What's News
Over 3,000 students attend Black College Expo at Sac State
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) — Over 3,000 high school students from around the Sacramento area packed the University Union at Sacramento State on Saturday to attend the Black College Expo.
The students found out about financial aid, booming careers and what it takes to survive in college as they met with over 50 college representatives.
“It makes me feel great knowing that all of these colleges came here for me so I could be successful in the future,” said Natomas High School student Floyd Gilmore.
Search for Student Aid Commission Chief Executive Director Announced
Sacramento, CA (2019) – An exceptional professional opportunity has been advertised for the key leadership position at the state’s higher education financial aid administrator and policy advisor. Resumes for the California Student Aid Commission’s Executive Director position will be accepted through February 25, 2019, by CPS HR Consulting.
CONTACT: JILL ENGELMANN (916) 471-3377
Email: jengelmann@cpshr.us
Attention, college shoppers. These schools are slashing their prices
As soaring tuition scares off many families, a growing number of private colleges have embraced a marketing tactic associated more with selling airline tickets or flat-screen televisions than higher education: a price cut.
St. John’s College slashed tuition from $52,734 in this school year to $35,000 in the next.
The liberal arts school, with campuses in Maryland and New Mexico, joined more than 20 others nationwide that have reduced prices in the past three years.
California’s first Latina chief deputy superintendent sworn in
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —
California swore in its first Latina chief deputy superintendent of public instruction on Wednesday.
Lupita Cortez Alcalá was sworn in during a ceremony at the California Board of Education meeting in Sacramento.
Cortez Alcalá was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and grew up in California. In school, she was an English learner and had to repeat kindergarten after failing the first time. Cortez Alcalá eventually attended UC San Diego for her bachelor’s degree and got her master’s from Harvard University.
A push for college financial aid to cover more than tuition
A push for college financial aid to cover more than tuition
The agency that runs Cal Grant, California’s biggest financial aid program for students at public colleges, want the legislature to expand the program to cover rent, food, transportation and other non-tuition expenses. That could cost as much as $2 billion a year.
‘I Feel Invisible’: Native Students Languish in Public Schools
This article was reported and written in a collaboration with ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative journalism organization.
WOLF POINT, Mont. — The faint scars on Ruth Fourstar’s arms testify to a difficult life on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation: the physical and emotional abuse at home, the bullying at school, the self-harm that sent her rotating through mental health facilities and plunged her to a remedial program from the honor roll.
An unlikely entrepreneur: The Bay Area teen trying to help foster youth through tech
Carrying his coffee, 18-year-old Joseph Franco headed out his front door and walked to the convenience store near his Oakland apartment. He needed change for the bus.
“I’m a youth, so it’s $1.15,” he said before stepping onto the nearly empty 54. He went straight to the back row and sat down. When the bus stopped at the Fruitvale BART station, Franco stood up, adjusted his hat and thanked the driver. He was headed to a job interview at a burrito restaurant in Dublin, California.
Student Regent Devon Graves to chair UC Board of Regents basic needs committee
Student Regent Devon Graves was appointed chair of the UC Board of Regents Special Committee on Basic Needs on Monday — marking the first time in history a student has been appointed chair of a Board of Regents committee.
Graves will serve as chair of the committee, effective immediately, through June 2019, as appointed by Board of Regents chair George Kieffer. The committee, which will be established for two years, reviews campus, systemwide and national trends supporting basic needs for UC students.
Senators urge U.S. News & World Report to overhaul college ranking formula
Six Senate Democrats urged U.S. News & World Report on Monday to overhaul how it ranks colleges by giving more credit to those that do the most for underrepresented and disadvantaged students “instead of the privileged few.”
POLITICO California Pro Preview: Big financial aid request
POLITICO California Pro Preview: Big financial aid request
BIG ASK: A couple of weeks ago, UC and CSU leaders thought they might be pressing their luck by asking the Legislature for a few hundred million more dollars.
That paled in comparison to the request the California Student Aid Commission is making.
The panel voted Thursday to seek a major overhaul in the Cal Grant financial aid system for low-income students that could reach beyond $2 billion in new costs.
California students find tuition discounts, less-crowded campuses out of state
Colleges in Arizona and Nevada are top choices for California students
As a high school senior, Arezo Amerzada’s choices for college came down to University of California-Riverside, several California State University campuses and a handful of out-of-state schools, including the University of Nevada in Reno.
That was when Amerzada, who grew up in Union City in the San Francisco Bay Area, learned about the Western Undergraduate Exchange. The increasingly popular program gives California students steep tuition discounts at dozens of colleges and universities in nearby states. The University of Nevada was one of them.
California Student Aid Commission backs expansion of Cal Grant program
Legislature could overhaul Cal Grants next year
The commission that administers Cal Grants, the core program of California’s college financial aid system, threw its support Thursday behind sweeping plans to expand access to those grants and provide more money to the students who receive them.
The California Student Aid Commission, which oversees the state’s financial aid system, voted unanimously to endorse a package of changes that estimates say could provide Cal Grants to more than 200,000 additional students.
Dean at UC-Irvine Seeks to Solve Higher Ed’s Existential Crisis With Data — Lots of It
Tony Thurmond names second in command at California Department of Education
Lupita Cortez Alcalá currently runs California Student Aid Commission
Tony Thurmond has named a veteran California education administrator as his chief deputy superintendent in his first act as state superintendent-elect of public instruction.
Meet Jin Park,
The First DACA Recipient Awarded A Rhodes Scholarship
This year’s list of Rhodes Scholars is remarkable for many reasons. Almost two-thirds of the recipients are women and nearly half are first-generation Americans or immigrants. But one scholarship winner in particular made history this year.
Here’s how Sac State students and faculty feel about the state of higher education in 2018
Here’s how Sac State students and faculty feel about the state of higher education in 2018
We asked students and professors at Sacramento State University about their opinions on higher education in California in October 2018. They gave us opinions on overcrowding, financial aid, debt and finishing in on time – among other topics.
Tuition-free college becoming a reality
Jersey Journal editorial
The prospect of a tuition-free community college education is finally here.
Hudson County Community College has been named one of 13 community colleges in the state to participate in the pilot Community College Opportunity Grant program, through which tuition and fees for students with an adjusted gross income of $45,000 or less can take six or more credits free of charge next semester.
Bloomberg gives Johns Hopkins a record $1.8 billion for student financial aid
Former New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced Sunday he is giving a record $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University to support student financial aid at his alma mater and make its admissions process “forever need-blind.”
The gift, believed to be the largest private donation in modern times to higher education, is a landmark in a growing national movement to make elite universities more accessible to students from low- to middle-income families.
UPDATE: Why Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion Johns Hopkins donation won’t transform college affordability
Officials in Tennessee set aside $350 million to make community college free for that entire state With his $1.8 billion gift (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/opinion/bloomberg-college-donation-financial-aid.html) to Johns Hopkins University, Michael Bloomberg made the largest donation in history to a higher education institution and certainly the most high-profile gift directed towards scholarships in recent memory.
Still, the staggering sum is likely to only make a small dent in America’s college affordability problem.
Most parents and students have no idea how much college really costs
Only around 10 percent of ninth graders correctly estimated the cost of one year at a public four-year college in their state, according to new data.
Students’ forecasts were off by an average of $10,500, and parents by $8,800.
Here’s how to find out what you will actually pay.
Most parents and students are in the dark about how much college costs.
That’s the main takeaway from the latest data in an ongoing study by the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the Education Department’s research division.