Monthly Archives: September 2011

According to the legend of the Freshman 15, as soon as students realize that they have meal plans that let them eat all they want at any cafeteria meal, they go wild and pile up on extra helpings of lasagna, carrot cake and quivering Jell-O with whip cream on top. (Think of John Belushi in the famous cafeteria scene in “Animal House.”)

Myth: Only students who earn straight A’s in high school get scholarships. Actually, there are plenty of scholarships for students who earn B’s and even C’s.

For years, it has been widely believed that single-sex education is a very positive practice, for girls especially. Studies have shown that girls learn better, especially in math and science, when no pushy, hand-raising boys are in the classroom. Studies have been harder to find about the effectiveness of single-sex education for boys. Maybe that’s because even if there are no girls around, boys will still make spitballs, leave their shirttails untucked, and belt each other in the ears when teachers are looking the other way. 

Here’s a fascinating idea. What if it were possible to earn a credential that carried some of the weight of a college degree, but which cost less?

Should a Bible College Be Part of Your Educational Plans?
We’ve covered many different kinds of colleges on this blog, including two-year colleges, three-year colleges, community colleges, foreign colleges, for-profit colleges, and other varieties as well. But until now, we have not written about another kind of college that could figure prominently in the lives of [...]

Plus – dare I say it? – the Google Art Project could be a little bit better in some ways than an actual visit to some of the museums. If you visit the Metropolitan Museum and stick your face a half inch from “The Harvesters” by Pieter Breughel, for example, a museum guard is going to stop you. But on the Google Art Project, you can zoom right in and get your virtual nose right on the canvas for as long as you want. You can get in so close that you can see the artist’s individual brushstrokes.

If you are the parent of a student who has just started college, you are probably ready to kick back and relax a little. After all, applying to college was stressful for you too. You visited campuses, attended info sessions, filed the FAFSA form online, made a plan to pay the bills, bought all kinds of dorm paraphernalia, and then finally delivered your kid to campus and drove away. That is a lot of stuff to go through, for sure.

If you’ve been reading the StraighterLine Blog, you already know that you can save a lot of money and time by studying online. You can even whittle the cost of a year of college year down to just a few thousand dollars. Plus, complete your coursework at a pace that’s just right for you. And if you haven’t stopped to think about it, here’s another benefit. You can take your classes, anytime, anywhere, and in any way that works best for you. 

If you just started your senior year of college, congratulations! You are about to enter one of the most exciting years of your life, a time when you’ll be exploring colleges, making your final list of the schools where you will apply, applying, and finally getting accepted. Talk about change!

U.S. News has again published its annual rankings of colleges and universities. And in publications from coast to coast, reporters are again taking aim and blasting away at everything that is wrong with them.  Like the first day of duck hunting season, it happens every year.

If you a member of the U.S. armed services, you might have heard the common misconception that you have to delay college until after you return to civilian life. Not so! In fact, a growing number of servicemen and servicewomen are discovering that it is possible to get a start on college studies while they are still in uniform by enrolling in online courses for college credit. Then when they return to civilian life, they can enter college with a head start over other veterans who put their educational goals on hold.

A few weeks ago we ran our Mixed Bag trivia quiz. So it is now time to give you the answers! Ready! Here are the answers  . . .

We are living in a topsy-turvy world. The latest piece of evidence? Researchers have found that college grads are filing for bankruptcy in record numbers.  In fact, more college grads are filing for bankruptcy than just about anybody else.

How cultured are you? You’re going to find out this week, because we decided to quiz you on trivia from the snooty world of art and culture. Put on your thinking cap (and maybe fire up Google), because some of these questions are tricky.