How Much Do College Students Value Academics?

While there may be a variety of things students look forward to about going to college, the most important part of this experience should be getting a quality education.  However, the following infographic shows that some students may be focusing less on academics. Continue Reading

Are College Campuses Prepared for an Emergency?

As many college students prepare to make a new home on campus, they want to feel safe and secure.  Institutions of higher education may want to examine their plans for emergencies based on the following infographic, which focuses on unforeseen disasters. Continue Reading

The College Major—Making the Right Choice for the Right Reasons

While college is very much about living in a dorm room, eating various forms of microwavable food, and staying up for 24 hours straight in the library, it is also about discovering your passions, exploring your every academic interest, and learning who you want to be in your professional future. That being said, one of the most difficult and unnerving aspects of our college days is the process of choosing a major. As young 18 to 20 year olds, nothing is more daunting than thinking about the academic topic that seemingly decides the rest of your future. Today, students are faced with even more difficult decisions and challenges than ever before. As our national and global economy continue to falter, student loan debt mounting at an all-time high, and jobless numbers staying steadily high, even more pressure is being put on young undergrads to make the “right” choice. Don’t be blindsided by crashing economies and lucrative careers, consider these tips to choose the right major for the right reasons. Continue Reading

Academic Planning – Now??

It’s easy to get so busy with day-to-day demands that you forget to take a step back and consider the big picture. This time of year, for instance, your current academic course load might be so demanding that it’s hard to take a break to think about your overall academic goals and your graduation plan. Figuring out what you want to do in your future—whether that’s the near future of next year’s course selection or the further-out future of a post-college career—can be challenging because there are so many options. Figuring out how to prioritize and manage the steps on the path to your future can be even more challenging: What are the options? What are the requirements? What requirements have changed? How do other factors—study abroad semesters, independent study classes, internship opportunities, etc.—affect the overall plan? Continue Reading

Top Five Things to Know When Applying to Universities

What should you consider when applying to college?  If you are a high school student or someone who is planning to pursue higher education, then this post is for you.  Here are the top five things to know when applying to universities, according to one expert. Continue Reading

Factors in Choosing a College Based on the Sports Program

College students are rooting on their respective schools during the NCAA basketball tournament a.k.a. March Madness.  Have you ever wondered, though, if a college’s sports program is a reason to attend it?  While this may not be an overwhelming factor for many students in choosing a particular college, a successful sports program may influence some of them. Continue Reading

College Financial Aid Process Myths and Realities

Are you bound for college?  Here are some things to think about concerning what is true and false about financial aid.

For two million-plus college applicants, how to pay for college is always top-of- mind – particularly during today’s tough economic times.  Competition for much-coveted financial aid remains as fierce as the college admissions process itself, so it’s imperative that applicants and their parents know fact from fiction.  Below are three common myths about the college financial process, followed by advice for students and their parents. Continue Reading

Writing a keyword rich resume

Imagine you’re on Google, Yahoo, or any Internet search engine looking for a custom clothing store in your hometown. To search, you might use a series of words (keywords) to initiate your search, such as custom clothes, boutique, petite, and the name of your town. This search combination would result in a returned list of stores that meet one or all of your search word criteria. The same goes for using relevant words (to your profession, industry and personal characteristics) in your keyword rich resume, when an employer is looking for you.
If a recruiter or HR professional is doing a search on passive candidates (those candidates who have not directly submitted an application or resume to the company’s database), they’ll use a combination of keywords related to the position, as well as words that emphasize the characteristics they’re seeking in an employee. They may do this on Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, or any job board, as well. They’re all search engine optimized. If your résumé contains these words or combinations of words, it will show up in the returned search results. When you submit your résumé online to a company’s application system, the same concept applies. When the company is ready to pull down resumes for a particular position, it may do so by title, keywords, education, or any other combination of words.

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Online Jobs Help You Earn Money and Gain Experience Conveniently

The cost of going to college increases every year. Some parents are actually working out deals where their children share part of the burden. For some students, there is no choice. If they want to go to college, they have to help their parents foot the bill. That’s why working from home is such a great opportunity. It allows them to earn money, gain valuable work experience, take on full course loads and maintain active social lives.
ProfitonInternet.com has thousands of jobs to choose from. Writing majors in need of writing internships can get the required experience and postpone the stress involved in the job-search process by working online as independent contractors. But there are other types of jobs, too.
If you’re a great typist, you can earn money online by doing data entry for various companies. ProfitonInternet.com also has opportunities that involve processing rebates or samples. The choice is yours. Work from home opportunities like the ones offered at ProfitonInternet.com make it possible for students to easily work around their class schedules and they also permit them to take unpaid internships without feeling any strain on their budgets.

Modern Alternatives to Paying for College

The downturn in the economy has caused a lot of parents – and students, too – to rethink how they are going to pay for college in the coming years. Kara McGuire discusses one alternative some parents have come up with in her article for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Pay Dirt: Put College Pay Plan to Paper.
The alternative McGuire discusses in her article is something like a contract, between parents and their children, that outlines who’s responsible for what expense. One family decided that their son should pay for his own books, but that they would foot the bill for everything else.
“[D]iscussing how to pay for college is more critical than ever now, given the recession, the negative performance of many college savings plans in 2008, tougher credit standards, lower home values and steep tuition increases,” says McGuire.
As much as they may want to, some parents simply can’t afford to give their children the same deal they received when they were in college. But having students contribute to their own education isn’t such a bad thing. “[T]hey’re less likely to skip class when the bar down the street has $1 burger night,” McGuire surmises.
Parents and their children can get together and get specific about how much each will contribute toward college expenses. Some parents also include academic performance in their agreements. It doesn’t really matter what kind of arrangement parents make with their children. What matters, according to McGuire’s article, is that some sort of formal agreement be put down on paper and signed by everyone.
The difficulty in paying for college and the extra responsibility on the shoulders of students may make paid internships even more desirable and harder to get in the coming years.