College Prospects of America - Minnesota

What's New?

Loan Rates Jump Significantly

Borrowers paying back their student loans will do so at a higher rate this year than last unless they consolidated old loans prior to July 1. The interest rate for federal student loans climbed 1.84 percentage points this summer, to 7.14 percent, and the rate for parent PLUS loans climbed about the same to 7.94 percent.

Ironically, Congress has approved changes that mean students taking out new loans after July 1 will not be affected by the rising interest rate. New loans after that date will be issued at a fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent. That fixed rate will shield borrowers from fluctuations in the market, but the policy has been criticized as not allowing borrowers to take advantage of lower rates when the market produces them. Stafford Loan rates were below 4 percent just two years ago but as interest rates have risen steadily over the past several years, the Stafford Loan rate has ballooned as well.

Big-Name Schools Failing Academic Progress Report

Nearly half of the football and men's basketball teams in Division I are failing the NCAA’s newest measure of academic success, according to a report published last month by the association. That includes last year’s national champions in both sports -- the University of Connecticut in men's basketball and the University of Southern California in football.

In the NCAA's first "real time" assessment of athletes' academic success, nearly 1,200 teams out of the 5,721 in all Division I sports had an Academic Progress Rate of less than 925, which means that the team is on track to graduate less than half its athletes. The rate, calculated for the 2003-04 academic year, measures how many athletes are making adequate progress toward their degrees.

To no one's surprise, sports with traditionally low graduation rates -- baseball, football, and men's basketball -- have many teams falling short of the NCAA standard. Many more men's teams fall short than women's teams.

According to the NCAA report, teams in all sports and at all kinds of colleges are failing to meet the rate of progress.

This report is merely a warning. Next year, teams will lose scholarships if, based on data from 2003-04 and 2004-05, they fail to meet the standard and athletes flunk out. Roughly a third of the failing teams have very small squad sizes, in sports like basketball, cross-country, and golf, and the NCAA estimates that those teams will meet the threshold once the new data are collected from them.

Publishing the grades and a school’s failing teams is the first phase of the association's new system for penalizing teams whose athletes are not making enough progress in the classroom. The standard to be reached essentially requires each student-athlete to complete 20 percent of the course work needed per year for a bachelor's degree to remain eligible for sports.

Of the 234 football teams in Division I-A and I-AA, 113 had grades below the APR cut line of 925. Among them were 9 of the top 25 in the final Associated Press poll for the 2004 season.

In men's basketball, the 65-team NCAA tournament field from 2004 included 25 that failed to make the standard, including the University of Connecticut, which won the national championship, and Oklahoma State University's Final Four squad.

If those teams do not make improvements, they will begin to lose scholarships for the 2006-7 season. The NCAA has said it will make exceptions for teams at institutions that serve "economically distressed segments of the population," but has not said how that would work.

In two years the NCAA will begin punishing teams that have chronic academic deficiencies. Starting in 2007, teams failing to meet the minimum rate will be re-ranked by sport. The NCAA will then establish minimum rates for each sport, and teams will be punished if they fall below that rate, the rate for all teams, and the Academic Progress Rate for their overall student bodies.

Programs will lose scholarships if they fail to meet the standards for two years out of four, and will be banned from postseason play if their athletes do not measure up for 3 years out of 10. In other words, teams that fail to meet the standards in any year must surpass the rates for the next three consecutive years to avoid punishment.

The NCAA is beating the academic drum loudly for now.

Time will tell if it the organization will penalize high-profile athletic teams or bow to economic pressure and change the benchmark standards.

Almost Two in Three

NCAA CURBS LAVISH RECRUITING PRACTICES

The days of wining and dining top prospects during recruiting trips are apparently over.

Schools now face new restrictions on the lavish perks that many have provided to athletes they are recruiting,under a plan approved in early August by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors the new rules specify that colleges cannot use private airplanes to transport recruits to campuses and can no longer use hosts or hostesses who are not enrolled students and who do not work regularly for the university accompanying any student- athlete or not- during a visit.

The rules also forbid colleges to pay for recruits and their parents to stay in premium suites at a hotels require colleges to use institutional transportation (no more Hummers or stretch limousines) to transport recruits during visits, and prohibit institutions from using personalized items to entice players , such as creating uniforms for them or composing highlight films to be shown on stadium scoreboards.

The new legisate go's into effect immediately.

NCAA Division I to Require 16 Core Courses by 2008

Effective August 1, 2008, any student-athlete wishing to compete in the NCAA's top division will be required to pass 16 core courses in high school, up from 14. The student will need an additional core course in math and one other in the core area of his or her choice.

And to send a message indicating how important the new core course rule is to the college presidents that approved it, the amendment was passed as "emergency legislation", meaning the NCAA membership will not be permitted to debate and comment on it.

Board members cited data that supports the increase, including the fact that most current qualifiers already average 17 core courses, and the vast majority of Division I institutions require more than 14 core courses for admission. Also, Board members believe that given this advance notice, prospects will meet the higher standard as they did when core courses were increased before.

The NCAA believes increasing the number of core courses raises graduation rates. This theory has been proven out, at least temporarily, in the wake of the previous core course increases. Student-athletes continue to graduate at a higher rate than their non-athletic classmates.