Growing up in Westminster in northern Maryland, Ron Shriver, 29, used to pass by the stately brick buildings of the college that is now McDaniel College and wonder: What went on up there on that hill overlooking Main Street? What would it be like to go to a college like that? What would it be like to go to college at all? Nobody in Mr. Shriver's…

Young immigrants--about 1.4 million of them nationally--are often in the wrong place at the wrong time. Across the country, a patchwork of state laws and policies governs their access to higher education. The inconsistency stems, in part, from disagreement over whether undocumented immigrants are entitled to go to college. While states must…

Robin Wagner, director of the library at Gettysburg College, remembers a few years ago when her son, Ben, was a high-school senior. While all his friends were talking about their college plans, Ben, who had been accepted to the University of Pittsburgh's engineering program, refused to return the offer card. On the band-room whiteboard where kids…

This article reports that a new study has found that young men are less likely to attend college if they carry a common form of a gene associated with poor impulse control. The study also found that a strong environment--a high-quality high school and heavily involved parents--can counteract that genetic risk. For boys with this gene who grow up…

The past two years have not been easy for Axel Freimuth, rector of the University of Cologne. Students have doused him with water as he walked through the campus, taken his lunch in the cafeteria, and held a two-week sit-in at his wood-paneled office in the Hauptgebaude, or main building. Their anger at the rector arose from a controversial…

This article presents the report of an advisory board suggesting that India must increase its number of universities to 1,500 by 2015. According to the report from the National Knowledge Commission, the suggested growth is necessary to to raise the proportion of Indian 18- to 24-year-olds entering higher education to at least 15 percent, up from…

Congress created Upward Bound in 1964 with the goal of preparing more low-income students for college. A few months later, it created a second college-preparation program, Talent Search. The pair of programs formed the foundation of TRIO, which now includes six outreach and support programs for disadvantaged students and veterans. Upward Bound's…

We have reached a critical juncture in the history of women and men in higher education. Today--decades after the women's movement started what became monumental gains for female students in terms of access, equity, and opportunity--the popular notion is that gender equity has been achieved. Some higher-education statistics do paint a rosy picture…

Describes how many colleges are overwhelmed by a wave of new students, but that a select few are riding the crest. (EV)

Colleges, once seen as beacons of egalitarian hope, are becoming bastions of wealth and privilege that perpetuate inequality. The chance of a low-income child obtaining a bachelor's degree has not budged in three decades: Just 6 percent of students from the lowest-income families earned a bachelor's degree by age 24 in 1970, and in 2002 still only…

Discusses why for-profit colleges, with their career-oriented programs, appeal to many Hispanic, Asian, and black students. (EV)

The first Survey of Public Opinion on Higher Education shows that the United States' faith in the value of college remains strong, despite misgivings about some longstanding practices. (EV)

Examines how the wealthy Lumina Foundation aims to improve student access to college, but that its origins in the student loan industry raise suspicions about its motives. (EV)

Describes how state budget cuts may pose a greater threat to minority access to higher education than would a Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in the Michigan cases. (EV)

Explores the divide among those who study higher education policy over whether preparation or money is the primary obstacle to college attendance for underprivileged students; federal policies could hinge on which side of the debate is favored. (EV)