Is A College or University Education Becoming Just A Dream?

According to statistics from the House Education & the Workforce Committee a college education is rapidly becoming a fantasy for college-qualified students. The cost of higher education has been rising significantly faster than the rate of inflation or the growth in family incomes for decades. In the early 1980s tuition and fees began to grow much more rapidly than consumer prices, the cost of attending college rose over three times as fast as median family income. The problem has reached a crisis level today. The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance indicates that cost factors prevent 48 percent of college-qualified high school graduates from attending a four-year institution, and 22 percent from attending any college at all. The statistics are similarly bleak for middle income students and families. At this rate, by the end of the decade, more than 2 million college-qualified students will be completely denied the opportunity for a postsecondary education.

Obviously this is not the type of information a person desiring to earn a good salary wants to hear. Most people are not eager to saddle themselves with huge amounts of debt in the form of student loans just to get a college degree. So what is the answer? Are there alternatives? Yes, there is vocational and career training.

This type of training is not only specific to the type of career a person chooses but the costs are significantly lower. When a person receives student loans to pay for a college education the amount to be repaid is generally three times more than the actual amount borrowed. In some cases the debt ratio is even higher than 3 to 1. Being loaded down with this much debt poses a real burden for the graduating students. It is even worse for someone who starts their college education but is not able to finish it. Now the person is stuck with large debts and no degree to attempt to get a well-paying job. With career training, the costs are so much lower that when a person completes the training in a matter of months there is no staggering amount of debt to manage. Often times the cost of the training can be paid for before the training has even been completed. Try doing that with college loans!

Not having to worry about how to pay off a student loan frees the student to focus on completing the training as quickly as possible. Upon completion of the training the graduate is now able to market their newly acquired knowledge and skills to multiple employers. Without the pressure of quickly needing to find a job to start paying a student loan, graduates can take their time in choosing the employer that suits their needs best. In other words, a graduate is not so desperate as to take the first job offered due to being in a financial bind. Yes career training is easy on the wallet but big on the future. You can save time and money by getting on a career training path.

Copyright 2006 Sherry Harris

Sherry Harris is the President of online career training school, Malibu Institute. For more information on master certificate courses and career education offered, go to: MalibuInstitute.com MalibuInstitute.com

Those Dreaded Math Word Problems

Those dreaded word problems. What is it about word problems that put such fear in our hearts? My daughter said it yesterday. She is taking Algebra this year and they are doing word problems. Her comment about her friend was that she found word problems difficult. She said to me, “But Mom, she does them just find if I set them up for her.” ‘Set them up!’ That’s the trick. My child is translating the words into the correct equation, then her friend has no trouble doing the calculation. But the math skill being taught with word problems is doing the translation, doing the set up.

Word problems have got to be the only school math that most resembles real life. Except in real life we don’t always have all the information we need or we have extra numbers that don’t help. And we certainly don’t have an answer sheet or text to show us how to set up the equation. I have heard that more elementary schools are doing word problems. I think this is great. But it is still not enough. Parents need to help.

As parents we need to involve our kids in the real life word problems that we do everyday. Take dinner for example. You have a 2.43 pound roast that requires a 1/2 hour per pound to cook and you want to eat at 6:30 pm. At what time should you start cooking it? Did you add time for the meat to rest after cooking before eating it? Did you add preparation time at the beginning for getting it ready to cook? Now at what time do you start in order to eat by 6:30 pm. Here’s another example. You are comparing two items at the store. The 16 oz product sells for $2.79 and the 12 oz product sells for $1.99. Which is the better buy? Or better yet, you are painting a room. The room is 12 x 10 with 8 foot ceilings. A gallon of paint covers 100 sq. feet. How many gallons of paint will you need to put on two coats. These are all word problems that we deal with everyday. Get your child involved with helping you solve your word problems.

Did I get you thinking? These are typical real life word problems. There is no answer sheet, no hint as to how to solve them, no equation to use. Did you figure them out? Did you use a calculator. These are problems I just get a rough estimate for. I have found an estimate to be good enough. Since I only need a rough estimate, I usually do these problems in my head.

Take the dinner problem. I need 15 minutes prep time and 15 minutes rest time. The 2.43 pound roast that requires a 1/2 hour per pound to cook, will take approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Hence I want to start at at 4:45 pm and have the roast in the oven by 5 pm. Do you need the exact minute? I don’t think so. Now if you are launching a rocket, then you might want to be a bit more accurate.

For our next example, we are comparing two items at the store. The 16 oz product sells for $2.79 and the 12 oz product sells for $1.99. Which is the better buy? I do this in my head by using rounded numbers. Notice that 16 oz and 12 oz are both divisible by four. The price on the 16 oz is also divisible by 4, approximately .$70 for 4 oz. Multiply the 4 oz price by 3 to get the equivalent 12 oz price, $2.10. Now you can see that the $1.99 price for 12 oz. is better than the $2.79 price for 16 oz. My equation is

($2.80/4) * 3 = $2.10

Using Low Grades As Assets In Admission Essays For College Or MBA School

You are seriously aiming to apply to the college or business school of your choice. You have taken the required tests, and now, you are ready for the grueling application process. In particular, you need to pay attention to the College Admission Essay, or MBA essay as part of your application, since the college admission essay or MBA essay allows you to explain certain weaknesses in your grades. Many colleges and universities still have reservations on admitting applicants whose school records contain grades that they consider low as per their standards. And this is your big dilemma. How to explain your low grades. This is where the College Admission Essay or MBA essay will play a vital role.

In cases where you unfortunately received a bad grade, the best thing to do is to give a valid and genuine reason. Do not ignore it, but address it head on. In the college admission essay or MBA essay you have the golden opportunity to explain your low grades and provide rational reasons on why these grades are not necessarily reflective on your potential as a student. Offer a specific example to explain your side of the issue. For instance, you can say that personal problems (sick family member or unexpected accident) kept you from focusing more on your studies.

Just try to keep in mind that your aim in your explanation in the admission essay or MBA essay is not to make excuses nor create tall tales to cover the fact that you have a low grade in one or two subject areas. The goal is to emphasize the reality that the bad grade was not because you failed to study but because circumstances were simply beyond your control. Make it a point to stress that it was just a temporary setback and that overall, your school record is still academically excellent, and that you are worthy of admission to the school of your choice. In fact, you may want to explain how such unexpected experiences actually made you into a better person, a more mature and understanding person, who now appreciates life more and is more driven than ever before. Your primary goal should be to convey to the reader that you are a better person as a result of your personal experiences, which in turn make you a better candidate for admission.

Also, remember that different schools place different weights on test scores or grades and may emphasize your college admission essay or MBA essay instead. Rather, they look more into your extracurricular activities since the approach of their program is the total development of an individual. In such cases, lower grades may not be as crucial in the admissions process, but you should still aim to explain them as best as you can, and doing so can best be done in the College Admission Essay or MBA essay.

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Dreaming About Months

In this article we explore what it means to dream about specific months.

January – To dream of this month, denotes you will be afflicted with unloved companions or children.

February – To dream of February, denotes continued ill health and gloom, generally. If you happen to see a bright sunshiny day in this month, you will be unexpectedly and happily surprised with some good fortune.

March – To dream of the month of March, portends disappointing returns in business, and some woman will be suspicious of your honesty.

April – To dream of the month of April, signifies that much pleasure and profit will be your allotment. If the weather is miserable, it is a sign of passing ill luck.

May – To dream of the month of May, denotes prosperous times, and pleasure for the young.

To dream that nature appears freakish, denotes sudden sorrow and disappointment clouding pleasure.

June – To dream of June, foretells unusual gains in all undertakings.

July – To dream of this month, denotes you will be depressed with gloomy outlooks, but, as suddenly, your spirits will rebound to unimagined pleasure and good fortune.

August – To dream of the month of August, denotes unfortunate deals, and misunderstandings in love affairs.

For a young woman to dream that she is going to be married in August, is an omen of sorrow in her early wedded life.

September – To dream of September means good luck,changes for the better and desires and hopes will be accomplished.

October – To imagine you are in October is ominous of gratifying success in your undertakings. You will also make new acquaintances which will ripen into lasting friendships.

November – To dream of November, augers a season of indifferent success in all affairs.

December – To dream of December, foretells accumulation of wealth, but loss of friendship. Strangers will occupy the position in the affections of some friend which was formerly held by you.

Todd runs the dreaminterpretationsguide.com Dream Interpretations Guide website. If you are looking for a different dreaminterpretationsguide.com dream interpretation, be sure to check it out.

Online College Applications – Pros, Cons and Insider Tips

Applying to colleges or universities is an exciting milestone for many high school graduates; yet far too often, the application process itself becomes frustrating and intimidating.

Faced with a myriad of information via booklets, forms and well-meaning but often misguided parents and peers, things can become a bit overwhelming.

Thankfully, the days of huddling over a typewriter with whiteout in hand have been relegated to the past. The modern-day offices of higher education not only accept electronic applications, but also encourage them for their mutual convenience and ease of use.

Electronic College Applications are becoming increasingly popular with higher learning institutions and students alike because of their contribution to a better level of customer service.

Electronic applications give both student and faculty an easier method of tracking the status of applications and of determining financial aid status. This results in a more time efficient method by providing immediate confirmation of receipt of applications and real-time status of its progress.

By taking advantage of a streamlined electronic entrance application system, institutions are realizing a marked increase in labor savings, which may lead to becoming a determining factor in helping to offset the high cost of post-secondary education.

Although electronic college applications are hitting the main stream at a progressive rate, there is still a modicum of fear by some that electronic filing does not offer the security or personal touch of hard copy applications.

Most institutions are largely allaying these fears by their rollover to more technologically adept software that makes electronic applications safe and secure.

By offering dedicated as well as generic applications online, some institutions provide students with the option of using the same information for various applications.

In addition to paving the way for a more seamless entrance application process, alot of colleges and universities have waived application fees for those students who opt to use the electronic application method.

However, there still remains a bit of grey area regarding the electronic online application process. There have been reports of an increased error ratio on electronic applications when compared to traditional paper submissions.

Once again, many of the higher learning institutions are attempting to address this problem by streamlining their forms while offering how-to advice that students can readily understand and use more efficiently. Careful consideration is being given to utilizing software that reduces the chances of a student’s online application being lost in cyberspace.

The diligent approach to eliminating online application errors, while being of the utmost concern, is not the only drawback to the universal acceptance of the electronic application process. Students’ access to technology, their level of technological expertise and their cultural backgrounds may militate against the successful completion of online applications.

This too is being addressed at the entrance level with more and more institutions offering viable alternatives for students who may not be as familiar or comfortable with the internet as a valuable resource.

University and college Registrar offices always have staff available to offer advice and support to all incoming students. For those who prefer a hands-on approach when completing their college entrance applications, the option of filing their application manually is still encouraged.

If you decide to go the online application route, here are some crucial tips to guide you:

1)The essay that is attached to a college application is vital so don’t rush it. You will more than likely need to write several drafts before submitting it. It is also vital to use proper grammar when writing it.

2)Proofread your work carefully. Minor proofreading errors can make a poor impression on admission officers. Print out online applications and proofread it since it can be hard to spot errors on the computer screen

3)Contact the admissions department if you need to ask questions concerning your application. Don’t assume anything. This is your future we are talking about so there is really no such thing as a silly question.

4)Don’t submit the generic applications to a number of different colleges even though this option is available. Treat it like a job application in the sense that just as every company is different, so is every college. This will have a more positive impression on the admissions officers who want to know that you have taken the time to know their college.

5) Don’t wait until the 11th hour to submit your online application. Put some thought into what you are writing. Furthermore, an unexpected computer crash could derail a last minute application resulting in missing the deadline. It is better to give yourself adequate time to finish and submit the application.

6)Double check to make sure your college application was received. Many colleges will issue you a password so you can check the status of your online application real time.

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Paradigm Shift from Teaching to Learning in Current Higher Technical Education Environment

Teaching is one of the oldest and most respected professions in the world. In good old days the students who had genuine desire to learn used to go to traditional Gurus and were usually self-motivated. The going through teaching-learning process was comparatively easy as concepts were relatively simple and straightforward to implement. With changing socio-economic and technological scene the whole process has undergone a tremendous change.

In today’s society there are certain students who come just to earn a degree so as to have a respectable social status and are not interested in learning at times. Not only that such students deliberately create problems for teachers in smooth conduct of classes. Moreover due to technological advancements in various fields, the concepts and applications have become quite complicated to understand, practice and implement.

The teacher’s job under these environments has not only become more difficult but has become challenging wherein he has to ensure that learning difficult to understand concepts takes place not only for the students who are interested to learn but also for the students who are not interested. This is to ensure so that all the passing out students attain minimum prescribed standards by the university before they pass certain university courses failing which the credibility and survival of the University will be questionable in today’s competitive environment wherein lot of private Universities are mushrooming.

This requirement poses new and here-to-fore unseen and un-heard challenges for the teachers in the field of higher technical education who have largely been involved in teaching the students who were basically interested in learning and were able to learn on their own as well with little or no guidance from the teachers.

Keeping this in mind the attitude commonly shared among the breed of teachers involved in higher technical education that their task is to teach and the students will learn only if they are interested and want to learn is a negative approach to my mind.

Teaching and Learning: The Missing Links

What has largely been considered classroom teaching and learning process traditionally has got certain missing links to my mind, particularly in the face of changed socio-economic changes discussed above. I consider following to be the complete cycle of teaching learning process and I have tried to stretch it beyond learning to achieving proficiencies and developing competencies which is call of today in fast changing, highly competitive industrial environment. Today industry wants to hire the students who should be able to take on the task head-on without requiring much of training, which becomes quite costly affair especially for small and medium sized industries. The complete cycle as perceived by me is as shown below: -

(a)Teaching

(b)Creating Awareness

(c)Making them Know Things

(d)Complete Learning

(e)Acquiring Proficiency

(f)Developing Competencies

What is the difference?

Till very recently the situation was that if a teacher had taught and they (students) understand it was considered that Job was done well. But in today’s challenging, competitive and rapidly changing industrial and economic environment is that sufficient? Will the passing out students from technical institutions be in a position to deliver the goods when they join any industry without requiring much of the ‘on induction’ training? Probably not! Let me quote an example from my personal experiences.

We were in the process of installing the equipments at one of our sites where there was a requirement of programming the exchange for Direct Inward Dialing (DID) facility. I tasked one of our freshly inducted engineers to get it done and sincerely thought that after some introduction to the exchanges and the facility he would be able to do the job at least within a week. We had enough time as some other time consuming jobs were also required to be completed before launch of the services. I tried to explain the exchange to him and to my utter surprise he did not have any idea about functioning of exchanges though he had one of the subjects on the exchanges at his undergraduate level. It took one month of patient training before he could finish the programming of the exchange to our satisfaction. To our surprise one of the marketing executive who had background of commerce could pick up programming of the exchange in the process and could do better than the engineer who had formal teaching on the subject. I just put a question to my-self as to what was the point in hiring a communication engineer if he could not do the job and every thing had to be spoon-fed to him. The problem was probably at his undergraduate program where he had learned to mug up the things, reproduce it at the time of examination and then forget about that without thinking about its applications. This highlights the lack of learning taking place in spite of teaching being done.

Improving Teaching Learning Process

For making teaching learning process to be more effective a change in teachers attitude and approach is required following can be tried out: -

Paradigm shift from “Catch me if you can” to “catch them if you can” approach: In today’s environment a teacher can no longer think that he will teach to his level best and it is for the students to follow and practice what he has taught. One has to speak the language at the level and in the manner that students understand.

Test the water before you take a plunge: It is better not to start with the syllabus full throttle from day one. At times there are few gaps in the sense that either the student has forgotten the prerequisites required for the course you are going to teach or may be there was a gap in the syllabus and students have not been taught the prerequisites required for the course. In both the cases it may be good idea to cover the barest minimum of the prerequisites required for the course instead of blaming the students or the framers of the syllabus.

Keep them with you: Make sure that the students keep pace with you all through the course and do not abandon you in between. You could devise means to make sure that they stay with you as far as course coverage is concerned. One technique is to ask the students to repeat part of the teaching of the previous class in the beginning of the class as a practice which forces each student to at-least glance through the notes before they attend the next class. Moreover you should be able to identify the students who are falling behind for what ever may be reasons. Target such students for your questions very often and let it be known by them- after all it is for their own good.

How to Ensure Learning

Following points may come handy in ensuring proper learning: -

Generate interest: If you can discuss some of the applications of what you are going to teach it will be better as students interest in the topic will be invoked and their understanding will positively be better.

Test their understanding of what you have taught: This could be by way of discussions and question answers. You could also ask some good students to give answers to the questions raised by other students in the class. By doing so you will be able to judge their understanding of the subject, give them little practice to speak and also clarify the doubts, which others may be having?

Force them to come prepared: you could take frequent class tests or you could ask some students at random to come on the stage and just give the brief of what was discussed during previous lecture.

Strike a good rapport with students: Your attitude towards them is very important and they read it correctly always and every time. Be sympathetic but firm in your approach. Your approach could be almost fatherly. They should be able to sense that you mean their good and that should be shown by your actions rather than you talking about it.

Read their mind and Eyes: You should be able to read question marks in their eyes. It is not difficult. Do look in their eyes and you will be amazed to see them speaking without using words. Do not ignore that as if you do that, they would soon loose interest and also the track of what you are teaching.

Why wait. Take feedback for yourself in the very second week: Talk to them frankly and openly and try changing your style if required. After all what you teach is not important, what they learn is more important isn’t it?

Keep them on toes: If they do not put questions bombard them with questions. Basically your approach should be to ensure that they listen to you and are mentally alert.

Show your genuine concern for their welfare: Do not only talk just do the best you can. Even accompanying some student to hospital in emergencies can earn their faith and respect.

Earn respect by your behavior and knowledge not by your position: Even how you stand how you talk and how you dress up does matter. Do you remember your school/College days? Try to look back into those days and you will realize as to what needs to be done.

Do your homework thoroughly: There can never be any short cut for depth of knowledge. Each lecture has to be prepared thoroughly as if you are going to teach it for the first time.

Why Limit to classroom?

Classroom teaching could well be just less than 50% of the total learning involved or put it otherwise it could be gateway leading to learning experiences. Use every opportunity presented to you to make them learn. Other opportunities to enhance teaching learning process could be following: -

· Lab Sessions

· Tutorial Seminars

· Projects

· Industry Visits

Make use of this time to fullest advantage. Demonstrate the equipment in lab sessions and during industry visits and couple this with classroom teaching. Same way projects, seminars and tutorial time can be fruitfully used to a great advantage. Invoke the interest in the students by taking practical systems and examples from the visits, which you had undertaken to enhance the learning.

Need to develop art of self-leaning

End of studies at the college is going to be beginning of the actual learning about the real world where continuous update of the knowledge will be required. If continuous spoon-feeding is resorted to at the college/ institute level it may result in their incompetence to understand complex reading material at later stage. We should not let it happen at any cost.

Where we fit in as teachers? Can’t we motivate them to develop the art of self-learning and self-grooming to get ready for future? This will go a long way to completely develop the students to face the future. Some extra efforts will have to be put in by the teacher for this in the form of organizing seminars and other co-curricular activities for the students on beyond syllabus topics of common interest. There may be initial resistance on the part of students, which has to be overcome by way of rewarding the performing students. This will also develop overall personality of the students in addition to developing habit of self-learning.

Author has 28 years of experience in the field of Teaching and Management. He is M. Tech from IIT Kanpur and has worked in different capacities including Signal corps Indian Army, Regional Manager for a Telecom Company. Currently he is Associate Professor with ITM, Gurgaon that is rated as best Engineering colleges of North India.

Morning Star – Mace or Flail?

Historically speaking there seems to be some confusion as to whether a morning star is a mace, defined as “a strong, heavy wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft, with a head made of stone, copper, bronze, iron or steel” or a flail, defined as “a medieval weapon made of one (or more) weights attached to a handle with a hinge or chain.” Now, usually we consider a morning star to be combination of a mace and a flail. The weapon is constructed of at least one ball which is attached to a haft by a metal chain. However, there may be more than one ball and chain utilized. Thus causing the problem in the nomenclature.

Some examples of a morning star show them being pole arms – over 6 feet long. Others have them as side arms, to be wielded by one hand while the other hand employed the use of a shield. Again, the problem with the name. Oddly enough morning stars have other names as well, being called “holy water sprinklers” due to the fact that they somewhat resemble the aspergillum used by the church to sprinkle parishioners with holy water, and “goedendag” or “good day”.

In modern times the term morning star is mostly used in fantasy role playing games, which is where one would most likely encounter the weapon outside of a museum or weapon shop. In the games, a morning star is a flail, or at the least a combination of a mace and flail. Also, this weapon is used by the priests and clerics more than by any warrior class in a role playing game. Odd isn’t it that a weapon removed from tournaments due to its lethal damage is somewhat restricted to the priests who can only do “bludgeoning” damage.

It would seem that there is no strict definition of which weapon the morning star actually is and that it would fall to the owner of the weapon as to which he prefers. Is it a mace? Yes. Is it a flail? Yes. What is it best known as? Maybe the holy water sprinkler, or maybe just the morning star.

Allyson Huggett is the owner of merlinsforge.com Merlin’s Forge, an online shop specializing in the sale of merlinsforge.com medieval and