Carrie Schmelkin : Gossip from the Hallways
Carrie Schmelkin
Web Editor, TMC

The College Front

The New College Acceptance Letter

June 23, 2011

Confession time: I am extremely jealous of Syracuse University’s incoming freshman class.

No it’s not because in just a few months they will get to travel to Hartford, “bleeding orange” and yelling profanities at UConn as our football team takes to the turf. And no, it’s not because they will soon be able to brag that they too can survive the most inclement and traumatic of weather. But rather it’s because they found out that they got accepted to Newhouse in a way that puts to shame all previous classes.

Carnegie Mellon Improving Disaster Recovery with Educational Technology

July 22, 2011

This past week the TMCnet team headed west to San Jose, Calif., to meet with some of the biggest and brightest in the tech space. Amongst some big-shot names in the industry such as Skype, MegaPath, Alcatel-Lucent and Sprint, representatives from Carnegie Mellon, one of the leading technology schools in the country, made their way over to the event.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Steven Ray, distinguished research fellow at the university, who told me all about how a group of Carnegie Mellon folks banded together to figure out how to use their innovation and technology to improve upon the process of disaster recovery.  The group, called the Disaster Management Initiative, aims to provide open and interoperable next-generation technical solutions for all-hazard multi-jurisdictional disasters. 

Should you send your iPad to College?

August 2, 2011

A few years ago, many items topped a college freshman’s back-to-school and dormitory list: nifty shoe hangers that hang off your closet that hold all your shoes; bed risers to make college twin beds a bit cooler; a micro-fridge because where else were you going to keep that beer, uh, soda; and a Mac or a PC laptop so that you could appropriately IM all your high school buddies at home and, of course, write college essays.

Today’s college freshmen have gone Apple crazy, however, and one coveted item definitely beats out the Keurig – the iPad. So is the iPad ready for freshman year?

Industry experts all over seem unsure of the answer. Some contend that on the surface, the iPad seems like the ideal device for students as it boasts an iWork office suite; an Internet-connected bookstore called iBooks; 160,000 plus applications, many of which are educational; and many platforms for those students with learning disabilities.

What to Put on the Back-to-College List

August 11, 2011

Remember when back-to-school shopping for college students used to be pretty easy? You would make the drive to Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond and fill your cart with shower baskets, storage crates and a neat alarm clock? Nowadays, trips to Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond have been replaced by visits to Apple and Radio Shack as desktop computers and books for pleasure have slowly been replaced by tablets and Kindles.

Many industry pros out there have been fashioning back-to-school lists for coeds, delineating the “must have” education technology items from the “could be nice but not necessary” gadgets.

Amazon Student App Outdoing College Bookstores

August 18, 2011

Earlier this week, I got to write about a pretty cool app that is bound to put the whole “But my back hurts from carrying all my textbooks” argument to rest for college students. Thanks to Amazon, students can now say goodbye to sore shoulders as Amazon has introduced a new iPhone app, specifically designed to address this problem.

The Amazon Student app, which is available for iPhone and iPod Touch, boasts a variety of coed-friendly features such as instant price checks and free two-day shipping; the ability to scan barcodes, check prices and compare prices on textbooks and everything else they buy; and to turn their used stuff into Amazon.com Gift Cards.

For those who might have suppressed the memory of waiting in line at the college campus bookstore to buy the million 30-pound textbooks, let me refresh your memory.

Survey Sheds Light on Technology in Higher Education

September 1, 2011

The typical upcoming college freshman asks himself a variety of questions before selecting a university: “What percentage of students get hired right after graduation?,” “How many coeds double major?,” “Does this college have sororities and fraternities?,” and even “What is the school spirit like?”

Surprisingly, one more question has made the list. Students nowadays are asking “What is the technology like on campus?” before forking over the tuition money.

According to CDW-G’s 2011 21st-Century Campus Report, 87 percent of college students surveyed said they considered their institution’s technology when selecting their college.

What did you Major in? Social Media?

September 13, 2011

West Virginia University is taking academia world by storm as the school recently announced that it is offering students the chance to receive a certificate in “Social Media for Business,” a certificate which one could argue is quickly becoming more valuable than a BA.

To obtain the “Social Media for Business” certificate, which is available after completing online courses, students must complete a variety of courses including “Introduction to Social Media,” in which participants learn about the foundation of social media, making goals and how to measure and apply them; “Marketing Using Social Media,” in which students learn how to use social media methods to get a message out about their company; and “Integrating Social Media in Your Organization,” in which participants are taught how to create their own social network, the basics of using video and mobile, assigning roles in their organization and time allocation.

While West Virginia University is certainly not the only school to offer such social media certifications, the college is certainly paving the way for other colleges who have yet not made a splash in this space.

Although colleges are taking the right step in offering social media certificates, they ought to take it a step further and make it possible to major in social media as an undergrad.

Admissions Counselors Hiring Facebook as a Spy?

September 27, 2011

So you visited Johns Hopkins University last weekend to see if you could see yourself there and took to Facebook that night to update your status to read: “The interviewer was a gray-haired freak with a lazy eye… sounded like Kermit the Frog.”  Sounds harmless enough right?

Mistake. Big mistake.

According to a recent press release, student recruiting firm TargetX is now making it possible for admissions offices to rely on a teenager’s best friends – Facebook and Twitter— to find out how prospective students and parents of prospects treat them in cyber world.

Are you the Next Steve Jobs? Better Stay in School While you Find Out

October 12, 2011

Is staying in school really that cool? Just take a look at the success of Michael Dell (founder of Dell if you couldn’t tell), Mark Zuckerberg (the youngest self-made billionaire in the world), or the late Steve Jobs (who dropped out of Reed College after the first six months and then went on to create perhaps the technology empire of the century) and that question becomes a difficult one to answer.

And these three men are not the only college dropouts who found fame. These three men are joined by countless other esteemed professionals – such as Henry Ford, Bill Gates and Andrew Jackson – who didn’t complete college but went on to become some of the most influential figures in the world.

The College Student 'I'm Thankful for' List

November 22, 2011

I’m definitely in the Thanksgiving mood. Maybe it’s because the leaves outside have beautifully turned auburn and golden. Or perhaps it’s because I can finally start sporting the best fall trends such as Uggs, leather jackets, and North Face fleeces. But it’s probably mostly because we just finished our company pot luck lunch and I am in a tryptophan-induced coma.

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