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$1.2 billion UGA campaign kicks off with $30 million Woodruff gift
Maria Saporta
Contributing Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
The University of Georgia kicked off its $1.2 billion fundraising campaign Nov. 17 at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, using the occasion to announce the largest single gift it has ever received in its history. The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation has made a $30 million gift to UGA for a centerpiece of its “Commit to Georgia” campaign — a recognition of the critical importance to meet the financial needs of deserving students. “The Woodruff Foundation is pleased to join alumni and friends of the University of Georgia to help expand opportunity for students with financial need,” said Russ Hardin, president of the Woodruff Foundation. “We recognize that many bright, hard-working Georgia students face significant financial barriers to attending the university, and that far too many students graduate with burdensome debt. UGA’s ambitious campaign will help ensure both the educated workforce and the leadership our state needs to prosper in future years.” … Georgia Tech professor and mobility Brad Fain, a principal research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, has been elected to the board of directors of Mobility Worldwide, a global charity that builds and provides three-wheeled, off-road wheelchairs to those unable to walk in the developing world. Fain was recruited by the organization to help lead a research and development effort to investigate new designs for worldwide use. The specialized wheelchairs are ideal for those who lost limbs in land mines or who cannot walk due to birth defects or disease. Since its founding in 1994, Mobility Worldwide has distributed more than 57,000 of the unique wheelchairs among 103 countries.
www.bizjournals.com
TOP OF THE LIST: Area’s 25 Largest Colleges and Universities
Courtney O’Neal
Research Associate, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Atlanta Business Chronicle’s November 18, 2016, issue includes its latest Area’s 25 Largest Colleges and Universities listing, ranked by undergraduate and graduate enrollment for fall 2016. For the first time in the list’s history, Georgia State University ranks No.1 with an enrollment of 52,000. Up two spots from last year’s list, the jump is a reflection of its consolidation with Georgia Perimeter College in January. The combined enrollment now makes GSU the largest university in Georgia, offering more than 250 majors across 55 degree programs at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and specialist levels. The University of Georgia drops one spot to No. 2 with over 36,000 enrolled for the current semester. …Kennesaw State University ranks third with just over 35,000 enrolled across its Kennesaw and Marietta campuses.
www.usnews.com
10 MBAs With the Highest Return for Grads Earning $100,000+
MBA grads from these business schools have at least a 250 percent average return, U.S. News data show.
By Farran Powell | Reporter
Many prospective business students look at an MBA as an investment…Here are 10 ranked business schools where full-time MBA grads earning more than $100,000 on average within three months of graduation received the highest return. 9. Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) U.S. News business school rank: 34. Average salary and signing bonus within three months of graduating (2015): $121,752.
www.11alive.com
ARCS Foundation gives $370,000 in college grants to Ga. university students
William Liss, WXIA
ATLANTA — A 25-year tradition continued Thursday as 50 students from four Georgia universities received grants for long-term graduate study. In ceremonies at Atlanta’s downtown Ritz Carlton, the Atlanta chapter of the ARCS Foundation awarded $370,000 in grants to students at the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Emory and Morehouse. In the last 25 years, the all-female organization has awarded more than $4.5 million in scholarships to 450 students. The students received grants for engineering, mathematics, science and medicine.
www.ajc.com
College admission timelines in Georgia
http://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/college-admission-timelines-georgia/2bqiWgjdQBttohmdnMrSDN/
Ty Tagami The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students will learn over the coming months whether they were accepted by the college of their choice, with early admission decisions due in coming weeks and regular admission decisions announced early next year. Here’s a timeline for the applications and processes at select Georgia colleges and universities.
University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
University of Georgia early action applicants learn fate today. What UGA considered.
Today, the 15,600 Georgia high school students who applied early action to the University of Georgia will find out if they were admitted. Decisions are expected this afternoon. Some will be deferred to the regular decision pool and will find out early next year if they won admission. If your child is among them, make sure they look at the first video in our four-part series on what UGA is looking for in applicants and what kids turned down for early admission can do to improve their odds. If your children are juniors, sophomores or freshmen in high school and want to attend UGA, please have them check out today’s video interview, which deals with what coursework the university wants and how much it weighs things like the essay.
www.myajc.com
Sounding smart about jobs: A magnificent seven things to know today
http://www.myajc.com/news/business/sounding-smart-about-jobs-a-magnificent-seven-thin/ns9NL/
By Michael Kanell – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s unemployment rate edged up to 5.2 percent in October from 5.1 percent in September as hiring couldn’t keep up with the flow of new jobseekers, state labor department said today. However, the higher jobless rate was not the result of layoffs – in fact, the state added 6,700 jobs during the month. The rate rose because a flurry of people entered the workforce, more than could be soaked up by the modest hiring… And Linda Brenner, managing director of Atlanta-based Talent Growth Advisors said the technical ambitions of many companies are outpacing the supply of talent in Atlanta. “I think the numbers don’t play out,” she said. “Some companies have relations with Georgia Tech, but there just aren’t enough Tech grads who want to stay in Midtown Atlanta.”
www.gainesvilletimes.com
Northeast Georgia Medical Center to launch residency program
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/120348/
By Joshua Silavent
Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville is in the early stages of developing a residency program for medical school graduates that hospital leaders said marks “another milestone” for the growing local health care industry. The new program was announced Thursday at a Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce meeting at the Chattahoochee Country Club. Carol Burrell, president and CEO of the Northeast Georgia Health System, said the program would help recruit and retain homegrown talent, fill shortages of positions and improve overall quality of care and patient outcomes. The program’s first medical residents will start at NGMC in 2019, and hospital officials expect upward of 170 residents across six different specialties to enroll by 2024, making it one of the largest programs in the state. “Our goal is to go one step further and keep the best of the best right here in our community,” Burrell said. “Helping train the next generation of doctors is just another way we will achieve our mission of improving the health of our community in all we do.” According to hospital officials, medical students will be able to apply for the program at NGMC in one of six medical specialties: internal medicine, family medicine, general surgery, OB/GYN, psychiatry and emergency medicine. …The hospital will receive $4.5 million in matching funds through the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to help offset a $9 million up-front investment in program facilities, leadership, faculty and other resources.
www.walb.com
FVSU helps seniors in Candler Co. sign up for health insurance online
By Dal Cannady, Reporter
Searching the web for insurance options can be confusing, especially for seniors who don’t like the internet. In Candler County, help arrived in the form of a mobile computer lab from Fort Valley State University. Seniors got a helping hand to navigate the Medicare Part D enrollment website. Medicare users have until December 7 to renew and adjust their coverage. The computer lab gives them access to the options to make their choices.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
A Year Before Public-Service Loan Forgiveness Kicks In, Uncertainty Looms
By Shannon Najmabadi
In 2007, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum graduated with a law degree from Cornell University, a master’s in public health from the Johns Hopkins University, and about $145,000 in student-loan debt from those programs and her undergraduate studies. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Ms. Kestenbaum had developed her own dual-degree plan and knew she wanted to be a public-interest lawyer. So when she heard about a new program that would erase the federal loans — the bulk of her debt — of graduates who worked in public service for 10 years, she immediately looked into it. The program, called Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF, had been passed by Congress and signed that year by President George W. Bush. Its goal was to use the carrot of loan forgiveness to steer graduates toward careers in the public interest — to be public defenders, teachers, and the like. Next October borrowers like Ms. Kestenbaum who learned of the program early on can be among the first batch to apply to have their loans forgiven. But as that deadline approaches, neither government officials nor borrowers know exactly what to expect.