Covid-19 has exerted catastrophic impact on the world’s economy, consequently decreasing the quality of life across the U.S. While the economic downturn casts ominous shadow over the lives and the future of many college students, it has especially exacerbated the already dwindling livelihood of students with food insecurity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” And that is exactly what many students in the U.S. are experiencing. According to the #RealCollege survey published early last year by The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, 29 percent of four-year college students and 38 percent of two-year college students faced difficulties with food insecurity in fall 2020. The problem is more prevalent among the students of color. The survey shows that 70 percent of Black students experienced food and housing insecurity compared to 54 percent among White students. It is also reported in the survey that students who face basic needs insecurity are more likely to suffer from depression and high stress level, which can significantly affect their quality of life and academic performance. However, students are not the only population on campus affected by food insecurity; faculty and staff members are also having uncertain access to adequate amount of food. According to a 2020 report by the American Federation of Teachers, 26 percent of adjunct faculties reported having food insecurity or having to reduce the quality of food they consume.

What Colleges are Doing to Help Food Insecurity

Establishing Food Pantries

Colleges are taking different measures to tackle food insecurity problem on their campuses. Some are providing fresh groceries, while the others are distributing nonperishables or frozen food items to students, faculty, and staff. For instance, the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNC Asheville) not only gives out nonperishable food and fresh vegetable from the campus garden, but also teaches students how to search for food in nature. However, the foraging education program has not yet reopened since the pandemic started. On the other hand, Saint Xavier University (SXU) in Illinois implemented Champ’s Kitchen, a campus food pantry, to alleviate food insecurity problem at the school. Instead of handing out food to those in need of food, the school allowed students, faculty, staff, and their families to freely access the food pantry. Along with food, it also offers nonperishable products, such as toiletries and feminine hygiene.

Unused Meal Plan Donations

Students with meal plans frequently have meal swipes left at the end of a semester. As there are often limits on how many left-over meal plans can roll over to the following semester, allowing students to donate their extra meal is an efficient way to provide meals to hungry students. Swipe Out Hunger, a nonprofit organization working to end student hunger, for example, partners with colleges across the U.S. to distribute unused meal swipes to students experiencing food insecurity. [caption id="attachment_1556" align="aligncenter" width="624"] Since 2021, the program is reaching out to greater number of students in need of food. Photo: United States Department of Agriculture[/caption]

SNAP and the Federal Assistance

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a federal social welfare program that provides eligible low-income individuals or households with a card to purchase eligible food each month at authorized retail food stores. Although the program has an admirable intention, most college students did not qualify under the original eligibility requirement. However, the Consolidated Appropriations Act in 2021 changed the program’s guidelines to allow work-study eligible students and those with zero expected family contributions to qualify for SNAP. To make SNAP even more accessible to students, Oregon State University (OSU) created a program called, SNAP Sign-Up Support, providing a platform where students can assist their peers with the application process. Nicole Hindes, director of the Human Service Resource Center at OSU, says, "When a student is helping another student with a SNAP application, it sometimes feels like it's your friend helping you. That makes it more accessible and feel lower-stakes. We are seeing the power of relationships, connections, and community."

How to Encourage Students to Seek Help

One of the challenges with addressing food insecurity is hesitancy by students to seek help, fearing to be judged by peers. Colleges can help reduce such hesitancy by creating a comfortable campus environment in which students with food insecurity can feel more welcomed and less lonely. Rachel Sumekh, founder and CEO of Swipe Out Hunger, suggests schools to change the wordings of campus advertisements from “are you hungry, come to this location” to “last week, two out of three students came by the food pantry to receive free food.” “The best thing we can do to address stigma is change the culture on campus to be representative [of all students]," she says.   Read More: The Impact of the Pandemic on U.S. Colleges

As Russia continues to push into Ukraine, sanctions against Russia are starting to cripple its economy and higher education.

As of early April, the European Commission (EC), the executive branch of the European Union (EU), has decided to cease all ongoing grant agreements to Russian research and education entities as a part of the fifth package of sanctions. It is a stronger version of its previous restrictive measures announced in March, which targeted Russian educational organization only under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe — the EU’s key funding program for research and innovation. Now, the sanction excludes Russian public entities’ current and future participation not only in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe but also in the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and Erasmus+, pan-European college credit sharing system. The EC also made clear in its press release that it will restrict any non-financial support, including knowledge transfers. These new measures were introduced following the discovery of Russia’s possible heinous war crimes in Bucha, the town outside of Kyiv. On the same day that new sanctions were announced, Russian military carried out a missile attack on a train station in Kramatorsk killing at least 50 civilians and injuring 98, showing that these measures weren’t unwarranted. Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said in the press release by the EC, “Russia's military aggression against Ukraine is an attack on freedom, democracy and self-determination, on which cultural expression, academic and scientific freedom and scientific cooperation are based.” She also stated that the Commission is strongly committed to ensure Ukraine’s undisturbed participation in Horizon Europe and Euratom Research and Training programs. [caption id="attachment_2070" align="alignnone" width="2560"] To this date, 412 bodies have been found in Bucha, Ukraine. Of those, the UN human rights officers documented at least 50 unlawful killings of civilians, including by summary execution. President Zelensky of Ukraine visited the city on April 4, 2022. Photo: Oleksandr Ratushniak/ Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0[/caption] There are currently no Russian entities participating in ongoing projects under Horizon Europe, though there had been grant agreement preparations by four Russian research organizations, which the Commission already suspended. Meanwhile, there are a few ongoing projects in which Russian entities are participating under Horizon 2020, the predecessor of Horizon Europe program. In detail, there are 78 Russian organizations taking part in 86 active projects, and of those, 29 Russian entities in 18 projects have been awarded €12.6 million as of March 7 this year. Since then, the Commission has suspended any further payment to Russian entities under existing contracts. For instance, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are a set of Europe’s most prestigious research and innovation fellowships for doctoral education and postdoctoral training of researchers. However, since the funding program is also a part of Horizon Europe, Russian public bodies will be removed from the list of participants. Nevertheless, the EC did not completely shut down academic collaboration with Russia. While it did successfully isolate Russian institutions directly managed by the Kremlin, the Commission left doors open for the blameless Russian individuals. In an official statement, Commissioner Gabriel said that grants through MSCA fellowships to Russian individuals will “in principle remain possible,” with a thorough screening based on the EU’s sanctions list. Erasmus+ for Russia has a similar case; the aggressor nation’s public entities will not be permitted to participate, while its individuals will remain eligible to benefit from the program. In addition, the Commission explicitly states that Russian youth and civil society organizations may also remain in Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps — a part of volunteering projects under the program. Although Russia has never been a part of the EU, its education entitles have been allowed to participate in Erasmus program since 2014.Ever since its acceptance, the Russian Federation has significantly benefited its education sector and citizens. In a 2020 brochure, the National Erasmus+ Office in Russia celebrates the program’s success in further developing the higher education in Russia. Specifically, the program has successfully implemented 49 capacities building projects, 128 Jean Monnet Actions projects (initiative under Erasmus to stimulate teaching and research), and international credit mobility projects (ICM) for 5,721 people from EU to Russia and 7,916 people from Russia to EU over the years until 2020. However, now with the Russia’s protracted invasion of Ukraine, collaboration and funding from the EU to Russian public entities and bodies have essential been halted. While Russian individuals, youth, and civil society organizations can still receive grants and support from the EU programs, they will have to go through a thorough screening process. This is a major setback for Russian higher education.   Read More: Universities Should Not Cut Communication With Russia

The majority of top colleges in the U.S. have announced their acceptance rate for the class of 2026. The Ivy League schools have always been difficult to get into, but the coronavirus pandemic has made admission considerably more difficult for applicants. In addition, several U.S. universities have made SAT or ACT scores optional over the last two years, resulting in a surge in applications and record-low acceptance rates. On the last day of March, the eight Ivy League schools — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale — released their admission statistics, with several reporting the lowest acceptance rates in their history. According to The Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s admission recorded the lowest acceptance rate of 3.19 percent since it was founded in 1636, as a record number of candidates applied in the 2021-22 admission cycle. Yale and Brown also announced historic low acceptance rates, while Columbia’s acceptance rate remained constant at the previous year’s record low of 3.7 percent. Although Dartmouth reported that its acceptance rate slightly rose to 6.24 percent, it is still among the lowest in the school’s history. However, it is not just these prestigious schools that are more difficult to get into than ever before. Many schools in the U.S. also reported record-low acceptance rates this year after adopting the test-optional policy, which allowed students to apply even without an SAT or ACT score. Michelle McAnaney, president of college consulting firm The College Spy, told CBS, “Students who normally would self-select out of the admissions pool — they would look at the average SAT score and not apply — those kids are applying.” [caption id="attachment_1547" align="aligncenter" width="696"] College applicants across the U.S. are experiencing a steep increase in competition. Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel / Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0[/caption] Many independent educational consultants, according to McAnaney, noticed a greater percentage of waitlisted candidates this year, possibly indicating that institutions are having trouble estimating their yield rate — the percentage of accepted students who actually matriculate to the school. She further noted that the trend, of selective schools becoming even more selective, has also been reported by non-Ivy League schools. For instance, Rice University in Texas and Tufts University in Massachusetts announced record-low acceptance rates of 8.56 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Future of test-optional policies

After trying test-optional policies during the peaks of the pandemic, MIT recently announced that it will require SAT or ACT scores again. The institution noted that the tests help the admissions to better evaluate applicants’ academic ability. Stu Schmill, the dean of admissions at MIT, elaborated on the school’s decision. He wrote in his blog, “[The tests] help us identify socioeconomically disadvantaged students who lack access to advanced coursework or other enrichment opportunities that would otherwise demonstrate their readiness for MIT.” He believes that the test requirement provides a “more equitable and transparent” admission process than test-optional policies. In the meantime, other colleges, such as Boston University, are continuing test-optional policies or eliminating exams entirely from the admission process. For instance, starting last year, all 10 schools under the University of California system stopped accepting standardized test scores. The university system announced in February of this year that it had received a record number of applications for the 2022-2023 academic year, with a substantial increase in socioeconomic diversity. Although the college admission process has become increasingly competitive for students, McAnaney pointed out that most universities in the U.S. still accept the majority of applicants. She noted that the problem exacerbated as “people are looking at the rankings” and subsequently applying to only those at the top 30 to 50 colleges. She said, "If you look outside them, there are wonderful hidden gems." Read more: How Will Test-Optional Affect Students?

Recently, higher education institutions across the U.S. have eased Covid testing requirements for the vaccinated population on campus. Such decisions show the trend in the education sector to move away from the previously widespread surveillance testing policies at colleges and universities. While the move may mean less inconvenience to students and faculties, it can also lead to losing reliable sources of transmission data for public health experts.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, surveillance Covid testing is mostly conducted to “gain information at a population level, rather than an individual level,” possibly using random sampling on parts of a specific population to see the infection trend. On the other hand, screening and diagnostic testing for Covid-19 are both looking for an occurrence at the individual level; screening testing is to check an individual even when there is no reason to suspect infection, while diagnostic testing is carried out with a particular reason to suspect infection.

Among the prominent U.S. universities,  Cornell, Duke, Stanford, and the University of Southern California, have already started to forgo regular testing requirements for the fully vaccinated people in their communities since mid- to late February of this year.

Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist and adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, said that the institutions such as the aforementioned universities used to provide a “rich environment” to study and analyze the transmission of the coronavirus in shared living spaces.

Yet, these colleges will continue to require unvaccinated population on campus — though very small in numbers due to vaccine mandate policies — to be tested on a regular basis. Experts warn that limiting surveillance Covid testing even to that group will make it more difficult to track the transmission of the virus, especially the highly contagious Omicron subvariant.

For instance, Cornell University believes that its surveillance testing policy, extensively testing even the fully vaccinated students every week, led to an early discovery of the Omicron variant’s rapid spread on campus last December. As of today, Cornell University reports that 97 percent of its students and 95 percent of its employees are fully vaccinated, with 92 percent of each group having received a booster shot.

A couple of months later in this February, the institution announced that it is “confident that frequent and regular testing of [asymptomatic], vaccinated-and-boosted individuals is no longer necessary to adequately monitor our community.” In the following month, the school also relaxed its on-campus mask policy.

However, after easing the mask policy in March, Cornell saw another spike in infection numbers, which can be considered to be second in intensity to its previous Omicron wave in December. The university had to move final exams online and cancel all university-sponsored events. Officials at the institution commented on March 23 that the increase in infection rate was beyond their predictions.

It’s becoming more difficult to get an accurate count of active cases on campus. The school said that most infection cases are currently detected through diagnostic testing of people with symptoms, implying that asymptomatic cases — which can only be found through surveillance testing — would have gone unrecorded. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who carry enough coronavirus in their bodies to test positive but without symptoms can still spread the virus to others.

Despite this, some public health experts believe that advances in wastewater surveillance systems, accessible rapid tests, and widespread vaccination may prevent substantial variation in the virus, which in turn supports the universities’ strategy to step away from surveillance testing.

Carl Bergstrom, a biology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and a consultant for the health technology company Color which conducts Covid testing, said, “It could easily be true that proactive testing was a useful thing for them to have done, and that they don’t need it now.”

Universities in the U.S. are faced with the sustainability issue of extensive surveillance testing, for it requires a lot of human and physical resources. Judy Platt, chief health officer at Boston University, said that the school’s own laboratory has handled more than two million tests with significant expenses since August 2020. The university will no longer conduct Covid testing for the asymptomatics after May 23.

However, many of the most vulnerable population on campus such as those who could not receive vaccination due to medical reasons feel unprotected and unsafe from their university’s decision to drop extensive testing, especially in conjunction with the relaxation of mask mandates.

Rebecca Harrison, a doctoral candidate who served on Cornell’s initial reopening committee in 2020 and is immunocompromised, referred the university’s decision to accept some level of infection numbers on campus as a “slap in the face.” She expressed her dissatisfaction especially with the university president’s remark during a January meeting that the spread of the virus among the vaccinated at the school is inevitable.

“We’re giving politicians justification for the decisions they’re making […] and that hurts everyone,” Ms. Harrison said of universities’ retraction of surveillance testing policy.

Read More: MBAs in the U.S. Mandate Covid-19 Vaccination

A few months ago in 2021, an ex-leader of Temple University’s business school was convicted of using fake data to artificially raise the school’s ranking. Moshe Porat, who headed Temple’s Fox School of Business and Management for 22 years until 2018, colluded with fellow employees to send false data to U.S. News and World Report, a well-known source for American college rankings. The manipulated data included the number of students sending in test scores, grades, and résumé. U.S. News subsequently listed the institution’s online business program as the top ranking for four consecutive years until 2018. In addition, Temple’s part-time MBA rose to seventh place in the publication’s rankings in 2017 based on false information. Porat heavily advertised these rankings to attract more students and donations, according to prosecuting U.S. Government lawyers. They added that these falsely inflated rankings led directly to millions in additional donations as well as significant growth in student numbers. Porat was eventually found guilty of falsifying data “to defraud the rankings system, potential students, and donors” on November 29th of last year.

A fall in ranking

Following the news report on the scandal, the student numbers enrolled in the online MBA at Temple fell dramatically to slightly over one hundred. As recently as 2017, the course had attracted over 330 students, reports NBC News. After a brief suspension of Temple’s online MBA program from its rankings, U.S. News has now relisted the program, ranking it 105th. Ibrahim Fetahi, a former student of the school’s online MBA, said the impressive ranking was what drew him to the program. He expressed his troubled feelings, “I will always have a scar on my résumé.” However, it was reported that one of the lawyers defending Porat had argued the school, rather than Porat, was to be charged with the crime. During the trial, the lawyer said that the institution was obsessed with rankings to the point where it trained its employees on how to perform better in the ranking systems. [caption id="attachment_1786" align="alignnone" width="1500"] According to Inside Higher Ed, several other well-known universities such as Tulane University above have also previously falsified their data. Photo: Aendelman / Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0[/caption]

A widespread practice

In fact, Temple is far from being the only institution accused of such malpractice. Based on the Inside Higher Ed’s publication, Villanova University’s law school, Tulane University’s business school, Claremont McKenna College, and Bucknell University have also falsified their data. Nevertheless, the case for Temple is unique in that Porat is thought to be the first leader of an institution to be prosecuted and found guilty by the court for such malpractice. Robert Morse, responsible for assessing data received by U.S. News, said that schools’ accurate data reporting is essential for the rankings. He also made a firm statement that if schools send false information which leads to an unfairly “inflated rank,” the company will remove responsible institutions from the rankings. “U.S. News takes cases of misreporting seriously. Our mission is to provide students with accurate, in-depth data to help them in their school search,” he added.

Weighing up college rankings 

The Temple scandal raises two salient questions: are rankings to be trusted? And to what extent should students use the rankings in their decision-making to choose a college? Francie Diep has written several times on college ranking systems for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Diep commented that rankings measure only a few factors while leaving out many other considerable factors that may be important for each student. She suggested students consider wider aspects of colleges according to their priorities and needs. Tuition fees, a feeling of belonging, or the employment outcome of the graduates, she added, are often priorities for families but are not represented in college rankings. Advising both American and international students in choosing the best college to attend, Katie Burns acts as a college advisor at IvyWise. Katie Burns, a college adviser at IvyWise, described a difference in decision-making between American and international students when choosing their schools to attend. She said international students frequently opt for colleges that have international recognition, while American students are more likely to consider colleges that best accommodate their priorities. She once again emphasized, “The ranking systems are one tool, but they are not the end-all, be-all of your success. You need to have your own benchmark and system for evaluating what’s a good fit for you.”   Read More: Race-conscious College Admissions Policies at Risk

Most universities in Korea offer courses in English. And they offer Korean language and culture courses as well. But choosing which one to attend is a difficult choice. Their capital city, Seoul, has around 40 universities. Your university experience vary widely from attending one or the other.

What Major are you going for?

[caption id="attachment_698" align="alignnone" width="2560"] An arieal view of Seoul National University[/caption] There are numerous universities in South Korea. Knowing which university teaches your subject the best is crucial for academic career. The best university in South Korea, Seoul National University (SNU), teaches almost every subject and ranked #1 in South Korea according to US news. There are other excellent options besides SNU, such as the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Becaues it is considered the finest place to study engineering and science in South Korea, KAIST is one of the leading universities in technological advancements South Korea. Its alumni are highly sucessful, like Rim Ji-Hoon, who was ranked No.1 in “2017 Korea’s Best CEO”.

Location of the University

The location of the university is also one of the important factors to have a positive university experience. SNU is located in the heart of Seoul. Seoul has a convenient public transportation system and a large international community. Because of that, Seoul is an ideal city for an international student to study in. Also, Seoul is home to nine out of the 10 best universities in South Korea, giving you an abundance of choice in which university to attend. [caption id="attachment_493" align="alignnone" width="2560"] KAIST is located two hours from Seoul but considered the best university in Korea to study sciene and technology.[/caption] One notable univeristy outside of Seoul would be KAIST. KAIST is located two hours away from Seoul in Daejeon, making it one of the few universities that is internationally recognized to be located outside of Seoul. Daejeon, although not as populated or modernized like Seoul, has numerous entertainment districts and a large international population. Read More; Problem with Teaching Chinese Politics

The popularity of the University of California (UC) is blooming. According to the data released by the university system, the number of applicants for the first-year fall admissions has hit its peak for two years in a row. An increase in applicants is in part due to a few changes the system has made: greater online outreach to students and elimination of standardized test requirements. As a result, UC’s first-year applicant number reached the highest in its history with remarkable diversity. Although the university received the highest volume of applicants despite the pandemic, there was a drop of 12.6 percent in transfer applications across the entire UC campuses. The drop mirrors the declining trend in community college enrollment over two straight years as students choose job opportunities over education at local two-year colleges. Since population decline accounts for only some of the decrease in the community college enrollment number, there is a growing concern about the fate of those institutions. UC has received 210,840 first-year applications with more applicants from California, other states, and overseas. The largest pool of applications is from California with 132,337 applicants, which comprises 38 percent Latinos, 31 percent Asian Americans, 21 percent white applicants, 7 percent Black students, 1 percent Native Americans, and a fractional percent of Pacific Islanders. According to UC president Michael Drake, the University of California is a set of attractive institutions for those seeking higher education. “We are grateful to see a range of prospective students wanting to join UC, especially from a minority background, and we are seeing more of it,” he said. As Drake mentioned, UC is receiving a more diverse group of students into their campuses. An increase in applications from Black students is especially noticeable, growing at the fastest rate of 25 percent for the past two years among all minority groups. The number far surpasses the increase rate of 17 percent for other racial groups, such as white, Latino, and Asian Americans.

Fierce Competition for UC

[caption id="attachment_2099" align="alignnone" width="2560"] UCLA became the most sought-after university in the U.S., receiving 149,779 applications. Photo: UCLA Newsroom[/caption] The fame of UCLA is attracting students with higher competency and stronger credentials. The number of UCLA applicants, who finished high school in the top 9 percent of their class, has increased by over 32 percent. Despite the skyrocketing competition for UCLA admissions, the school saw the largest number of applications in the U.S. with 149,779 applicants. Responding to the historic high demand, Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, vice provost for enrollment management at UCLA, announced that the school will accept more in-state students this fall. Similarly, there are movements toward accepting more students at other UC schools. California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislators amended the state budget bill to induce UCLA, UC Berkeley (UCB), and UC San Diego (UCSD) to accept more in-state students in place of the out-of-state applicants, by filling in the loss of the higher tuition paid by nonresident students. It is expected that the amendment will allow approximately 900 more California students to enroll. The 2022-23 budget proposal by Newsom also contains funding for about 6,200 more in-state students across the UC systems this coming fall. Copeland-Morgan said, "While more applicants means there's greater competition, we are still very excited [...] about the fact that we will be able to offer admission to a larger number of students because our California target is higher.” Last year, UCLA received 84,182 first-year applicants, with only 8,436 California students receiving an offer. Although there will be an increase in California student admissions, she is unaware of the exact figure. Although the application numbers across the U.S. have fallen, it was a different story for UC. Olufemi Ogundele, dean of undergraduate admissions at UCB, said, “Here at Berkeley, we saw even more of an increase than our peers. The diversity of our applicant pool continues to be strong, and we remain a top choice for incredibly talented scholars.” The school saw an increase of 13.6 percent in applicant numbers, with 40 percent of resident applications from a low-income background, first-generation college seekers, or underrepresented minority groups. [caption id="attachment_2100" align="alignnone" width="700"] UC Berkeley is facing a legal challenge by a group of Berkeley residents. The outcome can leave the school with 3,050 fewer enrollment openings. Photo: UC Berkeley[/caption] However, Berkeley is currently faced with a lawsuit by a group of Berkeley residents accusing the school of failing to provide enough on-campus housing to its increasing number of non-California students. Although a bill was passed to give the university some time to comply with the law, the legal quarrel has not concluded yet. If UCB fails to make changes in accordance with the law of the state, it will end up with 3,050 fewer seats for incoming first-year and transfer students than originally planned for fall 2022. In fact, the glorious story of UC has begun just last year. UC had experienced a declining number of applications for two years in a row in 2019 and 2020, which the experts believed to be reflective of plummeting birth rates and fewer high school graduates nationwide. However, the trend drastically shifted to the opposite with the record-breaking number of applicants in 2021, following the university system’s decision to eliminate ACT and SAT scores for admissions. UC admission staffs also credit their strategy to expand on online recruiting efforts for their two consecutive years of admission outcomes.

Shifting to Online

For example. UC Irvine (UCI) has reaped the benefits of its effort to utilize online recruiting — it has received applications from 57 out of 58 counties in California, the broadest coverage of its residing state. Dale Leaman, executive director of undergraduate admissions at UCI, underlined the difficulty of recruiting prospective students in rural regions in the past. Namely, Irvine had previously been put in a disadvantaged position compared to local universities to attend college fairs in a rural location. He said, "A virtual environment, where even the local colleges are virtual, evens the playing field for everybody and we really were able to take advantage of that.” [caption id="attachment_2101" align="alignnone" width="2000"] UC Irvine has made successful efforts to recruit prospective students online, receiving applications from 57 out of 58 counties in California. Photo UC Irvine[/caption] The positive feedback of schools’ efforts to increase online outreach to students is felt at other UC campuses. UCSD experienced a more than 10 percent increase in first-year applications compared to the previous year, drawing the most in-state applicants after UCLA. While UC Santa Barbara attracted the most white applicants, UCLA received the highest number of applications from Latino and Black students. Irvine also saw the largest number of first-generation college applicants from California and Asian American students. Meanwhile, the impact of the pandemic is sweeping the admission process across the country. According to Leaman at UCI, a greater number of applicants this cycle submitted transcripts with more pass or no pass marks instead of traditional letter grades. He advised transfer students to thoroughly check admission requirements for certain majors, especially on what courses must present letter grades to be considered for admission. Jim Rawlins, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management at UC San Diego, elaborated on the school’s comprehensive application review process to take challenges posed by the pandemic into account. He said, "This year we would expect to include the impact of the pandemic on applicants — from access to technology for online learning to caring for family members, the challenge of maintaining extracurricular activities and everything in between."   Read More: Covid Brings All-time Low Acceptance Rates

College ranking has been around for nearly 30 years. While it may be controversial in its usefulness, it is undoubtful to ignore its influence over current society. The first college rankings were established in 1995, where it was merely a statistic and did not receive any significant recognition by prospective students. However, the demand and the popularity of college ranking have been steadily growing for the last two decades. It was shown that over 60 percent of prospective students take college ranking as a reference when deciding which college to enroll in.

College Ranking in a Nutshell

College is expensive and time-consuming. It is often forgotten that college is a significant investment in people's lives. It is crucial to know which college offers the most suitable course for prospective students and college ranking is a tool to help that choice. It is essential to know if the investment made in the college will be worthwhile. These factors highlight the higher demand on the college ranking where the college is getting more expensive over time. The number of colleges in the US is more than we could count with our fingers. The diverse range of colleges means comparison needs to be more precise and standardized. Prospective students want to know the pros and cons of a particular college where they will invest their money and time. [caption id="attachment_461" align="alignnone" width="599"] QS World University Rankings is one of many university ranking websites.[/caption] Another factor that allowed the growth of college ranking is the technological advancement in accessing information. It is simple to seek information on practically anything in our daily lives, from picking clothes online to getting a financial loan. The importance of each data information varies. Finding information about the college is considered high in the importance spectrum as it is a big decision. From this, it is understandable why college ranking has been more critical than ever. Easier accessibility of information through data transparency and information age made prospective students consider college ranking conveniently.

Why College Ranking is Favored

College ranking is becoming trustworthy and influential despite the critics' criticism for its forced seniority and possible flaws. A study conducted by high school students showed that over two-thirds of students consider college ranking. Students believe college ranking helps them find the most appropriate college for them because the ranking underlines the characteristics of each different school. For example, if a student has listed out several colleges to decide where to enroll, college ranking helps the students determine the difference between these colleges on one platform. Tops schools require detailed comparison, and hence students with higher SAT scores of over 1300 were shown to take college ranking more predominantly into account, according to the survey. [caption id="attachment_467" align="alignnone" width="2560"] U.S. News is also one of the popular options to look at college rankings.[/caption] Although college ranking has become the primary source to compare colleges, many students consider information from the U.S. News & World Report to be uttermost credible and dependable. However, this trend is slowly fading and more and more students have considered college ranking a higher priority over the last decade.

College Ranking is Not Perfect

College ranking is consistent. It can help prospective students find out about different colleges' strengths. One college might possess strong social life while another college might focus on being environmentally friendly. Often the information of the colleges is not all listed in the national university section and must be relied on the data provided through college ranking. However, it is essential to understand how to utilize college ranking appropriately. College ranking must be utilized as a side tip sheet rather than the primary decisive factor. A college listed higher in the ranking does not guarantee it is a better college for prospective students. Being at the highest-ranking college might not be the best career path, depending on an individual's background, interest, and career goals.   Read More: Mistakes International Students Make

Tuition has risen as colleges have increased their costs in order to take advantage of additional government subsidies. Has this been explained to President Joe Biden? In his budget, he proposes doubling the federal Pell Grants, raising tuition even more. The administration’s solution is to raise the maximum Pell Grant from $6,495 to $8,670 next year, with the goal of doubling it within ten years. “Pell Grants have been the foundation of low- and moderate-income students’ financial aid for decades,” the Department of Education budget says, “however, the value has diminished as college costs continue to rise.” Pell Grants were established as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society to assist the students in most need of support. However, about 40% of undergraduates currently qualify for Pell Grants, and with the maximum amount, the grant can cover the average cost of community college in-state tuition ($3,730). With the Biden administration’s help, many public four-year universities’ average in-state tuition ($9,340) would be free as well. The Pell Grant expansion plan is likely to cost $229 billion next ten years, more than twice as much as his plan to make community colleges free for students. This would bring a huge fortune to the higher-education with no severe restrictions. The subsidies are paid regardless of how well students perform, resulting in colleges having little incentive to raise graduation rates. About 62 percent of Pell Grant recipients do not or cannot finish their degrees in eight years, the longest federal data can track. In other words, more than two-thirds of $229 billion could be spent in a highly inefficient way. Progressives, once again, seem to care more about how much money the government spends than how students actually fare after college graduation. They also believe that students should not be burdened with an unpayable amount of debt. Liberals aim to eliminate college tuition for students first, on top of canceling government loans in the long run. [caption id="attachment_505" align="alignnone" width="696"] With a tremendous amount of debt, many students "start here" but find it extremely hard to "go further."[/caption] Furthermore, the current administration’s financial plan also proposes to make student debt relief tax-free forever. Progressives hope the president to forgive $50,000 of debt for each borrower, but the forgiven loan is subject to federal income tax. Subsequent taxes following the loan forgiveness could immediately overwhelm the student borrowers. That is why the Covid bill last March exempted forgiven student loans from taxation through 2025. Even if the president delivers what Democrats demand, graduate student borrowers will still be indebted with an enormous amount of loans. Many students have signed up for income-based repayment programs upon graduation, which allow them to pay 10% to 15% of their salary for 10 to 20 years and then have their remaining debts erased. However, the tax bills from their discharged loans could be massive. Many people do not earn enough to pay off their principal loan balance as their massive loans accrue interest. The Biden administration intends to bail out these graduate debtors by exempting student debt from income tax for the rest of their lives.   Read More: Financial Pressure and Stress; College student’s Reason for Dropping Out

Experts claim that the poorest and most disadvantaged students will be disproportionately affected by upcoming reforms to university access and funding in the UK.

Reforms to the current student loans system which was announced on February 18th, means that students will pay more over a longer period if they wish to go to university. And those in middle- and low-income brackets will be most strongly affected. In addition, it appears likely that newly raised minimum entrance criteria will further reduce university attendance amongst currently under-represented groups. These changes call in to question the priorities of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the ‘levelling up’ policy which formed the core of his election manifesto in 2019, which supposedly aims at lessening inequalities. Driving these proposals is the notion that the sole rationale for higher education consists of improving employability, when in fact studying at university should not be so narrowly focused. Under the proposed reforms, the period of loan repayment will extend from 30 to 40 years and the earnings threshold for beginning repayments will be lowered. A doubling in the percentage of students able to fully repay their student debt, rising from 23% to 52%, is projected to result from this. Worries regarding the increasing public debt caused by outstanding student loans are inspiring these changes, but the result will likely be a significant impact on poorer students, who are already less likely to obtain higher-paid employment after graduation. In the words of David Robinson at the Education Policy Institute, a think tank, “These policies are likely to result in lower to middle earning graduates paying more than they currently do, while higher earning graduates are likely to pay less,” Given that disadvantaged students are under-represented in good schools, the plan to up the entrance criteria based on English and math standard attained at age 16 will also serve to exacerbate inequalities. These same students are, in addition, more susceptible to the loss of learning caused by the pandemic and subsequent school closures David Robinson says that those affected by the proposals will be those least able to cope with them, “Students from low-income families, black students and those from parts of the North and the West Midlands could be most affected by these changes”, he added. “Many of these students will be applying for university in the next few years will also have experienced considerable learning loss as a result of the pandemic.” [caption id="attachment_440" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The recovery of student numbers in colleges is still in progress.[/caption] A chance has been missed to create a more equitable university finance system, says Sir Peter Lampl, whose organization, the Sutton Trust, advocates against educational inequality. “Minimum entry requirements to access student finance will inevitably impact poorer students the most, as they are less likely to do well at school,”, he elaborated. A view of education as simply the means to higher paid work appears to guide the governments thinking. The higher education minister, Michelle Donelan, recently unveiled a plan to sanction universities providing courses for which 60% of graduates fail to secure high-wage careers or further education, characterizing these courses as ‘low-quality’. Not only does this display a lack of care within government for the students they claim to want to support, it also demonstrates a narrowly focused view of education as simply a means to an end, i.e. better-paid work. While it is common for students to peruse employment rate statistics when choosing a university and course of study, this is far from the only consideration important to their choice. Likewise, giving thought to the likely salary they can expect when graduating from a given course is sensible, but this shouldn’t make or break someone’s decision to pursue a degree. Already an issue, the upshot of this pragmatic view of education will be to reinforce the class divide in non-vocational, creative subjects that typically have less robust employment and salary prospects, with the most deprived becoming even less visible on these courses. A degree should be about so much more than a reductive cost-benefit analysis; it could be said that all education should also be about exploration and discovery, about widening one’s horizons, following passions and realizing potential. Unquestionably, prospective students are right to seek out a course that will add value to their lives, but money is not the only currency to be gained at university.   Read More: Mistakes International Students Make