Finding a Budget-Friendly College or University By Using the New College Scorecard by the U.S. Department of Education

Today, the new college scorecard from the U.S. Department of Education made it's debut on a new website - https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/. This scorecard is meant to help parents and students discover the best and more affordable higher education opportunities for their families.

Also, the new College Scorecard tool was featured on the White House Blog and the Department of Education blog today - Under the Hood: Building a New College Scorecard with Students.

In addition to the New College Scorecard (Comprehensive and Updated Data on Higher Education Institutions), there are several additional resources for families to find the more affordable college with the best features (majors, minors, etc.) for their students. These resources (as featured on the Department of Education Blog) include the following:

Additional Customized Tools for Students

- Scholarmatch

- StartClass

- College Abacus

- Payscale

- InsideTrack

As higher education administrators, faculty, and staff, it is important to know the information that exists about our institutions that is available on the internet. Did you find anything interesting about your institution (or aspirant institutions in the data available via any of the websites listed above)?

Let us know!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
- Twitter/Instagram - @drjtedwards
- http://www.facebook.com/millennialprofessor/
- drjtedwards at gmail.com

Dorm Room Tours, Dorm Room Hauls, and Student Success

When I lived on the third floor at Steen Hall, I had a dorm room to myself as a Resident Assistant and I loved decorating the room in red and yellow (cardinal and straw) because those were the colors of my sorority (Chi Omega). I wish that I still had pictures, but I want you to know that my room was NOTHING compared to the rooms that you will see in the dorm room tours at the end of this post. All of the videos are focused on dorm room decorations!

If I had a room similar to these rooms, I would never leave! These rooms are truly like home for these students. As a higher education professional, our task is to make the day and evening activities attractive enough for students to venture our of their residence halls.

Love, love, love the summer dorm room halls and the finished product...the dorm room (residence hall) tours!

Here are the dorm room tours!

College Dorm Tour 2015 - Lilly Pulitzer Inspired Kaitlyn Mekel

One of my favorite (and very organized) bloggers - At Home With Nikki's College Dorm Room Tour

Veri Keri (another amazing vlogger)'s Dorm Room Tour

As you can see, decorating a dorm room (residence hall room) is not an easy feat. Also, it will not be an easy feat getting these students out of their residence hall rooms to attend residence hall programming (or programming for student life). Let's make our programming (and classes) appealing for these students and remain student centered this fall!

Here's my disclaimer, I am one of those odd professors who will call students and send them direct messages on Twitter if they are late to class or if they did not attend class (or turn in assignments).

In addition, this fall, I am working with an amazing group of students in a living learning community and they have a shared kitchen (which will be their common living space). Exciting opportunity for this faculty member!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
- Twitter/Instagram - @drjtedwards
- http://www.facebook.com/millennialprofessor/
- drjtedwards at gmail.com

Student Success Seminars for Student Success and Retention

I am always on the lookout for new student success programs and services that would benefit universities in Texas. Each week, I receive a notification when a new program or service is featured in the press and this one really caught my eye!

The article "Student Success Seminars Aim to Motivate Students" is focused on student success seminars (not just workshops) focusing on different interventions to help students succeed in their coursework and in their life at the university. This is a neat approach focused on the "total student" both in their academic life and in their extra curricular life.

These are some of the topics featured in their series: App Academy, Chill Out, and my favorite "Finish in Four: 640 Days". This is absolutely a neat, informational approach for universities that I look forward to replicating!

Sincerely,

@drjtedwards