If your kid is headed toward a STEM major, this is worth watching. Programs that fund top science students working toward a master’s or Ph.D. are getting more attention under this plan. And since the money would follow the person instead of staying tied to one college, schools might start competing harder to hold onto their best young researchers.
The White House says universities keep too much of that grant money for themselves and reward safe, small projects instead of big ideas.
“Cutting work into the smallest publishable units, which researchers call ‘salami-slicing,’ often pays off more than making an ambitious attempt at transformative discovery.”
— Michael Kratsios, White House science adviser
Universities push back on that framing. They point out they already spend billions of their own money each year on research costs the government won't reimburse, and that the cap on what schools can be paid back for lab safety, utilities and building upkeep has applied only to universities since 1991, not to national labs or private companies doing similar federally funded work.
The country’s two largest faculty unions disagree. This week, the AAUP and AFT said pulling money away from the usual review process could let politics, not science, decide which research gets funded.
For a family building a college list around strong STEM or research programs, this is a reason to look past a school’s reputation and ask sharper questions. Funding tied to individual researchers means a program’s strength could hinge on whether a specific lab or professor keeps their grant, not just the university’s name. Worth asking directly on a campus visit or in an interview: whose research would my student actually work under, and how secure is that funding right now.
🎓📵 Howard University Unenrolled 502 Incoming Freshmen Weeks Before Move-In — The university says the students missed tuition deadlines it had been flagging since March; students say scholarships they were promised never got credited to their accounts in time. One student’s viral social media post sparked similar stories from her incoming class, and some students have since had their enrollment restored.
🎓🏨 Vermont’s Shuttered Colleges Get Surprising Second Acts — A reminder to vet a school’s finances before enrolling: seven Vermont colleges have closed or merged since 2018, and their campuses are now becoming a luxury resort, an arts hub and even a new engineering school.
🎓📉 Cosmetology and Culinary Programs Get a Longer Runway on Loan Accountability — If your kid is weighing a cosmetology or culinary program, take note: the Education Department’s new “Do No Harm” test, which can cut off federal loans for low-earning programs, won’t apply to tip-reliant fields until 2029, a year later than other majors.
🎓🧠 The Campus Mental Health ‘Crisis’ Might Be More Nuanced Than the Headlines — A Harvard psychologist who’s studied college students since the 1940s says the “generation in crisis” narrative overstates the story, pointing to three straight years of improvement in a major survey’s depression and anxiety data.
Happiness data deserves the same weight families give academic rankings when determining fit. The annual “Happiest Students” ranking is expected Aug. 18, compiled from surveys of 170,000-plus students on things like community, belonging and campus culture. Texas Christian University took the top spot last year. Worth noting: not a single Ivy League school made last year’s top 25, and even Harvey Mudd, one of the most demanding STEM schools in the country, made the cut. We’ll look at what makes for a happy campus when when this year’s edition comes out.
Coming up: We’re hosting a live session on the Common App. On Tuesday, Aug. 4, we’ll go through each section of the Common App, including the parts that trip up the most astute kids and parents. We’ll cover how small choices early in the app affect decisions later, plus time for questions. Register here to save your spot.
If your kid competes in a sport that doesn’t bring in money, like swimming, track and field or tennis, you should be paying attention to this. A bill moving through Congress would guarantee scholarships for women’s and Olympic sports that schools are cutting to save money, on top of new rules letting athletes transfer once without penalty and treating NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) payments the same no matter which state a school is in.
Since a 2025 settlement let schools pay athletes directly, up to $20 million a year at power-conference schools, more than 41 college Olympic sports programs have been cut, merged or downgraded, and nearly all of that new money is going to football and basketball players.
Cal Poly cut its swimming and diving programs entirely. Sonoma State eliminated 11 teams at once. About 75% of the athletes who represented the U.S. at the 2024 Olympics came up through college sports, so the ripple effects reach well past any one campus.
The two conferences with the most football money, the SEC and the Big Ten, are fighting the bill anyway. They’re worried it could level a playing field that currently favors them, and their commissioners have even discussed breaking away from the NCAA entirely rather than accept it.
Not everyone in college sports thinks the big conferences are acting in good faith. One booster funding ads in favor of the bill put it bluntly.
“To conference commissioners, it’s all about money and control. Their greed is bankrupting all but the biggest schools.”
— Cody Campbell, Texas Tech booster and bill supporter
Congress has a few weeks to act before lawmakers leave for August recess, and even if the Senate passes it, the bill still has to get through the House.
This new bill could directly affect whether your child’s scholarship and their program survive the next round of budget cuts. It’s also worth asking on a campus visit whether a school has cut programs recently, and what happens to current scholarships if it does.
Admissions Angle works with families as early as 8th grade to build college lists that hold up no matter which way an athletic program’s funding shifts, not a scholarship offer that could disappear before senior year. If this week’s fight over college sports funding has you wondering whether your recruited athlete’s spot is actually secure, book a free discovery call with us.
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