Archive for the ‘ Education ’ Category

Online education allows you to enhance your skill sets and gain more knowledge without discontinuing your existing job. It provides flexibility and convenience to pursue the online degree at your own pace. However, the question remains; how do you finance your online degree or opt for various forms of financial aid?

Different Ways of Financing Your Online Degree

There are different ways to finance your online education which include:

• Federal financial aid
• State financial aid
• Employer scholarships
• Private grants
• Scholarships

While federal and state financial aid requires the amount to be paid back to the lenders, scholarships and grants are performance based and are offered based on the scholastic achievements of the students.

Applying for Federal Financial Aid

If you are considering an online degree and want to consider financial aids, you need to meet certain criteria. If you are considering an online degree or certification program, you should have a minimum of a high school diploma or its equivalent. You should also have built a good academic performance over the years. If you are interested in specific need-based financial aid, you should first fill the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) a form used by the U.S. Department of Education. This can be obtained from the website of FAFSA www.fafsa.ed.gov. According to the norms, the financial aid offered cannot exceed the cost of attendance as calculated by the financial aid office of the university.

Choosing the Right Form of Financial Aid for Online Education

You can choose from two types of financial aids – merit-based and need-based. You can choose grants, scholarships or government-subsidized loans offered at considerably low interest rate and with education tax benefits. This form should be submitted to the Department of Education by January 1 along with details on the amount your family will contribute to manage the college expenses which is considered as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The amount that you can get is decided by the federal government.

Grants are offered as Pell Grant and the TEACH Grant based on your performance and the amount received needs not be repaid. However, the federal loan programs are offered as different options and can be Federal Direct Subsidized and Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, the Perkins Loan, the Parent PLUS Loan and Graduate PLUS. These are student loans which need to be repaid with additional interest amount.

Seeking finance for online education is easy and can be done quickly without much complication. You can just approach the financial aid office of your university and collect all relevant information about it and apply for a financial aid by filling the FAFSA form. You can then choose a financial aid which matches your requirement. Most of the loans are offered on a first-come, first-served basis so you need to apply for it at the earliest.

A career in academia isn’t one that will rake in the big bucks, at least not right away. That is why educators need to have a strong desire to teach, be committed to the profession and love what they do before they see a great financial reward. Most educators pursue their careers in teaching because they truly love the profession. Then if they become rich and famous, so be it. Here’s a brief roundup of the 8 wealthiest academics in the world.

Wealthiest Academics in the World

There are some educators who have become wealthy off their desire to learn, teach and make a difference in the world. They have turned their passion for educating others into a profitable career. Their commitment and dedication to their professions is an inspiration to college students all across the world.

Henry Samueli - Henry Samueli did not start out in the business industry. Samueli earned his doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, but today he is the co-founder, CTO, and senior vice president at the Broadcom Corporation. His net worth is approximately $2 billion. Not bad for an initial $5,000 investment.

Cyril Taylor - Taylor and a few partners started the America Institute for Foreign Study back in 1964. He plays a major role in higher education both locally and internationally. His estimated net worth is over 6 million dollars. He also serves as Chancellor and Founder of Richmond, The American International Univesity in London.

James Stewart - James Stewart is a retired mathematics professor. He became well known for his textbook series which can be found in high schools and universities all across the U.S. Stewart is a multi-millionaire with an estimated net worth at over $20 million.

David Cheriton - Since 1981 professor David Cheriton has taught computer science at Stanford University. However, he is most famous for his investment in technology companies that made him over $1.5 billion. He was ranked by Forbes as the 19th wealthiest Canadian and 692nd in the world.

Robert S. Langer - Langer is one of the top academics in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. He has a number of patents under his belt that have contributed to his fortune. Langer is a prolific inventor and holds more than 760 granted or pending patents. He has also authored more than 1,100 scientific papers and has participated in the founding of multiple technology companies.

Stephen Hawking - Hawking’ career in Cosmology and Theoretical Physics and the popularity of his books has helped make him one of the wealthiest academics today. He is worth around $20 million. He was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21. Stephen was awarded Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

David Silvers - A great professor and researcher in Dermatology at Columbia University. Silvers owns homes worth over 2 million and makes more than the president of the University. His skin cancer research is a source of inspiration to future professors and researchers.

Adi Shamir - An inspiring educator who worked at MIT as a researcher. He also taught classes at École Normale Supérieure, Paris. Shamir helped in the development of cryptography algorithms that brought him most ofhis wealth. He earned his doctorate degree in the late 70s. After a year postdoc at University of Warwick, Adi Shamir did research at MIT from 1977–1980 before returning to be a member of the faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute.

This is a great reminder for all teaching enthusiasts out there that one can make money through this profession. There is always room at the top!

If you are working and want to go back to school, by pursuing an online degree you need to take the help of technology. There are various tools available online to help you to manage your studies. Firefox offers many add-ons which can help you to tackle assignments, lectures and manage your life more effectively.

Firefox Add-ons for People Going Back to School

Firefox is considered to be the number two web browser in the world. It is a stable browser for students as it offers a host of useful features ranging from tabs, private browsing, and session restore through its extensions. Here are 20 awesome Firefox add-ons for people going back to school:

1. Tab Candy/Tab Set sis only available in Firefox 4 Beta and makes academic multi-tasking much easier. You can create Tab Sets for Facebook, Twitter and Gmail and then create another Tab Set for the academic portals you are associated with.

2. After the Deadline or ATD can help you tremendously if you are pursuing an online degree and can help you if you are writing an essay or report in Microsoft Word or Open Office. It can help you rectify spelling errors.

3. ReminderFox helps in keeping a track of your schedule and manages your appointments and deadlines online so that you are not late for your submissions.

4. Wired-Marker is an effective add-on which looks simple yet has many functions. You just have to select text, right click and give it a color; this can help you to mark your content.

5. Quick Wiki can help you search information quickly and easily. You have to pressShift+right click a word and access the Wiktionary definition; with the help of Ctrl+right click, you get the Wikipedia entry. When the pop-ups appear, you can just click it and get the necessary information without navigating away from your current page.

6. Taboo can be helpful if you need to open a lot of tabs while doing research. It is an extension for Firefox which can help you save tabs for later stage. After saving a tab, you can close it and get back to it whenever you feel like at a later stage.

7. Firefox Environment Backup Extension helps you in automatically getting a back up of all your work.

8. LeechBlock can help you block out sites to avoid distraction and wastage of time.

9. Trailfire can help you to comment on web pages and link pages to develop topic trails.

10. Del.icio.us is a bookmarking site which can help you to search and organize your bookmarks and tags.

11. Juice can take any text on a page and automatically provide additional research information about that text with the help of Wikipedia, IMDB, YouTube, Yahoo! Local, and many other sites.

12. Zotero is a bibliographic plugin which can help you collect, manage and cite all the research you are conducting on the web.

13. FireCal caters to the needs of students pursuing a math major as it is a comprehensive calculator extension for Firefox. It is also useful for medical, nutrition, finance, science, and meteorology students.

14. Bibliomania helps in searching for references from classic English literature.

15. Merriam-Webster is a popular add-on dictionary.

16. Project Gutenberg is a search engine for an online library of material in the public domain which anybody can read for free.

17. Google Books enables you to read whole books or sections of new releases.

18. SmarterFox: Browse Faster helps in completing certain tasks faster.

19. Diigo: Web Higlighter and Sticky Notes can help you organize your web notes and highlights

20. MyStickies can help you place notes on any web site.

People pursuing online degree programs should make use of FireFox Add-ons to enjoy the convenience offered by the internet. These add-ons can enhance the distance learning process and can make your online education experience a more productive one.

Are you considering switching gears and starting a new career? However, at your age you may think this maybe is impossible. These days age is not the prevailing factor in getting jobs in the U.S. job market. The bottom-line is that skills and an ability to perform the assigned tasked is what employers are looking for.

Changing Careers: A New Reality

In the past, people started a career after schooling and stayed with it for thirty years, and then they retired. For many people their entire career started and ended with the same company. Now days, times have changed and so have employment patterns. Today, almost 70 percent of those who start out working in one field change it before retirement age. Often it happens more than once in the span of a career. Irrespective of age, an overwhelming majority of workers believe they will change careers at some point in their lives.

Use an Online Degree to Facilitate a New Career

How do most workers pull off a career change? Continuing education and online degrees are at the forefront in assisting those transitioning to new careers. Yes, online degrees are facilitating career changes for many. No matter what age you are, do not waste your time at a job you despise. Start a new career at any age with an online degree program.

Getting the Skills for a New Career

Research the skills you need to obtain the job you desire and find out if these skills can be obtained via an online degree program. Find the education to assist your new career goals by beginning an online search using anyone of the popular search engines like Bing or Yahoo.

Make your Career Goal Include the Best Paying Careers

There has been a steady increase in the amount of people seeking online degrees to reach their career goals across the country. Online schools are giving them a chance to re-start their careers in the best paying professions. Online degree programs in the U.S. help people of all ages in getting the education they need when plotting career goals. These online degrees allow them to access financially lucrative careers after several years of employment at jobs they do not enjoy anymore.

Online Degrees Conveniently Gives You Skills

There are many ways to get the skills needed to start a new career at any age. Many are expensive, time consuming, and difficult to access. However online degrees are not, and they can conveniently give you access to the education you need to begin anew in the best paying careers.

Start a New Career at Any Age with an Online Degree

If you are starting a new career after you have been working in another career field for sometime it may seems impossible. However, do not let the difficulties stop you from going for the switch. There is always a way to make a career change and online education can give you the edge you need.

These brainy child stars did not make it in showbiz because of their high IQ. But it was their thirst for knowledge that let them to pursue higher education. They didn’t let their celebrity status or fame get into the way of academics. They went after their goals and have earned some remarkable degrees later on in life.

Brainy Child Stars and Education

Some of these child stars were known for their bubbly personalities, their spunkiness, their brains, and the funny roles they played. And even though the roles they played might not have been brainy, some of these scholastic sitcom stars were very smart but the distraction with celebrity life may have gotten in the way and kept them from pursuing higher education much sooner. Now they all hold degrees from some of the well known colleges and universities.

Child Stars who are now College Grads

Here are 8 brainy child stars that now hold degrees and are proving to everyone that celebrities are not only talented, they are also smart.

1. Mindy Cohn – most of you probably know her as Natalie from The Facts of Life.

2. Mayim Bialik – aka Blossom on NBC show Blossom.

3. Keshia Knight – played Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

4. Sara Gilbert – Sara played Darlene on Roseanne.

5. Jaleel White – also known as Urkel from Family Matters.

6. Fred Savage – aka Kevin Arnold on The Wonder Years on ABC.

7. Danica McKellar – played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years.

8. Missy Gold – aka Katie Gatling on Benson from 1979-1986 on ABC.

Celebrities Are Smart Too!

Today more and more celebrities are hitting the books and going back to school to earn their degrees. Most people believe that “brainy” and “celebrity” just don’t go together, but many celebrities are actually smart. Some have graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA, and have given up scholarships to some of the top universities to pursue their music or acting careers. Some even have degrees from Ivy League universities.

Who said child stars/celebrities aren’t brainy? Did your favorite brainy child star make the list? Tell us about your favorite brainy child star in the comment section below.

As online colleges continue to grow in popularity the debate and comparison with traditional colleges continues to get hotter and hotter. Both types of institution has its pros and cons and people will take a particular side based on personal interest or which is more applicable to the particular environment. Here we will try to find a middle ground and present the facts without bias to any particular educational model and let you decide for yourself if they are the same or different.

Course Work

There is not much difference in the type of course work delivered by online or traditional institutions. This is due to the fact that all courses must meet particular standards before they can be approved by the various educational boards. This is done to ensure that graduates will be fully trained in a particular area as advertised on their transcripts. However, online colleges have the advantage of offering their students accelerated programs that significantly reduce the time needed to complete the requirements for the studies.

Method of Delivery

This is a main factor that separates traditional and online colleges. In traditional colleges, students are tutored on campus, thus utilizing the physical facilities of the institution. They establish face-to-face relationships with their instructors and peers as they all function in a physical classroom environment.


In the online education set up, students do not have any physical contact with their instructors or fellow classmates. Most of their interaction will be done electronically through, email, chat rooms and video conferencing. There is a chance that you may see your instructor and peers on a live streaming video but you may never actually meet them face to face. Some people are unable to deal with the impersonal nature of online learning just as some people prefer not to enter a classroom for whatever personal reasons.

Practical Experience

Some commentators say that practical experience is the main drawback with online education. Unlike traditional institutions, students are unable to gain practical experience in some of the subject areas they study, especially where hands on experience is necessary. Traditional institutions invest heavily in various forms of lab equipment and group events that they use to prepare students for the working world.


On the other hand, if students of online colleges are proactive enough, the flexibility of the online educational environment afford them time to gain employment as apprentices and interns in various fields. Many employers are willing to employ online students to develop their practical skills. This gives these online students valuable real life experience in the working environment as opposed to simulated cases and training equipment available in traditional colleges.

Cost of Tuition

Surveys show that online colleges cost much less than traditional colleges for the delivery of the same course material. This is so because online students require less physically of the online institution. In the traditional college, it is necessary to invest heavily in building classrooms, providing maintenance and upkeep and getting additional administrative and support staff. This is not so with online institutions as the focus is only on the delivery of solid course work material, thus reducing their overhead cost significantly.

Convenience

By far this one of the super blows to traditional institutions. Online institutions offer incomparable convenience to students where they can attend school at anytime from anywhere in the world. All their course material is delivered to them by video, email of through hard copy books. As a result, students realize significant savings from the lack of requirement for relocation and fuel for travel. In the traditional institution environment, students have to relocate to a particular institution to utilize its facilities for their education.

Resulting Merge

What we have seen evolving in this battle between traditional and online colleges is an appearance of a merger between the two. Most traditional institutions are now entering the field of online education to give students the option of the method of education they desire. This results in an improvement in the overall education and value for the students and attracts more students to the institutions.