Sorry, Seniors: College Admission Rates Are Down This Year

NewsFeed is sure there are plenty of high school seniors already sweating over the arrival of their college acceptance letters (or lack thereof), without us adding this disappointing news: Ivy League admission rates are way down this year.
Student newspapers at Cornell, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton and Harvard are all reporting that as application rates have soared, admission rates have dropped. (Do colleges discriminate against poor whites?)
While some of the school's admission rates don't seem too bad - Cornell's accepted 18% of this year's applicants - many of the Ivies have turned away more than 90% of those who applied. Harvard and Columbia have the most daunting numbers, with 6.2 and 6.4 respective admission rates.
The Atlantic Wire has rounded up what most of the school's have been saying about the acceptance rates and (unsurprisingly) school officials are putting a positive spin on what the low numbers mean: they simply received far more outstanding applications this year.
Which, of course, is an extra ego boost for those who are lucky enough to get that acceptance letter. But for those who don't make the cut, well, there's not much anyone can say to ease the disappointment of not getting into your first choice school. On that note, good luck!

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110401/us_time/httpnewsfeedtimecom20110331sorryseniorscollegeadmissionratesaredownthisyearxidrssfullnationyahoo;_
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Indian talent pool in US waiting to be tapped

Most Indian students in the US plan to return home with a desire to give back to the motherland, offering a vast pool of talent that would bring top-rate higher education to India's young, a new study suggests.

India needs to recruit at least one million new faculty members for its college and universities if it is to meet the government's goal of making higher education available to 20 percent of young people by 2020.

India thus may be able to recruit some of the academic talent it needs from the more than 100,000 Indians currently studying in the US, suggests the study by Rutgers University, Pennsylvania State University and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

The survey of nearly 1,000 Indians who are either pursuing or have completed graduate study in the US found that only eight percent strongly prefer to remain in the US.

A majority, or 53 per cent, of them planned to return home from the United States after a few years of work, while 21 per cent said they were either in India already or were actively looking to return. The rest are undecided.

India's booming economy, better chances to secure a good job, the promise of an affluent lifestyle and being closer to family were the factors fuelling the movement home, the survey said.

The study finds the biggest factors deterring master's, PhD students, and post docs from returning to India are red tape, corruption, and absence of research opportunities, it said.

"The results are surprising and encouraging for Indian universities," said David Finegold, dean of the Rutgers' School of Management and Labor Relations, and one of the study's authors.

"We expected that more students would lean heavily toward remaining in the US. But our results suggest many young academics would be interested in pursuing a faculty career in India, if policymakers can address some of the key issues facing the Indian higher education system."

The study identified four key factors affecting the decision to return to India: Quality of life, career growth opportunities, hurdles like red tape and corruption, and a desire to give back to the motherland.

Just one of these four factors - the desire to give back - is strongly associated with a desire to return to India, it said.

"This study suggests some concrete steps that the government can take to address the large and chronic shortages of qualified faculty in India," said Dr. B. Venkatesh Kumar, a co-author of the study who is a Professor at TISS in Mumbai and visiting Penn State this year as a Humphrey Fellow. 

The authors offer a number of proposals that could help India attract new faculty, including creating a new Teach for India Higher Education fellowship programme to provide two- to three-year teaching positions for recent US PhD graduates. 

This could have the twin benefit of filling faculty shortages in India and helping new PhDs in the US who are struggling with a tight job market caused by cutbacks in public higher education.

Other policy proposals include developing leaders for Indian higher education, improving India's academic talent pipeline and enhancing the quality and transparency of higher education governance,

Also suggested are providing research opportunities for as many faculty as possible, raising the quality of state universities and private colleges, providing government-sponsored graduate fellowships and improving the staffing process in Indian universities.

source:http://www.indiaedunews.net/International/Indian_talent_pool_in_US_waiting_to_be_tapped_13687/

Exeter University becomes the first outside Russell Group to charge maximum fees

Exeter has become the first university outside the Russell Group to announce that it will charge the maximum £9,000 fee for a degree from next year, saying it will need the extra income to meet higher expectations from students.

Exeter, which follows Cambridge and Imperial College London in confirming plans to treble fees, also said it would offer fee waivers or bursaries for students from less well-off backgrounds. Ministers have said the maximum fee should only apply in "exceptional circumstances".

David Allen, Exeter's registrar and deputy chief executive, said: "By setting our fees at the £9,000 level we are able to continue to invest in the student experience, and spend a lot more money to bring in more people from less well-off backgrounds.

"We are talking about having more academic staff, improving the staff-student ratio, more contact hours. What we're doing is to try and give the best possible experience to our students."

Exeter is a member of the 1994 group of smaller research-intensive universities, which includes East Anglia, York and Leicester. Its decision will increase pressure on similar universities to opt for maximum fees to maintain their prestige. Some universities in this group are looking at whether to charge varying fees for different degrees.

Universities minister David Willetts said that institutions would only need to charge £6,000 to cover the costs of arts and humanities students, whose courses are cheaper than science or medicine.

He said: "The maximum allowable charge of £9,000 in 2012/13 would actually represent an increase for them of over 40% even after inflation, as against an increase of 20% or so for the other disciplines."

But Exeter said it would have to raise fees simply to maintain the same quality of teaching. Allen said: "Our own calculations show that we would need a fee of at least £7,000 just to stand still.

"I think you have to bear in mind there will be much higher student expectations, they will expect to see more staff, have better facilities, as more of the onus on paying for their education is coming on to them after graduating."

When fee waivers are taken into account, the average tuition fee would be less than £9,000, the university said. The fee announcement does not cover the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, which is a partnership between Exeter and Plymouth Universities.

The college lecturers' union, the UCU, said that the average fee needed to replace government funding cuts would be £6,863 for universities offering arts and humanities courses to break even. Sally Hunt, the UCU's general secretary, said: "Our own research shows to replace the money he [the government] has cut, the average fee needs to be almost £7,000. The government urgently needs to look again at the severity of its university funding cuts."

Universities could face a change in the law to stop some of them from charging students £9,000 a year if too many institutions are "clustering their charges at the upper end", the government warned last month.

• This article was amended on 2 March 2011. An editing error inserted references to Exeter as outside the top 20 in the Russell Group. This has been corrected.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/mar/02/exeter-university-to-charge-top-fees

DU principals raise problem of absent teachers with VC

 Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University, Mr. Dinesh Singh, convened a meeting with the college principals on Monday. In their meeting with the vice-chancellor, they expressed their concern aboutteachers' absenteeism and the general deterioration of the academic atmosphere in Delhi University.

The VC, in the first of the three meetings, met principals of colleges in north and east Delhi, a meeting which lasted nearly five hours. While the VC reiterated the university's commitment for more transparency in governance, completion of thesemester system at the undergraduate level and improving the infrastructure of colleges, the principals urged administrative intervention to restore the academic atmosphere of the university and its colleges.

A common concern has been that of absenteeism and the university administration has promised to address the issue on an urgent basis.

According to the principal of Kirori Mal College, Bhim Sen Singh, "It is heartening to know that the new VC's immediate concern is to restore the academic atmosphere of the colleges and the university which has been adversely affected due to the recent disruptions. As college principals we also extend our support to the new initiatives he has announced. We also extend our support to the new administration as it is going to complete the implementation of the semester system from July 2011."

Another 25 principals from west Delhi colleges will be interacting with the VC on Tuesday.

source:http://indiaedunews.net/Delhi/DU_principals_raise_problem_of_absent_teachers_with_VC_13527/

A College Opts Out of the Admissions Arms Race

In an era in which universities are expected to draw more and more applicants each year — as if they were Fortune 500 companies being forced to show annual profits — Ursinus College, a liberal arts institution outside of Philadelphia, would seem to have little reason to celebrate this year.

Applicants for this fall’s freshman class have plunged by 1,700 — or nearly a third — when compared with last year at this time.

And yet, Richard DiFeliciantonio, the university’s vice president of enrollment, said in an interview on Monday that the drop was not only welcome but deliberate, after a five-year period in which Ursinus saw its applications nearly triple.

“You know as well as I that those numbers aren’t real,” Mr. DiFeliciantonio said by phone from the school’s campus in Collegeville, Pa. “People count anything that moves as an application. Everyone is going up 10 percent every year for 20 years. It’s absurd.”

“At some point,” he added, “the credibility of those numbers is questionable.”

Mr. DiFeliciantonio readily admits that Ursinus, until this year, was only happy to let itself be swept up in the admissions arms race.

Like a baseball player choosing to bulk up on steroids, Ursinus came to the conclusion in 2005 that it needed to get bigger.

Specifically, the college wanted to increase its freshman class by about 100 — to just under 550 — in part to bring in students who might fill classes in new disciplines like biochemistry, environmental studies and the performing arts.

To do so, Mr. DiFeliciantonio hired a direct-marketing firm from Virginia called Royall and Company, and its initial recommendations were that Ursinus waive its $50 application fee and its essay requirement. The results were immediate: in one year, from 2005 to 2006, applications to Ursinus more than doubled, to 4,413, from 1,725. Two years later, they grew yet again, by another 40 percent, to 6,179.

To the outside world, Ursinus was suddenly red-hot in popularity. While emphasizing that Royall had done exactly what Ursinus had asked it to do, Mr. DiFeliciantonio said he had become increasingly uneasy with the shaky foundation on which the school’s growth was built.

Mr. DiFeliciantonio’s main concern was that every year Ursinus received more of Royall’s “fast track” applications and offered admission to more applicants, but the percentage who accepted the offer — known as the yield — went down steadily. For example, in 2005, the year before it brought on Royall, the yield was about 30 percent — meaning that of the 1,290 high school seniors offered admission, about 420 enrolled.

But by last year, the yield figure had plunged to 13.5 percent.

“That meant almost 87 percent we admitted weren’t going to come,” Mr. DiFelciantonio said.

So how did Ursinus manage to consciously slim down this year?

For one thing, it ended its relationship with Royall last spring. For another, it restored the essay questions to its application, including one that asked applicants to respond to the Mark Twain quotation, “Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.” Applicants were also required this year to submit a high school term paper graded by one of their teachers — the better for Ursinus to verify that the applicant’s writing elsewhere in the application was genuine.

In other words, Ursinus has become that rare college that has made it harder for students to apply — and thus ensuring that those who submit applications are more likely to consider attending if accepted.

Sometimes when a college’s stream of applications slows, its ranking can suffer in U.S. News, the publication that drives at least some of the arms-race mentality. Ursinus says its ranking never really ticked up much during its recent boom — it has tended to hover around No. 70 among national liberal arts institutions, Mr. DiFelicantonio said — but it is now willing to take a hit in those standings, if that means saving the time of applicants and admissions officers alike.

“We’ve taken a bit of a leap,” said Mr. DiFeliciantonio, adding that he was unaware of another college that had taken a similar step, at least not in recent years. “I hope our yield pops up, ideally to 16-17 percent. If it does, we’ll have a class of about 460.”

“And that,” he added, “would be just fine.”

source:http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/ursinus/?ref=education

A College Opts Out of the Admissions Arms Race

In an era in which universities are expected to draw more and more applicants each year — as if they were Fortune 500 companies being forced to show annual profits — Ursinus College, a liberal arts institution outside of Philadelphia, would seem to have little reason to celebrate this year.

Applicants for this fall’s freshman class have plunged by 1,700 — or nearly a third — when compared with last year at this time.

And yet, Richard DiFeliciantonio, the university’s vice president of enrollment, said in an interview on Monday that the drop was not only welcome but deliberate, after a five-year period in which Ursinus saw its applications nearly triple.

“You know as well as I that those numbers aren’t real,” Mr. DiFeliciantonio said by phone from the school’s campus in Collegeville, Pa. “People count anything that moves as an application. Everyone is going up 10 percent every year for 20 years. It’s absurd.”

“At some point,” he added, “the credibility of those numbers is questionable.”

Mr. DiFeliciantonio readily admits that Ursinus, until this year, was only happy to let itself be swept up in the admissions arms race.

Like a baseball player choosing to bulk up on steroids, Ursinus came to the conclusion in 2005 that it needed to get bigger.

Specifically, the college wanted to increase its freshman class by about 100 — to just under 550 — in part to bring in students who might fill classes in new disciplines like biochemistry, environmental studies and the performing arts.

To do so, Mr. DiFeliciantonio hired a direct-marketing firm from Virginia called Royall and Company, and its initial recommendations were that Ursinus waive its $50 application fee and its essay requirement. The results were immediate: in one year, from 2005 to 2006, applications to Ursinus more than doubled, to 4,413, from 1,725. Two years later, they grew yet again, by another 40 percent, to 6,179.

To the outside world, Ursinus was suddenly red-hot in popularity. While emphasizing that Royall had done exactly what Ursinus had asked it to do, Mr. DiFeliciantonio said he had become increasingly uneasy with the shaky foundation on which the school’s growth was built.

Mr. DiFeliciantonio’s main concern was that every year Ursinus received more of Royall’s “fast track” applications and offered admission to more applicants, but the percentage who accepted the offer — known as the yield — went down steadily. For example, in 2005, the year before it brought on Royall, the yield was about 30 percent — meaning that of the 1,290 high school seniors offered admission, about 420 enrolled.

But by last year, the yield figure had plunged to 13.5 percent.

“That meant almost 87 percent we admitted weren’t going to come,” Mr. DiFelciantonio said.

So how did Ursinus manage to consciously slim down this year?

For one thing, it ended its relationship with Royall last spring. For another, it restored the essay questions to its application, including one that asked applicants to respond to the Mark Twain quotation, “Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.” Applicants were also required this year to submit a high school term paper graded by one of their teachers — the better for Ursinus to verify that the applicant’s writing elsewhere in the application was genuine.

In other words, Ursinus has become that rare college that has made it harder for students to apply — and thus ensuring that those who submit applications are more likely to consider attending if accepted.

Sometimes when a college’s stream of applications slows, its ranking can suffer in U.S. News, the publication that drives at least some of the arms-race mentality. Ursinus says its ranking never really ticked up much during its recent boom — it has tended to hover around No. 70 among national liberal arts institutions, Mr. DiFelicantonio said — but it is now willing to take a hit in those standings, if that means saving the time of applicants and admissions officers alike.

“We’ve taken a bit of a leap,” said Mr. DiFeliciantonio, adding that he was unaware of another college that had taken a similar step, at least not in recent years. “I hope our yield pops up, ideally to 16-17 percent. If it does, we’ll have a class of about 460.”

“And that,” he added, “would be just fine.”

source:http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/ursinus/?ref=education

International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) Exam: 2011

International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) Exam: 2011

About IMO Exam :

The IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad) is a means to identify and encourage the mathematical creativity of children in schools across India and abroad. 

Benefits from IMO:

• Every participant of Level I is awarded a Certificate of Participation. Toppers are awarded merit certificate.Students get a chance to be assessed at international level and are awarded performance-based rankings.
• Students gain confidence to contest at international level in a world where from admission to elite courses to selection for choice jobs is becoming more and more competitive .
• The spirit of competition and sense of recognition inspire students to excel in the chosen field of study and set higher goals.
• Top three students from each class are awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.
• The top 500 winners (class-wise) are endowed with cash prizes and scholarships, courtesy of the official sponsor.
• Every participant who scores 50% or more is awarded a Certificate of Participation. Toppers are awarded merit certificate.
• School/College of each medal winning participant is awarded the ‘Intellect Trophy’ for having groomed and nurtured the talent.
• The concept of comprehensive MQ (Math Quotient) report highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the participant.
• A comprehensive SMQ (School Math Quotient) report highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the school vis-à-vis international performance to enable the schools to improve the quality and level of mathematics education at their end.

IMO Exam Date : December, 2011

Website: www.sofworld.org

Important Links:

•  IMO Syllabus
  Click Here For More Details
  Courtesy: sofworld.org