Today I get a call from a local parent concerned about financial aid for their daughter. The parent is pretty frustrated because they feel their daughter is not getting the quality service from the financial aid department that she deserves. It bothered me to hear the parent Read the rest of this entry →
The student loan industry has been viewed with much skepticism over the past few years due to the fact that the percentage of loans over grants and scholarships has increased drastically. This is bad news by itself because many students will not graduate and find a job that enables them to pay off the loans, leaving them to either default or reduce their standard of living. Some schools default rates are so high that federal loans are being removed from the financial aid package entirely.
Until today I thought that default rates and ability to pay the loans back were the only issues. Read the rest of this entry →
If you’ve decided to resume school after time off, than there’s no reason to be afraid of the admission process. If you’re a transfer student, a mom, a worker bee, a veteran…it doesn’t matter, the school application process is not as demanding as you would think and can be done with ease.
When I began applying for graduate schools, I had the admission process down to a science. Well, maybe, not a science because I was never good at science…so more of down to an easy process. I had already gotten my undergrad U to send out my transcripts before, so I was familiar with the process (a simple online request form). And my personal essay only took me an hour or so as I had decided I write more of a creative piece (part poem/part dream/goal essay). And then, there was the recommendations. I had a former employer who agreed to help me out. A friend of the family and a mentor from my school days.
Whether you’re going back to school for a better job, going on to college from high school or just taking some classes as self-enrichment…starting at a new school can be SCARY. There’s a new campus. New peers. New professors. The best way to manage all the upheaval is to be prepared. Going back to school after summer vacation, a long-term hiatus or whatever the situation, it’s still intimidating.
People may hand-out loads of advice about what to do to get into school, financial aid, scholarships, classes to take, etc. But what happens when the admission parade dies down? And you actually have to…drum-roll…ATTEND?
There are many ways to make sure your college career is long-lived. The keys: Read the rest of this entry →
Trying to get admitted to school can cause your nerves to fry. The process can be a bit tortuous. There are recommendation letters to collect, personal essays to write not to mention assembling a resume and getting transcripts. The process can be tense but it doesn’t have to be. For those in need of some “admission therapy” there are some tips and tricks that will make the process much less painful.
Picking the right college can be challenging enough, let alone having to pick a future career path AKA a major. There are a plethora of options. Go into business? Film studies? English? Psychology? Or something else? Then, there’s the issue of practicality. Can you study renaissance history and really parlay it into a future career?
When I decided it was time to start submitting college applications I was a bit overwhelmed; which university, what location, and of course, what major. For me, the process of picking a major came down to my interests, my school’s offerings and the coursework I knew I could actually complete.
Deciding which college meets the wants, needs and demands of you and your parents and your future career aspirations can be a daunting task, to say the least. Everyone wants a school with a strong academic reputation but what about a good social scene, scholarship opportunities, and even the alumni of a school? There are many questions to ask yourself before saying “I do” to any U.
There are thousands of scholarships offering money for college to people in virtually any circumstance. If you’re a “nontraditional” student interested in a school in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah or Wyoming, the Daniels Fund Opportunity Scholarship is just one possibility. Read the rest of this entry →
If you have children, especially small children, you probably find it hard to find time to go to a movie or get your hair cut, never mind studying or writing papers. So how do working parents manage it?
If you’re balancing school, work and family, you need to move beyond getting organized—you need to maximize your productivity. This is the new watchword for the 21st century, as we try to get more and more done with less and less time. The productivity approach is perfect for the student parent. Read the rest of this entry →
I had a great time in college and I don’t have too many regrets. But if I could go back in time and do a few things differently with my undergraduate degree, there’s one that stands out in my mind: I’d diversify.
I was a classic liberal arts major-I put off my science and math requirements until the last possible second, so I didn’t take a geology course until I was a senior. If I’d known how cool geology was, I probably would have majored in it. But I let preconceptions about what I thought I was going to like (and what I thought I was good at) get in the way. Read the rest of this entry →
Forbes recently estimated the financial aid industry to be a $129 billion business. When there’s that much at stake, you can count on some high-pressure schemes designed to skim some of that for themselves, at your expense.
Here are some guidelines to keep from getting burned on college financial aid. You can beat the scam artists by following a few simple principles. Read the rest of this entry →
Being a stay-at-home mom (or dad) is one of the most rewarding jobs there is. Many parents report that it’s one of the most rewarding times of their lives.
They’ll also tell you that it’s incredibly isolating and exhausting. It also takes a serious bite out of your lifetime earnings even after you go back to work, by taking you out of the latest innovations. Read the rest of this entry →
When you think about going back to school, do you feel a little twinge that you might not measure up against the more traditional, fresh-out-of-high-school 18-year-olds?
Sure, it’s been a little longer since you took calculus or English lit, but you can put those insecurities to rest. As a nontraditional student, you have a lot of significant advantages over younger students. Read the rest of this entry →
Financial aid can be one of the most intimidating hurdles for any student. As a re-entry student, you might not have the help of that high school counselor, but there are a lot of other resources you can take advantage of. Read the rest of this entry →
If you, like most students, have been bombarded with spam and direct mail from colleges, you might be wondering how they got your name. Well, unfortunately there are several ways, many of which cannot be avoided, but one of the major sources of spam is college search websites. Read the rest of this entry →
So, you want to go back to school? Many nontraditional students are faced with an application process that doesn’t really fit their needs. Traditional schools compare applicants based on their GPA, SAT scores and extracurricular activities, but how do they compare the students that have spent the last ten years working and raising a family? Read the rest of this entry →
If I could go back in time, the first thing I would change is my college major. During my time in school I changed my major five times. In my struggle to ”find myself”, I bounced around from graphic design, fine arts, international affairs and german, until, much to my parent’s relief, I eventually graduated with a very practical, applicable marketing degree. But there is only one problem. I don’t really like marketing.
