More News Roundup

Statehouse Races and Higher Ed
from Inside Higher Ed
They stand on a couch, but that doesn’t do the trick. They try again
from the stairs, but the two youngsters featured in Martin O’Malley’s
campaign advertisement just can’t touch that darned college diploma that’s framed on the wall. “These days, a college degree is just beyond the reach of too many Maryland families,” the announcer says in a foreboding voice. O’Malley’s opponent in the Maryland governor’s race, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., portrays himself as a middle-class success story in his own folksy campaign ad. To read the rest of the article click here.


Students Resort to Private Loans, Staggering Debt
from the San Francisco Chronicle
Ethan Winsby considers himself in financial ruin at age 27—but not because he lost at gambling or risked everything on a startup that went bust. Like a growing number of young adults, he had to take out private loans to attend college. To read the rest of the article click here.


B.A. Recipients Outearn High-School Graduates by $23,000, Census Bureau Says
from the Chronicle of Higher Education (requires registration)
New data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau provided renewed evidence of the economic benefits that accrue to people with college degrees. According to tables published in a report, “Educational Attainment in the United States: 2005,” people with bachelor’s degrees earn, on average, $51,554, while people with only a high-school diploma earn an average of $28,645. People who did not graduate from high school earn $9,000 less than that, on average. The report’s 14 tables describe the educational attainment of Americans by characteristics such as their age, sex, race, marital status, occupation, place of birth, and current place of residence. To read the rest of the article click here.


Awkward Moments
from the Chronicle of Higher Education (requires registration)
I shouldn't admit this in public, but here goes: I have often felt socially awkward around other academics. I'm not going to pretend that I am the belle of the ball when I'm with my nonacademic friends, but at least I never have those horrible moments where I feel like I speak the wrong language. In the six years I spent in my Ph.D. program in the history of science, I racked up a string of graceless, awkward, and uncomfortable social encounters. They provided a wealth of material for entertaining my nonacademic friends, but the downside was that I increasingly found myself dreading departmental social functions, because I knew I would just end up stammering and feeling stupid. To read the rest of the article click here.