Author: rormsby

I just spoke by telephone to a Baruch alumni who was confused about the guest logins.  She had been told that they lasted  only two days and wondered why.  Perhaps our explanations should always include that they can receive another new guest logins after the two days.

Rita

The SEC and FINRA have issued a warning to consumers about investing in bankrupt companies.  The warning explains the situation at General Motors specifically.

Here’s the link to the warning: http://www.finra.org/Investors/ProtectYourself/InvestorAlerts/TradingSecurities/P119359

Rita

Last Thursday night, for a SLA-NY meeting that was held in room 135, Milwood Hughes made some adjustments to the settings for the projector in the room. There were no problems during the meeting which lasted 2.30 hours. (Milwood had been contacted about bringing a mike for the speaker and we set up at 5 p.m.)

Rita

Yesterday Chris blogged about his problem with the projector in Room 135.

Although I had no trouble getting the projector in room 135 to come on, during my presentation it quit working. I assumed that the bulb had burnt out. However, when I was closing up the computer, about an hour later, the projector came back on (I hadn’t touched anything.) I submitted a help desk request to have it looked at.

Rita

Among the new research reports from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is:

“How Do College Students Form Expectations?” by Basit Zafar
Because students rely on their subjective expectations when choosing a college major, understanding this process of expectations formation is crucial for education policy recommendations. This paper focuses on how college students form expectations about various major-specific outcomes. The author collects a unique panel data set of Northwestern University undergraduates that contains their subjective expectations about major-specific outcomes. Although students tend to be overconfident about their future academic performance, Zafar finds that they revise their expectations about various major-specific outcomes in systematic ways. For example, students who receive extremely positive information about their ability revise upward their prediction for short-term grade-point average (GPA). Similarly, those who receive very negative information revise downward their beliefs about GPA. Furthermore, students seem to update their probabilistic beliefs in a manner consistent with Bayesian analysis: Prior beliefs about outcomes to be realized in college tend to be fairly precise, while new information influences prior beliefs about outcomes in the workplace. Moreover, students who are more uncertain about major-specific outcomes in the initial survey make greater absolute revisions in their beliefs in the follow-up survey. Finally, the author presents evidence that learning plays a role in the decision to switch majors. Negative revisions to beliefs about graduating in four years, enjoying coursework, and earning an expected salary are associated with dropping a major.
Read the full report:
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr378.html

Rita

I have placed a book, The New Centralization, in the hold area at the reference desk for Prof. Tom Halper. He will be in to pick it up sometime this week. It needs to be checked out. He sent an email about the book earlier today.

Rita

I have alerted systems that students are having trouble printing this morning. All students who reported problems have previously been Baruch students and are students for this summer school session.