The growth of online education has reached unprecedented levels and has expanded from higher education to secondary schooling and now classes are even offered online at the elementary level. These online schools have come about not only from for-profit institutions, but from more reputable non-profit corporations that offer students an alternative method of learning. The New York Times recently profiled Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, who is now using the web for something different than renting movies. DreamBox learning is the start-up corporation that Mr. Hastings is now using to help teach students math through online games using a non-profit investment fund for charter schools.
While online education typically focuses on online universities, companies like DreamBox help stress the importance of education to a younger breed of students, one who is undoubtedly already internet savvy. Mr. Hastings is basing his dreams for online education on the popularity of the netbook, a piece of technology he believes will spawn an even greater demand for online education of all ages. Thus far, his company DreamBox creates personalized lesson plans that are “hidden in games and based on concepts children understand or need to work on.” We all know how important online education is for a student at such a young age, and mixing games with education is the best way most teachers have found to create a stable foundation for many different subjects. Hastings’ future educational programs are no different.
Hastings has been a diligent observer of the importance of education since before his success with the online video industry, teaching math to high school students in Swalizand through the Peace Corps and contributing to charter school funds before making his fortune. It is truly people like Mr. Hastings who have made online education for younger students the structured organization it is today. While online colleges remain a wary subject within the education field, many high school students and teachers have recognized the importance programs like DreamBox play in their students’ lives.
The ability to teach complex subjects like math and science through the internet is only the beginning of the projected growth in online schools around the country. Students are already beginning to excel in AP tests like never before due to online training and classes that focus on specific subjects that may not be offered in their home school. Recognizing the importance that companies such as DreamBox play in many students’ lives is the first step toward accepting online education in a younger generation
Part of the fun of living at college is being surrounded by friends at all times, or at least your contemporaries. Meeting up for coffee often means bumping into friends on your way to the library, and movie nights translate into walking from one dorm room to the next. But no matter how social you are, sometimes you just need some alone time to relax, de-stress, mull over a problem, or even just mope. Whether you want to be left in solitude so that you can write a paper or burst into tears without anyone asking what’s wrong, it can be a challenge to find a truly isolated spot on a campus that’s bustling with young people.
The library at first seems like an obvious place to find peace and quiet, but in college, the library can quickly turn into one of the most social spots on campus. Even if you venture past the cafe and computer center, you’ll bump into friends, professors and dorm-mates as they search for books or set up camp in every little corner of the library to study or nap. A couple of places in the college library that are often dead — or at least less crowded — are around special collections, the children’s section, and the bottom floors that contain old archives and multimedia. If multimedia rooms are crowded, students are often wearing headphones or watching movies for class, and aren’t worried about what you’re doing. Also inquire in the library about "renting" out a private, sound-proof room. Depending on the demand at your university, you may have to use those rooms for group projects, but it’s worth asking.
If you just want some time to yourself in your own room, find out when your roommate is going to be in class or at a meeting. If it’s at a time you’re normally meeting with a study group or having lunch, take advantage of this time to hide away in your room quietly, without interruptions. Having an hour or two alone to think can do tremendous things for your perspective and focus.
There are few people out there who couldn’t use a little more confidence and self-esteem, especially in college when there’s loads of competition for grades, internships and ultimately, the best jobs as well as pressure to date, be cool and fit in. With all that going on, it can be tough to have the self-esteem you want and need to feel really good about who you are and where you’re going in life. Luckily, while college is full of obstacles, it’s also the perfect place to work on building your self-esteem so you’ll emerge into the working world a confident, secure individual.
The first step to having good self-esteem? Stop comparing yourself to others. There will always be someone better looking, smarter, more outgoing or just better in some way, shape or form. Constantly feeling inadequate in life will get you nowhere and will only make you feel bad about yourself unnecessarily. Instead, celebrate your uniqueness and learn to be happy with your own best assets. It’s likely that there are at least a few people out there who look at you with envy as well.
If you want to feel confident in yourself one way to do so is to always put your best foot forward. Whether this means always dressing well or spending extra time on assignments to make sure you’ve worked out all the kinks and can be really proud of them. After all, when you know you look good or you know you’ve done a great job, you feel like a million bucks. Taking the time to feel like this will over time start to build your self-esteem and make you more confident that you really can accomplish what you set out to do.
Finally, always remember to keep track of your successes. It’s very easy to look back on things and only remember the failures we’ve had. If you get an A on a paper, hang it up. Be proud of what you’ve achieved and keep those things front in your mind instead of any missteps you might have made along the way. Your value isn’t in what you can’t do, but in what you can, so focus on those things that you do well and use them to build yourself up.
Self-esteem isn’t something that’s easy to acquire if you’re low on it, but with time and effort, students can learn to trust in themselves and become confident professionals when they emerge from college.
College invites so many awesome opportunities, how in the world are you supposed to pack for them all? From theme parties to networking events to department dinners to dates to comfy class clothes, just trying to fit your wardrobe into the family SUV is going to be difficult. Add on top of that your bedding, workout or sports equipment, and everything you need to decorate your dorm, and you’ll be lucky if both parents can fit in to drop you off. And beside gipping your mom of a goodbye hug, you don’t want to look a massive tool pulling up to the dorm with twice as much stuff as everyone else, but you also don’t want to be the only kid who didn’t bring speakers, do you?
Here’s a tip: you don’t need speakers in a dorm room. And you don’t need to bring everything at once, either. If you’re starting to stress about what to pack for college, take a deep breath and shoot your future roommate an e-mail. Your school probably already sent you his or her contact information, and it wasn’t just so you could say "hi." Ask them what kinds of stuff they’re planning on bringing, and share what you have, too, so that you don’t end up with doubles. Mini fridges, radios, TVs, drying racks and full-length mirrors all take up a lot of space, and you don’t need duplicates.
Depending on where you live and where you go to school, you probably don’t have to pack your entire wardrobe either. If you can make it home during Thanksgiving and the weather in your school’s city won’t have gotten too cold yet, don’t worry about packing all of your sweaters and coats in August. You can bring home your summer and early fall clothes during the holidays, and then return home for them during Spring Break or Easter break.
If you still need to weed out a few of the items you were planning on taking, honestly look at your list and cross off any things that you haven’t actually used in the last few months. Are you convinced that you’re going to take up tennis in college but haven’t played since 8th grade? Do you plan on meeting girls by playing your guitar, which you haven’t picked up in years? Be realistic about your extracurriculars and the supplies you think you need. Also find out what the campus loans out, or just consider buying used items once you move, and if you decide you really need them.
You probably thought it was a lot of work and stress applying to college, didn’t you? But you weren’t the only one scrambling around to attend interviews, finish your application or find the cash for processing fees. There’s a whole group of toddlers and nursery schoolers getting initiated into the rat race, too, as they — and their parents — try to get accepted into the nation’s most elite kindergartens. Find out just how competitive it is.
- It’s your key into the world of private school: If you can get into the right high school, you have a much better chance of getting into the right Ivy League school, many parents believe, and you can’t get into the right high school if you didn’t go to the right elementary school. A New York Magazine article points to some convincing statistics: Hunter College Elementary School students who make it in as kindergartners (it’s extremely competitive) and last through 3rd grade gain automatic acceptance into the high school. "Since 2002," the article explains, "at least 25 percent of Hunter’s graduating classes have been admitted to Ivy League schools," which is why parents are so obsessed with securing their kids’ future early on.
- Admissions consultants make a killing: Amanda Uhry, an admissions consultant in New York City referenced for a story on Bloomberg.com, charged families $15,000 in 2008 to help their kids get into kindergarten.
- Nursery schools matter: Some admissions officers actually go to the trouble to visit the preschools of the children who are applying to the kindergarten to watch them in action. Others seem to require that their applicants attended the "right" nursery school and ask parents to submit that information with other paperwork.
- There’s a standardized test: New York Magazine recently published a story about the city’s exclusive kindergartens, explaining that many of the elite private schools require prospectives to take the ERB intelligence test to get in — even at the kindergarten level. Four-year olds study for months, and some parents even pay for assessment sessions just to find out if their child needs a tutor to prepare for the test. Many New York City-area elementary schools won’t even consider children who score below the top three percent.
- Applications at some schools are barely looked at unless they’re submitted within the first couple of days: Forget the race to the top: you’ve got to be first, too. In New York City, some of the top kindergartens won’t even look at applications if they aren’t filled out and turned back in just days after they’re made available.
- Application strategy starts at birth…or before: Parents who are truly serious — or crazy — start competing when their children are really still just infants, researching schools, saving for the high costs, and strategizing for the eventual application process.
- Student candidates audition in play groups: TIME explains the application process at an elite San Francisco kindergarten, which is typical of many other prominent schools. After a parent-headmaster meeting, tour of the school, and a private meeting with the student, the prospective kindergartner has to be watched as he or she participates in an audition-like playgroup. What are they watched for? "Somebody who is compatible with our philosophy of education," according the San Francisco school’s assistant headmaster.
- It’s not just American schools: This summer, parents in China camped out for days so that their little ones would have a chance to attend the Changping District Industry Kindergarten, a state-run school. Parents prepare their nursery school-aged children for months so that they can ace the interviews for the state-run schools, which charge tuition, and research donations, although the parents have to sign a piece of paper saying that the donation was voluntary.
- Legacies have already started: Most families don’t encounter legacies until magnet high school, college or even fraternities and sororities once their kids get into college. But some New York City kindergartens leave spots open for "legacy kids," or kids whose older siblings or even other relatives graduated from the kindergarten.
- "It usually all works out": A TLC documentary entitled "Getting In … Kindergarten" tracked the insane process of competing against hundreds or 1,000-plus kids for fewerthan 100 spots. Surprisingly, all the families in the show found that whether or not they got in, they were happy. In fact, families who were rejected eventually realized the schools they thought they wanted to get into weren’t a good fit anyway. In the end, a former headmaster for such a school pointed out "it usually all works out."
Online colleges and for-profit institutions in general typically have a cyclical life cycle: they are on the top one moment and on the bottom the next. While online education has been “on the top” for the past few years, we can’t help but wonder whether their erratic spending is going to catch up with them once students stop enrolling at the pace they currently are. Advertisements alone make up the bulk of for-profit universities’ spending and at the rate that many students are defaulting on their government-issued loans, it does not seem like it will be too long before online colleges are no longer at the top, unless drastic changes are made.
We are now accustomed to the constant barrage of ads for online universities through commercials, billboards, radio ads, even on the sides of buses. However, is this too much too soon for a relatively new “invention”? Did we jump our guns with the notion of online education so fast that we didn’t consider the consequences? The founders and owners of most online colleges do not seem to think so and continue to spend on advertisements, content with the constant influx of money that seems to pour in as a result of both the ads and the tireless efforts of recruiting agents. Most online colleges have recruitment offices in major cities, much like a military unit. Additionally, online colleges do not have to worry about losing funding or the importance of tuition rates – their salaries are pretty much paid for through government grants, and the loans that the federal government give to registered students.
This presents a scary balance between the federal government and for-profit institutions, a balances which we are hesitant to tip in either favor. Top online colleges have reached the summit they are now at because of government funds as well as a wide array of advertisements, each which feature happy students earning degrees from home. Never before have we had such a mass onslaught of advertisements for an educational program; however, this barrage of ads has been proven to work, as more and more students every day call in with questions about the specific online college. How else did you think the top online colleges remained in business?
However, the ads have become discouraging over the years, as news reports have leaked that recruiting agents get paid according to the number of students they rope into attending the program. New government policies will curtail this practice, but it is unclear whether it will hurt the online education industry. Additionally, new regulations will also curtail the student population of schools with a high rate of defaulting student loans, in an attempt to clean-up the online education industry. It seems that despite all odds, online colleges will remain on top in the years to come, especially with the government cleaning up their messy leftovers.
We have morphed into a world that is incredibly reliant on the internet, social media, and email. Many of us have no idea what we would do should the internet suddenly collapse (a theory that is not too far-fetched, considering the levels of terrorism some groups have resorted to). It is almost scary that we have reached this level of reliance on technology, especially considering that only a few decades ago, we had little reliance on any type of electronic device other than machines like the refrigerator. However, times have changed, and we have now grown reliant on the internet, a fact made all the more obvious through online education. Now we have a new alternative from which to pick in attending school, and many students have wished to opt out of traditional classes in lieu of classes that you can “wear your pj’s to” and sit at home with. However, it is important to guarantee that the online college you have picked out is accredited and is not a diploma mill institution.
Online colleges initially received a bad reputation because of the way many newer online colleges marketed themselves. They guaranteed instant diplomas, with minimal work effort, at a low cost of around $300. Since this sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and these types of schools have been found to trick students out of their money to earn a phony diploma. The government began to take notice of this scam pretty early on in the online education revolution, leading to a mass panic within man online colleges and the students who attended the schools. However, simply researching farther into each online college will prevent any unfortunate results from happening.
Most online colleges are nationally accredited and do not promise instant degrees, but instead offer degrees only after years of hard work, similar to a traditional school. Anything that sounds too easy to warrant a degree is usually related to the diploma-mill type of school. While not every online college boasts this easy degree process, it is easy to get wrapped up into this charade if you are not careful. Most online college stories are stories of success and degrees that would never have been earned without the help of the internet. However, take these stories with a grain of salt when researching online colleges and be aware that even reputable schools sometimes promise things they can’t deliver – like a job in a recession. This is not meant to scare you away from the idea of attending college online, it is only to make you aware of any potential side-effects that could come your way as a result of our reliance on the internet and everything in it!
While you’re in school, you may have an opportunity to work part time or even full time. Your studies should remain your main focus, but if you have the chance to earn some money and gain experience while you’re in school, it’s a good idea. Check out these great jobs that college students can do.
Administrative assistant. Most college students already have many of the skills necessary to do well as an administrative assistant. Organization and the ability to use a computer are generally at the top of the list. You can find a part time job in an office that pays well for a college job, and may even help you get your foot in the door to an employer or industry if you work in the right office.
On-campus jobs. Whether it’s independent or through work-study, on-campus jobs offer a great opportunity for college students. Whether it’s in the computer, library, or accounting office, a part time job on campus may be the answer for you. These jobs are often convenient and may even offer you time to work on your studies during downtime on the job.
Computer support. If you already know your way around computers and can help others get through most of their problems, you may want to look into working as a computer support specialist. These positions generally pay well and offer flexible hours.
Bank teller. Many bank tellers work time, and most banks don’t require a college degree to work as a teller. Accounting and finance majors can benefit from these jobs especially, as they offer a way to build mathematical and financial skills while working. Additionally, many banks offer tuition assistance for employees, so you may be able to get a break on your college bill through work.
Security. On or off campus, security jobs are a great idea for many college students. Whether it’s the night shift or a day job, security offers good pay for relatively little effort. While monitoring screens and visitors, you will probably have the chance to do a good chunk of your homework.
Although part time jobs are a great way to earn a little money while you’re in school, it’s important to not let your work get in the way of your studies. Generally, 20 hours is a good limit for your part time job, unless many of those hours can be devoted to studying. Find your perfect part time college job today.
Many incoming college students arrive at school already in a relationship with someone from home. When couples decide to stay together when they go to separate colleges, they must juggle their new lives away at school with the ones they left behind back home. This can be a difficult proposition. However, if you are in a relationship that is too good to let go, then you need to work a little harder at maintaining everything you two have worked for.
Keeping the lines of communication open is the most important aspect of the long distance relationship. Luckily, this has never been easier. In the old days, you would have to wait for the one phone in the dorm to become free to call someone. Now, students have cell phones and email to stay in touch with loved ones. Make a plan to talk to each other at a certain time the next day that fits both of your schedules. This sense of continuity will make both of you feel normal. Fortunately, if something comes up, you can always text one another to reschedule your chat.
It is human nature for one or both of you to feel jealous at times. You are both in new situations without each other. If you agree to stay faithful to each other, then you need to share things about your social lives to keep the other person feeling secure. If someone hits on you at a party, tell your partner. If you two are open about what is happening at your schools, then the trust level will only increase.
Make plans to visit each other at your schools. Do not wait until you have a shared semester break. It is important that you travel to see your boyfriend or girlfriend. Make a long weekend stay out of it. This way you can many of his or her new friends and see what they do for fun. Admittedly, this may be a way to see what kind of competition you are facing at his or her new school. And that is okay. Just be sure that you do not make a spectacle of yourself trying to claim your turf. This just is not cool.
Above all else, like with any relationship, trust is essential to the existence of the long distance relationship. You are going to have let go a little bit to allow your partner a chance to grow academically and socially at his or her new school. Do not stifle each other. If you two are meant to be together, then you will find out rather soon in your first semester apart.
Once college students have a few years under their belts, they can start thinking about living off campus as opposed to living in the residence halls. Many colleges are making a push to have their students stay on campus all four years, but some simply don’t have enough housing available to make this possible. If you are looking to move off campus, there are some points you want to keep in mind before signing a lease.
The most important aspect to making this move is finding the right people with whom to live. The sense of security that many students feel living in the dorms is lifted a little when you move to an apartment. You are not answering to your college, nor do you have the services that are available on campus. For this reason, you want to make sure that you are moving in with responsible friends. You will have to pay your own bills (heat, electricity, cable, etc.) so you want to be sure that you can rely on your roommates to make their payments. Also, you are signing a lease, which means you are responsible for the upkeep of the apartment. You want to avoid living with people that are going to trash the place.
One of the biggest advantages to living on campus is that you can roll out of bed and walk to class. If you are moving off campus, you want to consider what your commute will be like back to campus. You don’t want to live too far away even if you have your own car. Try to find an apartment that is near public transportation or that is even close enough to campus that you could walk there. It’s the first rule of real estate: location, location, location.
Lastly, you need to consider cost. You may wind up saving money by living off campus, but that doesn’t mean you want to move somewhere that is too limited in terms of amenities. Many landlords holding property near a college tend to let their units become rundown. You want to find a place that fits your budget and will also be a comfortable to place to sleep, study, and entertain. Ask your college for a list of reputable landlords in the area so you can find a safe place to live off campus.
