Could Facebook dash your child’s college dream?

If you needed another reason to help your kids monitor what they write and do on Facebook, MySpace and other networking sites, consider this: 10 percent of college admissions counselors at prestigious universities say they check out potential students pages and 38 percent say they have rejected a student based on what they found.

You should know some colleges do consider the pages off-limits in decision making and personal, but others are looking. Regardless of whether your child’s college admissions office views them, odds are good that future employers might.

With more and more of our lives being available on-line, personal privacy and restraint is more necessary than ever. Teach your children the importance of using privacy options on MySpace and Facebook and check to make sure they are.  Remind them not to post anything they wouldn’t want their parents or their future teachers or employers looking at. It could save their education or their career.

Lets Face It

Facebook.  It’s not a gadget per se, but it deserves discussion .  There are so many assumptions and conflicts surrounding social networks now that sometimes the real reason and use of the things just disappear.

First, of all the social networks  (popular ones including: Myspace, Twitter, Friendster, and Friendfeed) I’m a Facebook user.  So, this post is going to focus on the Facebook specifics, though many of the main points apply to all social networks in general.

Lets be clear, Facebook started as a web site meant to link college students, and then moved to allow high school students, and finally to the world in general.  So, in the beginning, Facebook had everything right.  Not to be self centered, but who needs a simple way to stay connected more than college age students?  Who could learn to use Facebook faster than teenagers?  Far from home with friends spread across the world Facebook provided a simple way to say “hey” and post a picture or two.  It was of course main stream media and the elders who made things “unsafe” on the internet.

From focused advertisement, to identity theft, and job applications, all the warnings that are thrown out today about the dangers of having your information online have nothing to do with staying in contact with friends or sending online invites to study sessions.  Sure, kids have to be smart, adjust privacy settings (which is both possible and simple) so that the jerk giving you a hard time at school can’t stalk your pictures and post inappropriate comments, but that’s common sense (I’d hope).  The serious problem is really misunderstanding then coupled with misuse.

If social networks were just that, a digital connection for social interaction, perhaps controversy would be limited.  But, like email and the evolution of spam, problems will always surround internet communication.  All we can do now is take a step back, and maybe give kids a little slack in some areas.  Sometimes a red plastic cup in a profile picture is nothing more than a red plastic cup.

Biking Better

With the new fad that is “going green” college campuses are not the only place bicycles are a hot trend this year (though my campus does have more than its fair share of bikers) there was bound to be a great technological innovation eventual.

In this case I’m talking about the ibike console.  Lets be honest as beautiful as nature is a long ride like workout always goes better with some tunes, the ibike console hopes to provide a safer version of just that.

The console is basically designed as a shock proof weather resistant case for any ipod nano (and only nanos as of right now) on a pair of handle bars, but it gets better.  Stay safe with button controls that also attach to the handle bars and can be reached for with a single thumb.  The controls are wireless so no extra hassle.  No more balancing on a sidewalk while you toggle through a playlist in one not so free hand.

The console also provides exercise information, like distance ridden, and stores the info on a separate chip even with the ipod unplugged.  Add to that an optional pair of speakers and the worries of being deaf to traffic signals due to ear phones disappear too.

Boy do I feel old!

Each year Beloit College puts out a list about the mindset of college freshman listing things that have (or haven’t)influenced their lives. When I was a college freshman in 1994, email and the Internet was just beginning to make their presence known in the college world. Wired dorms were cutting edge and email accounts were just becoming vogue. Now it’s so commonplace, universities don’t even mention it.

Consider the class of 2012 which has grown up in a world of digital communication and rapid-fire access to information.  The digital family lifestyle is the way it is and always has been.

• Born around 1990, for these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.
• They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
• Students have always been “Rocking the Vote.”
• Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
• Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
• more

Or view a webcast of the authors of the list talking about the list and what it means about the students entering colleges this year.

A Taste of Variety

What’s the first complaint about college cafeterias?  The food? Maybe. The lines? Probably.  The soda options?  Whether or not soda is the first thing on your mind on campus Coca Cola is looking to rectify any disappointments you may have.

Coca Cola has proposed a new sort of soda fountain with more than a mere eight or ten flavors.  The new Coke machine could have up to a hundred different options.  Prototypes were supposedly tested at the beginning of this summer second generation tests will start in 2009.

It’s pretty exciting, something old becoming new again.  I only question what the new lines in the cafeteria might look like when a hundred flavors need sorting through instead just a handful.

Software for Security

It’s that time of year, where many of us are heading back to the college dorm or out there for the first time.  There are a lot of questions about room size, and roommate personality, food, safety, etc. etc.  While there’s not much one can do about problems such as food or personality, when it comes to computer worries technology usually has an answer.

For anyone paranoid enough about the safety of their material on a Mac there is the Rohos Logon Key.  When you fear that password login is not enough to keep your excellent Shakespeare paper from plagiarizing eyes just grab a USB drive and the Rohos software and no amount of password guessing or stealing counts for anything.

The concept is simple, plug your USB flash drive in to “unlock” your Mac and unplug it to reapply the locked safety feature.  Like any key (car included) the system’s not full proof, but the idea is solid.  And, with so many other college unknowns, a jumpy freshman may find extra computer security makes the rest of the world of higher education seem a little more secure too.

Scaling Back

With new airline packing restrictions and the onset of college travel season looming the digital luggage scale couldn’t appeal to a more desperate market.

I remember scavenging for a bathroom scale in an already deserted dorm last year and this year, for trips home, that may not be an issue.  The digital luggage scale is travel sized and simple to use.  By strapping the scale to any suitcase you can lift up to 100 lbs by the handle of the scale and get a digital reading when your weight lifting is through.  Since 100 lbs is definitely over all air line limits the scale limit itself shouldn’t be an issue.

With payments for everything from a single checked bag to in air headsets the last thing anyone wants is an extra charge for an overweight bag.  Traveling is stressful enough, not being fully prepared by the time you get to the check in counter is pure laziness.  Now it looks like even we space strapped college students will have a way to prepare our own bags.  At a mere $22 the scale’s potential “outweighs” any price tag.

An Abundance of Opportunities

So I remember what it was like to have to search for colleges, it’s one of those experiences ingrained in my brain forever (unfortunately).  But as I watch a new class of rising high school seniors attempt to finalize lists before another (and a final) hectic high school year begins there are a few sites I can suggest as relatively helpful.  The internet gives you options.  It’s no longer all about the college book or singular school website, there are extra, more impartial sites from which to get a helping hand.

College Prowler - This site is the closest relation of my suggestions to the old school college book.  In part because, if you so choose, more information can be obtained through the College Prowler books themselves.  Basically the site (and the books often in more detail) gives you information on schools by their students.  Most of the books are balanced between lovers and haters of each campus, but it’s a much more helpful look than the average sale’s pitch of an admissions officer.

College Data - Another helpful site, but for different reasons.  Aside from information College Data also provides the opportunity to check your chances on their site.  Basically, after entering test scores and the like, the site will calculate your schools of interests and tell you your safeties from your reach schools.  From my experience it’s relatively accurate (though don’t let any of the site’s answers discourage you).

Fast Web - I like Fastweb just because it’s different.  It’s more an extras site than a “where should I go” deal, but it’s useful all around.  Sign up and the site will alert you to scholarships, big and small.  From making videos to submitting the college essay you already wrote a little cash never hurt anyone.

There’s no way to erase the pain that is the college search process, but there are ways to minimize suffering, or at least try to.