Student Loans for Professional Education

Posted by admin | Posted in 4 | Posted on 25-02-2009

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Loans may be acquired to help you in your (Professional|Qualified|Certified|Specialist} Education. Loans that are issued by the federal government frequently have the advantage of possessing a reduced interest rate. The Stafford loans are the loans that are guaranteed by the Federal authority. They necessitate the student to initially complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aide). The eligibility requirements and the application can be found on the web. There are too private loans obtainable from other financial institutions or possibly from the institution you attend..

Attention must be given as to the date any loans must be paid. A student loan could be considered “defaulted” if requests by the university or lender become disregarded. This works to your disadvantage as learning institutions may well hold control over your school records and transcripts if you default on the loan. Make sure that you attempt to make a periodic payment of some type and the university can possibly consider releasing an “unofficial” transcript so that you might either progress on to go to another college of higher education or obtain a position requiring the degree.

Study every loan carefully to locate the one best matched to your need and abllity of payment. A student loan is never forgiven in bankruptcy. You remain responsible for repaying the loan and interest totally. Discover if the loan you are thinking about is a subsidized or unsubsidized loan. In a subsidized loan, the interest is paid even while you are in the university. However with an unsubsidized loan, you are responsible for all the interest. That will make a great change in your last payments.

An additional point to think about is if working will be a likelihood even while you are attending college as that can help with the assorted expenses. Every so often student grants and scholarships which don’t have to be paid back should be used to complement your student loans. Stay knowledgeable of the forever-varying loans and grants by often checking http://www.free-government-grants-money.com and its matching twitter and friendfeed accounts which are updated hourly with the best information and resources the internet has to suggest.

The Wikipedia – Can Teenagers write an Encyclopedia?

Posted by admin | Posted in 8 | Posted on 24-02-2009

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The vast majority of Wikipedia contributors and editors are under the age of 25. Many of the administrators (senior editors) are in their teens. This has been established by a survey conducted in 2003 and in various recent interviews with Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of the enterprise.

The truth is that teenagers cannot do the referencing and research that are the prerequisite to serious scholarship – unless you stretch these words to an absurd limit. Research is not about hoarding facts. It is about identifying and applying context and about possessing a synoptic view of ostensibly unrelated data.

Moreover, teenagers can’t tell hype from fact and fad from fixture. They lack the perspectives that life and learning -structured, frontal, hierarchical learning – bring with them.

Knowledge is not another democratic institution. It is hierarchical for good reason and the hierarchy is built on merit and the merit is founded on learning.

It is not surprising that the Wikipedia emerged in the USA whose “culture” consists of truncated attention spans, snippets and soundbites, shortcuts and cliff notes. The Wikipedia is a pernicious counter-cultural phenomenon. It does not elevate or celebrate knowledge. The Wikipedia degrades knowledge by commoditizing it and by removing the filters, the gatekeepers, and the barriers to entry that have proven so essential hitherto.

Wikipdians boast that the articles in their “encyclopedia” are replete with citations and references. But citations from which sources and references to which works and authors? Absent the relevant credentials and education, how can an editor tell the difference between information and disinformation, quacks and authorities, fact and hearsay, truth and confabulation?

Knowledge is not comprised of lists of facts, “facts”, factoids, and rumors, the bread and butter of the Wikipedia. Real facts have to be verified, classified, and arranged within a historical and cultural context. Wikipedia articles read like laundry lists of information gleaned from secondary sources and invariably lack context and deep, true understanding of their subject matter.

A recent (late 2006) study by Heather Hopkins from Hitwise demonstrates the existence of a pernicious feedback loop between Google, Wikipedia, MySpace, and Blogspot. Wikipedia gets 54% of its traffic from Google search results. The majority of Wikipedia visitors then proceed to MySpace or Blogspot, both of which use Google as their search service and serve Google-generated advertisements.

Google has changed its search algorithm in late 2005-early 2006. I have been monitoring 154 keywords on Google since 1999. Of these, the number one (#1) search result in 128 keywords is now a Wikipedia article. More than a quarter (38 out of 128) of these “articles” are what the Wikipedia calls “stubs” (one or two sentences to be expanded by Wikipedians in the future). Between 7 and 10 of the articles that made it to the much-coveted number one spot are … empty pages, placeholders, yet to be written! (These results were obtained in early 2007).

This is Google’s policy now: Wikipedia articles regardless of their length or quality or even mere existence are placed by Google’s algorithm high up in the search results. Google even makes a Wikipedia search engine available to Webmasters for their Websites. The relationship between Google and Wikipedia is clearly intimate and mutually-reinforcing.

Google’s new algorithm, codenamed Big Daddy, still calculates the popularity of Websites by counting incoming links. An incoming link is a link to a given Website placed on an unrelated page somewhere on the Web. The more numerous such links – the higher the placement in Google’s search results pages. To avoid spamming and link farms, Google now rates the quality of “good and bad Internet neighborhoods”. Not all incoming links are treated equally. Some Internet properties are shunned. Links from such “bad” Websites actually contribute negatively to the overall score.

The top results in all 154 keywords I have been diligently monitoring since 1999 have changed dramatically since April 2006. The only common thread in all these upheavals is one: the more incoming links from MySpace, Digg, Tehnorati and similar Internet properties a Website has – the higher it is placed in the search results.

In other words: if Website A has 700 incoming links from 700 different Websites and website B has 700 incoming links, all of them from various pages on MySpace, Website B is ranked (much) higher in the search results. This holds true even when both Websites A and B sport the same PageRank. This holds true even if the bulk of Website A’s incoming links come from “good properties” in “good Internet neighborhoods”. Incoming links from MySpace trump every other category of incoming links.

An unsettling pattern emerges:

Wikipedia, the “encyclopedia” whose “editors” are mostly unqualified teenagers and young adults is touted by Google as an authoritative source of information. In search results, it is placed well ahead of sources of veritable information such as universities, government institutions, the home pages of recognized experts, the online full-text content of peer-reviewed professional and scholarly publications, real encyclopedias (such as the Encarta), and so on.

MySpace whose 110 million users are predominantly prepubescent and adolescents now dictates what Websites will occupy the first search results in Google’s search results pages. It is very easy to spam MySpace. It is considered by some experts to be a vast storehouse of link farms masquerading as “social networks”.

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Master’s Degree Online – path to a promotion and more Money

Posted by admin | Posted in 12 | Posted on 11-02-2009

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Popular Online Masters Degree Programs to Pursue

According to the United States Department of Education, over 75 accredited universities offer online masters programs with a myriad of exciting degree options, including:

• Accounting

• Business Administration

• Economics

• Education

• Fine Arts

• Finance

• Science

This is just a sample of the popular master’s degree courses available through distance learning programs. You can choose to earn your masters degree in a variety of interesting areas through online education opportunities.

Choose an Accredited Online Masters Degree Program

You should verify that the institution offering the online education graduate course you select is accredited so that you do not lose precious time and money. Without proper accreditation, your degree will not be recognized by other colleges or certain employers. Graduate degrees accredited through official agencies, including the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the United States Department of Education, are considered valid.

Financing a Masters Degree Distance Learning Program

Students of all ages and from every background have a variety options available to pay for online masters degree programs. You can choose to pay for your education through federal aid, student loans or scholarships. Some jobs even offer employer assistance to enterprising employees, so ask your employer if they have such a program. A great advantage of earning a graduate degree online is that you save on room and board, which totals $6,000 to $12,000 annually according to the College Board.

Distance Learning Masters Degree programs require self-motivation

Because you take distance learning courses at your own pace, self-motivation is required to successfully completely the program and earn your masters degree. Let your family, friends and employer know that you are returning to school and enlist their support and understanding. If you are juggling multiple responsibilities, write your schedule down so it is easier to follow. Remember to fit sleeping, eating and recreation into your agenda – you need to stay healthy to effectively complete your online education while you handle your other duties.

Online education programs may include virtual lectures, reading, writing, online chats, emails, podcasting and videoconferencing. Certain distance learning masters degree programs require you to physically attend workshops or courses for residency hours. Testing is usually done through proctors, such as librarians, in your community. Take all of these educational requirements in mind when planning your schedule.

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Grants For Single Mothers

Posted by admin | Posted in 16 | Posted on 11-02-2009

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If you are a single mom and struggling to get by, you are not alone. Whether you are going through a divorce or the father is absent most single mother face the burden of supporting themselves and their children all on one income.

* Only fifteen percent of women going through a divorce are awarded any form of court-ordered spousal support.

* Thirty-four percent of those women never receive what is due to them.

* Less than half of the women who claim child support ever receive the full amount.

* Within the first year of divorce a women’s average standard of living falls forty-five percent while a man’s will grow fifteen percent.

What are grants?

A grant is an award of financial assistance. The primary purpose of a grant is to transport a thing of value from a Federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or incentive authorized by a law of the United States. A grant is distinguished for a contact, which is then used to acquire property or services for the Federal government’s direct use or benefit.

Grants are associated by company, state, local or tribal government, research institution or academia, not-for-profit, or any other kind of institution.

Grants for single mother can be found on one of the 900 grant programs offered by the 26 Federal grant-making agencies. These programs fall into 21 broad categories defined by the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. Agencies may fall under multiple grant categories. Below is a list of categories where grants for single mother may be found:

• Agriculture
• Arts
• Business and Commerce
• Community Development
• Consumer Protection
• Disaster Prevention and Relief
• Education
• Employment, Labor, and Training
• Energy
• Environmental Quality
• Food and Nutrition
• Health
• Housing
• Humanities
• Information and Statistics
• Law, Justice, and Legal Services
• Natural Resources
• Regional Development
• Science and Technology
• Social Services and Income Security
• Transportation

If you are a single mother seeking help with funding for your higher education you should consider exploring financial aid options such as contacting your financial aid office where you attend school. Ask about:

• Direct financial assistance from your college
• Federal and state subsidized grants
• Work-study programs
• Support from alumni, local clubs, or religious groups,
• Corporate-sponsored scholarships or tuition-aid programs for employees or for children of employees

Who can apply for grants?

If you are a citizen of the United States or a U.S. territory, or are a foreign national who has lived in the United States or a U.S. territory for at least three years immediately preceding an application, you are eligible to apply for a grant.

How do I prepare an application?

Each grant program has special instructions and program guidelines on how to properly prepare an application. Make sure to review these carefully before beginning your application for any important information about the focus of the program, eligibility requirements, and the types of funding available.

Applying for a grant is a great way for single mother in debt to get out of debt and stay out.

Helpful sites
- http://www.grants.gov lists over 900 grant programs.
- http://www.neh.gov answers common questions about grants.