There is a certain level of disconnect with reality in the citizenry of the United States. We pat ourselves on the back, proudly boasting that we are “the best country in the world.” And while that may be true to some extent – people have amazing opportunities and freedoms here – an inability to see that it might be possible that we aren’t always the best in everything we do may be holding us back. Nowhere is that more true than the United States’ lagging educational system.

According to a 2006 investigation by the ABC program 20/20, a Gallup Poll survey showed that 76 percent of Americans were completely or somewhat satisfied with their kids’ public school.

Now, here comes the disconnect:

In 2002, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a report on the state of education in 24 industrialized nations. The United States ranked 18th out of 24 nations. The report was based on results from three surveys that tested 14- and 15-year-old’s literacy and their abilities in essential mathematics and science.

“A child starting school in Canada, Finland, or South Korea has both a higher probability of reaching a given level of educational achievement and a lower probability of falling well below the average,” UNICEF said in a written statement.

Let that sink in for a moment. We’re in the bottom 25th percentile for education. Read the rest of this entry »

Paying for college is expensive. The sooner you start saving for it, the better off you will be, and hopefully, the fewer student loans you will have to pay off after college.

So what’s the best way to save for college? Well, you could fill a glass jar with cash and bury it in your backyard. (On a side note, that really is how I saved for my first car. Other than avoiding the fire ant hill near my hiding spot, it was a great idea.) Or, if you still have a few years before you start college, you could invest in a 529 plan.

What is a 529 plan?

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I recently posted a blog about the Top 10 Best Value Colleges in the U.S. It made sense to me why these were good schools. They have reasonable tuitions, are respectable schools, and the average student debt is lower at these schools than the national average student debt upon graduation. But according to an article in CBS’ Moneywatch, maybe I should rethink my opinion of these schools.

Evidently the people at the Princeton Review who ranked the top public and private  best value schools forgot to take something very important into account: Scholarships.

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The country’s economy has officially been in a recession for more than two years. This has made paying for a college education increasingly difficult for many students. It is not only harder to find a job, but it is becoming more difficult to find financial aid as government aid programs and private scholarships decrease in number. For many students, attending college is becoming more and more of a distant dream, due to financial limitations only.

In an effort to help students get the most bang for their buck, Kiplinger has released their list of the best values in higher education for the 2009-2010 school year. Kiplinger is a private company based in Washington, D.C. that publishes business forecasts and personal finance advise. They ranked the schools based on overall value, which is a combination of cost and quality of education.

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Most people think that when students are applying to colleges, they are looking for the most prestigious school; students must want to go to the school that offers the best degrees for their fields. However, this isn’t really the case.

A new study by Public Agenda said that students are more concerned with how much an education will end up costing them than with the prestige associated with each school.

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I probably drink at least three cans of soda every day, and I try to make at least one of them a Coca-Cola. Why? Well, since I am an advertising major, it could be because they always have those cute polar bear commercials around the holidays. But that’s not my motivation. I drink Coke because a percentage of every Coca-Cola purchase in the past 21 years goes towards helping education programs in local communities.

The Coca-Cola Scholars program helps over 1,400 college students every year and awards more than $3,000,000 every year in scholarships. High school seniors can apply for a four-year scholarship to the school of their choice; there are 250 scholarships awarded annually. Applications are accepted between August 1 and October 31 every year. Semi-finalists are selected in November, and finalists are selected in April. Of the 250 scholars who are selected to receive awards, 50 are designated National Scholars and receive $20,000 to offset college expenses; the other 200 scholars receive $10,000.

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Another spring semester is about to start. We are half-way through the school year, which means we are half-way to summer break. It also means that it is almost time to start filling out those FAFSA forms for next year.

What is the FAFSA? The FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

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Ray Crouch applied for early admission to Yale University. One day in mid-December, he learned he had been accepted to the Class of 2014 when he logged on to the school’s website. Ray’s twin brother, Kenny, had also applied for early admission, and he was also accepted the same day. Imagine the boys’ parents’ surprise when their sister, Carol, was also accepted to Yale.

Ray, Kenny, and Carol are three-quarters of a set of quadruplets who all applied to Yale. The last quadruplet, Martina, was nervous she wouldn’t be accepted, but upon checking, she learned she had also been accepted. This is the first time that anyone can remember a set of quadruplets was accepted to Yale University.

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It is common knowledge that college tuition prices are skyrocketing. Every year, it becomes more and more expensive to earn your college degree.

If you go to a college that is in the state you live in, you qualify for in-state tuition, which is usually much cheaper than out-of-state tuition. At the University of California, out-of-state students pay almost $20,000 more each year for tuition than in-state students pay.

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As a college student, I have three main financial concerns: earning money, spending money, and saving money for college. Thanks to Upromise, two of my concerns are now combined into a system that makes saving for college so much easier!

Upromise is a free service that both parents and students can use to “earn” money for college by spending money on things you do everyday.

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