The Online Degree Dorm Room

Engineering Degree Online | Stanford’s Online Masters Program

Posted by bposton on November 24th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

I just read about Stanford’s online master’s degree program.

The program is call the Honors Cooperative Program. It’s a degree that you can earn over 5 years by completing 15 courses - and it’s offered as both an on campus or online program. It’s open to 250 students, most of which live in the Bay Area, but quite a few of them live all over the U.S. and overseas.

Students hail from as far away as China and India. All foriegn students are required to hold a valid student or visitor U.S. visa, and they must be proficient in English.

The online students that are admitted to Stanford are held to the same academic standards as on-campus students. This degree which is offered through Stanford Online, established in 1996, is identical to those of other students.

Ben

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associate online degree programs | How to combat College Stress

Posted by bposton on November 15th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

So here you are, the end of the semester is approaching, and you’re and trying to balance exams, papers and projects. Meanwhile, the cafeteria food has you homesick for some good cooking, and your roommate’s pile of clothes is oozing into your side of the room.

Ah, but it’s so much easier here in the online dorm room

But hey, either way we all have to handle stress. With online classes, it might not come from roommates, but there’s always the stress of job deadlines and other family responsibilites trying to grab your time away from the classes you’re taking.

If the stress is more than you can handle, consider these tips:

 - Get organized. When your work space and schedule are organized,the rest of your life
becomes better organized. Take the time to arrange your papers into files by subject, putting your books on a bookshelf and clearing your desktop every day. Then, get an organizer or PDA and start putting due dates and social activities on the calendar.

Personal note - I currently use a Dell Axim PDA and I’m here to tell you, it really does make a difference when you’ve got your “to-do list” to refer to anywhere you want. It makes thing so much easier, especially for folks like me that forget half of what the need to do

 - Discuss any problems with your professors or an adviser. You should take full advantage of the knowledge your adviser has in helping you manage your schedule and to help you combat any problems you are having with certain subjects. If you have a spouse who supports your efforts to obtain an online degree, make sure he or she is involved and understands your issues. There’s nothing like having a supportive spouse to discuss things with.

It often amazing how much my wife knows that I don’t

 - Maintain a balanced lifestyle. It’s important to eat, sleep, and exercise regularly. I have to admit I need to get back on that expensive treadmill we bought this year. You should also make a point to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and carry light snacks with you to maintain your energy throughout the day. You should also have a goal to get eight hours of sleep each night, and exercise for 30 minutes at least three times a week.

 - Take your vitamins! Studies have shown some all-natural supplements can be beneficial in the fight against stress. So make sure you suppliment your diet with the right vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other suppliments that can help your body ward off the effects of stress.

Ben

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Engineering Degree Online | Let’s get personal…

Posted by bposton on November 14th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

I got an interesting note stuck to the online degree dorm room door last night.

It read ‘ “Can you tell us a little more about yourself, Ben?”

Hummm. well, I kinda like my privacy. Actually that’s one reason I’m here promoting the online degree programs. In my opinion, you can keep things a little more private with an online class than one in a traditional classroom.

You don’t have sit in a 200 seat lecture hall, and you don’t have to worry about how you look (not that I worry much about that anyway )

And you can keep a lower profile - if you want to. Just make sure that you are responsive in your online classes and discussions. You can’t hide in the back in an online class - the prof can see how much you’re contributing in the online chats and discussions that class is having. So make sure you speak out, and speak your mind. But you don’t have to tell them what shampoo you used last night, either.

But in the event that you really MUST know a little more about me. I’ll give you these juicy details:

1. I live in North Carolina (if you’ve been reading the posts you already know that)

2. I have a family. A wife and 3 daughters (I’m blessed!!!)

3. I’m re-living my college days through my daughters OK not true…well kinda true…

4. One daughter in college, another one starting next fall, and another the fall after that!

(OWE is me!!)

I’m pretty convinced that an online degree is NOT the right thing for them. But I will be talking to the oldest about attending a graduate school online. That’s where the biggest bang for the buck is right now. But who knows? In a couple of years my youngest could be sitting at home attending a online class…as long as she cleans her room first

Enough about me - let’s talk about YOU - and how YOU can get a degree online that’s right for you and your goals!

Ben 

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Engineering Degree Online | My hairdresser knows for sure

Posted by bposton on November 14th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

I got my hair cut the other day, and I started a conversation with the girl, er lady that cut my hair.

Her name is Alicia, and she’s already figured out the online degree thing.

Alicia will be finishing up her undergraduate degree in Religous Studies, and then she’s going to get her Masters in Organizational management.

As soon as she mentioned her plans for a graduate degree, i asked her if she had ever considered getting a degree online.

“Oh, I’m definitely getting my masters online” she said without hesitation, “it’s the ONLY way to go…”

So I gave her an honorary membership into the online degree dorm room

Yea, my hairdresser knows for sure - online degrees have come of age. Especially when considering a graduate degree. I see ads and billboards all over touting one online graduate degree program after another.

And Alicia knows the score. She’s going to stay home with her growing family, keep working, and earn her masters in a short period of time. Then she’ll be off to the races.

Problem is, she probably won’t be cutting my hair after that - which is bad news for me

Ben

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Engineering Degree Online | Planning for College

Posted by bposton on November 14th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

If you’re the average college bound high school senior, you have a lot of thing so think about besides ordering your cap and gown and getting a date to the prom.

You need to also be thinking about college - a lot

Such as - What major should I choose? (that’s always a big one), Should I stay in state or try forthat school of my dreams that happens to be thousands of miles away? What are my options in terms of financial aid?

Of course, another question you can also ask yourself these days is - should I be on campus, off-campus, or…

online???

Most high school guidance counselors probably don’t recommend online schools, but you need to know that they are an option.

Yes, you can argue that you’ll “miss out” on the whole “college dorm life” thing, but let me tell you - life in the online degree dorm room is pretty sweet

No roomates to wake you up in the middle of the night. No running to the next class after missing the bus on a rainy day…

…you get the idea, right?

However, either which way you go, you still need to think about planning for college. Here are some of the steps in that process:

Preparation - searching for and choosing the right college, including entrance exams, selecting the major, ect

Selection - Planning camous visits and finalizing on your major (at least the one you think you want to head for at this point). This is when you should also consider online degree programs as well.

Application - Applying for admission. This is a very important and often under-planned step. Applications can take a long time especially if they require essays or “personal statments”. And there are always deadlines for getting them in, along with your SAT, ACT scores and transcripts from high school. A college interview may also be required, espacially when a scholarship is involved.

Decision - Sorting through all those acceptance letters and deciding which college is best for you.
Payment - Applying for financial aid, work-study programs, education loans. scholarships and more.

So if you following this planning process, you have a much better chance of finding the right school, submiting the best application possible and developing a sound strategy to pay for it all.

Ben

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Engineering Degree Online | Paying off your Student Loans

Posted by bposton on November 13th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

So let’s say you have a rich uncle and you’ll have no loans to pay off after you graduate…

Well you can stop reading now, if you wish (you lucky dog)

For the rest of us, how to pay off our student loans is a big deal.

According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Education, 26 percent of college graduates borrow at least $25,000 to pay for their college educations.

So if you see that you’re going to graduate with a large amount of  debt, you’d be wise to take some time and sort of “map out” a strategy for paying it back as quickly as possible.

Here are some tips to consider from American Education Services, a national financial aid services organization:

Consolidate. Consolidating your loans can reduce your monthly payments and maybe even lower your interest rate. But You need to look into this option as soon as possible to lock in a low interest rate. When you consolidate, you’ll get just one bill per month, which makes it easier to keep track of your payments.

If possible, make payments during your six-month grace period. This is a great way to save money on your subsidized loans because any payments you make will be applied directly to the principal balance. This lowers the amount of interest you will owe after the grace period expires. Plus, you’ll be able to pay off your loan months earlier than you expected.

Use direct debit to help you pay your loans on time every month. Direct debit is a free, automatic payment service for borrowers who prefer to make their loan payments electronically. If you use this service, you also may qualify for an interest rate reduction after a specified number of on-time payments.

Make everyday expenses count toward repayment of your loans. When you join Upromise, participating merchants will contribute a portion of what you spend with them to your Upromise account, which you can use to help pay off your loans.

AES has a web site called youcandealwithit.com, designed to help college students and graduates become financially responsible.

Hope that helps

Ben

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Engineering Degree Online | 3 diploma success stories

Posted by bposton on November 13th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

Remember the other day how I told you about Liberty High School, and how they offer high school diploma’s through online clasees?

Well, here is a story about 3 women who got their diploma that way and what it has meant for them.

They’re all from New York City - Lillian Betancourt, 37, Latoya Abrams, 21, and Shereen France, 41.

And they all had dropped out of high school. And whenever they tried to learn a trade or get a certificate to enter a profession with decent pay, they find out a harsh truth - all professional or post-secondary schools require a high school diploma.

So after years of trying to pay bills on time and just getting by, these women decided to turn their lives around and get high school diplomas.

They found out about Liberty High School from Careertel, which represents the Liberty High School Diploma Program, which allowed them to earn their high school diplomas while they continue to work.

Now, with their high school diplomas in hand, the future looks bright for all three women.

In fact, they are all now seeking higher education. Betancourt is studying criminal law in New York, Abrams will attend Georgia College & State University, and France will be attending nursing school in New York.

I think it’s a great story - You Go Girls!! 

For more information about Liberty High School, call (800) 820-4202.

Ben

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Engineering Degree Onine | Need help learning the language?

Posted by bposton on November 13th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

OUt here in the online degree dorm I see a lot of folks struggling with the foriegn language that they’re taking.

So this news story I came accross might be of benefit. Read on…

Did you know that alot of what we know about our native language is in the sub-conscious?

YOu know how when you want to express something, correct phrases and sentences just come to you? Well that’s how -most of this process is unconscious.
So Stephen Krashen, a professor at the University of Southern California and a linguistics expert, put together a hypothesis to explain how this is possible. And he used that, which is called Input Hypothesis to create what he calls a “natural approach” to learning a language.

Here’s how it works (I think…)

You read and listen to words and sentences - i.e. the “input” If you understand these sentences, they are stored in your brain. More specifically, they are stored in the part of your brain that is responsible for language.

For example, using this hypothesis, here’s how a child learns his or her native language. The child listens to his or her parents and other people. As the child’s brain collects these words and sentences, he or she gets better and better at producing sentences on his or her own. By age 5, the child can already speak quite fluently.

Got it?

So according to Krashen’s theory, the way to learn and improve is to feed your brain with a lot of “input” which are correct and understandable sentences, written or spoken.

Now some cognitive scientists say that watching movies is one of the most natural methods of improving your language skills at any age. Learning English by watching movies is an example of  “learning by input.”

So go get yourself some French language movies and go to town

There’s a company that has taken this theory and put it into practice:

The company is called SFK Media Corp. SFK stands for Specially For Kids. They created a product called ReadEnt Reading Movies.

It used this technique with an innovative tool called “Action Captions.” As a child or adult watches the movie, each spoken word appears on the screen as text directly from the person’s mouth as it is spoken. ReadEnt’s Reading Movies are available as interactive DVD programs for use on the TV, computer, video-game console or portable DVD player.

For more information call (866) SFK-READ (735-7323).

Ben

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Engineering Online Degree | Are men the answer to the growing Nursing shortage?

Posted by bposton on November 12th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

My last post talked about how there’s a growing shortage of nurses in the US and it could get pretty bad by 2020 with over 800,000 nursing positions not filled.

So hospitals, universities and nursing organizations are working to try and end the nursing shortage with help from industry and the private-sector.

One example is the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future.

This is a $30 Million public-awareness campaign and it’s goal is to enhance the image of the nursing profession, recruit new nurses and faculty and try to retain nurses currently in the profession.

Andrea Higham is the director of the campaign, and here’s what she had to say:

“Building awareness of the shortage of nurses and nurse faculty, as well as the benefits of a career in nursing, has had a big impact. But concerted efforts must continue if we’re to head off what is predicted to be a huge problem well into the next decade.”

Higham also said that men are a major target of this campaign.

She noted this interesting fact: If the number of men entering nursing each year grew to anywhere near the number of women entering the field, the nursing shortage would cease to exist.

So what’s a man to do but be a nurse?

Come on guys - you know you want to

And you’d be helping the country out of jam, right?

OK, so will the growing number of men entering the nursing profession be enough to eliminate the
shortage in time? Don’t forget about all those baby boomers who’ll be in need of increased medical care.

No one can tell right now. All I know is that it’s up to us men to led the way

Ben

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Engineering Online Degree | Are men moving from Engineering to Nursing Careers?

Posted by bposton on November 12th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

I saw an interesting stat the other day that said higher wages and job security are prompting more
men to enter the field of nursing.

Which I guess means there’s less men entered the Engineering field? I mean, there are just so many men
to go around, right?

Anyway, according to a Vanderbilt University School of Nursing study, the number of male nurses in
our great nation has almost doubled since the 1980s. Men now represent 9 % of the nations nurses. and
that’s up from 5% in the 1980s.

And just as impressive is that fact that the public’s perception of nursing is getting much better.
A recent Gallup Poll even ranked nursing as the most trusted profession, above teachers, military officers and even doctors.

Wow…

Now for the bad news…sort of.

You may not know it, but there’s a nationwide nursing shortage and it could become a health-care crisis.

According to the Vanderbilt study, although there are 1.8 million nurses today, there could be a shortage of 800,000 nurses by 2020.

And our colleges and universities haven’t been gearing up to address this yet.

According to an enrollment survey by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, more
than 26,000 qualified applicants were turned away from undergraduate programs last year due in
large part to faculty shortages.

In my next post, I’ll explain who some companies and colleges are trying to make headway on this, and,
as in the Loard of the Rings - “they’ve placed their hope on Men”

:-)

Ben

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