Description:
Bringing you safely through high school and into college
Contents:
I’m bringing back WP-SpamFree
I’ve been getting progressively more spam comments lately, and I think it’s time I reactive WP-SpamFree, a Wordpress plugin that helps cut back on spam. I used it earlier, but I heard that a couple of comments from legitimate readers were labeled as spam by it.
However I’m going to try again and see if things work out a bit better this time. If you find that your comments are being labeled as spam or blocked, kindly use the Contact page to inform me so that I can disable the plugin if necessary.
 Readers of this post also liked...
UC Regents vote to raise UC costs by 32%
Hoh boy. I knew this was a likely possibility, but it still hits pretty hard. Today, Mark Yudof and the UC regents have decided to raise student fees by 32% for UC students.
California has been in a pretty big financial crisis due to the recession and other reasons, and the effects have been pretty rough on higher education. Massive cuts have been already made to the UC system, the Cal State (CSU) system, and community colleges statewide. Now, the UC system joins the other two in experiencing giant leaps in costs.
Right now, student fees run about $8,000 for the year — a 32% increase brings that to over $10,000. This, of course, doesn’t include costs of living on campus (or off), which will bring the cost of a year’s schooling to as much as $30,000. Financial aid is given to some, but not to all.
Protests occurred at UCSC and at other campuses as well. Here, both major entrances to campuses were blocked off by students and faculty. Protesters marched up the roads chanting, “Our university!” Tensions and frustration are both pretty high right now.
While I’m not at all surprised that this passed, and while I do understand that higher tuition and/or cutbacks are necessary, I do not feel as if all other options have been exhausted, as they should have been first. To explain this better, here is part of an e-mail I received this morning about the strike and fee increases:
At this very moment the UC Regents are meeting to vote on another proposed student fee increase: now a particularly unbearable 32% over two quarters, last summer 9%. If this increase is approved, the cost of a UC education will have tripled since 2000.
We have been told that such increases are inevitable. We have been told that, like the furloughs, layoffs and cuts to services and departments, this new source of suffering has its cause in the fiscal crisis of the State of California. But one month after declaring an “extreme financial emergency,” and “saving” $170 million by furloughing employees, the University of California chose to take on $1.35 billion in new debt for 70 construction projects. Our fees have been pledged as collateral for these construction bonds. A recent report suggests that some UC administrators are willing to sacrifice affordability to avoid accountability; that they would rather raise fees than receive additional state funding with its requirements of budgetary transparency. The UC administration has made its priorities clear: construction over instruction, buildings over people.
All the while we have been paying more for less. We are paying more for fewer classes, and for classes with larger enrollments. We are paying more for fewer instructors, for closed libraries, for closed department offices, for canceled programs. We are paying more for fewer staff and for staff working longer hours for less pay. We are paying more for a degree it will take us an extra quarter to complete. We are paying more for an institution barricaded against the next generation of high school students, more for an institution which crowds out students of color, which makes those already struggling to get by shoulder the burden of the crisis. What have we received in exchange for these additional fees, if not more faculty or more resources? The answer: more management. In ten years, administrative positions have increased five times faster than the number of faculty. The estimated cost of this excessive bureaucracy is approximately $800 million, enough to pay the fees of over 100,000 students.
The three bolded sections are what hits especially hard. I understand that times are tough and I fully expect it to carry into higher education, but I’m truly disappointed to see that a lot of the same mindsets that got us into the recession are running my university.
 Readers of this post also liked...
Preloading Left 4 Dead 2!
After much hype and hope, Left 4 Dead 2 will finally be out in just a few hours.
Because Steam is completely awesome and knows exactly what most gamers want, I’m getting the downloading done now with a nice pre-load (I’m currently at 20% and rising!). I’m trying to get some homework out of the way now because I know I’ll inevitably be up late playing this and spending most of tomorrow playing it.
I’ll post and let everyone know how it is!
 Readers of this post also liked...
Which CSUs are the most selective?
If you’re debating which CSU(s) to apply to, you’re probably curious how selective each one is. As a whole, CSUs are not as selective as UCs and do not vary as much, however there are still differences that you should know when applying.
In general, most CSUs hover between admitting 60% and 80% of their students, with a few exceptions. San Diego State is technically the most selective CSU, admitting only 31% of applicants, but in reality Cal Poly is more selective — the average Cal Poly student had a higher GPA in high school than the average San Diego State student.
Here are the CSUs, ordered by the percent of applicants admitted. For the more selective schools, I added in typical high school GPAs to give some context to the stat.
- San Diego State University (SDSU): 31% (53% above a 3.5 in high school)
- California Polytechnic State University: San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly): 34% (57% above a 3.75 in high school)
- CSU Long Beach: 42% (38% above a 3.5 in high school)
- California Polytechnic State University: Ponoma 53% (56% above a 3.25 in high school)
- CSU Fullerton: 60%
- CSU Bakersfield: 61%
- San Francisco State University (SFSU): 66%
- CSU Stanislaus: 66%
- San Jose State University (SJSU): 66%
- CSU Sacramento: 67%
- CSU Fresno: 70%
- CSU Monterey Bay: 71%
- CSU East Bay: 72%
- CSU San Marcos: 73%
- California Maritime Academy: 73%
- Humboldt State University (HSU): 75%
- CSU Northridge: 75%
- Sonoma State University (SSU): 76%
- CSU Los Angeles: 77%
- CSU Chico: 87%
- CSU Dominguez Hills: 90%
- CSU Channel Islands:: N/A
- CSU San Bernardino: N/A
Statistics are provided by CollegeBoard.com. You can view the most selective UCs here.
 Readers of this post also liked...
Which UCs are the most selective?
If you’re planning on applying to a University of California school (a UC), it’s important to know that there is a big difference between how selective they can be. You may know that a UC is more for you than a CSU, but do you know how widely they range in being selective?
Here’s a quick rundown of about how selective each school was, in terms of how many applicants were accepted and about how well the average applicant did in high school. Schools are sorted by how selective they are. All stats are from CollegeBoard.com:
- UC Berkeley (Cal): Admitted 22% of applicants, 98% of which were in the top 1/10th of their high school class, and 91% of which had a high school GPA of 3.75 or higher.
- UC Los Angeles (UCLA): Admitted 23% of applicants. 97% were in the top 1/10th of their high school class, and 92% had greater than a 3.75 GPA in high school.
- UC San Diego (UCSD): Admitted 42% of applicants. 100% were in the top 1/10th of their high school class, but 80% had a GPA of greater than 3.75.
- UC Santa Barbara (UCSB): Admits 49% of applicants. Statistics are not provided on class ranking, but 87% had a high school GPA above 3.5.
- UC Irvine (UCI): Also admits 49% of students. 96% are in the top 1/10th in high school, and 96% also had a GPA of above 3.5 in high school (65% above 3.75).
- UC Davis (UCD): Admitted 53% of applicants. 96% were in the top 1/10th of their graduating class, and 82% had a high school GPA above 3.5.
- UC Santa Cruz (UCSC): Admitted 73% of applicants. 96% were in the top 1/10th, and 77% had a high school GPA above 3.25. 48% were above 3.5.
- UC Riverside (UCR): 79% of applicants were admitted. 94% were in the top 10% in high school, and 70% had a GPA above 3.25 (42% above a 3.5).
- UC Merced (UCM): 91% of applicants were admitted. No stats about class rank are available, but 92% had a GPA above a 3.0 in high school, and 67% were above a 3.25
Don’t forget to check out the most selective CSUs!
http://xatal.com/california/whats-the-difference-between-a-uc-and-a-csu/
 Readers of this post also liked...
Tweaking the Windows Explorer taskbar icon in Windows 7
If you have Windows 7, you probably fell in love with the new taskbar — nice big icons, lots of space to put your favorite programs, and so forth.
Having Windows Explorer pinned to your taskbar is pretty common, but when you click on it to open a new instance, you’re taken immediately to your Libraries folder. For some, this is nice, but it’s not ideal. Wouldn’t it be great to pin multiple locations to the icon? Wouldn’t it be great to change the default location?
You can!
Changing the default Windows Explorer location:
If you don’t want it to open straight to Libraries, here’s how you can change it to something else:
- Hold down shift and right-click on the Windows Explorer icon in the taskbar. Make sure no windows are already open. A normal right-click menu should pop up.
- Select “Properties” and go to the “Shortcut” tab.
- In the “Target” option, change what’s entered to either of the following:
- My Computer:
%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
- My Documents:
%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /n,::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
- A folder of my choice (ie, “C:/”):
%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /n, /e, <Path to Folder>
- Hit “OK”, and you’re done!
Pinning more items to Windows Explorer:
You can also add additional folders to the icon, if you like quick access to other folders in general. That way, you can right-click the Windows Explorer icon and quickly choose the folder without having to navigate to it.
Luckily, this is pretty easy: it’s a matter of dragging and dropping icons.
Say you want to pin your “Documents” folder to your icon. Here’s what you would do:
- Go one folder above the one you want. In my example, I wanted “Documents”, so I would go one folder higher — my user folder.
- Click on the icon you want and drag it down to the Windows Explorer taskbar icon. You should see “Pin to Taskbar” appear. Release. In my case, I click and drag on “Documents” and take it to the taskbar icon, and then let go!
You can drag other items as well, such as the links in your start menu to Music, Pictures, and so forth. Basically, you just drag and drop the folders you want and that’s it! You can reorganize or unpin them at any time.
Combined, these two features of Windows 7 can help make your computer usage a lot faster!
 Readers of this post also liked...
Are you a student? You can get Windows 7 for $30.
As you may well know, Windows 7 — Microsoft’s newest operating system — is now out, and there’s been quite a lot of buzz about it! Windows 7 was designed to fix up many of the most common complaints about Windows Vista, and it’s done a spectacular job.
Having used Windows 7 for a couple of months now, I can say that I love it. It looks a lot sleeker, it runs more smoothly, and everything is more simple to access and change. Microsoft did a great job.
Normally operating systems cost quite a bit — Windows 7 Home Premium costs $120 brand new, but if you’re a college student, you can upgrade for only $30!
How can I get Windows 7 for $30?
If you have a valid .edu e-mail address (which almost every college and university will give you), you can probably upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium for $30. Simply go here, type in your e-mail address twice. You’ll be sent an e-mail with a link to purchase Windows 7.
From there, simply purchase the item like you would anything else online. Then follow the instructions and your computer will be upgraded!
You also might want to make a DVD of your new operating system, in case things go wrong. Simply follow these steps to burn Windows 7 onto a DVD.
Should I upgrade to Windows 7?
While $30 for an operating system is a great deal, I think deciding whether or not to upgrade depends more on how much you care about your computer and how much time you spend on it.
First of all though, you should make sure your computer can handle an upgrade by using Microsoft’s Upgrade Advisor Tool. Then, make your decision!
If you’re very casual about your computer and basically just use it to browse the Internet, type essays, and instant message people, you’re not really going to get much out of an upgrade. Although Microsoft has done a great job in making this upgrade rather pain-free, you could still run into trouble.
However, if you spend a lot of time on your computer and like to do a multitude of things — ranging from Photoshop to heavy gaming — you’ll find an upgrade to be worth the time and money. Your computer will run smoother, you’ll like the look better, and so forth.
Special thanks to Anonymous Prime for informing me of this deal!
 Readers of this post also liked...
Statistics for October 2009
Highlights of October 2009:
- October’s traffic was slightly lower than last month’s, but with over 20,000 hits, that’s still not that bad — definitely one of my better months.
- For the first time in a while, college dorm necessities weren’t the top post this month — in fact, they weren’t even on the top five! This month’s winner is about funny Google Suggest results, with about 4,000 hits.
- A good 60% of my traffic was from search engines this month. Without any huge StumbleUpon bursts (aside from those two bumps you see early in October), search engines becomes my main source of traffic.
- I’ve been pretty bad about posting lately, though I’m working on getting back into a regular schedule.
- I also took out the post rating — while it’s cool, it hasn’t really provided much interesting feedback.
And, now that we’re nearing that wonderful time of the year, how about you tell me what your favorite holiday is?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
 Readers of this post also liked...
Home
|
