Entries for January 2009

As the economy sours and tuition at four-year schools rises, more and more students are considering low-cost public community colleges. Counselors across the country warn, however, that sometimes students get what they pay for.

Choosing a two-year college could actually harm students' long-term prospects. Research has shown that community colleges, overall, do a poor job of getting students into four-year schools. In a 2008 paper, Harvard professor Bridget Terry Long found that, among similar students, those who chose two-year colleges were less likely to get a bachelor's degree than those who went straight to a four-year college. Since employers tend to pay those who actually earn a degree more than those who've had only a few years of college, saving a few thousand dollars on tuition when you are 18 might end up costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime if you get discouraged in community college and don't persevere to a bachelor's.

VIDEO: HOW TO GET IN: Santa Monica College

You can mess up in your freshman year of high school and still get into one of the top-ranked—and comparatively affordable—public universities, says Theodore Spencer, executive director of the University of Michigan's Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

But to separate yourself out from the 50 percent of applicants who get rejected from Michigan, you'd better buckle down and get good grades as a sophomore and junior. And you need to write a great essay explaining the lapse, he says.

Spencer spills other secrets of winning admission to elite public colleges in this video:

VIDEO: University of Michigan Admissions Officer

Spencer says many students don't realize: