While some people believe that Trade school does not offer students the well-rounded education found in the standard college curriculum, if you are passionate about your craft, it is a great way to receive a comprehensive, focused education that will help prepare you for a highly-skilled profession.

Here are a few of the great aspects of Trade schools that make them a desirable option for post-secondary education:

• Trade school degrees can generally be completed in 1-2 years as opposed to the 4-5 years of study needed for most college degrees. If you don’t particularly enjoy studying and taking classes, the shorter timeframe of Trade school may suit you better than a traditional college.

• Because of this shorter period of study, your classes will be highly competitive. Educators expect a lot from their students as they try to cram a complete education into 2-4 semesters, so you will always be busy and working hard. Many students find that the increased competition serves as a strong motivation to stand out. You may see that you also excel better under pressure, allowing you to get ahead in your program and distinguish yourself among your classmates.

• Whereas colleges put an emphasis on academic education, Trade schools place a greater stress on practical education. In Trade school, you will learn the specialized skills needed for your trade and only take classes applicable to this course of study. You will receive instruction and training specific to your desired occupation, be it as a medical assistant, chef, auto technician, flight attendant, fashion buyer, or any other vocation you choose to study. There are hundreds of degrees to choose from, and you’re sure to find a program that matches your interests!

• As you go further working in your trade, you may decide that you want to take more classes and gain more skills. Trade schools are accommodating to students of all ages, often offering night or weekend classes that will fit better with your schedule. You can choose to take a single class at a time and further your education while still being able to work.

• Trade schools offer help finding a job after graduation, which is a great resource when entering the job market for the first time.

Check out more information about colleges and trade schools on Cappex!

US News recently published a list of the 10 least expensive private colleges and universities for 2010-2011. As you go through the list, compare the numbers with the average cost of tuition and required fees for the 2010-11 school year which was $26,079.

Here are the 10 least expensive private schools:

1. Berea College
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$910
Cool fact: Berea College charges no tuition; every student is provided the equivalent of four-year, full-tuition scholarships and has to take part in a work-study.

2. Brigham Young University-Hawaii
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$4,330
Cool fact: The university owns the Polynesian Cultural Center, the largest living museum in the state of Hawaii, which employs roughly one third of the student body.

3. Brigham Young University-Provo
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$4,420
Cool fact: Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, is an alum.

4. Lane College
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$8,000
Cool fact: Planning for the school had begun in 1878, but the school’s establishment was delayed by a yellow fever epidemic in the region in 1878.

5. Life University
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$8,622
Cool fact: Life University remains the largest school in the chiropractic profession.

6. Blue Mountain College
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$8,870
Cool fact: The college officially became co-educational in 2005.

7. Park University
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$8,898
Cool fact: The original concept called for students to get free tuition and board in exchange for working up to half day in the college’s farm, electrical shop or printing plant.

8. Mountain State University
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$9,000
Cool fact: The university has gone through 3 name changes: Beckley College, The College of West Virginia and now, Mountain State University.

9. Philander Smith College
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$9,450
Cool fact: Philander Smith College was a pioneer during the civil rights movement as many of its students engaged in nonviolent resistance against segregation laws

10. Alice Lloyd College
Tuition and fees 2010-2011-$9,500
Cool fact: The college is one of two colleges in Kentucky–the other is Berea!–and one of eight in the nation–that have mandatory work-study programs.

Want to share your thoughts on this? Leave a comment!

But, you can explain to your mother later that social media and online games can teach skills that can be difficult to teach in normal school curricula–like time managements, teamwork and creative problem solving.

Here’s how Mashable breaks down how social media and gaming mechanics can have a positive affect on education:

Status Update and Checkins
Whether high school students or college students send a tweet or a Facebook status to their entire network about a goal they have, it becomes more real, especially if people comment on it and provide feedback. As with the status updates, checkins make people feel like they’re not alone–they’re traveling with someone else. Plus, it also adds a bit of a healthy competitive edge. Both of these things are factors that could motivate students to work harder to reach their goals.

Leaderboards
Today in school, everybody is a winner; there are no losers. Leaderboards bring back that competitive edge to school in a way that’s completely powered by students’ own desire to do better. By comparing progress with each other’s peers, students are driven to move up the leaderboard. This tactic can give mundane school assignments a bit of a makeover.

Move Up the Levels
A little positive feedback never hurt nobody. Offering levels for students to move up in is a great motivator. Take the Cappex Cap Challenge (log in and start playing now!), for example. Not only do you get further in your college search, but the more you do for your college search, the more you move up levels and are rewarded virtual caps and real prizes.

What’s your take on social media and gaming in school?  Comment and share!

Often times, college freshman are so excited about just being in college that they lose sight of their academic aspirations. There’s so many other things to worry about–your living situation, new roommate, that guy down the hall who gave you some spare quarters so you could do a load of laundry, the 15 or so a capella groups you’re auditioning for, and not to mention the football game on Saturday.

So when it comes time to register for classes, you might be thinking the following thoughts:

What should I do? I gave this college classes thing no forethought.  I’m never going to graduate.  What do I want to do with my life?!

If that’s the case, here are 5 tips to help undecided freshman decide what they should register for their first semester:

1. Get your general education requirements out of the way
Most colleges and universities require that their students take a core curriculum. A lot of times, these classes might not have anything to do with your interest or major–English majors might have to take some quantitative reasoning and biology majors might have to take a a fine arts credit. Whether or not you know what you’re going to major in, getting your gen ed requirements out of the way is a great strategy. You don’t want to have to take a physics class you’ve been dreading your second semester senior year.

2. Follow your passions
Even if you’re not sure what you want to major in, you still have subjects you’re passionate about or at least enjoy. Chances are, your genuine interests will lead you to your field of study. 

3. Choose by professor
Sometimes you don’t choose a class for the subject matter as much as you do because of the world renowned professor who teaches it. There might be a beloved or even quite famous and influential professor who teaches at your college that you have the opportunity to learn from!

4. Word of mouth
If you chat it up with upperclassman, your RA, friends of friends who go or have gone to your school, you might hear about a must-take class. It could be super interesting, it could be a great way to get a gen ed credit taken care of, just keep your ears open for what students are saying.

5. The “cool” factor
While browsing through your college’s course catalog, you might come across a class that makes you say, “Woah, they teach that here?” It could be a class about the Beatles, Harry Potter or even Star Wars. You never know! If you’re undecided, following what piques your interest is a great way to get started.

Do you have any tips for undecided college freshman? Comment and share!

Part of the college search, that is supremely helpful if you start early, is the scholarship quest.  We’ve made list of 8 great scholarships for juniors that they can apply to now!

1. The Discus Award
Every month, there’s a new $2,000 scholarship winner.  The Discus Awards recognize well-rounded, versatile students following their passions.

2. National Peace Essay Contest
Over 50 scholarships will be awarded between $1,000-$10,000.  What do you have to do to win? Write a killer essay.

3. The Gen and Kelly Tanabe Scholarship
This is a merit-based program that helps students fulfill their dreams of a higher education.

4. Avar Press Literary Essay Scholarship
Avar Press is seeking to recognize, encourage, and reward scholarships to high school students who read a specific book and write an essay about it.

5. Abbot & Fenner Scholarship
This $1,000 scholarship is for a student who writes a 500-1000 word response to specified question. Easy!

6. Castle Ink’s Green Scholarship
Applicants must generate awareness of recycling by writing something inspiring and posting it online, including a link to castleink.com.  Not too difficult and good for the environment!

7. B. David Scholarship
College-bound juniors have the opportunity to win one of three $1,000 scholarships.

8. Win Win Plus Scholarship
Scholarships between $500 and $25,000 will be awarded to college-bound students who make a difference in at-risk kids’ lives.  It’s a win-win situation.

Looking for more scholarships? Go here!

If you are specifically choosing your place of higher education based on bike-friendliness, this list will help you.  If you are just curious about which colleges are the most bike-friendly, then this list will certainly help you. If you are not curious at all about which colleges are the most bike-friendly, but happen to be assigned a homework project about the most bike-friendly college campuses, this list will help you a lot as well.

The college bike friendliness was based on 5 categories: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation and planning.

Here’s who came in at the top:

1. Stanford University
2. University of California, Davis
3. University of California, Santa Barbara
4. California State Long Beach
5. Colorado State University
6. Portland State University
7. University of Arizona
8. University of California, Irvine
9. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
10. University of Oregon

From USA Today, here are the Princeton Review’s 10 best-value private colleges :

1. Swarthmore College
2. Duke University
3. Princeton University
4. California Institute of Technology
5. Harvard College
6. Wesleyan University (CT)
7. Williams College
8. Vanderbilt University
9. Wesleyan College (GA)
10. Yale University

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A recent post from the Huffington Post might explain why your tuition is so expensive.  Where does all that college tuition money go?  Here’s a breakdown of  how public colleges and universities spend their money:

26% Instruction
12% Research
11% Hospital services
9% Auxiliary enterprises
8% Institutional support
7% Academic support
6% Other expenses and deductions
5% Public service
4% student services
4% Operation and maintenance of plants
3% Scholarships and fellowships
3% Depreciation
.5% Independent operations

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The survey results were indicative of nontraditional students who find time before or after work to take classes and earn a college degree. Enrollment in online educational programs has skyrocketed in the past two years – especially at community colleges — as millions of adults return to school during the country’s economic downturn.

“Students live online; our classes need to live there as well,” said Ken Baldauf, director of Florida State University’s Program in Interdisciplinary Computing, adding that students’ technological preferences show that traditional classroom lessons might soon be a campus relic. “Lectures need to transform into brainstorming sessions, and textbooks need to move online to take advantage of the wealth of resources available there.”

Incorporating familiar online platforms such as Facebook or other learning management systems that have similar interactive functionalities, Baldauf said, would be key in satisfying technology preferences for students with jobs and family lives, and those with neither.

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