Next week my oldest daughter takes the PSAT/NMSQT which is a practice test, except they use the score to place kids on the list for the National Merit Scholarship Award. This award is worth about $1,000 for one year. I found this and other things out about the getting into college process last night at her school. The college guidance counselors had a meeting for parents to fill them in on the process and answer questions.
You can a free practice SAT – a PSAT if you like at Princeton Review online.
My kid goes to a college prep school, Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, MI, and they have a great “get into college” support team for the kids. I’ll share what I learn with you along the way in case your out of the loop on that process. Or in case you kid doesn’t tell you.
One piece of advice for the SAT and ACT test reporting is not to send them out automatically when the test results are processed. Yes. You can save a few dollars and perhaps some time this way but if your kid wants to retake a test or perhaps doesn’t want to send a particular test score to a certain college then you are safe. You can make the decision after you find out the scores.
Taking the practice tests will not improve your intelligence but it will help to figure out how much time to spend on each section; figure out how to skip a question and go back later without messing up the order of the answers, and see where you need to improve the test taking process in general.
I’ll share more as I find out. Hope this helps. Practice your SAT with a PSAT.
Practice Your ACTs and SATs with the Princeton Review
If your 11th grader is thinking about college, you need to know that the Princeton Review gives your kid the chance to take a free SAT or ACTcollege prep exam about 2 – 3 times per year. All you need to to is call their toll free number and set up the test date in a location near you.
There is also an option to get a test sent to your house to take at home. This might be OK if you have the discipline to time the test and provide a location with no distractions. However, it’s probably better practice to take the test at a location away from home to better mimic the actual testing environment.
Once you get your results back, you’ll be able to see where your study efforts are best spent. No sense studying for math if you got them all right.
I’ve also read that kids who over study or study too close to the test date do worse than kids who just take it in stride. So don’t overdo it or the results could backfire.
Princeton Review Offers Coaching
The Princeton Review also coaches kids in particular areas or they can take a course to prepare for either the SAT or the ACT. You can find local professionals and teachers at your school that can help coach your kids through the process.
It’s a good thing to try and do well on these tests since better scores may help your child get scholarships or get into their preferred college.
They also have an option to take online tests. Check them out at Princeton Review http://PrincetonReview.com
You are a working mother, and you pay for kids education.
Maybe the kid is in a private school or the child is now a college age student and is attending a college or university. You know that it’s a tough road to travel, trying to balance your finances, your life and trying to supplement the financial obligations to your child. School tuition is not cheap and even well-off two-parent households have a hard time sending their children to private schools or to college. It seems like an impossible task to provide for your child’s education when maybe you are even getting an education yourself at the same time.
There are ways to help with your money and your time when you’re trying to pay for your kid’s education. You may already be working one or two jobs to pay for your own finances. The best way to pay for your kid’s education is to pre-plan. When the child is born, start a savings account or a pre-paid tuition account for them at a local college or university. These types of programs will allow you to put a little money in each month so that when your child is ready to go to a private school or college you have the money ready for them. This way you won’t have to take out any loans bearing a large interest rate or put yourself under financial stress trying to pay tuition.
Some states, such as Wyoming, offer single parents assistance when their own financial means cannot meet the tuition or book costs. Check with your local department of family services or other child welfare service for more information.
There are also many online advice groups that can help you find out more information about paying for your kid’s education. These networks of single mothers provide advice and information to other mothers that are facing similar hardships. Online social networking of single mothers are a great way to make new friends and get great advice of how not only to pay for your kid’s education, but other trying matters such as balancing time, work, and a quality life for your child.
Tuition rates are going to go up. Currently, in some universities the tuition rate has gone up 10 to 12% a year. If your son or daughter has just been born, the tuition, which is already high, it’s going to be almost 180% higher than it is now when they are 18 years old. It is time to start looking at your finances and putting away money now.
If you have low credit or bad credit scores, putting away money in a kid’s education fund is a great way to build your credit. With a higher credit score, you can make large purchases like a home or car. If the education fund that you have put in place does not pay for tuition completely, your higher credit score will allow you to get a lower interest rate loan to help pay for your child’s education. Just because you’re a single mother is no excuse and your child can have a quality education they deserve when you can pay for kids education.
Just to let you know I’m performing my landlady duties on some of my student rental houses in Ann Arbor, MI and so not writing much. I really like the kids who live in my houses. However, some of them can create entropy in a big way. For any non-engineering science types, entropy is disorder.
You should have seen this one house that 10 boys lived it. Disorder is kind. The place was T-R-A-S-H-E-D. When I opened the refrigerators, it smelled like dead things were in there. Every food item had turned to a liquid goo. Disgusting. And the stove had a one inch thick layer of never been cleaned food particles over the top surface. Nasty!
I sure hope you or your kids never treat any property that badly. I’m sure you won’t. Well I hired the best cleaning service in Ann Arbor, Paula’s Cleaning. It took them two days but the place is livable. Will write soon!
Guest Writer Tammy Greene shares her ideas about online management degrees.
Securing Jobs With Online Management Degrees
By Tammy Greene
An accredited management degree is a must-have if you want to build your career in the field of management. In case you do not have time to attend conventional classes on a regular basis, then you should consider acquiring an online management degree from one of the many online colleges & universities offering management programs and degrees. The best part about a degree earned through distance education is that employers all around the world treat this degree in par with a traditional management degree, especially if you attained it from an accredited online college.
Accredited Management Colleges and Universities
Finding an accredited online college or university is an absolute must if you want your online management degree to help you in securing jobs. Employers would never hire students who have acquired their management degree from a low-standard or unaccredited college or university. When you achieve your online management degree from an unaccredited college, there is always a doubt in the mind of employers with regard to your qualification. This is because of the simple reason that the objective of unaccredited institutions is to earn money rather than imparting knowledge to their students.
To check the accreditation of any online management college you just need to contact the Department of Education. You can also acquire the details of college accreditation in the prospectus form that you purchase at the time of taking admission. It is advisable that you talk with the students that are presently studying in the college as well as the alumni if possible before enrolling in an online degree program.
Course Structure:
Before opting for any online management degree program, make sure that you analyze the course structure of the program. Stay away from it if you believe that the program is not in line with the current industry standards. For example, if you are interested in getting a management degree in marketing, the course should include marketing methodologies that are currently being used by well-reputed organizations.
An online management degree program should include a project report at the completion of course. When you successfully complete a project report during the course of your online program, it gives a signal to the employers that you can handle projects on your own. At present, when competition is quite intense in the management field, how you have completed project report will decide whether you are going to get the job or not.
Benefits of Online Management Degree Programs:
Some of the benefits of online management degree programs are mentioned below:
1. You can study from the comfort of your home with the help of Internet.
2. The fee of online management degree programs is quite less as compared to the traditional management degree programs.
3. You can acquire management degree through distance education by studying at your own pace. This is not the case with traditional management degree programs where you are bound to finish your study in two years.
4. You do not need to prepare any notes or case studies in you program, as your online college or university will provide you with everything.
5. If you are facing a problem in understanding any topic, you can contact the faculty members immediately through live chat, discussion boards, email and phone. In a traditional management degree program, once you miss a classroom lecture you are not going to get another chance.
Online management degrees are the “in” thing these days. Individuals are turning to the internet to acquire their management degrees due to their already hectic lifestyles. Degrees should be acquired only from accredited online colleges and universities or else the degree would just be a waste of time, money and energy. The benefits of online management degrees are numerous, the best of them being the fact that they guarantee professional success.
Tammy Greene is an educationist with decades of teaching and learning experience. Currently, Tammy is working for OnlineEduBlog acting as their advisory member and helping students with online degrees and distance learning programs and finding accredited online colleges and universities
An education is an important thing for anybody. Without a college education, even a high school education, there are very few jobs out there that will offer you the financial stability needed for your future. An education for single moms is especially important because not only do you have to fend for yourself financially, but you also have one or maybe more children to take care of. Juggling a job and trying to take care of the children at the same time can be a daunting process, and it is imperative that you find a way to get a college education.
It is probably true that if you are a single mom, getting an education is something that you really want, but probably do not have time nor the money. There are special educational grants, scholarships, and other financial resources that are out there, but they will not come to you, you have to go out there and find them. Go online or talk to a financial aid officer at your local school and you’ll be able to find a program that will fit into your budget, if not your time. There are also some community colleges who offer free shopping opportunities for prospective students. If you find that your local college does not offer the services, there are several government programs that will pay a partial or full amount of child care while you are attending school.
A college education for single moms is very important.
And only when you get the career that you want, will you have a more secure future in which to raise your child. You’ll also be a role model for your child as they become older. A child of the college graduated mother is more likely to go to college themselves than if their mother had a high school graduate education or GED.
Time management is your biggest issue after your finances are covered. How can any woman manage a child, a household, a college education, and a job? It can be done with the right management. Join a network of other single moms that have alternative schedules. You can take care of their children while they are at school and you can have your child taken care of while you are in school. If there is not a single mom network within your college, create one. Put up flyers and have a meeting. You’ll find that there are a lot of people in your situation that have the same difficulties with finances and time management that you do.
Use family members if they are available. Take advantage of the opportunity without taking advantage of the people around you. Show them that you’re responsible and that you want to have an education. They should understand that you know an education for single moms is a must if you are to have a financially secure family. Sit down and talk with your family and say to them that you want to graduate from college to make your life better and your child’s life better. Tell them that once you have a job and graduate from college that you will reciprocate all the assistance, love and the understanding, and maybe the finances that they give you.
An education is important to any person. But for a single mom, a college education may be near to impossible. With the time constraints of raising a child, working a job, and running a household, it is almost impossible for a single mom to be able to take the time to get her education. Any online college education is one of the best ways for a mom to get an education and at the same time have time for her family. An online college education can save the mom not only time and effort, but also in these days of high gasoline prices, money.
Most online colleges are asynchronous. This means that the single mom can go to college or go to class any time of day or night. The single mom will be able to interact with the class on her own schedule by adding comments to those posted by the other students on the classroom chat board. The instructor will give out an assignment for the day or week and a mom can complete it at any time as long as she completes an assignment before deadline. If the baby is taking a nap, mom can jump on her computer and be able to type out her lessons or respond to other students or instructor without interruption.
Another benefit of online college classes
Another benefit of online college classes for the single mom, is that your identity is anonymous. The people see your name in words, but they know nothing about you. You don’t have the social stigma of having a child or not going to class because your child is sick. You are equal in that classroom. Gender, race, or any physical appearance is a mute point within an online class. You are there to express yourself in words and those words are taken literally, because they cannot be judged by nonverbal interaction, your appearance or inclinations in your voice. What you say is what you say and you’re graded for what you say.
Not only time is saved when you take an online college course as a single mom, but money to saved too. Even though online courses are sometimes a little bit more expensive than traditional brick-and-mortar courses, the amount of time it takes you to drive to class, attend a class and drive back home, is also money that is being spent. Gas money and other expenses add up quickly. In the online college, a single mom may stay in her own home. If research needs to be done, it can be done on the University online library. There is no packing the kid up and taking them to daycare. Just find your seat and go to class. You can simply roll out of bed, get a cup of coffee, and sit in front of the computer and work toward getting an education.
Most online courses are offered in eight to ten week segments. This gives you a chance to go to school for eight to ten weeks and then take a week off. In an online college program you will get the credits, you’ll earn your degree, and you’ll be on your way to setting up a better lifestyle, both financially and emotionally for both you and your child.
In the next three weeks I will be posting ten new articles for single moms that need to pay for college education, either for themselves or their kids. These articles will cover:
If you are determined to go get a college education or help your kids get through college, stay focused on your desire, make a plan and you WILL get there. Please be sure to stay in touch. I hope this information is useful to you.
