During last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama referenced the new college scorecard, promising to help parents “get the most bang for your educational buck.”
According to ed.gov, the tool allows for users to evaluate schools based on individual needs such as location, size, campus setting, and degree and major programs. Read the rest of this entry »
I saw a Tweet roll by last week that mentioned a mother who had a $1000 bill for textbooks. I think I actually blinked twice to confirm. It was true, she’d spent a grand on textbooks for her daughter’s first semester of college!
Chloe of @ChloeCardash had a high bill, too, Tweeting, “Spent $500 on school textbooks #highwayrobbery.” And while not as transparent in the final cost, @IyanaNicole is handing over an entire week’s pay, Tweeting, “Yay my last paycheck of the summer is getting spent on these damn textbooks. Yea nothing better than that.”
I don’t recall ever spending more than $500 in a single semester, which even 10 years ago felt painfully high. It wasn’t until my last two years of college that buying books online really became a thing, and then I discovered used textbooks on Amazon. My textbook bill dropped to a mere couple hundred dollars each semester, and on a student-loan driven budget, that was a major win.
Amazon was my go-to for selling textbooks, too. I was always astonished when I’d spend $75 on a brand new textbook in August, and then have the bookstore offer me $12 after finals. At Amazon, I was able to recoup almost all of my expense selling the book myself.
The leading online book retailer is stepping up again for college students, launching a textbook rental service just in time for fall semester. Remaining competitive with otherbook rental services, like Chegg, Amazon will cover the shipping cost for the books’ return when you’re finished with them. If you have anAmazon Prime account for students, the purchase shipping is free, too! All you’re left to pay is the cost of the book that Amazon advertises at up to a 70 percent discount. Read the rest of this entry »
“I want to play Chinese!” is a phrase my two-year-old daughter often shouts out. I’m never sure if she really wants to play with Chungaboo’s iBook “Words: English to Chinese” or if she knows it’s a sure-fire way to gain access to the iPad. Either way, I call it a win. These books are so engaging with vivid illustrations by artist Miles Wisniewski and expert language translation voiceovers that even my toddler is picking up pieces of the Mandarin language and inserting it into every day conversation. Earlier this summer we introduced you to Chungaboo in a feature at Yahoo! Shine, Parents Should Load iPads with Chungaboo eBooks for Summer Learning, and we think no matter the season these books should be in your kids’ hands.
An article about bilingual children at Parents.com said, “The earlier you introduce a second language, the easier it will be for your child to pick up its unique sounds.” It went on to say that ages 2 to 3 are ideal for introducing a second language because it’s at this time that the “ability to hear different phonetic pronunciations is sharpest.”
We all know that children are sponges and are at the peak of learning ability in their earliest ages, so my husband and I loved finding Chungaboo (disclaimer: created by friends we met in college) for our daughter. She thinks it’s a game, we know she’s learning, and according to an article in the New York Times this past spring, each time she plays and picks up a new word she’s getting a little brighter. Read the rest of this entry »
School is back in session for manycolleges and universities across the country. Freshmen go in with wide-eyed wonder and seniors just want to get it over with. Meanwhile, alumni, like myself, become a bit nostalgic. While I wouldn’t want to go back to my demanding course schedule and bi-annual struggles withfinancial aid, I would love to go back for even a couple of days for a few of those key collegiate experiences, and even fill in the gaps with the ones I missed.
The beauty of the college experience is that it can be incredibly unifying. We’ve all had to scrape enough quarters together to wash a pair of jeans and probably even slept on a mysterious couch to ensure a safe arrival home the next day. And every school has their own set of unique traditions, like riding the Sooner Schooner at an OU football game, jumping in Mirror Lake at Ohio State, participating inCalTech‘s ditch day, or unleashing Northwestern‘s “the scream” on the Sunday morning before finals. You should take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way – no matter how ridiculous it may seem at the time.
Whether a freshman, sophomore, or fifth-year senior, we want you to have a classic college experience, and so we’ve put together our picks for a college student bucket list. You’ve got (at least) four years to accomplish the items on here, but you’ve got your entire life to conjure up the incredible memories that each item will no doubt deliver.
It was a bitter-sweet win and advancement to the Sweet 16 for the North Carolina Tar Heels last night. The team’s star player, Kendall Marshall, fractured his wrist during the game.
Marshall is referred to as North Carolina’s most indispensable player. He’s had an incredible season serving as the team’s starting point guard. In the NCAA tournament game against Creighton last night, Marshall fractured his right wrist as he was driving to the rim. It happened late in the game and Marshall actually continued playing with the injury.
There’s a reason Marshall is one of the nation’s top point guard – the sophomore scored 18 more points and earned 36 assists as he played another 36 minutes with a broken wrist.
After the Tar Heels claimed victory over Creighton and officially advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament, Marshall showed his first signs of injury. He shook the other team’s hands with his left hand to protect his right. He was immediately taken for evaluation and discussion with his doctor and family. Read the rest of this entry »
The Penn State board of trustees unanimously voted to remove football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier.
After 46 seasons of roaming the sidelines for the Nittany Lions, the Penn State University board of trustees fired legendary coach Joe Paterno Wednesday night amid public outrage over the school’s handling of sex abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
PSU president Graham Spanier was also terminated Wednesday evening in a speedy and unanimous decision by the board to relieve both men of their duties at the university.
College football’s all-time winningest coach felt extreme pressure from all angles this week following the arrest of Sandusky on charges that he molested eight boys, in the football locker room in some instances, during a 15-year period.
In order to combat the media storm surrounding State College, Paterno announced early Wednesday afternoon that he would retire at the end of this season — admitting in a prepared statement that he “should have done more” after a graduate assistant told the Hall of Fame coach that he witnessed Sandusky assaulting a boy in the shower in 2002.
Retirement wasn’t enough for the board of trustees, who must now work hard to repair the university’s shattered image.
Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley will serve as interim coach for Penn State’s game Saturday against Nebraska.
They say fall is a season of change. In that case we certainly hope your couch is ready for action. Pay the cable bill and dust off that remote control — college football is back and this season it’s bringing the drama without delay.
It’s been quite the off-season around the ol’ NCAA. Eight long months have passed since the final whistle blew in Glendale, but that certainly didn’t stop the schools, coaches and players from making some serious moves off the field. From new conference alignments to new coaching assignments, 2011 definitely promises to be a season for the books.
Highlighting week one is a matchup of unreal proportions. The #3 Oregon Ducks, looking to rebound from a last-second loss in last year’s BCS Championship Game, face-off against a Jordan Jefferson-less #4 LSU Tigers squad at Jerry’s World down in Dallas. The Ducks have a chip on their shoulder and the Tigers are trying to put the pieces back together after a mindless bar brawl involving several players in Baton Rouge. This is certainly one that is not to be missed. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you ready to kick-off the 2011 college football season? Once your team shirt has been chosen for game day, snacks planned, and tailgate location secures, maybe consider socializing with your team! Many college footballteams interact with their fans via Facebook and Twitter. We took a look at the 20 colleges with the highest following on Facebook, and then compared that to Twitter and school population, as well as Heisman wins and national championships.
It’s already shaping up to be an exciting season with last year’s conference realignment finally in play.
A lot of books come across my desk, but few catch my attention. “The Great Typo Hunt” is one that made its way out of the pile and on to my nightstand. It’s like my own real-life version of “the claw” who-will-get-picked game. Only a little more cerebral.
I’m an editor, so I spend my days picking apart proper spelling and gasping at yet another misplaced comma. So when I heard about Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson setting out on a cross-country road trip to correct typos, I couldn’t get the cover open fast enough.
It all started when Jeff Deck decided he wanted to make a difference in the world, in almost superhero fashion. His good intentions needed a mission, and when he asked himself “What am I good at?”, his response was editing. Every good superhero has a super power, and this is his.
“I decided to change the world by hunting down typos,” Jeff told us in an interview during his book tour.
In the book he introduces the idea of typo hunting, his strategic plan to save money, recruit friends and drive from the east coast to the west and back again all in the name of proofreading. Read the rest of this entry »
Imagine hating going to work. It’s not a stretch for many adults, but imagine that reason is because when you sit down at your dilapidated desk (if there’s one for you) you have to look at a banged up bulletin board and dodge an occasional ceiling tile that dislodges and falls to the floor, which a cockroach crawls across. Your boss isn’t enthusiastic about being there either because there aren’t many computers and the ones you do have don’t really work. At least you’re there, but none of your co-workers show up because they think it’s just not worth it, so there’s not a lot of peer engagement during the day. The water fountain doesn’t work so you can’t get a drink of water. The parking lot is overgrown so you’d rather not leave your car there. All in all it’s a pretty miserable experience. You’d quit, but that’s not really an option.
Now, imagine this scenario is a school. Again, it’s not a stretch. This scenario plays out in far too many schools across our entire country. There really are students in the U.S. who dodge ceiling tiles, don’t have working water fountains, are lacking vital technology, and guess day to day whether their classmates will even show up. You wouldn’t want to go to school either if you thought this was the level of care your community was willing to extend to you and your education. That’s why in places like Detroit the graduation rate is a dismal 54 percent. Just a hair more than half of that city’s high school seniors earn a diploma. That’s simply not good enough.
Cheryl Hines didn’t think it was good enough either. That’s why she, with a powerful team, joined forces to present an exciting and inspiring new show on NBC called “School Pride.” “[The show] has added to my life in a lot of major ways,” she says.
We spoke with executive producers Cheryl Hines, of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, and Denise Cramsey, behind Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, about the new show and what it means for our students. You can hear the interview in its entirety, as they talk about the benefits to students and how to renovate your own school. Listen now, or continue reading to watch the full-length trailer.
posted on February 13th, 2013
