GO TO COLLEGE: STEP-BY-STEP

132. Spelman Looks to Help Would-Be Dropouts With Co-op Program, by Sara Lipka- http://chronicle.com/article/Spelman-Looks-to-Help-Would-Be/125723/ "Thirty percent of students at Spelman, a historically black women's college in Atlanta, qualified for federal Pell Grants eight years ago; almost 50 percent do today, said Beverly Daniel Tatum, the college's president. Demographic data project that trend will continue, as the population of college-going black women grows and includes a higher proportion of low-income students. Spelman's graduation rate, about 82 percent, far exceeds the national average, but Ms. Tatum thinks it should be higher. "When students don't finish," she said, "it is almost always related to their financial situation."

133. Avoid These 4 Financial Aid Whoppers, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy http://t.co/tEMM3Ce "Odds are that you will increase your chances of capturing financial aid if you can avoid common financial aid myths. Here are four of the biggest financial aid whoppers:" 134. How Will Suburban Schools Handle The New Influx of Immigrants? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-garland/suburban-school-immigrationeducation-reform_b_797201.html "Graduation rates for blacks and Hispanics -- the overwhelming majority of all immigrants in the United States -- are far below those for whites. The trend line therefore suggests that the country will be facing a growing shortage of educated Americans as global competition intensifies, particularly as other countries' graduation levels rise."

135. Who Are the Undergraduates? http://chronicle.com/article/Who-Are-theUndergraduates-/123916/ "Roughly 22 million undergraduates attended college at some point in 2007-8, and the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study from that year provides a snapshot of where students are coming from and how they pursue their educations. More than a third of all undergraduates attend part-time, and most are not affluent. That's reflected in where students go to college—more than twice as many undergraduates attend the University of Phoenix's online campus as go to an Ivy League college. You can explore students' demographics for yourself below."

136. Colleges With The Lowest Graduation Rates http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/15/colleges-with-the-lowest_n_797119.html#s208556 "The Chronicle found that overall, graduation rates at American higher education institutions have declined by 33 percent since 2002 -- with the recession as a likely 69