College Students

Despite protests about rising tuition at California's public colleges, students in the state graduate with one of the lowest average loads of education debt in the nation, according to a new study. The Cal Grant financial aid program and the relatively low tuition at the California State University system helped rank California as third from the bottom in the country for the amount of debt owed by 2011 graduates from schools here, said the report by the Oakland-based Institute for College Access and Success.

When California State University announced recently that most campuses would accept applications for the 2011 spring term, Walter Michael briefly considered giving it a go. Enrolling for the spring rather than the next fall would earn the community college student a bachelor's degree sooner and allow him to jump -tart his professional life. But the Cal State announcement came with a caveat: Spring enrollment can only happen if the state budget — currently mired in disputes over how to close a $19-billion gap —restores millions of dollars in education funding for student services.

The pair of college friends can't suppress a conspiratorial giggle when they talk about the passion that's consuming them. "It's an amazing feeling," says Nawal, as her close friend and fellow schemer, Lina, listens closely in a cafe here in the Syrian capital. "It's like you've broken all the injustice and fear. " Some college students gate-crash parties. These two young women ditch classes and roam the streets of Damascus and its suburbs, searching for protests calling for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Thank you for the ever-so-informative article on the trials and tribulations of first-year college students returning home for the summer ("After a Year at College, the Shock of Homecoming" by Michelle M. Miller, June 14). The difficulties in adjusting to home life after being on their own must be traumatic. I can appreciate the tediousness of being told to pick up one's clothes. I do admit that I was not able to finish the article as my sympathies kept returning to a family's loss of its daughter in the day-care fire and the tragedy of the Chinese people.

Since graduating from college, I've switched jobs three times, moved across the continent and back again, and taken roughly six months off between jobs. I've enjoyed this great freedom to order my own life in large part because of the easy availability of consumer credit, in the form of credit cards obtained through the student marketing programs which Dennis Aigner denounces in his Orange County Voices column (July 11). I've never missed a payment nor regretted a debt I've incurred.

The results of a recent poll displayed a waning interest in politics among college students, who apparently are willing to volunteer their time in promoting public services but do not wish to become involved in government. HELEN KIM spoke with college students about the reasons for their alienation from the political realm. * LARISSA COHEN 18, UCLA I'm involved in a club called UCLA Circle K International. It is the college organization for Key Club.