In light of all of the negative publicity that Baylor University has received following the ongoing allegations of sexual-assault on the campus, influential alumni and key donors have formed a nonprofit group to demand and to oversee the overhaul of Baylor’s Board of Regents. Julie Hillrichs, spokesperson for Bears for Leadership Reform, asserted: “I cannot stress enough, it’s not about football . . . This is about women who have been sexually assaulted on this campus. We need to have total accountability and transparency.” [read more]
October 1 is right around the corner. This is the day the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will open up for the 2017-18 school year. In the past the opening date has been January 1, but now there are new guidelines including using the information from your 2015 taxes instead of having to file your taxes quickly to get you FAFSA filed. This program, called Prior-Prior, will open up financial assistance opportunities for many who have had difficulty making the tight timeline of previous years. [read more]
James Lang writing for The Chronicle of Higher Education posts an article discussing the value of attending a residential liberal arts institution as a “practice for life.” Much of his article highlights a new book entitled Practice for Life: Making Decisions in College, out this month from Harvard University Press, authored by Lee Cuba,Nancy Jennings,Suzanne Lovett, and Joseph Swingle. “Becoming liberally educated,” they write, “is a complex and messy process involving making decisions and learning from them . . . A residential college is excellent practice for reflecting on what home means and finding one as an emerging adult.” [read more]
All of the sub-tests on the ACT are scored on a perfect score of 36 with the exception of the writing component, which will change to a 1-12 score. Some are concerned that this move will cause confusion with a population that is used to the 1-36 scale, but there is an explanation on the score report for anyone interested in reading about the new score. [read more]
Goldie Blumenstyk, writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that good data exists to support students interested in a liberal arts education. Develop some key skills along the way and good paying jobs prospects are an attainable reality, especially for those with some coding experience. [read more]
The next big wave of automation came to light last week in a rather quiet way as a Google-owned computer system, Lee Sedol, a champion of one of the world’s most complex board games. As the world of artificial intelligence continues to advance millions of jobs and ways of life are going to change.
Some 10 percent of all American jobs involve driving vehicles, and most all of them will be lost, said Moshe Y. Vardi, a professor of computational engineering at Rice University. “What are we going to do with these 3.5 million people?”
Christof Koch, president and Chief Scientific Officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Science warned “This is a real issue of our time, and none of our politicians right now is even mentioning it. I’m not sure anybody even knows about this, which is rather depressing.”
Miles Brundage, a doctoral student at Arizona State University who has been studying AlphaGo, believes the far more urgent need is a real and comprehensive examination of how society and its economy will function once artificial intelligence begins wiping out millions of jobs. [read more]
Parents of college students often forget to consider college expenses as part of their tax return. To help parents navigate the often complex considerations involved in claiming the American Opportunity Credit, the IRS has issued an informative guideline “Tax Benefits of Education.” This tax credit is not the sole tax credit program to consider, especially for parents of students not yet in college. Edvisors has published a noteworthy article to help parents understand the advantages and pitfalls of various programs.
With Open Carry a reality of Texas public colleges and universities, some professors are considering “keeping things safe” and not opening discussions that could be controversial citing student and personal safety. [read more]
Texas A&M has announced that final freshman admission decisions will be sent this week. These decisions will include offers of admission to all summer provisional program, the Texas A&M Blinn TEAM program, the Engineering Academy at Blinn-Bryan, new Engineering Program at Galveston as well as offers to our Program for System Admission (PSA). Students should check AIS for the most updated information regarding their decisions.
Filing for financial aid can seem intimidating and difficult as families usually must estimate their income because forms are often due before taxes have been filed. But all of this will change for students filing in the 2017-18 school year. Both the federal government [FAFSA] and CollegeBoard [CSS Profile] will be set up for parents to use the IRS retrieval tool pulling information in from 2-years ago. This process is known as “prior-prior-year” or PPY. The new FAFSA will open up October 1, 2016 making it possible for some colleges to get financial information out earlier. [read more]
