Everyone knows how hard it is to get a job in the current economic recession. Many students are graduating, and instead of landing a wonderful new job, they are simply keeping their college job. The New York Times reports that less than 20 percent of graduating college students found a job last year. John Challenger, a job market consultant, said job-seekers “will have to find new ways to get in front of hiring authorities, look where other people are not and be willing to take jobs that most people would avoid.” And that’s where Priority Candidates comes into the situation.

Lesley Mitler created Priority Candidates to help recent college graduates find a job. Priority Candidates has also partnered with the Greenberg Education Group, a tutoring company in New York City.

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When we hear “economic recession,” my friends and I don’t really have a strong grasp on what all is involved. We know that the unemployment rate is higher than it has been in years and that it is becoming harder and harder for college graduates to find a job.

We also know that more students are not able to go to college because they simply cannot afford it. But beyond that, my friends and I do not have a clear understanding of the financial crisis. It’s too bad that we don’t go to Columbia University.

Steven Fraser, an American studies professor at Columbia, is now teaching a class about Wall Street and this financial crisis, comparing it to similar crises in the past.

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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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Move over Chegg.com. Barnes & Noble is entering the textbook rental arena.

Barnes & Noble is the largest bookstore chain in the country and has been the top selling chain for the past six years. Barnes & Noble sells most of its books through its almost 800 bookstores. However, its quickly growing website also offers over one million titles, and a new line of campus bookstores called Barnes & Noble College Bookstores operates at 636 colleges and universities.

So obviously, Barnes & Noble is a big company. And now, in an effort to help students combat the rising cost of college textbooks, Barnes & Noble is starting to rent its textbooks.

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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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We go to college to make money in the long run. Sure, we eat Ramon noodles and Hamburger Helper for four years, but we know that after graduation, our money woes will be over and we can eat steak and drink the finest foreign bottled water every day.

Unless, you are like the average graduating college student, and owe $23,200 in student debt.

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The economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes. It’s the strongest signal yet that the economy has entered a new, though fragile, phase of recovery and that the worst recession since the 1930s has ended, according to the Associated Press.

While the economy still has a very rocky and upward hill to climb before it reaches a more solid footing, these new statistics just released by the Commerce Department offer a beacon of hope for Americans, but for graduating college students, they may have to be a bit more patient as they begin their real-world job search in the next few months.

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Last June, we heard about a community college that was allowing donors to name a college course after themselves if they donated enough money to keep the course active during cutbacks. Basically, sponsor a class, have it named after you.

Unfortunately, that plan fell through. Some school officials were afraid of the implications that the rule could have had. What if a tobacco company sponsored a health class? Or a church sponsored a world religion class? The views of the class might be a little skewed, which would decrease the quality of the education students would receive.

Now, the City College of San Francisco is simply asking for donations to resurrect classes that have been cut. For $6,000, sponsors can bring back any one of the more than 800 classes that have been cut during the past school year. Read the rest of this entry »