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Varsityedge.com September 2003 News - Newsletter Homepage
Athletic News on Colleges
The University of Oregon became the first D1 school in the northwest to offer women’s lacrosse. The school will compete in the 2004-05 season and compete in the mountain west lacrosse league with Stanford, California, St. Mary’s, UC Davis, and Denver. The Associated Press reported that only 12 High schools offer women’s lacrosse as a varsity sport, so any lacrosse recruiting in Oregon is and will be done mostly out-of-state.
The Citadel (Charleston SC) announced that it will cut the men’s soccer program, due to budget issues. The men’s golf team was also in danger but managed to save the program one more year by raising 50,000 via an alumni golf tournament and donations to the program.
The University of Missouri, Rolla, announced the elimination of men's golf and men's tennis, effective immediately.
Beginning in the 2004-05 academic year, Ball St. University will reduce the number of sports it sponsors from 22 to 19. Men's cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track will be discontinued. In addition, the university will reduce the budgets and scholarship allocations for men's swimming and diving, and men's volleyball
Odds n’ Ends
The NCAA has released a new graduation rates report. The report tracks student-athletes that entered college full-time as freshman in 1996 and received athletic scholarship money. http://www.ncaa.org/news/2003/20030901/active/4018n01.html
Picked up a good book on college admissions written by some Harvard People in the bookstore last week. I especially enjoyed the section where they said only NCAA Division 1 Schools offer athletic scholarships. I guess they forgot about NAIA, Junior Colleges and oh ya, Division 2 schools. This is what happens when people who have no knowledge of college athletic recruiting try to write about it anyway.
The Ivy Leagues are currently changing the way Student-Athletes are recruited and accepted. They are currently trying to expand the use of the AI or academic index, making it harder for average student-athletes to get accepted, and reducing the number of student-athletes that can be recruited in a given year. When I decipher just what the actual changes will be, I will try to provide some additional information.
Non-Athletic News
Cornell University is now using Palm Pilots to assist visitors to its 750-acre campus. The Palm Pilot recites important information about the school or grounds based on where a visitor is.
Financial News
The College Board, the company that administers that fun SAT test, says that average tuition room and board is over $9,000 at public universities and over $18,000 at private colleges.
Any 529 assets will be counted against you when applying for financial aid. To avoid this, it is possible to have your Grand Parents of your children open the account in their name. This way account assets will not be counted towards financial aid calculations. Having your grandparents open up 529 accounts or send payments directly to college is a great way for them to pass on money to their family without incurring any estate or inheritance taxes and this is becoming a more common practice.
Academic News
There are more than 90 colleges (and growing) that will require a standardized writing test for admission beginning with the entering class of 2006. This writing test will be independent of any ACT/SAT test. Click here for the list.
Stories of the Month
The Moorestown (NJ) school board agreed to a $60,000 settlement from a lawsuit brought on by the schools valedictorian. The valedictorian sued the school after the school asked her to share it with another student. The girl was home schooled due to chronic fatigue syndrome and despite a 4.69 GPA, it was argued that she did not have the rigorous grading system that other students had.
According to a survey by the inspector general of the Defense Department, 12% of women graduating from the Air Force Academy this year reported they were victims of rape or attempted rape while at school.
A college in Maine clipped 100 scholarships to fish and released them in a pond and held a parent/student fishing derby for its students. Only one “scholarship” fish was caught! This gives new meaning to the "one that got away!"
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