“Online University of Phoenix one of world's biggest colleges” plus 2 more |
- Online University of Phoenix one of world's biggest colleges
- 20 Colleges With High Tuition, Low ROI
- Loews Tisch Says It’s Time to Step Up, Save World: Interview
| Online University of Phoenix one of world's biggest colleges Posted: 28 Jun 2010 05:23 AM PDT This article first appeared in The Sunday Enquirer, June 27, 2010. Kristin Spanogians had just started her first class at the University of Phoenix in early 2009 when the moment came. Taking an online class, the West Chester mother of three typed in a comment for class discussion. Then she hesitated. "I thought, 'OK, I need to push this button and post,' " Spanogians recalled. "So I just took a deep breath and posted it. And then all these responses came back." Spanogians is one of nearly 5,000 residents of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to enroll at Phoenix, the online goliath that has become one of the world's largest universities. Early this month, she graduated with her bachelor's degree in business management. Across the country, Phoenix has more than 458,000 students enrolled and more than 538,000 students already graduated. In this region, it has nearly as many students as Xavier University, nearly all of them taking online classes. Phoenix is the biggest of a national wave of for-profit, career-oriented colleges that are transforming the way higher education is delivered. It has national scope and a business model that produced revenue of $977 million and operating profits of $170 million during the first three months of 2010 alone. Its commercials are all over national network television, and its name is on a football stadium in Glendale, Ariz., that houses the NFL's Arizona Cardinals and hosts the Fiesta Bowl every January. It has national deals to provide continuing education for workers at Wal-Mart Stores, Progressive Insurance and other big companies, often billing the employer directly. Phoenix has reached the point where it reports student satisfaction measures and other data in the same programs as big public universities. Like many career colleges, it offers classes one at a time in five-week terms, a schedule that allows students to finish an associate's degree in roughly two years or a bachelor's degree in four years. The grading is based on a standard rubric that defines what material the class will cover. And Phoenix offers free tutoring on its local campuses, in West Chester and Florence, plus online labs 24 hours a day. "That's what students are demanding," said Chris Montagnino, campus director. "The online platform enables us to have as many students as we want." Heather Huber of Lebanon, who has taught psychology, general education and sociology classes at Phoenix for four years, said her application there included a résumé, a group interview and a five-week training course before she got approval to teach. A 1999 graduate of Miami University, Huber said the content in her classes is demanding but the method of delivery is different. "When I was in college, you just kind of submitted a paper and the professors wrote comments on it," she said. "Here, the students know what they're being held accountable for and instructors hold students to those grading rubrics. To me, I find it just as rigorous." Spanogians said students appreciate the flexibility of the online classes and the clear standards they have to meet. With a full-time job at a local credit union, she did most of her work on the weekends, totaling 20 hours a week or more. She had one paper or project due every week and was required to post comments twice a day, four days a week. "I think you have to be more involved (online)," she said. "In a traditional class, you can go to class and not say anything and still know what's going on. In an online class, you have to participate to get that." She first applied to Phoenix after being laid off from her job at an investment advisory firm in 2008. She had looked at the University of Cincinnati but didn't find a program that she could take while continuing to work. She said the recruiter who signed her continued to call her every week during her first class to check on her progress. She has paid for her program with about $14,000 in federal student loans and says without hesitation that it's worth it. "At this point in my life, it's just getting it off my bucket list," Spanogians said. "My boys really challenged me to get it done." Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| 20 Colleges With High Tuition, Low ROI Posted: 28 Jun 2010 07:44 AM PDT  Getty Images Caveat EmptorIn education, as in just about everything else, high price is considered a hallmark of quality, and in many ways it is: If you pay more, you get smaller classes, better teachers, a more prestigious pedigree, and fancier digs. But does high price translate into a lifetime of earning power for college graduates? Not always. To determine what a college degree is worth, PayScale examined its database of 1.4 million pay reports from individuals who used its online pay-comparison tools and calculated a 30-year net return on investment for more than 500 schools. It represents the amount earned by graduates of each school beyond what a typical high school graduate would have earned, after deducting the cost of their education and taking into account the school's six-year graduation rate. We parsed the PayScale data to find schools with above-average costs and below-average return on investment. The result: a group of schools where a college degree will set you back, on average, about $190,000, more than 50 percent above the average for all the schools in the study, but where 30-year net return on investment comes in below $280,000, nearly 30 percent less than the average for all the schools. A few things to keep in mind when reading the slide show: The total cost for each program represents the "sticker price" for a college degree, without deducting financial aid, which many students at these schools receive. There was only one school eliminated from the list—a school whose poor showing was the result of the out-of-state tuition paid by only 8 percent of incoming students. The schools that made the cut are all private institutions that for the most part have excellent six-year graduation rates, including one highly ranked, elite liberal arts college. Finally, ROI is important, but it isn't everything. There's something to be said for making a bundle, but there's also something to be said for getting an excellent education that expands the mind, serves as an introduction to the world of ideas, and instills a lifelong love of learning. The good news: You can get that almost anywhere. Note: The slides that follow present each school's 30-Year Net Return on Investment, 30-Year Net Return for Graduates, and Annualized Net ROI. All are based on self-reported pay data gathered by PayScale through online pay-comparison tools; for the 554 schools in the study, PayScale used pay reports from an average of approximately 1,000 alumni from each school to determine net return. The 30-Year Net Return on Investment is in 2010 dollars and represents the average earnings of a graduate (above those of a high school graduate) after deducting the cost of the degree and adjusting for the school's graduation rate. The 30-Year Net Return for Graduates is the same figure, but assuming a 100 percent graduation rate. Annualized ROI is based on the ratio of the earnings gain from a college degree to the cost of the degree; it takes into account the school's graduation rate and includes wage inflation of 4.3 percent per year. Total cost includes tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies for the number of years it takes most students to graduate from each institution. It is not adjusted for financial aid awards. The graduation rate is the percentage of students who entered in the fall of 2002 and graduated within six years. Although the PayScale study included 554 schools, public schools were ranked twice—once calculating ROI using in-state tuition and again using out-of-state tuition. As a result, there are 852 ranks. The benchmarks shown are averages for all schools in the PayScale study (including both calculations for each of the public schools). ROI data and total cost supplied by PayScale. Annual tuition and fees, average financial aid package, applicants admitted, and most popular majors supplied by the College Board. For the complete ranking and a more detailed description of the methodology, check out our interactive table. Data: PayScale, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, College Board Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Loews Tisch Says It’s Time to Step Up, Save World: Interview Posted: 28 Jun 2010 09:14 PM PDT "When you wake up, you're almost afraid to pick up the paper, turn on the news or go online," says Jonathan Tisch, co-chairman of the board of Loews Corp. and chief executive officer of Loews Hotels. "Your head spins, the challenges are so enormous." We're facing, he says, "economic collapse, looming environmental disaster, crumbling infrastructure, dysfunctional health and educational systems, and festering international tensions." Yet Tisch says there are many reasons for optimism, which he explains in a new book, "Citizen You: Doing Your Part to Change the World." Scion of a public-spirited and philanthropic family -- he gave his alma mater, Tufts University, $40 million in 2006 to fund the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. We spoke over lunch at Bloomberg's New York world headquarters. Lundborg: What has changed? Tisch: In my time, we thought many of the resources were infinite, that we'd always have clean air and running water for everybody. My sense is that people who are growing up now, the millennials, know there are challenges and want to do something about them. This generation understands its responsibilities and is thinking about social change in a new way. The Next Level Lundborg: You say old-style charities, such as soup kitchens, might have addressed the symptoms, but didn't get at the root cause. Tisch: Volunteering is an admirable act, and people should keep doing it, but let's take it to the next level. Citizen activists look in the mirror, see what they're really good at and then apply their talents to solving social problems. It's skills-based volunteering. Lundborg: How do you choose your own philanthropic activities? Tisch: I support organizations that help people do better for themselves and the community. A lot of it is based on education. I also have another passion, which is to use the travel and tourism industry for job-creation and economic development. Lundborg: What's your first recollection of your family's public-spiritedness? Tisch: We were shown that caring about others is important. It wasn't a discussion around the table; it was just the way my family went about its business and we learned by example. The night before Thanksgiving, for example, my parents would put on an event for people in wheelchairs, for people with physical handicaps, for the poorer members of our community. And that went on for a good 25 years. Wall Street Lundborg: Is the business climate changing to incorporate a social conscience? Tisch: Of course you need to focus on the bottom line, but enlightened CEOs realize that you also have a responsibility to your co-workers, your consumers and your community. Lundborg: Has Wall Street compensation distorted the social fabric, attracting talent away from other occupations? Tisch: Certain people were being compensated in ways that society wasn't used to in terms of base salary and bonuses, but those salaries are also market-driven. If we overregulate, we'll just drive people to other countries. I do worry we're not getting the kinds of people in government that we need, where it's a compensation issue, or privacy, or the political process of having to go with your hand out and ask for money all the time. Lundborg: How does Tufts train social activists? Tisch: You can't get a degree at Tisch College. It serves as an amplifier for what your focus is. If you're an engineer, you can take courses on understanding how to move a river in Africa to bring hydroelectric power to a community. You learn how to be a citizen dentist or a citizen veterinarian. Of all the philanthropy I've been involved in, this has been the most rewarding gift. It's been where this book evolved. New Ways Lundborg: What are some of the new kinds of socially conscious profit-making enterprises? Tisch: There's a group called New Profit, which was started by a Tufts grad, Vanessa Kirsch. They've raised millions of dollars to help nonprofits learn to sell a product or a service and make money to reinvest in their organization. There's also Jacqueline Novogratz's Acumen Fund to help organizations that provide aid to the world's poorest people. Lundborg: What's your favorite example of someone who went out and changed the world? Tisch: Scott Harrison was a nightclub promoter before he started to go as a photographer on Mercy Ship voyages. They send floating hospitals to serve poor people in the developing world. After figuring out where he could do the most good, he started charity: water. So far, he's raised $20 million, built 2,000 wells and more than a million people have already been helped. That's a great story. To buy "Citizen You: Doing Your Part to Change the World" in North America, click here. For more information: http://www.citizenyou.org. Watch Jonathan Tisch's interview program, "Beyond the Boardroom," Fridays at 9 p.m. on Bloomberg TV. (Zinta Lundborg is an editor for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own. This interview was adapted from a longer conversation.) To contact the reporter on this story: Zinta Lundborg at zlundborg@bloomberg.net. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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