Online Education Articles
- Choosing an Online Program
- Choosing Your Online Degree
- College Accreditation
- College Basics
- College for Military Personnel
- Credit for Life Experience
- Earn Money for College
- Financial Aid
- Free Online Courses
- Going to Graduate School
- Good Study Habits
- Grants and Scholarships
- Green Education
- How to Take an Online Course
- Is Online Learning for You?
- Random Knowledge
- Reducing Student Debt
- Starting Your Career
- Twitter & Education
- Understanding Student Loans
Featured
Is Student Loan Debt Really A Problem?
August 23, 2010
With all the media coverage about the massive problem of student loan debt, you might be surprised to learn that one third of all 2008 college graduates in the US managed to get out of college without owing a cent. Read More
Recent Articles
Becoming a Better Teacher: Seven Tips for Success
September 02, 2010
Teaching isn’t an easy job. Within every classroom, you’ll have students with numerous goals, needs, and learning styles. Even the best school teachers can take years to really hit their stride in the classroom.
Read More
Alternatives to a Bachelor's Degree: A Realistic Look At Your Options
August 31, 2010
Considering whether or not to earn a Bachelor’s degree—or go to college at all? It’s a tough decision to make, especially when college tuition is rising at an alarming rate—much faster than wage growth—and job prospects for recent graduates are slim.
Read More
Six Tips for Making Time and Space to Study in a Busy Household
August 30, 2010
Online degree programs offer working parents the flexibility to meet their career goals. But when you enter an online program, you’ll find that the workload is just as heavy as it would be at a traditional school.
Read More
Student Loan Debt: Why The Decks Are Stacked Against Parents And Students
August 25, 2010
With the student loan industry in crisis, many people are casting around for a scapegoat. It’s easy to blame colleges that routinely hike tuition costs, a floundering economy, and federal aid that consistently fails to keep up with rising tuition.
Read More
Should You Go to Law School?
August 20, 2010
If you’re interested in going to law school, be really sure you want to go—and that you’re not just hiding from a difficult economy while earning a degree that will earn you a six-figure job.
Read More
Questions to Ask Yourself - And Your School - Before Taking Out a Loan
August 16, 2010
As a college student, it’s tough to make informed decisions about student loans. But the choices you make when you enter college may affect you for most of your adult life. Here are a few questions you should ask your college financial aid office and private lenders when considering taking out a student loan.
Read More
Will Job Training Help You Get a Job?
August 13, 2010
Job training is a big part of President Obama’s economic recovery plan. In 2009, the President announced a new program designed to encourage online schools to increase financial aid to the unemployed—and provide incentives for unemployed people to get job training instead of taking low-wage jobs for which they’re overqualified.
Read More
The IPad For Online College Students: Pros and Cons
August 11, 2010
Is an iPad a good investment for college students? At first glance, it looks like it might be—the idea of carrying around one slim device instead of a stack of college textbooks has to have appeal.
Read More
Renting Books for College: How to Do It
August 09, 2010
It’s tough not to suspect that college textbooks are a big scam. Campus bookstores get away with selling new copies of hardbound books for $100 or more. It’s not unusual for students to pay $1,000 or more for a semester’s worth of books.
Read More
Six Tips for Getting Into Business School
August 06, 2010
Top business schools have always been highly competitive. But in a difficult economy, demand for spots in the nation’s best business schools has gone way up. Schools like Harvard, Stanford and Wharton are drowning in applications—but even mid-level business schools are seeing an increase in applications from professionals looking to make their resumes more competitive, as well as recent college grads.
Read More
How to Fix the Student Loan Debt Crisis
August 04, 2010
Two out of three graduating college seniors leaves school with some level of student debt. And there are few protections for student debtors—it’s notoriously difficult to declare bankruptcy on a student loan, and consumer protections are proving inadequate.
Read More
Get Organized for Back to School: Seven Steps to Success for Online Students
July 29, 2010
It’s not just the kids who are going back to school this fall. All over the country and all over the world, online students will be logging on for their first days of classes in the fall semester.
Read More
What Is the Student Loan Debt Bubble?
July 28, 2010
The word “bubble” has been in the news a lot lately. You’ve probably heard about the “economic bubble,” the “housing bubble,” or the “mortgage bubble” used in reference to the current economic crisis.
Read More
Why the Student Loan Crisis Isn't Going Away
July 26, 2010
College tuition is increasing far faster than wages or grant aid can keep up with—and even the most financially needy students are often stuck with huge debt loads when they graduate. With wages stagnating, jobs for recent grads scarce, and few checks on the prices colleges can pay, it’s not likely that the student loan crisis is going to get better on its own—without a dramatic readjustment in the market.
Read More
Seven Ways Online Students Can Prepare for School This Summer
July 21, 2010
For many online students, summer break isn’t exactly a break. Plenty of online students are not exactly your typical college student. They’re likely to have families and full-time jobs to deal with in addition to classes.
Read More
Is a College Degree a Pre-Requisite for Middle-Class Prosperity?
July 19, 2010
People disagree about lots of education issues—from how to deal with the student loan crisis to whether there actually is one at all. But one thing most people, either Democrat or Republican, agree on is that education is important—and that a degree leads to a better-paying job and a more satisfying career.
Read More
Seven Reasons Why You're More Likely to Default On Your Student Loan Now
July 16, 2010
Student loan default rates are up. According to the Department of Education, around 7.2% of students defaulted on their loans in 2008—a rise from a rate of 6.7% the following year. Here are just a few reasons why you’re more likely to default on your student loans now, because of economical conditions, than you were in past years.
Read More
New Regulations on For-Profit Colleges: Are They Fair?
July 12, 2010
Congress has made moves to restrict federal funding to for-profit colleges with the so-called “Gainful Employment” rules. Ever since the Bush administration, for-profit colleges have had more-or-less unlimited access to federal funds for their students, and these new rules would severely curtail those funds.
Read More
For-Profit Universities: Good or Bad for Education?
July 09, 2010
A for-profit university is a school run by a profit-seeking organization or corporation. Profits from tuition are paid to shareholders and owners rather than being funneled to endowments. Traditionally, for-profit universities are categorized as being more focused on vocational education than academic exploration.
Read More
Who Is Responsible for Escalating Student Debt?
July 07, 2010
Student debt is on the rise. The average student loan debt is now more than $23,000—and over two-thirds of students these days have some sort of debt to manage. There would be nothing wrong with that, if students were clearly making enough after graduation to pay off their debts.
Read More
College or Trade School: Which is Right For You?
July 05, 2010
A trade school, sometimes referred to as a vocational school, is a school that’s focused on training students in a specific trade. This makes it different from a traditional college, which typically focuses on intellectual exploration within a certain field.
Read More
The BP Oil Spill: Not the Company's First Environmental Disaster
July 01, 2010
British Petroleum (BP)’s Deep Horizons oil spill is looking to be the worst environmental disaster in US history. In April of 2010, an exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and sank, blowing open a subsurface oil well.
Read More
Health Insurance Penalties: How They May Affect You
June 25, 2010
The health care bill has finally passed, and—theoretically—it’s supposed to extend coverage to millions of uninsured people as well as making it easier to buy insurance. But it’ll also financially penalize people who don’t buy insurance.
Read More
Military Veterans: Filling out Your FAFSA
June 23, 2010
Filling out a FAFSA is not the easiest of processes—even for straightforward traditional students. For military veterans, the FAFSA can get very complicated, very fast. Here are a few things to keep in mind when filling out your FAFSA as a military veteran.
Read More
The Lowdown on Scholarship Lotteries
June 21, 2010
Maybe you’ve seen this before. A website that advertises free money if you visit, play an online game, or enter yourself in a lottery. Some of these sites are specifically geared toward scholarships for school, while others just offer large cash prizes for students and non-students alike.
Read More
Distance Learning for Students with Special Needs
June 18, 2010
Online schools can be ideal for students with disabilities. For example, if you have mobility problems, attending school from home makes all classrooms much more accessible. The fact that all class materials and lectures are available to review repeatedly can be a help to some And an online learning environment can be less high-pressure and distracting for some students with concentration issues.
Read More
In The Recession, Is Your Adult Education Class In Trouble?
June 14, 2010
Many school districts that deliver adult education classes are severely cutting back on their programs—while others are cutting entire programs that support thousands of adult students.
And it’s coming at the worst possible time.
Read More
How Do I Apply for Student Loans With Bad Credit?
June 11, 2010
The market for student loans is getting tighter since the recession. All lenders are looking more closely at credit histories, income and collateral, and that includes student lenders. If you have bad credit, you may have more difficulty getting a student loan than you would have in past years.
Read More
Online Education: The Key to Low-Income Student Completion?
June 09, 2010
Recently, a study by Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit university based in Santa Ana, California, released a study that suggested for-profit colleges—including online schools—achieve better completion rates than two-year universities for low-income and first-generation college students.
Read More
