The Day the Earth Stopped Masturbating Trailer [Friday Funnies]
Would you stop masturbating?
For those that haven’t seen it, they the basic concept from Death Note.
Boundless – Open Source Free Textbooks?
A new website has popped up offering an alternative to buying ridiculously expensive college textbooks, completely free. Boundless takes content from all over the Internet (i.e., mostly Wikipedia) and organizes it into chapters based on your textbook’s subject. You just let them know what textbook you need for class and they will create an alternative free version with the same subjects. It won’t be perfect and it won’t have exactly the same information, but it is free and easy to use.
Also included for free are even shorter cliff notes on each chapter, flash cards, ability for you to take notes, quizzes to test your knowledge, and custom study guides.
After two semesters, I quickly learned that textbooks were over-rated and stopped buying them all together, opting instead to go to class and take notes. Having a supplement like Boundless would have helped a lot. It is worth checking out and I hope to see more services like this in the future.
I’m only left with one question: How are they going to make money off of this? Until then, it seems like an awesome service, so go check them out!
The Differences Between Community Colleges, Private Colleges, and Public Colleges
If you wish to pursue a higher education, then congratulations are in order! You are making a very positive step toward becoming an independent, educated, and more financially secure person. It is important to keep in mind, however, that there are a lot of choices in terms of schools, choices that you must consider carefully in order to end up with the right educational fit. Whether you want to go to school online or traditionally, you will most likely be faced with the choice between a community college or a traditional private or public college or university.
Associate’s Vs. Bachelor’s Degree
Associate’s degrees, which will take approximately two years to complete, are typically earned from a community college or from a trade or technical school. These degrees qualify you to start at an entry level position within your chosen field or, in some cases, to provide you with all of the certification and/or training that you need to begin work.
Different Types of Student Loans
Image by Laura Taylor
Paying for college can be a real challenge. The price of attending a college or university can be daunting for some people, especially since tuition rates are steadily rising.
If you happen to be faced with a hefty price tag that you’re not sure you can afford, don’t give up hope. College is a possibility for every person willing to seek out financial aid and other options that can help to pay for college. Fortunately, when there are still costs that you can’t cover, you can apply for a student loan.
Student loans come in many different forms and understanding your options can prove difficult. With a little time and patience, you can come to an understanding of student loan options and make the choice that’s the best fit for you and your future. Click to continue reading…
Forbes’ America’s Best Colleges
Is college worth it? Forbes says, most of the time, no. Unless you happen to make it to the top of their America’s Best 650 Colleges annual list.
Forbes’ America’s Best Colleges list is annually updated and one of the many ‘best college’ lists available to prospective undergrad student. It looks to answer the simple question of “What schools are worth going to?”
Forbes looks at the economics of being an incoming student and ranks the top 650 American universities by their expected return, i.e., how much your degree is likely to give back compared to the amount of money it cost. The specific values which are evaluated are quality of professors, career prospects and post-graduate success, graduation rates, student satisfaction, and student debt. A schools reputation is not directly taken into account, though it could influence the other values, but the student reputation (measured by the frequency of winning prestigious and competitive third-party awards and percentage of students continuing on to earn a Ph.D.) is considered.
The specific measurements and methodology was created and conducted by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity on behalf of Forbes. The complete methodology is available in a detailed 16-page document (PDF).
The big problem “best” lists have is how frequent they change.
Rankings
College Being decided to compare this year’s Forbes list with the list from five years ago to see how the rankings have changed and which colleges continue to make the top of the list.
The Ivy League: Princeton University continues to be at number 1. Yale University and Columbia University have each moved up a few spots and are in the top 10, Brown and University of Pennsylvania moved up a lot and are now in the top 20. Dartmouth College and Cornell University improved a lot and are at 34 and 51, respectively. Harvard was the only Ivy League school to drop in ranking.
Honorable Mentions: MIT, Stanford, and University of Chicago also hugely improved their rankings and are now all in the top 20.
Notable Schools
Hampden-Sydney has been high on the Forbes rankings since 2008. Hampden-Sydney (about 1,000 students) is a small men’s university in Virginia and has been around since 1775, before the American Revolution. Hampden-Sydney College courses include sciences, fine arts, English, foreign languages, government, religion, math and computer science. The school ranked 4 in Forbes 2010 Best Private Colleges in the South list.
Boston University has improved its ranking and is now in the top 100 American schools. BU is a large private university in New England. Its strengths include a core curriculum of education, a varied program of study with 18 different schools or colleges, a diverse student population, and Division I sports.