Students: What's News

Welcome to the student section of The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition Web site!

Our mission is to use news and trends of the business world to convey meaningful lessons that you can practice every day – in school, at home and in your community. We focus on preparing you to succeed in life – to become a smarter student, a savvier consumer and a more effective decision-maker.

See the menu for more information related to articles you read in The Classroom Edition in class. Visit COLLEGE & CAREERS and Tools/Resources section for help in your college search. You can also read articles from other students around the country and submit your own on the Student Voices page.

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

COLLEGE & CAREERS

Altruism Meets a Weak Job Market
Public-service agencies like Teach for America are seeing a surge in applications from college graduates amid a worsening job market. There's another impulse behind this generation's embrace of nontraditional postgraduate employment: a simple desire to change the world. Read more

As Textbooks Go 'Custom,' Students Pay
College students are encountering another financial hit: Publishers and schools are embracing "custom" textbooks that can limit the money-saving trade in used books. In a controversial twist, some academic departments are sharing in the profits from these texts Read more

Financial Security for College Grads
Parents and students alike aren't only stressed about how they're going to pay for college. They want to know what the student should be doing now to make sure they can afford to pay the bills after college, writes Terri Cullen. Read more

New SAT is A) Better, B) Same, C) Longer?
The writing section added to the SAT in 2005 has done very little to improve the exam's overall ability to predict how students will do in college, according to research released by the test's owner. Read more

Can a Test Steer You to the Ideal Career?
Vendors of career tests, which assess one's interests and abilities and link them with potential occupations, see a rising demand for them. But they're only a starting point for the tough self-exploration needed to find or revitalize one's livelihood. Read more

High School's Worst Year?
The increasing competitiveness of college admissions—fueled by a demographic surge in the number of teenagers—has made junior year a crucible of academic pressure for many students aiming for elite colleges. How 11th grade became such a grind. Read more

Elite Colleges Reach Deeper Into Wait Lists
Here's a bright spot in an otherwise brutal college-admissions season: More students are being accepted from wait lists at elite schools this year because colleges found it harder to predict how many graduating seniors would join the freshman class. Read more

Medical School to Offer Free Tuition
The medical school run by the Cleveland Clinic will offer a tuition-free education, in the hope that a substantial reduction of post-graduation debt will encourage top students to enter academic medicine. Read Full Article

Teens Feel Chill in Hunt for Summer Jobs
More teens will be looking for summer jobs this year than last --but fewer will be getting them. After sinking to a new low in 2007, teen summer employment is expected to fall again, to the lowest rate in the 60-year history of government jobs data. Read more

The New Math of College Finance
In recent months, some of the wealthiest and most prestigious schools in the country have made their financial aid more generous, replacing loans with grants and capping costs at a certain percentage of family income. It's easy to be baffled about what this all means, for now and for the future. Do these offers come with hidden catches? Will you still need to borrow some money to cover tuition? Here's a guide to navigating the new world of financial aid. Read more Watch the Video

PERSONAL FINANCE

How Technology Can Help Trim Auto Insurance
For years, drivers paid less for auto insurance if they reported low mileage. Now, insurers are using high-tech devices to track customers' habits, and offering deep discounts to those who not only drive less, but also cautiously. Read more

Card Issuers Get Personal To Check Credit
Lenders have long relied on credit scores to decide whether to approve card applications and how much credit to extend and at what interest rate. Now, some big card issuers are digging deeper into their customers' personal lives. Read more

Young Drivers on the Radar
Insurers have traditionally tried to avoid teenage and young-adult drivers, but now many are targeting young drivers, hoping that it will help them retain their parents' business and gain future customers. Read more

Mom Called and Said, 'Slow Down!'
New tech products are easing parental concerns by allowing adults to see every minute of what their kids are up to in the car – complete with GPS systems, video cameras, and weekly reports that rate driving skills. Read more
How to Steer Teen Drivers to Safety Q&A
Parents and Policing Teen Drivers VIDEO

Voter preferences have long been split by race and gender, but this year's election is adding another divide: a sharp age gap. Obama has a strong lead among younger voters, and McCain is solidly in front among older voters -- a divide that has grown in the past month, according to the WSJ/NBC poll. Read more

State Farm Sponsors Hispanic Voting Drive
State Farm will be the lead sponsor of the largest national campaign thus far to encourage Latinos to become U.S. citizens and register to vote. Read more

REVIEW: TOYOTA COROLLA
The new Toyota Corolla looks like a shrunken Camry. The interior is just as blah as ever. There's nothing about it, certainly not the "mouse fur" felt headliner, that doesn't remind you you're driving an inexpensive compact, writes Jeff Sabatini.
Read more

PHOTOS

Behind the Steel Curtain, a Rusty Bucket
The NFL said it wants Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Daniel Rooney and his son, Art II, to keep control of the team, but whether that will be possible or benefit the franchise over the long term remains in question.

What Happened to Hockeytown?
Detroit, a city rich in hockey tradition, suddenly can't pack Joe Louis Arena even though the Red Wings look like strong contenders to win the Stanley Cup. A look at what went wrong and what team management is doing about it. Read more

New Sites Make It Easier to Spy on Friends
Armed with new and established Web sites, people are uncovering surprising details about others that often don't turn up in a simple Internet search. Though none of these sites can reveal anything that isn't already available publicly, they can make it much easier to find. Read more

PC Makers Push 'Netbooks' to Market
Hardware makers are betting that a new low-price category of "netbooks" could sharply expand the PC market. The target: people who need an inexpensive way to get on the Internet and do other simple chores. Read more

Coming Soon to a Phone Near You
Your mobile phone is about to get a lot cooler. In the coming months, you'll be able to dictate text messages and surf the Web just by speaking commands—no tapping or clicking required. But, of course, everything isn't going to change overnight. Here's a sampling of new applications scheduled to hit the market soon. Read more

What's Next for Cellphones? WSJ's Jessica Vascellaro takes a look at several of the advanced services. VIDEO

Seamus McAteer, an analyst at research firm M:Metrics, talks about a range of soon-to-be-released mobile entertainment and productivity applications and the trends driving them. PODCAST