Story Archives of 'college'

The recession is fueling a surge in enrollment at community colleges. Younger students are opting for less expensive two-year programs and older workers are heading back to pick up new skills.

At Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, enrollment is up 23 percent since last year. In response to this increase, and to accommodate working students, Bunker Hill is trying something new: midnight classes. Coffee cups in hand, more than forty bleary-eyed students take Psych 101 or College Writing on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Classes start at 11:45 p.m. and run until 2:45 in the morning.

It’s a bold experiment that community colleges across the country - many struggling to squeeze in more students – are keeping an eye on. We talk Colleen Roach, spokesperson for Bunker Hill Community College, and midnight student Tanneke Burns, a phlebotomist and mother of five who takes midnight classes in psychology and college writing at Bunker Hill.

(Photo by Tadeeej via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Let’s say you’re in the market for a college education. You could go to a state or community college for between $5,000 and $10,000 a year, or shell out as much as $40,000 a year for an Ivy League education. Throw in books, room, and board, and you’re looking at decades in student loans.

What if you could get many of the benefits of a college education online, for free? Colleges across the country are putting their courses on the web and making them available to anyone who wants to learn. There is a catch: you don’t get a degree and you can’t interact with the professors. That didn’t dissuade writer Josh Dean. He tried out a few of these courses, and wrote about his experience for Popular Science.

Popular Science: How Much Can You Really Learn With a Free Online Education?

A list of free online courses

(Photo via Sarah Stewart via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Health officials are estimating that as many as a third to a half of all Americans will get the H1N1 flu this year.
Typically, it’s the very young and the very old who are at greatest risk for the seasonal flu.
But H1N1 is different.
Young adults up to the age of 24 are among those at greatest risk for this new strain.
And that means colleges and universities are already trying to ward off an onslaught of illness.
NHPR’s health reporter Elaine Grant has more.

A course catalog for a college student in the humanities might include European history, anthropology, or modern American literature.

You’re not likely to find classes in attention economics, mapping, and reality engineering. Those are some of the 21 courses suggested by bloggers and new media types under a project spearheaded by the site Snarkmarket.com.

The goal? To realize a course catalog for the 21st century. Joining us to explain the project is Robin Sloan. He’s vice-president of strategy at Current TV and one of the three principal bloggers at Snarkmarket.

The Boston Phoenix: Rethinking liberal arts in the digital age

Access a free PDF of the book New Liberal Arts

(Photo by Wolfgang Greller via Flickr/Creative Commons)

It’s always nerve-wracking to graduate college and find that first job but for this year’s class the recession makes it all the harder. Some have deferred the pain, by going to Graduate School or joining programs like Teach for America. Some have joined the military, while many others are busy hunting – and are filling out applications and moving back home with mom. We’ll talk with panel of new graduates from the Granite State about their hopes, fears and challenges as they enter the real world.

Guests

• Elizabeth Neilan, A 2009 Graduate from the University of New Hampshire in Manchester with a degree in History
• Justin Rondeau, A 2009 Graduate from the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Justin graduated summa cum-laude with a degree in Philosophy
• Dan O'Brien, A 2009 Graduate from Dartmouth with a degree in Government.

We'll also hear from

• Sam Kapala, A 2009 Graduate from Williams College, originally from Hopkinton..