About.com Parenting Young Adults

Good News: Swine Flu at Only 90% of Colleges

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:06:09 +0000

There's more good news on the swine flu front: What everyone hoped was the first drop in H1N1 cases on college campuses in mid-November seems to be a definite turn of the tide. According to the American College Health Association, which has been tracking influenza on some 250+ campuses, just 90% of those colleges reported new flu cases the week of Nov. 14-20, compared with 95% the week before. And the number of cases - 3,933 - represents a 37% drop in the case rate. For those of you keeping score, that brings the grand total to 85,000 college cases since school began.

What remains to be seen is how the holiday breaks will affect student and family health. Dr. James C. Turner, head of the ACHA, is urging immunization. "Vaccinating prior to the major winter holidays would help prevent spreading the disease to families and communities and protect students in case a third wave starts in January," he says. Plus, there's regular ol' flu ahead...

Good News: Swine Flu at Only 90% of Colleges originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 12:06:09.

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20-Somethings Moving Home in Droves

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:22:54 +0000

Fascinating and disturbing study out of the PEW Research Center last week. Recent years have seen increasing numbers of young adults - college grads and 20-somethings - returning home for financial reasons. So it's no big surprise to see those numbers increasing in the wake of one of the nation's worst recessions. It happened back in 1982 and 2001 too. Some 13% of the parents surveyed by PEW said that one or more of their grown children had moved back home this year. But it goes beyond that typical "boomerang" pattern. When PEW asked the teens and young adults, 18-24, themselves, they found that while 10% indeed had moved back home specifically because of the recession, an additional 12% had moved in with a roommate to cut costs. Some 15% of the under-35 population had put their weddings on hold, many were moving in with beaus, perhaps sooner than expected, and an additional 14% had delayed starting a family.

More grim stats? The 40% plunge in the post-grad job market that I mentioned last week is no blip. The number of teen jobs out there has plummeted too. PEW researchers noted that just 46% of young adults, ages 16-24, have jobs right now - the lowest numbers the Bureau of Labor Statistics has seen since it began tracking that data in 1948.

20-Somethings Moving Home in Droves originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 23:22:54.

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Black Friday Shopping Made Easy

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:08:17 +0000

I know loads of people who adore Black Friday. They get up at 4 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving, don fluffy parkas and head out to wait in the pre-dawn darkness outside Target and other stores. Not me. I'm much too fond of my creature comforts! I prefer to shop online, in my jammies, with a cup of joe - or a day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich in hand.

And my fellow About.com parenting guides have made it even easier by assembling holiday gift guides for pretty much every family demographic, from perfect grandmother gifts to classic toys for tots. Check it out:

89 Great Gifts for Teens, College Kids & Young Adults
10 Great Stocking Stuffers for College Kids
Grandmother Gifts From Around the World
Gifts for Grandpa
Gifts for Grandbaby's First Year
Commemorative Gifts for Baby's First Christmas
Active Toys for the Whole Family

Graduation Requirement: Slim Down

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:49:33 +0000

Interesting and somewhat disturbing piece in Inside Higher Ed a few days ago. Seems Pennsylvania's Lincoln University tracks its students' body mass index (BMI). Now they've issued warnings to 25 or so seniors that they may not be able to graduate this spring, not for academic issues but because their freshman BMI put them in the obese range. Students either need to lose weight or take a special fitness class with a nutritional component - or no diploma.

The head of the American College Health Association told Inside Higher Ed that this was the first time he'd heard of such a thing. But James L. DeBoy, who heads up the PE department at Lincoln, a historically black university, said, "This country's in the midst of an obesity epidemic and African-Americans are hit hard by obesity and diabetes. We need to address this problem directly with our students."

Maybe. But considering that the primary role of universities is to educate the populace, and that the role that colleges such as Lincoln play is to draw in a historically underrepresented academic population ... wow. Why throw up a non-academic stumbling block to graduation? Or if you're going to do it, why not require a fitness and nutrition class for everyone? Your thoughts?

Graduation Requirement: Slim Down originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 11:49:33.

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Job Market for New Grads Down 40%

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:53:30 +0000

What a year - a new study out from Michigan State University says it's no wonder so many college grads are having trouble finding work. The job market for the newly-diploma'd hit bottom in 2009, falling not the 8-10% that everyone feared, but 35-40%.

So who's getting hired? Young adults with multiple, 21st century skills, strong problem solving and critical thinking skills, and the ability to quickly adapt. Even more important, they're new grads who were pro-active about finding internships and forging connections in the work world while still in college.

Next year's job prospects don't look great either, but the Michigan researchers are predicting increased hiring in the fields of e-commerce, agriculture, environmental sciences, statistics, nursing and tech-related fields. Not looking so hot: accounting, banking, engineering, real estate and computer science.

OK, real estate was to be expected. But engineering?

Job Market for New Grads Down 40% originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 00:53:30.

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Quirky College Apps Essays

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:46:33 +0000

I'm sitting here, nagging my high school senior about the college apps that are due in a few days. A timer is ticking - figuratively and literally - and that essay is going to be done today. Oh yes, it is.� So she's scribbling and I'm sitting here, exuding moral support as I contemplate really weird essay topics from colleges hither and yon. CNN.com has a marvelous excerpt from MentalFloss: a list of 10 offbeat topics, many of them from the University of Chicago, which is notorious for its weird, student-inspired prompts, such as "How do you feel about Wednesday?" Also on the list, Wake Forest's "What outrages you?" and Tufts' "Are we alone?" Mmmmkay. That one's going to elicit plenty of sci-fi abduction tales and religious treatises.

NYU suggest students "write a haiku." The Mental Floss writer obliges with, "Oh please, NYU/College essays are stressful/Don't make me do this."

But my favorite isn't on the list. In 2007-08, the University of Chicago asked students to unleash their inner improv artist and pen a script that included the James Joyce line, "And yes I said yes I will yes," as well as four out of the following possible items: "a paper airplane, a transformation, a shoe, the invisible hand, two doors, pointillism, a fanciful explanation of the Pythagorean Theorem, a ventriloquist or ventriloquism, the Periodic Table of the Elements, the concept of jeong, number two pencils." No superhero references allowed.

I'd mention it to my daughter, but as the deadline ticks down ... hmm, not such a good idea.

Quirky College Apps Essays originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 15:46:33.

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Fingers Crossed: Swine Flu May Have Peaked

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:44:11 +0000

It's still early to say, but the Centers for Disease Control and American College Health Association believe that the H1N1 virus may have peaked at last. The number of cases, which was on such a stratospheric climb this fall, is finally dropping. The ACHA, which has been tracking the swine flu on some 263 college campuses, saw the first drop in the number of cases last week. Don't get too excited just yet. Only 95% of the tracked colleges reported new cases last week, instead of the 98% who did so the week before, and those numbers include 6,373 new cases among college students, including 12 hospitalizations and, tragically, two deaths. That brings the total infection rate since August to 80,000 out of 3 million students.

Colleges are continuing to urge vaccination against the swine flu, although supplies of the vaccine remain spotty at best. Less than half the campuses involved in the study have any vaccines, and just 1% of the students have been vaccinated.

Swine Flu on College Campuses (updated 11/21/09)
When College Kids Get Sick
When To Take Your Sick Kid Home

Fingers Crossed: Swine Flu May Have Peaked originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 12:44:11.

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Twilight Saga: New Moon Opens

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:05:09 +0000

Lucky me. Or, as my younger daughter would put it, "So not fair!" I got a sneak peek at the new "Twilight Saga: New Moon" movie last night at a special preview with a movie critic friend, who was writing a review. As any female between the ages of 13 and 30 can tell you, the new movie opens at midnight tonight, and if the viewing experience is anything like it was last night, you can expect the teenaged screaming to start as soon as the giant moon appears in the opening credits, i.e., 2 seconds after the theater darkens.

But this one's a vastly better movie than the first "Twilight" - more engaging, more story-driven and less dependent on those smoldering looks between co-stars. Read more...

Twilight Saga: New Moon Opens originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 12:05:09.

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Military Says 75% of Nation's Teens Not Fit to Serve

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:35:54 +0000

Apparently 75% of the nation's teens and young adults, ages 17-24, wouldn't even qualify for boot camp because they're obese or unhealthy, they dropped out of high school or ran afoul of the law. That dire news comes from a new study called "Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve," which has been endorsed by military and U.S. Department of Education officials. Obesity alone axes 27%. High school dropouts account for another 25% - they can still apply to serve with a waiver, either via a GED or by scoring high enough on the military's exam, but less than 2% of those who apply for those waivers get them. A lousy credit rating can also spell rejection - the military, reporters were told, doesn't want collection agencies showing up at boot camp - as can health issues ranging from asthma to ADD. Your thoughts?

Military Says 75% of Nation's Teens Not Fit to Serve originally appeared on About.com Parenting Young Adults on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 12:35:54.

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Gifts for Twi-hard Twilight Fans

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:38:48 +0000

The days and hours and minutes are ticking down till "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" hits a cineplex near you. And while you may not be a Twi-hard fan, chances are, if you've got a teenage or 20-something daughter, Twilight fever has hit your household too. Lucky me - I'm catching a movie critics' preview with a buddy, who is, as you might have guessed, a movie critic, and my 17-year-old daughter is chartreuse with envy. She thinks it wildly unfair because I haven't even (shhhhh) finished the first book - hey, I still have a week to finish that and book #2. Anyway, point is, the upcoming flick kick-started my holiday shopping. So I've come up with a list of great gifts for the Twilight fan in my life - and, I suspect, yours too.

Of course, I'm not the only one churning out holiday shopping lists at this time of year. If you're looking for great ideas for every age group, check out these About.com Parenting & Family Holiday Shopping possibilities too:

89 Great Gifts for Teens, College Kids & Young Adults
10 Great Stocking Stuffers for College Kids"
Holiday Gifts Under $30 for College Kids & Young Adults
Active Toys for the Whole Family
Active Toys for School-Aged Kids
Active Toys for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Affordable Parent-Child Gifts
Board Games That Are Fun for Parents, Too
Best Boyfriend/Girlfriend Gifts