Thinking Beyond the Desk: Artists & Artisans

The government classification for artists includes: actors, architects, announcers, authors, clowns, comedians, designers, musicians and a whole host of other artistic endeavors.

What pathway do you take to be categorized as an artist on your IRS Schedule 1040? Some artists attend college or conservatory, others apprentice, and still others just "do it", whatever their passion is, until they get the proverbial 10,000 hours under their belt and are...an artist.

Colleges to think about: Ringling College of Art & Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design, Otis College of Art & Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, California Institute of the Arts, Parsons School of Design, USC Roski or Iovine, Middle Tennessee State, Juilliard, UNC Chapel Hill, Yale, your local community college.

Here's just a sampling of jobs where you'll stretch both your artistic and analytical side.

Fabric Arts: 

What can you possibly do with an interest in fabric? Here is a link to over 25 pages of possibilities from the Textile Society of America!  The wide variety of employment includes: Fashion designers, textile artists, woven art, seamstress, retail buyer, museum or gallery conservator. 

Where does one learn about textiles? Savannah College of Art & Design, University of Rhode Island, University of Georgia, University of California at Davis, RISD, Parsons, North Carolina State University, Fashion Institute of Technology

Musicians: 

Music is the universal language; this pic doesn't require explanation! Check the BLS stats for a sobering 'outlook' on the industry.

The Diamond Building at Juilliard 

Schools of note: Juilliard, Middle Tennessee State, USC Thornton School, Belmont, Oberlin, Berklee

Product Design:

Design labels, boxes, pamphlets, watches, cars, appliances, computers, perfume bottles...whatever consumable goods exist, there is a designer behind their manufacturing and presentation.

There are a multitude of schools and colleges to learn design skills. Some are trade schools while other programs are quasi-engineering degrees and still others are, really, industrial engineering programs.  Search out the schools here. 

Desk No Where in Sight

Not all jobs are confined to a cubicle! Everybody has different needs and dreams. Do you like to work outside? Do you want to be your own boss? Are you entrepreneurial? Here are a sampling of jobs that you might not have thought of:

Arborist:

Tree trimmers come with varying degree of skill and education. Some have horticulture degrees, others have the ISA certification and/or years of experience with chainsaws, aerial lifts and wood chippers. Arborists may work for the utility company to lop the tops off of trees below power lines or the Forest Service or may manage their own landscape company. An arborist might have a PhD and know all about pathology and xylem and phloem and work for a university! (Future professors, see our page "Which Desk Will Be Yours in 10 years") 

Dog Trainer: 

Animal lovers work in a myriad of environments...depending on the level of passion and education. Do you want to be a dog walker, dog doctor, animal trainer, pet sitter. Do you want to work in a kennel, a stable, a clinic or a zoo? 

Animal lovers clearly have a passion for what they do. There is a lot of on-the-job training or learn-by-doing. To be a professional, eg. a Vet Tech or a Vet, a college education is necessary. Majors include: animal science, animal husbandry, equine science. There are a many 2-yr or certificate programs to be a Vet Tech. The 4-yr programs are found at colleges like Cal Poly Pomona or Purdue.

Winery Representative:

If you want to work in a winery, you can study to be a food scientist at colleges like: UC Davis, Oregon State, Texas A & M, Fresno State. Wineries are usually tourist-friendly so you could also study hospitality and tourism and work in the front office and/or interact with the customers.

Baseball Scout:

Not all scouts work for the MLB. Scouts recruit at showcase tournaments and high schools and for all levels of play (D-1, D-2, D-3, etc).

Scouts at the Perfect Game Tournament, AZ

Most scouts have played their sport in college or in the professional leagues. They clearly love the game. 

Aquaculture:

Interested in owning an oyster farm? Agriculture provides less than 2% of all jobs in the US and is slated to decrease about 0.5% over the next ten years. 

Oyster Farmer in Virginia

That said, a new generation is entering the farming sector as a way to live a high-quality, sustainable life. Artisan cheeses? Range-fed beef? Biodynamic greens? Nationally, a slight uptick of people under the age of 35 are heading back to the farm to produce just these sorts of products. 

More than 30% of farmers have attended college. So, where do you go to learn the tricks of the aggie trade? How about University of California at Davis, Fresno State, North Carolina State, Texas A & M, Oregon State, just to name a few.

Fire Science:

Firefighting is a science! You can study 'fire' at schools as varied as George Washington University and Palomar College. Most degrees are 2-year, others are 4-yr. In many Counties, to be a firefighter first requires being an EMT and/or paramedic. As in most fields, the more education undertaken, the better the pay and position. 

As firefighters are hired by the government and are, generally, unionized, job growth is directly correlated to number of positions funded and the pay scale is arbitrated . Demographics are an important consideration.  Did your County just hire hundreds of firefighters? Then, your job prospects may be influenced by the retirement plans of the firefighter classes ahead of you.

Firefighters are known for their comfortable rec rooms...

...but there is serious training involved. Remember, firefighters run into burning buildings as everyone else inside flees! 

Not ready for college?

What if you just aren't ready to commit to four years of academics...what do you do?

What about a Gap Year?

Middlebury College and UNC, Chapel Hill both conducted studies on the benefits of a gap year and found that students who took a year off to work or travel or volunteer were not only more likely to graduate but also graduated in less time than students who went directly into college from high school. They have official Gap Year programs. Bottom line:  it's OK to take a Gap Year!  There are benefits of taking a year, or even just a few months off, to explore social, academic, creative, or even simply recreational activities.  Well, maybe 'recreational activities' aren't exactly smiled upon by admissions officers but, taking time before college to figure out what you want in life, not just want you want to DO in life, is a good thing.

How, exactly, do you do a Gap Year? The recommended/traditional way is to go through the normal college admissions process and timeline. Once admitted, the student then can ask to defer enrollment. Each college has its own 'enrollment management procedure'. Some provide for one semester deferrals, others for an entire year. The student will generally submit a deposit to hold the spot. A side note: as more students are taking Gap Years and participating in Study Abroad programs, colleges increasingly are offering Spring enrollments to their Freshman applicants. Again, this is part of the college's 'enrollment management process'. All of those dorm rooms and classroom seats need to be filled!

What about attending a 2-year college or certificate program?

There are many reasons students choose to forgo the 4-year college adventure and, instead,  attend a community college. In fact, the vast majority of college-bound students enroll in community college. In 2015, President Obama initiated a program to offer free tuition for two years at community colleges. Unfortunately, so far, only Oregon and Minnesota have begun implementing this tuition-free approach.

A recent article in the NY Times said this: "...as many as 25 million of all new job openings in the next decade will be for middle-skills jobs." Community colleges offer numerous pathways for entry into 'middle-skills' jobs (which are jobs requiring either some college preparation, a postsecondary certificate, or an Associate degree). 

What is your pathway?

Fully 1/3 of all future jobs will require a bachelor's degree. Another 1/3 will require some sort of post-secondary education (from community colleges or 3rd-party certificating process) and training. There is a lot of information online...just do it!

Contact the A+ team for more information!

Which Desk Will Be Yours?

Not sure what you want to be when you grow up? No worries...few do! In fact, the average adult switches careers every 5-7 years. Check out these pics of desks and read the accompanying text to explore what your workaday world might look like if you head down the various career pathways. Stay tuned b/c more "desks" are coming...

Medicine: Doctors

View fullsize

What's the first thing you notice in this photo? Are there really 7 degrees framed on the wall? If you are interested in studying to be a doctor,  you will need a ton of education, heavy on the science and math. Plan on a minimum of 8 years: 4 years of undergraduate & 4 years of medical school just to get the MD. To actually practice medicine requires another 2-5 years of residency and fellowship, depending on the type of medicine you want to practice. Scholarships to medical school are rare and usually reserved for the absolute best and brightest of an already-super-smart student population. So, be prepared to pay for this education. The good news: earning capacity of a medical degree is high. You should be able to repay those loans! 

For more details: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physicians-and-surgeons.htm

Colleges to consider: Haverford, Lafayette, Hendrix, Case Western, Washington U

Medicine: Allied Health Professions

There are a wide variety of jobs available in the healthcare industry. And, healthcare, as a sector, is growing at a fast pace. Allied health jobs include: medical assistant, radiation technologist, dental hygienist, recreational therapist, physician assistant, pharmacist, nurse, home health aide, audiologist. Some healthcare jobs require six months of education, others a bachelor's, a master's or a doctoral degree. The more education, the higher the pay generally.

Dental hygienists have one of the better ROIs that I've seen. 

Physician Assistants examine, diagnose and treat patients. This field is growing at a very fast pace. Most students have a bachelor's degree with about 3 years of healthcare experience before they even enter the 3-year Physician Assistant program.

Education:

We all remember our favorite teachers. The job outlook for high school teachers is 'just a bit above average' and for college professors, 'above average'. 

To be a high school teacher requires an undergraduate degree plus a credential (for public school systems). That said, the more education you have, the more pay you will receive over your employment contract (teachers have strong unions). A college professor will have at least a Master's and usually a PhD.

Did you know that many professors need to read and teach and publish and do research, too?

Top Ten Reasons Why Employers like College Athletes

1. Time management skills

2. Teamwork

3. Competitive

4. Experience under pressure

5. Work ethic

6. On-time

7. Discipline

8. Mental toughness

9. Perseverance

10. Coachable

A+ College Consultants help athletes navigate the ‘student-athlete’ path. It’s a rocky, arduous path up the knowledge-mountain indeed-- scalable if you know what you’re up against and plan accordingly, worthwhile if you have incredible passion for your sport. 

We can help whether you are D-1, D-2, D-3, NAIA, NJCC, or even if you just want to play intramural. Let's chat about it! 

FAFSA: Changes for Class of 2017

Two main changes: FAFSA can now be submitted as early as October 1st & earlier tax year info will be required. Pay attention to the new deadlines, particularly if applying EA or ED!

For more detailed info on the changes, follow this link.

How To Be a Good Student in College

Students are heading off to college this month with their brand new laptops and cell phones. Frankly, I hope they are not planning on using either one in class to take notes.  All a student really needs in their lecture halls is: a notepad and pen. And by 'notepad', I do not mean the app! If you or your student doesn't read any further than this sentence: The physical act of writing notes actually deepens the comprehension of lecture material. If you want to learn more about how to be a good student in college, read on…

Yay! I made it through high school!

What sort of techniques can students use to really learn lecture material? You obviously can't just sit back and listen to what the professor says. Without a photographic memory, remembering anything two weeks later is problematic. Some students like to transcribe lecture material. 'Transcribing' means writing down a professor's lecture word for word. While transcribing may be useful for capturing every word and idea, it is difficult to do. Most students don't write quickly enough, or legibly enough, for this to be a useful technique. Clearly, students bring their laptops into the lecture halls because keystrokes are quicker than pen strokes. There is a lot of video taping of lectures as well. If you are in a classroom with 500 students, sitting in the back row, there are a zillion distractions. Taping the lecture seems like a good idea. Plus, if you tape it, then you and the entire back row can watch that cute cat video playing on the laptop two rows down.

Small class, Furman University

Why I am not in favor of laptops in a lecture hall: They are noisy! They are distracting! More seriously, using a laptop encourages 'transcribing'. Yes, you can get it all down but focusing on 'getting it all down' means you are focusing on typing not learning. When you know you can't write quickly with a pen, you will then be more selective in what gets written down. You will focus on the nuance or which point or idea the professor is emphasizing. With a pen and paper, you can use 'non-linear' thinking and note-taking: writing in the margins, shorthand, symbols, stars, arrows, circles. The day's notes become more of a map or guide to the lecture. Such notes may not be readily comprehensible to a classmate but they do show a deeper level of comprehension and engagement with the material. An A+ tip: Check out this video on how to take "Cornell Notes".

Some classes are fairly large like this one at Univ of Oregon

Why I am not in favor of laptops in a lecture hall: They are noisy! They are distracting! More seriously, using a laptop encourages ‘transcribing’. Yes, you can get it all down but focusing on ‘getting it all down’ means you are focusing on typing not learning. When you know you can’t write quickly with a pen, you will then be more selective in what gets written down. You will focus on the nuance or which point or idea the professor is emphasizing. With a pen and paper, you can use ‘non-linear’ thinking and note-taking: writing in the margins, shorthand, symbols, stars, arrows, circles. The day’s notes become more of a map or guide to the lecture. Such notes may not be readily comprehensible to a classmate but they do show a deeper level of comprehension and engagement with the material. An A+ tip: Check out this video on how to take “Cornell Notes“.

Learn how to take good notes!

Whether you take notes or succumb to recording the day's lecture, there are a few additional steps you need to take to really learn the material. First, you need to review the day's lecture the day of the lecture. Neuroscientists have conclusively shown that reviewing the material and then summarizing the material on the very same day works to embed that material in your brain. If your notes are more 'map-like' and non-linear, and you can transform the day's lecture into prose then you, clearly, demonstrate a deeper level of understanding of the material. Second, quizzing yourself every day or every few days for just 15-20 minutes on the material is way better than cramming the night before. (You already knew that cramming was a terrible learning technique, right?) The final step involves 'speaking' the material. You listen to the material in class. You write the material down by taking notes. The next step is to verbalize the material. There is nothing like talking about the lectures to let you know if you get the material. Visit your professor during office hours and discuss the material. Join a study group. Ask questions of the professor or your classmates about the subject. Try teaching the material to classmates.

The night before any exam, take and walk, relax and sleep well. Do all of the above, repeatedly, for four years and you will be one smart college graduate!

A+ Tips for Being a Great College Student:

1. Don't just sit back and listen to lectures: Engage!
2. Don't transcribe lectures: Take good notes!
3. Don't take laptops to lectures.
4. Or, if you do, don't watch cat videos during lectures!
5. Review your notes on the same day of the lecture.
6. Summarize your notes daily!
7. Review your notes 15-20 minutes every few days at the very least.
8. Don't cram for the exam.
9. Join a study group.
10.Visit your professor during office hours: Engage!

Why Does UC Cost So @#%% Much? Or…Does It?

Back in the day, when I enrolled in the UCs, tuition was cheap! It even seemed cheap at the time. I paid my own way b/c I worked part-time during the school year and during the summer. I could pay my own way working part-time. As we all know, those days are long gone. Not considering room & board, just to pay a UC $14,000 tuition tab now, a student, working a minimum wage job, would have to work over 1500 hours annually. The national standard for full-time jobs? 2,087 hours a year.

UC Tuition in 1976 v 2015

How did this come to pass? Tuition used to be free at the UC! In the 1970s, when the State began requiring students to pay tuition (they didn't call it 'tuition'; they called it 'educational fees'), the UCs charged about $630/year. Does inflation alone account for the roughly $14,000 tab in 2017? Nope. 

Click here to see a chart of the fee increases at the UCs over time.

If students only had to account for inflation, the 1976 tuition of $630/year would be just $2665 in 2015.  As the UC marketing team and education pundits will tell you, students enrolled in the 1970s and even those enrolled in the 1990s benefited tremendously from State of California support of the UCs. We alums were heavily subsidized.  Click here to see a graph that shows who paid for the cost of a UC education over the past 20 years or so. Bottom line: the student is now paying what the State (read: taxpayers) used to pay.

Yes, students at the UCs are paying more. Is it more than their fair share compared to other colleges? Yale, for example, getting little direct government funding (yes, their tax benefits are subsidies, too), has always been expensive compared to the UCs.  In 1976, Yale charged $4400 tuition (8 times the UC price at the time). Yale tuition in 2016 ($49,480) also exceeds what standard inflationary pressures would suggest it should be. Tuition at Yale is now about 3 times that of the UCs. Food for thought: non-resident tuition at UC is only about $10,000 less compared to Yale. Put another way, attending UC is essentially just as expensive as Yale is for international and out-of-state students! Hence... the very public fight over UC administrators admitting more non-residents to shore up the budget.

Where does all the UC tuition money go anyway?

Click here for a pie chart showing UC expenses by category. 

Clearly, employee salary and benefits comprise the bulk of the expenses. But, before anyone shouts about those exorbitant Professor Salaries, check out the very transparent and publicly posted salaries on this website: Wages of the Employees of UC.  On this website, you can search for "Professor" at each of the 9 UCs and see just how many professors are paid more than $70,000 (spoiler alert, few are: 5/93 at UCD). If you search for "Coach", the salary range is definitely provocative and rather extreme: $1,000 - $2.3 Million at UCLA, for example. (Go Bruins?)

If you've read this far (Thanks!) and are looking for an answer to the sorry state-of-affairs of college tuition vis a vis your family's budget, I have a few tips:

1. Apply where you land above the 75th percentile and you'll probably get some merit aid.
2. Enroll in AP classes in high school to shave off time spent in college.
3. Attend a Community College for the first two years to save big money.  

If at all possible, just say 'No!' to debt which will only increase the total amount paid. No matter which college you attend, study hard and make the most of it each and every day! A bachelor's degree still shows a positive ROI.

I don't want my kid to volunteer...she should be studying!

A few years ago, I was chatting with a family about their student's 'brag sheet' or 'resumé'. When I asked whether the student had participated in any volunteer activities, the mother shot back, "You know, I don't understand why everyone thinks volunteering is so important....we never got any help from anyone. Everything I have I worked hard for, on my own, with no help from anyone, no real help, even from my ex. Why can't everyone just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps?"

A hard question from a tough, world-weary Mom. It turns out the student did, in fact, volunteer at the public high school as a TA, in one of the many CTE (http://www.careertech.org/cte) classes offered. The time this teenager spent at school helping other students understand course content was beneficial in many ways.  The teacher got a helping hand in an impacted classroom. By volunteering, the student had a chance to delve deeper into the topic and to explore what working in that career would be like. The volunteer also received a great letter of recommendation from her teacher for the college application. A win-win, IMHO.

Over half of teens in the US volunteer contributing more than 1 billion hours of community service annually. Almost 2/3 of those teen volunteers are 'regulars' meaning they volunteer at least 12 weeks per year. They volunteer primarily through religious, school or youth organizations.

There are so many reasons for students to volunteer:

Here are a few reasons from a "Top Ten" list published by UCSD:

• Make a difference
• Encourages civic responsibility
• Teaches the importance of giving back
• Learn a lot
• Strengthens the community
• Foster empathy
• Test out a career--gain professional experience

Or this from Psychology Today:

• Once a volunteer, always a volunteer
• Volunteers lead healthier and longer lives!
• Volunteering is transformative for youth

Or this: http://www.pointsoflight.org/about-us

• Empathy
• Curiosity
• Sociability
• Resilience
• Self-Awareness
• Integrity
• Resourcefulness
• Creativity

And definitely this: https://www.habitat.org/stories/why-volunteer

• Nobody is an Island
• Life is easier when you are part of a family, neighborhood or network of friends
• You start building a good neighborhood when you yourself decide to be a good neighbor

Did you know:

• Teens who volunteer are less likely to become pregnant or use drugs and have a stronger academic engagement and work ethic.
• Globally, about 1 Billion people volunteered their time. Surprisingly, Myanmar is in 1st place in total hours volunteered closely followed by the US and New Zealand. Buddhism is a strong influence in volunteerism in Myanmar. 

Whether a student volunteers because their friends are doing so or because it will look good on a college application, the benefits of volunteering are real. IMHO, regardless of why they do it, all signs point to encouraging them to do it.

Hate the Capricious Admission Process?

Only 15 days until the deposits are due! Families are weighing the options: Do we pay full-price for College A with the better name recognition or take the great discount at the sweet SLAC up the road? Families are also wondering what went wrong: Why didn’t we get into the college that had the better odds for us? And, most commonly, families are freaking out about the cost of the 4-year college adventure, no matter which college the student attends.

Some head-shaking, top peeves re-emerging this admissions cycle--including 'Real World' examples from my client base:

The illogical: Test-optional colleges trolling for students

The unbelievable: Waivers of app fees to students who then blast-send dozens of apps thereby boosting the pool of applicants at colleges participating in the rankings game.

The capricious: One student gets a certain amount of aid in their admissions packet but another must work ass off in an appeals process to get same amount of aid with equivalent test scores and grades.

The absurd:  Colleges boast about their admits with great test scores but bemoan the existence of the test prep industry.

The political: Student from out-of-country with B average gets accepted to UCSD whereas stellar in-state and local resident does not.

The  psychotic: Non-dischargeable loans offered to 18-year olds and low-income families.

Student Loans: Can You Avoid the Trillion Dollar Problem?

Clients ask us daily: Where are the ideas on how to pay for, at least part of, a $60,000 University education?

Look for value in your college search!

1. Don't go to a college that charges that much--Live at the parent's house, attend Community College, transfer and then pay for only 2 years at a private college. Transfer out rates are online. That stat generally tells you how many transfer students your college of choice needs.

2. Study hard in high school, maintain above a 3.5 gpa and attend a school that offers merit aid. Supply and demand is a useful principal in implementing this strategy. Even for very high-income families!

3. While in college, apply to be a residential advisor to earn stipends AND/OR waived dorm fees.

4. Study hard in school, take lots of AP's and only go to a college that will give you credit for all of your exams, graduate early thereby saving, potentially, a semester to over a year of college tuition. If you are able, speed up the process even more by taking an extra college class each semester.

5. Did we mention: Study Hard In High School!!! There's little-to-no aid available for average students. And, if you are not a high achieving student, why not go to your local CC first, or take a MOOC, or try Vo-Ed and figure it all out.

Shameless plug: Don't Stress: We, at A+, can help you with all of the above!

What is your pathway after high school?

For those interested in learning more, here are links to very worthwhile reading on the subject.

good background on issue: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/upshot/a-quiet-revolution-in-helping-lift-the-burden-of-student-debt.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article&abt=0002&abg=1

what a typical community college charges: http://web2.cuyamaca.edu/hsout/fees.asp

a typical merit aid matrix: http://www.millsaps.edu/administrative_offices/financial_aid_types_of_assistance.php

Ten Colleges Under $35,000 (OK, 11!)

Readers love rankings. September marked the release of the infamous US News "College Rankings". The New York Times popular "Upshot" column recently published their own college rankings using the number of Pell Grant recipients enrolled as the primary consideration. The Federal Government (Department of Education) now ranks colleges using Cost of Attendance (COA) criteria. National magazines like Money and Forbes also publish a list. Your stalwart A+ team decided to publish a small list of its own based on the #1 question asked by clients: How much is this college adventure going to cost us?

Obviously, college cost is an important consideration for families. Yet, we think families need to consider one additional statistic when comparing college costs-- what is the four-year graduation rate of colleges with a total COA of less than $35,000? On the list below, we place the percentage of students that graduate in four years right next to the cost of attending that school. We think graduating in four years is important primarily because paying tuition for 4 years is cheaper than paying for 6 years!  By keeping to the trendy "Top Ten" label, our list is obviously short and non-exhaustive.  Also, note there are many reasons a college may have a low four-year graduation rate (eg. lots of commuter students and/or part-time student status, transfer issues, impacted majors) which may or may not affect an individual student.

That said, our A+ mantra is:  #motivation trumps #rankings! If you are, indeed, motivated, then statistics don't really matter. Your motivation will help you graduate in 4 years even if many of your classmates do not.

In ascending order of COA (2014's cost of attendance including tuition, room, board, transportation, other annual and mandatory fees) side-by-side with the respective 4-year graduation rate:

1.  California Community Colleges:  $17, 386 -- 64%

2.  Eastern Washington University in Cheney: $22,100 -- 24% (this is the WUE rate which shaves off about $11,000 making EWU cheaper than SDSU for California students living on campus. EWU's WUE is stellar and the campus is awesome. Learn more here!

3. University of Nevada, Reno:  $24,000 (WUE rate) -- 16%

4. CSU (eg. San Diego State):  $25,000 -- 33%

5. Northern Arizona University:  $29,380 (WUE rate) -- 30%

6. Colorado Mesa University:  $30,000 -- 13%

7. Appalachian State:  $31,200 -- 40%

8. University of Minnesota:  $31,500 -- 54%

9. Radford University:  $32,000 -- 42%

10. University of California at Davis:  $33,000 -- 51%

11. University of Montana:  $34,780 -- 24%

To compare: Yale University's total COA is roughly $64,00 and has a 4-yr graduation rate of 90%.

The 1990 Student Right to Know Act requires colleges and universities to report graduation rates. 

Note: Why aren't ASU or UA listed here? Their WUE rates are limited. Learn more here and here.

So You Think You Can Pitch?

Lefty Pitcher warming up at Elon’s Baseball Camp

Baseball is, notoriously, a game of failure. The MLB, NCAA, and even the Little League organization collect terabytes of statistics which back up that claim. Because every action on a baseball field is measured and quantified, we know the following: the best batters fail 70% of the time; only 23 pitchers have tossed perfect games in Major League history; less than 10% of high school players continue to play ball in college; less than 1% of high school baseball players will ever play at the professional level.

Colorado Mesa University: Suplizio Field

Would you like to know more mind-numbing, spirit-crushing stats meant to dissuade your son from ever considering playing baseball in the Major Leagues?  Here is the perspective of the President of Little League (taken from a 2006 speech):

"For the five million children playing baseball in the United States, 400,000 will play ball in high school. Of those 400,000, around 1,500 will be drafted by a professional baseball team. From those 1,500 or so, 500 will play two seasons or less in the minor leagues. Of the 500 in the minors, 100 will reach the Major League level, with one making it to Cooperstown, N.Y. and the National Baseball Hall of Fame."

As I am not in the business of getting students onto the Padres, Royals or Yankees, let’s focus on the over 400,000 athletes that play baseball on the 15,000 high school teams in the US and specifically, let's focus on roughly 135,000 seniors.  How many seniors will matriculate to the 1608 college level baseball programs in the US: 50,000-ish is the total number of players in all NCAA Divisions, NAIA, & NJCAA programs but, how many roster spots are available to graduating seniors: 13,000 or so.

Appalachian State: Beaver Field

Of the 50,000 athletes playing at the college level, only 10,500 play at the Division 1 level. Whittle this down further to reveal the roster spots available to incoming Freshman. Just dividing by 4 (number of years in college), my guesstimate— 2,600 players. (Note: go to the Perfect Game website to see the roughly 4,000 college commitments at all levels of college ball for the 2015 class -- from Cal Tech to Cal State Fullerton.)

University of Virginia: Davenport Field

What other dismaying numbers should parents of college-bound baseball athletes know about?

There are 302 D-1 baseball teams with 35 players allowed on the roster per NCAA rules. But, only 27 of those 35 players are eligible for scholarships. NCAA rules allow 11.7 scholarships per team. 

As anyone involved in collegiate baseball will confirm, just because the NCAA allows colleges to offer 11.7 scholarships per team doesn’t mean the college administrators actually give that much money to their baseball coaches. Smaller schools often have only a few (as in 2 or 3) scholarships available per team. NCAA rules say that if any scholarship money is offered, then a minimum 25% scholarship must be offered.

College of Charleston: Patriots Point Field

How does this work in the real world? A family lucky enough to be offered just 25% of total cost of attendance at Cal State Fullerton, for example, will have to pay (or borrow) the additional 75% or $18,000 per year. A family considering the same 25% offer at Texas Christian would need to come up with $36,000 per year. Full rides? As rare as a no-hitter!

You don’t have to be a statistics major to see that because 8 players on the typical roster will not (cannot!) have any athletic aid, there are roughly 2,400 D-1 athletes playing college ball for the love of the game. If these players don't qualify for merit aid, they (or, more likely, the parents) are paying (borrowing!!) the full cost of attendance.

Obviously, the total cost of attendance at college is what drives parents to seek any and all advantage available. If Johnny can not only read well but play ball well, then Mom and Dad can potentially save big bucks. Thousands of dollars are spent annually by families trying to convert a decent earned run average into a full ride. 

What's "On Deck" in this 3-part series on baseball's scholar-athletes?  A riff about the recruitment racket: Are travel ball teams the minor, minor, minor Leagues?

 Stay tuned... 

College Admissions Anxiety: Just One Person’s Perspective

My thoughts on the over-scheduled, overworked, stressed-out teen begin with the age-old question: What came first, the chicken or the egg? When I look back a few decades, I see the phenomenon of both parents working outside the home starting in earnest at just about the same time public high school budgets started going haywire.  Since a typical, public, school-day is as short as 5-6 hours, working parents needed to find activities for their children after school, in the afternoons and evenings, and often, during school holidays. Many after-school businesses have emerged to fill the void.  The plethora of available activities are of critical importance to working parents, especially for public school families. 

When the first generation of kids that engaged in organized after-school and vacation activities started applying to college, they had lot of activities and adventures to report–all those blanks on the application forms were filled in.  Demographic changes (ie. the baby boomer’s boomlet plus globalization) coupled with highly-involved parents transformed what was once a merely competitive college admissions process into a nerve-racking, debt-defying, lifestyle pursuit.

I don’t see the long term problem as one of over-scheduling (any associated stress disorders and/or unhealthy family dynamics is, obviously, a problem) so much as it is one of inequity.

While many private schools have always provided a full day of academics and “enrichment”, public high school students receive the most basic of academic, athletic and arts exposure. The only language taught at the public Valhalla High School, for example, is Spanish but the private Bishop’s School offers Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, Mandarin. Though Valhalla enrolls over 2100 students, it has 23 athletic teams; Bishops, with 800 students, offers 40. The first thing I noticed when my older son transferred to a private school? Students hangout on-campus, in the library, on the fields, in the music room, till way past dinner time. At my younger son’s public school? Unless you were on a team or in a band, you weren’t at school after last period.

Most parents work outside the home.  Most students attend public not private schools. Most public schools are underfunded and overcrowded with scant attention to advising, to development of critical-thinking skills, or to job skills. Most parents do not have resources and cannot overcome their child’s inadequate educational environment.  Don’t you think we need all students to have access and exposure—to the arts, 21st century science, athletics, nature— to become fulfilled, contributing members of society?

Editor's note: Originally published in 2014. The only additional comment I would add, in 2017,  is this: college costs about 10% more now. So, admissions stress is still there. Shameless plug: call A+ for detailed analyses, the pros/cons, of your own college adventure. 

Cost of College: Going Down?!

There is no easy solution to the tuition debacle. A bit of history: Harvard and the entire Ivy League have always been unaffordable. The average cost of attending Harvard in the 1980's was around $10,000. The median family income at that time hovered just under $30,000. Public colleges and universities, by comparison, were a steal. I mean that literally! In California, in the 1980's, an undergraduate majoring in history paid the same tuition at the UC's as did a medical student. The resources required to teach a history major are just not the same as teaching a medical student. My contention: the current shake up in higher education is long overdue. Unfortunately, we are paying dearly now for the ill-conceived, inefficient pricing structure of times past. So I applaud the recent effort by certain college presidents to actually lower their fees!

Here's a link to an article in the NY Times with more detail on colleges that are lowering fees: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/education/getting-out-of-discount-game-small-colleges-lower-the-price.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Cyber Punk'd 2013

I imagine if you are a computer programmer, you are secretly longing for the end of 2013. It's been a bad year for their field. The Common Application. Healthcare.gov. Walmart-Online on BlackFriday. Now, Fordham University.  I give a D- to those who know C++. I feel so sorry for the thousands of high school seniors who received, mistakenly, emails from Fordham's Student Aid Services congratulating them on their acceptance to Fordham only to find they were victims of just another 'glitch' in our cyber-punk'd world. I know that in writing blogs, I drop a letter or transpose a number occasionally and that spell check is of no help when I mean 'bare' but I write 'bear'.  Perhaps misplacing a 1 or a 0 in a million lines of code is the programmer's equivalent of a grammatical error. But, OMG, programming errors wreak havoc on whole swaths of society. This application season, students using CA4 weren't 100% certain if their well-crafted & painstakingly edited essays maintained formatting after pressing submit; there was no box to check if your ethnicity  was Hispanic; uploads were agonizingly slow; payments were not applied.  And, after today's false acceptances from Fordham, my confidence in cyber techies has been sorely tested.  Here's hoping 2014 finds programmers with a renewed attention to detail.