6 Useful Websites / Apps Persisting and Avoiding College Burnout

By Robert Parmer

It’s that time of year again; the latter half of second semester. The time when Spring Break is so closely approaching us, that the week of freedom ahead is a borderline distraction. And what’s more, the recuperation period also known as summer, is right around the corner.

Ending the term on a high note can sometimes prove to be a challenge. Especially when burnt out, drained emotions start to set in. The longing for a time without the rigid structure of university life gets increasingly heavy as sunshine and good times start to badger our mindsets.

Now is the time, to be well versed in all the things that will help you overcome student fatigue. After reading a recent College Puzzle post titled 5 Must Have Academic Apps for Students, I was inspired to curate my own list of useful websites and apps for college students. If you aren’t already using–or at least familiar with–the following websites and applications, do yourself a favor and explore all of these options. You may find each and every one to be helpful in their own unique ways.

Good and Cheap Cookbook

Life after high school graduation is a strange time for many students living on their own for the first time. A foundational piece of the college puzzle is learning how to keep yourself properly nourished. Minimal cooking experience and often times less than ideal food budgets get in the way of this basic endeavor. If you opted out of a cafeteria meal ticket, there is still hope!

Leanne Brown is the mastermind behind the most cost effective cookbook I’ve ever read. Brown’s cookbook, appropriately titled Good and Cheap, has hundreds of recipes designed to be simple and cost efficient.

Best of all it is free to download. The recipes in this cookbook were originally created for those on food stamps (a $4 a day budget per person, on average). But it definitely doesn’t skimp on creativity or tastiness! Good and Cheap focuses on simple, easy to prepare meals, that college student’s wallets and stomachs can agree with.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is one of the best places for digging deep into research efforts, but is also an excellent tipping-off point. One of the main reasons why Google delivers such perfect search results so instantaneously, is because the entity has indexed the majority of the internet and Google Scholar certainly follows suit.

Google Scholar is an even more refined version of its big brother. It generates searches results that are composed of highly authoritative, scholarly articles. The vast majority of these are written by professors themselves, so the authority is unmatched. This is an easy way for college students to sift through all the less credible ‘noise’ of the internet.

Mint

Mint is a personal finance tracking application by the company Intuit (creators of the recognizable QuickBooks and TurboTax software). This is particularly useful for those attending college because as we all know, budgeting is not easy when you’re typically broke in first place.

Are you trying to keep up with your spending but manage to stay so busy with school that you don’t have time to sort it all out? Mint helps you track your spending in numerous ways because it creates easy to follow budgets, tracks transactions, and can surprisingly even check your credit.

Roger Hub’s Final Grade Calculator

That moment when it all comes down to the final. You’re riding the pass/fail line hard, and stress is piling up because you aren’t even sure if it’s possible to get out of the hole you’ve started to dig yourself into. Most college students have experienced this at least once in their blossoming college careers.

That’s why Roger Hub’s final grade calculator is so helpful. It’s a website that allows students to quickly and transparently input three key pieces of information to see what their final grade will be, before the term is closed.

MailTrack

The premise of this app is simple: a tag is inserted into emails you choose to track using MailTrack. This tag is invisible to the receiver, but allows you to view some crucially important information about the status of your sent email. Has the receiver read your email? If so, how many times has it been read, and on what type of device? Mailtrack answers all of these questions and gives you detailed and current information regarding the emails you send.

People typically don’t want to seem overbearing through an email, and the MailTrack application helps eliminate this. Is it time to follow up on that email you sent about a possible internship next year? MailTrack helps paint a picture of the unknown. It helps you make these decisions.

Grammarly

While I love writing, I sometimes don’t remember the more intricate grammar rules. Grammarly helps me clear up any confusion, without hunting down grammar rules. It’s essentially the modern day equivalent of when spell check was introduced. Thankfully, we no longer need to sift through the pages of a dictionary to spell a word correctly. Now you don’t have to search the internet about every question pertaining to grammar: use Grammarly instead!

Robert Parmer is a freelance web writer and student of Boise State University. Outside of writing and reading adamantly he enjoys creating and recording music, caring for his pet cat, and commuting by bicycle whenever possible. Follow him on Twitter @robparmer

 

 

 

Prevention of Sexual Assault on Campus

By Jane Hurst

Unfortunately, sexual assaults on college campuses are at an all-time high, and this doesn’t seem to be coming to an end any time soon. So, with this in mind, it is important that all college students, both female and male, know what to do in order to protect themselves from ending up in a sexual assault situation. Here are some things that you, as a student, need to keep in mind in order to stay safe, get a great education, and enjoy your college years.

• Resources – When you first arrive at college, learn about all of the resources available, including the campus health center, the campus police station, and others. Find out if there is a sexual assault counsellor, where the emergency telephones are located, and make sure that the campus security number is programmed into your mobile phone.
• Be Alert – Attacks happen when one isn’t alert to their surroundings. No matter where you are, be it on campus or at the mall, know your surroundings. Bring a friend along with you when walking at night, or ask someone from campus security to escort you home or to your vehicle. Don’t wear headphones in both ears so you can hear everything that is going on around you.
• Don’t Post Your Location – Social media is a great thing, but it can also be dangerous. Be careful about what you are posting. Don’t post where you are going to be, and turn off any geolocation functions on your devices.
• Mind Your Own Actions – Sadly, sometimes the most innocent of actions can be taken as much more serious, and you could find yourself being charged with sexual assault. If this happens, be sure to hire Greater Houston Defense attorneys.
• Be Careful with Alcohol – It is very important to know your limits when it comes to alcohol. Sadly, many sexual assaults happen because the victim is too out of it to be able to say “no”, or know what is going on.
• Keep an Eye on Your Drinks – Even if you only plan on having a drink or two, you could end up in a dangerous situation if you don’t watch your drinks every second. If you turn your back on your drink, even for a couple of seconds, someone can slip in a date rape drug. If you have to walk away from your drink, have a trusted friend watch it for you. Avoid drinking anything from a punch bowl because you have no idea what is really in it.
• Trust Your Own Intuition – We all get that feeling that we are in a bad situation or place at times. Listen to your intuition, because it is probably right. If something doesn’t feel right, there is usually a reason for it. If you feel like something is off, or like you are being followed, pretend to talk loudly on your phone, so the person who is following will think that there is someone who can call the police for you.
• Take Self-Defense Classes – It never hurts to know how to defend yourself in any situation, and most college campuses offer self-defense classes for women and men. You will find that after taking these classes that you are much more confident in yourself, and you will know that you can protect yourself if you are attacked.
• Stick with Your Friends – When you are with a group of friends, it is much less likely that you are going to be attacked. Attackers tend to look for people who are alone and vulnerable. Whenever you go anywhere, try to be with at least one or two friends. You will all be much safer that way.

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!

The Real Price of College

Nancy Kendall & Sara Goldrick-Rab,
The high price of college is the subject of media headlines, policy debates, and dinner table conversations because of its implications for educational opportunities, student and family pocketbooks, and the economy.1 Some people caution against giving too much weight to the advertised price of a college education, pointing out that the availability of financial aid means that college is not as expensive as people think it is.2 But they overlook a substantial problem: for many students, the real price of college is much higher than what recruitment literature, conventional wisdom, and even official statistics convey. Our research indicates that the current approach to higher education financing too often leaves low-income students facing unexpected, and sometimes untenable, expenses.
Read Full Article ››

The Real Price of College

Increasing Your Competitiveness in the Job Market

By Melissa Burns

Getting the job that you really want in the current employment environment requires strategic action and initiative — graduating with the “right degree” is no longer enough. Unfortunately, high levels of student loan debt often force job applicants to take an undesirable position just to pay their new bills. This ineffective strategy is likely to be compounded by a weak job market in a growing number of fields.

What should you do? One prudent strategy is to increase your competitiveness in the job market by “standing out” — doing things that the average job candidate is not likely to do. While suggestions like this can seem vague at times, here are five specific and practical actions that you can accomplish as part of your single-minded strategy to not only survives but to also thrive in the current job market:

 

1. Never stop acquiring new skills.
2. Do more than you are paid to do.
3. Always be creative.
4. Learn new languages.
5. Exhibit initiative in everything.

Additional insights about each of these strategic actions are provided in the following paragraphs. This straightforward course of action can help you find a job — and also help you to keep your current job.

1 — The Need for New Skills — Both for You and Employers

The concept of career-long job security seems to have left the building many years ago. In part this is due to employers seeking more ways to improve the bottom line by reducing wages however they can. This approach has effectively created a new industry — outsourcing. Employers can now choose to outsource many tasks to global outsourcing companies such as Back Office Pro.

While some companies use an outsourcing strategy to save money, many others do so because their current employees lack one or more specialized skills. Your mission — should you choose to accept it — is to acquire new skills that make it less likely for you to be laid off or replaced by someone with skills you don’t have. As an additional bonus, this action will also help you to qualify for more new jobs in the employment marketplace if you do lose your current job. At a minimum, think of it as a viable “Plan B” for your career.

2 — Stop Doing Just the Minimum Required to Get By

One of your “go to” strategies for standing out as either a job candidate or a current employee is to make yourself indispensable — someone that a department manager or business owner would never even think of replacing or running the business without. On the other hand, many employees seem determined to do as little work as possible. In many cases, this takes the form of “not doing more than you are paid to do” or attitudes represented by saying “that’s not my job.”

Regardless of peer pressure, your mission should always be to do more than your fair share of work. This might involve working overtime, taking on new responsibilities that exceed your current job description or helping your company get new workers and business funding. These qualities tend to be noticed positively by individuals who make hiring and firing decisions in most companies.

3 — Being Creative, Unique and Original

Being unique and creative is an important component of surviving and thriving in a competitive job market. Think of the goal to “be creative” as the opposite of doing your job mechanically. Try to find new, faster and better ways of getting your tasks done. Don’t accept the common wisdom of doing something a certain way because “we’ve always done it that way.”

To provide positive momentum to your current or prospective career, the mission in being creative is to ensure that you cannot be easily replaced by just any other employee. The career wisdom of this strategy was astutely observed by Coco Chanel — “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”

4 — Speaking and Writing More Than One Language

The ability to communicate proficiently in English continues to be an important element in global business communication. However, to survive and thrive in an international marketplace increasingly involves speaking other languages and local dialects. For example, another reason that companies use Back Office Pro and other outsourcing companies is due to a pressing need to have foreign language experts who are proficient in multiple languages.

By having one or more foreign language skills, it will be easier for you stand out in a crowd of current employees or job applicants who possess similar professional skills — but in one language only. Your primary career mission is to decide which languages can play the most instrumental role in moving your career forward.

5 — Taking the Initiative: Proactive vs Reactive

Anticipating what needs to be done and then doing it before someone tells you to do it is the essence of taking initiative. In many cases, this means the ability to prepare for possible future problems by taking problem-solving steps to prevent difficulties before they occur.

The ability to channel initiative in a positive fashion will often provide the impetus for promotions to leadership roles in many organizations. Whether you think of it as proactive management or other concepts like contingency planning, taking the initiative will move you into the forefront when hiring and job retention decisions are made by employers. Your practical mission is to be proactive rather than reactive.

Conclusions — Creating More Career Value

By doing your best to pursue the five practical career action steps suggested above, both new graduates looking for jobs and employees trying to survive in a current job can have a similar desirable outcome — enhanced value for careers. This will rarely be an easy path to follow, so be prepared to invest in yourself by working hard. As Milton Berle once said, “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

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.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 New Studies on College Completion

From ECS Postsecondary Working to fix the broken freshman year  In 2015, only a little more than half of students who enrolled in college in 2009 made it to graduation, with the largest percentage dropping out after their freshman year. That’s why 44 state colleges and universities have come together in an attempt to reshape freshman-year programs. (NPR, Feb. 25)

Remedial Education More work needed on college readiness Developmental education is a barrier to college completion, higher education experts agree, yet most students are not prepared for college-level work and are not successful in remedial courses, according to a report. (Community College Daily, Feb. 23)

 

10 Big Shifts Coming In Higher Education

Here are the 10 higher-education trends identified by Chronicle of Higher Education reporters and editors, with help from people whose jobs put them on the front lines of academe every day:

■ A fresh wave of attacks on free speech, often coming from students. Instructors (and even student debaters) are under pressure to provide students with trigger warnings, meant to warn them of potentially upsetting topics. Also contributing to the trend are student protests denouncing a hostile campus climate, and the emergence of watchdog groups that scrutinize campus speech for bias. Some colleges are fighting back.

■ Efforts by colleges to combat sexual assault by creating new cultural norms on the campus. Under pressure to make sure their handling of sexual-assault cases will stand up under Title IX, some institutions are proactively educating students about the meaning of consent and the importance of intervening to prevent sexual violence.

■ The growing use of metrics to measure faculty productivity. Colleges have new tools to see how their professors stack up, and they’re not afraid to use them. Faculty critics say the tools provide an incomplete and inaccurate picture of their jobs.

■ The need for college leaders to react quickly to events that could quickly spin out of control. “Reactive” used to be seen as a negative label, but in the age of social media, when leaders can no longer control the campus agenda, the ability to react has become a survival skill.

■ Widespread attacks on shared governance. The traditional model of shared governance is eroding as more governing boards make unilateral changes that ignore faculty opinion, such as appointing someone from outside academe as president. Boards are reacting to fiscal pressure, political heat, and complaints about the cost and value of a degree.

■ The outsourcing of services that are a core part of a college’s mission. It’s not unusual for colleges to turn the operation of campus bookstores and cafeterias over to private companies, but now they’re also outsourcing some key academic services, like advising and even teaching.

■ Increased scrutiny of academic research. Corporate influence and outright fraud have undermined the credibility of scientific research. Meanwhile, some fields have been tainted by research scandals involving fabrication and the inability to replicate results.

■ A movement to overhaul the college transcript. Some colleges are adding new types of information to transcripts to better reflect what students have learned and accomplished. An expanded and digitized transcript may lead to “the quantified student,” but it could also provide a powerful accountability metric that allows colleges to track graduates.

■ The rise of the instructional designer. As online learning and new classroom technologies spread, the demand for instructional designers — who develop courses that others may teach — is growing.

■ A reliance on better marketing to survive enrollment challenges and create a stronger institutional identity. The golden rule: Know who your students are, and figure out how best to serve them.

 

9 Helpful Tools You Can Use To Make Your First Resume Perfect

By Michael Yarbrough

First impressions are vitally important in business. One of the best ways to make a good impression on your prospective employer is to send an outstanding resume. Unfortunately, students don’t normally have enough experience in writing resumes, and the first time doing so can be rather challenging for them. Since a professionally written resume is the first step in landing a good position, you must learn how to do it well. That’s why I’d like to recommend a list of helpful tools that will help polish your first resume.

1. Unplag

Students tend to use as templates those resumes that are available on the Internet. However, there is the danger of inadvertently plagiarizing content. There’s no doubt that employers are interested in those candidates that put solid efforts into writing a nice resume. For this reason, it is recommended to use plagiarism detection software, and Unplag serves that purpose well. Students upload resumes to the library and scan them against each other or against the Internet.

2. Super Resume
   This site’s collection of free resume templates can be a valuable aid to beginners. Of course, students are to remember about the risk mentioned above (using resumes without changes), but a good example is always a plus. If students use templates reasonably and with good common sense, Super Resume is one of the most useful resources for those students who make the first steps in a successful job search.
3. CV Maker

This is an alternative tool to the one mentioned above. CV Maker also has a number of templates for a resume. The interface is simple, so it won’t take much time and efforts to figure out how to use it. You’ll just need to fill out the various fields: Basic Information, Objective, Work Experience, Qualifications, Education, Computer Skills, Interests, and References.

4. Vizualize
   This is another resource that provides you with a number of resume templates to choose from. However, besides appealing themes and styles, you can also present your data in some new formats. For example, demonstrate your language skills via language maps or skill bubble charts, create pictograms, tree-maps and statistics, display your work experience in timelines and use other features. If you log in to Vizualize via your LinkedIn profile, your job experience information will be automatically transferred to the Vizualize profile.
5. Branded Me
   This is a resource for designing professional web pages. It’s possible to sign up with your LinkedIn or Facebook accounts and get your profile data transferred to the Branded Me page. One more attractive option available here is Connect. Branded Me users can stay in touch with their friends, colleagues, and employers by adding them as connections on the website.
6. Hemingway Editor
   Hemingway Editor works in the following way: You paste your text into the field on the website and immediately get results. Hemingway Editor highlights errors, adverbs, passive voice, and long or overly complicated sentences. What’s more, the editor has a readability scale of one to ten, and your text gets a ranking when you check it. Thanks to these marks you’re able to see any serious drawbacks in your resume and correct them right away.
7. Re.vu
   This online resume builder has a detailed questionnaire that provides your future employer with detailed information about your achievements, goals, skills, and personal traits. A convenient interface allows you to fill it out with your credentials step by step – personal data, timeline, infographics, portfolio, education, and work examples.
8. Visual CV
   A good resource to create resumes, portfolios, and personal landing pages is found on this site. The variety of templates offered through this website is very rich. Moreover, these templates look more original than those offered on the majority of web resources, even while maintaining a professional look. It’s a chance to make your resume design unique and memorable.
9. RezScore

RezScore is a resource that scores resumes online. You upload one and immediately get an A, B or C score for it along with a report. Both Summary and Tips for Improvement sections inform you what exactly you should do to make your resume better. Users can also see in what industries their resume will be strongest, what skills you have, and what personality traits you have. The latter is a helpful section because it lets you know how your potential employers will probably see you.

Now you know how to make a good first impression. The next step is a job interview, and you need to get ready for it as thoroughly as possible to present yourself in the most favorable light.

Byline:

Michael is a former school teacher, currently working as an ESL tutor. Teaching is his favorite way of finding inspiration. In spare time he enjoys volunteering and provides a lot help to wild and homeless animals. Connect with Michael via Twitter and Linkedin.

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The Real Value of What Students Do in College

Robert Shireman, TCF

AP Photo/Jessica Hill Today in the United States, more than a third of adults have a college degree, compared to fewer than five percent of adults at the time of World War II, representing a dramatic change in what people do when they reach adulthood.1 This year alone nearly two million people in the United States will earn their bachelor’s degrees.2 Our country’s success in promoting a college education would be something to celebrate, if not for one big, embarrassing blemish: those who are already privileged are the most likely to get to and through college, while the underprivileged do not. Read Full Article ››

 

10 Health and Wellness Tips for Female College Students

By Jane Hurst

Many teen girls think that college is going to be a carefree moment in their lives. Where they can do absolutely anything and not worry about the outcome. While this is true to a point, going off to college is also one of the first and most fundamental steps to true adulthood, which means that it is necessary to balance those carefree times and responsibilities. The experience will literally change your life, and the goal is to make it change your life for the better. Here are some tips that will help you get through your college years with a great education and amazing memories.

 

1) Make Friends – People come and go the same way you pass cars in a highway. Some may never play any role in your life whatsoever, but some may play an important role (both good or bad). This is the time in your life when you are going to cultivate life-long friendships. Open yourself up to meeting new people and making all kinds of new friends. These are the people who are going to give you encouragement when you need it the most. You will learn from these people, their cultures and there difference which in result will make you a diverse being.

 

2) Get Plenty of Sleep – As tempting as it may be to party hard and pull overnighters; you are not going to ace those exams if you aren’t getting enough sleep. Unfortunately, this may be too much to ask for, given the vast number of activities in college. So for those days when you just couldn’t sleep, you may have to spend a fortune on make-up to cover up those bags under your eyes. Nonetheless, It’s important to get into the habit of getting eight hours of sleep every night.

 

3) Eat Healthy – Even though you’re not at home eating meals cooked by Mom, that doesn’t mean that you have carte blanch to go nuts on junk food. Your body, and your mind will not work properly if you aren’t eating properly. Your meal plan probably offers a variety of tempting foods, but be conservative. One thing I can tell you for sure is that your metabolism will betray you as you grow older. So eat wisely. Make sure that your daily breakfast is high in fiber and protein, and avoid processed foods and junk food as much as possible.

 

4) Read a Lot – Don’t just read the textbooks you are assigned each semester. Take time to read magazines, novels, etc. Not only is this a great way to relax, it will also help to keep your mind active, and you will do better with your studies. They say the vastest knowledge source is in the graves. It’s always good to have a mentor but finding a mentor in books will guide you in the right path.

 

5) Take power Naps – Speaking of sleep, another good habit to get into is taking power naps. When your brain is feeling fuzzy, a short nap is the best way to make it clear again. All you need is a short nap (15 to 30 minutes) later in the afternoon to feel refreshed and ready to take on the world.

 

6) Get Exercise – We all know that we are supposed to exercise every day. This is extremely important when you are in college. It is very common for female students to gain 15 to 20 pounds during their first year of college. This is hard to take off, and often, more weight piles on. An easy cheat would be to get a waist trainer. This will emphasize the results of your exercises and focus them on molding your body to an hourglass figure.  Exercise daily, try yoga, and you won’t have to worry about a thing.

 

7) Avoid “Study Aids” – A lot of students use caffeine pills, Adderall, energy drinks, etc. to give them enough energy to get through each day. Don’t let yourself fall into this habit. It is not just incredibly unhealthy, it is addictive and can lead to taking other drugs. Enjoy the odd energy drink, but don’t overdo it.

 

8) Don’t Spread Germs – If you are sick, stay home! Unless you absolutely must be in class for an important assignment or test, there is no sense in spreading germs to students and teachers. Be sure to wash your hands regularly, get a flu shot every year, and don’t share cups and eating utensils.

 

9) Party Responsibly – We all love to party, and college is one of the best times to do it. But, it is more important than ever that women are careful when they are partying. There are more and more cases of sexual assaults on campuses, and these assaults often involve alcohol and drugs. Have fun, but be safe.

 

10) Don’t Drink and Drive – This is probably the most important piece of advice you will ever hear in your life. Many young people have the tendency to think that they are invincible, and that they can handle their liquor well enough to be able to drive. If you are going to be drinking, make arrangements for sober transportation.

 

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!

 

Skills Needed For High Growth, High Wage Jobs