Kristin van Ogtrop's Blog, page 344
May 5, 2011
Don't Pin College Funding Hopes on Athletic Scholarships
My middle daughter is eleven, stands 5-foot-8 and loves the game of basketball. Her dad, who stands nearly 6-foot-7, funded his college education on a basketball scholarship. While we save our pennies for those upcoming tuition bills, I harbor secret fantasies about her winning a full ride to school on a sports scholarship. But a new analysis suggests that's a fantasy that's unlikely to be fulfilled -- and the prospects are especially dim for female students.
Mark Kantrowitz, founder of the college informational site finaid.org, just released an analysis of college sports scholarships in the 2007-2008 school year. Just 1.4 percent of students -- 1.6 percent of male students and 1 percent of females -- received athletic scholarships. Average award: $7,855.
Combined with other institutional grants, athletes received an average of $10,257 -- well above the $6,278 average for students who did not get athletic scholarships. However, the extra dough doesn't play a huge role in minimizing costs, because athletes tend to choose more expensive colleges. The total cost of attendance for recipients of athletic scholarships was $24,335 -- $4,560 higher than the $19,775 average for non-recipients, Kantrowitz found.
On the other hand, cumulative debt at graduation is lower for athletic scholarship recipients than non-recipients. Nearly 57 percent of bachelor's degree recipients who received athletic scholarships in 2007-08 graduated with debt, compared with 65 percent of students who did not receive an athletic scholarship that year, Kantrowitz writes.
The average cumulative debt at graduation was nearly $18,000 for students who received an athletic scholarship, about $5,200 less than the $23,200 average for non-recipients. (Perhaps fans are buying the athletes pizza dinners and beer, thus reducing their propensity to borrow for living expenses.)
Moreover, while gender equity in athletic scholarships has improved, men continue to receive a disproportionate share of athletic scholarships. Among those enrolled in a bachelor's program, men received 54 percent of athletic scholarships to women's 43 percent. Enrollment numbers among all students in bachelor's degree programs are the reverse: 55 percent women to 45 percent men.
Finally, while students who receive athletic scholarships have lower grade point averages than non-recipients (2.88 versus 2.99), they are more likely to finish their degrees. Of students in bachelor's degree programs who received athletic scholarships in 2003-04, 72.5 percent graduated with a bachelor's degree by 2009 (i.e., within 6 years). This compares with 63 percent for non-recipients. The graduation rates for men and women were nearly identical -- 72.6 percent and 72.5 percent respectively. Perhaps the drive that fuels high performance on the playing field translates to the classroom.
Do you plan to help your children pay for college? Are you saving, borrowing, begging from grandparents, friends and neighbors? Do you expect your child to work and earn some of the tuition costs, commute from home or attend junior college to lower the bills? What's your plan?
Did You Know That You Can Freeze Rice?
If dinnertime is a struggle because you don't have enough time to make a full meal (and still eat before 9:45 pm) try this trick to cut down on prep time.
Next time you make rice, double the recipe and freeze the extra portions. That way next time you need rice for a meal it will take no more than 5 minutes to make.
Here are the step-by-step instructions:
Pack it up. Make a batch of rice and let it cool. (Try one of these recipes.) Spoon meal-size portions into freezer-safe, microwave-safe containers. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Reheat it. When you're ready to eat the rice, remove the container's lid, sprinkle the frozen grains with 1 to 2 tablespoons water, cover the container with a dampened paper towel, and microwave on high for 1 to 3 minutes (depending on the portion size); fluff gently, then repeat. Let stand for 2 minutes before fluffing and serving.
What are your make-ahead meal strategies?
Related:
Last Minute Gift Ideas For Mother's Day...
This is for anyone who is still in need of a great Mother's Day gift (you know who you are)!
Our fantastically fabulous friend Robert Verdi has compiled a list of wonderful gifts for every type of mom (from the Mom-On-The-Go to the Bombshell Mom)---and at every price point!
Checkout this fun video for all the details...
Robert Verdi's Ultimate Mother's Day Gift Guide from Robert Verdi on Vimeo.
Simplicity in Naming Children?
My name is a fairly
My friend Krystal has the exact opposite experience. She gets mail addressed to Crystal almost every day. Additionally, she has a last name of Polish decent, which is riddled with Ks, Vs, and Is. When she and her husband decided to have children, they joked about changing their last name to Smith, simply to make it easier on the kids (they didn't).
A current trend in naming children is to make the name as unique as possible or to spell a common name in a creative way. For example, my friend's son is in a preschool class with Caitlyn, Kaitlyn, Katelyn, and Katelynn.
Obviously, there isn't anything wrong with choosing a unique name or an uncommon spelling for your child's name. And, if your child truly dislikes his or her name, it can be legally changed. But, is giving your child an uncommon name a waste of your child's time and energy over the years? Would choosing a more simple or common name keep frustrations, corrections, and time explaining the name at a bare minimum? Is there any value in keeping a name simple? Does it matter?
I chose to give my son an uncommon name that has a very common word for a nickname (my husband's family is all about nicknames). He will be able to choose how he wants to be addressed, with an uncommon or common name.
What do you think? Should simplicity be considered when picking out a name for a child? Or, does it not matter at all? I'm interested in reading your thoughts on this interesting subject.
Thank You For Picking Your Nose
This seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. Mais, non.
Talking about money over dinner in France is just not done. Tacky. As for splitting the bill? Bad, bad, bad. This is just one of many tips the editors at Lonely Planet are sharing, in time to arm travelers heading to unfamiliar territory during their summer vacation.
For instance, in Thailand it is OK to pick your nose in public (shows good hygiene). Waving an open palm at someone in Greece is rude (it's like giving someone the finger). And in Russia, women never sit on the ground in public.
Local customs can be tricky to parse, no matter where you go. In Japan, where my husband lived for a year, he was told that sticking your chopsticks into a bowl of rice and leaving them there, like some kind of a free-form sculpture, is an insult because it symbolizes death. Of course, now that I think of it, sticking chopsticks into a bowl of rice and leaving them there would be considered rude even at my house. Note to daughters: So would sticking a fork into a bowl of rice and leaving it there.
I'm headed back to France this summer with friends. Maybe they'll pick up the check.
What about you? Have you made any inadvertent gaffes when traveling in a foreign country? If so, how would you handle the situation differently next time?
Recipes for a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta
Like Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo is one of those holidays many of us celebrate simply because it gives us an excuse to eat and drink. And really, what's wrong with that? Nothing, I say—and any occasion that calls for margaritas and chips and guacamole is just fine with me. Here are some recipes to get you in the mood for a fiesta, whether you just want to raise a cocktail or have a full-on Mexican feast.
Classic Margaritas
Easy Guacamole
Fresh Tomato Salsa
Grilled Corn With Cheese and Lime
Mushroom and Poblano Tostadas
Sweet Corn Quesadillas
Chicken Enchiladas With Green Salsa
Spiced Beef Empanadas With Lime Sour Cream
Chorizo-Potato Tacos With Black Bean Slaw
Mexican Meatball Soup
Slow-Cooker Beer-Braised Pork and Black Bean Soup
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
(image: Dana Gallagher)
May 4, 2011
Can my Kindle help my dyslexic son read?
As promised, my son and I are continuing on our quest to find technologies that will address his reading problems related to dyslexia.
Through my research I had learned that allowing a child to listen to a book while he's reading can help him improve his comprehension.
While looking for books that my 8 year old son would enjoy, AND had audio versions available, I quickly came to a conclusion – this could get expensive and/or complicated.
Our son had decided he wanted to read Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, a book we had been given by a friend when he was born. Looking online, I found LibriVox, a resource of volunteer-read books in the public domain, including Black Beauty. The problem was the text in the book didn't match the audio because we had been given an abridged version of the book.
LibriVox does provide printable or downloadable versions of the books, including a version that can be uploaded to my Kindle. But that got me thinking – if I was going to let him use my beloved Kindle, there might be a better way to do it.
He's reading a series of books by Dan Gutman called "My Weird School" which he's really enjoying. But buying the audio version of each book would get expensive (Book #1, Miss Daisy is Crazy, is $9 on Audible) and finding them at the local library isn't guaranteed.
Although I had never used the feature, I knew the Kindle could read books with the text-to-speech function. Downloading one of the Weird School books we didn't already own, I strapped a headset on my son's head and let him start reading.
It's certainly not the perfect reading solution, but all things considered it worked really well.
While I found the voice to be a little too robotic for my taste, my son LOVED being read to by the Kindle. Catching him as he stared off in space, I had to remind him that he was supposed to be reading along with the voice, not listening like it was an audiobook.
Starting the Kindle reading is not intuitive, and our son could also benefit from a cursor moving under the words to keep him on track. I would also love parental controls on the Kindle as I am sharing my account with my son and don't want him a) buying anything without my permission or b) accidentally downloading my "adult literature."
At this time I have to buy the books (which, truth be told, I'm doing anyway. I just don't make it to the library as much as I'd like), but I am looking forward to when we can start checking out Kindle books from our local library (according to Amazon this will be sometime in 2011).
So we're counting this experiment as a success - and I'm considering whether I'm going to need to buy myself a new Kindle!
Does your child use a Kindle?
Can my Kindle teach my dyslexic son to read?
As promised, my son and I are continuing on our quest to find technologies that will address his reading problems related to dyslexia.
Through my research I had learned that allowing a child to listen to a book while he's reading can help him improve his comprehension.
While looking for books that my 8 year old son would enjoy, AND had audio versions available, I quickly came to a conclusion – this could get expensive and/or complicated.
He's reading a series of books by Dan Gutman called "My Weird School" which he's really enjoying. But buying the audio version of each book would get expensive (Book #1, Miss Daisy is Crazy, is $9 on Audible) and finding them at the local library isn't guaranteed.
Our son had decided he wanted to read Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, a book we had been given by a friend when he was born. Looking online, I found LibriVox, a resource of volunteer-read books in the public domain, including Black Beauty. The problem was the text in the book didn't match the audio because we had been given an abridged version of the book.
LibriVox does provide printable or downloadable versions of the books, including a version that can be uploaded to my Kindle. But that got me thinking – if I was going to let him use my beloved Kindle, there might be a better way to do it.
Although I had never used the feature, I knew the Kindle could read books with the text-to-speech function. Downloading one of the Weird School books we didn't already own, I strapped a headset on my son's head and let him start reading.
It's certainly not the perfect reading solution, but all things considered it worked really well.
While I found the voice to be a little too robotic for my taste, my son LOVED being read to by the Kindle. Catching him as he stared off in space, I had to remind him that he was supposed to be reading along with the voice, not listening like it was an audiobook.
Starting the Kindle reading is not intuitive, and our son could also benefit from a cursor moving under the words to keep him on track. I would also love parental controls on the Kindle as I am sharing my account with my son and don't want him a) buying anything without my permission or b) accidentally downloading my "adult literature."
At this time I have to buy the books (which, truth be told, I'm doing anyway. I just don't make it to the library as much as I'd like), but I am looking forward to when we can start checking out Kindle books from our local library (according to Amazon this will be sometime in 2011).
So we're counting this experiment as a success - and I'm considering whether I'm going to need to buy myself a new Kindle!
Does your child use a Kindle?
Helpful Website: I Can't Find My Phone
No matter how organized you are, there are times (usually when you're late and trying to run out the door) that you can't find your phone or your keys or the file you need for your first meeting of the day. Luckily, there's a website that can help you locate at least one of those things: I Can't Find My Phone.
Simply enter your phone number and the website will call your cell phone (or even your cordless phone that is hiding in your couch cushions or your teenage daughter's room). Now if only those missing keys were in the same place.
[via Incredible Things]
Related:
We Asked: What Is Your Favorite Book Series?
At least, what is your favorite book series besides Harry Potter? The broom-wielding wizard swept the competition, scoring the most votes by far, so a tip of the Sorting Hat to him. Here are the answers that were printed in the June issue.
About two years ago, my sister introduced me to the China Bayles mysteries, by Susan Wittig Albert. In each book, China and her pals sleuth and solve crimes in their Texas town. The plots are fun, but what I love most is reading about the spice store owned by the protagonist. The pages overflow with tips on growing herbs and cooking—they entertain and educate me all at once.
—posted by Rosemary
Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books, which document the devoted friendship of Betsy Ray and Tacy Kelly. They taught me a timeless truth: A girl's dearest friends are a real gift. To pass on this lesson to future generations, I often give the first volume of this 1940s-era series to my friends' newborn daughters.
—posted by Molly
The title character of the Isabel Dalhousie novels, by Alexander McCall Smith, is an editor at the fictional publication Review of Applied Ethics. Through her work, Isabel helps others with the philosophical problems that complicate their lives. I'm intrigued by the dilemmas she grapples with, and over the years I have grown attached to the warm, realistic supporting characters in the series, including Isabel's love interest, her niece, and her housekeeper.
—posted by Emily
Published between 1940 and 1950, Conrad Richter's Awakening Land series tracks the life of a woman named Sayward Luckett as she grows from barefoot adolescent to town matriarch. I like to reread the series every few years. The first time, I was a young mom and identified with Sayward's transition from wife to mother. Years later, I could relate to her marital stress and her challenges with raising teenagers. Whenever I'm in conflict, it helps me to think, What would Sayward Luckett do?
—posted by Molly
Are you reading this via an e-mail or RSS feed? If you wish to comment, please click here.
