College Admissions Directors Finally Admit They Want RICH Students More Than SMART Students

So much for ethics--admissions directors admit they're not out to recruit the best and brightest students, but rather the richest, according to the 2011 Survey of College and Admissions Directors.

Conducted by Inside Higher Ed in August and September, the study drew responses from 462 top directors at nonprofit colleges and universities, who revealed that "finding the right fit" is more about recruiting "full-pay" students who aren't in need aid than providing a rare opportunity for low-income applicants without resources.

With battered endowments and declining government aid, more than half the admissions offers at public research universities and more than a third at four-year colleges feel pressure from administrators, trustees, and fund raisers to recruit more out-of-state and international students since they tend to pay higher fees.

Sadly, 10% of admissions directors at four-year public colleges and nearly 20% at private liberal arts schools said many full-pay admittants had lower grades and test scores than other applicants; more than a quarter of admissions directors likewise revealed they're being pressured by senior-level executives to admit minority students, children of alumni, athletes, and international students--a practice that harkens back to the University of Illinois scandal that made headlines two years ago.

David A. Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling tells the Times that "as institutional pressures mount, between the decreased state funding, the pressure to raise a college's profile, and the pressure to admit certain students, we're seeing a fundamental change in the admissions process ... there's now a different dynamic that places a lot of emphasis on marketing."

But whether it's a product of hard times or a sign of failed leadership, Inside Higher Ed's findings are deeply troubling and speak to the American college system's inability to make the grade, both for students and parents, who the study found are "significantly worried" about how they'll shoulder the burden of such exorbitant tuition costs.

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It Costs $226,920 To Raise A Child -- And That Doesn't Include College

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The astronomical price of day care -- which costs more than the median annual rent payments in all 50 states -- is a major reason why raising a child to 18-years-old now costs $226,290, CNN Money reports.

Compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these numbers reveal a 40% increase from ten years ago, or about $60,000. Rising food and transportation prices also play a major role; those numbers now sit at $36,210 and $30,900, respectively.

And because the DOA considered the cost only to 18, that $226,290 doesn't include college, which often merits the lion's share of financial planning and discussion when it comes to raising children.

The cost of child care, though, jumps out from the other numbers. CNN Money spoke to a woman who spends about 30% of her $39,000 annual income on day care for two children. That's $5,850 per child per year, or $487 a month.

To confront these costs, there is the obvious recourse -- try to save -- but planning might take a back seat to the immediacy of some needs. CNN Money spoke to one financial adviser who said that, if you have to choose between college and day care for your child, choose day care.

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SPORTS CHART OF THE DAY: Ironically, The Big 12 Is College Football's Best Conference

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9 Awesome College Perks That Put Most Schools To Shame

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Believe It Or Not, White Students Receive A Disproportionate 76% Of All College Scholarships

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White students receive 76% of all university funding -- including need-based grants and merit scholarships -- despite representing only 62% of those attending college, reports GOOD Magazine.

Citing the research of Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Fastweb.com and FinAid.com, Liz Dwyer writes that whites can thank the biases of college-specific scholarship requirements for this gap. Kantrowitz looked into the topic in response to a new scholarship from the Texas nonprofit Former Majority for Equality available only to white males.

Kantrowitz writes:

While there are very few private scholarships that are explicitly targeted at Caucasian students as a category, Caucasian students receive a disproportionately greater share of private scholarships and merit- based grants. Caucasian students receive more than three times as much in merit-based grant and private scholarship funding as minority students. These 'Whites Only' scholarships are usually created by students who are frustrated at their own inability to find and win scholarships.

This story follows closely on another report from GOOD's Cord Jefferson that poked holes in Ivy League schools' claims to diversity. Jefferson found that of the storied colleges' black student populations, 41% were first- or second-generation immigrants--a group that makes up less than one percent of the U.S. population.

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Next Stop For College Football: 5 Super-Conferences, A BCS Division, And 40 Pissed Off Schools

Currently, there are 120 schools that make up the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; you know it as Division 1-A). But as teams continue to jump to other conferences and the lure of bigger money, the future of college football may see the rich get richer and the others left out in the cold.

Last week Texas A&M made it known that they will be leaving the Big 12, following in the footsteps of Colorado (to the Pac-12) and Nebraska (to the Big Ten). And now, with the future of the Big 12 in doubt, there are rumblings that the Pac-12 will become the Pac-16 by adding four schools including Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

If the Big 12 dies, something that seems inevitable at this point, we are likely headed to a situation where schools will start jockeying for spots in one of the remaining five BCS conferences (Pac-12, SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big East). And if 16 teams is the maximum size for each conference, that means there is only enough room for 80 schools. Currently, there are 66 teams in BCS conferences, 67 if we include Notre Dame, which is a BCS school. That leaves plenty of room to add deserving non-BCS schools like Boise State.

This has led to speculation that the FBS division division could be headed to splitsville. We could end up with a division made up entirely of 80 schools in these so-called super conferences. We could call it the BCS division.

Of course, the danger here is dealing with the 40 schools that are left without a chair at the BCS table. There is a lot of money at stake here, and schools left out of the super-conferences could get litigious in their desire to be kept in the loop.

Keep in mind, a school doesn't have to actually play in a BCS bowl game to make millions. There are the conference television deals that bring schools millions of dollars. And the BCS bowl game payouts are distributed among all the schools of the conferences that are participating.

And for those of you still holding out hope that someday we will see a college football playoff, consider that this setup could make that transition easier. With five super-conferences, it would be easy to set up a playoff system with the five conference champs and the next three highest-ranked teams. Simple. Almost too easy.

The top division in college football is evolving before our eyes. And as typically happens in these situations, the fittest will live to reap the benefits. In this case, that means one of the 80 seats at the BCS table, and the millions of dollars that comes with it.

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DEATH PENALTY FOR MIAMI? Here's How The NCAA Dealt With Other Corrupt College Sports Programs

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When the sordid details of Nevin Shapiro’s relationships with past and present members of the University of Miami’s football team came out, an obvious question arose.

How will the NCAA respond?

With terms like “death penalty” being thrown around, history can give us some idea of what the NCAA might do.

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