New York University makes tuition free for all medical students

NEW YORK – New York University (NYU) said Thursday it would offer all its current and future medical school students free tuition in an effort to tackle soaring debt levels and encourage more applicants.

The move – which it said was financed by the generosity of the university’s “trustees, alumni, and friends” – amounts to a reduction of $55,018 in annual fees, regardless of financial needs or academic merit.

It does not cover living and administrative costs averaging $27,000 a year.


“A population as diverse as ours is best served by doctors from all walks of life, we believe, and aspiring physicians and surgeons should not be prevented from pursuing a career in medicine because of the prospect of overwhelming financial debt,” said Dr. Robert Grossman, dean of the NYU School of Medicine.

In its statement, NYU also pointed out that high student debt was putting graduates off pursuing less lucrative specializations including pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the median debt of a graduating medical student in the US is $202,000 – while 21 percent of doctors who graduate from a private school such as NYU face over $300,000.

“Our hope — and expectation — is that by making medical school accessible to a broader range of applicants, we will be a catalyst for transforming medical education nationwide,” said Kenneth Langone, chair of the Board of Trustees of NYU Langone Health.

Thursday’s announcement came as a surprise ending to the school’s annual white coat ceremony, which marks the start of first-year students’ medical careers.

Those 93 students will benefit from the scholarship, along with 350 others enrolled further along in the program.

NYU said it is the only top 10-ranked medical school in the US to offer such an initiative.  /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

The New York School of Photography

The New York School of Photography (NYIP) has been in business for 100 years. And even after a century, it is still considered one of the nation's top photography schools!

Today, NYIP is celebrating its 100-year history by sponsoring a slideshow of photos taken by former graduates on the school's website.



This competition selected some of the best photos taken by these graduates, who have since succeeded in the field of photography.

Photos featured in this lineup were taken by a variety of photo professionals, including photojournalists. The photos were all different in the sense that they vary from black and white photos to colorful sunsets.

Of course, the journey to becoming a professional photographer for many began at the front steps of this school! NYIP offers courses in everything from videography to photography basics-basics which led up to the multimedia photography of today. However, the old world has not vanished with new age technology.

Taking photographs of people is still popular and offered as a course of study at the school. Outdoor photography and nature courses are also offered. You can also take weather-based photography courses, many of which focus on cold weather.

Cold weather photography often features photos of snow-capped mountain ranges and snowy scenes with subtle shades of sunlight.

The school has its own suggestions for cold weather photographers. Not only are cold weather photographer plagued with runny noses and ice cold fingers; they must also wear apparel that helps them exist comfortably in cold environments. For many, this means wearing warm boots and dressing in layers, so snow does not reach your skin.





Different types of photography courses available

You can also take photography courses that specialize in photographing lunar eclipses and New York City tourism. The nice thing about taking such courses is that it spices up your portfolio and shows you have experience in different environments and with different kinds of photos.

You can read about each course the school offers by visiting their website. You will also find sample photos that reflect what is taught in that particular course. Hot air balloon photography courses are also offered.

New York school of photography is chosen by hopeful photographers, because of the school's long-standing positive reputation. Under some circumstances, tuition is tax deductable. However, your tax advisor will be able to tell you whether or not this applies to you.

You will need special photography equipment to attend this school. A point and shoot camera is the most basic and necessary piece of equipment (a digital SLR camera is even better). However, digital courses require you to buy Adobe Photoshop.

Benefits of this photography school

According to many students in 2009, NYIP has helped them fulfill their educational goals. Many NYIP students have been successful in producing high quality digital images for their courses, and report getting great feedback from. One student said they took courses that were on both CD and DVD. Many students have been pleased with the school's affordability when compared to other photography institutions.

Other students received free equipment after signing up for a course. The school has also given students free camera bags before they even start courses. The nice thing about this is that it gives you a jump start on your photography career and study.

NYIP's website offers tips on how to take photos in different atmospheres, such as on a football field and how to take romantic photos. The romantic photos went along with a Valentine's theme for the month of February.

By visiting the school's student center on the school's website you find discounts on Ritz Camera equipment. The New York School of Photography worked out a deal with ritzcamera.com for students to buy Ritz Camera equipment at a student discount rate. This is part of the school's efforts to make education more affordable to students. Under this discount program, students can save seven percent on products that are essential to an NYIP education. This only applies to the Ritz Camera website, though.

If you want to pursue a serious career in photography, you have a variety of schools to choose one. Each comes with its own allure, its own specialty. Some are located in big commercial areas that are close to trendy, booming areas.

But the New York School of Photography has been helping students picture their careers for 100 years, and it shows no sign of turning off the window of opportunity to a photography career!

source: www.best-photography-courses.com

LOOK: Blazers’ guard C.J. McCollum enters Harvard Business School

The term “student athlete” usually applies to varsity players who received scholarships to play sports in high school or college.

Rarely do we see a successful professional athlete find the time to juggle his career and studies.

The Portland Trailblazers combo-guard C.J. McCollum is looking to break that mold, as he recently revealed that he got into one of the most prestigious learning institutions in the world.

Through his Instagram account, the 25-year-old guard said he’d be attending the Harvard Business School for a summer course.

“A kid from Canton, Ohio made it into a Harvard Business classroom. Locked in thinking of a master plan,” last year’s NBA Most Improved Player captioned a photo of himself.

Prior to being drafted in 2013, McCollum graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Lehigh University.

During the off-season, McCollum dabbles in writing for various basketball websites. He was even a part-time sideline reporter for the NBA All-Star Weekend.  Khristian Ibarrola /ra

source: sports.inquirer.net

Woman auctions off virginity online to pay for schooling abroad

The price of good education nowadays is expensive and this Russian woman is willing to give “everything” of herself away just to achieve it.

Twenty-year-old student Ariana is auctioning off her virginity on an escort site in order to raise money to study abroad.

The bidding, which starts at £130,500 (P8.2 million), went online last week on the Russian-based escort site Sinderella, according to a report from The Sun.

Although she looked at other ways to raise the money, Ariana decided to sell her innocence since she says it’s the quickest and easiest way to raise her money.

“Many students have the issue that during their studies they have to deal with multiple problems. You have to go to work in order to pay for your education,” she said in the report.

“I want to move to another country for my studies in medicine. The university will be very expensive; the rent will also be high and I imagine that living in another country will be very hard. Therefore, I want to get the financial burden out of the way so I can focus on my medical studies,” she elucidated.

Her parents have no idea of her novel way to raise money, but she said she was open to explain it to them if and when they do discover what’s going on online.

The hopeful scholar added that that selling her virginity was her own choice, and described herself as an “independent woman” in her auction profile.

She also attributed her decision to her cynical approach on love, adding that she has waited so long to give her virginity to the right person, but it’s never worked out in the past.

“Why should I wait any longer?” she said. “Why should I lose my virginity to someone who could then break my heart later?”

Despite her seemingly rash judgment, Ariana admitted that she is looking at the sale as an investment, and hopes that whoever wins the auction will deal with her respectfully.

Aside from Ariana, her best friend Lolita is also auctioning her virginity, with bids also starting at £130,500. Khristian Ibarrola

source: technology.inquirer.net

LGBT history lessons edging closer to California classrooms

SAN FRANCISCO— After multiple delays, California education officials are moving to comply with the nation’s first law requiring public schools to include prominent gay people and LGBT rights milestones in history classes.

A curriculum outline scheduled to be reviewed by the State Board of Education on Thursday would introduce the concepts in second grade through discussions about diverse families and again in fourth grade with lessons on California’s place in the gay rights movement.

The proposed outline also touches on the topics in fifth and eighth grade — looking at gender roles in the 18th and 19th centuries and examples of individuals who flouted them — and throughout high school.

A capstone of sorts would come in U.S. government courses, where seniors would learn about the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and recent court cases involving bathroom access for transgender students.

The changes are designed to satisfy legislation passed by California lawmakers five years ago that added LGBT Americans and people with disabilities to the list of social and ethnic groups whose contributions schools are supposed to teach and must appear in K-8 textbooks.

The legislation, known as SB48, also prohibited the adoption of any classroom materials that reflect adversely on gays or particular religions.

The law officially took effect in January 2012, but its implementation was slowed by two failed attempts by opponents to overturn it, budget cuts that put work on drafting recommendations for the school board and textbook purchases on hold, and competing educational priorities.

Carolyn Laub, a consultant for a group for LGBT parents called Our Family Coalition, said that while some school districts and individual teachers made their own efforts to incorporate gay history since the law passed, many were nervous about tackling the topic without explicit guidance from the state.

“Many, many educators are waiting for this framework to know, ‘This is the content I’m supposed to be including,'” Laub said. “If educators perceive, rightly or wrongly, they may not get support from their administration if they face pushback from a parent who says, ‘I don’t want you talking to my kid about that,’ they are reluctant to do a whole lot of inclusion.”

Gay rights groups had complained that an initial draft of the outline issued in 2014 did only a cursory job of highlighting important LGBT figures and events. Twenty scholars affiliated with the American Historical Association offered detailed recommendations for beefing up the document, most of which were adopted, said Don Romesburg, chairman of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at Sonoma State University.

“One of the really important things about this new framework is it’s a 21st century framework,” Romesburg said. “It really recognizes that whatever your political view or opinion of LGBT rights, LGBT history is a part of American history, and you cannot understand where we are now collectively as Americans without understanding something of the LGBT past.”

The additions dealing with LGBT history are part of an overall revision of the state’s history and social studies framework, which identifies the historical concepts California students should be exposed to each year. The guidelines were last updated more than a decade ago.

An advisory commission that produced the recommendations the state school board will consider Thursday received thousands of written comments voicing support, expressing opposition or requesting simple changes, but only a small handful dealt with the gay history additions. Three teachers expressed concern that other important groups were neglected.

“There is no mention of Manifest Destiny or Native Americans,” Brianna Leemkuil, a U.S. history teacher at Yucaipa High School in San Bernardino County, said of one 11 grade unit. “You want us to talk about a tiny LGBT community and ignore the killing of an entire people group?”

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

College Tuition Increases Slow Down; Students Take On Less Debt

The past year’s published increase in tuition and fees across all kinds of U.S. colleges and universities rose at a slower rate than the average for the past five, 10 and 30 years. And today’s students are going into less debt to pursue their degrees.

Those are the key findings of a report released late last week by the College Board.

The College Board is a private association that includes more than 6,000 colleges, universities and schools. It creates and administers standardized tests, including the SATs, and provides services and support to students and their parents as they consider college.

The rate of tuition increase has declined in each of the past three years, according to the College Board.

Students also are borrowing less money for college, the report said, in part due to the federal government increasing Pell Grants, tuition help for veterans and other assistance.

The report says a rebound from the economic downturn of the past few years was a factor. In contrast to the private sector, higher education costs tend to increase during tough economic times, as out-of-work adults seek new degrees and students who could opt to enter the job market choose to stay in school instead.

But even if recent trends are promising, a longer look at college costs shows that paying for higher education remains daunting for many families. While increases are slowing, they continue to climb higher than the rate of inflation.

Over the past decade, the average published tuition and fees at public, four-year schools have risen a whopping 42%, adjusted for inflation, according to the College Board.

“It is encouraging that published prices are rising more slowly than in the past and that annual education borrowing has continued to decline,” Sandy Baum, the report’s co-author and a professor of education policy at George Washington University, said in a written release.

“However, the reports also document dramatic increases in published tuition and fees over time that outstrip growth in grant aid for many students, as well as rising levels of cumulative debt among graduates.”

And, as the Chronicle of Higher Education notes, those figures don’t take into account other costs, like rent and groceries, which continue to rise.

According to the Chronicle, average room and board charges for four-year students now amount to more than $9,800.

Between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years, tuition and fees for full-time, in-state students at public four-year colleges and universities increased 2.9%, from $8,885 to $9,139.

The cost for out-of-state students at those schools rose 3.3%, from $22,223 to $22,958 during the same period, and tuition and fees at private, nonprofit four-year institutions jumped 3.7%, from $30,131 to $31,231.

Tuition and fees at public two-year schools also went up 3.3% on average, from $3,241 to $3,347.

Actual net prices tend to be much lower than published prices, the Board said, because many students receive grants from state and federal governments, or from the colleges and universities themselves. Education tax credits and deductions also help chip away at those numbers.

source: nerdwallet.com

Teaching kids the history and humanity of science

Think about this the next time you look at a periodic table: Did you know that its discoverer, Dmitri Mendeleev, once made an 11,500-foot-high solo flight in a balloon? Or that he resigned his post at the University of St. Petersburg in support of protests against czarist oppression in Russia?

A chemist himself by training, Dr. Michael Purugganan says that it's more important to teach children to understand the history and humanity behind the periodic table rather than just having kids memorize it.

"[Memorizing is] not what science is. Science is solving problems about the universe," he told GMA News Online in a roundtable interview.

He recalls that, when he was a young boy, he would sneak into the premises of the old National Science Development Board in Malate and spend hours looking at all the scientific equipment there.

"It just fascinated me. That was what really inspired me to become a scientist," he recalls. Today, he is the Dean for Science at New York University and a world leader in evolutionary and ecological genomics.

But it all started with that early spark of curiosity, which fueled a lifetime of scientific exploration —a far cry from the rote method of instruction so common in the science classroom.

Philippine science education as a whole

"People are very worried about science education," he said. "They think it's not doing very well, so this is not only a problem in the Philippines. How you teach science to children around the world is something people are thinking about. For Philippines especially, I suspect it is a problem that is across the board, not just in science but everything."

Purugganan —who graduated from BS Chemistry at the University of the Philippines Diliman— said that science high schools in the Philippines provide top-notch education, but he wished that these schools' competence in the sciences can be spread to regular, non-specialized schools as well.

"I think we have to enrich the curriculum and we have to focus on how we teach. I think the way we approach science should be changed," he suggested.


Approaches to education

"I think there's enough people out there who can look at what's been working and what's not been working. The Bernidos' school in Bohol is doing excellent science education. They won the Magsaysay Award, and they're doing excellent education in a rural part of Bohol and yet their students rank in the top 10 nationwide in the mathematics exam (of the National Career Assessment Examination). They're doing something right," he enthused.

Physicists Christopher and Maria Victoria Bernido left their jobs at the National Institute in the University of the Philippines in 1999 to revive a high school in the remote municipality of Jagna, Bohol that was in danger of closing down.


The Bernidos introduced a unique way for learning both science and non-science subjects, called the Dynamic Learning Program, in which more than half of the class time is made up of student-driven activities rather than simple lectures from the teachers. The couple was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2010.

Purugganan thinks it's good that the Philippines is soon implementing K-12 education, but only if enrichment of the curriculum is part of this change. For the most part, Purugganan is neutral towards the impact of K-12 to the quality of education.

"I went through a K-10 education. A lot of other scientists I know went through K-10 education. It did not hurt us because we had a really good curriculum. We know that it's worked in the past, so increasing the time is not necessarily the answer," he said.


"I'm not sure K-12 is the answer. Hopefully it might be, if it forces policymakers to look carefully about what they're teaching throughout that K-12," he added.

Surprise discoveries and curiosity-driven research

Purugganan says that people and the government should acknowledge that breakthroughs in science generally come unplanned.

"The one thing I learned from being in science for a long time is that we have no idea where breakthroughs are going to come from, where things are going to happen," he said.

"One of the examples I give is one of the biggest technologies in the world for genetics right now, PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technology: somebody just decided to study this bacteria that was growing in a hot spring in Yellowstone. He was interested in what's growing in the hot spring, he wasn't thinking of developing a new technology, but that's where this technology came from," he shared.

Purugganan prizes "curiosity-driven research." Scientists, according to him, must be allowed a certain degree of freedom to pursue interests in research. Purugganan currently runs research laboratories in New York and Abu Dhabi and has published over 100 research papers. This experience helped him lead several large-scale multimillion dollar international research projects funded by the US National Science Foundation.

"We call it curiosity-driven research. This is why we let our scientists follow their curiosity and why many countries allow scientists to do that is because there is this understanding that we actually can't plan where these discoveries will come from. And so we should give scientists some freedom to pursue where their curiosity takes them," he said.

Purugganan distinguishes between research that needs to have an end product and those that are more exploratory in nature. And even when an end product such as a particular medicine is expected, it may take as long as twenty years to be developed for mass consumption.

He clarifies: "What I've noticed is that there is almost a requirement that at the end of your research there will be a clear product (as if) we're gonna change the world in five years. You see this all the time, they will ask that in five years there's a drug that comes out of this research. (But) in the United States, it takes about twenty years to go from laboratory to drug. I think it's asking too much. That orientation should be revisited."


Budgeting resources, identifying top scientists

Purugganan does acknowledge that resources for research are limited. However, such research does not necessarily have to have a concrete product in the end.

"We have limited resources so we've got to be very careful about where it goes. [The project] should be something that either the people or the government sees has meaning, that there's something we get out of it. But it doesn't have to be product-oriented, I think it's wrong to think that 'at the end of this research I would have Product X.' It doesn't have to have a product in the end but it has to be relevant, and the relevance means that it's something that would be useful to us," he said.

But how should the government set its priorities when it comes to funding scientific research?

Purugganan thinks the government should determine the top Filipino scientists in their respective fields, and ask them what needs to be done and why it should be done. This way, the government is able to better utilize its homegrown scientific expertise.

"I think the better way to fund is [to ascertain] who are the good scientists in the country and ask them 'What would you do?' and explain what it is you need to do and why it's important," he said. "Let the scientists come up with the ideas rather than the government imposing on them where they should be doing research. I think that we're wasting resources because I'm not sure it's the best use of the expertise of our scientists. And at the end of the day I'm not sure that the goal of the government is to solve this problem so we also have to rethink how we do that."

Firing up kids' curiosity and passion

In his interview with GMA News Online editor-in-chief Howie Severino on News To Go, Purugganan encouraged aspiring scientists to set their eyes on their goal.

"I went to public school here in Manila, I went to UP Diliman, and when you're growing up you [think], 'I want to be a scientist' and what do you do, you have to get advanced degrees but now there's a lot of opportunities. We have PhD programs already in Ateneo and UP system and LaSalle, there's a lot of excitement and a lot of our students are going abroad and getting advanced degrees," he gamely shared.

Filipinos who earn their degrees abroad do come back, said Purugganan. Or at the least, they give back by getting involved in Philippine-based projects, or by consulting and teaching.

Severino noted that this could be a way of reversing the brain drain, still an ongoing phenomenon in the country.

"Absolutely. I think we should do that. It's very important for our country to do that," Purugganan agreed.

Forwarding the quest for the Filipino Genome

As if to sum up his entire philosophy on scientific discovery and progress, Dr. Purugganan underscored the value of pursuing the so-called Filipino Genome.


A leader in the field of evolutionary and ecological genomics, he sits on the advisory board of the DOST's newly-built Philippine Genomics Center.

"Genomics [...] focuses more on finding the application of a mapped gene sequence through manipulation.  The goal is to produce a better animal breed, a pest-resistant crop, or an anti-infective drug for diseases such as tuberculosis or the influenza A H1N1 virus," a statement on the DOST website said.

Purugganan is visibly excited about the Genomics Center and the prospect of a Filipino Genome Diversity Project, and its far-reaching impact on our shared past and potential future.


One might imagine Mendeleev looking down from his balloon, nodding in approval. 

— TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com