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Today:
I turned down a scholarship at UPenn to attend the more expensive Columbia. I still wonder if I made the right choice.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
I applied to several universities, but Columbia University and New York were the dream I had absorbed from years of movies and television while growing up in Mexico. I still chose Columbia because New York felt like part of the educationIn the end, I followed my instinct and chose Columbia. I don't regret Columbia, but I'm still paying for the choiceI know Columbia gave me a lot. Then the pandemic changed university life almost overnight. Columbia helped shape the life and career I have now, and I am grateful I chose it.

Top Stories:
Gen Z Improving Typing Skills Amid Rise of AI Technology
NEWS | 05 October 2026
Then, she advanced to touch typing — typing without looking at the keyboard. In 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that digital natives were baffling "teachers and parents with their lack of typing skills." Now, for some younger workers and students, typing is making a comeback. But I feel like people are really relying on AI," Andrusiak, who happily uses AI as an aid for writing and research, said. In his decade teaching typing to 15 to 30-year-olds, Andreas Francazi, a 36-year-old IT teacher in Vienna, noticed that his students' typing skills have deteriorated — but they're setting out to change that.

World:
This small town librarian offers a 'Bye, Bye AI' class to take AI off your phone. Now everyone wants in.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
North Chatham, a hamlet in upstate New York halfway between Hudson and Albany, doesn't have much going on. The North Chatham Free Library has gotten a lot of attention lately, however, after a flyer for an upcoming "Bye Bye AI" event offering to remove the AI features from your phone or laptop went viral on Facebook, getting over 200 comments and 8,000 likes. The North Chatham Free Library serves a tiny hamlet in upstate New York, with only about 800 library card holders. Shea WertOne of the groups that reached out was a consortium of libraries for the Hudson Valley area, which included the North Chatham Free Library. The Bye-Bye AI event will take place next week, and Wert isn't entirely sure what to expect given the viral reaction on Facebook.

Current Events:
I moved between 2 countries and languages as a teen. I got very good at proving myself.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
I was born in the Dominican Republic. She'd divorce again, and with her third husband, she started a clothing manufacturing business that brought us back to the Dominican Republic, where I lived from 11 to 16. Two high schools in Spanish in the Dominican Republic, for the freshman and sophomore years. I grew up learning how to switch between Spanish and English, and having to prove myself in both languages. The author moved between the US and the Dominican Republic.

News Flash:
I was a super-volunteer when my kids were in elementary school. Once they reached high school, I turned that role over to my husband.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
Pretty much every year for the next 12 years, I was a room parent for one or more classes. The author said she put in 12 years as a room parent, event organizer, and more when her kids were younger. With all three kids in high school, I figured our days of volunteering at school were mostly behind us. Add to Preferred SourcesElementary school volunteering often meant being physically present at school during typical working hours. High school offered different opportunities, ones that relied more on mentoring, practical skills, and giving teenagers room to take responsibility.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 05 October 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Latest:
Horowitz Andreessen Academy Key Facts: Teachers, Costs, and Classes
NEWS | 05 October 2026
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy has raised $42 million and recruited prominent tech figures as instructors, guest speakers, and mentors. Venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, better known as A16z, is backing the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a new for-profit school for young people interested in building companies, products, and emerging technologies. The San Francisco academy will trade degrees, traditional grades, and lecture-heavy coursework for independent projects, short classes, and work placements at technology companies. Horowitz Andreessen AcademyHow do I apply, and how much does it cost? Current college students may apply, but they cannot have completed more than one year of full-time college after high school.

Breaking:
The 21 Best State Schools in the US
NEWS | 05 October 2026
Just as private schools have the Ivy League, some state schools stand above the rest — Forbes now releases its own list of "Public Ivies" each year. Public schools are also generally cheaper than private schools, especially if you stay in-state. But even paying out-of-state tuition at some public schools can cost half as much as the most expensive colleges charge. We used US News & World Report's 2027 ranking of best national universities to identify the top 21 public schools in the country. Here are the 21 highest-ranked public universities in the US, according to US News & World Report's 2027 rankings.

Trending:
I was awarded $1 million in scholarships to NYU. I also sacrificed a lot of my teenage life to get there.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
Courtesy of Omarion CallowayThe process behind the fundingThe hardest part wasn't keeping track of dates on a spreadsheet. Every spare hour that wasn't spent on family care was sacrificed to finish another essay or track down another deadline. The cumulative value of the financial aid and scholarship offers I received across those 20-plus acceptance letters passed $1 million, and I ultimately accepted a full ride to NYU. Courtesy of Omarion CallowayWhen my mom saw the official financial aid package, she cried in relief. Courtesy of Omarion CallowayWe talk a lot about the American dream, the idea that hard work opens every door.

This Just In:
The most and least educated US states, ranked
NEWS | 05 October 2026
Business Insider analyzed the latest US Census Bureau data on the percentage of adults 25 and older in all 50 states who have earned a bachelor's degree or higher. Associate degrees were not included in each state's ranking, but Business Insider also reviewed those figures to highlight where two-year credentials are more common, helping show how residents in different states may prioritize different levels of education. In some cases, states with low shares of bachelor's and graduate degree holders have higher rates of adults with associate degrees. The trend is also evident in the inverse: Some of the most educated states, in terms of bachelor's degrees or higher, also have some of the lowest rates of associate degree attainment. Here's every state, ranked from the lowest share of adults with at least a bachelor's degree to the highest.

Today:
My 3 kids are all enrolled at the same college. Knowing they're together helps, but I'm still struggling with my empty nest.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
When I tell people that my youngest daughter is attending the same college as her older twin siblings, I always hear some variation of these questions:Did they always want to go to the same college? Preparation didn't helpFor the past year, I've been trying to mentally prepare for the time when all three kids will be in college. I even went on my first solo trip to start to get used to the idea of being without my kids. When I told my youngest daughter how I spent my time, she replied, "That sounds like a very empty nest thing to do." Let them flyMy youngest daughter was already familiar with the college campus from visiting her siblings, so she hasn't had the typical homesickness most students experience (at least not yet).

Top Stories:
The 25 colleges where students study the most hours a week, ranked
NEWS | 05 October 2026
Many of the colleges on this list — which ranks schools by how much students study — have rigorous curricula, small class sizes, and an interdisciplinary approach to learning. The following ranking was compiled from college student responses to the question: "How many out-of-class hours do you spend studying each day?" Based on the responses, the Princeton Review published a list of the 25 schools where students study the most, but did not share the average number of study hours reported by students at each college. The results are based on students' self-reported study hours, so they reflect respondents' estimates rather than time that has been independently tracked. Here are the 25 colleges where students reported studying the most outside class, ranked from No.

World:
I didn't know what TikTok was. My student took my phone, made an account, and changed my career.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
In 2019, when a student told me I should film them, I didn't realize that decision would change my life. Until then, I thought I'd been doing well on social media with my Twitter account, talking with 200 fellow teachers. These days I'm good about keeping a healthy balance of teaching, social media, and downtime. I've talked with my daughter about that, and I put boundaries around social media use when she was a teen, including taking the phone at night. Luckily, my kids and I are both pretty good about keeping boundaries with social media now.

Current Events:
Some US colleges now cost over $100,000 a year. These are the 35 most expensive schools in the US, ranked.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
When deciding where to apply to college, students have to contend with a factor beyond the prospect of education and careers: the sometimes astronomical cost of college tuition. When including housing and food costs, full-time students who live on campus at private four-year universities and colleges pay $60,920 a year. We've listed the most expensive colleges in the US, from small liberal arts schools to Ivy League universities, and ranked them based on the annual cost of tuition, fees, room, and board, as reported by the institutions. In creating this list, we used rankings from US News & World Report, The College Investor, and Best Colleges, which we confirmed using each school's official tuition listings for the 2026-2027 school year. See how much it costs to attend the 35 most expensive schools in the US in 2026.

News Flash:
The 25 Hardest Universities to Get Into in the US, Ranked
NEWS | 05 October 2026
People are applying to more colleges than ever before, but admission to some of the US's top universities remains highly competitive. Using federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Business Insider compiled a list of the 25 universities in the US that are hardest to get into in 2024. For instance, Yale University is the fourth-most competitive university on this list, with just about 4% of its 57,517 applicants admitted. The increasing use of "early decision" to lock in students has also let universities become choosier during the regular decision cycle. See the 25 universities across the US with the lowest admission rates in 2024.