The top 20 most expensive college dormitories

One of the more interesting battlegrounds of the escalating college amenities war involves the continuing construction of glitzier upscale dormitories. It’s really no surprise. Today’s college student needs more dorm room to accommodate the variety of electronics necessary to support his or her lifestyle, and the more pampered prefer singles, hopefully with fully tricked out private baths. And many colleges, particularly those not engaged in the US News and World Report prestige war, are increasingly willing to provide whatever is necessary to attract students to their campuses and keep them there.

But lifestyle accommodations come at a cost. For the 2009-2010 school year, room and board increased 5.4 percent at public colleges and 4.2 percent at private colleges to an average price of $8193 and $9363 respectively for a standard double room. When available, private rooms come in somewhat higher.To get an idea of how much these costs can figure into the total price of a college education, Campus Grotto compiled a list of this year’s most expensive* college dorms:

1. Eugene Lang College, NY: $15,990

2. Cooper Union, NY: $15,275

3. Suffolk University, MA: $14,544

4. UC Berkeley, CA: $14,384

5. New York Institute of Technology, NY: $14,290

6. Fordham University (Lincoln Center), NY: $13,830

7. Fordham University (Rose Hill), NY: $13,716

8. UC Santa Cruz, CA: $13,641

9. Manhattanville College, NY: $13,500

10. Chapman University, CA: $13,384

11. Sarah Lawrence College, NY: $13,370

12. UCLA, CA: $13,314

13. Olin College of Engineering, NY: $13,230

14. New York University, NY: $13,226

15. St. Johns University of Queens, NY: $13,140

16. American University, DC: $12,930

17. Marymount Manhattan, NY: $12,874

18. Drexel University, PA: $12,681

19. Pomona College, CA: $12,651

20. Vanderbilt University, TN: $12,650

* Double occupancy freshman dorms

Colleges create new majors in video game design and development

Not so many years ago, majoring in game design at the University of Pennsylvania meant skipping class and staying up all night playing pinball at the "Dirty Drug" on the corner of 34th and Walnut Streets. At some point, Pong and Pac-Man introduced the digital age, and students found new, technology-based ways to waste time.

Flash forward a few years, and games have suddenly joined other mainstream media worthy of academic study. Today it’s all about the industry, as perfectly respectable post-secondary institutions are rushing to offer majors in video game design and building breathtaking facilities to support student interest in the field.

This fall, UC Irvine announced the establishment of the Center for Computer Games & Virtual Worlds. Construction is nearing completion on a 4,000 square-foot, 20-room “Cyber-Interaction Observatory” for faculty research that includes plans for floor-to-ceiling projection screens, 3-D stereoscopic displays, and gesture-based interfaces. Expanding on the Game Culture and Technology Lab founded in 2001, UCI will offer a 4-year undergraduate program in “game science” joining radio, TV, and film as legitimate media-based academic majors or concentrations.

But it isn’t just about fun and games. Advocates for video design and development are quick to point out that applications go far beyond game-playing or entertainment. Virtual worlds and simulators are used for everything from stroke rehabilitation to combat exercises. In fact, the entertainment industry frequently leads the way for computer applications in health, communications, and defense.

On the east coast, High Point University recently opened the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication which offers a similar major in Games and Interactive Media supported by an amazing lab also featuring floor-to-ceiling screens and up-to-date video equipment used to provide students with hands-on experience in virtually every video game currently on the market. Students in the program are not only encouraged to play to learn but also to hone skills as story-tellers, critics, artists, and potential entrepreneurs.

So far, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has not created a specific job category for game design and development. But students graduating with related majors are expected to find jobs in the rapidly expanding market for serious games development, especially those with specific expertise in design, animation, programming, audio engineering, or testing. The new majors at UCI and High Point join those already offered at the University of Southern California, UC Santa Cruz, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the Rochester Institute of Technology and several other colleges and universities bringing respect to a field formerly considered a simple waste of time.

For a complete list of all colleges currently offering majors in Game Design and Development, click here.

Stanford students discover 'creepy' monument moved to less intrusive site

It’s not on the usual tour guide route. And if you’re interested, you will have to ask for directions and take a major detour across campus to a spot adjacent to the newly-constructed Hyatt Classic Residence senior housing complex facing the Stanford Mall on Sand Hill Road. But if you’re looking for the memorial tablet constructed to mark Leland Stanford Jr.’s original burial place, you’ll be disappointed. It’s gone. In its place, an unobtrusive metal sign advises the curious that the memorial tablet has been moved.

Following a story that appeared a couple of weeks ago in this column, several Stanford students set out to find Leland Stanford Jr.’s original burial place and the memorial tablet marking its location. “It took two tries,” said Stanford senior Justin Solomon. “The second time, we went with a flashlight. The tablet is really nowhere near the development or the burial site.”

For over 100 years, the marble memorial stood sentry over the spot where Leland Jr. was originally buried. Carved into its face are lines selected by Jane Stanford from a poem by Felicia Dorothea Hemans that read in part “Yes, it is haunted this quiet scene, fair as it looks and all softly green….” In response to questions concerning the poem, Stanford’s archeologist Laura Jones said, “There is something kind of creepy about it.”

In 2000, the tablet disappeared to make way for the university’s Sand Hill Road development. Evidently, a monument proclaiming that the area was “haunted ground” did not suit developers hoping to attract upscale senior citizens. To avoid disturbing the community, Stanford University quietly relocated the tablet some distance away from the site of the small mausoleum that held Leland Jr.’s remains from 1884 until they were exhumed and moved to the much grander family mausoleum in 1893.

While a series of metal signs explains the relocation, the tablet no longer marks what Jane Stanford hoped would be a permanent memorial to her son. Stanford’s real “haunted ground” is actually down the street somewhere in the vicinity of the Hyatt-managed senior citizen complex.

Get Inside the Admissions Office with Unigo and WSJ On Campus

Unigo and WSJ On Campus would like to invite anyone interested in the college admissions process to an “exclusive, live and interactive” webcast—Inside the Admissions Office, tonight at 7 p.m. EST. Cosponsored by the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), the webcast will feature heads of admission from Bryn Mawr, Grinnell, Marquette, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, UVM, Wesleyan, and Williams, who promise to draw back the curtains on the college admissions process and reveal what students need to know to get into top-choice schools.

Inside the Admissions Office, broadcast at http://wsj.unigo.com/, will be moderated by Jordan Goldman, founder and CEO of Unigo. Topics will include:

• What a dean of admissions looks for when reviewing a college application
• The importance of grades, test scores, interviews, essays and more
• How applicants can overcome their weaknesses and make the most of their strengths to make applications stand out
• The role parents should play in the process
• The people behind the titles

If you have questions you’d like answered by the deans of admissions, send an email to wsjoncampus@unigo.com. If your question is selected you could win an iPod Nano (see official rules).

Following the event, IECA will be posting the podcast on their website (http://www.iecaonline.com/), so those who cannot watch live will be able to see the entire broadcast. Again, the webcast will take place tonight at 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST) at http://www.unigo.com/wsj/.

Talbots offers generous scholarship for women returning to college

It gives us great pleasure to help the Talbots Scholarship Foundation get word out about the 2010 Talbots Women’s Scholarship Fund and Nancy Talbot Scholarship Award. Targeted to women returning to full or part time undergraduate studies at two- or four-year colleges, universities, or vocational schools, this program is designed to “empower women to enrich themselves through learning and achieve a college education later in life."

The Talbot’s Women’s Scholarship Fund will award $180,000 in college scholarships for the 2010 academic year, including ten $15,000 scholarships and one $30,000 scholarship to an extraordinary finalist demonstrating “courage, conviction and an insatiable entrepreneurial spirit.”To qualify, applicants must be:

• women who earned a high school diploma or their GED on or before September 2000;


• enrolled or planning to enroll in a full or part time undergraduate course of study at an accredited two-, three-, or four-year college, university or vocational-technical school in the US or Canada;


• attending the full 2010-11 academic year and receiving a degree no earlier than May 2011; and


• must have at least two semesters (24 credit hours or more) remaining to complete an undergraduate degree as of the beginning of the 2010 fall academic term.

All applications must be submitted electronically by January 2, 2010, and only the first 5,000 eligible applications will be considered. Scholarship finalists will be selected based on a number of criteria including academic record, demonstrated leadership and participation in community activities, honors, work experience, and a statement of educational and career goals. Registration and more information may be found on the Scholarship America website.

Ten reasons college freshmen look forward to coming home for Thanksgiving

Many of those high school students who were stressing over essays and application deadlines this time last year are getting ready to celebrate their first Thanksgiving as college freshmen. While Mom’s home cooking and a miraculously clean bathroom rank high on the list of reasons why freshmen look forward to Thanksgiving break, it might surprise some college applicants how much life changes and why home looks pretty good after a couple of months in a dorm.

For a little insight into the undergraduate living experience, here are 10 reasons college freshmen look forward to coming home for Thanksgiving:

10. At home, mashed potatoes and stuffing are not served with an ice cream scoop.
9. No one asks to borrow your favorite sweater, calculus book, a video, or iPod.
8. For at least four days, there is no need to wear flip flops in the shower or worry about who’s using your soap.
7. Laundry facilities may be available other than between 3 and 4 AM; quarters or other forms of payment are not required.
6. Access to a car may be within the realm of possibility.
5. A Student ID isn’t necessary to get in the house or access your bedroom.
4. No one in your family is likely to bang on your door after midnight and want to "talk."
3. Earplugs are not necessary to block out your roommate’s music, snoring, and/or video games.
2. You know it’s your hair in the drain.
1. And for better or worse, Thanksgiving dinner is not served on a tray.

Welcome home to all those fortunate enough to get there!

Photo from jelene's photostream on Flickr

Charta Squad rap video 'Relax' goes viral

BROOKLYN—When Art Samuels, Director of College Guidance and Culture at Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Charter High School (WCHS), originally posted a link to the SAT rap music video “Relax” on the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) E-List little did he expect to create an international sensation. “This is a stressful time of year for counselors,” explained Samuels. “I just thought the video could lighten things up a little.” And it did.

Since the communication went out to college admissions professionals, the Charta Squad SAT video has been enjoyed by over 14,000 visitors to YouTube—and the number is growing hourly as word spreads through the blogosphere as well as on college admissions websites such as Cappex, College Confidential, and the UVA Admissions Blog. Even The Chronicle of Higher Education included mention of the SAT rap video in a weekly news wrap-up. “The internet is an amazing thing,” commented Athena Apostolou, "Relax" co-producer and editor.

Shot in WCHS classrooms and hallways, the 4-minute video is based on 18 minutes of footage that was neither scripted nor rehearsed. “It sort of wrote itself,” according to Ms. Apostolou, who teaches art to students at WCHS. “We did it because we could really imagine how much the kids would enjoy it. What students wouldn’t want to see their teachers dancing around and singing?” Science teacher John Sullivan—who along with Art Samuels wrote the lyrics—added, “It was a ‘fun’ thing meant to demystify the SAT’s and get the kids to ‘relax.’”

In the past week, Samuels has been contacted by hundreds of counselors from all over the country requesting permission to use the video or adapt it for their students. One email came from China asking for a written copy of the lyrics. “The kids never let it die,” according to Samuels. “I’m known around school as the ‘guy in the video.’” Even Samuels’s dentist got in on the act, “He asked for my autograph.”

Based on the overwhelming response, Samuels definitely thinks the Charta Squad will come together for a sequel. "We accomplished our goals which were to get kids excited about the SAT, have fun, and take away stress."

“At the end of the day, it’s all for the students,” concluded Ms. Apostolou. "That’s why we’re in the profession—to help our kids succeed.”

Photo from Lisa Liang's photostream on Flickr