College Myths

By Jeffrey Simons
We’ve all heard it: before “Everyone knows that Einstein failed math.”
Turns out, that’s just plain wrong. He excelled in math. What failed was the traditional education system, which didn’t know what to do with a unique talent like Albert Einstein, one of the fathers of modern physics. As Einstein himself put it, “The [...]

By Danielle Koons
It’s been about three weeks since Spring Semester started for most colleges across the nation, and soon the drama will begin. Sometimes you may start a class and realize it isn’t what you’re looking for—or maybe your schedule had to change or a different class fits the credits you need much better. No [...]

We recently found a fun post entitled “Nine Things that Aren’t True about Californians” on the Vampy Varnish blog. Check it out. You’ll enjoy it. Here are the nine myths that the blogger exposes about Californians and the state they call home . . .

Myth: Everyone in California knows how to surf
Myth: We all hang [...]

The title of a post, “Should There Be a Minimum Education Level for Politicians?” that Justin Marquis wrote for the OnlineUniversties.com blog, asks a pretty interesting question.  Should politicians be required to be college graduates?
It’s an interesting question. If you watched all of debates that led up to the recent presidential election, for example, you [...]

Online education isn’t the only new idea that people believed was too good to be true. At first, many people thought that automobiles would never replace horse-drawn carriages.  Other people thought that toilets would never replace outhouses. Still others thought that there would never be a need for personal computers. 

So the bottom line is, most of us can either feel excluded and lick our wounds and feel terrible because we would never have a chance of getting into an exclusive university, or we can get motivated and become successful and make a difference in the world. I think it is a pretty simple choice when you put it that way.

The word “status” has traditionally been associated with college. But what does status really mean?  And how has the concept changed with the times?

We just found the huge, immense and overwhelming database of college trivia that Inside College has made available on its website. Don’t even look at it unless you are ready to spend hours clicking around and discovering all kinds of amazing facts about American colleges and the famous people who went to them.

If you wanted to name the year 2011, chances are you would call it “The Year of Doom and Gloom.” Negative predictions were everywhere, as the American dream came under attack. The dream of owning a home? Dead, in the new recession. The dream of getting a job after graduating from college? Dead, because American hiring was at an all-time low. And the dream of going to college? Also dead, because of surging college costs and cuts in educational funding.

Misconception #1: You have already missed the deadlines to take the SAT or the ACT tests, so you can’t start college this year. That’s bunk. A number of traditional colleges are now making standardized tests optional.  And don’t forget that you can enroll in any course you want at StraighterLine without taking standardized tests ahead of time.

If you’ve been thinking that intelligence declines with age and that you’re too old to go to college, you should have your head examined. Leading brain experts agree that intelligence remains strong as we age.

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. 

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.