Tips for participating in online classes

The Advantages of Online Education

Want to advance in your career or change career's all together? Then going back to school is a must. Trying to find the right school for you could be challenging. If you're like most people you have a job, a family and this means, no time! The advance's of computer technology has made college more convenient then ever. Online education is an option for the person who needs to advance in their career without the hassle of keeping a tight schedule.

The advantages of getting an online education start with the convenience of the program. With some programs you can learn at your own pace. You do your work, when you have time. (Some colleges offer online classes, but sometimes you still need to show up to a classroom.) There is no need to rush around making sure homework assignments are done and trying to get to class on time. Your home is your classroom.

Another advantage of online education would be the cost. Comparing online education cost to a community college was a big surprise to me. I started out searching the web for online schools. Then weeded out the ones that were either too expensive or didn't offer what I needed. After researching the online schools, I then researched the community colleges in the area. The cost was astronomical, the amount of money they wanted per credit hour was outrageous and I wasn't paying! With the online school I chose, I was able to choose my own down payment, my monthly payment or I could have paid in full with an incentive of thirty-five percent off my tuition. For me the online school was much more affordable.

The structure of the programs online is amazing. I have many available resources which include: An online library, counseling if you need it, the professor's are available to answer any questions you have about your studies, and customer service to help you with your account questions. The entire web site is very easy to use; it actually shows you how to use it. My exam grades are instant. Sometimes I have to e-mail them to my instructor, but the wait is never long. I always know how I'm doing with my lessons. I can look up any grade and my lesson average is always posted.

Going to school has never been so comfortable and convenient, everything is at my fingertips. It has been very satisfying knowing I am in control of my education and that I'll have another skill added to my resume. Online education is absolutely wonderful for the person who doesn't have the time to follow a difficult college schedule and wants to save money.

Weekly College Madness Links

Poison Ivy (The Economist, Sept. 21, 2006)
In a review of Daniel Golden's book, "The Price of Admission:How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges -- and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates," the British magazine The Economist challenges the notion that American universities are engines of social justice, thronging with "diversity." On the contrary, elite universities do everything in their power to admit the children of privilege. Two groups of people overwhelmingly bear the burden of these policies -- Asian-Americans and poor whites.

Harvard Committee Recommends Returning Religion to Curriculum (CNN.com, October 4, 2006)
Harvard University, founded 370 years ago to train Puritan ministers, should again require all undergraduates to study religion, along with U.S. history and ethics, a faculty committee is recommending.

Deconstructing Harvard's Admissions Policy Change
A posting on a Williams College blog argues that in eliminating its early admissions program, Harvard is not just, or even primarily, interesting in improving its own policies. Rather, it wants to change the very structure of elite college admissions. Ending early admissions, however, will not necessarily make the process less pressured for applicants, as Harvard claims.

Oxbridge Closes on Harvard in Rankings (Times Educational Supplement, Oct. 5, 2006)
The Times Higher Education Supplement has published the 2006 world university rankings. American and British universities made up nearly half of the top 100 universities. The rankings were compiled by asking 3,703 academics worldwide to name the 30 best universities for research in their field of expertise, and also considering responses from 736 graduate employers globally, the ratio of faculty to students, and the university's ability to draw foreign students and world-renowned academics. The results were then weighted and transformed into a scale giving the top university a score of 100, with all subsequent institutions scoring a proportion of that score.

Below are the top 25 universities:

1) Harvard University (United States)
2) University of Cambridge (Britain)
3) University of Oxford (Britain)
4=) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States)
4=) Yale University (United States)
6) Stanford University (United States)
7) California Institute of Technology (United States)
8) University of California at Berkeley (United States)
9) Imperial College London (Britain)
10) Princeton University (United States)
11) University of Chicago (United States)
12) Columbia University (United States)
13) Duke University (United States)
14) Beijing University (China)
15) Cornell University (United States)
16) Australian National University (Australia)
17) London School of Economics (Britain)
18) Ecole Normale Superieure (France)
19) National University of Singapore (Singapore)
19) University of Tokyo (Japan)
21) McGill University (Canada)
22) University of Melbourne (Australia)
23) Johns Hopkins University (United States)
24) Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland)
25) University College London (United Kingdom)

Top of the Class

In a Talk of the Town piece in the October 2, 2006 edition of The New Yorker, Executive Editor Dorothy Wickenden discusses how "the competition to get into, or get one's kids into, the nation's most prestigious colleges and universities is unmatched for cutthroat ferocity. But it is echoed, however faintly, in the jousting among Ivy League administrators to be at the forefront of enlightened academic and social policy. A couple of weeks ago, Harvard announced that it was suspending its early-admissions program. A few days later, Princeton scrapped its program entirely. Although most schools aren't likely to follow that lead any time soon, it has sparked another round of welcome debate within academe about the need to reform college admissions."