Why You Have to Learn Programming Before Graduation

By MELISSA BURNS

Of course, nowadays one ideally should learn things like coding, website building and programming before college and some basics should be learnt even before school – but it is wishful thinking, and if you are reading this article, it is probably already a little bit too late. But why learn programming at all, especially if you are not going to work in the IT sphere? And why it is important to do it before you graduate? Let’s see.

1.    Programming Has the Potential to Change Your Life

If you’ve never seriously considered programming and associated vocations as your life’s work, you may be missing out on something very important. The most unlikely people suddenly discover their talents in this sphere after trying it out, and some of them achieve incredible results in very short time.

2.    It Is a Useful Skill to Have

Even if you won’t make programming your main source of income, it is still a good skill to have in modern world. With all kinds of software, applications, and combined interfaces permeating every part of our lives, knowing what makes it all tick, at least in a very basic form, is akin to knowing another language.

3.    The Industry Is Growing

Or, rather, it gradually ceases to be an industry and becomes an area of life that encompasses jobs, hobbies, lifestyles and general approaches to problem solving. Big companies, like Infor, led by a well-known innovator Charles Philips, are getting even bigger, small IT firms pop into existence virtually every day, and the process doesn’t seem to be going to slow down any time soon.

4.    There Is a Lot of Money in It

Right now, programming and associated jobs is one of the highest-paid lines of work in existence. Of course, there is a lot of difference in how much money a mediocre and an excellent programmer can make, but when compared to many other jobs, programming still offers higher pay for quite often shorter hours, leaving you sufficient time to pursue your hobbies, interests and further education.

5.    It Has Potential for Telecommuting

A good programmer can always negotiate the conditions with employer to make it possible to work remotely. Working with IT means many opportunities for that, and it is quite possible to work from home or even while travelling abroad.

6.    It Is Applicable in Many Fields

Even if IT has only a passing connection with your core job, knowing how to code can be of immense help. You can build a tool you and your team can use, mine your own data, automate tasks and much more. When dealing with professional programmers, you will be able to talk their language and better negotiate conditions with them.

Either as an everyday useful skill or as a chosen job, programming and coding is the thing that can considerably change the quality of your life. The earlier you get in contact with it, the quicker and deeper you will be able to go – so don’t waste any time and start out now.

Melissa Burns graduated from the faculty of Journalism of Iowa State University in 2008. Nowadays she  is an entrepreneur and independent journalist. Her sphere of interests includes startups, information technologies and how these ones may be implemented.

– See more at: https://collegepuzzle.stanford.edu/?p=5128#sthash.2l1njsWv.dpuf

4 Life-Long College Money Making Tips

BY TAYLOR TOMITA

College is a wonderful time where individuals are able to grow into their adult live and take on new and exciting experiences. However, our college years also must require a great deal of self-control and responsibility. Let’s face it, most students love visiting their favorite coffee shops in the morning before class or having a night out on the town over the weekends, and while this is completely fine, many students are not aware of how to do this without severely crippling themselves financially.

Thankfully, there are many opportunities for students to live their college life to the fullest without setting themselves up for trouble in the future. Here are four fantastic tips for college students to be responsible with their finances and make the most out of their college years.

Be Aware of Your Student Loans

Of course, student loans are a necessity in nearly every student’s educational endeavors, but it is important for students to be aware of how to manage student loans to avoid being buried in a mountain of debt. Understanding when to pursue private loans, and managing interest rates can help a college student maintain control of their financial life, and remove a great deal of the fiscal stress that many students encounter.

It is equally important for students to only take what they need when receiving financial assistance throughout college. Of course, that extra bit of money would be great to have so you can avoid eating another cheap meal, but in the grand scheme of things, it can cause the overall amount of the loan to skyrocket over time. A great rule of thumb for managing this is to borrow no more than your anticipated first-year’s salary.

Start a Savings Account

If your childhood was anything like mine, you have most likely heard the phrase, “start a savings account” close to a million times. However, it was not until recently that I discovered the value in doing so. Creating a savings account, and putting at least 10% of your monthly disposable income into it, can be a deciding factor of how your first few “after college” years will look.

After graduating college, students are blindly thrown into the world and forced to find a career on their own. If they are lucky, this will be easy. Many fresh college graduates may struggle to find their “dream job” quickly, and this is where a savings will come in handy. Having a financial backup savings plan can keep you from being forced back into Mom and Dad’s house, and will help you remain positive in trying times.

Use Your Hobbies to Make Money

Between managing student loans and worrying about their savings accounts, many students are weary about adding another responsibility into their daily lives – like a part time job. However, as technology has revolutionized the entrepreneurial world, there are many opportunities for students to put their hobbies to use to generate a side income – Which may be more appealing than working a boring night job.

Be Mindful of Credit Cards

Credit cards can be a saving grace for students traversing the college world. However, many individuals tend to go a bit overboard when it comes to credit cards. Why? Well, they are exciting. It is important to understand when and how to use credit cards, because when used correctly, they can be a fantastic way for someone to build their credit score and start their lives on the right track.

A great rule for credit cards is to start by only using it to pay one or two bills per month, and then paying the balance off by the due date of the credit card bill.  This will help create consistency when paying your bills throughout life, and will also help establish a better credit score – opening opportunities for lower interest rates and deals in the future.

In summary, college is a fantastic opportunity for us to learn and grow, but there are many financial aspects to be aware of when traversing throughout the college world. Take these tips and run with them! Thank you for reading!

Author Bio: Taylor Tomita is a creative writer residing in Boise, Idaho. Focusing on various angles of education and business, Taylor has been able to help many individuals overcome concerns within these fields. When not writing, you can find Taylor playing in the band Stepbrothers or hanging out with his cat at home. Follow him on Twitter (@Trvshlvrd_rr)!

5 Mistakes to Avoid in a Freshman Year

BY ROCHELLE CEIRA

So you are all set to enter in the most exciting time of your life, you have ever dreamt of. You have successfully completed the whole process of admission and finally managed to reach the territory of your desired college campus.

You are eager to join different campus societies, becoming friend with different people of similar interests, thrilled to learn new courses, and breathe new life into yourself. You are visualizing yourself to be free, partying with friends, dining out with your pals, and experiencing new adventures as you like without parents nagging.

Freshman year is similar to owning a whole new world and doing anything you want to make most of the time memorable and joyous. You are free to make your own decisions and choosing the most suitable career path according to your interests and education. Leaving the comfort of home and moving into a whole new world can be exhilarating. But remember that everything comes with some exceptional challenges and a unique set of trials. For keeping this fact in mind, below mentioned are a few mistakes that a freshman must avoid.

1. Balancing Your Both Life: Keeping a balance between home life and college life at once for a fresher is the most demanding task. However, it is not said to be impossible. The most common issue that a fresher deals with is trying to achieve balance when it comes to family and newly made buddies at college. At times, you get over-burdened because of work which is piled up on your desk for you to complete it in due time. Do not make yourself too busy that you could not remember to call or spend a little time with your parents. Try to make a call once in a week so they may know how you are dealing with new life. Give them a chance to speak their worries out for you. Assure them you are absolutely fine. Share with them how exciting and energizing it is for you to deal with campus life and its new aspects. No matter what, you will always be the apple of mom and dad’s eye.
2. Stop Stressing Yourself: When you have taken enough stress looking for assignment writing help, completing academic writing seems like a nightmare to you, then take a deep breath and relax yourself. Being a fresher, you go through different psychological and emotional phases in your college life, but accepting the way it is and going with time can lead you on the path of success.
3. Stop Giving Less Priority to Your Homework: If you prefer being social and giving less importance to your homework, it can cause distress later. It is good to hang out with your friends, but make sure you have completed your homework before. You would never like to see yourself freaked out a night before a class test.
4. Not Interacting with Your Teacher: Another big mistake that a fresher make is avoiding an interaction with a subject teacher. Your teacher is your friend so building a strong relation in terms of understanding and discussing course related queries will benefit you in studying. Prove yourself as an eager learner.
5. Do not Attempt Everything Which You Cannot Do: If you consider yourself to be a maestro of everything, then you can be proved wrong later in time. Managing a schedule during early days of college life can be tough, so allow yourself to have some time and prioritize thing accordingly.

Life is all about learning new things every day. Take advice of people who are ahead of you in the game. Be smart enough to extract joys out of difficult situations. Good Luck!

Rochelle Ceira is a professional consultant with extensive experience in the education sector. When not working, she invests her time analyzing latest ed-tech trends and ways on how those trends can be implemented.

Comparing Colleges For Persistence And Completion

State Testing For College Readiness Diverges

State Solidarity Erodes on Common-Core Tests

By Catherine Gewertz, Education Week

Only 21 states still plan to use shared tests designed for the common core, a continued erosion of the unity that emerged six years ago, when 45 states embraced the standards and pledged to measure student learning with common assessments.

The high school testing landscape is even more fragmented, as states increasingly choose the SAT or ACT college-entrance exam instead of common-core tests.

An Education Week survey of states’ testing plans in English/language arts and math—the two subjects covered by the common core—found that states have continued in 2015-16 to drift away from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, and Smarter Balanced tests.

(The interactive graphic can be found at http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/state-testing-an-interactive-breakdown-of-2015-16.html)

Those assessment systems were crafted by two groups of states to reflect the Common Core State Standards, which were the product of an initiative launched by the nation’s governors and chief state school officers. The U.S. Department of Education awarded $360 million in grants in 2010 to the two consortia to create the tests.

Here’s how states’ assessment plans break down in 2015-16, illustrating three key shifts:

Consortium strength continues to wane.

• Twenty states and the District of Columbia are giving PARCC or Smarter Balanced tests. Six states and the District of Columbia will administer PARCC; 14 will use Smarter Balanced.
• Twenty-seven states are using tests they created or bought off the shelf.
• Three states are blending consortium questions with home-grown questions, or offering districts a choice of which test to give. Most Massachusetts districts can choose, for a second year, whether to give PARCC or the state’s legacy test, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS (although 10th grade students still must pass the MCAS to graduate). Tests given in Michigan this year will combine Smarter Balanced and state-designed questions; Louisiana’s tests will blend PARCC and state-designed questions.

Last year, consortium tests were more dominant, though the two groups had declined from their peak membership. Education Week‘s survey of states’ 2014-15 testing plans showed 28 states and the District of Columbia using PARCC or Smarter Balanced, and 22 states using other tests or offering districts a choice of which test to use.

Consortium participation is particularly weak in high school.

• Nine states will use consortium tests, or questions, only in grades 9 and lower, and chose some other assessment—in many cases, the ACT or the SAT—to measure high school achievement as required by federal law. Colorado, for instance, will measure achievement in grades 3-9 with PARCC, and in grade 10 with the PSAT. It will also administer the ACT to all juniors to gauge their readiness for college.
• Fifteen states will use PARCC or Smarter Balanced in the full range of grades required for federal accountability.

Related Blog

High school testing now tilts more heavily toward college-admissions exams.

• Twenty-one states now require students to take the SAT or the ACT, and three others give students a choice of taking the SAT or the ACT, the WorkKeys career-skills test, or the ACT Compass college-placement test.
• Twelve states now use the SAT or the ACT in their official, federally mandated accountability reports on high school. In some states, such as Maine, a college-entrance exam will be the sole test that measures high school achievement. In others, such as Hawaii, the SAT or the ACT will measure only college readiness, and states’ own standards-based tests will measure achieveme

Tips for Staying Safe on Campus

BY Jane Hurst

Every year, it seems that there are more and more reports of sexual assaults on college campuses. Yes, it is happening more frequently than ever, but you don’t have to be a victim. There are many ways that you can protect yourself, and make sure that you are safe, no matter where you are, whether you are outside on campus, in your own dorm room or apartment, or out for a night on the town. Here are some tips that you can use to stay safe no matter where you are or what you are doing.

• Learn the Area – On the first day you arrive at the campus, learn your way around. Make sure you that you know all of the routes to each of your classes, and to any other places that you will be frequenting, including the library, activities, etc. If you are walking around and looking lost, you could be setting yourself up to be a victim of assault.
• Find the Campus Safety Office – It is a good idea to learn where the campus safety office is, and the services offered there. You can go there to learn a lot of safety tips that will make your college experience the best it can possibly, and the safest. You can learn about the most common crimes on campuses, and how to keep yourself safe.
• Find the Blue Phones – Most campuses have emergency phones that are lit with blue light. Yes, most of us have cell phones, but you can’t always rely on these. If the battery is dead, you won’t be able to call anyone for help.
• Know Your Surroundings – Any time you are out and about, be aware of what is going on around you. Take note of your surroundings, and walk like you have a purpose. Don’t have your headphones on, and look straight ahead instead of down at the ground. Make eye contact with people you pass, and stay in well-lit areas.
• Don’t Drink and Drive – If you are going to be drinking, leave your car at home. Arrange for a sober driver, a cab, etc. and arrive alive. If you are currently having any issues because of drinking and driving, you should call a DUI attorney at a criminal defense firm like Sohovich Law to find out what you need to do to put the situation behind you.
• Use the Campus Service – This is a free service offered by many colleges that offers people escorts to their vehicles, night classes, etc. Never feel silly to ask for this help. It could save your life.
• Let People Know where You are Going – If you are going out, let your friends know where you are going, and what time you plan to be back. If possible, in addition to your cell phone number, leave another number where you can be reached. If you aren’t back when people expect you, they can check up on you to make sure that you are okay.
• Keep an Eye on Your Drink – When you are out at the bar, never take your eyes off your drinks. It is too easy for someone to slip a date rape drug into a drink, and you can end up being sexually assaulted without being able to do anything about it. You may not even remember what happens, so you can’t even report the assault.
• Don’t Carry a Lot of Books – If you are overloaded with books, shopping bags, etc., your hands aren’t free for defending yourself if necessary. This makes you an easy target for attackers. Use a backpack or another type of bag for carrying books so your hands are free and you are not distracted.

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!

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What Math Do Students Need For College Success?

MAKING A QUANTITATIVE LEAP FOR SUCCESSFUL MATH TRANSITIONS

By Pamela Burdman

California’s education systems, from K-12 through college, need to revamp their math policies to make them better coordinated and less likely to create arbitrary barriers to college success, according to my policy brief released last week by LearningWorks.

Large numbers of California students end up in college remedial math sequences that diminish their chances of graduating. Research has revealed that some of these students could succeed in required college-level math courses without remediation. There is broad agreement that college graduates need quantitative reasoning skills to understand and apply quantitative concepts in various contexts. But the current set of inconsistent and opaque math requirements across public high schools, community colleges, and public universities by default screens some capable students out of colleges, majors, and careers.

More than three-quarters of California’s community college students and about a third of those at California State University, including a large proportion of students of color, are assigned to remedial math courses. These courses, intended to boost students’ progress, instead have been shown to represent obstacles, especially at community colleges. To reverse the trend, the brief calls on California’s education systems to work together to provide all students with a foundation in quantitative reasoning.

“Education leaders increasingly have grown concerned about the extent to which required math courses serve as impediments to students’ educational progress and degree completion,” noted Linda Collins, executive director of LearningWorks, an organization that aims to strengthen student outcomes in college, in releasing the brief. “Our intention is for this brief to deepen policy discussions across schools, community colleges, and public universities about how math requirements can support, rather than hinder, student achievement.”

The policy brief, Quantitative Leap: How Math Policies Can Support Transitions To and Through College centers on three shortcomings with current math policies — dueling definitions of proficiency, inaccurate means of measuring students’ skills, and insufficient opportunities for students to acquire these skills before college – and recommends changes in each area.

I wrote it in response to a November 2015 summit on math readiness that brought together educators, education leaders, and policy experts from across California. The summit grew out of my 2015 series, Degrees of Freedom, which highlighted research on the inherent dilemmas in current math policies. For example, fewer than 30 percent of community college students who take remedial courses ultimately complete a math course required to earn a degree or transfer to a four-year university. In addition, the tests used to place students in these courses have limited efficacy.

Remedial courses are like medical treatments in that they can have harmful side effects. They are useful only if the underlying condition is properly defined and diagnosed. The education systems can do more to improve students’ quantitative reasoning levels while avoiding over-prescribing remedial courses.”

To make this “quantitative leap,” I offer three recommendations in the brief:

• Quantitative reasoning expectations across California’s education systems should be reasonably consistent, evidence-based, and well-aligned with students’ courses of study so that they don’t constitute arbitrary barriers to academic progress.

• To remove unnecessary barriers to college completion, higher education institutions should rely on evidence to ensure the validity and efficacy of assessments and other placement measures that determine students’ readiness for college-level quantitative reasoning courses.

• High school students should have sufficient opportunities to prepare for college-level work (and avoid remedial courses) by taking appropriate math courses. While ideally the K12 math curriculum would be designed to do just that, currently there is a need for senior-year transition courses for students who otherwise would not be on track to be college ready.

These changes can help set the stage for the effective instruction, high quality textbooks, robust student supports, and strong professional development necessary for enhancing students’ quantitative reasoning skills in high school and college. The recommendations focus on ways the education systems need to work together to eliminate the misalignment and policy incoherence that place needless obstacles in students’ way.

 Pamela Burdman is an education policy analyst focused on college access, readiness, and completion, and a fellow at the Opportunity Institute. Previously, she was a program officer for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Never too Early for Career Counseling

Creating a Sustainable Campus

By Jane Hurst
Higher education should not just be about learning philosophy, the arts, sciences, etc. It should also be about learning about our world, how to live in it, and how to sustain it for generations to come. As more and more people and businesses are learning to become sustainable, so are many college campuses. There are several ways that a sustainable campus can be created. Let’s take a look at what can be done on your campus right now.

Food – College campuses have the potential to become centers for food growing cooperatives. Students, teachers, and staff can take part in gardening programs that produce fresh food for college cafeterias. They can also make the switch to more organic foods, as well as buying from local producers. They can also teach about farm-to-garden food routes, energy costs of food production, and more.

Investment – Campuses have the potential to be leaders in the entrepreneur world, simply by creating sustainable atmospheres. Colleges and local business can work together to create sustainable economies, with investment decisions being made that will train a whole new generation of leaders in sustainability who will continue to create a green economy. Things that can be accomplished include large gardens, the use of recycled materials in creative ways, creating new energy systems, and much more.

Energy – One of the first things we need to look at is energy. But, we need to find ways to create energy that aren’t going to be damaging to the environment. There are a number of challenges involved in creating an environment with zero-carbon energy use, but it can be done. For instance, renewable energy sources can be used. Buildings can be retrofitted with new technologies to help create energy while leaving no carbon footprint.

Clean Air – One of the biggest reasons why many people feel drowsy or unable to concentrate is because they are in buildings that have poor air quality. This can all be changed by installing a new HVAC system, or upgrading the one that is already in place. In addition to making sure that the latest HVAC technologies are used, it is also important to keep these systems clean and well-maintained. The better the system, and the cleaner, the healthier the indoor air is going to be.

Curriculum – A sustainable campus must offer a curriculum that gives students hands-on experiences of living a sustainable lifestyle. This includes creating a sustainable campus that offers a curriculum revolving around sustainability. Obviously, there is on standard for curriculums across the board. The best way to get this started is to find out what people are most interested in when it comes to creating a sustainable campus, and a sustainable life, and let the teaching begin.

Wellness – Not only should we be working on creating a better world for ourselves and for the next generation, we also need to concentrate on our own personal health. Campuses must deal with a wide variety of health issues, from illnesses due to stress to poor nutrition to alcohol and drug problems, and much more. Your campus can offer programs and efforts that help others to learn about nutrition, exercise, taking breaks to alleviate stress, and other programs that will enhance the overall health of students, teachers, and anyone else who wants to take advantage of this information.

Governance – Even though we all claim to hate government interference, we need a governing body. It is the same with all college campuses. But, it can’t be all one-sided. If there is a grass roots motivation, the school leadership may rebel. On the other hand, if the leadership is trying to get something started, the grass roots segment could rebel. All sustainability plans must be part of the campus mission, and be a part of its philosophy. Leadership at all levels is necessary to make it all work.

Byline:

Jane Hurst has been working in education for over 5 years as a teacher. She loves sharing her knowledge with

How To Make College Affordable

By Danika McClure

College affordability has been a trending topic in higher education circles for years, as tuition prices have skyrocketed in in the last decade. Many thought leaders in academia have come to the harsh conclusion  that the current higher educational system is unsustainable.

Although elite American universities consistently hold high rankings when compared to world universities, many have concluded that they hold prestige because of how highly selective they are, rather than the economic value of earning a degree. A high quality education that is actually worth the hefty pricetag are is largely unavailable for many students.  .

In his book, Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities, Richard DeMillo argues that the redemption of the higher education rests in revolutionaries who are willing to “rewrite a new social contract,” which would ensure that an institution’s quality would be judged by its ability to serve its intended population, not by how many people are excluded from its doors.

DeMillo’s latest book, aptly titled Revolution in Higher Education, offers a solution to the college exclusivity problem, contending that the cure to collegiate access and affordability might be a digital one.

We’ve seen the potential that digital innovation in education could have already, as the advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs) illustrates. At Stanford  University, computer science professors Daphne Koller and Jennifer Widdom offered their courses to an open learning website which attracted 150,000 students. That same year another Stanford professor, Sebastian Thrun offered a free version of his artificial intelligence course, which yielded the same number of interested students.

Through MOOC technology, hundreds of thousands of students were able to learn from and access high level courses from the brightest minds in their field of study. And the widespread interest in MOOCs that occurred in early 2012 and continues today has sparked an abundance of innovation in educational technology and pedagogy that has carried over to colleges and universities across the country.

DeMillo notes, however, that while open course software has the potential to change the way our higher education system operates, enacting this change at the systemic level is no easy task. He does, however, note a few innovators which have successfully changed the way their institutions operate for the better.

One such innovator  is Arizona State University President Michael Crow,  who since his appointment in 2002, has championed widespread university changes in order to expand access to students without decreasing the quality of instruction. In doing so, Crow created what is now referred to as “the new gold standard” for American Universities, using technology to erase circumstances which would normally prevent a student from attending or graduating college.

Under Crow’s guidance, ASU launched its online degree programs, which has grown by over 42 percent since 2013, and minority enrollment has increased by 62 percent–making ASU the largest public university in the world.

In years since, ASU has continued to innovate and advance its online pedagogy to better fit the needs of its students. Recently, an environmental studies course introduced gamification as a tool to complement other parts of the online learning experience, allowing students to immerse themselves in the material. Just last year the school implemented the Global Freshman Academy, which allows students to explore, learn, and complete courses before applying to ASU or paying for the credit. And recent partnerships with Starbucks promise a free tuition to students who work at the company and attend online classes at ASU.  

Other schools have opened admittance to prestigious programs online in an effort to expand access as well, many of which reduced cost to the student.

Georgia Tech president George Peterson opted to use make the university’s prestigious computer science master’s degree available at a fraction of the on-campus price. Pennsylvania State and Columbia now offer online courses on a variety of subjects. Even Harvard, rumored to be a “digital resister” has a digital arm, in the form of HarvardX.

In an interview with Economist, Clayton Christensen, a Harvard professor who coined the term “disruptive innovation”, expresses a belief that American universities are too “too firmly wedded to their old costly ways to embrace the digital revolution.” But for DeMillo argues otherwise, stating “Show me the industry that has withstood the advance of technology.”  As universities look to the future, access, affordability, and quality are factors that might determine which school’s lecture halls stay open.

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