College & Careers | Personal Finance |Technology |

The End of Wall Street: What Happened
Chapter One: In the first of this three-part series, Journal reporters explain how the housing bubble inflated and burst, and why easy money led to the collapse of Wall Street's biggest financial institutions. Watch it.

Chapter Two: Why It Happened. Watch it.
Chapter Three: What Happens Next. Watch it.

The Weekend That Wall Street Died
The financial crisis that led to Lehman's collapse and sent Merrill scrambling marked a shift on Wall Street. Instead of CEOs banding together, it was every man for himself. Article

Implosion of an industry
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COLLEGE & CAREERS

How I Got Into College: 6 Stories
College admissions are expected to be as competitive as ever. We've asked a range of students to share what they've learned from the application frenzy. Article

Budget Woes Force Colleges to Cut Back
As public colleges grapple with reductions in state funding, the prospect of reduced access to higher education is looking more likely. Article

Avoiding College's Plastic Hangover
The immediate gratification of using plastic to buy an iMac, tickets to a Coldplay concert and nights of bar hopping has a way of coming back to haunt college students after graduation.Read more

Academic Awards
More school districts are banking on improving student performance using cash incentives. Read more

Altruism Meets a Weak Job Market
Public-service agencies like Teach for America are seeing a surge in applications from college graduates amid a worsening job market. There's another impulse behind this generation's embrace of nontraditional postgraduate employment: a simple desire to change the world. Read more

As Textbooks Go 'Custom,' Students Pay
College students are encountering another financial hit: Publishers and schools are embracing "custom" textbooks that can limit the money-saving trade in used books. In a controversial twist, some academic departments are sharing in the profits from these texts Read more

New SAT is A) Better, B) Same, C) Longer?
The writing section added to the SAT in 2005 has done very little to improve the exam's overall ability to predict how students will do in college, according to research released by the test's owner. Read more

Can a Test Steer You to the Ideal Career?
Vendors of career tests, which assess one's interests and abilities and link them with potential occupations, see a rising demand for them. But they're only a starting point for the tough self-exploration needed to find or revitalize one's livelihood. Read more

High School's Worst Year?
The increasing competitiveness of college admissions—fueled by a demographic surge in the number of teenagers—has made junior year a crucible of academic pressure for many students aiming for elite colleges. How 11th grade became such a grind. Read more

Elite Colleges Reach Deeper Into Wait Lists
Here's a bright spot in an otherwise brutal college-admissions season: More students are being accepted from wait lists at elite schools this year because colleges found it harder to predict how many graduating seniors would join the freshman class. Read more

Medical School to Offer Free Tuition
The medical school run by the Cleveland Clinic will offer a tuition-free education, in the hope that a substantial reduction of post-graduation debt will encourage top students to enter academic medicine. Read Full Article

Teens Feel Chill in Hunt for Summer Jobs
More teens will be looking for summer jobs this year than last --but fewer will be getting them. After sinking to a new low in 2007, teen summer employment is expected to fall again, to the lowest rate in the 60-year history of government jobs data. Read more

The New Math of College Finance
In recent months, some of the wealthiest and most prestigious schools in the country have made their financial aid more generous, replacing loans with grants and capping costs at a certain percentage of family income. It's easy to be baffled about what this all means, for now and for the future. Do these offers come with hidden catches? Will you still need to borrow some money to cover tuition? Here's a guide to navigating the new world of financial aid. Read more

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PERSONAL FINANCE

Avoiding College's Plastic Hangover
The immediate gratification of using plastic to buy an iMac, tickets to a Coldplay concert and nights of bar hopping has a way of coming back to haunt college students after graduation.Read more

How Technology Can Help Trim Auto Insurance
For years, drivers paid less for auto insurance if they reported low mileage. Now, insurers are using high-tech devices to track customers' habits, and offering deep discounts to those who not only drive less, but also cautiously. Read more

Card Issuers Get Personal To Check Credit
Lenders have long relied on credit scores to decide whether to approve card applications and how much credit to extend and at what interest rate. Now, some big card issuers are digging deeper into their customers' personal lives. Read more

Young Drivers on the Radar
Insurers have traditionally tried to avoid teenage and young-adult drivers, but now many are targeting young drivers, hoping that it will help them retain their parents' business and gain future customers. Read more

Mom Called and Said, 'Slow Down!'
New tech products are easing parental concerns by allowing adults to see every minute of what their kids are up to in the car – complete with GPS systems, video cameras, and weekly reports that rate driving skills. Read more
How to Steer Teen Drivers to Safety Q&A