As Election Day 2012 gets closer and closer, the Republican Party still has not settled down and chosen a candidate. It seems that the Conservative Party is having problems making a decision between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, the two front-runners after recent primaries.

Just in case you have been hiding under a rock for the past few weeks and haven’t heard anything he has said, Santorum is the more-Conservative candidate and has been quoted as calling public universities “indoctrination mills” for liberal ideals.

So, if you agree with Santorum and would like to attend a school that is not “liberal” (let’s face it: most colleges are more liberal than conservative), here is a list of the Top 5 Conservative Schools in the USA. The schools were determined to be Conservative based on religious affiliations, policies concerning sex before marriage, political tendencies, and other similar factors. Read the rest of this entry »

Of course, there are always going to be schools that are acknowledged as being the best of the best. Usually, they have a long, proud history of being distinguished as one of the greatest schools in the USA. Many of these schools have been around for a long time, like Yale and Harvard. However, there are some new kids on the block who might be able to give the old-timers a run for their money.

U.S. News recently announced their Top Schools in the USA. There were several subcategories this year, and one of these subcategories was the best up-and-coming schools, aka the new kids on the block. These schools were nominated by their peers because they are seen as making the most promising or innovative changes in areas such as student life, academics, and faculty.

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U.S. News recently released their lists of the top colleges in the USA. One of the lists that they released focused solely on Liberal Arts Colleges.

So how did U.S. News determine what makes an excellent liberal arts school? The scores are based partially on the quality of the education that students receive at the institutions and the financial burden families must take on in order to offer this education to their students. All schools that are regionally accredited and for-profit institutions are considered for this honor if they have respond to the statistical survey that U.S. News sends out each year. The students’ level of satisfaction is also taken into consideration, since U.S. News know that no raw set of data can truly evaluate a school’s value.

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Last year, the popular social media app foursquare announced plans to officially partner with more than 20 universities across the nation to help students explore their college campuses and learn about their school’s traditions. The program was a huge success and now than 10 million users joined in on the fun. Now foursquare is making the program even bigger and better with a new and improved version called Universities 2.0.

Universities 2.0 will have all of the fun features that the original foursquare for universities had, such as the ability to check in at various locations on campus, learn about traditions and folklore, and see what your friends thought about various things related to your campus. However, Universities 2.0 will have something that the original program did not have: badges. These badges will represent the schools on foursquare and also could be used on college campuses to advertise that the campus is a foursquare-friendly zone.

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The devastation in Japan left many students asking what they could do to help.

When I was in kindergarten, the OKC Murrah Building was blown up by a bomb. This experience was quite shocking for me, but since it was not in my town, I was not nearly as affected by this disaster as Carlene Pinto. When Pinto was in middle school, she watched the second World Trade Center Tower crash to the ground and then walked home as paperwork and dust fell from the sky all around her. Lindsay Yates was another young child who saw disaster strike her hometown when Hurricane Fran killed 24 people in her state. What do we three women have in common besides tragic events in our childhoods? We could all study disaster mental health at SUNY New Paltz.

The university is one of many schools that are now offering programs that focus on emergency management and disaster response. This new trend is in direct response to the numerous catastrophes that have plagued our nation and the world in recent years. In 2001, there were only about 70 emergency-management programs in the USA; today, that number is more than 230.

“This generation has never known a time without terrorism or disaster, and I think it has drawn many of them to this field,” said Karla Vermeulen of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health. “They were 10 at the time of 9/11 and 14 during Katrina, and it’s really shaped them.”

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It’s a common complaint at virtually every college campus across the country: the cost of earning a college degree is too high. Between tuition, fees, books, and living expenses, the cost of attending college is becoming less obtainable for many people. Luckily, a new trend is taking root in San Francisco that could change the way we think about a college education for ever. What is this trend? A tuition free college experience.

The Free University of San Francisco is based in the basement of a store in the Mission District in San Francisco. Underneath the Viracocha store, students meet for five weeks to study a particular subject. The creator of The Free University is Alan Kaufman, a former instructor at the Academy of Art University and poet. Kaufman wants to separate education from commerce.

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Have you ever had a professor who was absolutely fantastic? Maybe it was your American history professor, who made the stories come to life by acting them out or using movies to really explain the past. Or maybe it was your chemistry teacher who sang songs about the different elements. Or maybe it was your communications teacher who helped you get over your fear of public speaking.

It doesn’t matter who it was or how they did it, but I’m sure you have had at least one professor who rocked your socks off. Wouldn’t it be awesome if every professor you had was like that? Well, if you attend the right school, this could be the case.

CBS Money Watch recently reported the colleges with the best and worst professors. The schools were ranked based on evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com and from reports by The Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

Many of the schools with the best professors are small, private institutions. Most are liberal arts colleges that have student bodies under 4,000 students. This results in fewer students per classroom and more student to teacher interaction.

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America is a melting pot of many races and cultures, and there is no better example of that than today’s schools. Diversity means you are more likely to find a group of people who are similar to you in one way or another. Imagine going to a school where everyone wore Converse shoes, black jeans, and red t-shirts, and you were the only one who wanted to wear boots, blue jeans, and a green shirt. You would stick out like a sore-thumb.

Of course, attending a diverse school is important for more than just fashion- or even finding people who are similar to you. Attending a diverse university will broaden your knowledge and appreciation for other cultures and their influence, and will open you up to knew experiences and ways of thinking. Read the rest of this entry »

The average college student graduates with $24,000 in debt. This can be attributed to the fact that the average college tuition has increased by at least 5.6 percent in the past ten years.

So, what’s the average, broke college student to do? Should you sell all of your worldly possessions so you can take Intro to Biochemistry? Heck no! How about using StraighterLine?

StraighterLine is a complete online “school” that offers a cheap alternative for introductory level classes. StraighterLine allows students to pay under $1,000 for an entire year’s worth of classes. These “101″-level classes offer the same information as traditional freshmen-level classes at many universities, but they eliminate the costs of running a college. Read the rest of this entry »

The Most Expensive College in America: Sarah Lawrence

College is expensive and, thus, a luxury, but despite tuition rates on the rise across America and an economic recession, many universities are still meeting and exceeding enrollment goals. Some speculate that the steady enrollment is because people chose to go back to school, or stay in school, if they can’t find a job.

But how much are you willing to invest in your future?

Since 2000, public university’s tuition rates increased, on average, at a rate of 46.5% and private non-profit schools averaged an increase of 30.8%. Read the rest of this entry »