Posts published on January 25, 2012
How Many AP Courses Are Too Many?
Stressful AP courses – a push for a cap
By Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle
Perfect isn’t good enough when it comes to getting into some of the country’s top colleges. Last year, the average grade point average of an accepted freshman applicant at UCLA was 4.34 – well above the former gold-standard 4.0 for straight A’s. The only way to push past a 4.0 and compete for a spot at Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley or UCLA is to take Advanced Placement courses, college-level classes that offer a grade-point premium, which typically increases a grade by an entire point, making, say, a B look like an A on a transcript. Over the past decade, students increasingly have loaded up on those classes, sometimes juggling so many that they have little time for anything besides academics. With four or more hours a day of homework, even sleep is often an afterthought.
Eliminate Tuition And Pay College Fees Through Subsequent Income?
By Larry Gordon/Los Angeles Times
System President Mark G. Yudof says staff will study student group’s proposal in which graduates would have to pay 5% of their wages for two decades. UC Riverside students received a dose of validation Wednesday from system President Mark G. Yudof over their radical plan to abolish tuition and replace it with post-graduation payments equaling 5% of their income for 20 years. Speaking at a UC regents meeting on the Riverside campus, Yudof said he was “very impressed” with the proposal — despite the obstacles it would face in implementation. “We think the ideas are constructive,” Yudof said, promising that his staff would study the plan. His comments were a triumph of sorts for Chris LoCascio, a UC Riverside student who has led an effort to find an alternative to skyrocketing tuition and a way to cope with shrinking state education revenues. (more)
