College Application Essay Vs. High School Papers


While a typical high school paper can get you a good grade, an exceptional application essay is your ticket to a bright future. There is a lot of pressure to write this single piece! Still, many students treat it the same way as they do other assignments. They put it off until the last possible moment, and then rush to complete the application process overnight. Still, if you wish to increase your chances of getting into your dream school, here are some differences between college application essay and high school papers you should heed.

School Teacher Vs. Admission Board

Think of the college application essay as a marketing text for self-promotion. While your teachers know you pretty well, they only have a few dozens of works to grade at a time. Admission boards receive thousands of applications. Every essay gets only about 5 minutes of time, so you need to make every word count.
Avoid epigraphs, quotes and Webster dictionary definitions in the introduction. There is also no need to repeat the prompt; you can dive right in. Your word count is limited, so don’t waste it on other people’s words and opinions. Instead, open with an anecdote. Short and sweet stories at the beginning of the essay grab attention and provide a glimpse into your life. That’s precisely what most admission boards are looking for.

Traditional Structure Vs. Unique Outline

While you can’t go wrong with a classic trio of introduction, body, and conclusion, the middle part of your application essay provides vast opportunities for experimentation. High school five-paragraph essays may be the most familiar for you, but they are common, so you will hardly grab anyone’s attention with this traditional structure. For the same reason, you should not use college application templates that are available online. You can read some examples to get inspired, but do not copy their structure, be original.
You will get a list of formatting guidelines along with the essay prompt. As long as you follow them, you can experiment with different styles and structures. Add dialog, analysis, lists and any other elements that can catch the reader’s eye, but don’t go overboard. Your goal is to stand out without being overwhelming.

Strict Rules Vs. Distinct Voice

Over the years you have learned your teacher’s pet peeves. You know to avoid contractions, you never split infinitive, and you religiously get rid of sentence fragments. Passive voice has become your number one enemy. Still, strict rules of your English class can make your writing stilted and cliched, particularly if you are used to certain turns of phrase.
Following basic grammar guidelines is essential when writing college application essay, however, you can bend some rules to make your voice stand out. Don’t be afraid to let your imagination and creativity roam free. And use George Orwell’s advice: avoid metaphors and similes that you have seen in a dozen other places. They might seem fancy and smart, but you are better off using your own examples then sounding like everyone else.

College Application Essays

Taking Sides Vs. Complex Issues

When writing argumentative or persuasive essays for high school classes, you are encouraged to research all sides of the problem and pick one to support. All the arguments and evidence should serve the purpose of promoting the point you are trying to make. However, college application essay is far from cut-and-dried. The most successful papers inevitably include a conflict, a crisis or a turning point.
So instead of showcasing your sports victories and your loving relationship with your siblings, try describing the struggles you face being the youngest child with successful older brothers’ and sisters’ shoes to fill. Think about every good book you have read and remember the struggles and conflict main characters had to face. Imagine yourself being the hero of your own story and describe the difficulties and obstacles you have overcome. Avoid boasting, but show your nature, skills, and experiences that might serve you when attending college.

Editing And Proofreading Vs. Editing and Proofreading

Every piece of writing you complete should go through a rigorous editing and proofreading process. While you might be willing to skip this step when writing high school papers, it is necessary for a college admission essay. The best way to ensure thorough proofreading is to ask a teacher or a parent to read the text carefully and point out all mistakes and logical inconsistencies.
Editing is also the time for eliminating redundant words and phrases. When you cut out “brief summaries” and “personal opinions”, you will get extra 50 to 100 meaningful words you can add. They will make a short conclusion or an exciting hook for the introduction. You should also avoid tense switches in your paper. Past tense is preferable, though the Present can make your writing more dynamic.
If there is no one to proofread the admission essay for you, you can put it away for several days and come back to it later. Another great idea is to hire a professional to edit the college application essay for you. Our writers can also create an intriguing life story from scratch to get you a place at the school of your choice!

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10 Must-Have Essay Writing Skills


Professors don’t assign essays because they are sadists. Essay writing requires many skills you will need to build a successful career. Research planning, formal writing, and even time-management are among the skills necessary to get a good grade on an essay. However, most students are clueless about ten essential skills every excellent essay writer should possess. Today we’ll share them with you to give you an edge over your classmates and get the much-needed As.

Critical Reading

While reading books can broaden your vocabulary and improve your overall writing skills, reading essays will provide you with insights and useful tricks you can model in your works. There are plenty of essay samples in our database, so that’s the best place to start.
Don’t read essays like fiction. Be critical. Ask yourself:
  • What do you like about the piece?
  • Which parts gave you trouble?
  • Which arguments were the most convincing and why?
  • Does the argument seem balanced or biased?
The more questions you ask while reading, the better understanding of the most compelling essay writing techniques you will get.

Brainstorming Essay Ideas

Long before you start writing an essay, you have to think of a good idea. Use brainstorming to get into the creative mood when your brain doesn’t want to cooperate. Take a piece of paper and write down your essay prompt, topic or subject. Now let your mind roam. Keeping your focus at the forefront of your mind, write down the words you associate with it.
If you have to write an environmental essay, your mind might wander from melting ice caps to polar bears to Coca-Cola to plastic bottles to recycling to waste management to biofuel to agriculture and so on.
Don’t worry about writing full sentences. Just jot down ideas and concepts. Then you can group them and find a name for each group. These labels will serve as the points of interest in your essay. You can discard some of them and make up more. Just don’t constrain your imagination, you never know the treasures hidden within.

Elevator Pitching

“Elevator Pitch” is a successful marketing technique that requires you to think of the most efficient ways to make a compelling case. Imagine yourself in an elevator with your instructor. You need to pitch your essay idea or argument in the time it will take you to get to a certain floor. Your goal is to make the topic easy to understand, engaging, and compelling using the minimal number of words. After this seemingly simple exercise, you will get a better understanding of what message you want your paper to convey. Write down your elevator pitch and use it to craft an intriguing introduction for your essay.

Planning And Outlining

Creating an outline is the least favorite part of essay writing for many students. However, planning your paper doesn’t have to be an endless tedious process. Here’s how you can do it in a couple of minutes.
  • Open a text file and type a list of ideas you want to explore.
  • Drag and drop them until the sequence makes sense.
  • Add an introduction and a conclusion to round up the paper.
  • Type the text of the essay directly into the plan you’ve created.
And if you a visual thinker, try mind mapping. It’s an easy and fun way to structure information. Let your thesis statement be the center of the mind map. Fill it out with your claims, arguments, and evidence, connecting them accordingly.

Expanding Your Vocabulary

An expansive vocabulary will allow you to communicate your message clearly without making your writing overly complicated and lengthy. Look up unknown words in the dictionary while reading books and subscribe to some “word of the day” emails. Add new words to your vocabulary, either a hand-written or an electronic one. Write down the definition of the word and an example of its use. Divide your vocabulary into sections by subject or theme. You’ll be able to locate necessary words quickly and use them in an appropriate context.

Dealing With Phrasal Verbs

Everyone knows that leaving prepositions at the end of the sentence isn’t right. However, the painful constructs students use instead are often cringe-worthy. Of course, if the dangling preposition is a direct quote, you don’t have to worry about losing points off your grade. But if it’s your own writing, solving this problem is a little tricky. You need to substitute the phrasal verb with a synonym that does not require a preposition.
Address the problem instead of dealing with it.
Don’t come up with a plan, devise it.

Keeping The Writing Consistent

When you are writing on a specific subject, it’s good to compile a go-to vocabulary for frequently used words and phrases. While repeating the same definitions is not ideal, confusing your readers with synonyms and different spellings is worse. Make up your mind before you start writing and always use the same phrases, instead of substituting them with alternatives. Add the synonyms you might use into your word processor’s spell checker to get rid of them once and for all.

Improving Your Writing Style

Everyone’s writing style is different, even in a classroom of students writing essays on the same topic. Still, if you want to get better grades, your writing should be precise. There is no place for over-complication in academic essays, and vagueness is no better. You need to understand what every word you use means and find the right context for it. Leave no place for ambiguity to make powerful points your readers will effortlessly understand. You can improve the writing style during the final stages of editing and proofreading the essay.

Polishing The Essay

Spell check is not enough to catch all typos and errors. It won’t notice the difference between “form” and “from”, “possess” and “poses”. Many small typos can make your paper meaningless. To earn the instructor’s favor, you need to return to your essay after a short respite and reread it until you are sure you haven’t missed any typos.
Clean formatting is another thing many students ignore. Your paper should look professional and be easy to read. Fancy formatting distracts from the content and annoys professors who have to spend more time decrypting your font than grading all your classmates’ essays combined. So don’t go overboard with italics, bold and underlined text. Choose simple fonts that don’t stress reader’s eyes.

Learning From Mistakes

There’s nothing more disheartening than seeing an angry red F or D on the essay that took you days to write. Still, one bad grade is not the end of the world; it’s a sign that you need to work harder.
Study your professor’s comments. If you don’t understand some of them, arrange a meeting during the office hours. Your instructor will appreciate your decision to write better, and you will get to the crux of the problem. You might need to brush up on punctuation or pay more attention to research. Practice these skills next time, and you are bound to get a better grade.



Sorces :caseificiobolide.it

How To Build A Strong Case Study


If you study Business, Law or Medicine, get used to writing case studies instead of familiar essays. Before you panic and change your major, consider this: a case study is very similar to a problem-solution essay you have written in high school many times. Except, in college, you need to perform in-depth research and provide viable solutions along with actionable recommendations. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s dissect a basic case study format and identify the critical elements your professor wants to see.

The Five Ingredients Of A Solid Case Study

In academic writing, you need to think about every word you use, construct powerful sentences and combine them into the well-rounded paragraphs. Today we won’t go into detail and talk about the five parts of a case study outline that deserve your undivided attention. Heed our advice about these case study elements, and your chances of getting an A will soar.

Abstract

Professional writers practice by writing a text on a piece of paper, then folding it in half and writing the same text with half the words. They continue this until there is enough room on a page for only one or two sentences. That’s how you feel when you need to squeeze five pages of a case study into a single paragraph of an abstract. You don’t have to go through interim stages, just select the critical points of your paper, like the main problem, solutions, and recommendations.
Writing an abstract should be the final step of your case study writing process, so don’t worry about it now. And once you are ready to create your summary, use our article to learn by example the best ways to compose an intriguing abstractthat tells your readers everything they need to know about your work.

Introduction

Similar to other academic papers, a case study introduction should include the subject of your study and a thesis statement. In a single paragraph, outline the problems you will discuss, provide basic background information to familiarize the readers with the topic and finish with a concise summary of your solutions and recommendations. Writing a case study introduction before the other parts of the paper are ready is difficult. It can be your final step before you move to composing an abstract.

Case And Background

The first part of your case study body should comprise the case description. Showcase the problem and explain its causes. You will need to research the background and collect enough information to propose a solution. The more data you provide at this stage, the higher your grade will be.Here are the suggestions about the background for a Business case study:
  • The company’s history
  • The numbers on the problem
  • The probable causes of the situation
  • The impact the case has on the company’s profits
  • The customer response to the problem
  • Other companies in similar situations
If you are working on a Law or Medical case study, the approach will be the same. You should collect the facts about the case, delve into its history and ensure you have all information you will need to present viable solutions and recommendations.

Solution

After you have collected and organized pertinent facts, let your brain puzzle over the problem for a while. Write all solutions that come to mind without prejudice. Once you have several options, you can choose the most feasible among them. It should be an action that can be implemented and provide a visible improvement. For instance, it is unlikely that cashiers at the local mart will remember every customer by name, but you can propose a training routine to make them more personable and likable.
Analyze the background information before you present a solution. You don’t want your case study to seem sloppy. You can’t recommend an ice-cream stand to create a social media presence if it has functional Facebook and Instagram accounts. Instead, propose ways to increase the social media audience and ways to turn followers into paying clients.
You can either offer a single solution, the one that seems the most feasible, or several options. The choice will depend on the required volume of your case study and your instructor’s guidelines.

Recommendations

Solutions and recommendations go hand-in-hand, though there is a significant difference between the two notions. Your solution shows an abstract way to deal with the problem while a recommendation is a practical advice on how to improve the situation. Think of a solution as an overall strategy, and of a recommendation as a step-by-step plan of realizing that strategy.
You don’t have to go into fine detail, be concise and precise. If your solution is to attract a younger audience, recommend creating a video blog on YouTube or an Instagram account. If you advise the company to cut the losses, your recommendation should include the use of cost-effective tools.
You should support your solutions and recommendations with examples and data from credible sources. Show how other businesses have implemented similar techniques to increase profit or how the patient with similar symptoms was treated. Supporting evidence will go a long way in making your case study persuasive.
Writing a case study is not that different from an average essay. The more attention you pay to detail when writing the background section, the easier it will be for you to formulate solutions and recommendations. Still, if you have trouble with a case study, and the deadline is drawing near, contact our writers for help. They can complete your assignment on time and get you the high grade every time.

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5 Skills Every College Graduate Needs And How To Develop Them


Do you ever think about how you will use your Art History class once you get a job? Many of the college classes turn out to be a useless waste of time instead of valuable preparation for adult life. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of skills you should develop while you still have time. Employers seek people with a broad skill set, so if you adopt these techniques now, you will beat your peers in a job hunt race.

Time-management And Self-organization

If you are regularly late for classes and never turn in assignments on time, time-management is the first skill you should master. A missed deadline on an important project is a sure way to unemployment. We’ve already covered basic time-management techniques in a previous article, so check it out if you are a chronic procrastinator.
The first step to mastering self-organization is admitting you have a problem and evaluating its magnitude. Start with a detailed report about the ways you spend your time. Every 30 minutes write how you have spent the time. Do it for a week, and you will get a great idea of how much time you waste on social media, TV shows, and other mindless things while you could have been working on homework, submitting internship applications or looking for a part-time job.
After you identify your poor self-organization habits, don’t go changing your whole routine in one day. You will slip up, and your best intentions will go up in flames. Instead, decide on one productive habit you want to adopt, like waking up 30 minutes earlier or restricting social media surfing to an hour. Once you embrace a new habit, which takes about three weeks, you can move on to the next lifestyle goal.

Communication And Teamwork

It is not enough to be a speed-texter to communicate with your employer, colleagues, and clients successfully. Companies keep looking for employees with outstanding people skills and effective communication mastery on their resumes. If you don’t always understand your professor and peers, develop communication skills, while they are still not a decisive factor in your career.
Practice active listening in face-to-face conversations. Imagine you have to pass the test after your conversation is over. Listen carefully to everything the person says and ask questions if you don’t understand something or have lost the train of thought. Be attentive, and the people will notice, and your popularity will soar.
Get straight to the point in emails and text messages. In business, no one has the time to read through your lengthy ramblings. Provide critical information upfront and leave the explanations for later. This will save your correspondents’ time and endear you to them.

Self-motivation

Your school teachers and college professors might hold your hand through every step of every assignment, but in business, no one has time and resources to micromanage you daily. Companies want their employees to stay motivated to complete tasks on time and go beyond expectations without a constant stream of external positive and negative reinforcement.
The only way to stay motivated and uphold self-esteem is by comparing your current achievements to your past. Every night write seven things you did better today than yesterday. Reread the list and let yourself bask in the glow of your progress. Once you settle into a routine, add seven points you plan to do better tomorrow. This little trick will help you feel good about your progress and get better at motivating further growth at work and in social life.

Flexibility

One of the best and worst things about life is its unpredictability. You plan to finish an essay three days before the deadline when you catch a cold and can’t move a finger for a week. Or your roommate discovers heavy metal, and you don’t get enough sleep to make a good impression during your trial run at a part-time job. Life happens, and you need to adjust to circumstances.
If you panic in the face of unforeseen troubles, train yourself to be more adaptable. Get out of your comfort zone by trying new things. Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, explore new dishes at your favorite cafe or take another route to class. Break up your daily routine with new habits and things, and you will adapt to change without pause for thought.

Self-improvement

Your first internship will show how little you have learned at college. Employers don’t expect you to be perfect at everything, but most companies require you to improve over time and initiate professional development. Once you know which skills you lack, devise a plan to gain them. Most companies will invest in your professional development if you emphasize the benefits your boss will reap from your new skill set.
Explore gamification options to make your self-improvement plan more exciting. Set a goal and describe the characteristics you should possess once you reach it. Identify interim criteria for different development levels, from a Newbie to a Guru. Keep a detailed report of your progress through the levels; it will help with flagging motivation. Imagine how much more you will be worth to your employer once you fulfill the self-improvement plan.
They don’t teach flexibility and time-management at college, yet most companies list these skills as desirable for their employees. We have mentioned only five skills that will help you beat the competition though there are many more. We’ll talk about other useful skills to develop later. Whatever your major is, start working on these skills before you join the job hunt!


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How To Succeed In The Internship Hunt


Impressive internships increase your resume’s potential tenfold. But not all internships are equal. If you land a position at the New York Times as an aspiring journalist, your future career is off to a good start. A small-time local Chronicle gig won’t improve your job options as dramatically, but it is still better than zero experience. So today we’ll cover the cunning tricks you can use to get ahead of the competition in the internship hunt, starting from understanding what employers seek.

Get Into The HR Manager’s Head

Before you give up on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because you feel inexperienced or underqualified, pause and get a better understanding of what employers seek in their interns. HR managers pay close attention to five factors, in order of importance:
  1. Interview performance. Do your best during a face-to-face meeting, and other factors may get overlooked.
  2. Relevant experience. It doesn’t have to be professional experience, extracurricular activities and college clubs are often enough.
  3. A strong resume and cover letter. It’s your first chance to make a lasting impression, so don’t blow it with typos, ramblings, and cliches.
  4. Academic performance. Good grades show your dedication, time-management skillsand hint at your knowledge base.
  5. References. A positive experience by your professors or previous employers can convince HR managers you are the right person for the job.
As the interview is critical to getting an internship position, learn which candidates are more likely to get an offer. Employers seek people who:
  • Follow the news, blog, tweet, and research the industry before applying for an internship.
  • Know and love the company they are applying to and could lead the corporate fan club.
  • Generate creative ideas on the fly and can “wow” the HR manager with their enthusiasm.
  • Admit they don’t know everything but are ready to learn and evolve within the company.
  • Survive fast-paced changes and emerge better and smarter on the other side.
Some traits raise a lot of red flags for employers. If you need an internship, DO NOT:
  • Show up late to an interview.
  • Check the time on your phone like you have better places to be.
  • Be cynical, and condescending, like this internship is not your first choice.
  • Answer phone calls or text messages during an interview.
  • Argue every point trying to show you know everything.
  • Focus your questions on salary, bonuses and other benefits.
Now you know what employers seek in internship applicants, and what factors influence their choice. Still, applying for an internship position should start long before you enter the interview room.

Conquer Social Media

Social media has long since turned from entertainment-only platforms into powerful networking tools. Most HR managers will look at your social profiles before the interview, so you need to get ahead of the game.

Google Yourself

Google all combinations of your first and last name to ensure there are only positive mentions of your name, like college clubs membership and your professional Facebook account. Remember that your namesake can ruin your reputation, so you should be aware of all negative references to your name. Be ready to explain all negative facts your potential employer will discover after a quick search.

Keep Your Accounts Active

You can’t set up LinkedIn and Facebook accounts and then forget all about them if you want to make a lasting impression. Turn updating your professional social media accounts into a routine that will pay off once you land an internship of your dreams. An abandoned Facebook or Twitter account will be a major red flag if you are applying for a marketing or sales position.

Manage Privacy Settings

Separate your personal and professional social media accounts, set the former on private to hide them from prying eyes. Social media platform change their privacy policy often, so check your settings regularly. Log out of your accounts to check whether your personal profiles are available for everyone.

Safe Bet Internships

Before you Google “internship in ...” and find yourself at a scam site that is offering internship application help for a fee, discover the options you have overlooked. On-campus internships provide the same benefits as corporate positions but have fewer requirements. Therefore, you have more chances of getting an exciting internship opportunity.
First, talk to your favorite professors. If they don’t offer an opportunity straight up, they will point you in the right direction. These positions do not always come with a stipend but provide plenty chances to get extra credit and expand your knowledge in your major. Postgraduates and teacher assistants can also share their workload for a fee.
Check out your department website for open internship positions. Most departments are eager to get students to perform menial and tedious tasks. You don’t have to limit your options to your department though it makes the most sense.
See if the university’s other departments hire interns. This option works for old and rich universities that support libraries, hospitals, schools and independent companies. They will be more likely to offer you a position if you come with references from your academic advisors.
Don’t expect to get the first internship position you apply for; many students are vying for employers’ attention. Still, do not spread yourself thin sending out hundreds of applications. Instead, think about your perfect internship and choose ten options that are closest to the ideal. Use our tips to improve your chances and add one or two sure possibilities to your list, just in case. This strategy will land you a solid position to broaden your skill set, deepen your expertise and give you a head start in a couple of years, once you go looking for a paying job.
And if you need help to straighten out your resume, CV or cover letter, our writers are just one click away, ready to assist!

Sources : http://caseificiobolide.it
Learning in Dorm, Because Class Is on the Web

Learning in Dorm, Because Class Is on the Web

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Like most other undergraduates, Anish Patel likes to sleep in. Even though his Principles of Microeconomics class at 9:35 a.m. is just a five-minute stroll from his dorm, he would rather flip open his laptop in his room to watch the lecture, streamed live over the campus network.

On a recent morning, as Mr. Patel’s two roommates slept with covers pulled tightly over their heads, he sat at his desk taking notes on Prof. Mark Rush’s explanation of the term “perfect competition.” A camera zoomed in for a close-up of the blackboard, where Dr. Rush scribbled in chalk, “lots of firms and lots of buyers.”

The curtains were drawn in the dorm room. The floor was awash in the flotsam of three freshmen — clothes, backpacks, homework, packages of Chips Ahoy and Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries.

The University of Florida broadcasts and archives Dr. Rush’s lectures less for the convenience of sleepy students like Mr. Patel than for a simple principle of economics: 1,500 undergraduates are enrolled and no lecture hall could possibly hold them.

Dozens of popular courses in psychology, statistics, biology and other fields are also offered primarily online. Students on this scenic campus of stately oaks rarely meet classmates in these courses.


Online education is best known for serving older, nontraditional students who can not travel to colleges because of jobs and family. But the same technologies of “distance learning” are now finding their way onto brick-and-mortar campuses, especially public institutions hit hard by declining state funds. At the University of Florida, for example, resident students are earning 12 percent of their credit hours online this semester, a figure expected to grow to 25 percent in five years.

This may delight undergraduates who do not have to change out of pajamas to “attend” class. But it also raises questions that go to the core of a college’s mission: Is it possible to learn as much when your professor is a mass of pixels whom you never meet? How much of a student’s education and growth — academic and personal — depends on face-to-face contact with instructors and fellow students?

“When I look back, I think it took away from my freshman year,” said Kaitlyn Hartsock, a senior psychology major at Florida who was assigned to two online classes during her first semester in Gainesville. “My mom was really upset about it. She felt like she’s paying for me to go to college and not sit at home and watch through a computer.”

Across the country, online education is exploding: 4.6 million students took a college-level online course during fall 2008, up 17 percent from a year earlier, according to the Sloan Survey of Online Learning. A large majority — about three million — were simultaneously enrolled in face-to-face courses, belying the popular notion that most online students live far from campuses, said Jeff Seaman, co-director of the survey. Many are in community colleges, he said. Very few attend private colleges; families paying $53,000 a year demand low student-faculty ratios.

Colleges and universities that have plunged into the online field, mostly public, cite their dual missions to serve as many students as possible while remaining affordable, as well as a desire to exploit the latest technologies.

At the University of Iowa, as many as 10 percent of 14,000 liberal arts undergraduates take an online course each semester, including Classical Mythology and Introduction to American Politics.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first-year Spanish students are no longer offered a face-to-face class; the university moved all instruction online, despite internal research showing that online students do slightly less well in grammar and speaking.

“You have X amount of money, what are you going to do with it?” said Larry King, chairman of the Romance languages department, where budget cuts have forced difficult choices. “You can’t be all things to all people.”


The University of Florida has faced sweeping budget cuts from the State Legislature totaling 25 percent over three years. That is a main reason the university is moving aggressively to offer more online instruction. “We see this as the future of higher education,” said Joe Glover, the university provost.

“Quite honestly, the higher education industry in the United States has not been tremendously effective in the face-to-face mode if you look at national graduation rates,” he added. “At the very least we should be experimenting with other modes of delivery of education.”

A sampling of Florida professors teaching online found both enthusiasm and doubts. “I would prefer to teach classes of 50 and know every student’s name, but that’s not where we are financially and space-wise,” said Megan Mocko, who teaches statistics to 1,650 students. She said an advantage of the Internet is that students can stop the lecture and rewind when they do not understand something.

Ilan Shrira, who teaches developmental psychology to 300, said that he chose his field because of the passion of a professor who taught him as an undergraduate. But he thought it unlikely that anyone could be so inspired by an online course.

Kristin Joos built interactivity into her Principles of Sociology course to keep students engaged. There are small-group online discussions, and students join a virtual classroom once a week using a conferencing software called WiZiQ.

“Hi, everyone, welcome to Week 9. Hello!” Dr. Joos said in a peppy voice recently to about 60 students who had logged on. She sat at a desk in her home office; a live video feed she switched on at one point showed her in black librarian’s glasses and a tank top.

Ms. Hartsock, the senior psychology major, followed the class from her own off-campus home, her laptop open on the dining room table. As Dr. Joos lectured, a chat box scrolled with students’ comments and questions.

The topic was sexual identity, which Dr. Joos defined as “a determination made through the application of socially agreed-upon biological criteria for classifying persons as females and males.”

She asked students for their own definitions. One, bringing an online-chat sensibility to an academic discussion, typed: “If someone looks like a chick and wants to be called a chick even though they’re not, now they can be one.”

Ms. Hartsock, 23, diligently typed notes. A hard-working student who maintains an A average, she was frustrated by the online format. Other members of her discussion group were not pulling their weight, she said. The one test so far, online, required answering five questions in 10 minutes — a lightning round meant to prevent cheating by Googling answers.

In a conventional class, “I’m someone who sits toward the front and shares my thoughts with the teacher,” she said. In the 10 or so online courses she has taken in her four years, “it’s all the same,” she said. “No comments. No feedback. And the grades are always late.”

As her attention wandered, she got up to microwave some leftover rice.


Source : www.nytimes.com
What is Online College Accreditation?

What is Online College Accreditation?

Accreditation is an important topic for prospective college students. Attending a college that is poorly accredited may be a good bargain while you are in school, but upon graduation you will soon discover that a degree from an unaccredited or under accredited school may be a huge disadvantage in your search for a job.

Institutional Accreditation

One way for a college to gain accreditation is institutionally, meaning the entire college has a general accreditation. To gain an institutional accreditation, a college or university needs to demonstrate that they have information resources, such as libraries, available to their student body. They also need to prove to the accrediting body that they have significant student resources, such as enough faculty and staff, and have a track record of graduating students that have success in their field of study.

Program Specific Accreditation

Another way to gain accreditation is for a program to obtain accreditation itself, called programmatic accreditation. With a program specific accreditation, just a certain program will be accredited under the institution. A college may have an institutional accreditation and a program specific accreditation at the same time. Additionally, a college may be institutionally accredited but may not have the most advantageous program accreditation for your specific major, so it is important to research specific accreditation of your program when looking for an online college to attend. It is also possible for a college program to become nationally accredited by an professional group that also has also offers memberships for practicing professionals in that field. This is not always possible, but it is advantageous to you to research if your specific program has any of these affiliations or accreditations. Common programs for accreditation are law, nursing, education and engineering.

Regional Accreditation

The main accrediting body in the US, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), has six regional bodies that each accredit the colleges in their geographic location. It is uncommon for online schools to have regional accreditation, but an online institution can gain regional accreditation if that college has a physical location in one of the six regions in addition to their online degree seeking program.

Specific Online College Accreditation

The Distance Education and Training Counsel (DETC) is the sect of CHEA that is responsible for accrediting online universities. The DETC ensures that online and distance programs have content that is at the same level as their brick and mortar counterparts. Due to the rigorous nature of this accreditation, online schools that have this accreditation have a high percentage of graduates.
Accreditation offers many possibilities to you, the prospective student. Federal grants are only available to students at accredited colleges, as are other benefits such as subsidized student loans and GI Bill benefits. In addition to the financial benefits, attending an accredited school makes transfer between universities much quicker and smoother than transferring from a non-accredited institution. In order to demonstrate to future employers and other universities should you pursue additional studies, do your research to ensure that your online college or program is accredited.
Souce : www.accredited-online-college.org
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