Scoring the best hotel rates

(Travel + Leisure) -- Travelers treat searching for hotel rates online like a game of roulette: try enough combinations (dates, locations, travel agencies), and you'll score the perfect one. But it's easy to forget that booking a room through an online travel agency means that if you need to change your travel dates or find a better deal, you may pay a penalty, often upward of $25. Add to this the fact that hotels don't reward loyalty points for stays reserved through discount booking sites, and that bargain-basement price doesn't look so appealing. Avoid pitfalls by following these approaches:

Try new search engines

Farecast.com, which started predicting the rise and fall of airfares last year, more recently launched a similar system for hotels. Instead of calculating the direction room rates will go, however, it analyzes whether the price is a "deal" or "not a deal" by combining historical data with current rates from three other sites -- Orbitz, CheapTickets, and Reserve Travel -- with prices from hotels themselves to come.

The problem: Users don't know why prices rise or fall (a wedding party or just unusually high occupancy), so holding out for a rate to go down could be a mistake. To be fair, the tool was still in beta testing at press time. Still, the site has invaluable services. It eliminates sold-out hotels from your search results, so you won't find a great rate that disappears when you try to book it (a problem that plagues many online travel agencies), and it maps results using Microsoft Virtual Earth. Other sites such as Hotels.com now have calendars that reveal the lowest room rates on each day for which information is available. Both Travelocity and Expedia have installed similar tools.

Check hotel calendars

A growing number of hotel Web sites are using booking systems with long-term day- by-day room rates. Four Seasons, for instance, lets you check prices up to nine months in advance. The Las Vegas Bellagio listed a rate of $799 on January 7; when we checked the cost of the same room on January 10, it was $199.

Look for a guarantee

Many hotels and online agencies promise to match any rate presented to them. Marriott hotels give you the lower price, plus a 25 percent discount. Starwood does the same but discounts you 10 percent, or hands over 2,000 Starpoints. Swissotel offers half off the first night's lower rate and matches the cost the following night. The catch: most guarantees require you to file a claim within 24 hours of booking your room.

Pick up the phone

Call the hotel directly (not the central toll-free number). Often, properties offer last-minute specials that they don't submit through reservations. Plus, agents are typically not authorized to negotiate (as we did, in the test case). Since hotels often allot only a certain number of rooms to the booking service, you may be told that it's sold out, which is not always the case. Finally, if you're seeking a top-notch hotel experience, phone a travel agent. Ours swung a better rate than I could find online, plus breakfast and an upgrade.

Source: Andrea Bennett, American Express Publishing Corporation.

Worst states for job hunting

If you've rewritten that résumé several times and sent out dozens of applications but your job search still shows no promise, you might not be the problem.

One frequently overlooked but critical factor in finding a new job is your state's unemployment rate. You can have the experience and skills of an employer's dream, but they won't do you any good if there just aren't enough jobs available.

The unemployment rate is the percentage of job seekers in the work force who are still looking for work. The higher the percentage, the more difficult it is to find a job. The national unemployment rate is 5 percent, based on the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

If you're looking for a job, you should see how your state compares to the rest of the country. Here are the 10 worst states to find work ranked by their unemployment rates.

1. Michigan
Unemployment rate: 7.6 percent
Population: 10,071,822
Mean annual wage: $41,230
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (18.4 percent)***

2. Mississippi
Unemployment rate: 6.8 percent
Population: 2,918,785
Mean annual wage: $30,460
Top industry: Government (21.2 percent)

3. South Carolina
Unemployment rate: 6.6 percent
Population: 4,407,709
Mean annual wage: $33,400
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (19.4 percent)

4. Alaska
Unemployment rate: 6.5 percent
Population: 683,478
Mean annual wage: $43,920
Top industry: Government (25.9 percent)

5. California
Unemployment rate: 6.1 percent
Population: 36,553,215
Mean annual wage: $44,180
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (18.9 percent)

6. District of Columbia
Unemployment rate: 6.1 percent
Population: 588,292
Mean annual wage: $61,500
Top industry: Government (33.3 percent)

7. Ohio
Unemployment rate: 6 percent
Population: 11,466,917
Mean annual wage: $37,360
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (19.3 percent)

8. Arkansas
Unemployment rate: 5.9 percent
Population: 2,834,797
Mean annual wage: $30,870
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (20.6 percent)

9. Nevada
Unemployment rate: 5.8 percent
Population: 2,565,382
Mean annual wage: $36,000
Top industry: Leisure and hospitality (26.5 percent)

10. Kentucky
Unemployment rate: 5.7 percent
Population: 4,241,474
Mean annual wage: $33,490
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (20.4 percent)

*Unemployment rates, mean annual wages and industry percentages obtained from BLS in January 2008. Percentages based on nonfarm payrolls, seasonally adjusted.
**Population figures based on U.S. Census Bureau data.
***Top industries are those that employ the largest percentage of a state's labor force.

Source: Anthony Balderrama for CareerBuilder.com

How Foreign Students Learn to Talk the Talk

Lisa Yuan, a first-year M.B.A. student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, spoke English on the job when she lived in China and felt pretty competent. But she says she now realizes "there is much room for me to improve."

After being tested on her English proficiency at UNC, she decided she should take a new class for international M.B.A. students to "get rid of my accent" and sharpen her pronunciation of certain letters and sounds such as "th" and "v." "Because English is the language of business, I want to be as close to a native speaker as possible," says Ms. Yuan, who hopes to land a job in the U.S. after graduation.

North Carolina's new strategy for Ms. Yuan and other international students is early intervention. The career-services office at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School saw too many students discover in job interviews that their English simply didn't measure up to recruiters' expectations. At that point, it was often too late for them to significantly improve their fluency before graduation.

Now, North Carolina is rolling out a program called Honing Executive English Language Skills, or Heels (a catchy acronym to Tar Heels fans). It requires all of its foreign M.B.A. students -- more than a quarter of the class -- to take an oral and written test when they arrive on campus. The students are rated on a nine-point scale based on their accent, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and other factors. To boost their scores, students can pay a fee to take special classes taught by linguists that focus on speaking English in a business context.

"For any international student looking to become part of corporate America, communication skills are as crucial, if not more so, than technical skills," says Ayush Kaushal, a second-year M.B.A. student at UNC who is from India. "Thanks to the Heels program I have become much more self-aware. Because of my accent, I realize I need to reduce my pace of speaking so people don't get lost. I also need to talk more loudly and stop using fillers like 'umm' when I pause to think."

Despite the current high demand for M.B.A. graduates, many international students still struggle to get a job offer -- or even an interview. At Kenan-Flagler, for instance, only about 40% of the recruiters will meet with foreign nationals. The chief reasons for such resistance: the limited number of U.S. work visas and language deficiencies.

Business schools can't do much about visas, but they can try to overcome language barriers. North Carolina is sending audiotapes of its international students to recruiters and counting on their feedback to establish benchmarks for English proficiency for specific industries. For example, students might receive a rating of five out of nine on the English test and learn that they must raise it to seven to be hired by a technology company or to eight to satisfy a bank's requirements.

Kenan-Flagler's career-services office finds that English fluency is especially important in investment banking, consulting and consumer-products marketing. But other industries expect fluency in English as well. "We're a global company and we look to foreign students for their international business knowledge and cultural experiences," says Clive Pinto, human-resources manager for W.R. Grace, a chemical manufacturer. "But our ability to capitalize on their knowledge depends on their English proficiency."

In the HEELS classes at North Carolina, students are grouped by their native regions, such as Western Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Africa or Latin America, because they tend to share similar problems with accent and pronunciation. The program also addresses nonverbal communication and body language, which may vary from culture to culture. The classes attempt to change behavior that might be misinterpreted by U.S. managers, co-workers or clients. "For example, a U.S. recruiter would expect direct eye contact and a firm handshake," says Mindy Storrie, interim director of Kenan-Flagler's career management center, "but that isn't a universal norm in other countries' business dealings."

In addition to the English classes, North Carolina offers courses for international M.B.A. students on American culture -- from sports and entertainment to the origin of slang expressions -- and on U.S. business communication, including practice exercises for impromptu speeches, team presentations, boardroom pitches and employee performance reviews.

While North Carolina's courses are among the most comprehensive, other schools are also expanding programs to help foreign students prepare for careers in the U.S. The University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business, where nearly half of the M.B.A. class is international, offers an English-language and U.S.-culture program that includes language instruction and trips to museums, theaters and sports events.

At the University at Buffalo, there are English as a Second Language classes, as well as opportunities for foreign nationals to practice pitching themselves to recruiters at mock career fairs and in interview workshops. "The average recruiter is going to decide in 30 seconds whether a student has the communication skills to make it in his organization," says Paul Allaire, an assistant dean at Buffalo. "We want to give our international students a fighting chance to compete."

By RONALD ALSOP
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal, November 07, 2007
From The Wall Street Journal Online

Harvard to Trim Tuition For Middle-Class Families

Harvard University sweetened financial aid for middle- and upper-middle-class families at a time when elite colleges are increasingly under assault for pricing themselves out of reach for all but the wealthiest Americans.

Under its new program, to take effect next fall, the Cambridge, Mass., school said undergraduates whose families earn up to $180,000 a year would be asked to pay 10% or less of their incomes annually for the cost of Harvard, which now totals $45,620.

The university said that for about half of its undergraduates, the initiative would reduce the cost of attending the college by one-third to one-half, making the price comparable with in-state tuition and fees at top public universities.

Harvard has been criticized for its swelling endowment, which stands at $35 billion, the highest of any university in the country. The school said the initiative would increase its annual financial aid spending by $22 million to $120 million. Last year, its endowment jumped by $5.7 billion because of strong investment returns and donations.

Yesterday, Harvard President Drew Faust said Harvard wanted to attract students scared off by the hefty price tag and fear of debt. Officials said the Ivy League school also would eliminate loans from all aid packages and no longer consider home equity in calculating eligibility.

Harvard's move is likely to put pressure on other wealthy, selective colleges to increase financial aid to attract top students. In recent years, a number of other marquee institutions -- including Amherst, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford and Yale -- have taken similar steps, such as increasing aid and scrapping student loans. Harvard was among the earliest in the effort. In 2004, Harvard drew attention for eliminating tuition for families earning $40,000 annually or less, and later expanded that figure to $60,000. Other schools followed. With yesterday's announcement, Harvard is reaching higher up the income spectrum to attract upper-middle-class families.

Critics -- and college officials themselves -- have long worried about the disproportionate number of wealthy students at universities like Harvard.

At the 146 most selective colleges in the U.S., just 3% of the students came from families that ranked in the bottom 25% in income, while 74% came from the top 25%, according to a 2004 study by the Century Foundation, a New York-based research group.

Harvard says that 3,340 students out of roughly 6,600 undergraduates currently receive financial-aid grants. About a third of those receiving aid come from families earning $60,000 a year or less, with most of the rest earning between $60,000 to $180,000.

Yesterday's announcement comes as lawmakers have been lashing out at colleges that raise tuition while stockpiling money. They have discussed requiring universities to spend a minimum amount of their endowments each year. Yesterday, Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who has championed the idea, said he hoped Harvard "would inspire other expensive colleges to make tuition more affordable."

Lynne Munson, adjunct research fellow at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington nonprofit, says some other schools will feel compelled to match Harvard. But Ms. Munson, who testified recently before the Senate Finance Committee, said Harvard could well afford to freeze tuition and eliminate it completely, "not just for poor families but for middle class families."

William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions, says the college believes tuition should be "a shared responsibility" for families who can afford to pay.

Under the new policy, families making $120,000 to $180,000 will be asked to pay 10% of their incomes. A family earning $120,000 would pay about $12,000, compared with more than $19,000 under current student-aid policies. Families earning below $120,000 would pay a declining percentage of their incomes, down to zero at $60,000 and below.

By JOHN HECHINGER
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2007
From The Wall Street Journal Online

Matching Top Colleges, Low Income Students

Last year, when Amherst College welcomed 473 new students to its idyllic campus, 10% of them came from QuestBridge.

But QuestBridge is no elite private school. It's a nonprofit start-up in Palo Alto, Calif., that matches gifted, low-income students with 20 of the nation's top colleges. In return, the schools -- including Princeton, Yale, Stanford and Columbia -- give scholarships to the students and pay QuestBridge for helping to diversify their student bodies.

The program is gaining in popularity because it addresses a growing interest of private and public colleges: increasing the diversity of their student bodies without relying solely on race. Since some states banned racial preferences in college admissions, many public colleges have begun focusing on income as a means to broaden the backgrounds of their students. Private schools, while not bound by the states' restrictions, are also eager to admit more students from low-income families.

QuestBridge isn't the only program that helps schools achieve diversity by focusing on the economically disadvantaged. The Posse Program, launched in 1993 by a New York nonprofit, specializes in sending groups of students who already know each other to top colleges. It got its start after the founder, Deborah Biel, discovered that several of the inner-city youth she had worked with in New York had dropped out of college. When she asked why, one responded that he didn't have his posse with him.

Another program called Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, or MESA, helps recruit low-income students for the University of California, California State University and other California colleges. Upward Bound, a long-running federal program, feeds low-income high-school students into colleges all over the country. And some colleges, including schools that are partnering with QuestBridge, have begun their own recruiting programs for low-income students.

The efforts come as diversity remains elusive, particularly at elite colleges. According to a 2004 study by the Century Foundation, a New York-based research group, at the 146 most selective colleges in the U.S., just 3% of the students came from families that ranked in the bottom 25% in income, while 74% came from the top 25%,

School officials say that having a more diverse student body will make their graduates better prepared for the real world. "Every student we graduate today is going to work in a shrinking world with tremendous disparities," says Jeff Brenzel, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale University, which began using QuestBridge this academic year. "We want the Yale undergraduate body to reflect that reality to whatever degree we can."

QuestBridge was conceived by Michael McCullough, an emergency-room doctor, in 2003, and it has been run by him and Tim Brady, who helped to write the business plan for Yahoo Inc. The program has created a network of about 30,000 recruiters, including high-school counselors, teachers and youth ministers, to identify a pool of about 4,000 talented, disadvantaged students.

QuestBridge contacts the nominees by both email and old-fashioned mail. They are asked to fill out a 17-page application that, like regular college applications, requires essays and short answers. But the questions are tailored to better suit a low-income student's skills. For example, instead of asking why they like a particular poem, the students might be asked what obstacles they have overcome.

Last year, the pool of names was winnowed down to about 1,600 finalists based on criteria that also included income, grade point averages and community service. "We want to help those who help others," Dr. McCullough says.

The finalists' applications are then matched with QuestBridge partners. Last year, about half of the finalists were admitted to their match with partial to full scholarships. Those who aren't admitted through the program can still apply to other QuestBridge partners, frequently using the QuestBridge application plus a supplement and having their application fees waived. Their names are also kept in a pool for other opportunities, such as when an employer needs an intern or law schools are seeking low-income talent down the line.

Once they're at school, the students get support from QuestBridge mentors through online forums on Facebook and other sites. Alumni organizations that will provide mentoring are also being set up.

Each college or university that uses the program pays QuestBridge $40,000 to $70,000 annually in recruiting fees. But QuestBridge says that only half of its $1.6 million annual budget comes from those fees. The other half comes from philanthropic groups, including the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Edward Fein Foundation.

One student who has gone through QuestBridge is Dante Lamarr Benson, a 19-year-old from Camden, N.J., who is now in his sophomore year at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., with a full scholarship. An African-American, Mr. Benson says he was raised by his grandmother and made the dean's list at a high school where as many as half of the students drop out. When he received a QuestBridge application in the mail, he was skeptical of his chances of getting into a prestigious college and reluctant to fill it out. But he did, he says, and "to simply put it, QuestBridge changed my life."

For Dr. McCullough, the program is the second educational project. He and his wife, Ana, a lawyer, started a program in 1994 that provided an intense, five-week "boot camp" at Stanford, from which the couple received their professional degrees. But the camp required too much money and staff, so the couple replaced it with QuestBridge.

To scale up the new program, the two turned to Mr. Brady, who had left Yahoo after becoming one of the multimillionaires that helped get the company going in the 1990s. Mr. Brady, who declined a QuestBridge salary, says he was looking for a nonprofit to focus on and agreed to become chief executive after a mutual friend connected him with Dr. McCullough.

QuestBridge's use of the Internet has allowed it to have a big impact relatively quickly. In addition to its showing at Amherst last year, 2% to 6% of the accepted freshmen at Princeton, Wellesley and Williams last year were QuestBridge applicants, and 62 QuestBridgers were accepted at Stanford. In total, the program has placed 2,300 low-income students in top colleges in the four years of its existence. By contrast, the Posse Program has placed 1,850 students in 18 years.

QuestBridge now plans to expand the program by adding 10 more colleges as partners, capping the program at 30. And next year, they plan to launch a one-week boot camp, with hundreds of low-income students converging in Palo Alto to hear from Dr. McCullough and others on what they can expect in the Ivy League and how to thrive there.

"We hope that in 10 years we'll have added a new generation of talented and thoughtful minds to American leadership, drawn from the lowest economic spectrum," Dr. McCullough says.

Source: JIM CARLTON
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2007
From The Wall Street Journal Online