Trinity College Dublin Places High in World Rankings

Trinity College Dublin has ranked high in recent assessment of universities worldwide. It ranked 48th among universities around the world in terms of scientific research and accomplishments in a survey published by the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Most recently, Trinity placed 61st worldwide by the QS World University Rankings 2013.

Trinity is a world renowned, highly prestigious university, and IFSA-Butler offers semester and year options at Trinity in a wide range of subjects. Click here to learn more about this terrific university and study abroad opportunity.

View the original article here

Trinity College Dublin Places High in World Rankings

View the original article here

Plan for Technology Costs When Saving for College

Parents should determine potential technology needs and costs and plan for that as part of college savings.

Textbooks may soon be as outdated as the phrase "Kodak moment."

That's how Jeff Livingston, a vice president with McGraw-Hill Education, sees it. "Kids won't even know what that word means," he says.

A result of this shift is the need for devices to access instructional materials from a personal computer outside of college computer labs, Livingston says. Parents who are saving for their children's college education shouldn't ignore this unavoidable expense just because it wasn't a necessity during their university days.

Experts recommend looking at past trends and current college technology needs as parents take the following steps to develop a savings plan for their child's future technology expenses.

[Avoid these mistakes when saving for college.]

1. Determine the student's technology needs: Students already in school have different technology needs than those who will start in a few years, Livingston says. "At this point, a student can get by with at least one device that can access the Internet as rapidly as the school can offer."

A variety of tablets and nearly any recent laptop will allow students to do just that, he says. While he doesn't recommend it as the only form of technology a student has, he's even heard some students say they get by with just a smartphone.

However, Livingston predicts that in the future, all course materials will be online and interactive. Old devices will be out-of-date faster because learning material will gain more interactive features.

He says parents should expect to replace laptops or tablets at least twice during the student's college years.

Current students as well as freshmen won't have to worry about purchasing two computers. Ryan Law, director of the Office for Financial Success at the University of Missouri, says computers purchased before college by current first- and second-year students will get them through their senior years.

2. Estimate the cost of future computers and tablets: Some good news is that technology prices traditionally haven't been affected by inflation. Prices have been fairly consistent over the years, says Livingston.

For more than 10 years, a good laptop or a personal computer has cost between $1,000 and $1,500, he says. "What changed is what you could get for $1,000 to $1,500."

Then, the tablet revolution meant a laptop or tablet, often suitable for use as a student's primary computer, could be purchased for $500 to $1,000, he says. He doesn't see prices going up beyond $500 to $1,000 – the change will be better technology for the same price.

[Discover last-minute ways to boost college savings.]

3. Consider the cost of instructional materials: Estimating the total future expenses of software and instructional materials is harder, Livingston says. However, he predicts these costs will be charged on a semester-by-semester basis, like tuition and fees.

A good model for comparison is LexisNexis, an online research database. Many law schools include subscription costs as part of tuition and fees. Livingston says parents could estimate a per-semester cost for all course materials of $300 to $400 for students more than two years away from attending college.

For teenagers entering college soon, parents or students should check with the school and department for software and other requirements, Law says. Schools such as Virginia Tech, Northwestern College and the University of Florida already have minimum computer requirements posted on their websites. However, software requirements frequently vary by major.

And parents who remember reselling textbooks to help pay for their next semester will have to nix this cost-saving idea – it's typically not possible to resell digital learning materials.

[Find out how a 529 plan can help parents save.]

4. Encourage children to help save: Based on Livingston's predictions, parents with two or more years before their child attends college need to save between $3,400 and $5,200 for technology and learning materials, including replacing a laptop or tablet once during four years of college. That price range includes $300 to $400 per semester for learning materials during those four years.

The good news for parents is that while children may not always understand tuition and fees, they usually understand the need for a computer.

"A teen who works from 16 to 18 can invest two years of earnings at a part-time job in a laptop," says Syracuse, N.Y.-based accountant Ted Sarenski. "Parents shouldn't shoulder all the costs and this is a perfect opportunity to get kids to invest in part of their education that they really understand and value."

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

View the original article here

Save for College in Accounts for Minors With Tax Benefits

Parents have access to many account options with tax benefits, including 529 plans, to help save for their children’s college.

There's more than one way to save for college. Many parents sock away college funds in tax-advantaged investment accounts called 529 plans, but there are other account options with tax benefits available.

New York City-based financial planner Stacy Francis says the money in accounts called Uniform Gifts to Minors Act or Uniform Transfers to Minors Act accounts can pay for things 529 plan funds aren't eligible for.

A Uniform Gifts to Minors Act or Uniform Transfers to Minors account can be a savings or checking account, mutual fund account or brokerage account, says Thomas Kazmierczak, a 529 plan specialist with financial firm T. Rowe Price. "The main difference between this kind of account and any another account is selecting Uniform Gifts to Minors account or a Uniform Transfers to Minors account on the generic account registration form."

Often, these accounts are referred to as custodial accounts, which means a parent or guardian makes decisions about the account until the child comes of age, generally between 18 and 21, depending on the account and the state.

[Learn what steps to take in choosing age-based 529 plans.]

The main advantage of Uniform Gifts to Minors Act or Uniform Transfers to Minors Act accounts is the ability to save without paying taxes on up to $1,000 in earnings, no matter what the child will eventually use the money for in the future. The next $1,000 dollars is taxed at the child's federal income rate, which is normally lower than what the parents would be taxed, Francis says. If the $1,000 is the child's only income that year, no tax would be charged because the standard deduction would cancel it out, she says.

If a parent contributed $100 per month to the account and the account grew at 5 percent annually, that's nearly $30 of growth the first year, which wouldn't be taxed. If the parent continued to make $100 monthly contributions for five years with annual growth of 5 percent, the annual growth for the fifth year will climb to almost $300.

If the child doesn't earn any other income, the earnings won't get charged taxes potentially for years into the future.

Some parents may want to remain in control of the assets throughout their offspring's college career. If a 529 plan lists the parent as the owner, that parent is always the owner and decision-maker, no matter how old the child or adult gets.

However, with Uniform Gifts to Minors Act and Uniform Transfers to Minors Act accounts, a "downside is at that expiration, the assets belong to the child," says personal financial specialist Lisa Featherngill, managing director of planning for financial firm Abbot Downing.

Depending on an individual state's law, the child who is named as the beneficiary on a Uniform Transfers to Minors Act account gets full control of the funds somewhere between the ages of 21 to 25, though it's 21 in most states.

The Uniform Transfers to Minors Act account allows for more time for children to mature before they are given accounts, Francis says. Uniform Gifts to Minors Act accounts skew even younger: The account holder is generally given full control of all assets in the account at age 18, she says.

Whether a parent should set up a 529 plan account or an Uniform Gifts to Minors Act or Uniform Transfers to Minors Act account depends on whether or not the funds will be used for qualified education expenses. If parents saved in a 529 plan, they could be taxed on the portion of earnings not used for qualified education expenses, such as tuition and textbooks, and pay a 10 percent penalty on the unqualified education expenses withdrawal, Francis says.

"For example, if you contribute $100,000 into a 529 plan and it grows to $110,000 over time and you make an unqualified withdrawal for the entire amount, you are taxed on the $10,000 gain plus a 10 percent penalty on the $10,000," which would be $1,000, Francis says.

View the original article here

Ask 4 Questions About College Savings Plans at Banks

Parents shouldn’t pick a college savings plan solely because it’s sold by their bank.

Parents shopping for a college savings account have at least one place they can visit: a local bank. But before putting their money into an account offered by a bank, there are a few things they should know.

"Your bank may say, 'We have a college savings plan,' which may be true and legal and okay," says College Savings Plans Network Chairman Mike Fitzgerald, but it may or not be a tax-advantaged 529 plan.

Only six states offer 529 plans where banks act as the program manager, the direct contact for consumers: Arizona, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Alabama and Illinois.

[Understand how to juggle multiple 529 plans.]

But even outside of those six states, banks could still offer an adviser-sold 529 plan, experts say. An adviser-sold plan is a 529 plan that is sold through financial advisers instead of directly through a state agency or program manager. The drawback is that these plans generally have higher fees, but the plans offer more investment choices and one-on-one help from a financial adviser.

Parents who want to find out what the bank is really offering should ask these questions recommended by Fitzgerald and Rob Seltzer, a California-based certified public accountant and personal financial specialist.

1. Is it a 529 plan? The first question a parent should ask is whether the product the bank is offering is a 529 plan. A college savings plan that isn't a 529 plan can have all the same investment ingredients such as savings, certificates of deposits and mutual funds. But because it's not an official 529 plan, it doesn't qualify for federal tax benefits, state matching grants or state tax credits and deductions, says Fitzgerald.

[Learn how to earn high interest with a 529 plan.]

The other drawback of a college savings account that's not a 529 plan is that the account could have a larger effect on a student's financial aid award if it's in the student's name, he says. This is because children's assets and income impact financial aid awards more than a parent's income and assets. If a parent starts a 529 plan for a child, the money in the account is counted as parental assets.

2. Is it a direct-sold plan? A direct-sold plan is a plan offered directly by the state, and which generally has lower fees on investments, Fitzgerald says. The alternative to a direct plan is an adviser-sold plan that generally has commission fees built into the cost because the investment plans are sold by advisers. Banks can run a direct-sold program on behalf of the state.

First National Bank of Omaha, for example, is the program manager for Nebraska's direct-sold 529 plan. Parents can find out who manages their state's 529 plans at collegesavings.org.

3. Is the bank affiliated with a brokerage? Banks generally handle college savings plans that aren't 529 plans, whereas affiliate brokerages sometimes sell the 529 plans. If a 529 plan is an adviser-sold plan, your bank could have investment advisers who can enroll you in a 529 plan or have a business relationship with a brokerage that will sell you a 529 plan product, Seltzer says.

This doesn't mean parents will pay higher fees than they would with another adviser-sold plan, but it can mean your bank may be splitting the commission on your investments, he says.

That could give the bank a reason to encourage the individual to choose that brokerage over another or instead of a direct plan that has lower fees.

Corrected 6/26/13: A previous version of this article misstated Mike Fitzgerald’s position.

View the original article here

Answer 3 Questions to Write Your Personal Essay for a U.S. College

Prospective international students should focus on the experiences that have influenced their life and growth to write a personal statement.

You might wish you could just close your eyes and the personal statement for college would write itself. But even if it could, it wouldn't sound like you. To avoid having your personal statement sound fake, you'll still need to write it yourself.

Many international students struggle with writing a personal statement. Part of the college application, it is a short essay that asks you to tell the admissions department about yourself.

While that sounds simple, it can be tough to figure out what to write about and how to write it.

Some students tackle these challenges head-on, and they are the ones who are most likely to submit a genuine piece that shows their thorough self-reflection. You can too by asking yourself the following questions.

[Find out which universities draw the most international students.]

1. Are you trying to find the perfect topic? If you are struggling to do so, just stop and think: Do admissions officers look for a perfect topic? Every anecdote is its own precious story, and the way you tell it is what matters.

Your words, expressing your self-reflection combined with your original background, are the ones that admissions officers would like to discover, not a perfect essay similar to thousands of applications they have already read.

Don't worry if yours is not about a volunteer trip to Africa or a journey abroad that changed your life. If you have a great-grandpa whom you admire for his passion for gardening, write about what you learned from him that helped you, a teenager. If you love swimming, write about how the feel of the water helps you think through your difficulties.

As a prospective international student, you can use your home country as inspiration. Showing how your background makes you a good candidate for a U.S. college can strengthen your application and set you apart from your American peers.

Just keep calm and try to add depth to the ideas you have right now.

[Learn how to evaluate your dream U.S. college.]

2. Are you writing about someone else? Don't waste this precious opportunity by imitating a great essay you read somewhere. Writing about an ideal – or someone else – might be easy at first, but you will soon find out that your ideas and inspiration run out quickly.

In the college application package, you have only one chance to tell the admissions officers who you are in your own voice, not through your professors' perspectives or school documents. That chance is your essay.

Self-reflection is not always easy, but it's all about you and it's unique. Be honest and be you. Write, think and then rewrite until you get a true sense of how your piece could sound better.

Ultimately you will be surprised by how much the process of writing this personal statement helps you understand your dreams, your passions and yourself more thoroughly.

[Ask about cost and reputation before applying to a U.S. college.]

3. Are you procrastinating? Another big mistake applicants make is not starting early. It delays your application process, makes you rush unnecessarily at the end of the application season and can lead you to miss deadlines or send your piece to the wrong school.

Many of my friends wish they could have had more time to write and proofread their personal statements more carefully. That would have helped them avoid submitting a statement with lots of grammatical mistakes or that used phrases that only speakers from their native country would understand.

Prospective international students whose first language is not English should plan to take extra time to revise and proofread their essays. It is not always easy to choose the right phrases that can clearly express your ideas. The earlier you start, the more time you have to sharpen your personal statement.

In my own experience, rushing to get the piece finished has never given me a happy feeling, and I was never satisfied with the result.

Rather than writing your personal statement just to get it done, treat the process of writing as a journey to discover yourself. From there, your inspiration should blossom.

Mai-Linh Bui, from Vietnam, is a junior at Drexel University, studying Communications, French and International Area Studies.

View the original article here

Budget for Unexpected Personal Expenses in College

Consider fluctuating costs for personal expenses and necessities like gas and food as you plan your college savings strategy.

The cost of college beyond tuition and fees, textbooks and room and board can come as a shock to many parents and students.

University of Nebraska—Lincoln senior Sadid Carrillo says he's been able to budget for his college years because he "tried not to be wasteful."

He avoids eating out most of the time, and says dining off campus is the downfall for most students' budgets. "Especially in Lincoln you're a block away from where all the restaurants are at, so it's hard not to go out and eat everyday, which a lot of students do," he says.

[Learn how to create a student budget.]

"Families don't normally plan for these expenses, but they do occur," says Paul Goebel, director of the Student Money Management Center at the University of North Texas. His office offers budgeting help to parents, students and alumni.

"Whenever the price of gas goes up, so do the number of consultations students schedule with our office," says Goebel. "Transportation is often an underestimated cost," whether students come to campus for classes, drive to jobs or go home.

"An increase of any personal expense can easily throw a student's budget into the red," he says.

Parents and students should not only remember to save for these expenses, but to save more than they estimate.

"One reason for this is personal expenses are the great unknown," says Bob Burger, an Arizona-based financial planner. The rising costs of tuition and fees and room and board have been well-documented in studies – including those published by the College Board and the Department of Education – but the rising costs of transportation and personal expenses aren't as well known.

Experts suggest parents plan to save for these costs outside of 529 plan accounts, because withdrawals for nonqualified expenses like gas from these tax-advantaged college savings accounts can carry steep penalties. On a $2,000 withdrawal from a 529 account, the penalty would be $200 on investment earnings before any taxes.

Both Burger and David Blain, a certified financial planner from North Carolina, recommend parents incorporate saving for college as part of their overall financial planning.

Parents shouldn't neglect their own needs while planning for their children's. Financial goals such as retirement shouldn't be disregarded.

"Very few parents are going to say 'Nope, you have this amount in your 529 plan, I'm not helping with anything else,'" Burger says. He's told parents of current college students, "'You're going to run out of retirement if you pay for these college expenses,' and they still do it."

The best defense is planning ahead and setting limits. Blain tells parents to put money in their children's names that they will never need for themselves.

[Encourage children to save for college with these tips.]

Burger says any money left over after parents pay educational expenses can be used for a wedding, a down payment on a future home or another way to make an adult child's life easier.

To decide how much to save for a child's personal expenses, Blain and Burger recommend slightly different strategies. Burger says he takes an estimate of the current cost of these expenses and adds 3 percent per year for each year until the child is expected to use the funds to account for rising prices.

For parents of young children, Blain generally estimates these expenses will run about 20 percent of tuition and fees and room and board per year, and then he adds the cost of inflation. However, he also tells parents to decide just how much they want to spend. At a school that costs $14,000, he recommends parents expect $1,500 to $3,000 in extra expenses.

[Discover more ways to save on college costs.]

"The higher the cost of the school, the more students will likely need for personal expenses such as extracurricular activities," he says.

For parents of teens about to head to college, Blain asks specific questions: "Are they going to have a car? Is the parent's insurance rate going to go up? Does the college offer health care, or are they going to stay on the parent's plan?"

Whatever amount parents decide to set aside for a student's personal expenses, Goebel recommends they hold the student responsible for sticking to it.

"The college years are a time for all students to learn how to become more independent, both personally and financially," Goebel says.

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

View the original article here

Pack Traits, Not Possessions to Study at a U.S. College

Take advantage of your time as an international student by bonding with classmates and opening yourself up to new ideas and experiences.

Packing your life into two suitcases is no easy task. You will never realize the full number of possessions you own until you try to select the most essential items. What will you truly need to make it through a year as an international student?

When I first moved to the U.S. in 2007, I had no clue. I ended up with bags stuffed mostly with clothes.

I did not realize until later that there were a few far more important things I should have thought about before I boarded the plane in Copenhagen destined for Atlanta.

The following are a few things international students bound for a U.S. college should take with them.

1. An open mind: From watching movies and TV shows, reading papers and magazines, playing video games and listening to music you probably think that you have a fairly good idea of how America functions. But don't cling to your preconceived notions.

Chances are that your perception is far from reality, which you will realize rather quickly if you enter each situation and conversation with curiosity and make an effort to see the world through the eyes of your American peers.

After all, you are in their country. Let them show you how it works before you start questioning it.

[Prepare to meet your American college roommate.]

2. Courage to befriend students of other nationalities: When social dilemmas occur – and believe me, they will – sticking with your countrymen will always be the easy way out. This happens frequently at colleges with large cohorts of international students from the same countries.

Choosing to spend time with your countrymen over others is not a bad thing, but it defeats part of the purpose of studying abroad.

Americans are outgoing and tend to befriend you whether you want to or not. Respond with a similar openness, and before you know it you could end up at someone's house for Thanksgiving dinner or a football watch party.

Foreign students of different nationalities also have a tendency to bond because they have all been thrown into an unfamiliar environment. Some of the strongest friendships I have made in the past six years are not with Americans, but South Africans, Croatians and Israelis.

3. Willingness to work hard: America was built on the idea that anyone willing to work hard can be successful. Despite what news headlines or skeptics may tell you, that still stands.

But Americans not only work hard, but also spot hard workers with potential and give them the chance to develop further. Athletic and academic scholarships are excellent examples.

Don't shy away from the daily grind, because persistent work that yields great results rarely goes unnoticed and can open up opportunities you have only dreamed about.

I'm writing this at the Brussels office of the news agency Reuters. I ended up there for a summer internship after less than one year as a journalism student, simply because the right person noticed my work.

4. Knowledge that you made the right choice: I spent a good number of sleepless nights my freshman year looking at my friends' Facebook pictures, wondering if training 20 hours per week in the South Carolina countryside as a swimmer really was the best choice I could have made.

When I returned home the next summer and traded stories with my friends, I quickly realized that most of them envied my opportunities. The same thing will happen for you.

Most people never make it to the U.S. You are lucky to have done so.

[Learn the do's and don'ts of packing for a U.S. college.]

5. Willingness to learn football and baseball: Americans love their sports. No matter how much you try to explain the charm of soccer, rugby, tennis or volleyball, they will continue to throw around the egg-shaped football and play catch with the small, white baseballs and large leather gloves.

Make an effort to understand the rules of the game, and you will quickly get the chance to impress your American peers. Doing so will also make viewing parties far more enjoyable.

This list does not include any physical items, for one simple reason: You are going to the U.S. You can buy anything there.

Anders Melin, from Sweden, is a former collegiate swimmer for Limestone College and the University of Missouri, where he earned an undergraduate degree in finance. He is now pursuing a master's degree in journalism at New York University.

View the original article here

Find Sales, Contests for College Savings Accounts

Take advantage of states offering waived enrollment fees on 529 college savings accounts.

Ohio parent Beth Cousino didn't know what to think when she saw a Facebook post for a cash contest to celebrate 529 Day on May 29. She has 529 plans, tax-advantaged college savings accounts, for each of her three children, but she had never heard of the event, now in its fifth year.

"The posting asked me to like the Facebook page," she says. Following that prompt, Cousino entered the College Savings Plans Network's Facebook sweepstakes.

"I completely forgot I entered the contest," she says. Fortunately for her, Cousino won $529 that she put in her 15-year-old's 529 plan account.

When parents think about shopping sales for their children, they're probably not thinking about college savings plans. But 529 plans run specials and contests throughout the year.

[Learn how to earn high interest with 529 plans.]

May 29 and College Savings Month, in September, tend to be popular times for states to offer incentives like waived fees, says Mike Fitzgerald, chairman of the College Savings Plans Network. "We have seen as many as 40 states do promotions during College Savings Month in the past."

On 529 Day, Missouri, Nevada and Oklahoma were among the states that gave out $529 cash prizes for college savings. An interactive map on the national nonprofit's website showed parents what promotions were offered in different states.

Parents interested in boosting their college savings should look for the following year-round promotions.

[Learn when to save with another state's 529 plan.]

1. Sales and specials: States run a variety of sales for different kinds of 529 plans. In Washington and Pennsylvania, prepaid tuition plans, a type of 529 plan that allows parents to buy a set amount of tuition in advance, waived program enrollment fees in May.

In Pennsylvania, the $50 program enrollment fee for the PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan is waived in May, August, September and December, says Doug Rohanna, a Pennsylvania deputy state treasurer.

In August, Pennsylvania also runs a Beat the Rate special. During the month, parents can purchase tuition credits before the rates rise each September. The difference between buying a community college credit in August versus September last year was more than 5 percent.

2. Drawings: States such as Indiana, Nevada and Oklahoma give away money in random drawings. In Indiana, drawings for 529 certificate of deposit accounts worth $1,529 were held for 529 Day in certain bank branches.

"In September we'll give away two $2,500 529 plan accounts to winners of a random drawing" of people who register on the organization's website, says Jodi Golden, executive director of the Indiana Education Savings Authority, which oversees the state's CollegeChoice 529 plans.

"When we look at our budget and see we have money available from partnerships or sponsorships, we offer a promotion," she says. "Parents should check our website year-round for special offers."

[Employ workplace benefits to maximize 529 plan savings.]

3. Essay contests: In Nebraska, various contests are run throughout the year to give families a college savings boost.

One unusual contest asks grandparents to write a letter to their grandchildren about the importance of education. Grandparents can win between $1,000 and $1,500 for a grandchild's education.

View the original article here

How to Save for College After a Parent's Death

Contributions from family and friends can make saving for college easier for a parent who has lost a spouse.

Jackie Livaudais knows what it's like to want to provide for a child's future when one's own is uncertain. She was pregnant with her third son when her husband, an Army ranger, was killed in Iraq.

Applying for assistance as a veteran's widow was difficult because her husband, Nino Livaudais, was killed early in the Iraq War. "At the time, a lot of programs were out of date," she says, using her experience with Utah's Division of Motor Vehicles as an example. "The DMV didn't know what to do with us or how to handle our paperwork."

While government programs have improved those processes, the challenge of making complicated decisions after a partner's death hasn't changed. As a volunteer, Livaudais helps other military spouses and their children get through those first months.

When it comes to saving for a child's future, her advice for anyone who has lost a spouse is to start a tax-advantaged college savings plan known as a 529 plan. But she suggests not contributing a lot of money before making other major life decisions, such as where to live.

Parents who have lost a spouse – as a result of military service or otherwise – should take the following steps to manage college savings.

[Take these steps before opening a 529 plan.]

1. Hold off on big 529 plan decisions: Surviving spouses may not be comfortable over the long term with investment choices made in the immediate aftermath of their partner's death. "Any time someone's dealing with loss, way too many people are trying to take advantage," says Tim Heaslet, a chaplain and chairman of the nonprofit Children of Fallen Soldiers.

It takes time to get comfortable with making financial decisions on one's own, especially if the couple made decisions as a team. "I never handled major financial decisions by myself," Livaudais says.

She says to start with "small, reasonable contributions to 529 plans and increase when grief isn't so heavy."

[Get tips on evaluating 529 plan performance.]

2. Encourage family and friends to open accounts for the child: Family, friends or coworkers could set up a plan for minors who have lost a parent, but the living parent or a family member needs to be named as the account's owner, says Paul Paeglis, executive director of the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority. This is so the family controls the plan's funds.

Contributions can be made by anyone. For the plan managed by the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, individuals may write checks with the beneficiary's name on the check memo line, he says. "This is no different than third-party giving like families do for a child's birthday or holidays."

It's easy to contribute to a child's account by giving money to the parent, directly to a 529 plan or through a gift-giving program like Ugift or GradSave.

[Learn how to ask for contributions to a child's 529 plan.]

3. Start a memorial page for contributions: While GradSave offers all parents the option of setting up a website to crowd fund their child's education, families can also set up memorial pages. The funds raised can be sent to a 529 plan of the family's choice.

GradSave also recently started a special landing page featuring children who have lost a parent in the U.S. armed forces, where individuals who'd like to help a military family may do so. Landing pages are being planned for surviving children of police officers and emergency workers.

Livaudais' family has set up a memorial page. Her children are now 15, 12 and nine years old and each aspires to attend college.

Destre, 15, wants to be an artist or a musician. Carson, 12, wants to be a surgeon. Grant wants to be an Army ranger like his dad.

"A lot of businesses and kind Americans want to reach out and help kids," Livaudais says. Some reach out through donations and others through thoughtful messages and videos. She says those gestures show her children how much their father's sacrifice is appreciated.

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

View the original article here

Trinity College Dublin Ranked in Global Top 50

In a recent survey, the Trinity College Dublin has been ranked 48th among universities around the world in terms of scientific research and accomplishments. The survey, published by the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, based its rankings on the publication of scientific research and the number of citations the research receives.

Click here to see the full list of rankings.

View the original article here

The Choice Blog: Tip Sheet | A Family’s Lessons From the College Tour

Beth Kissileff

I never went on a college tour when I was a teenager. My parents wanted me to attend the college where my father was employed; it would have been tuition-free for me, and so they weren’t eager to encourage other explorations.

Before I left on a recent college trip with my daughter I had believed these college visits yet another unnecessary aspect of the lives of privileged children. I thought the college tour was yet another accoutrement without value in itself, but only as something to brag about.

However, while with my oldest child, Tova, on a four-day, six-campus jaunt, I came to appreciate that one can’t know what one wants until one sees it.

I love to browse physical stores. When a book’s title catches my eye, I peruse the table of contents and see who the author thanks in his acknowledgements. This, I then realize, is what I must read next.

The book wouldn’t have occurred to me at all until I saw it. When I am in a store, I can pick up an object, try on a piece of clothing to check the color, the feel of the fabric, and most importantly the fit.

That seems to be the most overused word in the college search process: fit. But the college tour, my daughter and I have found, is a helpful way to try the campus out for size.

This is our advice to parents and students embarking on the college tour.

If you only have time for either a tour or an info session, opt for the tour. The same material is generally covered and you don’t have to sit for an hour in an auditorium on a beautiful spring day.

There are things one learns on these tours that one might not realize ahead of time. One urban college did not guarantee housing for all four years. As a result, many of the students live in off-campus apartments and join sororities and fraternities, creating a sense of fragmentation on an already large campus. One campus had bicycles everywhere because it is so sprawled out that it isn’t really accessible just to walk.

Find a way to meet with a smaller group of students informally. For us, it was at the Hillel, the Jewish student center, but any type of interest group can be accessed.

E-mail students from your high school at this college or look online for the clubs or student groups that interest you and see if you can schedule time to speak with them on campus. Most students are excited about their school and eager to share with newbies. And if they don’t have good things to say or don’t have time for you, that should say something about the culture of the school.

This is the essence of the title of a recent book by a college admissions professional and parent, and the mantra of my daughter and her college guidance counselor.

I agree, I am not going to college. However, I am footing the bill and do have a say in this.

While each student’s experience is unique and a student is free to do as he or she chooses, the culture of a place has an influence, for positive or negative, encouraging some things, rewarding others.

One tour began with a visit to the stadium, while others barely mentioned big-time sports. At one campus, the norm is to switch majors two or three times; at another, the admissions representatives asked the students on tour what they would be studying and seemed to expect them to have an answer.

Here are some questions we asked during our visits:

On the classroom experience:

What is the percentage of classes that enroll more than 20 students?What percentage of classes are taught by tenured professors, non-tenured professors, and graduate student teaching assistants?Are professors happy and do they want to be there?Do students love their classes, or do they see them as a necessary evil to meet their requirements?What are the most common majors?If a student’s interests shift, will she still be able to study what she wants?What kind of academic and social support system is in place?How much opportunity is there for undergraduates to do research?

On the campus environment and surrounding areas:

How is the college connected to the city or town it is in?Do students interact with locals?How do students dress and act? Do they seem happy?What do students do on weekends?

When driving, our GPS battery ran out but we had printed out Mapquest directions and managed to arrive at our first tour on time.

Having a backup plan also applies to the college search: When applying to college, don’t think there is one place and only one where you will be happy. Go on the tour to think about the things you want in a college and apply to a variety of institutions that can give you those things.

Remember that college is a first step, not an endpoint. No matter who you are, or what you do in college, you will be starting from the beginning when you go to work. Have a sense of humor and humility about the whole process. This is only the first step in your career; what you do with it is up to you.

Beth Kissileff has taught at Carleton, Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and the Universities of Minnesota and Pittsburgh. Ms. Kissileff’s daughter, Tova Perlman, contributed to this piece and is a graduating senior at The Ellis School in Pittsburgh. Ms. Perlman plans to attend Brandeis University after a gap year in Israel.

View the original article here

College Coaches Use Transfer Rules to Limit Athletes’ Options

Then the transfer process started, producing the latest and perhaps an extreme example of what is occurring throughout the country this time of year as many college athletes try to move to different universities.

The Oklahoma State coach, Mike Gundy, ruled out nearly 40 universities as transfer options for quarterback Wes Lunt, an apparent show of gamesmanship and punishment toward a college athlete who wanted to take his skills elsewhere.

The forces at work were not new, but Gundy, like a growing number of coaches, chose to harness them to eliminate many, if not all, of Lunt’s preferred options and to keep a potential rival from gaining the services of a highly regarded quarterback entering his sophomore season. It was a powerful illustration of the big-business mind-set of college sports and the control that coaches have over players.

When an athlete chooses to transfer, three sets of rules can be involved: those of the N.C.A.A.; those of the conference in which the university competes; and those that accompany the national letter of intent, a contract that athletes sign while still in high school to announce their intention to attend a university.

“It’s entirely slanted to the coach’s side,” said Don Jackson, a lawyer who runs the Sports Group in Montgomery, Ala., and who has represented dozens of athletes attempting to transfer to a university of their choice. “Once the student-athlete signs that national letter of intent, it’s essentially a contract of adhesion. They have limited rights.”

Universities have long sought to block student-athletes from transferring to a rival program. Alabama’s football team, for example, would not be expected to let a star player go to Auburn. But the impulse to limit the student-athlete’s options has been heightened to the point that coaches are now blacklisting dozens of universities.

Proponents of transfer limits say that they are put in place to prevent coaches from continually attempting to lure athletes from other universities, which could create a never-ending recruiting cycle. Critics counter that the rules make it much too easy for coaches to act punitively, penalizing athletes for changing their minds about decisions made when they were teenagers.

Coaches cannot fully prevent athletes like Lunt from transferring to any university they want. But if a coach does not grant an athlete a release, the player must forfeit any scholarship opportunity, pay his own way to the new university and sit out the next season. Meanwhile, Gundy, whose contract pays him $30.3 million over eight years, and other coaches can routinely move from one college to another with minimal consequence, often for bigger contracts after arranging a buyout with the first college.

Lunt, who did not respond to requests for comment, is reportedly deciding whether to transfer to Louisville or Illinois, neither of which was blocked by Gundy, 45, who declined to comment and has not spoken publicly about the restrictions placed on Lunt.

The N.C.A.A. also declined to comment.

When Eugene Byrd worked for the Southeastern Conference, he oversaw the administration of the national letter of intent, essentially a one-year contract between a student and an institution with four yearly options to renew. As an assistant commissioner, he tried to simplify the often confusing process.

Byrd said the national letter of intent no longer served its original purpose, which was to stop the pursuit of high school players once they committed to a university. “It was supposed to end the recruiting once you signed,” he said. “It became a threat to limit the ability to transfer.”

In 2009, Robert Marve, who had started 11 games at quarterback for Miami before being benched, announced his intention to transfer. Randy Shannon, then the team’s coach, blocked him from transferring to any program in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which Miami belongs to; any program in the SEC; and any program in Florida, Marve’s home state.

Jack Styczynski contributed research.

View the original article here