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Math majors face one of the most difficult of all intellectual pursuits. But there’s a huge payoff for those brave enough to rise to the challenge: higher salaries, better job satisfaction, and the opportunity to apply math skills to nearly any career.

A Worthy Challenge

Students who major in math certainly don’t have it easy. Math requires you to think in abstract terms, then apply what you’ve learned practically, which is difficult to do. And top math students may spend 12 to 15 hours per class in addition to lectures and sections. For a student taking 12 hours, that’s 60 hours of work each week at the minimum. Perhaps that’s why math majors rank among the lowest GPAs at 2.90, below economics, but above chemistry.

Yet where math majors may struggle to keep up with the rigorous demands of this often difficult area of study, they enjoy the reward of meeting the challenge. For math majors, a future of infinite possibilities and an above average job outlook awaits.

If you’re planning to pursue a career in business, law, or medicine, math may not be the first major you think of, but maybe it should be. According to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education, math majors score substantially higher on admission tests for graduate and professional schools. In fact, math majors score 12.8% higher on the LSAT, and 13.3% higher on the GMAT. Professional graduate schools view math as a highly desirable major because it develops analytical and problem solving skills.

But even if your interests aren’t leading you to grad school, your future as a math major is bright: math majors enjoy salaries 14.9% higher than chemistry majors, and 37.7% higher than English majors. Math majors enjoy better job satisfaction as well. In a ranking of the most satisfying jobs based on factors like environment, stress, and outlook, math careers swept the top three, with mathematicians topping the list, followed by actuaries and statisticians.

Is Math a Good Fit for You?

The study of math satisfies a variety of interests. Ben Levitt, the Chief of Education at the Museum of Math explains that those who enjoy engineering, art, economics, music, biology, puzzles, astronomy, or games are also likely to find an interest in math.

“I studied math and now work in a museum,” so there’s really no telling where math can take you, says Levitt, encouraging students to pursue a mathematics degree. He highlights math careers that students may not have considered, like work on video games, medical research, public policy, and filmHis best advice for students considering math? “Do it!”

Math professionals come from a variety of backgrounds and interests. Levitt studied literature as an undergrad before getting his PhD in math. And what led him to math was the same thing that made him want to study poetry: “I wanted to better understand the world and find the answers to interesting questions,” Levitt says.

Mark Herschberg, CTO at Madison Logic got into math because he enjoyed secret codes as a kid. So a quantitative undergraduate study was a natural fit for him, and he found cryptography to be a fun pursuit.

Competitive Salaries for Mathematicians

Compared to other majors, math grads are doing well financially. How well? Well enough to keep your home office stacked with all the graphing calculators and vintage abacuses your heart desires.

In PayScale’s 2012-2013 College Salary Report, math majors took three of the top 10 majors by salary potential: actuarial mathematics, applied mathematics, and statistics. Math was bested only by engineering and computer science, which rounded out the remaining seven. But math is an essential skill for any engineer or computer scientist, so all of the top majors were math related.

Actuarial mathematics, PayScale’s No. 3 major by salary potential, boasts a mid-career median pay of $112,000. And even statistics, which is the 10th ranked major, will bring in a nearly six-figure salary of $99,500 by mid-career. Compare that with 54th ranked accounting, which is generally considered to be a stable career, but offers a much lower mid-career salary of $74,500. And there’s no contest between math and art majors, who are ranked 100th with a mid-career salary of $56,700.

Jobs for Math Majors

Just what are these six-figure jobs for math majors? Most of the math professionals we spoke with have high profile positions as presidents, CEOs, or CTOs. But math majors can really do anything. Math teacher Benjamin John Coleman jokes, “Is there a job that isn’t math related?” And it seems there really isn’t. We Use Math highlights all of the careers that find value in mathematics, ranging from Major League Baseball to fighting terrorism and practicing law.

With skills in logic, analytical and abstract thinking, and problem solving, all of which are among the skills most sought after by employers, math majors are likely to have their pick of potential careers. And “knowing your numbers” has been identified as one of the three most important skills to land a job.

According to the Mathematical Association of America, popular career choices for math majors include:

• Teaching, a high-demand field with even higher demand for qualified math teachers. (Average high school teacher salary: $54,390.
• Actuarial science, which applies math and statistics to finance and insurance. (Average actuarial salary $87,650)
• Computer science, a field that shows a huge potential for further growth. (Average computer programmer salary: $71,380)
• Operations research, using mathematics for optimal decision making in business, health care, and beyond. (Average operations research analyst salary: $70,960)
• Biomathematics, bringing together natural and biological processes with mathematical techniques and tools for applications in population genetics, epidemic modeling, and more. (Average statistician salary: $72,830)
• Cryptography, the practice and study of hiding information that’s not just for spies anymore. (Average cryptographer salary: $121,000)
• Finance, which includes financial advising, risk management, market research, analysis, and controlling. (Average financial analyst salary: $74,350)

Mathematicians in the Real World

Nathan Popkins is the founder and CEO of Cumulus Funding, a consumer finance company. He earned his degree in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern in 2001. In addition to managing the company as an executive, Popkins uses math to work with data sets for predictive risk models, profitably underwriting new customers. He pursued a math degree because he felt like data analysis was a powerful tool to see how the world works, and with the proliferation of Big Data, he’s seen that skill become more valuable and relevant. His undergraduate work focused on the practical applications for math, and he’s found that it was the perfect preparation for the work he does today. He even keeps a number of “dog eared textbooks” in his office that he originally acquired as an undergrad. And he really enjoys using his math background to help his customers with financial services products that are unique and well-tailored to their needs.

“As you work your way through your math degree, constantly be asking your instructors what the practical applications are for what you’re learning,” he says. Doing so will allow you to better understand how math works in applications like finance. And even for students who aren’t pursuing math degrees, Popkins urges they take at least a one or two math classes in college, preferably statistics, as “even a modicum of quantitative ability can set you apart from your peers.”

Bjorn Roche is the president of XO Audio, a provider of digital audio software for the pro audio industry. Roche graduated from Swathmore College in 2001 with a BA in Mathematics with a concentration in computer science. His math degree prepared him for the highly interdisciplinary field of audio technology, allowing him to work on interesting projects like a web-based audio editor and a new text-message based system for firefighter emergency dispatch. “I never thought I would use my technical — or music — skills to help fight fires,” says Roche, adding that his math degree as essential to building discipline and the ability to understand complex problems, skills he uses in music and recording.

“Mathematics is a great degree if you are not sure what to study because it prepares you for getting jobs in a variety of fields,” says Roche. “Math is an amazingly powerful tool that can be applied to literally every other discipline. If you are not sure what you want to do career-wise, mathematics is a nice way of not closing too many doors as you go through college.”

Mark Herschberg is CTO at Madison Logic, provider of data powered lead solutions, overseeing software development, QA, the IT system, and the data science team. He earned a BS in Physics and BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, as well as an MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with heavy class time doing mathematical proofs. In his masters work, Herschberg created the world’s first fully secure software based voting system, designed to provide anonymous voting while preventing ballot box stuffing. Today, he uses his analytical reasoning skills in data and beyond, and enjoys being able to work with in an environment surrounded by other smart people.

“The world will continue to change as will which jobs are in demand, but having a math degree will give you skills for multiple careers that will absolutely be in demand for decades to come,” explains Herschberg. Nearly every industry has a quantitative problem that needs solving, and grads who can demonstrate the ability to find solutions will find that ability to be a powerful selling point. Herschberg encourages math majors to consider regression modeling and basic programming, as they offer employability in a number of fields.

“Today’s Don Draper doesn’t win business with charm and clever slogans from a team of writers,” says Herschberg. “He does so by showing statistically meaningful improved results from trial and error marketing campaigns created by his team of quants.”

Benjamin John Coleman is a middle school math teacher, as well as an origami artist. He earned a BS in Mathematics with a minor in Economics from Worcester State University in 2003. As a math teacher, Coleman says he has the “greatest job in the world,” teaching multisensory math to middle schoolers in Massachusetts. His understanding of math has also influenced his work in origami, as the practice of artful paper folding is fundamentally a hands-on approach to geometry. Coleman relishes being able to make a difference with his work as a teacher and having an impact on his students as they become excited about math. “Working with young people is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” says Coleman. And he especially enjoys the “fundamental truth” that can be found in math, as he relates that nearly anything can be argued, but 1+1=2 is an indisputable fact.

Coleman, who returned to college at the age of 38, admittedly unprepared and terrified, was able to pass each course on the first attempt. “If I can do it, anyone can do it,” assures Coleman, who researched YouTube for informational videos when he was stuck on a problem.

Is math a good choice for you? If you’re willing to invest a few years of rigorous work for a lifetime of possibilities, it just might be. Math is everywhere, and it’s everywhere today’s grads want to be.

The post Math Majors Hold the Key to Tomorrow’s Most Valuable Jobs appeared first on Online Degrees.

The demise of the ubiquitous presentation tool has been predicted for a few years now. Sure, it gets the job done, but there is a whole new generation of presentation tools that do the job while making more engaging, creative, and eye-catching slides that can help you tell your story and connect with even more people. In today’s 21st century workforce, your resume will not be complete without them.

Going Online

With each new tablet and social network that launches, more of our interactions are happening online, from Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn and Google +. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center report, half of all Americans use social media, compared to only 5% just six years prior. Given our increasingly reliance on the online world, it’s only natural that our work shifts online, too.

“As more and more of our interactions become asynchronous and globalized, the need to present information online becomes greater,” says Chiara Ojeda, an educator, blogger and speaker who blogs at Tweak Your Slides.

Enter presentations tools like SlideShare, SlideRocket, and Google Slides, which make it easy to create slides and share them online with your classmates, colleagues, or a global audience of millions. More sophisticated tools like cloud-based presentation app Prezi.com do away with the idea of individual slides altogether to help you make impressive, modern-looking animated presentations on a seemingly endless canvas. Along that line are video scribe tools like Doodle and PowToon, which can truly animate your ideas. Not only can these presentations become more engaging, they can help your audience understand the subject matter better. One of the most popular Prezi presentations can teach you about the theory of relativity by showing it to you in action through a nifty animated elevator.

These presenting tools are prevalent in business, as well as IT, marketing, and education, and are quickly becoming essential. Jennifer Stagner manages SEO and ecommerce sales for office supply website www.tops-products.com and regularly uses Google Docs and SlideRocket to communicate with coworkers in other parts of the country.

“I use online tools for every presentation, whether it is presenting sales analysis to our executive team, search engine optimization best practices to our content team, training presentations to our technical support team, or product solutions to our customers,” says Stagner. “As a manager of a large department I also believe that students who are familiar with online presentation tools will be more valuable to future employers.”

If you’re an undergraduate student, graduate student, or recent graduate, now is the time to learn how to learn these tools and get these increasingly valuable skills on your resume. You can use them now in your classwork or internship, and have them in your arsenal for when you enter the workforce.

“This is absolutely an important skill,” says Ojeda. “Particularly because those already established in the workforce tend to do things in the old death-by-PowerPoint style, the opportunity for young, 21st century-workers to set themselves apart by taking on the tools of 21st-century presenting is very great.”

The Online Presentations Tools You Need To Know

Because many of these presentation tools are free, you can get started learning how to use them right now and incorporate them into your own assignments. Here’s our primer to understanding the more popular online presentation tools — and how to get the most out of them:

• Google Slides: For Google’s version of PowerPoint, check out the Google Slides section of its Google Drive cloud storage (previously known as Google Docs). Through this free online presentations app, you can create and edit presentations using pre-made templates and inserting images and videos. For more collaborative projects, you can edit the presentation with fellow students or coworkers. Once it’s ready, you can share with others via Google Drive, download as a PDF, PPT, or .txt file, or even embed onto a website.

• SlideRocket: Like Google Slides, SlideRocket helps you make presentations online. But the website also has more sophisticated tools so you can add animations and transitions. You can also include data from real-time sources, like Twitter live feeds and Yahoo! Finance stock quotes, for an always up-to-date presentation. When you’re finished, you can publish your presentation as a URL, which you can then embed in a web page or blog or share with others. There is one caveat — this popular tool is at a bit of a crossroads. Following an acquisition by ClearSlide, a sales-based presentation platform, SlideRocket is not currently accepting new registrations for its services. So you’ll have to stay tuned to see what’s next in store.

• SlideShare: As the name implies, SlideShare is all about sharing your work. If you made a presentation through PowerPoint, OpenOffice, or Keynote, you can upload it to this online community to share with a global audience. The free website supports a variety of documents, including PDFs, MSOffice, OpenOffice, and iWorks docs, which you can add audio to through the site. You can upload presentations publicly or privately and share on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, or embed on blogs, wikis, or websites. The site can be valuable for when you’re conducting research, too, thanks to the thousands of uploaded SlideShares covering any number of searchable subjects.

• Prezi: One of the more advanced tools of them all, this cloud-based presentation app uses Adobe Flash to help you choreograph non-linear, dynamic presentations. Its signature rotate and zoom capability can be useful for conveying complex ideas, so it might not be best for every project. It’s free to sign up, and you start with 100 MB of cloud storage. Working in a group? You can collaborate on a prezi with others in real time. When your presentation is ready, you can share publicly or download to present offline.

• Skitch: Visuals are key in any presentation, and this free Mac image editor app from Evernote lets you easily manipulate your images and add annotations, shapes, and sketches.

• Keynote: When working offline, many designers prefer this Apple product to other desktop-based presentation tools like PowerPoint to make their slides. Choose from more than 25 transitions, made 3-D charts, or morph text from one slide into the next for visually stunning slides that can then be uploaded to a site like SlideShare.

The Next Generation

To some presentation gurus, even cutting-edge tools Prezi and SlideShare are already passe, and the future of presentation belongs to video scribing — a new form of visual story telling that uses whiteboard animation, stop-motion photography, or illustrations to explain a concept.

“The days of PowerPoint, Slideshare, even Prezi are not long for the world,” says Duane Siebert, founder of www.TonerRefillKits.com. “People are suckers for motion, videos, more engagement, more entertainment.”

Siebert would know. He regularly creates “doodle-art” whiteboard videos using tools like Powtoons.com, as well as YouTube videos based on PowerPoint files, effectively for his business. These video presentations can make even the most mundane topics watchable and engaging. Siebert himself will tell you that his YouTube videos have garnered more than 300,000 views on stuff as boring as toner for printers.

Some of the emerging players in this animated arena include PowToon, a free animated presentation online software tool; Sparkol VideoScribe, a subscription-based whiteboard animation tool; and Camtasia Studio, an app that turns screen recordings into video. And as is usually the case with adapting brand new technology, younger people are at an advantage.

“A huge leg up young people have on us ‘old farts’ is that they are so keenly aware of the cutting edge nature of video, what’s appealing, what is eye-catching,” says Siebert. “It is far easier for them to see the power of tools like these and come up to speed on them far faster.”

Tips for a Killer Presentation

Though the tools themselves may have evolved, what makes a great presentation indeed great still relies on three key things: content, delivery, and visual presentation. Jim Endicott, author of The Presentation Survival Skills Guide, calls this a three-legged stool, a concept that Nancy Duarte, author of slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, expanded on more recently with her presentation ecosystem. It all boils down to this:

“A presentation is strong in three areas: content that is dynamic, real, and resonates; delivery that is natural, engaging, and connected; and slides or visuals that are design-centered and visual in approach,” says Ojeda. “Each one takes unique preparation, self-critique, the critique of others, revision, and practice. An effective presentation is one that leaves the audience wanting to take action and effectiveness doesn’t come without [these] characteristics.”

Here are some tips to help you make effective presentations, whether you’re using online tools like SlideRocket, Google Docs, SlideShare, and Prezi, or, yes, even PowerPoint:

Follow by example: There are thousands of online presentations out there, curated by design and presentation blogs. It’s likely the more popular ones will also be some of the more engage, too, so point around and learn by example to see what works. “Study great presenters, don’t just go it alone,” says Ojeda.

Be succinct: An online presentation isn’t an essay — less text is better. And better than text is an image. “You want to avoid too many words on a slide or too many slides; often you can relay the same concept with an interesting visual or infographic instead,” says Stagner.

Rehearse: If you’re in school, you’re likely not just uploading your work to sites to let it potentially go viral; you’re presenting it before a classroom. And just like any presentation, it’s important to practice and put the time into the actual presenting — not just the presentation itself. “Don’t procrastinate, prepare instead,” says Ojeda.

Getting Started Now

Becoming proficient in any or all of these online presentation tools can be a valuable addition to your resume and portfolio. And the best part is you can start now; many of these tools are free and provide tutorials to help get you on your feet. You’ll be wowing your fellow classmates, professors, and future employers in no time.

The post The New Presentations appeared first on Online Degrees.

For many young college graduates, making enough money to eat, pay bills and student loans, and stash a little away for a rainy day is a struggle in itself. Unemployment and underemployment, where you’re employed in a job for which you’re significantly overqualified, are both still serious problems for recent grads. Even those in jobs related to the careers they want aren’t necessarily making enough money to easily cover all their necessary expenses, let alone low-priority expenses like charity. While many young people may want to contribute to their universities, monetary donations just aren’t an option available to everyone.

So how do you give back to your university when you’re poor? Turns out there are a lot of ways.

Volunteering

Volunteering may conjure images of roadside crews cleaning up litter or people painting houses, but there are hundreds of ways you can volunteer. Harvard recently made news when it sent out an email to thousands of alumni asking them to volunteer as online mentors and discussion group managers for an online humanities course. While most schools aren’t asking for this kind of volunteers (yet), there are often plenty of options for alumni who want to get involved in some capacity.

The University of Oklahoma Alumni Association Executive Director Dave Hail says they often use the “three Ts” to describe the contributions alumni can make to their schools: time, talent, and treasure. “Of course the financial contributions are important, but in many ways, time and talent can benefit the university just as much,” Hail says.

On the more typical volunteering side, many schools offer programs for community service or event volunteers, which can be ongoing or just take a day of your time. Arizona State University involves alumni in its ASU Cares program where community volunteer projects are organized around the country once a year. Stanford University also hosts a Global Day of Service. Take a look at your alma mater’s website to see if there’s a day you can take part in improving your own community in the name of your school.

There are plenty of unique (and entertaining) opportunities for volunteering across the country.

• Arizona State alum can help throw tailgates at away games.
• University of South Florida encourages alumni to advocate on its behalf to the legislature as part of its Council of 100.
• At the University of Pennsylvania, opportunities range from volunteering at the library, sewing lap quilts for cancer patients at the cancer research institute, or helping out at the annual Homecoming Run.

Volunteering for campus events can be a great way to contribute to the university by making sure current students have the best experience possible. “Alumni involvement in the university community can help ‘pay it forward’ to students by enriching their experiences and keeping traditions alive,” says Dr. Larry Routh, an alumni career specialist at the University of Nebraska.

Most schools have banks of volunteering opportunities for alumni, so no matter where your talents or interests lie, you can find a way to give back to your community and your school.

Off campus, recruitment is a common and important task that alumni can take on. University of Alabama alumni can volunteer as recruiters or recommend students for DISCOVERING BAMA, a highly personalized campus visit for high school students interested in the university. The University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, and many colleges across the country also have official programs for alumni to help recruit the next generation. If yours doesn’t, you can still contribute by recommending your school to intelligent and talented high school students in your community. Answer their questions and encourage them to look into your alma mater if you think they’d be a good fit.

“A university is so much more than the physical buildings, facilities, and programs that often get the headlines,” says Hail. “The community created by the people involved really defines a university. We have a tendency to think in terms of student recruit/enrolled student/graduate and have these lines that define our relationship to our alma mater. But the best-case scenario is when those lines are blurred and we think about it as a continuum of experience. When we as alumni continue that relationship, we not only feel like we’re still a part of the university community but a part of a whole new generation’s experience as well.”

Career guidance

With a tough job market that relies largely on who you know and whether you understand how to get your foot in the door, students can benefit greatly from hearing from alumni working in their chosen field. You could even argue that they benefit more, or at least more directly, from contributions to their careers than they do from monetary donations you make to a general fund.

Even if you’re a more recent graduate who has found a job, you have great insight into today’s economic climate. “I’ve found giving career advice to students about to graduate to be a fulfilling, free way to give back to my alma maters,” Zane Schwarzlose, who works in Internet marketing at Fahrenheit Marketing and earned degrees at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas, says. “Since I’m in a very specific field, I let the career advisor (at my alma mater) know that I’m willing to help students. If she hears about a student who wants to go into Internet marketing, she can send them my contact information.”

Just making yourself available like Schwarzlose has can have an impact on students’ career prospects. If you don’t know who to contact, reach out to alumni relations or your specific college within the university and they should be able to put you in touch with the right person.

If you want to be more actively involved in a student’s life, find out if there’s a mentoring program set up. For example, there’s an Alumni Mentor Network for Oklahoma University alumni, according to Hail; current students can contact alumni within their field or in a specific geographic region for advice in leadership, finding contacts, interviewing, and more. Fordham University has a similar mentoring program, helping students get advice on their resumes, visit workplaces, and learn to network. There are often mentoring programs for more specific demographics, such as University of Nebraska’s Cather Circle, a professional development program for women, or the Villanova Law Minority Mentoring Program. Teaming up with an alumnus with first-hand experience in a field or location they’re interested in is an invaluable experience for any student about to face the real world or trying to decide on a career path.

Alumni career events are also excellent opportunities to share your knowledge. They can be a useful option for people who may not have enough time to become a mentor, but want to contribute. Most schools provide chances for alumni to come back for single events, like roundtable discussions, workshops, and mock interviews if their expertise fits the event. If your knowledge is more limited than these events allow, you can always contact a professor or dean from your academic program to see if you might come to a class one day as a guest speaker or even Skype in to chat.

Greek life

If you went Greek during your time in school, your ties to that organization may be just as strong as your ties to the university itself. You don’t have to choose between supporting one or the other. By giving back to your Greek organization, you are also helping to continue traditions and community-building at your school.

Greek alumni can give back in many of the same ways college alumni do. Nicki Meneley, the executive director of the National Panhellenic Conference, suggests serving as mentors to collegiate members, giving advice on job searches, and support in networking. “Especially if a sorority alumna is an ‘expert’ in a specific field or situation, she can serve as a great speaker for a chapter’s programming or meetings,” she says. “If a sorority alumna can provide valuable advice to a collegiate chapter, or even an entire Panhellenic community, she is giving back in a very unique way and it will mean a lot to the organization as a whole.”

Don’t have the expertise? Just represent your organization. “One of the best ways to support sorority life as an alumna is to ‘tell your story’ and to spread the word about the wonderful benefits of sorority life to women who are interested in getting involved,” Meneley says. “For example, Alumnae Panhellenic organizations often host recruitment information events to help educate women in their area who want to join a sorority on how the process works and why sorority life is beneficial to their college experience.”

How to Get Started

• Do your research: Universities rely on donations and volunteer efforts of alumni and friends to thrive, so most schools include helpful information on their websites. Check out the pages for your alumni relations department, your alumni association, and calendar of events. How do you fit in? Look up alumni events at Homecoming, whether there are mentoring and volunteering programs in place, or if other alumni have previously acted as guest speakers.
• Get in contact: If you can’t find what you’re looking for on your school’s website, reach out. If you have an idea in mind for how you want to help or if you just want to make yourself available, contact alumni relations or professors in your academic program. They’ll probably be open to your suggestions or put you in contact with someone who can help you put your plan into action.
• Find a chapter: A disadvantage many alumni face is living far from campus. Volunteering for campus events or ongoing campus projects isn’t possible, especially when you consider the costs of travel and accommodation. But that’s not the only way to get involved. Most schools have alumni chapters in major cities and online communities for those who don’t live near a chapter. Find out what’s available in your community and get involved. Even contributing to discussions or answering potential student questions online can go a long way. And if there’s no chapter in your town, reach out to your school or alumni association to find out about starting one.
• Consider all of your skills: If you’re a young alumnus, you may not have established yourself in your field yet, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have some skills or knowledge to contribute. Are you skilled in graphic design, have great organizational skills, or have created an awesome network for yourself? Ask your university or specific school if they need any posters designed, find out if your local alumni chapter is looking for help planning an event, or offer yourself to students in your field for networking advice and some contacts. Still stumped at what you can offer? At the very least, you have first-hand experience with the current job market as a new grad that you can share, something professors can’t give their students.

“It’s a common and reasonable misconception that alumni can only contribute when they have the financial resources to write a check,” Hail says. “Serving on a local club committee, hosting a table at student recruitment event, volunteering to be a mentor, or offering expertise to students in your academic area are all great ways to stay involved without any financial gift. All of these things can serve to be a part of the continuum of experience with our alma mater, and that lifetime relationship is priceless.”

Even if you don’t have the cash to hand out the next time the university fundraisers call you, don’t ignore the non-monetary contributions you can make to your school. Making a connection with your school and helping create a positive experience for future generations can be just as beneficial. Find out what opportunities your school already offers and don’t be afraid to suggest new ways that you’d like to give back.

The post How to Donate to Your College Even When You’re Poor appeared first on Online Degrees.

Post-Retirement Careers

Those who are able to retire often want to work at least a part-time schedule in order to earn extra income and remain engaged with the world. Many even choose to follow through with dreams they once had as young people. As noted in a recent article in Forbes, ‘encore careers’ frequently involve stints with charity groups, non-profit organizations or other volunteer agencies. Many older Americans find fulfilling post-retirement employment with organizations such as Teach for America and the Peace Corps.

Others build on the skills they developed over a lifetime to create service-oriented second careers. One long-time litigator established an agency to find pro bono lawyers for social entrepreneurs. Another, a former PR consultant, became a senior move manager, helping others downsize their lives when they moved into smaller homes. Although their new careers may not be nearly as lucrative as if they had remained at their old positions, these seniors enjoy fulfilling second careers that reinvigorate them.

One profession growing across age groups is the home-based entrepreneur; those over 50, with their years of experience and fully developed professional skills, have a qualified advantage over younger self-starters. Some of the most common home-based job titles among the AARP crowd include handyman (or woman), real estate appraiser, senior helper, and financial planner.

Many seniors are tapping into their skills and flexible schedules to become freelance workers. Those who speak a second language are highly desired as translators. Others, whose first career was in human resources or conflict resolution, are often hired as mediators. Those who spent years conducting research and tending to details find work as blog and grant writers.

There are a few helpful guidelines for those switching careers later in life. First, think about what you want your life to be going forward and choose a career that fits that vision. Second, particularly if you’re thinking of investing in a new home based business or franchise, take it for a “test ride” first by volunteering in the field. Third, become visible on social media and other networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter.

Professional Development

Professional development is an ongoing enterprise for anyone who is serious about acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary for furthering their career. Although many individuals receive professional development opportunities through work, others enroll in online college courses and attend conferences and seminars to hone new skills.

Seniors can often take college courses at reduced tuition rates, and sometimes for free. According to a recent report, nearly 60% of accredited colleges waive tuition for older adults. There may be a few hurdles to jump through before you get the waiver, such as obtaining an instructor’s permission, but the savings are worth it.

Another frugal option is to simply audit a course. Since many professionals over 50 no longer have to prove their qualifications with a degree, simply having the knowledge to apply in the workplace is often sufficient. Community colleges are generally less expensive, and many offer reduced-fee classes designed for seniors.

One caveat: older adults should weigh the risks and benefits of college if they’re thinking of attending a full-tuition program. With fewer years left to recoup the cost of that tuition, it simply may not be worth paying for a new degree. One far less expensive option is to learn new skills through professional development seminars. Some of the most popular careers that can be started this way include medical transcriptionist, substitute teaching, practical nursing, freelance writing, and home-based healthcare.

Continuing Education

Whether seeking a second career or just satisfying an interest, a number of online course options are ideal for seniors. Even the under 50 set enjoy the flexibility and lower cost of the thousands of classes available on the web. Many courses are offered for free, a boon for those on a fixed income, and the flexible structure enables students to learn at their own pace.

One such online education site, Coursera.org, offers a wide variety of online classes that are free of charge. Courses are taught by top educators from colleges across the country; subjects range from genetics and calculus to digital programming and Greek mythology. Anyone in need of credentials, such as people hoping to launch a career in financial planning, can take a flexible online course and receive a verified certificate for a modest fee.

Others who are looking to move into positions with service organizations can also find informative and engaging online material. The courses offered at Edx, which are taught by professors from top universities like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, explore themes that have great appeal to those who wish to enter the public sector, such as justice and poverty.

Another option for seniors looking to broaden their minds is free educational content known as open courseware, or OCW. MIT has made nearly all of its course content available for free through the school’s OPENCOURSEWARE site. This open content is perfect for the self-starter who can learn on his own, such as an entrepreneur hoping to launch a home-based business.

Whether they are looking to take a different path or develop a new skill, older Americans have found that continuing their education is a great way to enhance life after 50. Take some time to explore the wide array of professional development opportunities, seminars and conferences, formal coursework and online materials designed to make your retirement years as much fun, fulfilling, and productive as the first 50.

The post The After-50 Guide to Continuing Education appeared first on Online Degrees.

We’ve broken down the basics of scholarships for you. Where to find them, how to apply for them and why you (or your student) will definitely want to bother. However, before we get into all that…

What are Scholarships, Exactly?

Scholarships are a form of financial aid awarded to students to further their education based on any number of different criteria; scholarships usually reflect the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.

You will likely have heard scholarships discussed along with other sources of aid such as grants and student loans. Like scholarships, student loans are designed to help students pay for university tuition, books and living expenses. However, the difference is — and it’s a key difference — loans must be paid back, with interest.

Grants for college are similar to scholarships, in that grants are not expected to be paid back. They are often seen as an investment on the part of the organization giving the grant. For that reason, grants often require much more compliance and reporting on the part of the recipient than scholarships. That being said, many scholarships still require a student to maintain a certain level of scholarly conduct and a minimum GPA.

In recent years, a common misperception regarding scholarships has formed: students from specific, non-white ethnic groups have more opportunities for scholarships based on their minority status within the US. However, a 2011 report illustrates that Caucasian students still receive a disproportionate share of private scholarships and merit-based grants. In fact, Caucasian students receive more than three times as much in merit-based grant and private scholarship funding as minority students.

The Different Scholarships Available

Despite inequities, the sheer number of scholarships available to students of every walk of life continues to grow. Virtually every prospective college student is eligible for some type of scholarship, and there is no limit to the number of scholarships available to one person. Here are some of the most common:

Academic

When people think of scholarships, academic achievement is probably what springs to mind first. Many high profile scholarships are based on academic merit — especially a student’s GPA. It’s worth noting that extracurriculars and volunteer work also tend to factor into merit-based awards. Some academic scholarships offer a relatively large payout – some even offering a “full ride” scholarship. While students will push themselves to win such giant sums, regardless of what sort of scholarship they actually end up with, simply earning a scholarship at all is an accomplishment that always look very good on a resume.

Athletic

There are some students whose athletic abilities are so exceptional that universities all over the country vie to award them generous scholarships. Landing a stellar athlete can mean years of success — and money — for prominent universities. It should be noted, however, even for athletic scholarships, students must also be able to demonstrate a solid academic performance; scholastics are still the backbone of the collegiate experience.

Need-Based

Need-based scholarships are offered to students who would otherwise be unable to attend college due to financial constraints. These are offered at nearly every major university, with some schools even promising to offer need-based aid to any eligible student who would not be able to attend the school due to economic hardship.

Minority Groups

Almost every ethnic or minority group has a scholarship dedicated to recognizing and awarding exceptional students from a specific background; this includes women, who, while not a minority, were long considered a minority in the world of advanced degrees. There are also scholarships offered to minority groups in general, usually in the interest of promoting academic diversity. Funding for these scholarships comes from various sources, ranging from government programs to universities and private organizations.

Veterans

For veterans of the U.S. armed forces, there are a variety of scholarships designed to enhance opportunities and increase the number of vets who go on to college and pursue lucrative careers. Veterans scholarships are offered by the U.S., as well as a variety of veterans groups, nonprofits, and even some private organizations.

Community Service

There are also a number of scholarships available for students who, as upstanding citizens, have made meaningful contributions to their community. These scholarships can be somewhat less common — and somewhat less known — than merit-based awards. This can limit the number of applicants and increase the chances of being a recipient.

How to Apply for Scholarships

When it comes to scholarships, the sooner you start researching what’s out there, the better. You’ll not only get to spend more time crafting your applications, you’ll get to apply to more scholarships, increasing your chances of landing some great financial aid.

Remember, every scholarship has its own distinct requirements. It’s smart to reach out to people in the know who can direct you to the applications worth your while. Both your high school guidance counselor and the financial aid office at universities you are applying to, or hoping to apply to, help students with their financial aid choices for a living. Getting in touch with them as early as possible will help them find what best suits you.

Of course, the 21st century student also has ample opportunity to do research on their own. In fact, public libraries are an excellent place to do some independent sourcing of possible scholarships.

Every scholarship has its own deadline, and it’s up to you to keep track of each on you are going for. You will likely have to fill out an application online, or print the application and turn it in via the post office prior to the deadline.

If and when you are finally awarded a scholarship, it’s worth knowing that you may never have direct access to the funds. In some cases the funds are sent directly to the college to cover your tuition and other academic expenses. However, if there is still something left over, some scholarships will give the remaining money to the recipient in the form of a check.

In Conclusion

It takes time to track down great scholarships, put together a great application and wait to hear back from an organization. However, for motivated students, they can be a fantastic investment. Well before your first day at college, applying for scholarships allows you to get a head start on the independence that makes the college experience such a unique and worthwhile transition into adulthood.

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Table of Contents

• Social Media and the Student
• College Email Privacy
• Legal Protections Offered to Students

Think you can’t be kicked off campus for a tweet? Or that messages sent through your school email aren’t anyone’s business but your own? As many students are finding out, the web offers as many challenges to their free speech and privacy in college as it does opportunities to connect.

The same resources that allow students to connect, learn, and share with others also allow their actions to be tracked and monitored, often by colleges themselves who may limit how students can use certain sites, what they can say, and may even be able to access and search students communications sent through their networks. Colleges have begun to more closely monitor how students use their internal networks and social media alike, resulting in some major confrontations between students and administrators, some of which have even made national news.

While Millennials have consistently been branded as not caring about privacy in the online sphere, research shows quite the opposite. Young people, college students included, care just as much about protecting personal information online as their older counterparts, even more so when it comes to social networks. Yet it’s not always clear how to best protect this privacy, when it’s at risk, and what laws protect privacy rights. The following resource explores the increasingly complicated issue of colleges and student privacy in the digital age.

 

Social Media and the Student

Over the past few years, social media has become a major part of how nearly everyone, young and old, uses the web to connect, share, and find information. Colleges haven’t missed out on this trend, creating Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, and even their own internal social networks to connect students, alumni, and faculty members. In many ways, this has been a positive change, as it allows students to learn more about schools before attending, to network, and even to keep up with what’s going on with a school on a daily basis. Some students even report being able to build up groups of friends before setting foot on campus, easing the transition to college life and setting students up for greater success.

Yet not every aspect of the expansion of colleges into social networks has been positive. Students may find that their social media profiles are subject to scrutiny from admissions officers during the admissions process, with officials looking for any activities or information that might indicate that a student is a less than ideal candidate to attend their university.

It might seem trivial, but the issue has become such a big deal that many prospective students have begun changing their names on Facebook or deleting social media accounts altogether to avoid scrutiny from admissions officials. It may just be a smart move as a recent survey found that, more than 25% of 350 admissions officers at top schools use Facebook and Google to look up prospective students.

Cases Making Headlines

It doesn’t take much effort to find examples of schools challenging students’ right to privacy and free speech when using social media. At Catawba Valley Community College, student Marc Bechtol was banned from campus and suspended him for two semesters for complaining via Facebook about the school’s aggressive marketing of a debit card, which he believed led to his information being shared without his permission. His comments, which he immediately retracted, cost him his enrollment at the school, but the decision was reversed once the Foundation for Individual rights in Education (FIRE) got involved. Still, Bechtol didn’t get off without a scratch. He now has to notify the school anytime he uses campus computers.

Rulings aren’t always in student’s favor, however. University of Minnesota student Amanda Tatro found herself in hot water after making some off-color remarks on Facebook about her mortuary science courses. The university wasn’t pleased and gave her a failing grade in the course, forced to her take an ethics class, and required a psychiatric evaluation. Tatro felt the punishment violated her free speech rights, but the Minnesota Supreme Court didn’t agree, stating that schools can reasonably limit speech if it is disruptive.

Student and dedicated environmentalist Hayden Barnes felt the impact of social media’s impact on free speech after he posted a collage of Valdosta State University president’s remarks regarding the construction of a $30 million parking facility on campus. Barnes didn’t realize his Facebook account was being monitored by the president, already aware of Barnes’ outspoken activism against the project, who decided to expel him for the remarks. While the case is still ongoing, the school’s president was found liable for violating the student’s due process rights.

Protecting Yourself

So what can you do to keep your social media profiles private and out of the reach of your college?

A good first step is to learn what rights your individual state gives you with regard to social media privacy and what the rules are in place at your school for social media use. Knowing where you stand with regard to both the law and the rules of your individual institution will help you to understand your rights and your obligations and may take some of the mystery out of what you can expect when using social media before and during your college years.

If you haven’t already done so, it’s also smart to ensure that your social media profiles — every single one of them — are as private as the settings of each site will allow. This may mean requiring passwords to access your content or changing settings so that friends can’t tag you in photos or posts. For those who are truly worried about privacy concerns, blogging, tweeting, or using other social media sites under an alias might be an option. However, not all sites allow or encourage this, and some, like Google Plus, make it very difficult to create fake profiles.

“In truth, there is no such thing as true privacy on social media,” said Steven Shattuck, of Slingshot SEO and Social Media Today. “Anything you post can be viewed and shared by anyone, even if you have ‘privacy’ settings set to the max. The only true way to have privacy is to not use social media at all.”

Since for most students, totally disconnecting isn’t an option, Shattuck advises, “students should take caution not to post anything intensely personal or potentially embarrassing about themselves or post embarrassing content about others. Invading another person’s privacy using social media can open people up to legal problems.”

If students really feel the need to express themselves publicly, they should keep it civil. “It’s likely that students will take to social media to voice opposition about the issues they care about,” Shattuck states. “They should take care not to do so in an inflammatory or threatening way, or voice opinions that they may regret later on in adulthood.”

What if you’re worried that you’ve already said something you shouldn’t have? While there’s no way to completely erase something from the Internet, you can delete old posts or tweets, remove your name from them, or simply learn if you’re protected under current free speech laws to say the things you’ve said. All of these actions can help to protect you and ensure you’re not putting your college career in jeopardy for a few online missteps. What’s more, these kinds of preventative actions are even more important to remember as you move into the workplace, where social media and free speech often come to odds with employers.

 

College Email Privacy

While you might like to think that the emails you send to friends, family, and professors through your student email account are private, the reality is that they aren’t. Not even close, in fact. While it’s not common practice for colleges to randomly go through student and faculty emails, if wrongdoing is suspected, schools often don’t hesitate to access student accounts and to read the emails contained within. Perhaps more disturbing is the face that they’re well within their rights to do so.

Cases Making Headlines

One of the most high-profile examples of this in recent months has been at Harvard, where administrators searched through the email accounts of 16 resident deans without permission or notification in an attempt to find out who was behind a leak that revealed a student cheating scandal to the media. Not only were Harvard’s actions ethically questionable, they also violated the school’s own policies, which require notice of any email search before or immediately following the incident. Harvard alum Richard Bailey said of the university’s actions, “This is, I think, one of the lowest points in Harvard?s recent history — maybe Harvard’s history, period. It’s an invasion of privacy, a betrayal of trust, and a violation of the academic values for which the university should be advocating.”

While Harvard’s search may have been off-putting, schools are well within their rights to monitor emails sent through their own servers, at least according to court rulings on the matter. In 2011, a student took Elizabethtown College to court after a heated encounter with the school’s chairman of the education department motivated the school to begin monitoring his emails. The student claimed this monitoring violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Stored Communications Act, and was common law invasion of privacy. The court disagreed, stating that colleges have the right to search and monitor their own systems.

It’s not just the potential for snooping that makes college emails a privacy concern, however. School email accounts are often used to communicate with administrators, advisors, and professors about a student’s grades, information that’s protected by law. It is not unheard of for emails warning about low grades or other sensitive information to be released to the wrong individuals, or in one case the entire school. At Wesley College, an email about low GPA intended for just 18 college students made its way to entire student body, compromising confidential information and embarrassing the students it was intended to motivate.

Protecting Yourself

While you may not be able to prevent a mass email from revealing private information about yourself to the whole school, there are measures you can take to help improve the privacy of your emails on campus. The most important step is to only use your school-issued email for discussing your classes, emailing professors, and other school-related issues. All other emails should be sent through a private email account created through an outside provider. While these types of accounts aren’t entirely private either (they can be monitored by the government), they will ensure that school administrators can’t get instant access to any emails you’ve sent on campus.

It can also be helpful to know your school’s policy on email privacy. Some may require you to be notified that your emails are being monitored or read while others will not have any such policy in place. Associate Professor of Communications Law and Journalism at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University Roy Gutterman agrees, saying that while some forms of speech may be protected that there are technical concerns with regard to messages sent over campus emails or using campus computers that are described in computer use policies which may limit some kinds of speech. Remember, it is legal to search and read any emails on your school’s server, so be smart about what you choose to share and send over these networks.

 

Legal Protections Offered to Students

While there are not laws that address all aspects of digital life and privacy just yet (things are changing much too rapidly for legislation to keep up), there are a few laws that can help you to keep your private life private while you’re a student. Here are the two major ones you need to know about.

• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA): FERPA, passed in 1974, is a federal law that helps to ensure that students both have access to their educational records and have control over disclosure of information in those records. Generally speaking, this means that schools are not allowed to disclose information about grades, test scores, or other educationally-related information without a student’s permission. Parents, or any other figures outside of the school, cannot access any of this information without express permission from students.
• Social Media Privacy Laws: Whether or not you’ll be protected under this type of legislation depends on where you go to college. Currently, only six states offer protection of one form or another under social media privacy laws. These states include California, Illinois, Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan, and Maryland. Not all of these laws apply to academic institutions, however. Only California, Delaware, Michigan, and New Jersey have prohibited colleges from forcing students to disclose any personal password information to school officials. This many change in the future, as more states propose and attempt to pass laws that protect private passwords from being disclosed by employers or schools.

Gutterman adds that students can often fight back with regard to free speech infringements using the First Amendment itself, but how far it goes in offering protection may depend on the type of school you attend and the way it interprets certain types of speech. “On a state college campus, the First Amendment applies and any action can be considered state action, assuming there are no legitimate grounds to punish the student or censor the student,” says Gutterman. “But college administrators often have a liberal interpretation of legal doctrines like harassment or defamation and often use these doctrines to punish offensive speech when there has not been a legitimate legal finding that the speaker actually harassed or defamed someone. Private colleges do not have First Amendment barriers. So, students face more risks there.”

These laws and others guaranteed to all Americans don’t cover all the ways that students can experience a violation of their privacy while they’re in college, especially as new data collection and tracking technologies make it easier than ever for schools to keep tabs on their students. However, they do offer a great first line of defense and help to ensure that students have a way to fight back when their private information is being unwillingly shared.

Generally speaking, most colleges respect the privacy of students and work to help ensure that records and information stay out of the wrong hands. But not everything is off limits, especially as the Internet makes it easier than ever for schools to monitor students even when they’re off campus. While many students may not see privacy as a major concern, at least not one that affects their daily lives, it is something that needs to both be considered and addressed as it can have a big impact on success in school and in jobs after graduation.

The post Status Not Protected: Colleges and Student’s Electronic Privacy appeared first on Online Degrees.

Table of Contents

• The Variables
• The Problem with Equivalencies
• A Different Approach
• How to Get It Done

Historically, transfer students wind up ignored when gathering statistics. They almost always get lumped in with other demographics instead. A recent study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center finally glimpsed into the world of the oft-overlooked transfers, noting that they make up one-third of the entire student population. Part-time students are only slightly more likely to transfer than their full-time peers, at a rate of 33.9% to 32.6%.

The most surprising finding completely dismantled common assumptions about how and why students transfer their credits from one institution to the other. Most tend to think this happens from two-year schools to four-year, but trends reveal otherwise. A surprising 51.9% move from four-year schools to two-year, while 37.6% of total two-year transfer students transition from two-year to two-year. Compare that to 41.2% from two-year to four-year. Across the board, the students most likely to transfer are in their second year of school.

NSCRC’s study did not explore why students decide to transfer from one school to another, but they are not difficult to glean. Cost, obviously, and finding a more suitable program (including switching majors) both stand as the experts’ most common choices. But moving because of life changes, like caring for an ailing relative or personal health reasons, might also compel some to switch.

Amy Tran is a former journalism student now working as a content manager for a dotcom. She moved from University of Houston to Boston University after her second semester to cut back on her stress levels. For her, “getting the transfer paperwork completed was a bit of a hassle, but not much more so than what you go through when you first enroll in college.”

“I attended a two-day orientation at BU during the summer before I officially moved there and began classes. That was mainly to take ID photos and tour the campus. It was school-sanctioned. We were there during ‘Fish Camp,’ [a slang term for freshman orientation, mainly associated with Texas A&M University] but just in our own group as transfer students,” she says.

Her experiences should reassure anyone thinking about moving from school to school: “It was a surprisingly easy transition.”

 

The Variables

Policies regarding credit transfers vary from school to school, obviously. Almost all of them limit the number that students can move, typically no more than two years’ worth of classes, or 180 credit hours for four-year colleges and 80 for two-year. Some might not make the cut because the new institution does not offer an equivalent course, but in these instances many schools accept them as electives.

“I think this is the most important part of transferring, and probably the most challenging: finding out where you stand in terms of credits towards your degree and major,” Tran says. “If you know you’re going to transfer, I advise not taking any major-specific courses until you’re at your final school because a lot of schools want you to complete all your major-specific classes at their institution.”

“This means if you’re a journalism student and you take a few journalism classes at your old school, they may not count towards your journalism major when you’re at your new one, so you’d have to take those classes all over again,” she warns. “Really talk to your advisors at both schools to get that sorted out. Basic classes are much easier to transfer. Just stay organized and have your paperwork and forms together.”

One of the most painless ways to transfer credits is to take Advanced Placement (AP) or College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests while in high school. Colleges and universities do vary somewhat when it comes to the minimum scores they will accept. But almost all of them will take passing scores thanks to core curriculum standards. However, students need to check and see just how many AP and CLEP credits their desired schools will allow them to transfer in — most have a maximum amount.

Students moving between public community colleges and other two-year institutions or towards four-year schools should explore any arrangements made where the four-year accepts every credit earned at the two-year. Blinn College and Texas A&M University, for example, have such an agreement. Enrollees in certain programs at the community college can transfer every single one of their credit hours directly into the university after two years. This arrangement can be found in most states, however, and will usually include moves between four-year and four-year institutions as well.

Transferring from one public school to another within the same state should be comparatively painless thanks to core curricula. However, the destination institutions still usually cap how many credits can be brought in at a time, even with equivalences. More specialized, higher-level classes might wind up rejected as well. Schools want students graduating after displaying competency in their chosen fields, and the courses at others might not line up in the exacting way they want.

Moving from Texas to Massachusetts also meant she had to receive certain vaccinations because of state laws. “Look into state requirements for things like immunizations and health checkups if you’re switching to a school in another state,” Tran says.

Depending on a school’s relationship with the Armed Forces, military service can transfer over as college credit as well. All branches keep running transcripts of what training translates to what kind of higher education courses, with each one adapting their own system.

For individuals taking extended breaks between semesters, the transferring process might prove a mite more challenging, though in no way impossible. College credits do not have an official “expiration date.” But some schools will still restrict transfers on the basis of time lapsed, usually after 10 years. They might also limit the number based on whether or not the classes were completed at a two-year or four-year institution; grades might also impact their decision, with the cutoff usually at nothing below a C.

Restricting transferred credit is a particularly prevalent practice in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (STEM), especially medicine. Because the skills and requirements in STEM evolve and change as new research emerges, schools want their students to enter the workforce with updated knowledge — crucial in situations where peoples’ health and safety is at stake. The visual arts and many of the humanities and liberal arts do not change nearly as rapidly as these industries, so students devoted to them will likely prove more fortunate when returning from a prolonged higher education absence.

International schools’ credits prove the most challenging. Acceptance hinges on whether or not the United States recognizes the accrediting bodies who approved schools in the original nation. In the case of countries where English is not the primary language, students are almost always required to send their transcripts in it.

“The earlier you transfer, the easier the experience will be,” advises Tran, and her tips apply to every transfer student demographic. “One of my friends at BU transferred in after her sophomore year, and she had to make up a lot of credits because quite a few of them didn’t transfer. I had the same issue as well, but at a much smaller scale before I only spent one year at my previous school.”

“To make up for this, I overloaded on classes one semester and also stayed for a summer term once. My friend had to overload for two semesters and stay for two summers to make up the credits so that she would still graduate on time,” she says.

These possible setbacks ought not discourage students from transferring, of course. But before committing to a specific school or program, students will have to commit themselves to some intensive research first. Because there is not one universal standard to which transfer students and their credits are held, it will require some e-mails and phone calls to suss out the most appropriate transitions.

Websites such as CollegeTransfer.net and u.select provide an essential service for transfer students as well. There, they plug in their current schools, courses, and programs as well as the desired schools, courses, and programs. The tool then returns information about which credits will transfer over and which ones won’t. Although these resources certainly save time, they still does not replace directly contacting schools about their credit transferring policy.

 

The Problem with Equivalencies

Regardless of whether or not transfer credits come from AP exams or an international college, the major problem with moving from one campus to another is almost always equivalencies.

“Faculty at every institution spend a daunting amount of time deciding on which of their own classes and programs to approve,” says Dr. Andrew Flagel, senior vice president for students and enrollment at Brandeis University, senior vice president for students and enrollment at Brandeis University. “Colleges and universities take the approval of degrees as one of their most important activities, and each institution delineates what courses in particular combinations constitute the right work to be given the corresponding degree. In other words, the school puts their name on every diploma, and is verifying that the student has completed the work appropriate to that degree.”

At the root of the problem is whether schools are comparing apples to apples.

“With each institution crafting distinct courses and pathways to degree, getting those to align can be enormously challenging,” says Flagel. “Even the assumption that a basic English or Math course might be the same at two different institutions can be wrong — the course may appropriately prepare student for upper level courses at one institution, but be entirely insufficient at another.”

Students should come into the transfer with their eyes wide open — and realize that colleges and universities want students to be best prepared for upper level courses and life after graduation.

 

A Different Approach

Some higher ed institutions, like Thomas Edison State College, take a more open strategy when it comes to accepting transfer students.

“Thomas Edison State College has one of the most flexible transfer credit policies in the country,” says David Hoftiezer, Director of Admissions. “First, we accept credit regardless of age, meaning ‘credits do not expire.’ Often institutions will not accept credit that is more than 10 years old. Institutions should be more flexible when it comes to the acceptance of transfer credit. Colleges often limit the amount of credit you can transfer, Thomas Edison State College does not.”

He believes that “being very liberal and flexible” are necessary qualities when dealing with transfer students. “Many institutions will not accept credit more than 10 years old. This roadblock could be easily removed,” Hoftiezer says.

Excelsior College also features an open program for transfer students looking for more flexibility and fewer migraines. It recognizes the usual credits from other schools, the military, and AP and CLEP tests. Students who display competency via portfolios, corporate training and experience, qualified certifications, industry training, and classes offered at partner organizations may receive credits for their efforts as well.

These flexible, comparatively open strategies acknowledge experience and know-how gleaned outside the classroom. As a bonus, it makes higher education more accessible to returning students, no matter how much time elapses between leaving school and going back for more. Not every program necessarily benefits from no credit transfer regulation whatsoever, like healthcare. But schools could still afford a little broadening of their standards to help ease student transitions from one institution to another.

“Unfortunately, the most typical route, whether a student is traditional or non-traditional, is that the student must first gain admissions, and in many cases even deposit, before finding out what credits will transfer,” says Flagel. “Even if a student knows what credits will transfer, that often does not include how those credits will apply to a particular major, or what process a student may need to follow in order to have a course count for a specific equivalency.”

Students ought not be swayed from transferring if they feel it the right decision. But they do need to understand the reality. “I often suggest that transferring should be viewed as a marathon, not a sprint,” says Flagel. “It is rare to find institutions that offer easy transfer credit processes – even those with robust articulations can often be very complicated.”

“My advice is to have patience with the process. Higher education is only just now learning to adapt to the reality that the majority of students seeking baccalaureate degrees transfer at some point before obtaining that degree,” he adds. “I suspect these processes will get easier and more efficient, but that the challenges … indicate that it’s unlikely to feel intuitive to prospective transfer students.”

 

How to Get It Done

In spite of the myriad variables in the credit transferring process, it’s actually one of the least migraine-inducing rounds of paperwork a student will experience in their college careers. They should still keep a few things in mind while undertaking the move from one school to another.

• Research: Research everything. This means scanning a potential school’s website or contacting their admissions department with questions about what they will and will not accept. They can answer anything regarding course equivalencies, “expiration dates,” the maximum number allowed, and any other variable. Researching also turns up possible programming options that could very well save money, but still get accepted by their desired destinations once the student decides to transfer out.
• Know what “expires” and what doesn’t: Some schools will not accept credits over 10 years old, and for more dynamic disciplines — like medicine — the cutoff might be even sooner than that. “Expiration dates” should not be a concern for students transferring directly from one college to another. But those taking longer breaks from higher education need to research which schools will or will not recognize the credits they’ve accumulated so far.
• If transferring from an international school, send everything in English: Every American school is going to ask this of international students transferring from an institution where English is not the primary language.
• Transfer in state, if possible: Many situations will require a student to move out of state, of course. But staying within a state’s public college system maximizes the amount of time and money saved. Thanks to core curriculum and other agreements, it is much, much easier to transfer credits between state schools than from one state to another; mostly because it is much, much more likely that they’ll accept most of the credits involved.
• Check for any special arrangements between two-year and four-year schools: Like transferring within the state, other programs linking two-year institutions to four-year also prove far smoother than most other arrangements. Some will accept two full years’ worth of classes and apply them to a four-year degree. But students will have to research their options before enrolling at one particular school.
• Look for scholarships: Scholarships for transfer students defray some of the costs associated with moving between schools. Any research regimen should include searching for funding. Contacting the admissions office of the desired destination might yield more options than an Internet search. It should be noted that some students might lose scholarships in the transition if the money is attached to a specific school or major. So they will need to check whether or not their benefactors might pull the funding should they transfer as well.
• Consider AP, CLEP, and state- or industry-specific training options: As one example, members of The University System of Ohio accept some accredited professional certificate programs for credit. CLEP and AP exams provide a far cheaper option than enrolling in a college course, and pretty much every two-year and four-year school across the country will accept them. Though the maximum amount schools will accept varies, so read up.

Hoftiezer offers up some very straightforward advice for students transferring schools with years between classes.

“You will need to get ‘re-acclimated’ to school and the learning environment,” he says. “Success breeds success, so take it ‘one step at a time.’ Take one course … get used to being back in school and build from there.”

Transferring college credit, even after a long absence from the classroom, is not nearly as difficult or intimidating as it might initially appear. The process requires some degree of research and a few piles of paperwork, but still proves well worth the effort.

The post Finishing What You Start: How to Navigate the World of College Transfer Credits appeared first on Online Degrees.

Table of Contents

• Why It Works for Entry-Level and Beyond
• Overcoming Remote Challenges
• What Industries to Look Into
• Recommended Tools

Yahoo’s recent decision to eliminate its work-from-home option drew mixed responses from critics, and it’s easy to see why. According to a WorldatWork survey, 12.4 million employees around the world work remotely. In the U.S. alone, 4.8 million people work from home on at least a part-time basis.

For entry-level workers and recent college graduates, telecommuting might be inevitable — especially since it can ultimately save companies money. But are you missing out? Maybe not. Telecommuting can build and develop practical, in-demand skills, help you save money, and with some coordination with the home office, you can find the best of both worlds.

 

Why It Works for Entry-Level … and Beyond

The major reason companies support telecommuting is the comparatively low overhead cost. Businesses would collectively save $2.3 billion a year in real estate, electricity, absenteeism, and turnover costs, according to Kate Lister, co-author of Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home. But for all the talk of how much this benefits employers, the telecommuting option places workers at a fiscal advantage as well.

Considering so many entry-level employees grapple against student loans and day-to-day living expenses, any small savings help out. Not having to shell out money for gas and other car-related expenses as often makes for an especially generous boon to their bank accounts. Lister estimates that those savings could add up to as much as $11,000 annually.

Resources like the Telework Calculator, which she co-developed, let workers see for themselves just how much money working from a home office will save. Savings go well beyond reducing trips to the gas station. The calculator tells potential telecommuters where they could save in:

• Child care
• Transportation needs for disabled workers
• Typical in-office necessities like work attire, lunch, and/or parking

In addition to saving money, working remotely helps nurture essential 21st century job skills. Because telecommuting involves using smartphones, webcams, tablets, laptops, and, the Internet, participants hone their digital literacy — which employers these days desire in their job candidates. Since entry-level positions prepare workers for future professional undertakings, a telecommuting arrangement works very well in this regard.

Telecommuting also affords a far higher degree of flexibility and independence than driving to an office every day. New and established workers alike must be highly self-motivated and self-disciplined to navigate such an arrangement. Consider these qualities a more lo-fi counterpart to the digital literacy. Employers love applicants with enough gumption and drive to keep themselves focused on their tasks, requiring little prodding from their superiors. Building these skills early on in one’s career only increases their chances of advancement later.

 

Overcoming Remote Challenges

Being dropped into the world of telecommuting early on in one’s career will not magically turn a poor self-motivator into a plucky Horatio Alger protagonist. The system does not gel with such struggling individuals, nor will it inherently provide them with the tools to address the problem. By its very nature, the onus of pressing forward falls on the worker.

“Telecommuting can make it possible for employees to integrate their work and home lives to a great extent,” says Dr. MaryAnne Hyland, Associate Professor of Human Resources Management at Adelphi University. “If an individual is working from home while other family members are present, having a separate workspace with a door can be beneficial. Some companies require that telecommuting employees have a private workspace.”

Telecommuting employees, regardless of whether or not they work an entry-level job, can do a few things to ensure they remain focused and manage their time responsibly. Setting up a personalized system of rewards for completing specific tasks, reaching certain milestones, or accomplishing professional goals is a great strategy for building motivation. Aligning said milestones and goals with those set by the company makes it much, much easier to meet them.

The schedule flexibility afforded by telecommuting-friendly companies varies from place to place. Some require rigid hours, while others assume a more free-form shape and allow employees to complete assignments in a manner best befitting their working style or life needs. When it comes to the latter arrangement, employees must painstakingly organize themselves to remain on task. This means drawing up a tight schedule and sticking with it — though they’ll have to leave at least a bit of time for breaks and breathers. Staying within these rigid, self-created guidelines, be it the usual 9-5 or something else entirely, is one of the best strategies for remaining on task.

“With regard to skills, discipline is key,” she advises. “The television, refrigerator, and washing machine may be within eyesight of an employee’s workstation. While at times it may make sense to run a load of laundry during a few minutes of downtime at work, frequent distractions and interruptions can detract from focus and productivity.”

“That said, many employees report being more focused and productive at home due to fewer distractions,” she says. “In addition, some employees who are good at ‘integrating’ their work and personal lives are able to transition between work activities and other activities throughout the day and still be productive and effective in all of their roles.”

Because telecommuting does not involve face-to-face interaction (except, in some cases, via webcam), employees lose out on sharpening the basic social skills needed to survive the workplace. Establishing camaraderie with coworkers nurtures teamwork and efficiency. Telecommuting minimizes chatting-related distractions. But it also denies workers a chance at building valuable relationships.

A couple of easy fixes exist. Some employers might want to consider only part-time telecommuting so their workers hone a more well-rounded skill set. They receive the flexibility, independence, and lowered commuting cost (comparatively speaking in this case) of a home office, but still enjoy opportunities to socialize with their peers.

Alternately, employers could stick with a full-time telecommuting arrangements, but add in-person meetings a few times every quarter, or they could organize more fun, team-building events. Both of these solutions also ensure their employees are not denied opportunities to learn how to fraternize with coworkers while still enjoying the relative freedom of working from home.

“Social isolation can be challenging for telecommuting employees, especially entry-level employees,” says Hyland. “Understanding the culture of an organization and participating in informal collaboration efforts are often important for successful job performance. Working at the office on a regular basis, such as once or twice a week if possible, should reduce these problems.”

 

What Industries to Look Into

Some industries in particular lend themselves to telecommuting. While not exactly an ideal arrangement for, say, neurosurgeons or astronauts, the remote option still works well for a diverse range of industries — as CNN’s top 10 listing of the most telecommuting-friendly companies reveals. Unsurprisingly, Cisco — an industry leader in telecom — allows 90% of its employees to work from home at least 20% of the time. Other notable names include Teach for America, marketing consultants Accenture, and Intel.

Media and publishing, particularly Internet-based outlets, are also viable options for entry-level employees who prefer working from home. Because so much writing and editing can be completed independently, cash-strapped companies can easily offer up telecommuting as a perk. Employers from almost every industry imaginable are branching out into social media, hiring managers for their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. These positions revolve entirely around online interactions, so it makes perfect sense that telecommuting proves a snuggly fit.

Whether a recent graduate or a seasoned veteran of the work force, resources such as FlexJobs offer a one-stop digital locale to find part-time and full-time telecommuting positions. Since working remotely is consistently increasing in popularity, sites like this make finding an ideal job a faster, easier ordeal. Household name employers such as AT&T, the IRS, Trip Advisor, Capitol One, and IBM list openings on FlexJobs, showcasing just how diverse the industry options are for all jobseekers these days.

 

Recommended Tools

The specifics of what a telecommuting job will specifically require varies from company to company. However, growing familiar with the most common accoutrements can help the aspirant job-hunters out there. Take the time to get to know the ins and outs of the hardware and software that makes telecommuting possible. It may mean a valuable edge when submitting resumes and cover letters to potential employers.

• High-speed Internet connection: Reliable Internet is more or less standard for telecommuters these days. It might prove a worthwhile investment for those pursuing entry-level jobs to have wi-fi or other high-speed connection installed in their homes — especially if they hope to work in social media. And make sure to draw up a viable backup plan or two in case the connection at home drops out. Most public libraries offer up free Internet, and of course coffee shops and cafes provide it to paying customers. Smartphone users might want to download an app like WiFi Finder for iPhone and Android so they always stay attuned to their emergency options.
• Laptop or tablet computing device: Portable computing devices make telecommuting so much easier than desktops, largely because if the Internet shuts down, the negative productivity impact lessens. Remote employees need a tablet or a laptop they can tote around with them — especially if their positions require some modicum of travel. Look for models with built-in webcams, too.
• Smartphone: While not nearly as conducive for long-term tasks as laptops and tablets, a working knowledge of smartphone basics is a boost to any wannabe telecommuter’s skillset. Text messaging and e-mail let them stay in touch with their employers, coworkers, and clients while on the go. Depending on what apps they download, workers can also use the devices to organize to-do lists, map their thoughts, and even update projects across all platforms. Employers might not require a smartphone of their telecommuters, but Androids, iPhones, Blackberrys and the like nevertheless make the jobs run that much smoother.
• Webcam: Not every telecommuting company necessarily needs employees to converse with their coworkers, managers, and clients face-to-face. The ones that do will require workers to really know their way around a webcam. Fortunately, these devices come standard with most newer laptop and tablet models. And they are inexpensive enough so that telecommuters saddled with older machines do not have to sink too much money into buying one.
• Headset: Most of the built-in microphones on tablets and laptops are rather lousy, to be frank. Telecommuters who use their mobile computers for verbal correspondence should research their best options for a headset. Some combine headphones — noise-cancelling or not — and a microphone, while others come with only the latter.
• Speakers: Like microphones, the speakers on many laptops and tablets frequently leave plenty to be desired. They might compensate for this using headphones or a headset including headphones, or purchasing a set of extra speakers.
• Cisco: Companies who allow their employees to telecommute regularly often turn towards Cisco for the most sophisticated hardware and software available. Depending on the job up for grabs, applicants are not required to know the intricacies of how the different Cisco products and services work — just the basics enabling them to fully participate in meetings at most. Nor will they need to purchase anything. The employers themselves usually shoulder the cost of these platforms.
• Skype: Most cost-conscious employers might prefer telecommuting via free or low-cost providers such as Skype. Despite its reputation as a video communication tool, Skype still allows for audio-only meetings and screen-sharing. When combined with a service like Audacity, employers and employees alike can record important meetings for sharing with absent coworkers or future reference.
• Google Hangouts: A completely free alternative to Skype and Cisco, allowing up to ten people to talk via video and audio. It also makes screen sharing a painless undertaking and even plugs into Google Drive so coworkers quickly update their required documents.

Telecommuting’s shape varies depending on a company’s unique needs and wants. In the right industries, it works fabulously for both employee and employer. According to Telework Research Network, Gen Y’ers are more difficult to recruit (as reported by 56% of hiring managers) and to retain (as reported by 64% of hiring managers) but they are particularly attracted flexible work arrangements (ranked as 8 on a 10 scale for impact on overall job satisfaction). Telecommuting makes both sides of the table happy … and then there’s the whole being able to complete assignments in your underwear thing.

The post Missing the Water Cooler: A Recent Grad’s Guide to Navigating Telecommuting appeared first on Online Degrees.

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