Why You Should Consider Learning A Foreign Language At College

By Danika McClure

The ability to speak a foreign language is a commodity that is becoming all too rare in the Western world. This is due, in part, to a lack of emphasis on the study of foreign languages in schools, especially at the college level.

Currently, less than 10 percent of Americans can speak a language other than their native tongue fluently. In the U.S., individuals who speak English are notoriously monolingual. In Europe, by contrast, half of the population has the ability to speak another language and 80 percent of students are conversational in at least one other language.

Most American universities have some sort of minimal language requirement that varies depending on your particular major. Many students are able to opt out of this requirement by taking a placement test, or by providing some kind of proof of language competency.

However, some universities are beginning to remove this option, meaning that all students, regardless of their language competency, will be required to study an additional language. It’s not hard to see why, as in an increasingly globalized economy multilingualism is an asset to all students.

Employability

One of the most valuable traits an employee can possess is the ability to speak a different language, especially in the workplace. In fact, research shows that the ability to speak a different language translates favorably in the workplace environment. In fact, it may be a make-or-break factor when applying for positions in an oversaturated and competitive job market.

“In our globalized world, it has become even more essential in the job market to know another language,” argues one Penn State student. “Companies and businesses have a natural desire to expand their existing networks. Having fluency in another language gives an edge on any resume by showing employers potential to converse with an entirely different group of people. Employers would be more apt to send a prospective employee abroad if he or she shows proficiency in another language.”

Not only is the ability to speak a foreign language objectively useful to employers, it also comes with a number of cognitive benefits that are helpful in the workplace environment.

For example, some studies indicate that students who receive instruction in a second language are more creative and better at solving complex problems, are able to multitask more easily, and can better communicate with the populations they serve.

Building Empathy and Cultural Competence

Recent statistics have shown that America is becoming increasingly more diverse, and the data reveals that growth among racial and ethnic minority populations outpaces that of Caucasians. In other words, we live in an increasingly multicultural and diverse world.

Learning a new language gives you the unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a different culture. This, in turn, helps you to be more empathetic and socially aware of the experiences and ideas of people who come from different cultural backgrounds than you do.

“Communicating isn’t just about talking. It’s also about listening and hearing the other party. Without both avenues, communication hasn’t been accomplished,” notes the Communication Department at USC Annenberg. “This is especially true when you encounter a language barrier. You can have someone translate another person’s words or thoughts and have them translate yours in return, but have you truly come to understand each other?”

“There is a buffer there that prevents you from completely connecting with someone from a different culture. If you can communicate with a person in their own language, you’re eliminating that buffer. You’re understanding each other, promoting empathy and connectivity.”

Through learning a new language, students are often taught to critically think about the stereotypes they have surrounding a different culture, especially when it relates to food, appearance, conversation styles, social dynamics, or even simply understanding the intention and thought-process of non-native speakers.

“Speaking Spanish not only allows me to communicate with Spanish-speakers but it helps me better understand the intent of non-native speakers when they are speaking English, and to be more patient with errors,” writes Liz Reisberg for Inside Higher Ed. “Anyone who has communicated in a second language has, at some point, been tripped up by false cognates, embarrassed by words in a foreign language with multiple meanings, or horrified to discover the effect of a slight mispronunciation was to express something unintended. If you have struggled with another language you are more likely to hear more than words when listening to someone who is not a native-speaker of English. You listen for subtleties in the context that help you infer what the speaker is trying to say, even if it hasn’t been expressed clearly.”

Expanding Educational Experience

While there are infinite reasons to study a new language, many students choose to study foreign languages not only for the vocational and cultural benefits, but do so simply because they want to enrich their educational experience.

Languages are a part of a traditional liberal-arts curriculum, and give students the opportunity to connect with the humanities in a way. Languages are a great way for students to expand their educational experience, just as taking a history, archaeology, or biology class would, while providing them skills that are instantly useful and practical in the world outside of the classroom.

Given the numerous benefits present when it comes to studying foreign languages, it’s time that universities are beginning to make them a requirement for graduation.

Danika McClure is a writer and musician from the northwest who sometimes takes a 30 minute break from feminism to enjoy a TV show. You can follow her on twitter @sadwhitegrrl

How Universities And Students Can Cut Costs

BY ANNABEL MONAGHAN

Gaining a college or university degree is becoming stupidly unaffordable.

The cost of university accommodation alone – be it on campus or off campus – can be incredibly daunting to the first-time home leaver.

According to one research study, which compared the cost of on-campus housing across a number of different colleges and universities, McGill University (Quebec) had the most expensive on-campus housing, averaging out at $1,885 per month. It was followed closely by the University of Toronto at $1,807, Queens’ University at $1,654, and Trinity College at $1,588. These costs sit higher than the average cost of renting a private home in some of the world’s most coveted destinations, including Bondi Beach, Australia, and downtown New York, Unites States.

These excessive costs are perhaps why universities have increasingly come to play a part in the housing business. From 1976 to 2013, it seems the inflation-adjusted rate of increase in college-provided housing prices was about 72 percent, compared with less than five percent for housing in the broader community. It has been said that such massive increases in price suggest universities are monopolising on their power to be able to influence nervous, timid, high school graduates to take up university-provided accommodation, extorting high room rates wherever possible. Usually, students are inclined to believe admissions teams that insist the best accommodation option is that provided by the university, and – faced by a daunting number of new and unexplored prospects – newcomers to university usually attempt to seek out no other option.

Campus board rates have equally risen in terrifying ways – in many campuses, more than the cost of food in restaurants or grocery stores has risen, in fact.

But of course it’s the actual cost of instruction that sends real shivers down the spine of a wannabe graduate.

In the United States, where the cost of higher education is not born by government but instead is privately borne by students and educational institutions, college tuition fees have increased as the value, quality, and quantity of education options has increased – on a growth trajectory that has become increasingly controversial. This controversy mostly stems from the sad reality that higher education investments are severely tax disadvantaged compared to other investments, but despite this state support for public colleges and universities has fallen by a whopping 26 percent since the 1990s. The resultant privatization of higher education is placing huge amounts of pressure on private institutions to survive and continue offering the same high levels of quality instruction to students, with minimal external support from government.

As an example, to undertake two semesters at the University of Vermont as an undergraduate in 2018, the on-campus cost for a Vermont local would be US$33,804, while the same would cost an out-of-state resident US$58,450. Multiply that amount by roughly  four and you have the total amount you would be in debt as a college graduate, without factoring in your socialising, gym membership, transport, health insurance (e.g. iSelect) and meals outside of college. No wonder the prospect is terrifying to some.

But there are ways to prepare for the incoming onslaught of bills you will be faced with as a university student, here are just a few:

1. When drawing up a list of potential Universities or colleges, to apply to choose a public university as your number one choice. Generally, these are the most affordable options.
2. Opt to live off campus: generally, the cost of living off campus, and cooking one’s own meals, is much cheaper than living on campus and paying for university provided meal plans. If you want to embrace the best university life has to offer, why not spend first year living on campus and move out for your second year? This way you will get the best of both worlds.
3. Seek out financial aid packages and scholarships – right the way through university: It is well worth exploring the different types of aid, tuition assistance, grants, scholarships and payment options available to help finance students’ higher education. And don’t stop searching once you have begun studying, scholarships and grants are available for students right throughout their college years. Never give up trying if you believe you may be eligible. The biggest single source of aid in the United States is the federal government —in the form of college loans ($68 billion worth in 2013)
4. Cut down on textbook costs: do this by buying second- hand at campus bookstores and garage sales, renting textbooks for a semester, downloading e-books and selling used textbooks once finished with them.
5. Find and use student discounts wherever possible: Apple, Amazon Student, StudentRate and STA Travel are just some companies offering amazing deals to those students still attending university.
6. Avoid private loans wherever possible.
7. If desperate, consider attending community college: some states in the US even cover these classes free.
8. Opt to attend University in-state (if in the United States): choosing to state just one state over can add a monumental amount to total cost of gaining a degree. If possible, remain in-state to be eligible for cheaper tuition fees.
9. Embrace life hacks to cut your monthly expenses.
10. Give up alcohol: just think how much money could be saved by simply dropping this one behaviour.

Annabel Monaghan is a writer with a passion for education and edtech. She writes education and career articles for The College Puzzle with the aim of providing useful information for students and young professionals. If you have any questions, please feel free to email her at annabelmonaghanwriter@gmail.com. 

Techniques to Use to Prioritize Your College Assignments

BY MELISSA BURNS

When you first start studying in college, you may feel that the day just doesn’t hold enough hours for you to do everything you are supposed to do. The rise in the amount of work to deal with is just too high when compared to high school, yet some people seem to be doing alright. How?

We are happy to say that 9 times out of 10 achieving success in college has nothing to do with talent. It is all about organization – and here are some techniques that will help you get better at it.

1.    Set Your Priorities Right

Here is a truth for you to chew on: there is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do what is most important. If you feel that you don’t have enough time for your studies, it means that you don’t put them high enough in your hierarchy of priorities. When you distribute your time, you give preference to other activities, whatever they are: dealing with other responsibilities, your part-time job, socializing, resting, etc. If you want always to be ahead of the game you should decide right now that studying is the most important thing you do and should always be at the head of the line when you give out your time. So the next time you get free time, treat it as a good reason to do some extra studying, not as a pretext to go hang out.

2.    Know when to Ask for Help

Some assignments are just too difficult to deal with them on your own. Or, rather, you still can complete them without help, but it is likely to take disproportionately long when compared to their relative importance. In such situations, the best way to save time and energy is to get in touch with an academic assistance service like SolutionInn and get some expert help.

3.    Break up Large Tasks

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Follow this philosophy in everything you do, but especially when you encounter a particularly huge and mind-numbing project. Tackling it as it is may seem like an insurmountable task, which is bad both from an organizational point of view (you don’t know where to start) and in terms of motivation (the size of the job discourages you from even trying and causes you to put off dealing with it for as long as possible). Thus, when dealing with big projects divide them into multiple small parts and work on them one at a time.

4.    Find Use for Every Minute of Spare Time

We all have much more time on our hands than we think we do, and a huge portion of it is wasted on various small intervals and fruitless waiting: standing in a line, waiting for a bus, etc. Make sure you have the means to make use of every one of these intervals. Be ready to read a couple of pages when you are waiting on a bus stop. Listen to your audio materials when you are waiting but have nowhere to sit down. These intervals may seem short and unimportant, but minutes turn into hours and hours into days of the time that is otherwise wasted. Find a use for it.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that you have enough time to achieve all your goals and more. You merely have to learn how to organize it and use it to maximum efficiency. College is as good a place to learn these skills as any – and if you manage to master them, they are going to help you throughout your life.

Melissa Burns graduated from the faculty of Journalism of Iowa State University. Nowadays she is an entrepreneur and independent journalist. Follow her @melissaaburns or contact at burns.melissaa@gmail.com

6 Best Online Courses for Learning Block chain and Crypto currency 

BY JANE HURST

Today’s businesses are turning towards more fluid transactions. As a student, it would be wise to at least know something about Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. There are already many businesses setting up ways to accept these currencies and people buying and trading bitcoins.  Knowing all about the way these currencies work will give you a boost when it comes time for a job search. Here are six different online courses to help you get started.

1. The ULTIMATE Bitcoin and Blockchain Course by Udemy

This course will teach you the concepts of bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. It will also teach you how to make a profit through mining cryptocurrencies. You will also learn about the future of cryptocurrency and what opportunities blockchain technology creates. This course will help you learn how to use bitcoins and how to make money from investing in bitcoins. This course focuses on facts, strategies, and methods. Once you are finished with the course, you can go back and look things up as needed.

2. Learn Bitcoin and Ehtereum by One Month

This is a beginning class that discusses the vocabulary you will need to use when working with bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. If you ever wondered about bitcoin value as in how much it was worth or what you can do with bitcoins, this class will help explain the concept to you. Bitcoin value is flexible and can fluctuate quickly which is a concept you will learn in this course. It’s possible to trade the bitcoin in several ways, for example btc-gbp, btc-usd, btc-euro etc. By the end of this class you will be able to buy, send, and receive bitcoins. You will also be able to confidently speak about bitcoin, blockchain, altcoin, ehtereum, and more. This course provides the fundamental framework for dealing with bitcoins.

3. Cryptoeconomics 101 by BlockGeeks

This course focuses on core concepts from cryptography and economics and shows how these create incentive systems for blockchains. You will also learn about decentralized economies. At the end of this course you will be able to identify the properties of bitcoins, understand how bitcoins create economic incentives and much more.

4. The Complete Course on Understanding Blockchain Technology by Udemy

This is a beginners guide to the knowledge and application of blockchain technology. You will learn how blockchain technology works, the future of blockchain technology and how it will affect you, and the different terminology used when discussing blockchain.

5. Blockchain 101 Intro (Non Technical) by BlockGeeks

This is an introduction to Blockchain technology. You will learn about how transactions are stored, how mining works, the difference between permission and permissionless blockchain, and more. This course also discusses the opportunities including smart contracts, payment rails, proof of ownership, micro transmissions, and more. You will also learn about alternatives to bitcoin and blockchain.

6. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies by Coursera

This course delves into the technical aspects of bitcoin. It discusses security, anonymity, and pricing of bitcoin. You will discuss how bitcoin achieves decentralization, the mechanics and how to store and use bitcoins, anonymity, mining. You will discuss the other possibilities of bitcoin technology to support other platforms. Your professors will discuss the future of bitcoins and other alternative cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies and bitcoins can be confusing, however, these six courses will help you understand and use this technology to your benefit. Whether you want to trade in bitcoins, or just find out what all the hype is about, these courses will guide you through the technology and terminology of the latest currency. Look through the course options and decide which one will suit your needs. All of these courses are for beginners with no previous experience. The courses were designed to help you better understand cryptocurrencies and bitcoins.

Byline:

Jane Hurst has been working in education for over 5 years as a teacher. She loves sharing her knowledge with students, is fascinated about edtech and loves reading, a lot. Follow Jane on Twitter.

Electives That Will Help You In The Job Market

BY MIKKIE MILLS

Most college students find themselves with a ton of elective credits they have to earn before they can graduate but no idea what to take. While you should use some of your credits to take a fun class and explore an interest, elective courses also give you the liberty to pick classes that will help you develop new skills you can apply to your everyday life and in the workplace.

By focusing your attention on what you can gain through the study of a subject rather than just the subject itself, you can pick the best electives to benefit you far beyond the classroom.

Useful Elective Courses for College Students

Before we delve into the best classes to take in college, let’s explore the types of skills you should be developing. Your major will lay the framework for your future career, but the electives you choose help flesh out your entire degree and can be used to help you develop additional skill sets that are outside your major’s curriculum.

According to Monster, the popular job-hunting site, there are multiple skills that can add an edge to your resume and demonstrate your value to companies. Four of the skills presented on Monster’s list are able to be easily acquired through college electives.

These skills are:

• Problem solving.
• Analytics
• Social media.
• Creativity

Problem Solving

Philosophy isn’t just for liberal arts students and campus hippies. Philosophy teaches students how to consider the world around them and apply their own thoughts and emotions logically and thoughtfully.

An introductory course to critical thinking is a fantastic elective for those who wish to sharpen their problem solving capabilities. This course teaches students how to interpret and analyze arguments, identify bias and fallacies and use critical thinking to assess their own values and opinions and develop stronger responses and solutions to various life scenarios.

Analytics

If you aren’t a math person, you may already be cringing just seeing the world “analytics”. Although the subject seems intimidating if you aren’t good at math, data analytics is a valuable skill set to develop. Taking an introductory course can open the door to manyother branches of advanced analytics that increase job opportunity and have a versatile application in the workforce.

If you want to get started with social media analytics on your own, Google Analytics offers free training online.

Social Media

A new media communications course is a great way to develop social media skills and understand how the internet can be utilized from a business standpoint. You may already be a regular on Facebook or Twitter, but social media for business goes far beyond the basics and teaches you how to use the biggest platforms to your professional advantage.

Many companies are making social media literacy a requirement for new workers to accommodate the digital shift in business.

Creativity

You might not think that fiction writing can help you land a job, but creativity is a valuable skill to many employers. Creative thinkers are able to use their imaginations and come up with unique solutions to problems. Creative people are also more likely to try new things and bring ideas to the table.

Taking a creative writing course as an elective is a good way to start flexing your creative muscle. Learning how to apply your imagination to everyday problem solving is an underestimated skill that benefits you in and out of the office.

Collaborate With Your Adviser

In order to make the most out of your college degree, it’s important to check in frequently with your adviser. Your academic adviser can help explain all your options and weigh the benefits of each potential course.

You should also take a look at job listings for careers you’d like to have in the future and identify key skills that are featured. Then, you can choose electives that correlate with those skills to create a more rewarding, well-rounded education.

Mikkie is a freelance writer from Chicago. She has a passion for advanced learning, reading, and health and fitness. She is also a mother of two who loves sharing her ideas on education, learning, health, fitness and yoga. When she’s not writing, she’s chasing the little ones around or can be found at the local climbing gym or doing yoga.

As You Approach Graduation: Steps to Prepare for It

BY Tasnim Siddiquee

For some students, graduation is a time of celebration while for other it’s quite the opposite. When graduation comes near, many students suffer from confusion and uncertainty. What should they do after graduation? What steps should they take for their formal education or career? A lot of students are still clueless about how to approach their lives after this period.

To help you, below you’ll find some tips for undergraduate students who are facing their graduation. Hopefully, these will give you a hint of how to properly prepare for your future.

Graduate School Preparation

While many students think about starting a career after graduation, some think about continuing their studies and getting a higher education. For that, the first thing you’ll need to do is search for the perfect school according to your own needs. If you have found one, prepare properly for the admission tests. And if you are yet to find one, you should start searching for some GMAT, GRE prep courses. Depending on the graduate school you choose for yourself, there might be some other graduate level exams.

Visit the Career Service Office

If you’re not thinking about getting any higher studies, you can also prepare for a career. In fact, many students think about starting a career after graduation. However, they often get confused about what jobs they should seek and how to prepare for the interviews. Your school’s career service office will help you on this matter by giving proper guidance. They will also be able to help you find a part-time job or an internship, depending on your certificates and achievements.

The counsellors will also help you prepare your cover letter, portfolio, CV and the other documents you will need for your first job. Let’s say that you are thinking about becoming a lawyer for personal injury claim. In this case, the counselors will help you with all the necessary paperwork for that.

Make sure that your resume will include a full history of your experience, all the projects you’ve completed, and all the skills you’ve obtained through all your school years.

Also, create different suitable cover letters for each job you’re aiming for. However, your counsellor will be able to help you create the base for your cover letter. But you will have to finish it as you like by adding or subtracting information, depending on the position you will apply for.

Gather References

References are a game changer when it comes to getting a job. You should get references according to the job you’ll apply for from the right people. In most cases, getting a good reference makes a big difference between getting a job or not.

If you have achieved great results on a certain course, ask the professor to write you a recommendation letter. Also, if you’re doing an internship, you can ask your internship supervisor for a recommendation.

And finally…

Know the Correct Amount of Your Student Debts

You’re lucky if you don’t have any student debts. But most students are not that fortunate. It’s the final hurdle you’ll need to cross after starting your career. In most cases, the first payment of your student loan is within six months after your graduation. Thus, you should start figuring out how much you owe in your student loan so that you don’t get any surprises later. And most importantly, don’t ignore your correspondence from your loan debtor.

So, if you are an undergraduate student, these pieces of advice will help you prepare thoroughly for your graduation and your future career. Also, ask your teachers for any piece of advice they can give you. Their advice will help you choose a suitable career path according to your abilities and skills.

Name – Tasnim Siddiquee

Website – premiumguestpost.com

Professional writer and guest blogger, Digital marketing and SEO Expert.

Career backup plan – courses every student should have

BY LINDA ANDERSON

When you applied for college, you knew what career path you wanted to follow. When you graduate, you will start looking for a job in the domain you prefer, but you have to make sure that when you apply for a job you will be the best candidate they can get. Your resume has to show employers that you have multiple skills and you have the needed knowledge to get hired. As a student, the best way to improve your skills is to get some extra classes. These classes are accessible to all students, but few of them consider attending them. These classes will not only help you be prepared for when you will graduate, but they can prove very useful during college, if you want to have a part time job to get some extra money. Students love to be independent so it may come a moment when you will want to have a job to save some money for going to a concert or buying a new phone.

Here are some classes college students can take if they want to have a career backup plan.

Business management classes

Some students want to start their own business while in college, while others want to apply for a job for a large company; the fact is that all of them will have numerous advantages if they will have some business management courses. These classes help you understand the work environment and offer you knowledge on what it takes to manage a business. You may not manage the business from the first months of employment, but it is important for you to have knowledge on the operational process and how the important decisions have to be made. Also, these classes will help you know what to answer in case your managers will have questions about business matters.

Finance or accounting classes

The majority of students do not even want to hear about accounting or finance classes, but they are some of the most useful ones. If you follow these courses, you not only that know how to manage your finances, but you can apply for numerous open positions. You will have a new view on how to make a plan to pay your taxes and how you can manage your expenses. You can help the other students who have financial difficulties to manage their money, and they can pay you for this service.

Design or art classes

If you are a creative person, then the best way to find a job is to use your talent. Your interest in arts should be cultivated, especially if you have not chosen to go to an arts college. Design is a subject highly appreciated nowadays, because it is important in every domain. If you are a talented person, and you have design classes, you can apply for one of the multiple designers jobs, for instance in an international printing company. Your inner Picasso will bring you a job and it will offer you a career backup plan.

Communication classes

As a student, it is extremely important to know how to transmit your message clearly. You will have to speak to people on numerous occasions. When you go to an interview, you have to make sure that you convince your interlocutor through your speech, so communication classes can prepare you for when you will apply for jobs. These classes are important for the persons who do not know how to catch the audience attention and how to convey their message. Numerous students have confidence issues, when it comes to speaking to someone, they do not know, so a speech course will give you the push you need.

Journalism or writing classes

The best job a student can have is the one of a journalist. Magazines, newspapers and websites are always in search for partners, and you can apply for a position if you have journalism knowledge. It is important you to be able to create content that catches people’s attention and convinces them read or view the content. If you want to have a part time job then you can write articles for an online magazine or newspaper, but for this, you will need writing skills. The way you communicate with people is influenced by the skills you have, and as you have already noticed journalists have a special talent when they communicate with people. The art of writing will take you a step closer to the career of your dreams.

By line for Linda Anderson

I’m a writer and musician residing in Boise, ID in the United States, although I spent a small amount of time (about three years) living in the UK growing up, due to my father’s occupation. I graduated from the College of Idaho with a bachelor’s Degree in Business and a focus in marketing in 2014.

How to Get the Most From Online Learning

BY LESLIE WILDER

 Online learning provides you with access to a wide range of courses. It gives people the chance to learn new skills, better themselves and progress their careers. Delivered in a virtual environment, students have the ability to learn when it suits them but it still takes determination and dedication to get the most from the experience.

Online learning is very different to that of a classroom environment and so, it is vital that you do all you can to ensure that you learn as much as possible so that the whole experience benefits you in every way.

So, how do you get the most from your online learning experience?

Check your system compatibility before Beginning

Prior to c and online courses beginning, you will receive an email to say that you need to test your system. This is done for a reason because often, problems can occur and that the last thing you want is for your system to cause you problems at a time when you need it most. So, click any test links that you get sent a few days before the class or course begins. This will enable you to have enough time to download the plugins or software you need to take part. This will save you time and hassle on the day and will ensure that you do not miss out.

Choose how you communicate with Instructors

Online learning is not about leaving you on your own to learn because you will receive guidance from instructors. However, you will need to communicate with them and that means you should determine this before it all begins. Will you use the chat function on offer or will you do it via webcam? Test your chosen method before the course begins and ensure that the whole experience goes as smooth as possible.

Course Materials

All course materials can be accessed prior to your class and so, you need to make sure that all links are working and that all downloads are operating as expected. You might have to follow specific instructions that help you to view your course materials, so read them and download and read all materials before the course or class begins.

Remove Distractions

If you are taking part from home or when you are in the office, then you need people to know that you are taking part in a course and that you are unavailable. Put your voicemail on, turn off your phone and set an out of office message for your emails.

Remain Focused

Online courses require you to stay focused. You have to be motivated to get the most from this online experience and so, you have to avoid any temptations such as the internet, your phone or even that television in the background. Try taking out a coffee subscription so you have access to great coffee that you can drink during the course. Do whatever it takes to remain focused on your course.

By line of Leslie Wilder

I am a creative writer & blogger, who is residing in Nashville the capital of U.S. state of Tennessee, I’m also a self-proclaimed happiness junkie, and someone you would generally consider confident and well balanced.

Applying to an MBA Program: How to Choose Between GMAT and GRE 

BY ELIZA MORRISON NIMMICH

If you are at the point of applying to, or considering applying to, a MBA program, then you probably know that good GMAT scores will help you secure admission to a competitive business school. You may also be aware a majority of MBA programs allow applicants to choose between taking the GMAT or the GRE. So, the question for prospective applicants becomes, which test should you choose, the GMAT or the GRE?

Urban Legend: There’s Only Room for Success on One Exam

The two exams are can be polarizing for many prospective MBA’s: oftentimes, people tend to love one, and hate the other. But at the same time, many people find their scores to be proportionate across both exams.

A Little Bit of Background

Although both tests are widely accepted by business schools today, for many decades in the past, the GMAT was the only entrance exam for MBA applicants. Nowadays, the GRE is seen as a fitting alternative to the GMAT. More than 90% of MBA programs accept GRE scores and allow applicants to choose between the two exams. Prospective applicants are encouraged to determine whether your top ten business schools accept GRE scores. Let’s have a look at the two and see whether the GMAT or the GRE is more appropriate for you.

Do you Prefer Language or Math?

It is commonly considered that you can determine which exam to take based upon your proficiency in language and math. There are some differences on what is tested in the Quantitative sections of the two exams. GRE math questions are more straightforward and may therefore seem easier. However, a couple of mistakes can really ruin your score because the scoring is not very forgiving on the GRE. GMAT math questions can be a little more challenging. Fortunately, the section is more forgiving since the questions are adaptive, and a few mistakes will not do you as much harm as the GRE Quant (Quantitative) section will.

Both the GRE and the GMAT test your language skills. The GRE focuses on making inferences while the GMAT makes analysis a priority. On both of these tests, you will get Reading Comprehension as well as Critical Reasoning questions among other things. But generally speaking, if your strength is grammar, the GMAT would be more appropriate for you. If you are better in vocabulary, you may get better scores by taking GRE.

 Recommendations on Whether to Take GMAT and GRE

 When to Take the GRE…

• You excel at vocabulary
• GMAT math intimidates you.
• You like looking through the passage questions before reading the passage.
• Precision comes more easily to you than reasoning.
• Formal logic is something you enjoyed and excelled in during high school or college.

 When to Take the GMAT…

• If you can read fast and effectively at first glance
• If you are fine with answering the question at first glance, without skipping and later returning to answer it, as the GMAT does not allow you to revisit former questions.
• When you have strong reasoning and core math skills.
• Prior to undergrad, you received good SAT and ACT Writing Section scores.
• When you strongly believe you have good critical thinking and practical skills. So How Do You Make the Ultimate Choice?

Truthfully, the GMAT is more similar to the GRE than it is different, especially after GRE was revised in 2011. The differences highlighted above are quite subtle. Therefore, if you can do well on one, it is more than likely that you will be able to do well on the other.  If the differences highlighted above do not elucidate which test to take, then choose the GMAT. It is considered to give you a slight edge as you seek admission to an MBA school. Admissions committees may think you are more committed to enrolling at an MBA program, whereas with the GRE, you could be applying to MBA, MA, MS, or PhD programs.

Eliza Morrison Nimmich is a Co-Founder of Tutor the People: an online and in-person service that matches students with a 1-on-1, top-scoring, GRE Tutor or GMAT Tutor. Tutor the People also helps students with all steps of the applications process, such as personal statement review, resume review, and interview advising.

Take More Courses Per Term To Complete Community College

FROM ECS

Building Community for Part-Time Students
Research has shown that the more college credits students take per term, the more likely they are to graduate ― and on time. Many colleges and states have responded to those findings and implemented new programs, offered incentives and enacted policy that encourage students to pursue at least 12 college credits per semester to graduate on time within two or four years. (Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 28)