International University (IU) students are now eligible for PLATO low-interest loans. 1-800-777-6463. [Educom Update, 01Mar98.]

Computer animators are finding a good job market, with many students of art institutes hired before they graduate. Entry-level salaries are $30K-$50K, but the exceptionally talented may start at twice that. If artists need no longer starve, perhaps parents can start nourishing their children's artistic talents instead of pushing them toward medicine and law. [UPI, 18Jan98. Bill Park.]

Newsweek recently profiled the DigiPen Inst. of Technology (Redmond, WA), the first four-year college of video game design. (It grew from a Vancouver degree program started five years ago by Claude Comair.) DigiPen has 40 students, selected from 400 applicants. Tuition is $12K/year, with no federal student loans. There's no campus life, classes are 9am to 4pm, and students get only one day a week off. [Jennifer Tanaka, Newsweek, 02Mar98, p. 88.] (Sounds like fun.)

Post-doctoral fellowships are appointments of 1-2 years, possibly extended. Laboratory and management skills are typically required, plus (usually) theoretical capability. Postdocs are considered to be in training for faculty positions and collaborative research. Graduates in some areas are now having to take up to three post-doctoral positions before getting a permanent academic position. Note, however, that only 14% of US R&D scientists work in academia (and another 6% at federal agencies). Computer scientists can easily find work if they have solid academic credentials, strong communication and interpersonal skills, and a demonstrated ability to perform. [Cheryl Shavers, "Women in Technology," SJM, 01Feb98, 3E.]

Columnist Murry Frymer says we're doing higher education all wrong. Students can't get interested in history and other subjects that won't make a buck, and faculty don't like coming in to work and teaching classes. "You can't get 20K fans to fill an arena to listen to two graduate students compete." We should have sports universities, with games every day building to annual grand national championships. Professors would then be free to do private research, sell their books, live in the country, wear tweed jackets with leather patches, and travel on grants and fellowships. Everyone would be happy. [SJM, 10Mar98, 1E.]