Plugging in to the electronic campus
(By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 04/11/99)
The television camera is Leonard Evenchik's most demanding pupil. It sits perched between two rows of seats in Evenchik's classroom, a mini-amphitheater carved into the foundation of Harvard University's Science Center. About 80 people sit here, too, most of them middle-aged professionals at the end of a hard day's work and a tough drive through Cambridge traffic. They, or their companies, have paid $1,200 to benefit from Evenchik's two decades of experience in computer networking and his 10 years as an instructor at the Harvard Extension School. They flinch and whisper, glance around the room, signal their understanding or their boredom with their eyes.

Rural college, high-tech edge
(By Marie C. Franklin, Globe Staff, 04/04/99)
The night before Amy Sinatra left home in 1993 for her freshman year at St. Michael's College near Burlington, Vt., the Walpole native overheard friends exchanging e-mail addresses. "I didn't know what e-mail was, and I knew nothing about the Internet," she said. Despite that, she planned to major in journalism.

Experience counts here
(By Eric Goldscheider, Globe Correspondent, 04/04/99)
AMHERST -- University Without Walls instructor Victoria Dowling encourages students to take a global view when writing about their experiences.

Art students can find college aid in many places
(By Daniel Grant, Globe Correspondent, 03/21/99)
"It is easy to be judged financially needy these days," said Samuel Hope, executive director of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Trade schools, colleges, and universities report between 70 and 90 percent of their student bodies are on some form of financial aid, Hope said.

Parents finally have a tool to get the job done
(By Charles A. Jaffe, Globe Staff, 03/08/99)
If you were trying to level a mountain with your bare hands, you'd be pretty happy when someone gave you a shovel.

Brown, Harvard make financial aid appealing to more students
(Beth Daley, Doreen Iudica Vigue and Kate Zernike, Globe Staff, 02/23/99)
With two new announcements in the past week, it's now a certified wave of top-flight universities stepping up their financial aid programs to try to appeal to more middle-class students. Brown University announced its new plan over the weekend, and Harvard University announced that it would extend its increased financial aid to graduate students.

Entrepreneurs in training
(By Marie C. Franklin, Globe Staff, 02/21/99)
The history of entrepreneurial education goes like this: from neglect to doting attention. Proof starts at Babson College, one of the hottest business schools in the world for Bill Gates wannabes.

Colleges try to sell themselves
(By Karen Hayes, Globe Correspondent, 02/14/99)
BROCKTON -- One lucky Massasoit Community College student is headed for a free trip to Florida. Another is on her way to free skiing at a Vermont resort. A third is off to a show at a Boston theater, free tickets in hand.

Coming to Boston: a program that builds campus diversity
(By Beth Daley, Doreen Iudica Vigue and Kate Zernike, Globe Staff, 02/09/99)
Have an education issue you want aired, or thoughts on the state of education today? Write to Lesson Plan, City Room, The Boston Globe, P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378, or send e-

Getting help in time
(By Marci Bailey, Globe Correspondent, 01/25/99)
When it comes to applying for college financial aid, timing is not quite everything. But it comes close.

Art schools find different ways to weave in other classes
(By Daniel Grant, Globe Correspondent, 01/10/99)
Contrary to the beliefs of many art school applicants, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is not simply a certificate of training in art but a college degree, for which a student must complete and pass both studio and academic courses alike.

Canada reaches south for students
(By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 01/10/99)
MONTREAL -- For Alec Tallman of Lunenburg, it was a tossup with Vassar College, and Vassar lost. For Ian Madeiros of Pittsfield, Maine, the big lure was the caterwaul of bagpipes and ratta-tat-tat of the Scottish side drum. For Meghan Brown of Pembroke, it was the chance for a high-quality education at a palatable price.

Older and wiser, teaching assistant advises freshmen
(, 12/06/98)
Graduate students are in a perfect position to reflect on freshman year. Having been there, done that, they view the first-year college experience through the focused lens of maturity and perspective. The Globe's Marie C. Franklin talked with 24-year-old Jamia Gaffney, a graduate student at Boston University's College of Communication, or COM. As she completes her studies and aspires to a broadcasting career, Gaffney looked back on what she's learned while serving as a teaching assistant in freshman classes and working in COM's office of student services.

Views from campus
(By Beth Daley, Doreen Iudica Vigue and Kate Zernike, Globe Staff, 12/06/98)
Anyone who's ever gone away to college knows this: The freshmen heading home this month are not the same people who left in August. For the third annual "Views from campus" issue, Globe staff menber Marie C. Franklin gave seven local first-year students an assignment: Write a letter to someone back home - a parent, sibling, friend, teacher - to share some of what you have learned so far at college.

Degrees of success
(By Ralph Whitehead Jr., 11/22/98)
Massachusetts has quietly pulled within eyeshot of a crucial milestone on its journey into the knowledge economy: the point where the state's working-age adults who have four-year college degrees outnumber those who do not.

College remedial rate decried
(By Kate Zernike, Globe Staff, 11/18/98)
Amid a state push to raise academic standards, officials bemoaned a report released yesterday showing thousands of students from Massachusetts public schools requiring remedial classes in basic reading, writing, and math skills when they arrive at state colleges and universities.

For minorities and poor, going to college just got tougher
(By Ben Lieberman, 11/17/98)
Much public attention has been focused on the issue of teacher testing in Massachusetts. But the recent approval by the state Board of Higher Education of a series of sweeping changes that could reduce educational opportunities for working families and students has gone relatively unnoticed.

State says 6 colleges too lax on admissions
(By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff, 11/07/98)
Three state colleges and three University of Massachusetts campuses have violated the state's new academic policies by accepting too many freshmen who did not meet admissions standards or who needed remedial help, according to a state auditor's report released yesterday.

Students plug into high tech demands of college
(By Cynthia Stanton, Globe Staff, 11/05/98)
When asked about buying a computer for new college students, Louis and Karen Coppi draw on 10 years of experience. "We're a 24 semester family," says Karen Coppi. "Three kids times eight semesters. We have five semesters to go."

Latin vs. a Lexus?
(By Matthew Brelis, Globe Staff, 10/11/98)
There was a time not too long ago when going to college meant four years of sampling the myriad intellectual riches of academia, from literature to music, from history to astronomy. Today's students don't have time for such luxuries.

Poor test scores force colleges to reassess
(By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 07/02/98)
Amid the firestorm surrounding the exam failures of a majority of state teaching candidates, colleges and universities have begun turning the spotlight on themselves, reexamining their entrance standards and drawing up plans to toughen their curriculums.

Community Colleges filling more needs
(By Deborah Gastfreund Schuss, Globe Correspondent, 06/28/98)
For the last six months, Andrew Harrington has found himself at opposite ends of the classroom, often on the same day.

Tales out of college
(By Maureen Goggin, 06/14/98)
Over the next months, many high school students will begin to think about applying to college. The choices can seem endless, imponderable, and frightening. Maureen Goggin, a Globe staff member, asked seven local graduates to look back at their college experiences and reflect on whether they made a good choice and what that choice means to them now.

Cramming for financial aid
(By Mary Sit, Globe Correspondent, 01/26/98)
Almost as soon as their baby Nicholas was born 21 months ago, Michele Ciurea, a 34-year-old research economist, and her math professor husband, Christopher King, 39, began worrying about how to pay for their son's college education.