First Lady visits Haiti, more students in college waiting list

These two stories are reported by the New York Times. In her first solo trip overseas as first lady, Michelle Obama made an unannounced visit to Haiti yesterday, flying in an Army helicopter over Port-au-Prince, the earth-quaked-damaged capital, meeting with Haiti's president and first lady in the ravaged National Palace and dancing with young children trying to get beyond the destruction of their homes. She was also accompanied by Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden. Mrs. Obama entered a safe area set aside to provide therapy to traumatized children living in a giant squatter camp in the Champ de Mars, Port-au-Prince's central plaza. The goal of the trip was to keep attention focused on Haiti's plight, "We're at the point where the relief efforts are under way, but the attention of the world starts to wane a little bit," Mrs. Obama told reporters. I am surprised to hear that this was only Michelle Obama's first solo trip overseas. I'm a little disappointed that she did not go to Haiti sooner, but at least she gives a crap and actually went to Haiti. She made a difference with helping children, starting with the "Let's Move" campaign, which began in February, that is supposed to focus on spending money to help solve problems with the high rates of children who have obesity. I hope this is the beginning to more of her travels because with her intelligence and her dominant personality, the world needs a person like her and she should continue to visit more countries in need because I think her advice can make a difference.
This is the time of year when college start accepting students or put them on their waiting list. Late last month, Duke University announced that it had 3,383 applicants on the waiting list, which is about twice the size of the entire incoming freshman class. They had a record 27,000 freshman applicants and have place 856 more on the waiting list than it did a year ago. Duke's best guess is no more than 60 will be admitted from the waiting list. Most Ivy League colleges had sharp jumps in applications, as did the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Stanford and M.I.T. M.I.T., which had a 6 percent increase in applicants, increased its waiting list by more than half to 722. Last year, it accepted few than 80 from that list. Yale, which had a slip dip in applications this year yet still admitted fewer than 8 percent of the applicants, placed nearly 1,000 others on the waiting list, an increase of more than 150. Dartmouth increased its list by about 80 to 1,740. These numbers show two things, the first thing is applying to colleges is getting so competitive that there will not be any room left in the college for incoming freshman. It is an issue because it will force colleges to spend more money that they may not have to expand. That is what happens when there is a recession, students would rather go to college, get a bachelor's degree and start out fresh rather than just start working. The second thing is this is good timing for me to leave college. I have noticed that UNH is accepting more students and it is starting to get more crowded than usual. When I leave college, I won't have to deal with even more snobby freshman, I can just go to the real world and probably not get a job for months. Hooray for life!