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Survey: 70 percent of students skip out on some textbook purchases

Students get creative with a hodgepodge of renting, sharing books

University of Colorado junior Erica Truskolaski approaches college textbook buying with finesse.

The physics student shops online. She shares books with classmates. She rents them. And, she avoids buying some books altogether because she said she can find similar educational material on the Web. She’ll even consider photocopying portions of textbooks and then returning them.

“I don’t just go into the bookstore and buy every book on my list,” Truskolaski said. “That’s way too expensive.”

Seven out of 10 undergraduates in a national survey report that they avoided purchasing one or more textbooks because the cost is too high, according to a report released by the Student Public Interest Research Group.

The College Board, a nonprofit that administers the SAT and other exams, says that students should budget $1,137 a year for textbooks and course materials. A U.S. PIRG analysis also found that students spend nearly $900 a year on textbooks, and that prices have increased by 22 percent over the last four years — quadruple inflation.

The survey polled 1,905 undergraduates across the country last spring.

At CU, to help save students money on textbooks, the bookstore offers less expensive e-book options, rentals, holds buybacks at the semesters’ end and professors can mark whether a book is required or optional on students’ reading lists. In 2008, Colorado legislators passed a law that required publishers to “unbundle” textbooks so students don’t have to buy expensive extras, such as CD tutorials, which come packaged with books.

Continued, link to article: http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_18723969

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Postal Solutions is the nation’s leader in the collegiate mail management industry, for both on- and off-campus mail management services. For more information regarding assistance with outsourcing your collegiate mail management needs, please call us today at (866) 378-8157 or visit us online at www.uspostalsolutions.com to save your student rental community or university money.

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The Master’s as the New Bachelor’s

William Klein’s story may sound familiar to his fellow graduates. After earning his bachelor’s in history from the College at Brockport, he found himself living in his parents’ Buffalo home, working the same $7.25-an-hour waiter job he had in high school.

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It wasn’t that there weren’t other jobs out there. It’s that they all seemed to want more education. Even tutoring at a for-profit learning center or leading tours at a historic site required a master’s. “It’s pretty apparent that with the degree I have right now, there are not too many jobs I would want to commit to,” Mr. Klein says.

So this fall, he will sharpen his marketability at Rutgers’ new master’s program in Jewish studies (think teaching, museums and fund-raising in the Jewish community). Jewish studies may not be the first thing that comes to mind as being the road to career advancement, and Mr. Klein is not sure exactly where the degree will lead him (he’d like to work for the Central Intelligence Agency in the Middle East). But he is sure of this: he needs a master’s. Browse professional job listings and it’s “bachelor’s required, master’s preferred.”

Call it credential inflation. Once derided as the consolation prize for failing to finish a Ph.D. or just a way to kill time waiting out economic downturns, the master’s is now the fastest-growing degree. The number awarded, about 657,000 in 2009, has more than doubled since the 1980s, and the rate of increase has quickened substantially in the last couple of years, says Debra W. Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. Nearly 2 in 25 people age 25 and over have a master’s, about the same proportion that had a bachelor’s or higher in 1960.

“Several years ago it became very clear to us that master’s education was moving very rapidly to become the entry degree in many professions,” Dr. Stewart says. The sheen has come, in part, because the degrees are newly specific and utilitarian. These are not your general master’s in policy or administration. Even the M.B.A., observed one business school dean, “is kind of too broad in the current environment.” Now, you have the M.S. in supply chain management, and in managing mission-driven organizations. There’s an M.S. in skeletal and dental bioarchaeology, and an M.A. in learning and thinking.

The degree of the moment is the professional science master’s, or P.S.M., combining job-specific training with business skills. Where only a handful of programs existed a few years ago, there are now 239, with scores in development. Florida’s university system, for example, plans 28 by 2013, clustered in areas integral to the state’s economy, including simulation (yes, like Disney, but applied to fields like medicine and defense). And there could be many more, says Patricia J. Bishop, vice provost and dean of graduate studies at the University of Central Florida. “Who knows when we’ll be done?”

Continued, link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/education/edlife/edl-24masters-t.html?_r=1

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Postal Solutions is the nation’s leader in the collegiate mail management industry, for both on- and off-campus mail management services. For more information regarding assistance with outsourcing your collegiate mail management needs, please call us today at (866) 378-8157 or visit us online at www.uspostalsolutions.com to save your student rental community or university money.

 

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42 Fun & Interesting Statistics for College Students

Looking for someone?

1. Average Number of College Graduates per year – 1,750,000
2. Average Number of College Students Enrolling per year – 2,350,000
3. Average Number of Male College Students Enrolling per year – 775,000
4. Average Number of Female College Students Enrolling per year – 1,575,000
5. Co-ed College with the highest percentage ratio of Women to Men – Randolph College: 99.58% (Lynchburg, VA)
6. Co-ed College with the lowest percentage ratio of Women to Men – Southern University and A & M College, 62.5% (Baton Rouge, LA)

How many are there?

7. Average number of college dropouts per year – 1,125,000
8. Average number of college transfers per year – 1,250,000
9. Average number of delinquent college student loans – 7.4% of all outstanding loans ($18 million total)
10. Average amount of delinquent college student loans – $16,700
11. Number of college student loans written off each year – 18,345 (Private & Public loans)
12. Number of college student marriages each year – 42,500
13. Number of college student divorces each year – 2,750
14. Number of college student bankruptcies each year – 9,300

What’s it all worth?

15. Average wage of student’s first job out of college – $20/hr
16. Average wage of student job in college – $11/hr
17. Average income of two college-graduate families – $89,000/yr
18. Average income of Associate’s degree graduate – $37,000/yr
19. Average income of Bachelor’s degree graduate – $47,000/yr
20. Average income of Master’s degree graduate – $49,000/yr
21. Average income of PhD. Degree graduate – $51,250/yr

Popular Jobs and their Value.

22. Average income of a Psychologist -$82,386/yr
23. Average income of a Social Worker – $49,573/yr
24. Average income of a Business Administrator – $43,022/yr
25. Average income of a Computer Network Administrator – $52,525/yr
26. Average income of an Artist – $47,596/yr
27. Average income of a Writer – $29,000/yr
28. Average income of a Refuse Transportation Specialist (Garbage Man) – $35,575/yr
29. Average income of a Soil Relocation Engineer (Ditch Digger) – $24,000/yr

Paying and paying.

30. Average college student’s debt after college – $23,700
31. Average college student’s debt payment per month – $432/month

Where are students going?

32. Average number of college students attending Spring Break – 1,125,000
33. Average number of college students arrested at Spring Break – 88,750
34. Average number of miles traveled to get to Spring Break – 934 miles
35. Average number of college parties attended per year – 62

Oops!

36. Average number of parking tickets per college student each year – 2
37. Average number of missed classes per college student each year – 26
38. Average number of dropped classes per college student each year – 2
39. Average food budget for college students each year – $2,800 (incl. beverages)

Whatcha’ got?

40. Most common car driven by college students – Toyota Yaris
41. Most common scooter driven by college students – GS Motor Works CY50-B – $769
42. Most common item stolen from college students – iPod

What does it all mean?

Whether you are a student in one of the categories listed above or just becoming a student, these numbers reflect what can be expected in and out of college for most students.

Continued, link to article: http://www.classesandcareers.com/advisor/42-statistics-for-college-students/

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Postal Solutions is the nation’s leader in the collegiate mail management industry, for both on- and off-campus mail management services. For more information regarding assistance with outsourcing your collegiate mail management needs, please call us today at (866) 378-8157 or visit us online at www.uspostalsolutions.com to save your student rental community or university money.

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National Student Housing Council Sees Surge in Freshman College Applications

Washington, D.C.—A new white paper from the National Student Housing Council, a subsidiary of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC), finds that the recession has not impeded college enrollment. In fact, the number of applications colleges are receiving has increased, quite substantially at some schools.

The report compared enrollment applications at 56 public and private universities. Pairing the number of freshman applications in fall 2008 against the number in fall 2010, on average, applications went up by 20 percent. Twenty-three of the schools reported a gain of 25 percent or more, with the biggest increase recorded by the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (56 percent). Only four schools showed a drop in freshman applications.

The report, titled “Enrollment Trends in the Recession,” delivers encouraging news to those in the off-campus student housing industry, especially considering how the rest of the economy is still struggling. It cites strong demographics as a driver of enrollment, characterized by the 78 million echo-boomers at or approaching college age.

Continued, link to articlehttp://www.multihousingnews.com/news/national/national-student-housing-council-sees-surge-in-freshman-college-applications/

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Postal Solutions is the nation’s leader in the collegiate mail management industry, for both on- and off-campus mail management services. For more information regarding assistance with outsourcing your collegiate mail management needs, please call us today at (866) 378-8157 or visit us online at www.uspostalsolutions.com to save your student rental community or university money.


 

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University announces $26 million in proposed budget cuts to campus

150 faculty and staff projected to lose jobs through initial round of cuts

RENO, Nev. – University of Nevada, Reno faculty and staff in programs and departments being proposed for closure, reorganization or reduction were notified today. The plans announced represent an annual budget reduction of $26 million and the proposed elimination of 225 positions. Of those positions, 150 are currently filled and the remaining were held open in anticipation of possible budget cuts.

The proposed reductions announced today fall short of the potential total University budget reduction which is projected to be as high as $59 million by July 2012. The final budget reduction will be determined through the budget process now under way within the Nevada State Legislature. Other factors that will determine the final budget reduction total include across-the-board salary reductions proposed by the state executive budget and possible further increases in tuition and fees as determined by the Board of Regents.

Link to article: http://newsroom.unr.edu/2011/03/07/university-announces-26-million-in-proposed-budget-cuts-to-campus-today/

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Postal Solutions is the nation’s leader in the collegiate mail management industry, for both on- and off-campus mail management services. For more information regarding assistance with outsourcing your collegiate mail management needs, please call us today at (866) 378-8157 or visit us online at www.uspostalsolutions.com to save your university money.

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