February 2012

Medical Terminology Made Simple: Influenza As a service to students who are thinking of entering the medical and medical support professions, StraighterLine is running short posts on medical terms. Each post will define one medical problem or condition.  Today’s term is . . .  Influenza, or “The Flu” This is the time of year when people start thinking about the flu, especially people who never got their flu shots and are now aching and paining and experiencing all the other unpleasant – and sometimes dangerous – symptoms of this common disease. What is the flu? Although it seems like a common cold on steroids, it is actually a bit more serious than that.  Influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza ...

Going to College in America: More American Universities Rely on Foreign Students to Keep their Budgets Balanced “Taking More Seats on Campus, Foreigners Also Pay the Freight,” an article by Tamar Lewin in the New York Times on February 5, reports that more American universities are relying on foreign students to keep their classrooms full and their budgets balanced. At a time when American-born students are finding it hard to pay tuition bills, a growing number of foreign students seem eager to do so. Here’s some information from the article that you should know . . . Only five years ago, about 10,000 undergraduate students from China were enrolled in American universities. That number has now grown to 57,000. At the ...

Show Your Love by Going Back to College on Valentine’s Day If you stop to think about it, you will realize pretty quickly that going back to college is one of the best Valentine’s Day gifts you can give to the people you love. When you invest in yourself by going back to college, you are showing your love in some pretty powerful ways . . . If you have children, you are setting a good example for them by going back to school. According to The Institute of Education Sciences, children do better in school when their parents are educated too. If you are supporting a family, you can increase your earning potential and give your family more financial security if you go back to school to finish a degree. A study completed by The Coll ...

Diane Chambers, the pretentious character on the television series Cheers, once bragged that she was “only one credit away from getting a degree in any of 37 different disciplines.” Well, that’s extreme. Yet I personally know one undergraduate student who has made short-lived commitments to major in English, Philosophy, and Anthropology. But I won’t poke fun at her, because picking a college major is actually pretty difficult. But there’s another problem about changing majors three or four times. With the cost of college courses running so high, it can cost a fortune to decide on a major, take some courses, and then change your mind. So, how can you increase the chances of picking the right major the first time? Here are som ...

Capella University Offers Valuable Experiences for Students and Non-Students Too Capella University in Minneapolis, a StraighterLine Partner College, has always been innovative. It was among the first institutions to embrace online learning. And its innovative programs for veterans and members of the U.S. military have won wide acclaim. Now Capella has taken some new steps to educate and inform American students, even those who are not its current students. Some of the University’s unique offerings include . . . CapellaInspires, a new YouTube channel where educational experts will discuss the educational challenges that are facing America. Current videos are presentations by Geoffrey Canada, the man who made the news through hi ...