Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

How College Students Use Credit Cards

A 2009 study from Sallie Mae takes a look at how today's undergraduates are using credit cards. Given the current state of the economy, there is some cause for concern about college students' use of credit cards, their ability to repay, and the amount of debt they might be accruing.

Despite the credit freeze, college students last year used credit cards more than ever before, including charging tuition and other direct education expenses, according to a new study from Sallie Mae, the nation's leading saving- and paying-for-college company.

According to the report:

• Nearly one-third (30 percent) put tuition on their credit card, an increase from 24 percent in 2004, when the study was last conducted.

• In total, 92 percent of undergraduate credit cardholders charged textbooks, school supplies, or other direct education expenses, up from 85 percent in the previous study. Students who used credit cards to pay for direct education expenses estimated charging $2,200, more than double 2004’s average of $942.

• Eighty-four percent of undergraduates had at least one credit card, up from 76 percent in 2004. On average, students have 4.6 credit cards, and half of college students had four or more cards.

• Only 17 percent said they regularly paid off all cards each month, and another 1 percent had parents, a spouse, or other family members paying the bill. The remaining 82 percent carried balances and thus incurred finance charges each month.

Source: Sallie Mae
https://www.salliemae.com/about/news_info/research/credit_card_study/

Students, Welcome to College; Parents, Go Home

In order to separate doting parents from their freshman sons, Morehouse College in Atlanta has instituted a formal “Parting Ceremony.”

It began on a recent evening, with speeches in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. Then the incoming freshmen marched through the gates of the campus — which swung shut, literally leaving the parents outside.

As the latest wave of superinvolved parents delivers its children to college, institutions are building into the day, normally one of high emotion, activities meant to punctuate and speed the separation. It is part of an increasingly complex process, in the age of Skype and twice-daily texts home, in which colleges are urging “Velcro parents” to back off so students can develop independence.

Parents helping their students move in usually takes a few hours. Moving on? Most deans can tell stories of parents who lingered around campus for days.

Formal “hit the road” departure ceremonies are unusual but growing in popularity, said Joyce Holl, head of the National Orientation Directors Association. A more common approach is for colleges to introduce blunt language into drop-off schedules specifying the hour for last hugs.

Some undergraduate officials see in parents’ separation anxieties evidence of the excesses of modern child-rearing. “A good deal of it has to do with the evolution of overinvolvement in our students’ lives,” said Mr. Dougharty of Grinnell. “These are the baby-on-board parents, highly invested in their students’ success. They do a lot of living vicariously, and this is one manifestation of that.”

He and other student-life officials encourage parents to detach — not just at drop-off but throughout the freshman year, including limiting phone calls and text messages.

Parents, of course, know that in their head. But they still struggle to let go.

Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/education/23college.html

How Teen Sex Affects Education

Having sex while in a romantic relationship doesn't generally affect teens' grades in school, but casual sex might, a new study shows.

"Compared to abstinence, sexual intercourse in committed romantic relationships is often academically harmless, whereas in other types of relationships it is more detrimental," noted Bill McCarthy and Eric Grodsky, sociologists at the University of California, Davis and the University of Minnesota, respectively. "Females and males who have sex only with romantic partners are generally similar to abstainers on most of the education measures we examined."

Compared to abstainers, teens who only have casual sex are at greater risk for lower grades and problems in school, and are more likely to be expelled or suspended, less likely to be attached to school, and less likely to go to college.

The study was to be presented Sunday at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Atlanta.

Source: Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/642031.html

Most Popular College Majors

The most popular college major for both women and men, according to the U.S. Department of Education's latest figures...

Women
 1. Business
 2. Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences
 3. Social Sciences and History
 4. Education
 5. Psychology
 6. Visual and Performing Arts
 7. Communication and Communication Technologies
 8. Biological and Biomedical Sciences
 9. English Language and Literature/Letters
10. Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies, Humanities

Men
 1. Business
 2. Social Sciences and History
 3. Engineering and Engineering Technologies
 4. Visual and Performing Arts
 5. Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services
 6. Biological and Biomedical Sciences
 7. Communication and Communication Technologies
 8. Education
 9. Psychology
10. Security and Protective Services

Source: Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/10/most-popular-college-degrees-for-women-forbes-woman-leadership-education-business.html

College Financial Lesson: The Eight Lowest-Paying Majors

PayScale.com has released a list of eight college degrees that don't really pay off. But remember, money's not everything: working in a fulfilling career may well be worth the tradeoff of a hefty paycheck.

The list, recently profiled on CNN, showed some surprising life-lessons for students:

1. Social Work
2. Athletic Training
3. Recreation and Leisure
4. Interior Design
5. Religious Studies
6. Horticulture
7. Education
8. Culinary Arts

Source: New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/08/06/2010-08-06_college_financial_lesson_the_eight_lowestpaying_majors.html

Dorm With Cafeteria May Boost College Weight Gain

College students who live in dormitories with dining halls gain more weight than students who have to walk farther for their meals, a new study has found.

The study included 388 freshmen in seven dorms, including four that had on-site dining halls that served three meals daily. All the students had access to two campus gyms with state-of-the-art exercise equipment.

During the school year, females in dorms with on-site dining halls weighed almost 2 pounds more and exercised 1.43 fewer times per week than those in dorms without dining halls. Males in dorms with on-site dining halls ate about 1.5 more meals and almost three more snacks per week than those in dorms without dining halls, according to the report released online Aug. 3 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Source: Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/641528.html

Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age

In surveys from 2006 to 2010 by Donald L. McCabe, a co-founder of the Center for Academic Integrity and a business professor at Rutgers University, about 40 percent of 14,000 undergraduates admitted to copying a few sentences in written assignments.

Perhaps more significant, the number who believed that copying from the Web constitutes “serious cheating” is declining — to 29 percent on average in recent surveys from 34 percent earlier in the decade.

Professors used to deal with plagiarism by admonishing students to give credit to others and to follow the style guide for citations, and pretty much left it at that.

But current examples — typical ones, according to writing tutors and officials responsible for discipline at three schools who described the plagiarism — suggest that many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious misdeed.

It is a disconnect that is growing in the Internet age as concepts of intellectual property, copyright and originality are under assault in the unbridled exchange of online information, say educators who study plagiarism.

Digital technology makes copying and pasting easy, of course. But that is the least of it. The Internet may also be redefining how students — who came of age with music file-sharing, Wikipedia and Web-linking — understand the concept of authorship and the singularity of any text or image.

“Now we have a whole generation of students who’ve grown up with information that just seems to be hanging out there in cyberspace and doesn’t seem to have an author,” said Teresa Fishman, director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson University. “It’s possible to believe this information is just out there for anyone to take.”

Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html

ADHD Teens More Likely to Drop Out

Having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder may make teens less likely to finish high school, says a new University of California, Davis study.

The study found almost a third of students with ADHD, don't graduate with their peers. That's high compared with the national high school drop out rate of 15 percent, says  lead study author Dr. Joshua Breslau.

When looking at the different types of ADHD, the study found all of the types of ADHD are associated with a high dropout rate.

The study also found students who use alcohol, smoke cigarettes and use other drugs are more at risk to drop out.

Researchers say parents need to make sure they are working together with their schools so that the pediatrician and the child's teacher are communicating about the child's medical health and performance in school.    "We need to better integrate school health with what's schools do, education," says Breslau.

Source: CNN
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/28/adhd-teens-more-likely-to-drop-out/

Fewer Low-Income Students Going to College

Fewer low- and moderate-income high school graduates are attending college in America, and fewer are graduating.

Enrollment in four-year colleges was 40% in 2004 for low-income students, down from 54% in 1992, and 53% in 2004 for moderate-income students, down from 59% over the same period, according to  a report recently submitted to Congress by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.

If that trend has continued, low- and moderate-income students who don’t move on to college face an even darker outlook. The unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year olds averaged 17% in 2004, the jobless rate for people over age 25 with just a high school diploma averaged 5% the same year. So far this year, those figures have jumped to 25.8% and 10.6%, respectively.

College expenses and financial aid have become increasingly larger considerations for parents and students, driving more qualified students away from enrolling in four-year colleges.

Persistence through four-year colleges dropped to 75% in students entering in 2003 for low-income students, down from 78% in students entering in 1995, while persistence for students from moderate-income families remained at 81%. Persistence rates for low- and moderate-income students in two-year colleges, however, fell 10 percentage points to 49% over the same period.

Source: Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/07/07/fewer-low-income-students-going-to-college/

Report: College Back-to-School Spending Up 13%

This year, college students will shell out approximately $306 billion in back-to-school spending, per a new report by Alloy Media + Marketing.

Come this fall, 16 million college students—a 6 percent increase—will hit the classrooms. Their combined 2010 spending power is up 13 percent, compared to last year. The spike is attributed to “an increase in per capita spending per student,” said Tammy Nelson, marketing and research vp at Alloy.

It's not just spending on mandatory, back-to-school purchases (books, room, board and tuition) that are going up. Alloy’s survey found that males and females ages 18 to 34 are also spending 10 percent more on discretionary items like gaming, technology and beauty products. Overall, college students are spending three percent more per month on discretionary purchases compared to last year, or $361 per person.  Alloy expects discretionary spending to hit $69 billion this year, a stark contrast to when retailers focused on price and value during last year’s back-to-school season.

At a time when the general population is still cutting back, much of the spending increase among college students is due to the fact that they hold a generally optimistic view of the nation’s economic recovery.

Source: Brandweek
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3ifb9f290da772a7b45d6fb416e579e877