It occurred to me that it might be helpful--or at least different--to introduce Preparing Your Teens for College from the standpoint of key questions that I sought to address in the book. Here are seven of them: 1. What are the key character traits teens need to be successful at a college (of any sort)? 2. How can we help our teens own the Christian faith for themselves? 3. How can we help our teens make wise relational decisions and avoid the subversive influences of the wrong crowd? 4. How can we help our teens learn sound principles of financial stewardship so that they don’t … [Read more...] about Key Questions Addressed in My Book
Thriving at College
How To Prepare Your Teen for College
I'm grateful to Matt Smethurst of The Gospel Coalition for taking the time to interview me about Preparing Your Teens for College. Here's one of our interactions: How do today's economic conditions make preparing our kids for college more crucial than ever before? College is more expensive than ever. But with regard to future earnings prospects, it's also more significant than ever. In June 2013, the unemployment rate for non-college grads was 7.6 percent, but for college grads it was about half of that (3.9 percent). You'll see this pattern, in good times and bad, over the last few … [Read more...] about How To Prepare Your Teen for College
Student Loans Dragging Down the Economy?
Good article by Sam Frizell in Time magazine. A few excerpts: "At the end of 2003, American students and graduates owed just $253 billion in aggregate debt; by the end of 2013, American students’ debt had ballooned to a total of $1.08 trillion, an increase of over 300%. In the past year alone, aggregate student debt grew 10%. By comparison, overall debt grew just 43% in the last decade and 1.6% over the past year." … [Read more...] about Student Loans Dragging Down the Economy?
Access, Affordability, and Success: Response to the President’s College Ratings Plan
Awilda Rodriguez and Andrew Kelly of the Center on Higher Education Reform at AEI: Last fall, President Obama unveiled a plan to promote college affordability by changing the way the federal government distributes student financial aid. The proposal calls for a federal college ratings system that appraises colleges on measures of access, affordability, and student success.These ratings would then govern the allocation of federal student aid dollars, with schools that perform well receiving larger Pell Grants and more generous student loans. Schools that lag behind would get less.... … [Read more...] about Access, Affordability, and Success: Response to the President’s College Ratings Plan
Should We Become a Cashless Society?
Confession: I hate carrying and spending cash. Always have. I like the convenience of putting everything on one credit card, being able to have an instant record of my spending, and (of course) earning 1 percent cash back. I'm not prone to impulse purchases, and I've always paid my bill in full and on time. But Derek Thomas has a provocative article in The Atlantic on the downsides of our becoming a cashless society. Thomas writes: "In the 1970s, fewer than 20 percent of the adult population owned a credit card. Today, between 70 and 80 percent of the adult population does." So what? Thomas … [Read more...] about Should We Become a Cashless Society?
Half of College Presidents Lack Long-term Confidence in Their Financial Model
The 2014 survey of college and university presidents, sponsored by Inside Higher Ed, has a few results that feed the narrative that while college has never been more expensive, many institutions are on unsustainable financial path (HT: the reference comes from chapter 4 of Jeff Selingo's groundbreaking book College UnBound.) Here are a few examples from the survey: Nearly two-thirds of presidents are confident about the sustainability of their institution’s financial mode over the next five years -- but that proportion falls to half over 10 years. Asked to rate the financial viability … [Read more...] about Half of College Presidents Lack Long-term Confidence in Their Financial Model