Goizueta to Create Deferred Admissions Policy
Beginning this Spring, Emory seniors applying to Goizueta Business School’s MBA programs will have the opportunity to defer admission to gain two to five years of work experience before enrolling, according to Poets&Quants. The policy change applies to applicants from other universities, though it is currently being promoted primarily to Emory undergraduates.
In recent years, many top-tier business schools, including Harvard Business School (Mass.) and Stanford Graduate School of Business (Calif.), have added deferred programs in response to declining applications. Last year, the number of applications to Goizueta’s two-year MBA program declined by 24.2 percent. The deferral option aims to increase the number of applicants by reducing barriers that may prevent undergraduates from applying to the programs.
CBO Predicts Loan Forgiveness Will Rise Above $1 Trillion in Next Decade
The Congressional Budget Office announced last week that the U.S. government is projected to create $1.05 trillion in student loans and forgive $207.4 billion in student debt over the next decade, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Of that $207.4 billion, more than $167 billion will come from loans of graduate or professional students, covering 56 percent of the amount loaned to those students. The remainder will come from loans to undergraduate students, covering 21 percent of the amount loaned.
A large portion of the amount loaned over the next decade will be placed in income-driven repayment programs, which allow the borrower to make monthly payments proportionate to their income. At the end of the 20- to 25-year term of the loan, the remaining balance is forgiven. Due to the low payments, the final balance that is forgiven is often greater than the original loan amount.
Education Dept. Investigates Harvard, Yale for Non-Disclosure of Foreign Funding
The Department of Education is investigating Yale and Harvard for failing to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from foreign countries, including China and Saudi Arabia, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The investigation is part of an ongoing federal review of American universities that have neglected to report approximately $6.5 billion in donations from foreign countries. Universities are required to disclose all foreign funding exceeding $250,000. The Education Department said that this funding typically goes to the wealthiest universities.
Grady High Students Petition to Rename School
A group of students at Henry W. Grady High School have signed a petition to change the high school’s name due to Henry Grady’s outspoken support of the marginalization of black Southerners during the Reconstruction period, according to WABE.
The students submitted a petition to the school board on Feb 3, arguing that Grady, a former editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, then known as the Atlanta Constitution, and namesake of various institutions across Georgia, pushed for the implementation of a “white supremacist agenda.” Previously, in 2016, students at Grady High School published an editorial in the school’s newspaper advocating for the change of the school’s name. An editorial published in The Signal, the student-run newspaper at Georgia State University, likewise called for a plaque to be added to a statue of Grady and for a recent state law preventing the removal of such monuments to be changed.
The petition suggests that journalist Ida B. Wells, who co-founded the NAACP, or civil rights attorney Donald Lee Hollowell be considered as alternative namesakes.
University of Tennessee to Offer Tuition Discount for Georgia Students
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) will start offering a discounted tuition rate to students from nine neighboring states this upcoming Fall, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Prospective students from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina will pay $18,000 per year, rather than the standard $26,000 out-of-state tuition rate. Previously, students from counties of Georgia and Alabama adjacent to Chattanooga were eligible for a tuition discount. That program will remain in place as the expanded regional program begins.
The goal of the program, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, is to increase enrollment at UTC and encourage students from nearby states to live and work in Chattanooga after graduation. The program is not expected to negatively affect the acceptance rate for Tennessee residents.
