Student Loan Blog : paying for college

Report: High Scorers May Benefit Most From Standardized Test Preparation

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:35:00 GMT

Students who receive above-average scores on standardized college admissions tests, such as the SAT, may benefit the most from commercial test preparation services, according to new report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, although the benefits of such test preparation may not outweigh the costs for many families (“Test Preparation May Help High Scorers Most, Report Says,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 20, 2009).

Research indicates that commercial test preparation services may raise students’ SAT scores by up to 30 points, however the score gains may not be directly attributable to the coaching alone, says author of the NACAC report Derek Briggs, associate professor of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In his report, “Preparation for College Admission Exams,” Briggs suggests that students who don’t use test prep services may still be able to achieve the same range of score increases seen by those students who do use the services just by purchasing a test preparation handbook and taking a series of practice tests.

“If there are effects to be gained through preparation,” Briggs said, “can you get the same effect without spending the money? That’s a pertinent question in this economy.”

Does Test Prep Coaching Improve Admissions Chances?

Of all the colleges Briggs surveyed in his study, only one third said that in some cases an increase of 20 points on the math portion of the SAT or an increase of 10 points on the critical-reading section could “significantly improve” an applicant’s chance of being admitted. This was especially true, the report indicated, at highly selective colleges where applicant scores tend to fall within a narrow range.

“If you come from a wealthy family and have high scores to begin with and can spend $1,000, then test prep might be worth it for those 30 points,” Briggs said. “What’s unfortunate is if middle- class or poorer families think test prep is going to raise their scores by 300 points. If you’re a kid with scores between 400 to 500, I’m not sure it’s going to make any difference.”

Seppy Basili, a vice president at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, is concerned what effect Brigg’s findings might have on test takers, especially black and Hispanic students who typically don’t score as high as white students on the SAT.

Basili said, “I wouldn’t want the message to minority students to be that you can’t benefit by preparing.”

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Ohio Schools Prep for No-Cost College Education Program for Vets

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:53:00 GMT

Last summer Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland offered American military veterans worldwide a no-cost education at any of Ohio’s public colleges. The state has just now finished tallying its number of veteran students in preparation for the program’s Aug. 1, 2009 start date, the same day the new GI Bill goes into effect, reports The Columbus Dispatch (“Colleges Put Out Welcome Mat for Vets,” May 13, 2009).

Currently about 10,600 veterans and their family members take classes at Ohio institutions, including about 850 veterans at Ohio State University.

But about 57,000 veterans residing in Ohio who have served in the ongoing Gulf wars will be able to receive benefits under the expanded GI Bill, which covers the cost of in-state tuition at the most expensive public college, a small housing stipend, and $1,000 annually for books.

Veterans may also take advantage of the Ohio GI Promise initiated by Gov. Strickland, which extends in-state benefits, including tuition costs, to out-of-state veterans and their families as part of the state’s effort to eliminate brain drain.

Creators of the Ohio GI Promise program are hoping that the combination of their program with the new GI Bill benefits will attract 230,000 students to the state by 2017.

Programs Expand to Accommodate Anticipated Veteran Enrollment

When the new GI Bill goes into effect this August, Ohio State alone estimates an additional 300 to 400 students will enroll. To accommodate the projected hike in veteran enrollments under the new GI Bill, the school is analyzing what services it currently offers and how its programs can be expanded to meet the needs of these students.

Veterans will be able to participate in counseling, healthcare, and mentoring opportunities as well as attend monthly meetings with other veterans for encouragement and support through Ohio State. The school will offer veterans-only general education classes that facilitate the return of former military members back to civilian life.

Columbus State Community College has also instated a service that puts veterans in touch with counseling, housing, and financial services.

If a large number of veterans choose to remain in Ohio following graduation, Ohio leaders believe that a higher number of skilled workers will repopulate sections of the state that have been depopulated because of military campaigns in the Gulf.

“We see it as a magnet,” said Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, “to lure veterans to come and build a life in Ohio.”

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$17,000 Obama Scholarship to Be Awarded to 1,600 Arizona Students

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:01:00 GMT

Arizona State University officials have decided to rename the school’s largest financial aid program after President Barack Obama in honor of his commencement address to ASU’s 2009 graduating class, reports The Arizona Republic (“1,600 ASU Freshmen Will Qualify for Obama Scholarship,” May 7, 2009).

Approximately 1,600 incoming ASU freshmen could now qualify for an award under the President Barack Obama Scholars Program, after the school increased the qualifying family income from $25,000 to $60,000. Worth up to $17,000, the need-based scholarship will cover tuition, fees, books, and room and board and will require recipients to take on a work-study job on campus.

The decision to rename the scholarship program came shortly after ASU began receiving negative publicity for not choosing to award President Obama with an honorary degree. ASU President Michael Crow apologized for the stir created by the university’s controversial decision but stood by his adherence to the school’s policy, which doesn’t allow for honorary degrees to be awarded to sitting politicians.

Crow says that the scholars program meets Obama’s goal of allowing more students to attend college. He said, “This is an important commitment on our part to make certain (that) students still have access to the universities.”

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After 86% Tuition Increase, Texas Senate Says “Enough Is Enough”

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:09:00 GMT

The Texas Senate has voted to limit future tuition hikes, including a 5–percent yearly cap for the largest universities in the state, after seeing the state’s 35 public universities increase tuition and fees 86 percent since 2003, reports The Dallas Morning News (“Bill Limiting College Tuition and Fee Hikes Clears Texas Senate,” May 5, 2009).

Under the proposed law, all colleges and universities whose rates currently exceed the state’s median tuition and fee rate would either have to hold their tuition and fees at 5 percent or at the average rate of inflation, whichever figure is lower. If the bill becomes law, the new restrictions would apply to 17 state universities.

The bill will “make sure all Texans who seek the opportunities higher education can provide are not priced out of a world-class education,” said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Six years ago lawmakers handed over the control of setting tuition rates and fees to the governing boards of the state’s colleges and universities, a move that legislators have since regretted after seeing tuition jump so dramatically in such a short period of time, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, the bill’s sponsor, drafted the legislation not only in the hopes of preventing similar tuition increases in the future, but also to remove the possibility of wiggle room for schools when setting their tuition and fees: the measure includes provisions that expressly prohibit schools from raising fees or levying any additional charges of any kind.

“There will be no more games played” by universities with tuition and fees, Zaffirini said, citing complaints from Texas families statewide.

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Attention Freshmen and Transfer Students: Colleges Still Have Openings

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:25:00 GMT

Almost 260 colleges and universities around the country still have openings for students, and most of these schools still have ample financial aid available, according to survey results from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (“NACAC Survey: Space and Financial Aid Still Available for Students On College Campuses,” May 2009).

Results from this year’s NACAC annual survey, Space Availability Survey: Openings for Qualified Students, indicated that schools still have spaces available for both freshmen and transfer students who may have not been accepted to their first choice schools or who have yet to apply to college. And, 97 percent of the institutions said they had housing space remaining.

The survey, conducted shortly after the May 1 “decision date” deadline, by which many schools require students to confirm their attendance and submit deposits, is designed as a tool for families, counselors, and teachers to help students who have not yet completed the college admissions process.

More than 70 percent of the 258 NACAC member schools that, in the survey, said they still had spaces available were private institutions. Many of these schools had anticipated lower enrollment numbers this fall after a separate survey found that the recession was forcing one out of six students to change their college plans (“Will the Economy Really Change Students’ College Plans? Signs Say Yes,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24, 2009).

That survey, conducted by the College Board and the higher-education consulting firm the Art & Science Group, indicated that 41 percent of students were seriously considering a public college closer to home over a private institution.

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University of Michigan Not Going Private, President Says

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:28:00 GMT

University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman has stepped forward to set the record straight with TIME magazine after an article in the publication began circulating rumors about the university being forced to privatize due to state budget constraints, The Detroit News reports (“U-M President Refutes Report That University Will Go Private,” April 28, 2009).

“No such discussions are under way, nor are they being considered,” Coleman wrote in a letter to TIME, refuting the magazine’s April 23 article.

TIME reported in its article that this year’s graduating class from the University of Michigan would have “the distinction of possibly being one of the last graduating classes of a genuinely public institution.”

Earlier this year a work group was tasked with finding ways to cut some $326 million in state appropriations to the school’s higher education budget. Privatizing the university was the commission’s fourth suggestion, but the idea never gained any notable public support.

“It is a provocative idea but not very realistic,” said Cynthia Wilbanks, the university’s vice president for government relations, in a statement. “Further, it would take more than a recommendation from the commission. There would have to be legislative and citizen involvement in a decision like this that involves a constitutional change.”

President Coleman’s letter to TIME also addressed the fact that the magazine inaccurately portrayed the University of Michigan’s budget situation.

“Due to careful management, we are in better financial shape than many of our peers, both public and private,” Coleman wrote in her rebuttal. “It is true that we have worked to boost revenues from other sources as the state’s financial support has declined, but what defines a public institution goes far beyond its funding sources.”

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‘Swine Flu’ Causes Colleges to Cancel Study Abroad Programs

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:29:00 GMT

Although the swine flu virus (H1N1) hasn’t hit most U.S. college campuses, college health officials are starting to take precautions, including cancelling study abroad programs in Mexico, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (“Swine Flu Prompts More Colleges to Cancel Study-Abroad Programs in Mexico,” April 28, 2009).

Earlier this week, the University of Minnesota announced it was suspending “all current and planned education abroad programs in Mexico until further notice” and advised its 21 students currently studying in Mexico to return immediately. The school also canceled several other Mexico-bound programs, involving an additional 52 students that were set to depart in May.

The University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire said that it would not be proceeding with its six-week summer program in Mexico, scheduled to begin May 26. The 23 participating students will be given the option to study abroad in Costa Rica instead.

Officials at Butler University in Indianapolis have called off a three–week Spanish language immersion program for more than a dozen students, which was scheduled to begin in about two weeks.

And study abroad administrators at Pennsylvania State University at Altoona said they would be calling off a program in the Mexican cities of Guanajuato and Mexico City, which was to begin in just over a week.

Many college officials are adopting a “wait-and-see” attitude regarding the spread of the swine flu virus in the United States to see how it may affect their campuses and are closely monitoring reports from the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for guidance.

So far, only two institutions — both in the state of Massachusetts — have reported possible cases of infection of the swine flu virus: Amherst College and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and clinic.

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Student Records at Texas Women’s University Compromised

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:05:00 GMT

After discovering an online loophole that allowed him to access student records, Texas Women’s University student Josh Ingram thought he could use the loophole to change the recorded grades of any student he wanted, the Denton Record-Chronicle reports (“TWU Shuts Down, Secures Computer System After Student Finds Way to Access Adviser Reports,” April 25, 2009).

But school officials say no one, including authorized users of the student record system that Ingram breached, can change grades in the system since any changes made in the university’s Degree Audit Report System can’t be saved.

The online tool isn’t the university’s official record but a copy, school administrators said, that allows students to track their degree progress by viewing student grades and adviser reports. Officials assured students that the incident didn’t leave students vulnerable to identity theft.

“What we’re talking about is student's names, grades, and courses,” said Robert Placido, associate vice president of informational technology services for the Texas school. “It [the system] doesn’t do anything; you can’t save anything. I understand why the student who found it thought you could change information, but you can’t.”

The loophole left the university’s record system, which is typically accessible to only 803 authorized users, exposed to more than 12,000 unauthorized users, Placido said.

Before the university could step in and shut down the site, which took approximately four hours, Placido said that as many as 28 unauthorized individuals had accessed the system. The site has now been secured and is back online, he said, and the issue has been fixed.

As part of securing the system and getting it back online, Placido said, the university added harsh language to the adviser-access section of the site, warning violators who misused the portal that they could be prosecuted.

“We want everyone to understand their information is safe,” Placido said. “The loophole in the system is now closed.”

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$1M Awarded to Unnamed Whistleblowers in Federal Student Aid Suit

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:22:00 GMT

Alta Colleges, operating 17 campuses in six states, recently settled a lawsuit involving student-aid fraud allegations and has agreed to pay the federal government $7 million, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (“Proprietary College to Pay $7-Million to Settle Federal Student-Aid Charges,” April 20, 2009).

Unnamed whistleblowers filed the suit, which alleges Alta Colleges made false claims to be eligible for federal student aid, under the False Claims Act. The act allows individuals to sue on behalf of the federal government and get a portion of a suit’s monetary settlement, in this case, about $1.19 million.

The suit accuses Denver-based Alta Colleges Inc. of improperly obtaining a state license to operate in Texas under the name Westwood Colleges by lying that its campuses complied with state requirements on job-placement reporting.

To obtain the licensing, Alta claimed that more than 90 percent of its students received jobs after graduation when the actual figure was 54 percent and only about 33 percent of Alta graduates were actually placed in positions by the school, reports The Associated Press.

Alta was also accused of misrepresenting its interior design program, The Chronicle reports, saying that its program complied with professional interior design industry licensing requirements when it did not.

George Burnett, Alta CEO, assured school faculty and staff by letter that the company believes it had acted lawfully, but chose to settle with the government due to the projected cost and time involved in litigation.

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Students’ College Access to Improve, Vice President Pledges

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:50:00 GMT

Vice President Joe Biden intends to make higher education a reality for more young people, the Associated Press reports, in part by closing the gap between families’ incomes and rising college costs (“Biden Wants to Make Higher Ed More Affordable,” USA Today, April 18, 2009).

At a town hall–style meeting he hosted in St. Louis Biden told about 300 people that he’ll be asking the Treasury Department to figure out how to make college savings plans more effective and more reliable.

“We’re going to make a series of investments, investments in our families and our students,” he said, highlighting the administration’s efforts to improve tax breaks for families and increase need-based grants for low-and middle-income families.

White House Taps Existing Programs to Increase College Affordability

Since so many families save for college using tax-deferred 529 savings plans, which allow families to set aside funds to cover future tuition expenses, fees, books, and supplies, the Obama administration is examining a program that would allow families to take out low-interest loans against their 529 plans to help them cover college costs.

Obama has already increased funding for the need-based federal Pell Grant program, which helps low-income students afford school, but Biden said the Obama administration also wants to ensure continued Pell Grant funding by setting up the program to be automatically subsidized each year.

The government is also considering extending The American Opportunity Tax Credit beyond 2010, which allows families to claim a $2,500 tax credit for college expenses for up to four years.

But by far the most sweeping proposal from the Obama administration, which has drawn fierce criticism from leaders in the student loan industry, is the suggested cancelation of the federally funded student loan program.

Lenders say that cancelling the program will eliminate families’ option to choose from a variety of private lenders and federal student loan incentives and, instead, require them to borrow federal student loans through government’s Direct Loan Program.

Biden alleges that the move to cancel the federal student loan program would result in up to $94 billion in savings to the federal government over the next 10 years, which he said, “We can take … and reinvest … in more loans, more grants and more access to college.”

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Colorado Colleges ‘Safe’ for Now, Won’t Face $300 Million in Cuts

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:42:00 GMT

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter recently announced his refusal to eliminate $300 million in funding for Colorado public colleges and universities to ensure that that the state’s schools remain qualified for $760 million in federal stimulus money, The Denver Post reports (“Ritter Rejects Cuts to Colleges,” April 14, 2009).

Colorado institutions have already taken a $150 million hit, which the governor said he plans to make up over the next two years with stimulus funds from the federal government, assuming the state gets the funds. But short of saying that he would veto the $300 million in funding cuts for higher education — the governor’s first public stance on the state budget — Ritter has failed to offer any solution to the state’s budget crisis, critics say.

Like many governors across the nation, Ritter faces a huge state budget shortfall — $800 million to be exact — as he attempts to balance Colorado’s $17.9 billion budget.

Colorado lawmakers, for their part, have planned to raid cash funds, suspend property-tax breaks for seniors, and cut education budgets to partially cover the budget shortfall. And currently the state is considering two of several other possible initiatives to reduce the budget gap to manageable proportions: requiring furloughs for state employees and taking money from a worker’s compensation insurer.

Though an alternate plan to replace the $300 million in college cuts is not yet in place, college officials have said they’re cautiously optimistic.

Ritter's announcement was “a good step, but we aren’t out of the woods yet,” said Nancy McCallin, Colorado Community College System president. “We clearly don’t know where the $300 million will come from.”

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2009 College Grads: If You Can Find a Job, Expect a Lower Salary

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:14:00 GMT

Getting a decent job this spring is going to be tough: not only are employers projecting that they’ll hire 22 percent fewer college graduates, but they also plan to pay those graduates less than their peers were paid last year, according to The National Association of Colleges and Employers (“Most 2009 College Grads Find Lower Salary Offers,” BusinessWeek, April 8, 2009).

Last year, a typical senior graduating in 2008 was offered a salary of $49,624, while a senior graduating in 2009 can expect almost $1,000 less. Just six months ago, the NACE reported that salaries were up 7.6 percent year-over-year. Now, however, the percentage of disciplines reporting a decline in salary offers has tripled, BusinessWeek reports.

Some majors, including engineering and accounting, are doing better than others, says Leslie Kohlberg, the undergraduate career services director at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Engineering majors, for example, are getting offers that are on average 2.3 percent higher than last year at $58,438, while accounting majors have seen their offers climb by an average of 2 percent to $48,438.

“The projections for the future are that there will be continuing demand for the accounting majors,” says Richard White, undergraduate career services director at Rutgers University.

Business Majors in Demand

Although business majors as a whole showed only marginal improvements in salary offers over 2008 — with the average offer rising just 1 percent to $46,973 — business administration and business management majors did significantly better, with the average offer increasing 3.6 percent to $45,778. Finance majors also reported healthy hikes in their offers, up 2.3 percent to $49,754.

By comparison, recent graduates with liberal arts majors aren’t fairing as well as their business peers, with offers remaining flat at $36,807 compared to 2008 salaries.

And computer science majors, typically among the highest paid professionals, are seeing a drastic 11-percent drop in their salary offers compared to last year, which are down from an average of $65,379 last year to an average of $58,837 this spring.

Internships: Hope on the Horizon

Since graduates will be facing stiff competition when attempting to find full-time employment, some may opt to get their foot in the door with a prospective employer beforehand by landing an internship.

According to figures from their 2009 survey, NACE says that internship hiring is down 21 percent, yet, internship pay is up 5 percent. Pay is up partially because employers, holding out hope that the economy will rebound by next year, want to maintain a strong talent pipeline of new hires, BusinessWeek suggests.

Many employers are bumping up internship salaries and are even considering expanding benefits to ensure they get the best possible candidates for future positions, said Camille Luckenbaugh, who conducted the internship survey for NACE.

“Employers,” she added, “are saying ‘we don't have a lot of jobs but these [internship] programs are still really important to us and we still need to remain competitive.’ ”

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Students Reach Record-High Levels of Credit Card Debt

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

College students are piling up alarming amounts of credit card debt, according to a recent survey by student loan company Sallie Mae, which suggests that not only are more students relying on credit cards to pay for their rising college costs, but that more students are charging more frequently (“Average College Credit Card Debt Rises With Fees, Tuition,” April 13, 2009, USA Today).

“The message is clear,” said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. “Students are carrying more debt on credit cards, and more students are paying for education on credit cards.”

Sallie Mae’s survey of 1,200 private student loan applicants found that 84 percent of undergraduate students had at least one credit card, a 76-percent increase from 2004 when the survey was last conducted. The survey also revealed that students are carrying an average $3,173 in credit card debt — the highest level seen since the data was first collected in 1998.

Financial aid experts attribute these increases, in part, to the fact that college tuition and fees have increased 439 percent over the past 25 years and that the average median family income has not kept pace, rising only 147 percent by comparison, according to the National Center for Public Policy & Higher Education (“Study: Undergrads Relying on Credit at Record Levels,” Creditcards.com, April 13, 2009).

In fact, students in the survey cited not having enough “savings or financial aid to cover all the costs” of college as their number one reason for taking out a credit card, a problem that has been exasperated by the fact that private student loan lenders have scaled back lending and tightened their credit standards due to the waning credit markets.

Because lenders have severely limited students’ access to private student loans, students have more often been charging textbooks, room and board, and schools supplies to credit cards. In 2008, students charged an average of $2,200 in educational expenses on their cards, a 134-percent increase compared to four years ago.

Once considered the “lender of last resort,” says Kalman Chany, president of Campus Consultants, a college funding advisor, credit cards are now higher up in the hierarchy of students’ college funding sources. “If (students) can’t get private loans, they turn to credit cards.”

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Dorms Add to Community Colleges’ Appeal

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:19:00 GMT

In an attempt to offer a low-cost alternative to college students who typically attend more expensive private and public institutions, community colleges have started building on-campus dorms, a move that may soon alter the commuter culture at such schools, reports the Los Angeles Times (“Community Colleges Add Dorms to Boost Appeal,” April 7, 2009).

With tuition rising at most colleges and universities across the country, experts say that larger numbers of college-age students are opting to enroll in two-year schools offering the same type of college dormitory life traditionally found only at a four-year university. And many community colleges are actively promoting their on-campus housing amenities in their recruitment of international students and athletes, two demographics who often prefer on-campus housing.

“We do think it’s a trend for more community colleges to provide residential housing for students,” said Norma Kent, spokeswoman for the American Association of Community Colleges.

States Responding to Need for Community College Dorms

Dorms at community colleges are being built in Washington state, Florida, Texas, Minnesota, and California, where both the University of California and the California State University systems have said they will severely limit freshmen enrollment this fall.

Educators believe that California — with nearly 2.8 million community college students or roughly 25 percent of the nation’s total community college population — may be particularly ripe for adding new dorms.

With both of the state’s university systems accepting fewer freshmen this year, many of the 4,000 first-year students who’ve been denied admission to those four-year schools may be more likely to consider a two-year school that offers on-campus housing versus one that doesn’t.

And what may come as a surprise, the Los Angeles Times reports, is that 11 community colleges in the state already have dorms, although many of those decades-old dorms resemble 1950s-era military barracks. Other dorms, like those at Sierra College near Sacramento, have been updated and include meal plans honored at local restaurants, one of many features intended to lure students to its campus.

Cerro Coso Community College, a 300-student school located in Mammoth Lakes, says that its South Gateway Student Apartments — an $8.5 million residence hall built last August that can house 59 students — is the first new community college housing to go up in California in 20 years. Funded by a grant from the Mammoth Lakes Foundation, the new dorms aren’t cheap: $900 a month for a single room or $750 a month for a shared room, plus meals.

Feedback from students regarding community college dorms is largely positive. Some students say they’re succeeding at school for the first time and that they enjoy the intimate surroundings and small class sizes that community colleges can offer.

Sharon Carroll, a student at Cerro Coso Community College, said that if she had to fight the traffic and large class sizes of an urban community college, “I would have been sick of school already. I figured out a lot from being here. It made me want to go to a four- year college.”

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Gloomiest Job Outlook for New Grads in 25 Years

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:20:00 GMT

Recent college graduates face one of the worst job markets in years, making the prospect of finding a job that much more daunting at a time when America is experiencing the highest unemployment rate in a quarter century.

Landing a job may be even more difficult, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, since companies have indicated they plan to hire 22 percent fewer graduates this spring (“College Grads Face Worst Job Market in Years,” The Associated Press, March 31, 2009).

But that may not be the worst of the job shortage, says Sheila Curran, former head of career services at Duke University. Curran says that employers, particularly those that offer entry-level positions in April and May “just in time” to hire newly minted college graduates, may actually be looking to hire far fewer graduates than the survey indicates. However, the full extent of how much employers will pull back from hiring for these “just-in-time” positions — which account for 80 percent of jobs for new grads — may not be known until later this fall.

Despite a dismal job outlook for new graduates, career counselors say there are still some bright spots in certain industries.

Graduates looking for a job in the healthcare field are still in demand, and graduates looking for a career in finance may find jobs are still available, since small regional companies are stepping up their recruiting efforts on college campuses while larger firms in New York and elsewhere are downsizing, the Associated Press reports.

Surprisingly, one of the biggest potential employers for graduates this spring may be the federal government, which recently posted some 46,000 job openings on its website, including positions for budget analysts, historians, and firefighters.

Students Learning to Persevere as They Expand Their Networks

Career counselors say one good thing to come out of this tightened job market is that many students are being forced to develop better job-search skills than in years past when jobs were more readily available.

“In a sense it's like, ‘Welcome to the real world,’ and it’s not a bad thing,” said Elizabeth Alexander, manager of marketing and program evaluation for the career services center at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts. “If you come out of college thinking, ‘I’m entitled to a great job,’ the first time you get laid off, it’s going to come as a great shock. Life is full of peaks and troughs.”

New graduates, who will likely change jobs three times within five years of graduation, are learning valuable job-search skills that will help them persevere later in their careers, suggests the Associated Press.

“Where we’re seeing a difference this year is [that students] have to do the right things over and over again,” said Teresa Olsen, associate director of career services at Colgate University. “It’s not just reaching out to two or three contacts. They have to keep coming back.”

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