Money Matters
If you’re thinking about a career in health care and you want to make sure the field you choose is growing, we have good news for you: Health care tops the latest projections for job growth from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Baby boomers are aging, medical technologies are advancing and there’s an increasing focus on preventive care – all factors that are driving the need for highly-skilled health care workers. There’s another demographic that’s fueling job growth for the fastest-growing profession in allied health: pets. Yes, pets – for many of us, their health is as important as...
President Obama has been making heated calls on Congress to prevent interest rates on federally-subsidized Stafford student loans from doubling this summer. This week, he cooled it down a notch in a “Slow Jam the News” segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Obama – or the Barackness Monster, as Fallon called him – kept his tone serious during the five-minute jam. “On July 1 of this year, the interest rate on Stafford student loans – the same loans that many of you use to pay for college – are set to double. That means some hard-working students will be...
Last year, I found myself back in the classroom after several years in the workforce, taking science classes to prepare for veterinary school. I quickly discovered I wasn’t ready for the mind-boggling buying options and jaw-dropping textbook prices I encountered at the college bookstore. My confusion usually begins once I register online for classes and am given a way to look up required texts. The textbook’s full title and 9- or 13-digit ISBN number (International Standard Book Number, usually listed by the bar code) may or may not be noted. Two or more identical-seeming options may be marked as “required.”...
Whether you’re thinking about going back to school, or paying the slightest attention to national news, you’ve surely heard that student loan debt in America has grown to gargantuan proportions. Estimates vary, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reporting that America’s outstanding debt in private and federal student loans appears to have topped the $1 trillion mark. Sobering news—especially if you’re currently trying to figure out how you’re going to pay for school. Consumer Reports just released some helpful tips about keeping student debt in check, including: Starting out with small repayment amounts that increase every couple of years. Signing...
Ah, those dreaded prerequisites. So you’ve made the big decision to go back to school. But before you can dive into the really cool courses at the heart of the degree you’re pursuing, you need to brush up on your math skills or get some biology credits. There’s a push to get more introductory classes available cheaply online. The Open Learning Initiative Candace Thille heads up the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Founded in 2002, OLI offers web-based courses in biology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, engineering statics and a handful of other subjects—those so-called “weed-out” courses...
If the thought of spending years and years juggling work, family and classes keeps stalling your going-back-to-school ambitions, ask yourself this question: Is there a certificate or license in your field that would give your career a nice boost? If so, there’s a good chance it’ll give your paycheck a bigger bump than if you invested more time pursuing an associate degree. In its series “Some College, No Degree,” American RadioWorks highlights a national study of workers in their mid-30s showing that 43 percent of license and certificate holders earned more than associate’s degree grads. Tony Carnevale, director of the...
If you missed President Obama’s fired-up speech at the University of Michigan, where he outlined new details about his plans to lower the cost of higher education, here are some highlights as outlined in the Washington Post: $8 billion in funding for the Perkins loan program (up from $1 billion) A new formula for distributing Perkins loans that rewards schools that make strides in lowering tuition and serving low-income students $1 billion in aid to states that curb higher-ed costs $55 million in start-up funding for higher-ed institutions that pursue innovation to boost productivity A “College Scorecard” for all schools with easy-to-read...
Fed up with the relentless rise of college tuition, some University of California at Riverside students have proposed a radical idea: Scrap tuition entirely, then have students pay 5 percent of their paychecks for 20 years after they graduate. FixUC, the group behind the UC Student Investment Proposal, touts it as a long-term solution to the relentless decline in state higher-education funding, which has been driving up tuition year after year. Mark G. Yudof, president of the UC system, said he was “very impressed” with the proposal. According to USA Today’s math, the zero-down plan would surpass the $1.5 billion...
One peg in President Obama’s multi-pronged college affordability agenda is scorecard that would give an at-a-glance breakdown of costs and other key benchmarks. The White House has released a sneak peek at its work-in-progress scorecard for 4-year programs. It features five categories: Cost Graduation rates Student loan repayment rates Student loan debt Earnings potential The scorecard would be added to the U.S. Department of Education’s online College Affordability and Transparency Center. It’s not ready for prime-time yet. The White House wants the public to weigh in on several questions, including: What information is absolutely critical for choosing a college? How...
The process of gathering the necessary paperwork for the Free Application for Financial Aid (FAFSA) form and searching for scholarship information can be daunting, but a new online tool that can help speed up the process has been launched from an unlikely source: MTV. The cable network, which is slowly evolving away from purely entertainment-oriented programming, has unveiled a financial-aid application for Facebook called My College Dollars. By using personal information stored on the prospective students’ Facebook profiles, the app provides a customized list of available scholarships that can be customized for the user’s age, location, field of study and...
Searching for money for school can be a serious business, but there are times when it can seem downright odd, especially when it comes to scholarships. There are thousands of scholarships out there, but there are the occasional few that are so specific you just have to laugh … or wave your arms frantically yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!” The once and former American Quarter Horse Foundation Nursing Scholarship is a good example. Unfortunately, it ran out of funding last year, but when it was a going concern, it was awarded, of course, based on membership in the AQHA as...
It’s a battle as old as the hills. Or at least that’s what some nurses say about the debate over which is better: an Associate degree (ADN) or a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN). Some favor ADNs because the programs are shorter and emphasize clinical experience, while others like the focus on critical thinking and flexibility that comes with a BSN. One of the best ways to do that is to find out more about both. The ADN at a glance Created as a way to ease a nursing shortage in post-World War II America, the associate’s degree...
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The All Allied Health Schools blog covers what you need to know about preparing for a career in health care today, whether you’re just starting to think about your new career or you’re ready to enroll in school.
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