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Students often take summer classes to get ahead in their degree. While these extra hours help with scheduling, many students struggle with the cost.

At Baylor a three-hour class costs $3,054 during the summer—that’s $1,017 less than a three-hour class during fall or spring.

According to USA Today, more than half of all national college graduates unemployed when they throw their caps and Baylor seeks to maintain a track record better than the competition.

This is being done through career placement services, networking events and maintaining a high quality of education.

Students attend college to learn, however in almost half of the country’s colleges, they are kept in the dark instead.

Since most colleges elect to keep student debt information private, there is no set national requirement. However, the national average student-load debt is increasing. In many cases, this leaves third-party watchdogs such as The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) to fill the gap. Colleges provide a common data set that these organizations use to gather their statistics.

While it’s undeniable that the amount of college loans is soaring, the government isn’t hurting from it. In fact, the government makes money on college loans, according to the 2011 Federal Education Budget Project report.

“The federal government disbursed $112 billion in student loans in 2012. Most of that will be paid back with interest. The interest rates and fees are set high enough that the government makes money,” Federal Education Budget Project Director Jason Delisle said in a New York Times article published Feb. 27, “Putting a Number on Federal Education Spending.”

Each year, 12 million Americans, or 60 percent of college students, borrow money to cover college-related expenses, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Yet many students remain uninformed of the differences between basic loan types and the effect of each on their financial future.

Twelve flag-draped caskets stood next to twelve smiling portraits of the first responders who died in last week’s explosion in West.

In front of each stood a uniformed figure. Some old and some young, some with the decorations of rank and office and some unadorned. Periodically a column of similar figures would march in front and raise a hand slowly in a salute. With a quick step to the side, the first responders change places and continue their vigil — a vigil they held from early Thursday morning until the service concluded Thursday evening.

George W. Bush shed a sentimental tear. Barack Obama mused about the burdens of the office. Bill Clinton dished out wisecracks. Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush chimed in, too, on a rare day of harmony at the dedication of the younger Bush’s presidential library that glossed over the hard edges and partisan divides of five presidencies spanning more than three tumultuous decades.

The fishing trip off the rugged north coast of St. Lucia was supposed to last all day, but about four hours into the journey, the boat’s electric system crackled and popped.

Dan Suski, a 30-year-old business owner and information technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, a 39-year-old architect from Seattle. It was around noon April 21.

An original copy of “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” printed by Benjamin Franklin himself, has been purchased by the Baylor Central Libraries.

The 1761 edition of the iconic colonial publication was purchased this week from an Austrian rare book and antiquities seller for $6,500.

Baylor’s chapter of Delta Epsilon Psi will host its first-ever Project Come Together for Waco elementary students.

Project Come Together, which was created 14 years ago by a Delta Epsilon Psi chapter in Austin, celebrates the accomplishments of elementary students completing their standardized tests for the year.

Medical and recreational marijuana may be legal in Colorado, but employers in the state can lawfully fire workers who test positive for the drug, even if it was used off duty, according to a court ruling Thursday.

The Colorado Court of Appeals found there is no employment protection for medical marijuana users in the state since the drug remains barred by the federal government.

The Baylor men’s choir will host the White Sock Benefit Concert at 7:30 p.m. today in Jones Concert Hall to…

“Danny from North Korea” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. today in the Bill Daniel Student Center Den to help…

The White House has announced several changes to today’s memorial service that will honor the 10 firefighters killed April 17 in the West fertilizer explosion.

Doors will now open at 11 a.m. and close at 1:45 p.m. or whenever the Ferrell Center reaches capacity, which is 10,284 people. In a statement released Wednesday night, the university said it expects more than 4,000 uniformed first responders to attend and are planning for a capacity crowd.

Delta Delta Delta hosted a race of 1,440 ducks — rubber ducks, that is — who swam to the finish line Wednesday at the Baylor Marina to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Sorority members sold $5 tickets for a rubber duck so that on the day of the race ticket-holders could match their ticket to the winning ducks.

Applications for a teaching in Thailand program will be available to May graduates until this Saturday, less than a month before they are selected to leave for Bangkok.

The Chitralada Palace School teaching program will allow Baylor graduates the opportunity to teach English as a second language to Thai children from May 20, 2013 to March 31, 2014.

After 35 years of paper evaluations, students can grade their professors and classes online from home.

Course evaluations began Monday and will end May 8. Students can access their online evaluations through Blackboard and will be directed to a third-party vendor that compiles the data.
For security reasons, these evaluations will not be available for professors or department chairs to see until after final grades are posted, and there will be no identifying features on how students rate their professors in the evaluation, unless they identify themselves in the open comment sections.

The investigation into poisoned letters mailed to President Barack Obama and others has shifted from an Elvis impersonator to his longtime foe, and authorities must now figure out if an online feud between the two men might have escalated into something more sinister.

Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, was released from a north Mississippi jail on Tuesday and charges against him were dropped, nearly a week after authorities charged him with sending ricin-laced letters to the president, Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and an 80-year-old Lee County, Miss., Justice Court judge, Sadie Holland.

Rhode Island is on a path to becoming the 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry after a landmark vote in the state’s Senate on Wednesday.

The Senate passed gay marriage legislation by a comfortable 26-12 margin, following a House vote of approval in January.

The nation’s five surviving presidents will gather Thursday for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, a much-anticipated event expected to draw around 10,000 people to Southern Methodist University amid tight security from local and federal law enforcement.

An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh’s capital on Wednesday, killing at least 87 people and trapping many more under a jumbled mess of concrete. Rescuers tried to cut through the debris with earthmovers, drilling machines and their bare hands.

Learn about what it means to have a credit card, what credit scores are, and identity theft at 6 p.m.…

Students, faculty and staff are invited to the Truett Seminary Chapel at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to gather and worship as…

Ripe produce, freshly made food and eco-friendly organizations. The Waco Downtown Farmers Market is coming to campus.

The farmers market will bring some of its vendors to campus from 3 to 6 p.m. today. The vendors will be in Traditions Plaza between the Bill Daniel Student Center and Carroll Science Hall. Environmentally-conscious organizations from both Baylor and the Waco community will also have booths on campus at this time.

Several West residents are continuing the search for missing loved ones after last week’s deadly explosion, and for some people those loved ones included four-legged friends.

Following the explosion on April 17 almost 90 animals, mainly dogs and cats, were brought to the Humane Society of Central Texas, according to executive director Don Bland. Chickens, lizards and rabbits were also among those rescued. At the time of publication half of the lost animals have been reclaimed.

Since September 2010, the President’s Scholarship Initiative has accumulated more than $100 million toward student scholarships, surpassing a goal set for the end of this year.

At Tuesday’s Dr Pepper Hour in the Bill Daniel Student Center, President Ken Starr announced that his goal of raising $100 million toward scholarships by December 31, 2013, had not only been met sooner than expected, but had been surpassed.

There are photos of the suspect at the bomb scene, video footage of him dropping a knapsack at the site of one of the blasts, and perhaps most incriminating could be the written words of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev himself during questioning in a Boston hospital. A case with evidence like this may be the toughest challenge a lawyer can face: defending someone accused of an act of terror so horrific a nation cries out for swift, severe punishment.

More rain on Tuesday was the last thing flood fighters across the Midwest wanted to see, adding more water to swollen rivers that are now expected to remain high into next month.

Floodwaters were rising to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois. In Missouri, six small levees north of St. Louis were overtopped by the surging Mississippi River, though mostly farmland was affected.

Farmers Branch junior Lexington Holt won the run-off election for external vice president Tuesday night.

Results were announced at 6:30 p.m. outside of Waco Hall. Voting was open to students on Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Texas House cast a shocking vote on Tuesday to potentially dismantle the state lottery — only to reverse itself after a few frantic hours.

House Bill 2197 began as a seemingly routine proposal to continue the operations of the Texas Lottery Commission until September 2025.