman at Harvard and a member of HAPA, the Half-Asian People's Association. In high school she had a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and scored 2150 out of a possible 2400 on the SAT, which she calls pretty low.
College applications ask for parent information, so Olmstead knows that admissions officers could figure out a student's background that way. She did write in the word multiracial on her own application.
Still, she would advise students with one Asian parent to check whatever race is not Asian.
Not to really generalize, but a lot of Asians, they have perfect SATs, perfect GPAs ... so it's hard to let them all in.
Amalia Halikias is a Yale freshman whose mother was born in America to Chinese immigrants; her father is a Greek immigrant. She also checked only the "white" box on her application.
As someone who was applying with relatively strong scores, she didn't want to be grouped into that stereotype. She didn't want to be written off as one of the 1.4 billion Asians that were applying.
Her mother was extremely encouraging of that decision even though she places a high value on preserving their Chinese heritage.
But leaving the Asian box blank felt wrong to Jodi Balfe, a Harvard freshman who was born in South Korea and came here at age 3 with her Korean mother and white American father. She checked the box against the advice of her high school guidance counselor, teachers and friends.
Other students, however, feel no conflict between a strong Asian identity and their response to what they believe is injustice.
Immigration from Asian countries was heavily restricted until laws were changed in 1965. When the gates finally opened, many Asian arrivals were well-educated, endured hardships to secure more opportunities for their families, and were determined to seize the American dream through effort and education.
These immigrants, and their descendants, often demanded that children work as hard as humanly possible to achieve. Parental respect is paramount in Asian culture, so many children have obeyed — and excelled.
Of course, not all Asian-Americans fit this stereotype. They are not always obedient hard workers who get top marks. Some embrace American rather than Asian culture. Their economic status, ancestral countries and customs vary, and their forebears may have been rich or poor.
But compared with American society in general, Asian-Americans have developed a much stronger emphasis on intense academic preparation as a path to a handful of the very best schools.
Does Holmes think children of American parents are generally spoiled and lazy by comparison?
Asian students have higher average SAT scores than any other group, including whites. A study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade examined applicants to top colleges from 1997, when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it's 2400). Espenshade found that Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100.
Top schools that don't ask about race in admissions process have very high percentages of Asian students. The California Institute of Technology, a private school that chooses not to consider race, is about one-third Asian. (Thirteen percent of California residents have Asian heritage.) The University of California-Berkeley, which is forbidden by state law to consider race in admissions, is more than 40 percent Asian — up from about 20 percent before the law was passed.
Steven Hsu, a physics professor at the University of Oregon and a vocal critic of current admissions policies, says there is a clear statistical case that discrimination exists.
Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania declined to make admissions officers available for interviews for this story.
Kara Miller helped read applications for the Yale admissions office when she was an undergraduate there, and participated in meetings where admissions decisions were made. She says it often felt like Asians were held to a higher standard.
Highly selective colleges do use much more than SAT scores and grades to evaluate applicants. Other important factors include extracurricular activities, community service, leadership, maturity, engagement in learning, and overcoming adversity.
Admissions preferences are sometimes given to the children of alumni, the wealthy and celebrities, which is an overwhelmingly white group. Recruited athletes get breaks. Since the top colleges say diversity is crucial to a world-class education, African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders also may get in despite lower scores than other applicants.
A college like Yale could fill their entire freshman class twice over with qualified Asian students or white students or valedictorians,says Rosita Fernandez-Rojo, a former college admissions officer who is now director of college counseling at Rye Country Day School outside of New York City.
But applicants are not ranked by results of a qualifications test, she says — "it's a selection process."
In the end, elite colleges often don't have room for Asian students with outstanding scores and grades.
That's one reason why Harvard freshman Heather Pickerell, born in Hong Kong to a Taiwanese mother and American father, refused to check any race box on her application.
She considers drawing lines between different ethnic groups a form of racism — and says her ethnic identity depends on where she is.
Holmes, the Yale sophomore with the Chinese-born mother, also has problems fitting herself into the Asian box.
"I feel like an American," she says, "... an Asian person who grew up in America."
Susanna Koetter, a Yale junior with an American father and Korean mother, was adamant about identifying her Asian side on her application. Yet she calls herself "not fully Asian-American. I'm mixed Asian-American. When I go to Korea, I'm like, blatantly white."
And yet, asked whether she would have considered leaving the Asian box blank, she says: That would be messed up. I'm not white.
She didn't check the box, even though her last name is a giveaway and her essay was about Asian-American identity.
Looking back I don't agree with what I did, Zhuang says. It was more like a symbolic action for her to rebel against the higher standard placed on Asian-American applicants.
Hsu, the physics professor, says that if the current admissions policies continue, it will become more common for Asian students to avoid identifying themselves as such, and schools will have to react.
The lines are already blurred at Yale, where almost 26,000 students applied for the current freshman class, according to the school's web site.
About 1,300 students were admitted. Twenty percent of them marked the Asian-American box on their applications; 15 percent of freshmen marked two or more ethnicities.
Ten percent of Yale's freshmen class did not check a single box.
Lanya Olmstead was born in Florida to a mother who emigrated from Taiwan and an American father of Norwegian ancestry. Ethnically, she considers herself half Taiwanese and half Norwegian. But when applying to Harvard, Olmstead checked only one box for her race: white.
For years, many Asian-Americans have been convinced that it's harder for them to gain admission to the nation's top colleges.
Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges' admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission. Critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination.
The way it works, the critics believe, is that Asian-Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other ultra-achieving Asians who are stereotyped as boring academic robots.
Now, an unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications.
For those with only one Asian parent, whose names don't give away their heritage, that decision can be relatively easy. Harder are the questions that it raises: What's behind the admissions difficulties? What, exactly, is an Asian-American — and is being one a choice?
Olmstead is a freshman at Harvard and a member of HAPA, the Half-Asian People's Association. In high school she had a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and scored 2150 out of a possible 2400 on the SAT, which she calls pretty low.
College applications ask for parent information, so Olmstead knows that admissions officers could figure out a student's background that way. She did write in the word multiracial on her own application.
Still, she would advise students with one Asian parent to check whatever race is not Asian.
Not to really generalize, but a lot of Asians, they have perfect SATs, perfect GPAs ... so it's hard to let them all in.
Amalia Halikias is a Yale freshman whose mother was born in America to Chinese immigrants; her father is a Greek immigrant. She also checked only the "white" box on her application.
As someone who was applying with relatively strong scores, she didn't want to be grouped into that stereotype. She didn't want to be written off as one of the 1.4 billion Asians that were applying.
Her mother was extremely encouraging of that decision even though she places a high value on preserving their Chinese heritage.
But leaving the Asian box blank felt wrong to Jodi Balfe, a Harvard freshman who was born in South Korea and came here at age 3 with her Korean mother and white American father. She checked the box against the advice of her high school guidance counselor, teachers and friends.
Other students, however, feel no conflict between a strong Asian identity and their response to what they believe is injustice.
Immigration from Asian countries was heavily restricted until laws were changed in 1965. When the gates finally opened, many Asian arrivals were well-educated, endured hardships to secure more opportunities for their families, and were determined to seize the American dream through effort and education.
These immigrants, and their descendants, often demanded that children work as hard as humanly possible to achieve. Parental respect is paramount in Asian culture, so many children have obeyed — and excelled.
Of course, not all Asian-Americans fit this stereotype. They are not always obedient hard workers who get top marks. Some embrace American rather than Asian culture. Their economic status, ancestral countries and customs vary, and their forebears may have been rich or poor.
But compared with American society in general, Asian-Americans have developed a much stronger emphasis on intense academic preparation as a path to a handful of the very best schools.
Does Holmes think children of American parents are generally spoiled and lazy by comparison?
Asian students have higher average SAT scores than any other group, including whites. A study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade examined applicants to top colleges from 1997, when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it's 2400). Espenshade found that Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100.
Top schools that don't ask about race in admissions process have very high percentages of Asian students. The California Institute of Technology, a private school that chooses not to consider race, is about one-third Asian. (Thirteen percent of California residents have Asian heritage.) The University of California-Berkeley, which is forbidden by state law to consider race in admissions, is more than 40 percent Asian — up from about 20 percent before the law was passed.
Steven Hsu, a physics professor at the University of Oregon and a vocal critic of current admissions policies, says there is a clear statistical case that discrimination exists.
Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania declined to make admissions officers available for interviews for this story.
Kara Miller helped read applications for the Yale admissions office when she was an undergraduate there, and participated in meetings where admissions decisions were made. She says it often felt like Asians were held to a higher standard.
Highly selective colleges do use much more than SAT scores and grades to evaluate applicants. Other important factors include extracurricular activities, community service, leadership, maturity, engagement in learning, and overcoming adversity.
Admissions preferences are sometimes given to the children of alumni, the wealthy and celebrities, which is an overwhelmingly white group. Recruited athletes get breaks. Since the top colleges say diversity is crucial to a world-class education, African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders also may get in despite lower scores than other applicants.
A college like Yale could fill their entire freshman class twice over with qualified Asian students or white students or valedictorians,says Rosita Fernandez-Rojo, a former college admissions officer who is now director of college counseling at Rye Country Day School outside of New York City.
But applicants are not ranked by results of a qualifications test, she says — "it's a selection process."
In the end, elite colleges often don't have room for Asian students with outstanding scores and grades.
That's one reason why Harvard freshman Heather Pickerell, born in Hong Kong to a Taiwanese mother and American father, refused to check any race box on her application.
She considers drawing lines between different ethnic groups a form of racism — and says her ethnic identity depends on where she is.
Holmes, the Yale sophomore with the Chinese-born mother, also has problems fitting herself into the Asian box.
"I feel like an American," she says, "... an Asian person who grew up in America."
Susanna Koetter, a Yale junior with an American father and Korean mother, was adamant about identifying her Asian side on her application. Yet she calls herself "not fully Asian-American. I'm mixed Asian-American. When I go to Korea, I'm like, blatantly white."
And yet, asked whether she would have considered leaving the Asian box blank, she says: That would be messed up. I'm not white.
She didn't check the box, even though her last name is a giveaway and her essay was about Asian-American identity.
Looking back I don't agree with what I did, Zhuang says. It was more like a symbolic action for her to rebel against the higher standard placed on Asian-American applicants.
Hsu, the physics professor, says that if the current admissions policies continue, it will become more common for Asian students to avoid identifying themselves as such, and schools will have to react.
The lines are already blurred at Yale, where almost 26,000 students applied for the current freshman class, according to the school's web site.
About 1,300 students were admitted. Twenty percent of them marked the Asian-American box on their applications; 15 percent of freshmen marked two or more ethnicities.
Ten percent of Yale's freshmen class did not check a single box.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Marketers get Creative, Targeting Hard-to-reach College Students
USA Today
Villanova University junior Courtney Chupka (left) of Chatham, N.J., hands a pair of free American Eagle Outfitters flip-flops to fellow student Nicholas Benenati, a sophomore from Miami. Chupka was one of a team of Villanova students dressed in matching T-shirts to promote American Eagle Outfitters on campus.
It may have seemed like just another freshman move-in day at West Virginia University. But for American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), it was D-Day.
Long before the new students arrived at their dorms a few weeks ago, the trendy clothing retailer had a detailed marketing battle plan specific to this Morgantown, W.Va., campus. Facebook updates promoted free car-to-dorm-room help with heavy stuff on move-in day — not to mention free flip-flops.
The savvy strategy wasn't executed by an American Eagle exec. It was overseen by 21-year-old Gina Damato, a WVU senior whose major is public relations. In her spare time, she manages a pizza parlor, writes for the school newspaper, snowboards and is a student rep for AE.
"College students are wary of old-school marketing," says Paul Himmelfarb, managing director at Youth Marketing Connection, which specializes in linking marketers with the college crowd. "You have to take a brand and incorporate it into the college lifestyle by peer-to-peer marketing."
Savvy college marketers have learned that they can no longer reach students by simply putting up posters, handing out samples and hanging ads from dorm room door handles.
That's why there are now nearly 10,000 student reps like Damato on campuses nationally. They are paid in cash, products or a combination of the two — up to $1,500 per semester.
New age of social marketing
Much of their work is via social media, such as relevant Facebook updates and targeted tweets on Twitter. It is detail-oriented marketing intricately tuned in to things vital and specific to student bodies at each of the nation's 4,100 colleges and universities — and in many cases to the individual student. So there is little wasted messaging.
If there were a college class for this, it would be New World College Marketing 101.
"College marketing used to be block and tackle," says Matt Britton, founder of marketing agency Mr. Youth, which recruits thousands of students nationwide. "Now, college students are immune to those tactics and expect something much more deeply intertwined in their lives."
These days, it's about reaching students where they are — which is mostly (but not always) on their cellphones or laptops. So the most sophisticated college marketers — from American Eagle to Apple (AAPL) to Red Bull— are increasingly turning to social media focused on students' wants and needs.
For brands like caffeine-stoked Red Bull, the college crowd isn't the gravy, it's the meat.
"Think about college life," says marketing chief Amy Taylor. "It's made up of five main activities: study, work, play, party and, if there's time, sleep. Our product can help with four of those five."
Students are a rich resource
Why reaching students on campus is fundamental for marketers:
•Students have money to spend, often courtesy of Mom and Dad. Discretionary spending by the nation's 19 million full- and part-time college students will reach $76 billion this year — up $2 billion from last year — Alloy Media + Marketing projects.
•Students will have more dough in the future.
•Students, particularly freshmen in their first extended time away from home, are developing brand affinities that can last.
But they're very clear about how they want to be reached by marketers. When college students were asked in 2009 how they want to get information on goods and services, 46% said the Internet, research specialist Student Monitor reports. That's up from 26% in 2000.
Where they're not interested in getting information: TV or magazines. While 59% looked to TV ads in 2000, that segment shrank to 44% last year. And while 42% depended on magazine ads for information in 2004, only 25% did last year.
Not everyone can be reached. Bijah Gibson, for one, just wants to be left alone.
The 21-year-old journalism major at Colorado State University in Fort Collins says that while it's hard to miss all the college marketing coming at him — he mostly ignores it.
"It doesn't affect what I buy," he says. "My friends have a much bigger effect on what I buy than what I see on some website or on a Facebook update."
Being a college student rep
But such exceptions don't slow down Damato, the student rep at West Virginia. Before her gig as ambassador for American Eagle, she repped for both Apple and Disney.
In return, Apple lent her gobs of computer equipment, Disney helped her get class credit for a six-month internship in Orlando and American Eagle sends her checks.
Damato says being a student rep has helped make her a big shot on campus. "I'm not only recognizable to students, but to professors," she says.
For Apple, she manned tables at freshman orientation last June — supplying detailed Apple product information to students and parents at a moment when many were most susceptible to purchase. Apple doesn't let her make the sale at the tables, but she refers students to an Apple site specific to her school and she gets a commission on each purchase made there.
Last fall, she organized Apple tailgate parties at school football games where students played Guitar Hero on Apple laptops in the parking lot. She posted Facebook updates on the tailgate fun.
But this fall, she's all about American Eagle.
She recruited 40 volunteers — mostly by arranging an AE donation for a fraternity's favorite charity — to work on freshman move-in days. She touted their services on the WVU Facebook page for incoming freshmen with updates such as: "Need help moving in: No worries. AE will be there."
Was it ever. Over six hours, her crew helped 100 freshmen move into their dorms.
And each of those freshmen got a free pair of American Eagle flip-flops (valued at about $15) and a store coupon for 15% off at the American Eagle store at the local mall. As an incentive to get them there quickly, the coupon was set to expire in 30 days.
"The motive is brand awareness," says Fred Grover, executive vice president of marketing. "Our target is a 20-year-old."
Here's what a handful of AE's peers are doing to also seek that 20-year-old on campus this fall:
•Red Bull. The brand sells more than 4 billion cans a year in the U.S., a lot of them to college students.
So it's no accident that Red Bull has an astounding 8.4 million friends on Facebook. That and Twitter are primary ways it communicates with students.
Also, when students returned to school this fall, thousands got sample Red Bull Energy Shots (2-ounce bottles that retail for $2.99) at college bookstores.
Red Bull has student brand managers on 250 college campuses who host — and promote via social media — events such as a recent student chariot race at the University of Georgia.
Red Bull also is active in mobile marketing. There are mobile games and phone apps produced by Red Bull — some of which are free. College students might learn via text message about where to get a free four-pack on a Thursday night, Taylor says.
•Hewlett-Packard. (HPQ) The tech company focuses its college marketing by campus. "We've got to be where the students are — on campus and online," says Lisa Baker, director of student education marketing.
HP student reps at Washington State University recently participated in the annual back-to-school music fest featuring local bands. HP student reps demonstrated HP laptops in the thick of the action and announced special HP deals for the 4,000 students at the event. Students who signed up for information there or on Facebook got free giveaways.
•Zipcar. Since launching its first student rep program in 2001 at Harvard University, the nation's largest car-sharing service now has reps on 50 campuses.
In the spring, Zipcar will set up fake beach scenes on campuses, complete with sand, beach chairs, umbrellas and swimsuit-clad students. Fellow students who stop to check out the "beach" also will see a poster with this pointed spring break reminder: "You need a Zipcar to get here."
Zipcar courts students via Facebook, Twitter and location-based social network Foursquare. "Students are accustomed to getting things on demand in the way they choose," says Zipcar chief marketing officer Rob Weisberg.
So it's no coincidence how much Zipcar's latest iPhone app appeals to college students: Zipcar members can use their iPhones to beep their car horns or even unlock car doors.
•Barnes & Noble.(BKS) In the past 12 months, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers has expanded from 40 college-specific Facebook pages to 636, says Lisa Malat, vice president of marketing.
"We need to go where the students live," she says. "We can't wait for them to come to us."
Long before the new students arrived at their dorms a few weeks ago, the trendy clothing retailer had a detailed marketing battle plan specific to this Morgantown, W.Va., campus. Facebook updates promoted free car-to-dorm-room help with heavy stuff on move-in day — not to mention free flip-flops.
The savvy strategy wasn't executed by an American Eagle exec. It was overseen by 21-year-old Gina Damato, a WVU senior whose major is public relations. In her spare time, she manages a pizza parlor, writes for the school newspaper, snowboards and is a student rep for AE.
"College students are wary of old-school marketing," says Paul Himmelfarb, managing director at Youth Marketing Connection, which specializes in linking marketers with the college crowd. "You have to take a brand and incorporate it into the college lifestyle by peer-to-peer marketing."
Savvy college marketers have learned that they can no longer reach students by simply putting up posters, handing out samples and hanging ads from dorm room door handles.
That's why there are now nearly 10,000 student reps like Damato on campuses nationally. They are paid in cash, products or a combination of the two — up to $1,500 per semester.
New age of social marketing
Much of their work is via social media, such as relevant Facebook updates and targeted tweets on Twitter. It is detail-oriented marketing intricately tuned in to things vital and specific to student bodies at each of the nation's 4,100 colleges and universities — and in many cases to the individual student. So there is little wasted messaging.
If there were a college class for this, it would be New World College Marketing 101.
"College marketing used to be block and tackle," says Matt Britton, founder of marketing agency Mr. Youth, which recruits thousands of students nationwide. "Now, college students are immune to those tactics and expect something much more deeply intertwined in their lives."
These days, it's about reaching students where they are — which is mostly (but not always) on their cellphones or laptops. So the most sophisticated college marketers — from American Eagle to Apple (AAPL) to Red Bull— are increasingly turning to social media focused on students' wants and needs.
For brands like caffeine-stoked Red Bull, the college crowd isn't the gravy, it's the meat.
"Think about college life," says marketing chief Amy Taylor. "It's made up of five main activities: study, work, play, party and, if there's time, sleep. Our product can help with four of those five."
Students are a rich resource
Why reaching students on campus is fundamental for marketers:
•Students have money to spend, often courtesy of Mom and Dad. Discretionary spending by the nation's 19 million full- and part-time college students will reach $76 billion this year — up $2 billion from last year — Alloy Media + Marketing projects.
•Students will have more dough in the future.
•Students, particularly freshmen in their first extended time away from home, are developing brand affinities that can last.
But they're very clear about how they want to be reached by marketers. When college students were asked in 2009 how they want to get information on goods and services, 46% said the Internet, research specialist Student Monitor reports. That's up from 26% in 2000.
Where they're not interested in getting information: TV or magazines. While 59% looked to TV ads in 2000, that segment shrank to 44% last year. And while 42% depended on magazine ads for information in 2004, only 25% did last year.
Not everyone can be reached. Bijah Gibson, for one, just wants to be left alone.
The 21-year-old journalism major at Colorado State University in Fort Collins says that while it's hard to miss all the college marketing coming at him — he mostly ignores it.
"It doesn't affect what I buy," he says. "My friends have a much bigger effect on what I buy than what I see on some website or on a Facebook update."
Being a college student rep
But such exceptions don't slow down Damato, the student rep at West Virginia. Before her gig as ambassador for American Eagle, she repped for both Apple and Disney.
In return, Apple lent her gobs of computer equipment, Disney helped her get class credit for a six-month internship in Orlando and American Eagle sends her checks.
Damato says being a student rep has helped make her a big shot on campus. "I'm not only recognizable to students, but to professors," she says.
For Apple, she manned tables at freshman orientation last June — supplying detailed Apple product information to students and parents at a moment when many were most susceptible to purchase. Apple doesn't let her make the sale at the tables, but she refers students to an Apple site specific to her school and she gets a commission on each purchase made there.
Last fall, she organized Apple tailgate parties at school football games where students played Guitar Hero on Apple laptops in the parking lot. She posted Facebook updates on the tailgate fun.
But this fall, she's all about American Eagle.
She recruited 40 volunteers — mostly by arranging an AE donation for a fraternity's favorite charity — to work on freshman move-in days. She touted their services on the WVU Facebook page for incoming freshmen with updates such as: "Need help moving in: No worries. AE will be there."
Was it ever. Over six hours, her crew helped 100 freshmen move into their dorms.
And each of those freshmen got a free pair of American Eagle flip-flops (valued at about $15) and a store coupon for 15% off at the American Eagle store at the local mall. As an incentive to get them there quickly, the coupon was set to expire in 30 days.
"The motive is brand awareness," says Fred Grover, executive vice president of marketing. "Our target is a 20-year-old."
Here's what a handful of AE's peers are doing to also seek that 20-year-old on campus this fall:
•Red Bull. The brand sells more than 4 billion cans a year in the U.S., a lot of them to college students.
So it's no accident that Red Bull has an astounding 8.4 million friends on Facebook. That and Twitter are primary ways it communicates with students.
Also, when students returned to school this fall, thousands got sample Red Bull Energy Shots (2-ounce bottles that retail for $2.99) at college bookstores.
Red Bull has student brand managers on 250 college campuses who host — and promote via social media — events such as a recent student chariot race at the University of Georgia.
Red Bull also is active in mobile marketing. There are mobile games and phone apps produced by Red Bull — some of which are free. College students might learn via text message about where to get a free four-pack on a Thursday night, Taylor says.
•Hewlett-Packard. (HPQ) The tech company focuses its college marketing by campus. "We've got to be where the students are — on campus and online," says Lisa Baker, director of student education marketing.
HP student reps at Washington State University recently participated in the annual back-to-school music fest featuring local bands. HP student reps demonstrated HP laptops in the thick of the action and announced special HP deals for the 4,000 students at the event. Students who signed up for information there or on Facebook got free giveaways.
•Zipcar. Since launching its first student rep program in 2001 at Harvard University, the nation's largest car-sharing service now has reps on 50 campuses.
In the spring, Zipcar will set up fake beach scenes on campuses, complete with sand, beach chairs, umbrellas and swimsuit-clad students. Fellow students who stop to check out the "beach" also will see a poster with this pointed spring break reminder: "You need a Zipcar to get here."
Zipcar courts students via Facebook, Twitter and location-based social network Foursquare. "Students are accustomed to getting things on demand in the way they choose," says Zipcar chief marketing officer Rob Weisberg.
So it's no coincidence how much Zipcar's latest iPhone app appeals to college students: Zipcar members can use their iPhones to beep their car horns or even unlock car doors.
•Barnes & Noble.(BKS) In the past 12 months, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers has expanded from 40 college-specific Facebook pages to 636, says Lisa Malat, vice president of marketing.
"We need to go where the students live," she says. "We can't wait for them to come to us."
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