Monthly Archives: July 2011

As a service to people who are thinking of entering the medical and medical support professions, StraighterLine is continuing the series of short posts on medical terminology. Each post will define one medical term. Today’s term is actually an anatomical one  . . . Coccyx

Now that distance learning has entered the mainstream of American higher education, employers have come to respect it more. However as you begin to look for jobs after earning a college degree online, there are still some strategies you should know that can put you on a more equal footing with “regular” college graduates as you interview for jobs . . . 

College students know tons of traditional reasons for turning in assignments late – some that instructors will swallow whole, others not. But remember, the language that you use to explain a late assignment will determine whether your professor smiles or scowls. 

When you look back over the history of college education in America, certain students stand out as pioneers who advanced the cause of education. 

The College Candy Blog is fun, often off-color, and chock full of irrelevant advice for college students. We like it. Plus, we really liked a recent post, “The Worst Advice Incoming Freshman Receive,” because it offers sound counsel for students who will be starting college in September.

Many people believe that the ability to write well is a God-given talent. If it’s not present in your genes, you’re never going to develop it. Not so! In fact, a little focused training can improve everyone’s ability to write. Writing is made up of a number of small skills which include . . . 

Are most Americans starting to doubt the value of a traditional college education? Maybe not, yet this year’s Country Financial survey found that one in four Americans now feels that college is not a good investment.

But just when college students are starting to feel like Bambi on the first day of hunting season, there’s finally some good news. The news, my friends, is that Amazon.com is now offering college textbook rentals for its Kindle reader platform.  

“Governors Call for Linking University Financing to Performance,” an article by Amanda J. Crawford on Bloomberg.com, reports that the National Governors Association just recommended that states begin to use specific performance criteria, such as the number of degrees granted per $100,000 of funding, to set higher-education policy and funding. 

Today, we are publishing another quiz, plus taking the whole college trivia quiz concept to the next level, by offering a reward to the first person who answers all the questions correctly. Here’s the scoop . . . 

“We’ve been waiting and watching the Harry Potter movies for 10 years now,” says the provost of a leading online college who spoke anonymously to the StraighterLine blog. “And now that we know that colleges of wizardry really can turn a profit, we are poised to bring the business model to the online learning environment.”

Are your writing skills strong enough? If  not, perhaps you should take an online writing course, like English Composition I. 

The quote in the title of today’s post comes from the immortal film "Animal House."  It’s delivered by John Blutarsky (played by John Belushi) after he and all the members of his fraternity are expelled from college by Dean Vernon Wormer. The quote seems to relate to a news report that we just discovered. To quote from the story as it appeared on The Ticker . . . 

With this post, we begin a series of short quizzes to test your grasp of the trivial knowledge that is taught in high school and college. Today’s trivia quiz is about . . . American History