Notes in the Margins: Pro wrestling, gap years and tuition discounts

State grant aid goes increasingly to the wealthy State grant and scholarship programs for college students increasingly favor students who aren’t needy, according to a new report. (The Washington Post)

College Costs Weighing Down a Generation With Student Debt A new series from The Times examines the implications of rising college costs and the indebtedness of students and their families. (The New York Times)

Want To Study Pro-Wrestling In College? You Can! Ever dreamed studying professional wrestling? Well, now you can at a Florida college! Full Sail University, a for-profit college based in Winter Park, Fla., announced a partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment this week which includes the weekly tapings of a new program called WWE Superstar Smackdown at their multipurpose venue on campus. (The Huffington Post)

Gap Year: Congrats! You're Accepted to College, Now Go Away In Britain and Europe the gap year has been de rigueur for decades, but a 2011 survey of American colleges estimated only about 18,000 of the 1.5 million freshmen had taken a year off after high school. But now, some of the nation's most competitive colleges -- Harvard, Middlebury and Princeton, among others -- have adopted formal policies to allow students to defer their admission. (ABC News via NAICU)

More private colleges offering tuition discounts While public colleges and universities are hiking tuition to make up for dramatic reductions to state higher-education funding, private colleges – which usually receive no state funding – have greater latitude to cut costs. That’s one reason that average annual tuition increases at public colleges have been more than twice as large as those at private colleges over the last decade, according to the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. (McClatchy Newspapers via NAICU)

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.