Colleges Enrollment

More than half the high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District are doing worse than similar schools across the state at preparing their students for college, but others--including four of the district's six magnet high schools--are performing far above their counterparts in other cities.

Northrop University, an engineering and business school near Los Angeles International Airport, should lose its accreditation because of ethical violations in recruiting foreign students, awarding credits and bookkeeping practices involving millions of dollars, the agency that monitors California colleges announced Monday. As a result of the controversy, the school's president resigned two weeks ago. The rare action by the Western Assn.

A midday stroll through the nation's most prominent public university is a good way to glimpse a campus cultural revolution in the making. At UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza, a premed student in a porkpie hat mans a recruiting table for the Cal snowboarding team. Opposite him, an earnest pair denounce premarital sex to anyone who'll listen. Sorority sisters and fraternity brothers hand out fliers for a dance.

A new study strongly criticizes $2-billion worth of expansion proposals from California's two university systems, saying that only two of as many as nine new campuses being sought seem necessary. The report, however, does support possible construction of as many as 22 additional two-year community colleges.

Aspiring MBA students can kiss goodbye the idea of mailing the traditional paper application to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. This graduate school, on a campus known as a "techie paradise," has become the first in the nation to accept applications only by e-mail.

It's becoming more common in the business world that established scientists, engineers and other working professionals return to college to further their careers through management training. And the number of Ventura County workers in that group was large enough to warrant the establishment of a satellite campus of Pepperdine University's School of Business and Management in Thousand Oaks. Otis W.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. students who graduated from high school last year attended college in the fall--but the percentage was down from the record-breaking 1997 class, the Labor Department reported last week. Of the 2.8 million students who graduated from high school in 1998, about 1.8 million, or 65.6%, were attending college in October. In 1997, a record 67% of graduates went on to college. The enrollment rate of young women, 69.1%, continued to exceed that of young men, 62.4%.

California State University campuses have received 59,826 applications over the Internet this fall, a fourfold increase over online applications from the year before. The University of California, meanwhile, received 18,921 applications online by Nov. 30, a 77% increase from the year before. So many students decided to submit applications to UC campuses online (http://www.ucop.edu/pathways) that UC officials had to extend the traditional Nov.

Enrollment at Cal State Fullerton climbed to its highest level ever this year: 27,167 students, an increase of 5.8% over 1998. In addition, CSUF's gain of 1,492 students was the largest among California State University's 22 campuses. Nearby Cal State Long Beach had the next largest gain, 1,374. Nineteen of the state universities showed increases in enrollments.

Millions of young Latinos are qualified for college but never attend, often becoming stuck in dead-end, low-paying jobs, according to a study released last week. The study by the Educational Testing Service, the firm that produces the SAT, said 22% of Latinos ages 18 to 24 attend college, compared with 32% of the general population of that age group. Closing that gap would produce 430,000 more Latino college students and more than 100,000 more Latino college graduates, the study said.