Four years of college have passed, and you’re debating whether or not your education is over. Many recent grads face this dilemma: workforce or grad school? The experience vs. higher education debate may have your brain spinning with conflicting information, but here’s what you need to know to make a decision.

When Local is Best

The majority of master’s students are enrolled at the local level (in smaller, community-based schools). These are good choices in three scenarios:

1. When you plan to stay local.  While these schools don’t have the reach of their top 10 counterparts, they do have strong brands and alumni communities in their areas. A degree from a local school will provide professional recognition and a network, both of which can greatly help for job placement in your area.

2. When you need it to move forward. Some career paths, such as physical therapy and engineering, require advanced degrees to move forward. In these cases, attending a local school can be a great investment.

3. When you are going to school part-time. Not everyone has the time or money to pursue an advanced degree full time; local schools tend to be cost-effective and flexible. Read the rest of this entry »

A new study has been released showing that high jobless rates in major cities across the country may correspond to poor education. Another factor revealed showed that cities hit hard by the housing crisis have larger gaps between workers’ actual education and the required education level of most job listings.

The study was conducted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Calculations were completed by senior research associate Jonathan Rothwell, and included online jobs posted between 2006 and 2012.

Rothwell looked at the average number of years required for jobs in 100 metro areas and compared that with the education level of those respective populations. The most narrow education gaps were found in locations with highly-skilled workers such as Raleigh, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. – both boasting gaps of 2 percent or less.

“Narrowing the education gap is particularly important for improving the long-term health of metropolitan economies,” Rothwell told Forbes in a recent interview. “Metro areas with wide education gaps have higher unemployment, but metro areas with narrow education gaps have lower unemployment, more job creation and more job openings.” Read the rest of this entry »

To Brian Tracy, luck is foreseeable. Those with good luck have a reason for it. “If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often,” he says.

Brian Tracy was born in Canada in 1944. His early life was humble and he did not seem to have the makings for success, as he was born to a poor family and dropped out of high school. He worked as a laborer, then got a job on a tramp steamer and traveled around the world, visiting and living in many diverse countries. He eventually became a salesman, which started him on his path to success and helping others achieve success.

Tracy did not begin as a great salesperson, but worked hard and copied other good salesmen and read about their techniques. Soon he was the top salesperson in his company, and in two years went into management as vice president of the company. He eventually became the CEO of a $265 million development company.

Starting as a salesperson, Tracy later became involved in real estate, advertising, the auto industry, investments, training and consulting. He went back to school and got his MBA from the University of Alberta. He then developed his first training program that would become the book Maximum Potential (1995). Read the rest of this entry »

The recent documentary on CNBC, 20 Under 20: Transforming Tomorrow program, highlights an exciting shift in technology and education and it’s creating quite a stir. This program started when a visionary from Silicon Valley named Peter Thiel decided to undergo a search for the next generation of entrepreneurs. Mr. Thiel started a fellowship program where he offers the winning fellows $100,000 to drop out of college to pursue cutting edge business and technology opportunities.

The documentary tells the stories of the young men and women who are competing for the coveted prize. The most notable requirement of this program is that in order to become a Thiel Fellow you must walk away from your education to focus on entrepreneurship full time. There’s no secret that many successful entrepreneurs abandoned college to work on their passion full time. People like Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Walt Disney, Henry Ford of Ford Motor Company, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are just a few super successful examples who dropped out of school.

Some major breakthrough ideas are in the forefront and presented by finalists competing to become Thiel Fellows. The winning Thiel Fellows include Connor Zwick, who left Harvard behind to revolutionize America’s education system, Noor Siddiqui, who plans to lift one billion people out of poverty, and Tony Ho and Anand Gupta who think they’ve found a way to help doctors catch cancer before it’s too late. Read the rest of this entry »

“What’s your major?” “Have you declared a major?” “Why haven’t you declared a major?” “You cannot enroll for another semester until you declare a major.”

Any of this sound familiar? If it does, then I know just how you feel. I could never decide which educational path I wanted to take in college. I felt so much pressure, I felt that the major I chose would determine my career. What if I hated it but it was too late to back out? I tried everything and really liked a lot of what I learned. I found holes in what I thought I wanted to do and I was surprised by the classes I thought I’d hate. However, nothing really jumped out at me and said, “This is my major.”

Maybe if I had seen the new infographic produced by Rasmussen College I might have ended up with something other than “General Studies” on my diploma. The chart shows incoming students which degrees are getting higher paying jobs, which are the top paying industries, the top hiring industries, and how college grads are getting hired in today’s market.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sports enthusiasts know that when it comes to Olympic greatness, Michael Phelps holds the crown. In London alone Phelps dominated his opponents to bring home four gold and two silver medals, which made the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 total medals. If that isn’t bragging rights, I’m not sure what is.

But before Olympic fame and glory there was education, which is an important thing to remember for young athletes aspiring to walk in Phelps’ footsteps. And even though Phelps never pursued a formal degree, he did still see value in taking classes and coupling athletics with academics as an intentional career move.

Phelps, who was born and raised in Towson, Maryland, attended Towson High School where he graduated in 2003. While he started swimming at the ripe age of seven, it wasn’t until later that he realized his true talent. A series of swim clubs and competitions led to his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at age 15, at which point he became the youngest male athlete to make a US Olympic team in 68 years. And even though he didn’t win any medals, his next three Olympic appearances would more than make up for it. Read the rest of this entry »

By Melissa Woodson

While coursework is critical in law school, it is often a summer internship that leads to your first job in the field. For this reason, it can be as important to perform well and network efficiently during the summer months as during the rest of the year. The days of summer vacation are long over, but a good internship will be a rewarding experience where you take on your first real responsibilities in law and make lasting connections with others in the field.

Here are a few tips to guide you along the way:

1. Communicate Your Expectations to Your Supervisor

At the beginning of the summer, you should reflect carefully on your goals and expectations for the internship. Share those thoughts with your supervisor both as a reality check and to establish a shared understanding. Your goals and expectations may evolve over the summer, but if the internship is a good match for you, your supervisor will provide pathways to meet them. Read the rest of this entry »

During a rally in San Antonio, President Obama revealed a new proposal to his supporters for elite master teachers, a billon dollar effort to improve education for students in the science, technology, math, and engineering fields. The new proposal was strategically unveiled months before the November elections.

The program will include a pay raise of $20,000 dollars for each master teacher, but they must remain master teachers for several years. Not only are the master teachers educating students, they will be teaching other faculty members as well. The beginning of the program will start up with 2500 qualified teachers divided across the 50 states. If the program is successful there will be an additional 7,500 teachers over a four year course. The Obama administration will partner with groups, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, to produce 100,000 math and science teachers over the next 10 years.

However, the federal government has 80 established teacher quality programs implemented already. Why another one billion dollar program? A report found that the U.S. must grow the number of students in science, math, and related fields by 34% to keep up with economic demand. Read the rest of this entry »

Many recent college graduates are having a hard time finding a job. Of course a main contributor to this problem is that there are not as many jobs to be had thanks to a bad job economy. However, if you are an attractive female it could be something on your resume that is keeping you from succeeding.

A study by Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University and Ze’ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Center found that if an attractive woman included her photograph on her resume she was less likely to land the job than an unattractive woman who did the same thing or a woman who did not include any photos at all. Overall, including a photo in your job application reduces your chances of scoring an interview with the company by up to 30 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

By Samantha Bandasack

Tony Hsieh is an Asian-American, of Taiwanese decent, who was born on December 12, 1973. Growing up the eldest of three boys in California’s BayArea, he attended the prestigious Branson School in Marin County. Like his career now, Hsieh was able to make the make the grades, but still know how to have fun. After high school, Tony attended and graduated from Harvard, where met Alfred Lin, who would become his business partners.

After graduation Hsieh went to work for Oracle and five months later found he was not a fit for the corporate world. Soon after leaving Oracle, he founded LinkExchange, which was a popular internet advertising cooperative. By 1997 the company had received $3 million in funding from Sequoia Capital. The company was growing at a rapid rate and in 1998 Microsoft bought it from Hsieh and his partners for $265 million dollars. Read the rest of this entry »