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Complications appear to be bogging down the “free college” movement, particularly in New York. An August report from the Center for an Urban Future found that just 3.2% of the undergraduates statewide received an Excelsior Scholarship . The program requires students to earn at least 30 credits every year of enrollment, which proved to be the main reason students applying for the funds were rejected. According to the report, 43,513 of the 63,599 scholarship applications in 2018 were rejected, with more than 36,000 denied because of insufficient credits. “Admittedly, it’s still early days for the program, so the numbers may drift upwards a bit,” Matt Reed, vice president for learning, Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ, wrote in his Confessions of a Community College Dean column for Inside Higher Ed. “But with complicated paperwork requirements, an extraordinarily high credit requirement, and a postgraduation residency requirement in place, it’s not surprising that the impact h...

Fewer teenagers are interested in careers in science or the arts, but more are looking at health and public-service work. However, colleges and universities might want to hold off on adjusting their course offerings just yet. For the second consecutive year, Junior Achievement and Ernst & Young surveyed 13- to 17-year-olds about their career ambitions and financial literacy. The percentage of teens who said they’re considering working in the arts dropped from 18% in 2017 to 13% this year, but the decrease for STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) careers was even bigger. Just 24% of teen boys, compared to 36% a year ago, have their eye on a STEM field after high school, even though the number of girls interested in STEM (11%) didn’t change year over year. The reasons behind such a large drop with the boys in just 12 months isn’t clear, though. “It’s definitely disconcerting that we see declining interest in STEM,” Ed Grocholski, senior vice president of brand at Jun...

Education officials in Tennessee have released data on the Tennessee Promise, a program designed to make community college free for graduating high school seniors in the state. The results were encouraging, but it’s too soon to proclaim a smashing success. Of the more than 13,000 students who participated in the Tennessee Promise class of 2015, 21.5% graduated with a degree or certificate, an increase over the 13.8% of students who accomplished the same thing the year before the program started. The data also indicated that only 8.3% of students who didn’t enroll in the Tennessee Promise in 2015 were able to earn a degree or certificate in five semesters. “I have my degree and zero student debt,” one graduate of the program said in a National Public Radio report . “You do have to pay for your books and your parking passes, but that’s a heck of a deal. You can’t beat that.” On the other hand, the dropout rate for the first Tennessee Promise class was just 2.3% lower than the rate of fre...

Generation Z is often described as pragmatic and cost-conscious. A 2017 study showed just how pragmatic those students are. EAB Enrollment Services’ The New College Freshman Survey found that 70% of the 4,800 college freshmen surveyed said they visited college websites to find information about majors and minors, up 4% over the results of the 2015 poll. College costs came in a distant second (45%), followed by information on scholarships (25%), financial aid (24%), and general information about the school (21%). The report also noted that students checking out college ads on social media sites are still very interested in information relating to majors and minors offered at the institutions. Just over 40% of the students said information on majors and minors was the most useful part of their social media search. Other studies by EAB have found that Generation Z students select majors and minors that will have a stronger impact on their job prospects. That fits with a rise in the numbe...

A sizable majority of high school students are going on to obtain additional education shortly after 12th grade, but the usual culprit—cost—is preventing some students from enrolling in postsecondary classes. A new study by the U.S. Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics followed 20,000 ninth-graders from 2009 to 2016, according to a report in Inside Higher Ed . Nearly all (92%) graduated from high school and 72% of them had entered some type of certificate or degree program or other vocational classes by February 2016, when the study concluded. Not surprisingly, 80% of the students who attended private high schools continued their education, while fewer than 49% of those from public high schools did so. Students who didn’t pursue postsecondary courses often cited insufficient finances as the reason. For 40% of students who started college after high school and then dropped out, lack of money was also the cause. Personal situations and “work” (presumably schedu...