Each day, TWG Plus gives you a short synopsis of what is going on in the world of higher education and higher education marketing. Dr. Taylor Trussell is your curator.

College merit aid produces bidding wars (Washington Post). “It is becoming a common scenario post-recession: Affluent applicants, shocked by college sticker prices and leery of debt, are choosing a school not because it is the first choice but because it is the best deal.”

The Smart Student’s Guide to Choosing a College, Part 2 (Patch.com). “Before we review what’s important in gauging a college, let’s first consider what’s not important. Unregulated and aggressive college marketing is very selective about the facts that are revealed.”

Legislators Ask Testing Companies How They Use Student Data (Head Count). “Two U.S. congressmen who seek enhanced online privacy protections for teenagers have asked ACT Inc. and the College Board to disclose how they collect and use test takers’ personal information… .”

On Thursday 5/26/2011 Talmadge and Ross held the second of our Social Media Social Hours.

During the one hour session we covered
- Links to Facebooks new Best Practices guide
- Recent reports on the state of social media in higher education
- How to set up and use Facebook pages.

If you happened to miss the social hour, you can catch video and slides from the event below.

Links from the event:

• Facebook Publishes Guide to Social Marketing Best Practices http://rww.to/j8pZJv
• HOW TO: Add Facebook “Like” Buttons to Your WordPress Blog http://on.mash.to/iYn6eq
• The State of Higher Ed Social Media 2011 | .eduGuru http://bit.ly/jqOKnn
• Facebook Pages http://on.fb.me/lZ6O8Q

Our next conversation at the SMSH will be in June and we’ll be discussing how to effectively use QR codes in your higher education campaigns.

Here’s the latest in Higher Education and Higher Education Marketing news curated by Dr. Taylor Trussell.

A Small College Tries, Tries Again to Land a President From a Shrinking Pool (Chronicle). “[R]ecent changes in the nature of college presidencies over all have further reduced the pool of candidates that Mount Marty might have been able to choose from in the past.”

Dispatches from AIR: Counselor vs. Higher Ed Peer Assessments in USNWR Rankings (Admitted). “[H]ow does the selection of counselors affect the peer assessments of postsecondary institutions?”

Here’s the latest in Higher Education and Higher Education Marketing news curated by Dr. Taylor Trussell.

Calculating the Potential Return on Your Major (NY Times). “While not always utilitarian or pragmatic, a degree in English or the humanities can enrich one’s life, in incalculable ways, for decades. But do such degrees ‘pay’?”

The Downsized College Graduate (NY Times). “Are there reasons besides the economy to explain why today’s group is different? Are some students affected more than others? How can we do a better job of steeling young people for the cruel world?”