Wall Street Journal Partners with Unigo to Create a Site that Offers Potential College Students Some Sound Advice
Wall Street Journal Partners with Unigo to Create a Site that Offers Potential College Students Some Sound Advice
The Wall Street Journal has teamed up with Unigo’s student correspondents from more than 2000 colleges across America to produce a site they call WSJ on Campus. If you are not familiar with Unigo, you can watch a video that explains what they do by clicking here. Their system helps student match their interests and values with appropriate universities. Their offer help to prospective students by providing reviews written by past students regarding the schools they have attended. This information is used to help prospective students decide which school is best for them.
If you to go to WSJ On Campus, you will find that they offer the following information about getting prepared for college:
- What matters when choosing a school
- What it will really be like when you get to college
- The perfect school for you
- Are Ivy schools are really worth it
- How to master the admissions essay
- How to deal with school’s turning your requests for admission down
- How to prepare for the SAT
- What to do if you can’t go to your first choice school
They also offer the following information about what to expect once you get there:
- How to choose the right classes
- How to choose the right major
- Who earns the most money
- How to handle doing the assignments
- Understanding academics
- How to succeed in your Freshman year
- How to get an A on your papers
- How to use textbooks on your iPhone
I tried searching by online, online colleges, distance learning and other terms but found no information about online education on the site. I even typed in some of the top online universities to see if they would come up and there was nothing. It appears this site is very helpful if you are considering going to a traditional college but not so helpful if you want to use it to choose an online university. Even if you do decide to attend an online college or university, you can learn a lot from their articles about how to be a successful student.
For more information about being a successful online student, click here.
Website Helps Teens Prepare For College
I am always interested in any technology that helps young adults prepare for college and beyond. Arizona has a new website that is aimed at helping high school grads pursue a college degree. Check out this article by Eugene Scott at the Arizona Republic:
A new online portal to help high-school students prepare for college is part of a public-private education initiative aimed at boosting the number of Arizonans with a college degree.
The High School Portal, which is found at AZTransfer.com, streamlines information from all public universities and community colleges into a central source.
The portal is touted as a key tool to help students transition into college. It outlines steps that teens must take to attend college, begin earning college credit and figure out what careers may be best suited for them.
Choosing a College Minor or Co-Major: What Degrees Pay the Most and the Least
When I received my BS in Business Management from Arizona State University in the 80s, choosing a minor was a common thing. I chose Personnel Management at the time, because I was very interested in the human relations side of management. It seems you don’t hear as much about students picking a minor lately.
Today, the Arizona Republic ran an article about students choosing to have a minor more often when obtaining their degree. According to the article, “A small but growing number of Arizona college students are graduating with academic minors, hoping that concentrating in another field of study will broaden their knowledge, help them land a job or get into graduate school. This year, 13 percent of undergraduates at Arizona State University earned a minor, up from 10 percent just two years ago. The state’s largest public university is offering 92 minors in a range of different subjects compared with 67 a decade ago.”
Keep in mind, that although the student obtains the minor, it will not be reflected on their diploma. It will, however, be notated in their college records. It’s important to note that not all schools even offer minors. Yale, is a prime example of a university that does not. On the other hand, some schools actually require a minor. Northern Arizona University (NAU) is one that has this requirement.
Another trend I’ve seen for a lot of the newer generations to go the co-major route. ASU has a program where students can have a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies or BIS degree. According to ASU’s site, “The Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS) degree program is one of the highest-quality and best-recognized interdisciplinary studies degree programs in the country. It offers students the freedom to select two concentration areas from a rich menu of more than one hundred possibilities, and it enables students to integrate those areas into a degree with interdisciplinary breadth, intellectual cohesion, and practical value. The core curriculum of the BIS program provides students the intellectual tools needed to integrate their concentration areas, engage in interdisciplinary problem solving, and prepare for careers and graduate programs that increasingly cross academic disciplines.”
There are advantages to picking the minor or double-major route:
- You gain different perspectives and don’t have such a single focus.
- It may be helpful in gaining entrance to graduate school.
- Having two areas of specialization can be advantageous for specific jobs.
- Some employers think the minor is as important, if not more important than the major. See this article from fastweb.com. http://www.fastweb.com/college-search/articles/46-does-your-minor-matter
- If you and a competing job applicant have all of the same things going for you but you have the extra minor, that could be enough to push ahead in the race.
- Having a minor can send a message that you have a strong interest in a specific area.
- Having a double-major can allow you to study more than one field in depth.
- Having a double-major may open up more job possibilities for you.
- Having a double-major means you may not have taken as many elective courses to obtain your degree, which also shows dedication.
- Having a double-major may be useful in a job that requires a broad range of knowledge.
For more information about advantages and disadvantages of a double-major, click here.
Are you still trying to decide on a major? If salary is a concern, you might want to consider the following:
Top 10 College Degrees by Starting Salary from Darwinsfinance.com
1. Petroleum Engineering $86,220
2. Chemical Engineering $65,142
3. Mining & Mineral Engineering $64,552
4. Computer Science $61,205
5. Computer Engineering $60,879
6. Electrical/Electronics & Communications Engineering $59,074
7. Mechanical Engineering $58,392
8. Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering $57,734
9. Aerospace/Aeronautical/ Astronautical Engineering $57,231
10. Information Sciences & Systems $54,038
Bottom 10 College Degrees by Salary Start from Walletpop
1. Social Work $33,400
2. Elementary Education $33,000
3. Theology $34,800
4. Music $34,000
5. Spanish $35,600
6. Horticulture $37,200
7. Education $36,200
8. Hospitality and Tourism $37,000
9. Fine Arts $35,800
10. Drama $35,600
Think of Technology When Managing Class Assignments | CollegeSurfing Insider
was with a group of college students this week recently who brought their planners with them to schedule events throughout the semester. I was surprised at how most of the dozen students brought paper calendars and planners, instead of plugging the dates into calendars on their phones or computers.
I understand the reluctance to put all assignments in a calendar or file on the computer or to use the calendar and to-do apps on an iPhone or Blackberry. There’s always the concern, especially with students who aren’t that tech-savvy, that something could happen with the phone or computer and all of that crucial information for a college student seeking to ace a class would be lost. Talk about a stressful situation.
Maybe it’s easier to contemplate going virtual with assignments and calendars when you’re taking an online class. All the class information is online, so why shouldn’t your planning and time management for assignments be on the computer, too?
Diane Hamilton, author of “The Online Student’s User Manual,” says she’s a fan of the free iGoogle service because it allows students to keep track of and access their calendars and course information from anywhere. That’s helpful, even in the worst-case scenario.
Hamilton, who teaches for six online universities, says that even if your computer crashes, your schedules and assignments will be accessible through any computer.
Have you tried using iGoogle or other sites to manage your college coursework and other activities, and what have you found are the pros? Or what should students know if they’re trying to use more web tools to manage their assignments?
-Lori Johnston
Posting Teacher’s Reviews Online – What is RateMyProfessor?
Today’s Ask Dr. Diane: What is the site ratemyprofessor.com all about?
Ratemyprofessor.com is a website dedicated to allowing students to find out more about their professors and the courses they are going to take before they begin class. The site allows students to give their opinion of the classes and the instructors of those classes they have taken previously. It is not unlike the rating one would give a book they have read on Amazon. Because of that, you will see a wide variety of responses on there. Some students may write wonderful, glowing comments, while others write less flattering things. You can search for a professor or a school on the site. I have found it to be the most accurate to first search for the school and then look for the individual professor within that school where they are listed alphabetically. To search for the school, you would type in the upper right hand search box. It will then give you a list of schools. Click on the one you want and then it will pull up a screen that lets you browse by last name of the professor.
I haven’t heard as many of my students refer to this site lately. It seemed a lot more popular a few years ago. It is kind of a fun little site to see what others are saying. However, just as with any review, you have to realize there could be “sour grapes”. A student who may not have done well in the course may be more likely to say something negative about the professor. Also there is a lot of subjectivity so what may be a horrible class to one may be a wonderful class to another. The information is fun but it should be taken with a grain of salt.
To see my ratings, you can go to the following links for some of my schools: 1, 2, 3, 4
As I mentioned, it is not new to publish information about professors online. However, there is a new trend that has some people up in arms. Take a look at a recent NPR article where the author mentions that 6,000 elementary teachers in Los Angeles will see their names published online, along with data showing how much their students improved on standardized tests by clicking here.