The Trinity University graduate, who wanted to work in media or marketing in New York, began his job search five months before he got his diploma in May. He contacted bosses from a previous internship. Asked recruiters how he could improve his résumé. Met with alumni for help. By mid-June, he had applied for more than 100 jobs, with no success.

“I didn’t think I’d land a great job within three weeks, but I didn’t realize just how exhausting it would be and how frustrating it would be,” says Currie, 21. “The problem is the competition is so tough. You’re competing not only with other young graduates but experienced workers who have been laid off.”

He’s not alone. With the national unemployment rate at 9.5 percent or higher since January, 2010 is one of the worst years to graduate high school or college since at least 1983 and possibly the worst since the end of World War II, according to a paper published by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. More…

Referring to America’s declining rate of college degree attainment in relation to other industrialized nations as an “education deficit,” Dr. William Kirwan, chair of the advisory committee for the College Board’s Policy and Advocacy Center, said the report and a state policy guide released in tandem with the report could help guide policy-makers in the effort to turn things around.

“We need a scorecard that shows progress toward our goal of increasing college completion,” Kirwan said during a College Board presentation attended mostly by College Board officials, collaborators and Capitol Hill staff members Thursday at the Rayburn House Office Building.

The report, which sets a goal of having 55 percent of Americans earning a post-secondary credential by the year 2025, adds to the growing number of voices in  government, policy and philanthropy circles that are calling for higher college completion rates in the United States. More…

Why Grad School?

Primarily, you’ve got to ask yourself whether you really want or need a graduate degree. More…

I know what I did in college.  I wandered around my leafy-green campus with Shakespeare in tow.  Jobs were the last thing on my mind. In fact, whenever jobs entered my brain I went into meltdown.  What was I going to do after college? The era of pink hair and mermaid drawing was going to end.  How was I going to survive?

The good news is I survived, and the better news is that I’ve learned a bunch of things along the way. The first thing is that you should NOT freak out about life after college at 4 AM while you are listening to heavy-metal with your roommates.  Not productive for you or for campus security. The second thing is that post-college life is not scary if you prepare yourself while you are still in college. Why do you go into meltdown when you hear the word “Job?”  Because all you can picture are fluorescent-lit cubicles and wooly business suits.  But that’s just one very specific experience of work—today, for example, I’m working in yoga pants in a tangerine colored office with two giant sun-filled windows and a family of raccoons living in a tree ten feet outside my door.  Michelle, KODA’s CFO, brings binoculars into work so we can spy on them.  See?  Totally not the prototypical work environment, or what I had envisioned when I went into meltdown on the leafy green campus.

Here are 4 simple things you can do right now, whether you’re a freshman or a senior in college, to make your transition into post college life smooth sailing.

1.)  Get an Internship. You don’t have to get ten, just one or two, and make sure they’re meaningful. Your internship will help you build career skills and meet professionals who will guide you through your career exploration. More…

According to the study, conducted by Vicki McCracken, Fran Hermanson and Diem Nguyen, and reported in the Associated Press, varsity athletes “were more than twice as likely as non-athletes to graduate within five or six years.”

The study didn’t solely focus on athletics. The researchers also found that socio-economic status is often a good indicator of academic success and that grade point average is far better at predicting accomplishment than SAT scores. More…

Atlanta checked in at No. 4, behind only Houston, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas. In 2009, Atlanta ranked fifth. More…

With student loans looming over their heads, many Millennials wish they could turn back the clock and re-do their college education. Chanelle Schneider, a Millennial in Washington, D.C., says going to college on loans, rather than saving and paying cash for her education, was the “worst decision (she’s) made thus far in life.” Her only debt is student loans. “Every time something good happens I’m beaten back by phone calls from Sallie Mae wanting money – money that I don’t have. Why don’t I have this money? Because I went to college with the assumption that I would graduate and get a job that would pay well enough to pay back the loans I took out,” writes Schneider on her blog, There From Here. More…

As the competition for work-study and other campus jobs intensifies, college officials say students who follow these six steps are much more likely to earn the extra money they need for college.

1. Apply early: Fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid as soon as possible, and visit your college’s financial aid office early in the spring to apply for a fall job. After getting swamped with more than 2,000 applications for the 72 work-study jobs available at her campus this fall, Wilma Hjellum, director of financial aid and veteran services at the Metropolitan Community College of Omaha, Neb., stopped accepting job applications April 1st.

2. Be persistent: If you miss out on a job when you first apply, ask about a waiting list, or contact the aid office midway through the semester, suggests Sam Collie, interim director of financial aid for Eastern Oregon University. Sometimes work-study jobs open up late in a semester if a student quits or drops out. More…