Science Horizons

Students in 2009 (and their families) can expect to pay about $80,000 for a four-year college program. What’s more, that figure continues to rise at the rate of 6.5% every year. If you are considering a private school, go ahead and double it. If, however you’ve been a good sport – literally – throughout high school, chances are you can look beyond standard student loans, financial aid and grants for assistance. Why not apply for an athletic scholarship? About $1.2 billion in scholarship money is awarded to students every year in exchange for their performance on various fields. Here are a few of the basics for you to kick around:

1. Age matters! To qualify to play sports at the college level you must be between’ and 24 years old. Your chances of landing a scholarship decrease the longer you wait to attend college after high school graduation, so plan to go straight from high school to college.

2. The NCAA (National College Athletic Association) recognizes 29 sports; therefore scholarships are available for them depending on the campus. Men’s sports include: Soccer, Baseball, Water Polo, Fencing, Volleyball, Cross Country, Track & Field (Indoor & Outdoor), Rifle, Basketball, Swimming and Diving, Golf, Football, Gymnastics, Ice Hockey, Tennis, Skiing (Cross Country and Downhill), Lacrosse and Wrestling.

The men’s sports are: Wrestling, Baseball, Water Polo, Basketball, Volleyball, Cross Country, Track & Field (Indoor & Outdoor), Tennis, Fencing, Swimming and Diving, Football, Golf, Gymnastics, Ice Hockey, Rifle, Skiing (Cross Country and Downhill), Lacrosse and Soccer.

3. Only the most successful college sports programs have the resources to send recruiters out to high school games to check out the star players. For coaches and players in other scenarios, it’s a good idea for the player to be aggressive off of the field. Make sure you introduce yourself during your campus visit and drop off your sports bio and media clips.

4. Get accepted first. You can’t be considered for an athletic scholarship until you’ve been accepted to the university in the first place based on your SAT and overall application packet.

If you do land an athletic scholarship, there’s something to keep in mind. Playing at the collegiate level is a big commitment and you won’t have much free time for other things. Strongly consider the major you choose because in all likelihood you won’t be playing your sport of choice professionally after you college years have passed. Choose a career that fulfills you completely and look forward to success off the field as well.

John Barnett is a high school baseball and soccer coach. He earned a masters degree at an online college and is considering several online colleges for additional study.

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Psychology is one of the great, new professions, with its roots in some of the oldest wisdoms. A helping profession, no less than a nurse, a doctor or a minister, a psychologist is there to help turn the worst of times into something better, one slow word at a time. How do you become a professional psychologist? Obviously you don’t set up a cardboard lemonade stand like Lucy in Peanuts, and hang a sign saying the doctor is in.

There are two possible approaches, both begun while getting a BA or BS from a four year college. You can take courses that focus tightly on subjects clearly connected to your intended profession: psychology, sociology, or anthropology, or social services are all good choices. You can also choose at this point to work to develop a strong, well rounded humanities background, with a strong enough psychology t, like some professions. So where to start?

When you have a degree you want to then choose a grad school. There are many choices available to you. Most universities will offer psychological counseling degrees, as will specialized institutes of psychology. There are even programs online, offering a range of possible degrees and specializations. Be sure to check that any place you sign up with is credentialed, accepted throughout the U.S., and is respected in the field. There are a number of scams out there, so watch out. Look for a rigorous program with fully laid out steps and a strong testing ethic.

Do you want to be a practicing counselor, or an academic with psychological training? A manager for a human resources department, or a steady guide to addicts or trauma victims? There are many forms of psychological training, and before you start your graduate work you must take the time to learn the nature of the many programs and specializations. A poor choice now can doom your plans for decades to come. Clinical psychiatry takes many forms, but most involve actual practice. There are many degrees of a more academic nature, though. Be sure you know what you are signing up for.

Along with the academic work to get your degree, you will also be expected to serve an internship or practicum. In some instances the venue for this work will be provided by the school. However many schools will expect you to find your own opportunity to serve a practicum. Likely sources of internship are schools (as counselors), hospitals, and social services departments. Your school will have to right to approve or disapprove the internship you find, and you will have to serve the full hours required by your degree to be granted your diploma.

When you have completed grad school you will still have to go through the formal licensing process for your region. To determine if your degrees and practicum are sufficient, or if your district will require further testing and internship you should contact your local Psychological Licensing Board, most often through your State Licensing Department. If you have completed the coursework at a good graduate school and have also completed your practicum hours there will seldom be a major remaining component: there may be a standardized test, or a minor additional internship, and there will certainly be some red tape. But your degree and internship should have fulfilled the major required details.

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Psychology is among the most respected, rewarding professions in the world. A helping profession, it offers a good salary, social prestige, and the emotional reward of providing aid to those in need and pain. How do you become a psychologist? It’s not a hat trick: you can’t just pull the career out of your hat like a rabbit.

To prepare for later getting a graduate degree in psychology you must first get a BA or BS from a four year college. You may want to specialize in area clearly connected with your planned profession. You can get a degree in psychology, anthropology, sociology, or social services. Any would prove good bases for a psychology career. However you may also choose to get a solid liberal arts degree with a strong psychology minor. The important thing is to do well enough to ensure the grounding and the grades to go on to do graduate work.

After you’ve gotten an degree from a four year college you are ready to move on. At this point you must enter a psychology program. There are many possible ways to do so: there are online programs, universities will offer psychology degrees, and there are many, many schools dedicated specifically to psychology and psychiatry. Be sure before proceeding any further that you check to be sure that the institution you plan to apply to is accredited. Try to determine if it is respected in the field. Call the local college or university counseling office and ask if you can come in and talk to a counselor about the quality of various schools. For your own sake and the sake of your patients choose a rigorous program from a respected source.

Do you want to be a practicing counselor, or an academic with psychological training? A manager for a human resources department, or a steady guide to addicts or trauma victims? There are many forms of psychological training, and before you start your graduate work you must take the time to learn the nature of the many programs and specializations. A poor choice now can doom your plans for decades to come. Clinical psychiatry takes many forms, but most involve actual practice. There are many degrees of a more academic nature, though. Be sure you know what you are signing up for.

Along with the academic work to get your degree, you will also be expected to serve an internship or practicum. In some instances the venue for this work will be provided by the school. However many schools will expect you to find your own opportunity to serve a practicum. Likely sources of internship are schools (as counselors), hospitals, and social services departments. Your school will have to right to approve or disapprove the internship you find, and you will have to serve the full hours required by your degree to be granted your diploma.

When you have completed grad school you will still have to go through the formal licensing process for your region. To determine if your degrees and practicum are sufficient, or if your district will require further testing and internship you should contact your local Psychological Licensing Board, most often through your State Licensing Department. If you have completed the coursework at a good graduate school and have also completed your practicum hours there will seldom be a major remaining component: there may be a standardized test, or a minor additional internship, and there will certainly be some red tape. But your degree and internship should have fulfilled the major required details.

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Choosing your college is one of the biggest decisions you’ll ever make. Investing the time and money to visit the campuses that you are considering will go a long way toward helping to make the decision a little easier for you and your family. Here is a list of questions to ask once you get there that will give you a good idea of what life on each campus is like academically as well as socially.

1. What does the college do to help freshmen acclimate to college life? If first-year students live in dorms, for example, are there advisers on each floor available to go to for help? Academically, are advisers provided for each freshman? Do full-fledged professors teach entry-level students? What is the class size for freshmen?

2. What is the complete cost of obtaining your degree? Ask what financial aid programs would be at your disposal and how to go about applying for them. You should also inquire about job opportunities within the university and keep your eye open locally for student employment.

3. What is the quality of life for students within the community? Is it a walking town or would you need a car. If so, how is the parking situation? Are laundry facilities abundant? Grocery shopping and restaurants? Is there plenty to do on weekends?

4. Press the college for graduation statistics. For example, how many students find work in their field of study right after college? Does the university offer any alumni support or internships?

Don’t be afraid to find students and ask them any remaining questions you may have. They may give you a different view of things like how easy (or difficult) it is to meet with faculty or get into the classes you want. They can also give you an idea on what dorm to choose, which cafeteria meal plan is practical and what social events to look forward to throughout the year.

When you get home, you can compare your notes from every campus visit and make a well-informed decision for yourself. There’s still a lot to be done, but the hardest part is behind you.

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Whether they are enrolled in a traditional or an online college, no student can earn a degree without writing dozens of term papers and essays. But, if they will take a few tips, writing those papers can be far easier.

Generally, students have a wide choice of topics when they are asked to write a paper. By choosing a topic of interest to themselves and the professor who assigned the paper, it is likely to be better researched, better written, and worthy of a high grade.

After doing a bit of research, decide the direction you want your paper to take. Doing so will help you shape your thoughts, select your sources, and move to the next step.

Next, put together a comprehensive outline. The outline needs to be a roadmap for the beginning, the middle, and the end of your paper. Like the paper itself, your outline may need frequent revisions as you move forward.

Now comes the tough part, the actual writing. The key is to begin with strong topic sentences that generalize about the statements and subjects to come. If you have constructed a good outline, you should be OK.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when writing a paper is to back up and save everything you do, including the outline. And, keep all of your papers on your hard drive or a jump drive, even after you turn them in.

Finally, be certain to have someone with solid writing skills read your paper looking for outright errors and ways that your paper might be improved. Although you can and should proofread your papers several times, others are often better at critiquing our work than we are.

Lots of students live in fear of major papers. But, by adhering to the tips above, you can virtually ensure yourself a good grade whenever you are given a major writing assignment.

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World wide, parents make daily sacrifices to better the odds that their kids will enjoy a productive education and future success. Parents as a community, want to believe that the influence they instill in their children, will be the foundation for which these kids will make appropriate decisions effecting how their lives will evolve.

Here we are now the “Ostrich Generation!” An entire generation focused on putting our heads in the ground when it comes to our kids. We don’t remember our own “rites of passage” from our youth. The same challenges involving sex, drugs and alcohol.

Ultimately, all kids will be faced with social scenarios whereby they must make appropriate choices. There are no exceptions to the influence of the “tri fecta ,’ when a child evolves into a young adult.The least likely offenders are often those kids we label as innocent, balanced and endearing. The studious, the religious, and the athletic kids who value their healthy philosophies of eating and exercise.

With the fast paced Internet moving us into the great unknown things may be changing. Children are now able to hit each other up via blackberry, twitter, facebook, myspace, or of course the old fashioned cell phone. Once a night with the family spent over Monopoly was the norm, now it is an outlier. Today a family night together for dinner is in fact a rarity. Thus the Ostrich Generation continues.

Enter my studious, athletic and popular seventeen year old. My daughter, my pride,…my dilemma. I have on numerous occasions shared with my youth the dangers of life’s “rites of passage,” and the values of making appropriate choices. Trust, is key,… and a value I have instilled as key to integrity.

The trust for my daughter is lost. It seems like a day cooking brownies and innocent fun turned into a pot laden confection that is now on the wrong side of the law. Under this haze the car ride home may have seemed prudent but only moved the right of passage from something unwise to something with the possibility of becoming downright deadly. For the last 17 years I have given my daughter trust and support to make her own decisions and now I find myself trying to grasp the fact that her upcoming decisions for university, love and jobs may be too advanced for her. I have my head out of the sand and I am looking squarely into the future.

You can follow the “Ostrich Pandemic” discussion and more at www.collegematchingservice.com. Find articles about preparing for college and the parental experience that is the transition from child to college graduate who can make their own decisions, hopefully. Visit College Matching Service now to read the response from the brownie chef.

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The secret to earning a college degree is not a secret at all…just get to your junior year. If you get that far, you’re almost guaranteed a degree.

And, a pretty high percentage of college students who complete their sophomore year return for their junior year.

It is the freshman year that students find most challenging, and it is the freshman year when they are most likely to drop out. It’s not too hard to figure out why. The first year of college is a time of transition and adjustment, and neither is easy. However, if students follow a few simple rules, they’ll be OK. Here are five.

1. Don’t cut classes. Missing classes is the single worst thing you can do.

2. Put yourself on a schedule and stick to it. Be sure to schedule study times, study breaks, and sleep time.

3. Don’t procrastinate. You’re not in high school anymore…catching up is very hard.

4. Don’t go crazy with your newly found freedom. If you drink excessively, burn the candle at both ends, and put play ahead of your assignments, your days in college will probably be numbered.

5. Get involved. Don’t return to your hometown every weekend. Take part in events and activities on campus. Be open to new friendships. Join at least one student group. Be an active part of the college or university community. You’ll never regret it.

Nobody can guarantee that you’ll enjoy college. And, certainly, nobody can promise that you’ll earn a degree, but following the five rules above will make you a good bet to be both happy and successful.

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College admissions officers and high school counselors often stress the importance of college visits. The reason they do so is because a campus visit can give you the chance to:

1. view all of the campus, not just the parts of it shown in the college publications or pictured on the website.

2. see if the town in which the college is located and the area around it offers what you seek in in terms of recreational opportunities, entertainment, part time employment opportunities, etc.

3. sit in on a class and observe the academic atmosphere.

4. speak with students face-to-face about campus life and their everyday experiences.

5. meet with and question an admissions counselor. Don’t waste this chance.

6. get a handle on the campus environment. Are students friendly? Do you feel welcome? Is the overall atmosphere what you expected?

In some instances, you will have the opportunity to meet a faculty member, eat in the dining hall, attend an athletic contest or special event, or evening spend a night on campus.

Be sure to take advantage of every opportunity you are given to see facilities, meet students and faculty, and attend on-campus events. By doing so you are almost certain to be able to make informed choices about the colleges you visit.

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The right christian online bible degrees, are spiriti filled programs that acts to align connect itself with an Arts and Sciences curriculum; in other words, it’s grounded in augmented by Christ centered values judgments.

The is generally normal when it comes to the very best online Christian Study Program Institution offering accredited online bible degrees outline. Effective and fast degree programs offered are Associate, Bachelor and Master level degrees and the Online University level Program is usually accredited.Determine to align join yourself with learning academic and theoretical development grounded in Christianity.

Insight: What Are The Advantages and Good Points of Online Christian Distance Learning ? Distance online bible degree education schooling is ideal for the pupil that does not have the work schedule, travel schedule, or family circumstance for the traditional ordinary on campus attendance commitment.

Enrollment Attendance Online allows provides for the pupil to study learn with stay-at-the home convenience while actively proactively participating in engaging in college level undergraduate education that is based on rooted in Christian values. Online Degrees Christian studies makes it conducive for new or continuing pupils learners to go to school using modern technology.

Completion of the degree prepares enables the graduate to assist family and community with accredited arts and sciences curriculum studies and Christian principles and values. Many Christian employers businesses are scouting for workers that have chosen to align a Christ centered education with a particular career.

How Is Online Study Different from a Traditional On-Campus College or University?Online Studies only require a computer and Internet connection for attendance. Whereas traditional campus schedules require the pupil to attend come to class at a time convenient to teacher and institution, Online Studies offer the same subjects in a virtual classroom and a classroom schedule that is determined by convenient for the pupil. Virtual classrooms permit teacher and fellow enrollees to dynamically engage in participate in discussion as a group -within the comfort of one’s own home. The online bible college university Program also offers individualized one-to-one tutoring any hour of the day or night that is received accessible at the convenience of the pupil.

Job Opportunities – Just What Sort Of Outlook Or Career Is Available to Me with an Online Christian Bible Degree? Profession Options and Jobs in a very broad range of choices options are available to degree holders. These include job opportunities in Criminal Justice, Nursing, Education, Psychology, Technology, Business Administration.

Hands-on studies in Graphic Design, Medical Billing, Automotive Technology and Culinary Arts are also available. Visit the resource sites mentioned here. Interested to request more information? Log on to the website linked to use a very helpful university matching tool for online bible colleges.

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Choosing the right student loans can help students finance their educational costs without incurring overwhelming debt. And, although not everyone realizes it, students in online degree programs may also qualify for loans.

It is critical that students understand that making poor student loan choices can be very costly. Here are a few of the things they should know to avoid financial problems.

Student loans may be subsidized or unsubsidized. Subsidized loans require students to have financial need as defined by a formula set by Congress. There is a ceiling on subsidized loans, but interest rates are very low because the government subsidizes the lenders. Typically, students begin repayment not later than six months after leaving college.

Unsubsidized loans, on the other hand, are available to students, regardless of financial need. And, they are available in larger amounts than are subsidized loans. Students are wholly responsible for the interest payments on such loans.

Generally, students who are eligible for for unsubsidized loans require the maximum they are allowed to borrow. If they require additional funds, they may also take out unsubsidized loans.

The Perkins Loan and the Stafford Loan are most popular. Students begin repaying these loans 6 months after leaving college. The “grace period” of 6 months is routinely extended to students, as a courtesy, by individual lenders.

Another option is the PLUS loan, or so called Parent Loan, which can be given to parents with appropriate credit. The PLUS loan, like most others, features a fairly low interest rate. Repayment begins sixty days after the loan award date.

Be aware that student loans must be repaid, without exception. Leaving college before graduating and/or declaring bankruptcy does not negate the need for complete repayment. However, lenders will almost always work with anyone making a good faith effort to repay their loans. So, if you are encountering financial difficulty, you should immediately notify your lender(s). Those who avoid contact with lenders and miss payments may have their earnings garnished or their income tax refunds withheld.

Both online college and traditional college students can be greatly assisted by student loans. But, it is essential that students borrow only what they need so that they leave college with a manageable debt level. And, it is critical that they do everything possible to repay their loans on schedule.

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