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  • Why College No Longer Has a Monopoly on Success | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    For decades, college had no real competition. It wasn’t just an educational path; it was the most powerful brand in American life. Parents, schools and employers marketed it as the only safe route to the American Dream. Glossy brochures, billion-dollar ad campaigns, alumni prestige and rankings in U.S. News & World Report kept reinforcing the message: College equals success.

    But today, that monopoly is cracking. Aviation schools, trade programs and trucking startups are mounting their own branding campaigns — promising high pay, entrepreneurial freedom and faster, cheaper paths to prosperity. The reality is already here: Pilots, aircraft mechanics, electricians, independent truckers and others can earn as much or more than many college graduates. What lags is perception. And that’s why the branding war between college and the trades is just beginning.

    Related: Do You Really Need a College Degree These Days?

    The college brand: Once untouchable

    Universities built their dominance the same way top consumer brands do: with relentless marketing. From campus tours that feel like product demos to billboards touting alumni salaries, college was positioned as both a rite of passage and a must-have credential.

    For years, the competition barely showed up. Skilled trades and technical careers weren’t marketed at all — they were stigmatized. A student who skipped college was seen as someone who had “settled.” Even as tuition soared and student debt ballooned, the idea that “college equals success” remained sticky because it was backed by decades of consistent PR.

    But perception is shifting. A recent Workforce Monitor poll found that 33% of U.S. adults recommend trade school for high school grads, compared to just 28% who recommend a four-year degree. Parents and Gen Z may still default to college, but more are starting to see skilled paths as respectable, even aspirational.

    This shift isn’t just economic. It’s the result of smart PR and branding by industries that know they need to win the perception battle if they want to fill critical jobs.

    Aviation: Pilots and mechanics in the spotlight

    Nowhere is the branding battle more visible than in aviation. Airlines face a pilot shortage so severe that Boeing projects the need for 804,000 new pilots by 2037. To meet that demand, they’ve leaned heavily into PR and marketing.

    Take Thrust Flight’s “Zero Time to Airline” program. The name itself is a masterstroke of branding. It tells a clear story: You can go from zero flight hours to the cockpit of a regional airline in just two years. It’s essentially packaged like a startup accelerator for aviation careers — fast, focused and aspirational.

    Airlines themselves are part of the rebrand. In 2022, Delta made national headlines by dropping its four-year degree requirement for new pilots. That move wasn’t simply a policy change — it was a deliberate PR campaign designed to tear down the perception barrier that only college grads could fly for major carriers.

    The economics reinforce the messaging. The average U.S. airline pilot earns around $220,000 a year, and with recent wage hikes, new pilots can now recoup training costs in four years or less. For a teenager weighing options, the soundbite is irresistible: “$200,000 without college.”

    But it’s not just pilots. The aviation industry is also reframing careers for aircraft mechanics and technicians. With a median salary of around $75,000 and specialized certifications available in two years or less, mechanics are now marketed as tech professionals critical to safety and commerce. Rather than “wrench turners,” they’re positioned as guardians of billion-dollar fleets, a message designed to elevate status and respect.

    The combined narrative is powerful: Whether you’re flying planes or maintaining them, aviation offers high salaries, critical skills and prestige — without requiring a bachelor’s degree.

    Related: Trade School vs. College: Which Is Right for You? (Infographic)

    Trucking: From job to business ownership

    Trucking has undergone an equally dramatic makeover. For years, it was branded as hard work with modest pay and little respect. But startups like Billor and CloudTrucks are reframing it as entrepreneurship on wheels.

    Billor’s pitch is simple: lease-to-own programs that put drivers in trucks with no credit check, giving them full ownership in four years. That changes the narrative from “job” to “asset ownership” — a driver isn’t just hauling freight, they’re building wealth.

    CloudTrucks takes a tech-first approach. Branding itself as a “virtual carrier,” it equips independent drivers with the same back-office tools, compliance systems and load-booking capabilities that large fleets use. The economics are compelling: Independent drivers keep 82% of revenue, often out-earning company drivers while enjoying the freedom to choose their own routes and schedules.

    The contrast in branding is stark: A company driver is positioned as a steady employee, while an independent operator is sold the dream of being a small business owner. That story is working. The U.S. now has more than 900,000 owner-operators, more than double just a few years ago.

    The trades: From backup plan to entrepreneurial path

    Construction trades are in the midst of their own rebrand. Once considered fallback careers, they’re now marketed as modern, entrepreneurial and future-proof.

    Electricians illustrate the shift. The median wage is $62,000, with six-figure potential for those who advance. The field is expected to grow 11% over the next decade, creating about 80,000 openings each year. Unlike college, apprenticeships let people earn while they learn, avoiding student debt.

    Companies like Mobilization Funding add fuel to the story by helping subcontractors secure financing upfront, allowing them to scale and compete on larger projects. The implicit message: You’re not just a worker; you’re a business owner capable of growth.

    Meanwhile, social media influencers in the trades are helping to reframe these careers as skilled, respected and even aspirational. The stigma is fading — and branding has everything to do with it.

    Data as PR’s secret weapon

    Behind every one of these rebranding efforts lies data packaged as stories.

    • “Pilots make $220,000 without college.”

    • “Aircraft mechanics earn $75,000 with two-year certifications.”

    • “Independent truckers can own rigs in four years and out-earn company drivers.”

    • “Electricians are adding 80,000 jobs annually.”

    These aren’t just statistics; they’re headlines, crafted to challenge assumptions and shift public perception. For decades, universities mastered this playbook by touting alumni earnings. Now, trades and technical careers are using the same strategy — and it’s working.

    The perception gap

    Despite the progress, perception still lags reality. Gen Z students remain more likely to pursue college, and parents still see degrees as symbols of status. The economics of alternatives are clear, but the branding battle is far from over.

    Colleges had a century-long head start in marketing themselves as the default choice. Aviation, trucking and the trades are only now mounting a counteroffensive. But thanks to startups, social media and data-driven PR campaigns, they’re closing the gap faster than ever.

    Related: These Are the 10 Best-Paying ‘New Collar’ Jobs, Prioritizing Skills Over Degrees

    Why the branding war matters

    The American Dream has always been about opportunity. But opportunity doesn’t sell itself — it has to be framed, packaged and communicated. That’s what’s happening now in fields like aviation, trucking and the skilled trades.

    The branding war between college and alternative paths is still in its early rounds. Universities will keep promoting degrees as the safest option. But industries hungry for talent are telling a new story: one of accessibility, ownership and financial freedom without the burden of student debt.

    For entrepreneurs and marketers, the lesson is clear: Economics may create the opportunity, but branding determines how it’s perceived. If piloting can be positioned as a direct, high-ROI career path, if truckers can be reframed as business owners, and if tradespeople can be reframed as entrepreneurs, then any industry can reshape its image. The future of work will be defined not just by what jobs pay, but by which stories win.

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    Scott Baradell

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  • Why college campuses are pressure cookers this election season – WTOP News

    Why college campuses are pressure cookers this election season – WTOP News

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    As election season gets more intense, college campuses around the country are becoming pressure cookers with heightened political tension.

    As election season gets more intense, college campuses around the country are becoming pressure cookers with heightened political tension.

    Some students are really feeling the stress.

    “This time of year is already stressful for students with midterms and then upcoming finals and projects,” said Nicole Ruzek, chief mental health officer at the University of Virginia. “They’re already in a moment of stress trying to get to the finish line … in addition to this.”

    College campuses have become more polarized with students expressing concerns about how political views can strain friendships and even lead to confrontations.

    Polls are tight and no one knows what will happen in the election between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, adding another factor — uncertainty.

    “With uncertainty comes a lot of anxiety and just wondering what’s going to happen,” Ruzek said. “That’s what I’m noticing, with folks anxiously anticipating what’s next.”

    Ruzek and her team are putting additional mental health resources in place at the university, including workshops on stress management.

    “They can come because they’re worried about finals or because they’re worried about the election or something else,” Ruzek said. “It really (provides) them with strategies for how to manage their stress … how to have productive conversations that don’t leave them spiraling.”

    She said there will be extra counselors on hand in the days following the election who can “meet with students just (to) talk about why they’re feeling stressed, what’s going on and how things are impacting them.”

    “Hopefully they can leave, having those tools, and (are) able to go back into the academic context and focus on the many things that are in front of them right now,” Ruzek said.

    Ruzek recommends that students limit their social media use, get enough sleep, exercise and engage with friends in activities that don’t involve heated political conversations: “Just be together in a way that feels positive and supportive.”

    On top of everything else, the shadow of the Israel-Hamas war continues to hang over campuses.

    “This idea that I might say the wrong thing kind of scares me,” Ty Lindia, who studies political science at George Washington University in D.C., told The Associated Press.

    A year after Hamas’ attack in southern Israel, some students say they are reluctant to speak out because it could pit them against their peers, professors or even potential employers.

    “You have to tiptoe around politics until one person says something that signifies they lean a certain way on the issue,” Lindia said.

    Tensions over the conflict burst wide-open last year amid emotional demonstrations in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack. In the spring of this year, a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments led to some 3,200 arrests nationwide.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Nick Iannelli

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  • College students team up with NASA for innovative water quality research

    College students team up with NASA for innovative water quality research

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    NASA is working with students at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Meyers, Florida. They are using technology to work with future scientists to analyze water quality.”We are looking for people to make an impact on the whole ecosystem that uses NASA’s earth science information,” NASA DEVELOP program manager Kenton Ross said. Dr. Rachel Rotz, a professor in the FGCU Department of Marine and Earth Sciences, will have the water school host this research team. NASA DEVELOP selected five future scientists to participate. Nathan Hewitt is one of them. He is working on getting his master’s degree right now at FGCU. He heard about this research opportunity and wanted to apply.”My main goal for this was to learn more coding,” Ross said. “So the coding workshops have been fantastic. Even some of the stuff I didn’t really think about the project, but kind of working as a team, but utilizing our strengths and learning about the different kind of personality types and how they best built the team has been really interesting.”Over the next 10 weeks, Hewitt and the four other researchers will spend part of their day at the water school looking under a microscope.”They’re looking into cyanobacteria and understanding how organisms do their thing on a microscopic scale,” Ross said.They are analyzing water quality near Seminole tribes in Southwest Florida.”They’re really testing out if this information from NASA is relevant to the tribe,” Ross said. “So is the tribe is thinking about water quality in the area in their location, in and around them. They’re interested in how nutrients are flowing through those natural systems.”They are looking at different types of algae, seeing where it is located. Then they take a look from a wider scope, up in space!”Our purpose is to help them rise in their career, and that’s going to happen when they are energized about the knowledge they can gain and about the skills they can apply to problems like this,” Ross said.Hewitt said he will take what he has learned from this research program and apply it to his future, maybe even working for NASA one day.To learn more about NASA DEVELOP and how to apply for the next research study, visit this website.

    FORT MYERS, Fla. —

    NASA is working with students at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Meyers, Florida. They are using technology to work with future scientists to analyze water quality.

    “We are looking for people to make an impact on the whole ecosystem that uses NASA’s earth science information,” NASA DEVELOP program manager Kenton Ross said.

    Dr. Rachel Rotz, a professor in the FGCU Department of Marine and Earth Sciences, will
    have the water school host this research team. NASA DEVELOP selected five future scientists to participate. Nathan Hewitt is one of them. He is working on getting his master’s degree right now at FGCU. He heard about this research opportunity and wanted to apply.

    “My main goal for this was to learn more coding,” Ross said. “So the coding workshops have been fantastic. Even some of the stuff I didn’t really think about the project, but kind of working as a team, but utilizing our strengths and learning about the different kind of personality types and how they best built the team has been really interesting.”

    Over the next 10 weeks, Hewitt and the four other researchers will spend part of their day at the water school looking under a microscope.

    “They’re looking into cyanobacteria and understanding how organisms do their thing on a microscopic scale,” Ross said.

    They are analyzing water quality near Seminole tribes in Southwest Florida.

    “They’re really testing out if this information from NASA is relevant to the tribe,” Ross said. “So is the tribe is thinking about water quality in the area in their location, in and around them. They’re interested in how nutrients are flowing through those natural systems.”

    They are looking at different types of algae, seeing where it is located. Then they take a look from a wider scope, up in space!

    “Our purpose is to help them rise in their career, and that’s going to happen when they are energized about the knowledge they can gain and about the skills they can apply to problems like this,” Ross said.

    Hewitt said he will take what he has learned from this research program and apply it to his future, maybe even working for NASA one day.

    To learn more about NASA DEVELOP and how to apply for the next research study, visit this website.

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  • These College Students Are Voting For Biden For 1 Reason — And It’s Not Student Debt Relief

    These College Students Are Voting For Biden For 1 Reason — And It’s Not Student Debt Relief

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    MADISON, Wis. — When President Joe Biden came to Madison Area Technical College last week, he was hoping to fire up students here about his new plans to cancel student loan debt for millions more Americans.

    “I will never stop [fighting] to deliver student debt relief,” Biden vowed in remarks laying out his latest proposals. “By freeing millions of Americans from this crushing debt of student debt, it means they can finally get on with their lives instead of their lives being put on hold.”

    But his speech had barely ended before students were racing out of the building for something more exciting: a solar eclipse. Dozens of teenagers and early-20-somethings gathered outside, swapping crumpled pairs of paper solar eclipse glasses with each other and staring into the sun. Nobody was talking about the president or student loans. In fact, none of these students had even gone to Biden’s event. It was invite-only.

    “I think the student Senate got in?” wondered Matt, 19, a student from the nearby town of Verona. “That shit is stupid!” interrupted another student charging through, pointing at the sky and looking for a pair of glasses. That was the end of any student loan talk.

    Biden picked this Madison school for his student loan speech because it checks two boxes for his presidential campaign: appealing to young voters and showing his face in Wisconsin, a swing state that will be pivotal to winning the election in November. Biden narrowly defeated former President Donald Trump here in 2020. Trump narrowly won it in 2016.

    Six months before the election, both candidates are aggressively courting voters here. Beyond last week’s trip, Biden was in Milwaukee last month, fresh off his State of the Union address, pitching voters on what he’d offer in a second term. Meanwhile, the GOP chose Milwaukee as the site for its party’s nominating convention in July, and Trump stumped in Green Bay earlier this month. It was his first time in the state since 2022.

    Biden’s latest visit here was also an attempt to show people who are six decades younger than him that he’s listening to their concerns. At 81, he’s faced months of scrutiny over his age and mental acuity. Trump has faced questions about his mental competency, too. But a March poll by The New York Times and Siena College showed voters more concerned about Biden’s age, even though Trump isn’t far behind at 77.

    For college-aged voters in Madison, though, this didn’t seem like a dealbreaker.

    “It does concern me, but it also doesn’t,” said Mack, 21, who is from Madison and planning to vote for Biden. “I wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, that’s the reason I’m not voting for him.’”

    And even if they weren’t invited to his student loan event, at least some students were paying attention to what Biden is doing on this front.

    His student debt relief plans “absolutely” resonate, said Yaakov, a 21-year-old from Minneapolis. “I got a scholarship, but if I didn’t I would be $180,000 in debt.”

    Even though he doesn’t have loans, “My brother, my friends, a lot of people I know are drowning in debt right now,” he added. “I got insanely lucky. Thank god someone is taking on this issue.”

    Biden talked about his student loan debt relief proposals at Madison Area Technical College on April 8. Hopefully some students were invited to attend the event.

    ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images

    HuffPost spent a couple of days in Madison talking to college students about the presidential election. We asked more than two dozen of them the same two questions: Do you plan to vote in November, and if so, who would you vote for and why?

    There was a clear theme to their responses. Most said yes, most said they planned to vote for Biden, and most said it was because they just don’t want Trump in the White House.

    “I’m going to be voting for Joe Biden because Donald Trump has proven time and again that he’s not interested in continuing democracy,” said Dylan Goldman, a 19-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who is from Florida. “While I think Joe Biden is too old to be president, I’ve been left with no other choice.”

    “I don’t know if I can say it any better,” chimed in his friend Michael Howe, 20, of Brainerd, Minnesota. “I will also be voting for Biden. I’m not a fan of Biden’s age at this point, but Trump is not that much younger and it’s the lesser of two evils at this point.”

    “While I think Joe Biden is too old to be president, I’ve been left with no other choice.”

    – Dylan Goldman, a 19-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

    College-aged voters tend to be “more of a wild card” in presidential elections, said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy.

    They’re still trying to figure out how the process works, she said, plus trying to sort out their own political ideas from their parents’ ideas, and figure out which party they identify with, if any. They also face an information barrier, meaning if they start learning about a particular issue that is being hotly debated on a college campus — say, the Israel-Hamas war — that issue alone could be the deciding factor on whether they vote and who they vote for.

    “Young people statistically are more likely to be Democrats, but they don’t have a track record of voting,” said Romero. “So things like Biden’s policy on Israel, for example, completely upend that.”

    Young voters also tend to have low turnout. “But they are still formidable,” said Romero, who has written about how our electoral system has failed young voters. “Their sheer numbers mean they have the ability, when an election is really close, to potentially swing an election.”

    The equation for these college students in Madison, in a community inhabited by relatively politically active and informed young adults, seemed to be that Trump is a greater concern than whatever problems they may have with Biden.

    Students gave lots of reasons for their disdain of Trump. They also mostly requested only using their first names. One Latina student said she felt “very disrespected” by him. Her friend, who was white, said she considered herself an ally to minority groups and couldn’t vote for Trump because of his treatment of people of color. Neither cited specific things he’s said, but Trump has a long record of insulting various minority groups.

    “I don’t like how he took us out of the Paris Agreement,” said Jocelyn, 19, of Evanston, Illinois, referring to the international treaty on climate change adopted in 2015. “Obama put us on it, so I think it’s important to stay with it. I don’t want that to get ruined.”

    Molly, 18, of Lake Forest, Illinois, said Trump’s history of denigrating “women and people with disabilities and all that, it’s just not something I align myself with.”

    Jewish students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gather for an event to pray for the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. Some students raised concerns with Biden's response to the Middle East war.
    Jewish students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gather for an event to pray for the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. Some students raised concerns with Biden’s response to the Middle East war.

    This all sounds like good news for Biden’s campaign, but students still shared concerns about his age and his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

    “I honestly never was interested in anything Biden said until he was, like, showing he was actually helping Israel with the war,” said Demi, 22, who is Jewish and from San Diego. “Now he’s stepped to the side, and I’ve stopped listening.”

    Moments later, she said, “I hate to say it, but Trump has done more for the Jews.” She said she feels like Trump hasn’t wavered in his support for Israel, and that the bottom line is “the Jews want to feel safe.”

    But when asked if that means she might vote for Trump, Demi replied, “I’m kind of just like, whatever my parents guide me to do. I don’t follow politics. I honestly don’t know the difference between a Democrat and a Republican.”

    The fact that many of these students said they plan to vote for Biden not necessarily because of what he’s offering, but because he’s not the other guy, suggests the president has some work to do with selling them on his record. Recent national polls seem to show Biden underperforming with young voters compared to how he fared with them in 2020. They also seem to show Trump gaining support from the youth vote. There are reasons to be skeptical of these polls, but it’s still not a good sign for the Biden camp.

    Romero said she sees a connection between what national polling is suggesting about young voters and what our small sampling found.

    “The common denominator is that they weren’t enthusiastic about Biden,” she said. “I’m not surprised that many young people are translating their very strong reactions to Biden’s policies into potentially not voting for a Democrat, maybe even potentially voting for Trump. The only thing I’m cautioning is it’s still really early in the election.”

    “The war is evolving. Policies are evolving,” added Romero. “Maybe the war stays constant, but Trump does something to change the equation.”

    Donald Trump, pictured here visiting a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, is not very popular among University of Wisconsin-Madison students.
    Donald Trump, pictured here visiting a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, is not very popular among University of Wisconsin-Madison students.

    Of the 26 students HuffPost interviewed at both college campuses, just one said she planned to vote for Trump. But this University of Wisconsin student didn’t know why.

    “I’m sorry, I don’t really have an answer,” said Grace, 18, when asked what she liked about Trump. She requested only listing Wisconsin as where she’s from.

    “I just don’t think Biden is fit to be president. I feel like he has mental issues,” she said. “I don’t think anyone should be president if that’s going on.”

    Sitting nearby at a picnic table, three male students concurred that Trump was the worst possible option.

    “I just think four years of Trump would be worse than four more years of Biden,” said Finn, 19, from Los Angeles. His friends laughed at how cynical he sounded.

    “I know, it’s negative!” said Finn.

    “It’s a negative election, though!” said Andrew, 20, of Milwaukee. “Who wanted to see this?”

    If there was anything surprising about what these students had to say about the presidential election, it was their eagerness to be part of the conversation at all. Nobody declined to give an interview. Everybody had something slightly different to say. Their enthusiasm to share their ideas about what mattered to them was clear, even if it’s less clear if or how their concerns will translate at the ballot box.

    Andrew, for one, spent several minutes offering his personal analysis of the Republican Party’s base of voters, what he sees as their disdain for Super PACs and then told an anecdote about how shocked he was to learn about a lobbyist group in a recent election advocating for a political candidate of a different party.

    “It’s crazy! It’s just crazy, like, watching it all happen,” marveled the 20-year-old. “It’s a wild time in politics.”

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  • Caffeine’s Dirty Little Secret

    Caffeine’s Dirty Little Secret

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    On Tuesday, curiosity finally got the best of me. How potent could Panera’s Charged Lemonades really be? Within minutes of my first sip of the hyper-caffeinated drink in its strawberry-lemon-mint flavor, I understood why memes have likened it to an illicit drug. My vision sharpened; sweat slicked my palms.

    Laced with more caffeine than a typical energy drink, Panera’s Charged Lemonade has been implicated in two wrongful-death lawsuits since it was introduced in 2022. Though both customers who died had health issues that made them sensitive to caffeine, a third lawsuit this month alleges that the lemonade gave an otherwise healthy 27-year-old lasting heart problems. Following the second death, Panera denied that the drink was the cause, but in light of the lawsuits it has added warnings about the drink, reduced its caffeine content, and removed the option for customers to serve themselves.

    All the attention on Panera’s Charged Lemonade has resurfaced an age-old question: How much caffeine is too much? You won’t find a simple answer anywhere. Caffeine consumption is widely considered to be beneficial because it mostly is—boosting alertness, productivity, and even mood. But there is a point when guzzling caffeine tips over into uncomfortable, possibly unhealthy territory. The problem is that defining this point in discrete terms is virtually impossible. In the era of extreme caffeine, this is a dangerous way to live.

    Most people don’t have to worry about dying after drinking Charged Lemonade. The effects, though uncomfortable, usually seem to be minor. After drinking half of mine, I was so wired that I couldn’t make sense of the thoughts ricocheting around my brain for the next few hours. Caffeine routinely leads to jitteriness, nervousness, sweating, insomnia, and rapid heartbeat. If mild, such symptoms can be well worth the benefits.

    But consuming too much caffeine can have serious health impacts. High doses—more than 1,000 milligrams a day—can result in a state of intoxication known as caffeinism. The symptoms can be severe: People can “develop seizures and life-threatening irregularities of the heartbeat,” and some die, David Juurlink, a toxicology professor at the University of Toronto who also works at the Ontario Poison Centre, told me. “It’s one of the dirty little secrets, I’m afraid, of caffeine.” Juurlink said he occasionally gets calls about people, typically high-school or college students, who have ingested multiple caffeine pills on a dare or in a suicide attempt.

    You’re unlikely to ingest that much caffeine from beverages alone, yet the increasing availability of highly caffeinated products makes it more of a possibility than ever before. Besides Panera’s Charged Lemonade, dozens of energy drinks contain similar amounts of caffeine, and some come in candy-inspired flavors such as Bubblicious and Sour Patch Kids. Less potent but highly snackable products include caffeinated coffee cubes, energy chews, marshmallows, mints, ice pops, and even vapes. Consumed quickly and in rapid succession, these foods can lead to potentially toxic caffeine intake “because your body hasn’t had time to tell you to stop,” Jennifer Temple, a professor at the University of Buffalo who studies caffeine use, told me.

    More than ever, we need a way to track our caffeine consumption, but we don’t seem to have any good options. In all of the lawsuits against Panera, the basic argument is this: Had the company more adequately warned customers of the drink’s caffeine content, perhaps no one would have been hurt. But most of us just aren’t used to thinking about caffeine in numerical terms the way we do with calories and alcohol by volume (ABV). Caffeine intake is generally something that’s not measured but experienced: I know, for example, that a double espresso from the office coffee machine will give me the shakes. But even though I knew how much caffeine is in a Charged Lemonade, I had no idea how much of it I could drink before having the same reaction.

    The FDA does have a recommended daily caffeine limit of 400 milligrams, the equivalent of about four or five cups of coffee. “Based on the relevant science and information available,” a spokesperson told me, consuming that much each day “does not raise safety concerns” for most adults, except for people who are pregnant or nursing, or have concerns related to their health conditions or the medication they take. The agency, however, doesn’t require food labels to note caffeine content, though some companies include that information voluntarily.

    But the numbers are helpful only up to a point. The FDA’s daily recommendation is a “rough guideline” that can’t be used as a universal standard, because “it’s not safe for everybody,” Temple said. For one person, 237 milligrams could mean a trip to the hospital; for another, that would just be breakfast. The effect of a given caffeine dose “varies tremendously from person to person based upon their historical pattern of use and also their genetics,” Juurlink told me.

    Although people generally aren’t aware of the amounts of caffeine they consume, they tend to develop a good sense of how much they can handle, Temple said. But usually, this knowledge is product-specific; when trying a new caffeine product, the effect can be hard to predict. Part of the problem is that the amount of caffeine in products varies dramatically, even among drinks that may seem similar: A 12-ounce Americano from McDonald’s contains 71 milligrams of caffeine, but the same drink at Starbucks contains 150 milligrams. The caffeine in popular energy drinks ranges from 75 milligrams (Ocean Spray Cran-Energy) to 316 milligrams (Redline Xtreme), according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

    Contrast this with alcohol, which tends to be served in conventional units regardless of brand: a can of beer, a glass of wine, or a shot of liquor, all of which have roughly the same ability to intoxicate. Having a standard unit to gauge consumption isn’t foolproof—consuming too much alcohol is still far too easy—but it is nevertheless helpful for thinking about how much you’re ingesting, as well as the differences between beverages. Without such a metric for caffeine, consuming new beverages takes on a daredevil quality. Sipping the Charged Lemonade felt like venturing into the Wild West of caffeine.

    The reason we aren’t good at thinking about caffeine is that historically, we’ve never really had to think that hard about it. Sure, one too many espressos might have occasionally put someone over the edge, but caffeine was consumed and sold in amounts that didn’t require as much thought or caution. “A generation ago, you didn’t have all these energy drinks,” so people didn’t grow up learning about safe caffeine consumption the way they may have done for alcohol, Darin Detwiler, an food-policy expert at Northeastern University, told me.

    Compounding the concern is the fact that energy drinks are popular with kids, who are more susceptible to caffeine’s effects because they’re smaller. Kids tend to drink even more when drinks are labeled as highly caffeinated, Temple said, and the fact that they contain huge amounts of sugar to mask the bitter taste of caffeine adds to their appeal. Last year, a child reportedly went into cardiac arrest after drinking a can of Prime Energy—prompting Senator Chuck Schumer to call on the FDA to investigate its “eye-popping caffeine content.”

    Nothing else in our daily diet is quite like caffeine. Certainly people swear by it, and its benefits are clear: Research shows that it can improve cognitive performance, speed up reaction time, and boost logical reasoning, and it may even reduce the risk of Parkinson’s, diabetes, liver disease, and cancer. But for a substance so ubiquitous that it’s called the most widely used drug in the world, our grasp of how to maximize its benefits is feeble at best. Even the most seasoned coffee drinkers sometimes unintentionally get too wired; as new, more highly caffeinated products become available, instances of caffeine drinkers overdoing it will probably become more common. Perhaps the best we can do is learn how much of each drink we can handle, one super-charged sip at a time.

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    Yasmin Tayag

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  • A Graduate Student's Side Hustle Now Earns $110,000 Per Year | Entrepreneur

    A Graduate Student's Side Hustle Now Earns $110,000 Per Year | Entrepreneur

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    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Carter Osborne, who started tutoring students in need of help with college application essays in 2017. Today, Osborne’s business brings in about $110,000 per year — more than his full-time job as a director at a global PR firm.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Carter Osborne

    When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?

    Tuition was my original motivation. I started graduate school in 2017, and my tutoring business was originally meant to be a temporary, small-scale operation to take the edge off tuition.

    I was inspired by two people who ran their own tutoring practices at the time, both of whom advised me during the weeks after I launched. One was a test prep tutor in New York who helped me understand the logistics behind starting my own business. The other was a Seattle-based college consultant who had previously supported me during my application process to Stanford. I only met with her once, but she had such a profound impact on my college search that I was inspired to reconnect, emulate her work and start tutoring college essays.

    Related: The Sweet Side Hustle She Started ‘On a Whim’ Turned Into a $20,000-a-Month Income Stream: ‘It’s Simple, It’s Affordable and It’s Fun’

    What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground?

    Mentorship was key. I reached out to local college consultants and asked for informational meetings, both to understand their business models and to pitch myself as a potential resource. It worked — one of them recommended several clients from her waitlist to help me get started, and another hired me as a part-time writing coach. These were small steps by my standards today, but at the time, they were just what I needed to get off the ground.

    From there, client referrals became the core of my growth. I had three clients in my first year, 14 clients in my second year, 23 clients in my third year and so on. This year, I worked with over 50 clients and referred several families to other tutors after reaching capacity. It was a nice full-circle experience — I owe my start to referrals from established tutors, and this year, I got to provide those referrals to others.

    Related: This Former Teacher Started a Side Hustle That Made More Than $22,000 in One Month: ‘I Have Never Been More Fulfilled’

    What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while building your side hustle, and how did you navigate them?

    I quickly discovered that there are hundreds of qualified tutors in urban hubs like Seattle, including many who work in my core business of college applications. This created a major challenge: How could I build a unique service that stands out from everyone else’s?

    There turned out to be two answers. First, I pivoted away from academic tutoring and test prep and focused entirely on the niche market of college essays. It was a calculated risk — the market for college essays is relatively small, but that’s exactly what made it easier to differentiate myself as a specialist.

    Second, I turned my competitors into partners. College admissions consultants typically advise on the full application process, but many don’t enjoy working on essays. As an essay specialist, I pitched this as an opportunity to consultants in the Seattle area — they could onboard new clients, outsource the essay portion to me, and then continue working with their clients on all other aspects of the application. The result was a win for everyone: College consults got to offload work they didn’t like, students got specialized essay support, and I got a bump in business from people who otherwise would have been my competition.

    Related: This Arizona Teacher Started a Side Hustle That Immediately Earned More Than Her Full-Time Job: ‘Much Better Than $40,000’

    How long did it take you to begin seeing consistent monthly revenue? Did revenue ever surpass that of your full-time income, and if so, when?

    I began seeing monthly revenue right away. It started small: a few thousand dollars in my first year and about $10,000 in my second year. However, by my fourth year, I earned over $113,000, which exceeded my full-time income as a director at a public relations firm.

    You’ve turned your side hustle into a successful business. How much average monthly or annual revenue does it bring in now?

    In 2023, my business generated roughly $115,000 in revenue. Almost all of this comes during the six-month stretch from June to December when college applications are at their peak. I take time off from tutoring from January to May, which allows me to reset and think critically about ways to improve my service for the next application cycle.

    What’s your advice for other side-hustlers who hope to turn their ventures into successful businesses?

    First, develop something unique about your product or service. How can you make your work stand out from the competition? This might mean pursuing a niche market within your field (like college essays within the field of tutoring) or building a variation on your product. It doesn’t need to be revolutionary — I’m always surprised by customer enthusiasm for products that are marginally different from the mainstream.

    Second, stay patient as you grow. There are plenty of stories about side hustles that struck it rich in year one, but for most of us, success takes time. If you have a multi-year time horizon and the persistence to keep at it, your investment will be much more likely to pay off.

    Related: 3 Secrets to Starting a High-Income Side Hustle in 2024, According to People Whose Gigs Make More Than $20,000 a Month

    Finally, remember that there are no prerequisites to starting a successful side hustle. I am hardly the stereotype of a business owner: I studied public policy in college and never dreamed of starting a business. There’s no such thing as a “type” of person who becomes a successful business owner, so go pursue your ideas and see what happens.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • College Senior In Cleaning Up with Lucrative Car Detailing Side Hustle | Entrepreneur

    College Senior In Cleaning Up with Lucrative Car Detailing Side Hustle | Entrepreneur

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    Blame it on the Dawgs.

    University of Georgia senior Jack TerHaar is a massive Bulldogs fan. But when working at bars in Athens, Georgia, started cutting into his game-watching time, he knew he was ready for something else. The late nights didn’t help either.

    “I didn’t want to be working until four in the morning,” he said. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset where I felt I could do more with my time.”

    TerHaar, a Louisiana native, started researching other options. Car detailing (i.e., thoroughly washing and cleaning cars) struck him as a potentially lucrative and flexible side hustle with little overhead. His instincts were spot-on—or spot-free.

    After a few initial missteps and some help from the entrepreneurial mentorship program at his school, TerHaar built Detail Dawgs into a $ 7,000-a-month business, donating some of this revenue to charity. He hopes to expand into other college towns after he graduates.

    Here’s how he did it.

    Related: She Started Her Side Hustle to Solve a Serious Problem With Outdoor Furniture. It Blew Past Her Full-Time Job’s Income — to $66,000 a Month.

    Getting help from mentors

    After TerHaar set his sights on car detailing, he gathered information by talking to a guy in his hometown who had a successful detailing business and watching a ton of YouTube videos to figure out what materials he needed.

    He detailed some of his friends’ cars and posted his work on Instagram. Business was good, but it wasn’t enough to pay off his tuition. Coming from a strong family tradition in entrepreneurship (both his mom and dad started their businesses), TerHaar enrolled in a 4-week entrepreneurial accelerator program at UGA.

    “My professors really pushed me,” he recalls. “They were like, ‘We wanna see you reach out to X number of people, and we wanna see you get X number of jobs this week.’ I went from doing five or six jobs a month to doing 12 jobs in that last week. “

    Breaking out of his comfort zone

    His professors encouraged him to shoot for a 2% conversion rate, ideally contacting 1000 potential clients weekly. That meant he needed to reach beyond his friend zone and the greater UGA campus.

    “How many college kids can pay $180 to wash their car? So, I went to grocery stores and parking lots and handed out business cards. I also went to real estate and law offices,” TerHaar says.

    At first, he was hesitant to approach “random strangers.” But he realized that “to find out who your customer is, you have to become uncomfortable talking to people about your business,” he says.

    With coaching from his professors, he also tested out Google Ads, pushing potential customers to his website. Eventually, he ranked number one in his area for car detailing.

    Business began to boom to around 15 jobs a week, requiring him to hire an additional three other guys. He charges $180 for sedans and $210 for SUVs and trucks, earning around $7,000 monthly.

    TerHaar admits his team could be detailing more cars, but they still must balance their school work. This is a side hustle, after all.

    Photo by Detail Dawgs

    Giving back

    Not all of their profits are going into their pockets. In September, TerHaar donated a portion of Detail Dawgs’ revenue to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. TerHaar’s older sister Abby has Alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss.

    “My sister’s my only sibling, and she’s somebody who I look up to a lot. I felt that a super positive way to support her was to donate some money to help raise awareness.”

    Again, this was a lesson TerHaar learned from his parents. When he was a kid, they ran a golf tournament and a 5K race for five years, raising more than $250,000 for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

    Photo courtesy of Jack TerHaar.

    Learning on the job

    TerHaar began his business by driving cars to the nearby coin-operated carwash, but he went mobile when that didn’t scale. Now, he and his crew show up in his 4-Runner with a hose, Shop-Vacs, and whole lot of chemicals, including tire cleaners, interior cleaners, leather conditioners, and stain removers. He learned early on that a drill brush is indispensable for quick cleaning.

    He also learned that car detailing can be dirty business.

    “This one guy had any type of McDonald’s food you could think of in his car,” TerHaar says. “He had Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets in there. That was when we invited in gloves.”

    The future of the business

    TerHaar hopes Detail Dawgs gets so big that he can focus less of his time on the detailing and more on the scaling details.

    “Hopefully, I won’t have to be on cars anymore, and I can run the business from my office, managing it and acquiring customers.”

    He is considering expanding the business after college. “If I decide to pursue it full-time and scale it to other college towns, I think it’ll be a six-figure business.”

    But for now, TerHarr’s happy just being in control of his financial destiny and not having to miss any more Bulldogs games.

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    Jonathan Small

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  • Taylor Swift Courses Are Being Offered at Major Universities | Entrepreneur

    Taylor Swift Courses Are Being Offered at Major Universities | Entrepreneur

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    Universities are responding to the Taylor Swift pandemonium with new courses about her stardom.

    Starting in the Spring of 2024, students at Harvard University and the University of Florida will be able to take courses focused on studying Swift’s impact on culture.

    Harvard’s English department is offering a class called “Taylor Swift and Her World,” where instructor Stephanie Burt will unpack Swift’s “fan culture, celebrity culture, adolescence, adulthood, and appropriation” Harvard states.

    RELATED: Top CEO of 2023? Taylor Swift and Beyoncé – Here’s Why.

    Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images | US singer Taylor Swift delivers the commencement address to New Yor University graduates, in New York on May 18, 2022.

    “We will learn how to think about illicit affairs and hoaxes, champagne problems, and incomplete closure,” the course description reads, referring to a few song titles from Swift’s albums Folklore and Evermore.

    At UF, pupils can take “Musical Storytelling with Taylor Swift and Other Iconic Female Artists” in Spring 2024 with instructor Melina Jimenez. The one-credit class will spend 13 weeks analyzing Swift’s discography while drawing parallels between her and other female powerhouses like Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, and Dolly Parton, the course description states.

    The courses are only offered to enrolled university students.

    However, Harvard and UF aren’t the first schools to study the art of Taylor Swift. In early 2022, NYU launched a Swift-focused course taught by Rolling Stone writer Brittany Spanos.

    Since then, other schools including the University of Texas, Arizona State University, Stanford University, and UC Berkeley have offered classes dedicated to the artist, according to Billboard.

    RELATED: Major Media Company Hiring Taylor Swift, Beyoncé Reporters to Go Backstage at Tours, Get ‘Inside View’ of New Music

    Apart from Swift’s impact on culture – and, apparently, the education system – she’s also boosting the economy. The U.S. leg of her Era Tour, which ran from March to October 2023, brought in $5 billion in consumer spending, online research group QuestionsPro found.

    “If Taylor Swift were an economy, she’d be bigger than 50 countries; if she was a corporation, her net promoter score would make her the fourth-most-admired brand, and her loyalty numbers mimic those of subjects to a royal crown,” said Dan Fleetwood, president of QuestionPro Research and Insights. “It’s all a testament to her focus on the fan experience.”

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    Sam Silverman

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  • 10 Hot Jobs That Don’t Require College and Can Pay 6+ Figures | Entrepreneur

    10 Hot Jobs That Don’t Require College and Can Pay 6+ Figures | Entrepreneur

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    Increasingly, Americans are considering alternative paths that don’t involve a college education. Four million fewer students were enrolled in college in 2022 compared to the decade before, NBC News reported.

    As of 2023, borrowers had an average of $37,338 in federal student loan debt, USA Today reported — and the typical college graduate’s starting salary is roughly $58,862, per Bankrate.

    More than four in 10 bachelor’s degree holders under 45 don’t believe that the benefits of their education exceed the costs, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • The Highest Paying College Majors With 100K Starting Salaries | Entrepreneur

    The Highest Paying College Majors With 100K Starting Salaries | Entrepreneur

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    Choosing a college major can be a key determinant in one’s financial trajectory after graduation. But for women, the majority still opt-in to fields with significantly lower payouts than men, a new report found.

    A new study by Bankrate looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey in 2021 and examined median salaries based on 150 college majors and found that the most lucrative college majors are dominated by men.

    Even though women now make up over half of the college-educated workforce (50.6%) in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center, women still earn 18% less than men. What’s the key factor contributing to the gender pay gap? The disparity in college majors. Men are choosing engineering and computer science fields, while women tend to gravitate toward lower-paying majors like early childhood education and social work, the report found.

    Bankrate found that 78% of bachelor’s degree holders in the 20 highest-paying majors are men, with median salaries ranging from $85,000 to $110,000, primarily in STEM fields. The degree with the highest median earning potential, electrical engineering, had a median salary of $110,000, and 85% of students with the major were men — only 15% were women.

    Related: From Meta to McDonald’s, Here’s How Major Companies Are Working to Close the Gender Pay Gap

    The only high-earning majors not heavily dominated by men are pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration, where the median salary is $100,000, and composed of 56% female degree holders as compared to 44% for men. Women are still overrepresented in lower-earning fields, such as nursing, social work, and general education, where median salaries start at $43,000 and peak at $70,000 — a roughly 60% difference from the $110,000 peak for male-dominated degrees.

    The study attributes these disparities to stereotypes, socioeconomic challenges, and societal expectations that influence women’s choices of majors and careers.

    “Research shows that as men become more concentrated in majors, we then as a society tend to place more value on that field,” Natasha Quadlin, associate professor of sociology and faculty fellow at the California Center for Population Research at UCLA, said in the report. “It’s mutually reinforcing in that whatever men end up choosing and whatever men are highly concentrated in, those are the fields that are going to be seen as desirable and the most highly compensated.”

    Related: 5 Ways Women Can Fight the Gender Pay Gap (Besides Asking for More Money)

    Here are the top 10 highest-earning bachelor’s degrees, according to the report, along with the percentage of male and female degree holders.

    1. Electrical engineering

    Median salary: $110,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 85%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 15%

    2. Computer engineering

    Median salary: $104,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 81%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 19%

    3. Pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration

    Median salary: $100,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 44%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 56%

    4. Chemical engineering

    Median salary: $100,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 70%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 30%

    5. Computer science

    Median salary: $100,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 78%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 22%

    6. Aerospace engineering

    Median salary: $100,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 89%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 11%

    7. Materials engineering and materials science

    Median salary: $98,500

    Percentage of male degree holders: 77%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 23%

    8. Engineering mechanics, physics, and science

    Median salary: $95,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 84%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 16%

    9. Mechanical engineering

    Median salary: $95,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 89%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 11%

    10. Industrial and manufacturing engineering

    Median salary: $90,000

    Percentage of male degree holders: 72%

    Percentage of female degree holders: 28%

    You can read the whole study, here.

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    Madeline Garfinkle

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  • Pier Collapses in Wisconsin as Dozens Fall into Lake: Video | Entrepreneur

    Pier Collapses in Wisconsin as Dozens Fall into Lake: Video | Entrepreneur

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    Some Labor Day fun in the sun came to an abrupt halt for dozens of students enjoying a lake day at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    On Monday, 60 to 80 students gathered on a pier by Memorial Union Terrace on Lake Mendota, which is owned by the university, per USA Today, before the dock suddenly collapsed beneath them and plunged into the water.

    In a video of the incident, the pier can be seen crumbling beneath a large crowd of unsuspecting lakegoers.

    The crash caused minor injuries, according to police, with five people treated by paramedics at the scene and one hospitalized with non-threatening injuries.

    RELATED: Video Shows Construction Crane Catching Fire, Collapsing in New York City

    Those who fell in were able to swim back to shore.

    Local reports say the pier was “not staffed” at the time of the incident.

    Prior to the accident, the pier was due to be removed for the summer season on Tuesday, according to a statement from the university. The school confirmed the pier is now closed and the incident is under investigation.

    The Wisconsin tourism industry generated $23.7 billion in total economic impact in 2022, setting a new record for the state, Governor Tony Evers announced in June.

    RELATED: Video: Tanker Truck Fire Causes Horrifying Highway Collapse on I-95, Could Take ‘Months’ to Repair

    “Tourism is vital to the economic health of local communities, businesses, and workers across our state, and I’m proud of our work to support this critical industry and its success over these past few years,” Evers said at the time in a press release. “We must continue to make key investments in Wisconsin tourism to ensure it continues to be a key part of our economy for generations.”

    The university’s Madison campus sits on the south shore of Lake Mendota, according to Lakeshore Nature Preserve, and spans 15.3 miles.

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    Sam Silverman

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  • Supreme Court Blocks Biden’s Student Loan Relief Plan | Entrepreneur

    Supreme Court Blocks Biden’s Student Loan Relief Plan | Entrepreneur

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    In a long-awaited ruling by the Supreme Court on President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, the court blocked the plan in a 6-3 decision on Friday.

    The program would have allowed eligible borrowers to eliminate up to $20,000 in debt but was deemed an unlawful overreach of executive power. The plan carried an estimated cost of $400 billion.

    The Supreme Court’s decision is significant for Biden, who made tackling student loan debt a key pillar of his 2020 campaign. However, the court’s decision hinges on the plan being an overstep of authority, arguing that such a program cannot be implemented without authorization from Congress.

    The Biden administration formerly defended the motion by citing the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (HEROES Act) of 2003, which allows the government to provide relief during a national emergency. Still, the court has ruled that the language in the HEROES Act is not specific enough to authorize a plan as broad as Biden’s.

    Related: Supreme Court Rules Against Affirmative Action at Harvard and UNC

    “The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the ruling. “We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

    The Biden administration disagrees with the decision, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, and that it wants to make it “crystal clear to borrowers and their families that Republicans are responsible for denying them the relief that President Biden has been fighting to get to them.”

    How will the decision affect the economy?

    The student loan repayment process, which was paused during the pandemic, is set to resume in August, with monthly payments beginning in October. While the pause was always going to end regardless of the court’s decision, millions may have been banking on Biden’s plan to eliminate their student loan debt, and experts have expressed concerns about the potentially wide-ranging impact on the economy.

    Laura Beamer, a researcher specializing in higher education finance at the Jain Family Institute, told the New York Times that any progress made during the repayment hiatus — such as improving borrowers’ credit scores, which enabled them to make significant purchases like cars and homes — may be swiftly undone as the pause ends.

    Related: 9 Million People Were Told By Mistake Their Student Loan Forgiveness Was Approved

    “It’s going to quickly reverse all the progress that was made during the repayment pause,” Beamer, told the outlet, “especially for those who took out new debt in mortgages or auto loans where they had the financial room because they weren’t paying their student loans.”

    In early June, Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, expressed similar concerns to CNBC.

    “It’ll shave a couple of tenths of a percent off the GDP over the coming year. Now, in a more typical time, that’s not really that big a deal. The economy can digest that gracefully. But in the current environment with the economy as weak as it is, recession risks as high as they are, a couple of tenths of percent can matter,” Zandi said.

    Related: FTC Cracks Down on Student Loan Schemes That Scammed Borrowers Out of $12 Million

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    Madeline Garfinkle

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  • ‘Ghost Students’ Are Stealing Thousands in Federal Aid | Entrepreneur

    ‘Ghost Students’ Are Stealing Thousands in Federal Aid | Entrepreneur

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    Richard Valicenti, 64, received an out-of-the-ordinary check in the mail last summer. It was $1,400 for a Pell Grant to attend Saddleback College in Orange County, CA. Valicenti, a radiation oncologist at UC Davis, was well-beyond his college years and also had “never heard” of the college he was allegedly attending and getting federal aid for, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

    While Valicenti was perplexed, college admissions directors and administrators are all too familiar with the situation. Valicenti’s identity had been stolen by criminals attempting to receive financial aid by creating bogus college applications — a practice that has resulted in an unprecedented influx of “ghost students.”

    Ghost students are essentially bots created by fraudsters that take advantage of the application system in hopes of receiving government aid.

    About 20% of California community college applications are fictitious, according to the state Chancellor’s Office, per The Chronicle, and may be an easy target for criminals as community colleges in the state do not require a social security number to apply and are required to accept any applicant with a high school diploma.

    The rise in ghost students has surged since the pandemic, due to online classes which made it easier for ghost students to go under the radar, as well as the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to stop verifying household income in the wake of a national crisis — an initiative that is expected to remain in place until the next award cycle.

    Related: California Woman Arrested For $60 Million Postal Service Scam

    City College of San Francisco reported 59 fraudulent students to the chancellor’s office this spring alone, and has identified 29 ghost students who have received $22,418 in Pell Grants to date, officials told the outlet.

    “It is a 100% disservice to every single taxpayer,” Kim Rich, a criminal justice instructor at L.A. Pierce College told the outlet. “These criminals wouldn’t still be doing this if they weren’t getting the money.”

    Rich said that after instructors cleared out ghost students, spring enrollment at Pierce dropped from 7,658 to 4,937.

    In March, the U.S. Justice Department arrested three women in Los Angeles for allegedly stealing inmates’ identities to falsely enroll in California colleges and steal federal aid. From January 2012 to August 2017, the women allegedly stole about $1 million in student loans.

    “As a result of their alleged scheme, the defendants fraudulently caused the United States Treasury to disburse approximately $980,000 in FSA funds on behalf of straw students,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the press release.

    Related: 3 Arrested on Felony Charges for Allegedly Perpetrating a $4 Million ‘Substantial Food Stamp Fraud Ring’ With Stolen Data

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    Madeline Garfinkle

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  • 4 Best Practices for Smarter College Admissions Procedures | Entrepreneur

    4 Best Practices for Smarter College Admissions Procedures | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In the world of higher education, few things can cause greater headaches for administrators than the admissions process. According to research from Common App, the number of college applications has grown by 21.3% between 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 alone, overwhelming admissions departments with an ever-growing number of applications.

    All too often, this leads to admissions officials spending hardly any time looking over applications. In other circumstances, poor alignment between campus recruiters and admissions officials can create misconceptions about the admissions process that unfairly challenge students.

    Then, of course, there are factors expected to impact admissions in the long term, such as declining numbers of high school graduates, a shift away from the humanities and toward “practical” degrees as well as increased scrutiny on the true value proposition offered by educational institutions.

    With so many challenges, higher-ed admissions procedures must adapt and improve to better serve students and administrators alike. So, here are four key tips that higher-ed institutions can use to create smarter admissions procedures:

    Related: How to Make Your Higher Education Institution More Appealing to Prospective Students

    1. Provide straightforward and streamlined applications

    In an article for The Atlantic, author and Arizona State University professor Jeffrey Selingo decries the practice of colleges advertising the use of “holistic” admissions when most schools still primarily base decisions on grades, high school courses and tests. He also notes that asking for extra essays, recommendations and more can “place a particularly unfair burden on students without access to resources such as college counselors, supportive parents or teachers and even a computer with reliable internet access.”

    To address this, two solutions are possible. One is a more streamlined system that eliminates the need for essays, information on extracurricular activities and so on. Another is what Selingo describes as an “iterative” approach, where students initially submit high school transcripts. If the transcripts are good, the next “phase” of applications could entail submitting essays, then collecting references until an admissions decision is made.

    With either solution, a more transparent (and potentially less demanding) application process can be especially helpful for less privileged students while also easing the burden on administrators.

    2. Stick with test-optional and test-blind policies

    The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in many schools removing SAT and ACT testing requirements for admissions due to many of these exams being canceled. Even with a return to “normal,” however, many schools are continuing to use these policies in an effort to eliminate barriers for disadvantaged students.

    Schools that adopt or maintain test-optional policies are better positioned to obtain more applications from low-income and historically disadvantaged groups. As Christopher Rim, CEO of Command Education explained in an interview with U.S. News, “If you have time outside of school to prepare for these exams, you can do that. But if you are low income, you may not have time to study because you might need to get a part-time job in order to support your family on paying rent or with the groceries and things like that.”

    Essentially, test-optional policies remove a potential barrier for prospective students. Indeed, a report from EAB found that 15% of college applicants chose a college because of its test-optional policy, with even higher percentages among Black and Hispanic students (24 and 21%, respectively).

    Related: When This 22-Year-Old Graduated From MIT, He Thought He’d Be a Software Engineer. Instead, He Launched a Company That’s Shaking Up the College-Admissions Game.

    3. Track data with a centralized system

    Just like with business organizations, properly tracking and organizing data — in this case, student applications — is crucial for getting the results desired by a higher education institution. Without the right software tools in place, a college admissions office could experience slow response times, miscommunications or delayed communications with prospective students, and potentially even the loss of documentation.

    None of this will do much to build confidence among prospective students, and with enrollment declines and underfunding putting many schools in financial jeopardy, these are mistakes no institution can afford to make. Such mishaps could make all the difference in a student choosing to attend another school, further undercutting tuition earnings.

    Because of this, higher-ed admissions departments should use quality customer relationship management software (CRMs) that allows them to store, track and update admissions data. The use of such software can ensure that no student slips through the cracks and that all admissions decisions are handled in a timely and professional manner.

    4. Coordinate efforts with all stakeholders

    While each of the previous points may seem to fall within the exclusive domain of admissions officials, such efforts should also be communicated to and coordinated with campus recruitment, advisers, the financial aid office and more.

    For example, campus recruiters must be able to provide accurate information to prospective students regarding the admissions process. Their ability to explain steps in the admission process and potential outcomes can eliminate misconceptions and increase the odds for student success.

    In addition, communicating your end goal for application management — be it collecting admissions from as many incoming freshmen as possible or focusing on students who meet certain academic criteria — is crucial for campus recruitment’s marketing efforts. Everything from events to print materials can and should be influenced by admissions goals.

    By also coordinating efforts with other involved stakeholders in college administration, such as registration and financial aid, you can ensure a smooth hand-off that will make students more likely to choose your school.

    Higher education institutions should be at the forefront of innovation — yet for too long, they’ve remained bound by outdated and inefficient admissions processes that deter students and create unfair barriers to entry. A more efficient, fair and streamlined system, fully coordinated between admissions and recruitment and powered by technology, may prove key to providing necessary steps forward.

    Related: Improving Returns On Investment Made On Campus Recruitment

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    Andres Tovar

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  • How to Make Your Higher Education Institution More Appealing to Prospective Students | Entrepreneur

    How to Make Your Higher Education Institution More Appealing to Prospective Students | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Since peaking in 2010, college enrollment has steadily declined each year. The period between spring 2020 and spring 2022 saw some of the sharpest declines yet, with a 7% decline in enrollment — a loss of roughly 1.3 million students.

    For many institutions of higher education, such losses can prove financially devastating, particularly for smaller schools that rely heavily on tuition dollars. In fact, a 2021 survey of higher education professionals found that 74% of colleges were facing financial challenges, with schools with fewer than 5,000 students facing the most significant constraints.

    2022 saw this trend continue, with several smaller colleges shutting down — some of which had previously served students for over 150 years.

    In the midst of this financial turmoil, few things can prove more crucial for your institution’s lasting stability than its ability to become more appealing to prospective students. So, here are a few tips to get started:

    Related: 3 Marketing Tips to Increase Enrollment Rates for Pre-College Programs

    Offer virtual tours, info sessions and more

    There are various reasons why campus tours and info sessions can be inaccessible to prospective students. Perhaps they live on the other side of the country, or maybe they work a job to help support their family and can’t attend during the times when scheduled on-campus sessions are available. In this case, going digital can improve accessibility for all.

    For example, Arizona State University provides online self-guided video tours for each campus location. The tours are available online or via mobile app, and prospective students can personalize their virtual tour experience based on their areas of interest. Curated tours that highlight popular campus locations are also available.

    While virtual tours and info sessions often became necessary during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, they continue to provide great value by helping more students get a feel for what it is like to be on campus. The flexibility to match a student’s available schedule will go a long way in getting them more engaged with your school and more motivated to apply.

    Of course, you can (and should) still offer tours and info sessions in-person whenever possible. Still, even these in-person events can take on a digital twist that expands your reach and makes them more engaging. Even something as simple as live-streaming an info session or posting highlights to social media can expand your reach and influence.

    Related: How Virtual Tours Can Elevate Your Marketing Strategy

    Let current students do the talking

    Social media can be a powerful tool for showing off your campus, classes and activities to prospective students. But the messages that come directly from your college aren’t going to be nearly as persuasive as the messages coming from the students who already attend your school.

    For example, Brigham Young University regularly hosts #MyViewFromBYU posts and reels on its Instagram account, in which current students are given the opportunity to “take over” the Instagram account as they share stories about their life as a student and their journey to the university.

    This is a great method to provide a more candid and casual look at student life at your institution of higher learning — and in a way that can feel more relatable to prospective students. Of course, social media isn’t the only place where this can occur. You could also feature blogs and videos from current students and alumni on your website or in other marketing materials.

    Alumni can be an especially powerful voice for making your institution more appealing to prospective students. Highlighting alumni success stories — be they in sports, business or the sciences — and their ties to your university can be an incredibly powerful testimonial for students who share similar goals.

    Related: 3 Digital Trends Shaping the Future of College Admissions

    Get personal

    When making the pitch for your institution, it’s important to remember that messaging shouldn’t necessarily be focused on the school itself. Rather, your focus should be on the student and the experiences they will be able to create for themselves while attending your school.

    For example, a case study from EAB that evaluated 1.2 billion student interactions found that student-focused recruitment copy increased response rates by 50%. Something as simple as using the word “you” and focusing on the student’s individual journey — rather than your “excellent curriculum” or “highly-trained professors” — can prove much more persuasive.

    Your messaging should also be personal and focused when it comes to parents. A study of 2021 high school graduates found that 48% ranked “parental influence” as one of the top sources of information they used to make their enrollment decision. Parents were actually the second most commonly cited source of information, only ranking behind college websites.

    Because of this, institutions of higher learning should also focus much of their personalized messaging on the parents of prospective students. Marketing campaigns that frame the institution and its benefits with a focus on the parents’ mindset can lead to more highly influential parent-driven conversations.

    To combat financial instability, institutions of higher education should focus on becoming more appealing to prospective students by offering virtual tours and info sessions, letting current students do the talking on social media, featuring alumni success stories and getting personal in their messaging to potential students.

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    Andres Tovar

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  • 3 Michigan State University students remain in critical condition after shooting | CNN

    3 Michigan State University students remain in critical condition after shooting | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Three students wounded in a deadly shooting last week at Michigan State University remain in critical condition Sunday, according to university police.

    The university community was paralyzed by the mass shooting that left three students dead and five others injured. One of the wounded students who was previously listed in critical condition was in serious condition Sunday and the fifth person was in fair condition, university police said in a tweet.

    Classes are expected to resume Monday, one week after a 43-year-old gunman opened fire on two parts of the campus, but no classes will be held in the rooms where students were shot and killed or wounded, said MSU Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Thomas Jeitschko.

    Those two parts of the campus will remain closed at least through the remainder of the semester, Jeitschko said at a news conference Sunday.

    “We have decided that we will return to campus, both in terms of the classroom setting as well as the regular work, come tomorrow,” Jeitschko said. “I’d like to emphasize that no one thinks that we’re coming back to a normal week. In fact, this semester is not going to be normal.”

    Around 300 scheduled classes have been moved to other spaces across the university, according to Jeitschko, including areas formerly used to host lunches and seminars.

    It’s still unclear why the gunman – a man with no known ties to MSU – targeted the university. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said, and had a note that threatened other shootings hundreds of miles away in New Jersey.

    Funerals for two of the victims, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner, were held Saturday, and the funeral for the third, Arielle Anderson, will be in a few days, MSU interim President Teresa Woodruff said.

    “We continue as a community to hold the families in our hearts as they remember and celebrate their loved ones lost and grieve that loss,” Woodruff said.

    “We’re grateful to our faculty, staff, and academic staff and our support staff, as well as our students, for their grace and dignity in this last week,” she said.

    University officials said they hope students will be able to manage their return to school with the support of the staff and the community.

    Coming back together “is something that will help us,” Jeitschko said. “We’re a community that was shaped around the interest of discovery and learning, and it is as a community we will heal.”

    For employees and faculty, the university has an employee assistance program, and for students, there are counseling and psychiatric services.

    Advisers will make allowances “for extenuating circumstances” where students are not able to make it to class and faculty can work with their department chairs or school directors, as well as their deans, Jeitschko said.

    The university has arranged to cover funeral costs for those killed and will also pay the hospital bills for the injured students, Woodruff said. A fund has so far raised more than $250,000, with around 2,000 students making donations over just a few days.

    The fund will be used to support the “continuing needs of the individuals most critically impacted,” Woodruff said, and will also go toward counseling for students, faculty and staff, and “campus safety enhancements.”

    “We all share in grief and loss and we know that we must replace the chaos of last Monday with the possibility for change in our world, through compassion for all, collaboration and educational continuity,” Woodruff said.

    Michigan State University has almost 50,000 students and 15,000 faculty and staff, Woodruff said. “We’re a community that is strong. Not as a reaction but as a statement of purpose and principle.”

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  • America Loves Coffee. Why Not Yerba Mate?

    America Loves Coffee. Why Not Yerba Mate?

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    It shouldn’t be hard to persuade people to take a sip of yerba mate. It’s completely natural. It makes you feel simultaneously energized and relaxed. You can drink it all day without feeling like your stomach acid is burning through your esophagus. It’s the preferred caffeine source of Lionel Messi, Zoe Saldaña, and the Pope. I’m drinking yerba mate with my Argentinian mother-in-law as I write this, and I’ll probably be drinking it with her or my husband when you read it. And yet, my track record for tempting friends into tasting it is abysmal.

    The average Argentinian or Uruguayan drinks more than 26 gallons of the green infusion each year, but as far as I can tell, the average North American has never even tried South America’s most consumed beverage—at least not in its traditional form. After more than 100 years, plenty of added sugar, and growing consumer desire for “clean caffeine,” something companies are calling yerba mate is finally on shelves near you. But in this land of individualism and germophobia, the real thing will simply never catch on.

    The plant has been seen as a moneymaking commodity since Europeans first arrived in the Americas. Long before North Americans rejected yerba mate, European colonizers were falling head over heels for the stuff. Within a few decades of their arrival in what is now Paraguay in the early 16th century, the Spanish were already drinking the local infusion they’d picked up from the indigenous Guaraní. The Guaraní people had used yerba mate—which they called ka’a—as a stimulant and for its medicinal effects since time immemorial. They collected leaves from a particular species of holly, dried them, and then either chewed the ka’a or placed it in an orange-size gourd to be steeped in water and passed among friends.

    An early-19th-century lithograph of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the ruler of Paraguay, holding yerba mate (Source: Letters on Paraguay by John Parish Robertson and William Parish Robertson)

    The Spanish liked the energy yerba mate gave them and began selling the leaves. But according to Christine Folch, the author of the upcoming book Yerba Mate: A Stimulating Cultural History, Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay were the ones who transformed yerba mate into a true cash crop, by developing techniques for cultivating it on a large scale—methods that relied on the forced labor of indigenous people. Yerba-mate use exploded. By the 1700s, it was consumed all over South America:from what is now Paraguay across Peru, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile.

    In the United States, the first major push to popularize and cultivate yerba mate didn’t happen until 1899, when representatives from Brazil and Paraguay boasted about its benefits at the International Commercial Congress in Philadelphia. Soon after, the first U.S.-based firm, the Yerba Maté Tea Company, was founded. The company’s marketing slogan was straightforward and catchy: “Drink Yerba Maté Tea and be happy.” “Here, then, we have an ideal drink,” a 1900 Yerba Maté Tea Company pamphlet proclaimed, “one that promotes digestion, gives immediate strength of the body and brain and acts soothingly upon the nervous system.” Plus, it added, “the ladies will be especially interested to know that it exercises absolutely no bad effects upon the complexion.”

    Early 20th-century advertisement of a woman in a large hat drinking yerba mate with the caption "Drink Yerba Mate and be happy"
    Promotional material published by the Yerba Maté Tea Company in 1900 (Source: Yerba Maté Tea by William Mill Butler)

    The promotion frothed up interest: Curious individuals wrote to their local newspaper asking where to buy yerba mate, and farmers searched for information on how to grow it. Newspaper articles from the time prophesied a future when yerba mate might displace tea and coffee. Entrepreneurs formed new companies hawking yerba mate; some saw Prohibition as a perfect opening for the buzzy nonalcoholic drink. It was peddled hot and cold. In the 1930s, the United States Army even considered distributing daily rations of the beverage to soldiers.

    And yet, by the end of the 1930s, demand remained low. Marketers were perplexed, writing, “When can we expect an increase in consumption? The United States and France have proven themselves impervious to all temptation.” Americans just didn’t seem to have a taste for yerba mate; one 1921 review in the New York Herald read, “The flavor and taste were of a peculiar rank and insipid nature. If our South American friends can relish this beverage they are very welcome to all of it that grows.”

    Read: The quest to make the best worst cup of coffee

    True, yerba mate is bitter and tastes like freshly cut grass. But coffee tastes like burnt rubber the first time you try it, and Americans can’t get enough. Something deeper is going on here. Ximena Díaz Alarcón, an Argentinian marketing and consumer-trends researcher, says it makes sense that Americans never put down their mugs of coffee or tea to pick up a gourd filled with yerba mate. “There’s no cultural fit,” she told me from her home in Buenos Aires.

    Traditionally, yerba mate is consumed from a shared gourd through a shared straw called a bombilla. “Here in Argentina,” Alarcón said, “mate is a cultural habit, it is a tradition, and it is about sharing with others.” But sitting down for an hour or two and sharing a beverage, especially from the same straw, is not something Americans are accustomed to.

    Still, even when entrepreneurs of the past stripped away the communal aspect of yerba mate and sold it to North Americans in individual tea bags, coffee and tea definitively won out. That makes sense: A huge part of the appeal of mate is the ritual and community of it, not just the compounds it contains. Bagged mate simply doesn’t have as much going for it. In order to persuade Americans who have no connection to the tradition of yerba mate to incorporate it into their lives, the drink has to be both convenient and superior to coffee or tea—in the process, losing the very things that make it so beloved in South America.

    From the April 2020 issue: Capitalism’s favorite drug

    Over the past decade, Americans’ burgeoning thirst for healthy, plant-based caffeinated drinks has helped bring yerba mate into food fashion—at least superficially. Today, you can find it at the corner store and at major grocery chains such as Whole Foods and Walmart. But the yerba mate that fits American culture has no leaves, no straws, and no gourd. Instead, it is an ingredient mixed into canned and bottled energy drinks. This style of yerba mate is convenient and fast, and requires no swapping of spit.

    Although carbonated, canned yerba mate has been around since the 1920s, the demand for it is new. Today, “people want more natural products and simpler ingredient lists,” says Martín Caballero, an editor at BevNET who grew up drinking yerba mate when visiting family in Argentina. “So using yerba mate as an energy caffeine source has been something we’ve seen more of.” Like, a lot more: In 2021, the Coca-Cola Company launched Honest Yerba Mate; Perrier now has an “Energize” line featuring yerba mate, and the start-up Guru sells an organic energy drink “inspired by Amazonia’s powerful botanicals.” (For the record, yerba mate doesn’t actually grow in the Amazon.)

    At least one company has directly felt the difference between marketing real yerba mate and the diluted stuff. Guayakí, founded in 1996, built its entire business around working with indigenous communities in Paraguay to sustainably grow the plant. At first, the company sold only tea bags and loose-leaf yerba mate, but in the mid-2000s, it shifted its focus to selling yerba-mate energy drinks. Adding bubbles and sugar paid off, as did an ambitious marketing campaign targeting college students: Over the past decade, Guayakí has likely introduced more Americans to yerba mate than all previous marketing efforts combined. And although I admire their efforts and business philosophy, their canned “Classic Gold” tastes an awful lot like watered-down Diet Coke. But perhaps that’s the strategy.

    Read: Always have three beverages

    These days, it’s easy to find young influencers promoting the canned version of yerba mate—or, as they often call it, “yerb.” Meanwhile, I’ve mostly given up my role as an ambassador for old-school yerba mate. My friends and colleagues just aren’t interested in sharing a green, bitter drink. But my baby couldn’t be more excited about it. Every morning, we offer her our gourd and silver straw (after sucking up the warm water so she doesn’t get jacked up on caffeine), and she grins before placing la bombilla between her tiny lips. I like to think she loves it for the same reason I do: not for the taste, but for the intimacy and ritual.

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    Lauren Silverman

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  • As University of Idaho students return to classes, they say the arrest of a murder suspect brings peace of mind. But the campus may never feel the same | CNN

    As University of Idaho students return to classes, they say the arrest of a murder suspect brings peace of mind. But the campus may never feel the same | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Classes resume Wednesday at the University of Idaho, just weeks after many students abandoned the campus amid anxiety over the lack of an arrest in the gruesome stabbing deaths of four students in November.

    The arrest of a suspect over winter break, however, has alleviated many students’ fears, allowing them to walk into classrooms Wednesday with more confidence in their safety. Still, the community’s long-held sense of security has been irrevocably shattered, some university members say.

    “It definitely seems like a different place,” sophomore Shua Mulder said to CNN affiliate KXLY. “I’m hanging out with some more people. Definitely staying in groups.”

    The university is still mourning the loss of the four students – Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 – who were found stabbed to death in an off-campus home on November 13.

    Nearly seven weeks passed without an arrest in the case, leaving the tight-knit campus wracked with unease and uncertainty. The university significantly heightened security measures and gave students the option to leave campus and complete the semester remotely.

    So when Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested and named the sole suspect on December 30, students like sophomore Ryder Paslay were offered a little peace of mind.

    Paslay was watching the news with his family when he learned of Kohberger’s arrest. “I breathed a sigh of relief and I’m pretty sure my mom did the same thing,” he told KXLY.

    Though some security measures implemented after the killings will be scaled down this semester, campus security will remain heightened, the university’s provost and executive vice president Torrey Lawrence told CNN last week. While students still have the option to attend remotely, he said most have returned to campus.

    Even so, he said, the “very peaceful, safe community” has experienced a “loss of innocence” in the tragedy’s wake. Before November’s stabbings, Moscow hadn’t seen a murder since 2015.

    “I don’t know if it will ever feel the same,” sophomore Paige Palzinski told KXLY, “But I think just being conscious of knowing what’s happened and having more protections in place has been huge.”

    Following his arrest at his parents’ Pennsylvania home, Kohberger waived extradition to Idaho, where he’s been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in each of the killings and one count of burglary.

    Kohberger is set to appear in court Thursday for a status hearing. He has yet to enter a plea and is currently being held without bail in the Latah County, Idaho, jail.

    A court order prohibits the prosecution and defense from commenting beyond referencing the public records of the case.

    Following the killings, students’ anxieties grew as several weeks passed without a publicly named suspect or announcements of significant advances in the case. Moscow police also received backlash after they initially said there was no immediate threat to the community, but later backtracked on their assurance.

    Criticism of police mounted as it appeared the case had stalled with no suspect or discovery of a murder weapon. But behind the scenes, investigators were working meticulously to narrow down on the suspected killer, court documents show.

    Investigators had their sights set on Kohberger weeks ahead of his arrest, the documents show, but decided not to share key developments with the public to avoid compromising the investigation.

    Notably, a crucial witness account was not shared publicly until after Kohberger was in custody, when the probable cause affidavit was unsealed.

    One of the victims’ two surviving roommates told investigators she saw a man dressed in black inside the house the morning of the killings, the affidavit said. She described the man as being 5’ 10” or taller, “not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” it said. The roommate’s description was consistent with Kohberger’s driver’s license information, which investigators reviewed in late November.

    Armed with the suspect’s driver’s license and plate information, investigators were able to obtain phone records, which indicate Kohberger’s phone was near the crime scene the morning of the killings, according to the affidavit. The records also show his phone was near the victims’ home at least a dozen times between June 2022 and the present day, it said.

    Kohberger had finished his first semester as a PhD student in Washington State University’s criminal justice program in December, the school confirmed. He was living on the school’s Pullman, Washington campus, which is about a 15-minute drive from Moscow, where the killings took place.

    Investigators linked Kohberger to the killings through DNA found on a knife sheath left at the crime scene, according to an affidavit. His car was also seen near the victims’ home around the time of the killings, the document said.

    Law enforcement tracked Kohberger to his family’s home in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting for the holidays.

    He was surveilled for four days leading up to his arrest, a law enforcement source told CNN. During that time, he was seen putting trash bags in neighbors’ garbage bins and “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch,” according to the source.

    On December 30, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team arrested him at his parent’s home, breaking down the door and windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a tactic used in rare cases to arrest “high risk” suspects, the source added.

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  • 7 Tips to Start a Small Business as a Fresh College Graduate

    7 Tips to Start a Small Business as a Fresh College Graduate

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a recent college graduate, you have your degree and possibly some experience from an initial job or internship. But now, you’re interested in acting on your entrepreneurial ambitions and starting your own business.

    Starting a small business is an increasingly popular option for young people — 17% of college graduates run their own businesses while they’re still in college, and another 43% plan to do so shortly after graduating.

    Of course, starting your own business is a lot of work and comes with a huge learning curve. Let’s look at seven tips for starting your own small business as a college graduate.

    Related: 11 Steps to Starting a Successful Business in Your 20s

    1. Decide what kind of business you want to start

    Your first step should be to determine what kind of business you want to start and run. For instance, do you want to start a restaurant, offer a service-based business or do something else entirely?

    To determine the kind of business you want to start, think about business ideas you’ve had in the past, and consider the kind of work you like to do. You should also look for current opportunities in the market you can take advantage of. Above all else, consider what skills you have that might provide value to other people.

    2. Register your business

    Your next major step is to register your business. There’s a lot involved with this step, including:

    • Deciding on a business name: Your business name must be 100% unique to your state. For the best results, try to come up with a business name that sounds good, is easy to spell and won’t blend in with the crowd.

    • Apply for an EIN: An employer identification number (EIN) is a unique number assigned by the IRS to businesses operating in the U.S. You’ll need an EIN to open a business bank account and register your business.

    • Choose your business structure: Next, you’ll need to choose your business structure, like an LLC, corporation or sole proprietorship. The business structure you choose can affect what tax breaks you benefit from and how many employees you can hire.

    • Register your business: Finally, register with your state’s Secretary of State office. You’ll need to provide all the above information and pay some minor fees.

    3. Come up with a business plan

    Think of your business plan as the guiding document that outlines what your business is about, how it will achieve its goals and who it serves. A business plan helps guide your business, and it’s necessary if you want to receive financing from investors.

    Write a detailed business plan, including cash flow projections, target audience research and your expected marketing strategy. If you’re unsure where to start, you can use a free business plan template to get started.

    Related: The 3 Things College Taught Me About Being An Entrepreneur

    4. Identify your target audience

    At this stage, you need to determine your target audience. This is the group of people most likely to buy from your brand or subscribe to your services. You can do this by researching keywords, performing marketing research and doing competitor analysis.

    In any case, you need to know who your target audience is in terms of attributes like gender, age and buying habits. The better you know your target audience, the more effectively you can market directly to those prospective customers.

    5. Decide how you’ll finance the business

    No business can get off the ground without financing of some kind. Unless you have a nest egg you’ve saved up for this purpose, odds are you’ll need to seek out financing from other sources.

    You can do this in a few different ways:

    • Try applying for a business loan, either from a bank, credit union, the U.S. Small Business Administration or non-bank lender.

    • Appeal to venture capital firms and other investors by presenting them with a business plan and details about your company.

    • Ask friends and family members to pool money together, then promise to pay them back once you start turning a profit.

    Consider your finances and how you’ll acquire money before committing to any business idea.

    6. Keep your expenses low

    Even after acquiring funds, your business is unlikely to turn a profit for the first few years of operations. Therefore, it’s wise to keep your expenses low as you start your business. To cut down on costs, you can do things like:

    • Living with your parents, so you don’t have to pay rent.

    • Working a side job while diverting most of your effort toward your entrepreneurial endeavor.

    • Doing a lot of the hard work in your business yourself rather than hiring employees. This isn’t a great long-term strategy, but it may be necessary in the beginning.

    Related: Should Entrepreneurial College Students Go Big or Go Small After Graduation?

    7. Be ready to pivot

    Your initial business idea might not work out as you expect or hope, so you should always be ready to pivot or change your business plan. While it might be difficult or uncomfortable, navigating through hurdles and challenges will allow you to learn valuable lessons on how to run a business and identify mistakes to avoid in the future.

    For instance, let’s say you have an initial idea to provide one product to your target audience, but you discover that you can produce a better product for cheaper. It may make sense to switch your business plan and pivot toward the other product. Being flexible and adaptable are key attributes for all small business owners.

    There’s a lot that goes into starting a business, and almost half (47%) of all small businesses won’t last longer than five years. But by coming up with a plan and being strategic and flexible, you’ll increase your likelihood of success, and you can continue your entrepreneurial journey with the confidence to grow to greatness.

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    Joseph Camberato

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  • Suspect in the Idaho college student killings returned home for the holidays weeks after the crime. Here’s what we know about him | CNN

    Suspect in the Idaho college student killings returned home for the holidays weeks after the crime. Here’s what we know about him | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The man arrested in connection with the November killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death attended a nearby university in Washington state and traveled across the country in December to spend the holidays with his parents.

    Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on Friday on an arrest warrant for first-degree murder charges issued by the Moscow, Idaho, Police Department and the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office, according to the criminal complaint.

    The four slain students – Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20 – were each stabbed multiple times in the early morning hours of November 13 at an off-campus house in the small college town of Moscow.

    Kohberger was apprehended at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania, where Kohberger went several days before Christmas, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar told CNN. A white Elantra authorities had been looking for in connection with the killings was also at the parents’ house, the attorney added.

    “He was home for the holidays,” LaBar said.

    Kohberger’s father traveled with him from Washington state to Pennsylvania, according to the public defender and a person who claims to have interacted with the father and son earlier in December.

    That person, who asked not to be identified, said they did not know the father and son but engaged in friendly conversation with them at an auto maintenance shop on December 16 in Pennsylvania, while the two were getting their Elantra serviced. (A separate person also confirmed to CNN the father and son did business at the location on December 16.)

    The father told the individual he flew to Washington state and made the cross-country trip with Kohberger, adding his son would be traveling to the west coast alone after the holidays. Police have not indicated the suspect’s father is in any way implicated in the killings. CNN has attempted to contact the father for comment.

    The person described the younger Kohberger as “a little awkward,” but not suspiciously so. The suspect reportedly told the person he wanted to go into the field of behavioral criminal justice and become a professor.

    Kohberger is a graduate student at Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, according to a now-removed university graduate directory, which was seen by CNN earlier Friday.

    Kohberger had finished his first semester as a PhD student in the school’s criminal justice program earlier in December, the university said in a Friday statement.

    Earlier that day, university police assisted authorities in executing search warrants at his office and apartment, both located on the school’s Pullman campus.

    Pullman is about a 15-minute drive from Moscow, where the killings took place.

    Kohberger intends to waive his extradition hearing to Idaho, set for January 3, to expedite his transport to the state, LaBar said, adding his client is “eager to be exonerated” of the charges.

    Kohberger was previously an undergraduate and graduate student at DeSales University, according to a statement on the school’s website. DeSales is a Catholic university in Pennsylvania, according to its official Facebook page.

    He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and earlier this year completed his “graduate studies for the Master of Arts in criminal justice program,” according to a university spokesperson.

    Kohberger’s attorney described his client as “very intelligent,” adding “he understands where we are right now.”

    In a post removed from Reddit after the arrest was made public, a student investigator associated with a DeSales University study named Bryan Kohberger sought participation in a research project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.”

    The post said, “In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience.”

    CNN reached one of the principal investigators of the study, a professor at DeSales University, but they declined to comment on the matter. The university has not responded to comment.

    A spokesperson for Northampton Community College, also in Pennsylvania, confirmed Kohberger was a student there and graduated with an Associate of Arts and Psychology degree in 2018.

    Earlier in December, authorities asked the public for information about a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra they believed was in the “immediate area” of the crime scenes around the time of the killings.

    After an overwhelming number of tips, investigators narrowed their focus to Kohberger by tracing ownership of the Elantra back to him, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.

    His DNA also matched DNA recovered at the crime scene, according to the sources, who also explained authorities believed Kohberger left the area and went to Pennsylvania after the crime.

    A surveillance team with the FBI tracked the suspect for several days in the area where he was arrested, the sources added.

    One law enforcement source said Kohberger is believed to have driven across the country to his parents’ house in the Elantra. Authorities had also been surveilling his parents’ house, the source said.

    Authorities kept Kohberger under surveillance while investigators from Moscow’s police department, the Idaho State Police and the FBI worked with prosecutors to develop sufficient probable cause for an arrest warrant.

    The suspect’s family is “very shocked,” LaBar, the attorney, said, adding they are in “awe over everything that’s going on” and believed this was “out of character for Bryan.”

    Authorities still want to hear from people who may be able to shed more light on Kohberger.

    “This is not the end of this investigation, in fact, this is a new beginning,” Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said Friday. “You all now know the name of the person who has been charged with these offenses, please get that information out there, please ask the public, anyone who knows about this individual, to come forward.”

    “Report anything you know about him, to help the investigators, and eventually our office and the court system, understand fully everything there is to know about not only the individual, but what happened and why,” Thompson added.

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