School: Back to school shopping ripoffs?

_Teens in serious relationships did not differ from their abstinent counterparts in terms of their grade-point average, how attached they are to school or college expectations. They were also not more likely to have problems in school, be suspended or absent.

_Compared with virgins, teens who have casual sex had lower GPAs, cared less about school and experienced more problems in school. For example, female teens who have flings had GPAs that were 0.16 points lower than abstinent teens. Male teens who have casual sex had GPAs that were 0.30 points lower than those who do not have sex. Teens who hook up also were at greater risk of being suspended or expelled and had lower odds of expecting to go to college.

_Teens who have sex – whether it's a serious or casual relationship – were at higher risk of being truant and dropping out compared with teens who don't have sex. The researchers said the dropout results should be interpreted with caution because the numbers were small.

"Having sex outside of a romantic relationship may exacerbate the stress youths experience, contributing to problems in school," Grodsky said.

In a statement, the Family Research Council said the study confirms what the group has long advocated about the negative consequences of casual sex.

But the council said it "would not interpret less severe educational impacts on students involved in `committed' sexual relationships as a green light for comprehensive" sex education.

University of Southern California sociologist Julie Albright disagreed. She said it might be time to revamp sex education to "emphasize the importance of relationships and spell out the consequences of casual sex."

The study dispels the notion that all teen sex is bad, said Marie Harvey, professor of public health at Oregon State University.

"The type of relationship really matters. When it comes to sexual behavior, it takes two to tango," said Harvey, adding that safe sex should be practiced to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

___

Online:

American Sociological Association: http://www.asanet.org/

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Don't Trust College Rankings When Choosing a School

If you're scoping out colleges for next year, putting too much stock in college rankings may be a bad idea. Here's why.

Photo by in.com

The Consumerist blog points out that college rankings—even from popular sources like US News & World Report, Forbes, and the Princeton Review—are based on factors that have little relevance to whether or not a school is a good choice in the long run. Many factors are opinion-based and give higher rankings to colleges with more full-time faculty, which has been proven to have no relevance to the academic quality. What's also interesting is a finding that your academic rank is more useful in getting a job than the prestige of your school. Overall, experts are finding that there are really no meaningful ways to rank schools against each other so, when picking a school, you're better off basing it solely on criteria that matter to you.

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Buy what you need for the first day of school but don’t buy too much for the rest of the year. Some items, such as pencils and pens, might be useful to stock up on if there is a great sale. But since many stores overstock on items, you may actually be able to find some bargains by scanning for sales after the back to school rush is over.