This is probably the most frequent questions asked by newbies in stock market. Read on to find an answer:

You hear all of the negative perceptions about going to a community college from high school kids: that it's grade 13, that it's for the ones who didn't study or pay attention.
But then, 38 percent of the County's high school grads wind up coming here. Does that mean that they're all "settling" and not going to the college of their choice?
Brookdale's 500 NJ STARS students don't feel like they're "settling." They're among the top 15 percent academic achievers of the County's high school students.
Neither do most of the students who wind up spending a semester or two here and realize that Brookdale is "Number One" for good reason.
Some of the students we talk to tell us that the whole "stigma" Brookdale has is in it's name. If we called ourselves, "Brookdale College" and dropped the "community," a lot of people coming here would feel a whole lot better.
What do you think?

Summer camps are the alternative for education and learning during the vacation time.

Whaddaya think of Brookdale's Diversity Statement? Have you ever seen it? As you can see (below), it's really a bunch of statements. Brookdale's Diversity Council would like to know whether these statements really relate to you as a student, faculty member, staffer, or visitor to the college.

-Brookdale is a learning-centered community where student experiences prepare them for work and life in a diverse society

-Brookdale is a respectful and inclusive institution, which values differences in all people, not only in thought and point of view but
also in ability, status, age, culture, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation

-Brookdale is an integral part of our communities and as such, Brookdale's administration, faculty, staff and students mirror the diversity of
Monmouth County and Central New Jersey

-Brookdale reflects the richness of the diversity of Monmouth County and Central New Jersey in its internal and external communications,
college life, curriculum and student services

-Brookdale reflects its diverse community and encourages personal growth and advancement in hiring policies, practices and professional
development for its employees

Brookdale is one of the nation's 1,200 comprehensive community colleges. One of the key aspects of our kind of college is that we offer "open door access" to anyone who wants to go to college. This is regardless of their prior academic record or even their skill level.

Even though the door is open to everyone, that doesn't guarantee success in college. Once students are admitted, they take placement tests to figure out whether they will need to take basic-skills classes in order to prepare them for more advanced college work.

Some people across the country are questioning the value of the "open door." They say that community colleges need to focus their dwindling resources only on students who have a chance to "benefit from college." They say that letting everyone in isn't fair--not to the ones who "belong" there and also not to the ones whose skill levels are so low that, for all practical purposes, they really have "no chance of ever succeeding."

What do you think?

It seems like the newspapers (well, one in particular) has been taking a whole lot of potshots at Brookdale lately.
On the other hand, those of us who believe that the media is a mirror of what the community (and perhaps even our elected officials) may feel, maybe what's being written has some value in giving the college an accurate sense of the image we're projecting.
In any case, Brookdale is getting ripped for everything from salaries and financial planning to our choices of academic programs and class sizes.
Rather than responding here by pointing out all of Brookdale's value to the community in workforce development, job training, service to the unemployed, leadership in rescuing people displaced from the Ft. Monmouth closing--not to mention success stories for the half-a-million students who have attended Brookdale over the past 40 years--let's put it out to you:

Why are we getting all the negative stories about the college in the newspapers?
What do you think we should do about it?

A guidance counselor from one of our local high schools called up and said, "All of us in the guidance department think your Web site sucks." So I said, "I'm sick as hell of people saying our Web site sucks and all I get from them back is garbage like, 'The blue doesn't work with the red.'"

So then the guidance counselor said, "No, we like the way it looks. It's just that we can't find anything."

So then I said, "I'm so sick of people calling up to complain, 'I can't find anything on the Web site' when everything anybody would ever want to know about Brookdale is all right there."

"It may be there," the guidance counselor sniffed, "but it's buried so deep into the site that it might take us a half hour to find something that we're looking for to help students who may be interested in coming to Brookdale."

"Oh yeah, Ms. Smarty Pants Guidance Counselor," I snapped back. "Like what?"

To my stunned surprise, she said exactly what: "You don't have any link from the homepage that leads directly to information about all of your degree programs, that's what."

Gulp. She was right. Homina, homina, homina.

Once we fixed that problem, I apologized profusely for being such an arrogant twit. "Oh please, Ms. Guidance Counselor, would you be so good as to point out other ways you and your colleagues would like to see the site improved?"

She shared other ideas about what information needed to be more easily accessible from the homepage. And now we ask you about any ideas you may have for connecting people more directly to much-needed Web site information.

Like a criminal on death row, NJ STARS received a last-minute reprieve from the Governor. But there are a few "tweaks," like:
• Only the top 15% of high school graduating class is eligible (instead of the top 20 %).
• Students must complete what the State Higher Education Commission calls "a rigorous series of high school courses" (but who's to say what makes classes "rigorous"?)
• Students will take a college placement test and if they don't achieve the required placement test scores, they won't be eligible unless they take basic skills classes before they're admitted (on their own time and at their own expense).

There are other little "tweaks," including a dollar limit on the amount students receive in STARS II when they transfer to a four-year college to finish their bachelor's degree. You can check that out at www.njstars.net

So what's your feelings about the change? Better to make a few "tweaks" than to eliminate the program altogether? Or are these "tweaks" really significant and unfair?

What are the benefits of online degrees through online classes over traditional classes.

Let's get this started with my holiday wish. It's that we stop wasting paper on flyers that wind up in stacks on tables and invariably all over the floor.

I work for the college's marketing department, and I can say I'm my own worst enemy in all that paper that gets produced--and wasted. In the coming year, I'm going to do everything I can to save a few trees by convincing clients that there are so many other more effective ways of communicating information (about a special event, program, whatever) than a flyer.

Try using the Web site, which a lot more people see than a flyer. Or plasma screens in the Warner Center and CAR, or the entrance signs, or "On Hold" messages for people telephoning, or the online newsletter "Inside Track."

These will all get more attention than paper flyers--and because they're electronic they're environmentally friendly.

End of rant. So what's your holiday wish?