Grad school fair demographics

This is a very good one-page set of charts from Idealist.org, analyzing the demographics of people who attend their graduate school fairs in DC. By far the largest category among "fields of interest" is "International Affairs/Relations," followed by "Public Policy." Next such grad school fair is Sept 21st, 5pm-8pm at the Washington Convention Center.

free online technology skills training

Only a small percentage of students will want to tackle this, but here's a website -- w3schools.com that offers free online technology skills training for a variety of software; e.g. -- Flash, HTML, Java scripting, etc.

American U. Goes Test-Optional for Early Applicants

From the Aug. 18 online version of the Chronicle

Students applying to American University this year won't have to submit an SAT or ACT score—if they apply under its early-decision plan. If the university ultimately adopts the "test optional" policy for all of its 15,000 applicants, it would be one of the largest, more-selective colleges in the country to do so.

Full article here.