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Getting college scholarship money is not all that difficult if you go about it the right way. There are lots of college students that get scholarship money every year that helps pay for their education, and scholarships are one of the best sources of college funding because they never have to be repaid. Essentially, you are receiving money for free to go to college. So why not try to get as much college scholarship money as you can before resorting to college loans instead?

However, applying for college scholarships requires discipline and organization in order to be successful. In this article we will review some of the common characteristics of those who are most successful in applying for college scholarships.

1. First of all, students who are most successful in getting scholarship money are willing to put in the extra time and work necessary in order to get the money that they need. They don't rely on their parents to do all the work for them, and they don't wait till the last minute to try to throw everything together and get it in the mail.

2. It's also important that you don't restrict your search for scholarships to just one or two sources, as no one database has all of the available scholarships listed in it. Quite often, students will simply use a database found on the Internet such as FastWeb, which is a good place to start. But remember that most likely lots of other students will be accessing the same online databases, making it more difficult to get the listed scholarships. So why not expand your search locally, and find out what scholarships are available in your area that can be much easier to qualify for and receive?

3. Some students fail in their quest for getting scholarship money because they simply don't try for enough scholarships when they apply. You need to think of this as a numbers game, and the more scholarships that you apply for, the better your chances of getting the money that you need. So don't just apply for one or two scholarships and see what happens. Instead, try to apply for as many as you can comfortably handle at one time.

4. If you apply to several scholarship programs at once, you will need to be well organized to keep it all straight. So make sure that you have a way to track all of the scholarship deadlines and requirements so that you give yourself the best chance possible to receive scholarships by getting your information packets in on time and fulfilling all the required steps outlined in the application.

5. Another very important part of creating a winning scholarship packet is to try to personalize your essay as much as you possibly can. Instead of just reciting dry facts as you would for a term paper, be sure to try to let the scholarship reviewers know as much about who you are as you can in the scholarship essay. Remember this is the only way that they will get to know you, and quite often your personal story can have a large impact on whether or not you are awarded a scholarship.

6. Finally, be sure to avoid all scholarship scams that promise to do all the work for you, or ask for some sort of payment in advance of receiving the scholarship. These scams are just ways to cheat students out of their hard earned money.

Every dollar that you receive from college scholarship money will be a dollar that you do not have to repay as a loan with interest later on in your life. That makes college scholarships one of the best forms of college education funding that you can possibly get. If you follow the tips listed above, very likely you will be able to get enough scholarship money to at least pay for a significant part of your college education.

Steadman Issenburg writes on many consumer related topics including education. You can find college grants and scholarships and graduate school scholarships and more by visiting our education website.

Looking for a career that can carry you far into the future? Occupational, physical, and Rehabilitation Therapy Schools, colleges, and universities provide students with focused studies, internships, and fieldwork that complete degree programs and prepare students for life-long professions.

Students in Rehabilitation Therapy School and college programs learn to understand the philosophies of physical and rehabilitation therapy, to prepare for the professional responsibilities of rehabilitation therapy professionals, and to achieve personal goals.

Rehabilitation therapy includes physical therapy, which may include physical exercise, tissue manipulation, and treatments that focus on increasing function in exact areas of the body; and occupational therapy, which focuses on techniques that prepare patients for returning to work and to function effectively in normal daily routines.

Physical therapy assists people with physical, mental, cognitive, and sensory problems due to accidental injury. The purpose of physical and rehabilitation therapy treatment is to return injured patients to self-sufficiency and productivity. Rehabilitation therapy helps patients to positively react to social and personal challenges, to return to careers, and perform meaningfully in daily activities.

Physical and Rehabilitation Therapy Schools teach that therapy empowers through processes of appropriate and precise treatment. Responsibilities of rehabilitation is training and teaching patients to exercise control over their lives. Rehabilitation therapy professional evaluate clients for living independently and for possible employment, recommend appropriate rehabilitation routines, make assessments for employment, and train for possible reappointment or to appointment to a new career.

Rehabilitation therapy professionals help patients resume an active and healthy lifestyle as much is possible. Degree options abound. Students can choose to study for diplomas, certificates, or associate degrees as rehabilitation technician, or to study for bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees, or specialized post-graduate certificates in physical, occupational, or rehabilitation therapy. Students can also choose from many areas of physical or rehabilitation therapy. Some choices are pediatric, adolescent, or adult therapy; occupation and psychological counseling; prosthetics consultation and recommendation; or prosthetic fabrication, modification, and design.

Incomes for physical therapists range from $40,000 to $70,000. Experienced physical and rehabilitation therapists might easily earn upwards of $80,000 in this meaningful and important profession.

If you are interested in learning more about Rehabilitation Therapy Schools, universities, and colleges, search our site for more information and resources.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved
Michael Bustamante, in association with Media Positive Communications, Inc. for SchoolsGalore.com

Notice to Publishers: Please feel free to use this article in your Ezine or on your Website; however, ALL links must remain intact and active.

I Know You Heard of Placebo – but They Got it All Wrong!

Let’s start with research, facts and proof – not idle rambling.

Researchers at the University of Michigan, published in the Journal of Neuroscience in August 2005:

Lead researcher – Jon-Kar Zubieta said: Endorphins (the body’s opiates), are released in pain-related areas of the brain – when we “expect” drugs to relieve our pain.

The operative word is ‘expect’ because the emotion of positive-expectation causes physical changes in mind-and-body.

Some might argue that expecting is a cognitive (thinking) behavior, not an emotional one. Maybe it’s both, but PET(Positron Emission Tomography) scans, produce proof-positive that a ‘placebo’ – Latin for “I shall please”, changes the brain. It’s as real as a New Orleans Heart Attack after seeing your home and source of livelihood destroyed.

A placebo demonstration is required by the U.S. government to test the effectiveness of new drugs proposed to the Federal Drug Administration. Manufactures must prove their new drug produces more cures than a phony-baloney with no active ingredients – say – a saline-solution injection with no drugs in it.

The Placebo can account for a minimum of thirty (30%) of all cures.

Does that mean we cure ourselves?

You have heard the expression – the placebo-effect – it’s in the dictionary and reads – a sense of benefit felt by a patient that arises solely from the knowledge that treatment has been given. A sugar pill instead of an antibiotic fits the bill.

The Experts Discounted The Placebo as Unscientific

Imagine the surprise of scientists when they saw brain scans with modifications of brain structures from patients who were give placebos - and not real drugs. The experiment involved the injection into the jaws of the volunteers (a harmless procedure), of either a legitimate pain-killer or the powerless placebo.

You don’t have to remember it’s called the “mu opioid receptors” of the brain, it means that the brain produces its own pain-killers strangely similar to opium, and is received and used to reduce or eliminate pain by the mind-and-body. Mu - is the twelfth-letter of the Greek alphabet.

When the patients were “told” they would receive painkillers – just the mental expectation without the active drug ingredients – as part of the experiment – their brains began to release Endorphins – a natural copycat of manufactured morphine. And what happened? Right – the placebo caused the pain to vanish as if the volunteers had received the active drugs.

It’s All in The Mind?

Do we all have the same level of expectation about life – health – success?

How do you even measure a mental construct like – expectation?

Here’s what the University of Michigan scientists concluded:

the power of the placebo was in-sync with the degree of each patient’s level of belief in the power of the alleged drug.

Huh? The stronger your belief in the effectiveness of the injection, pill or even surgery – they better your results.

The better relationship you have with the doctor – trust her/him – the better odds you recover and live - verses…

Most of us laughed at the Power-of-Positive-Thinking – and considered ourselves intelligent because we didn’t fool ourselves. Does ‘saying-so – make-it-so?”

The words we use habitually – are cues to how our brain thinks about success and failure. The Placebo-Effect proves that how we talk, and what we expect and trust to happen – has a demonstrable cause-and-effect response on how our brain works.

Nocebo – Means “I Will Harm You!”

From Latin we get placebo, and its sister-state - ‘nocebo’, which indicates that expectations of rejection, failure, and loss are the basis of self-sabotage.

The negative words, gestures and facial expressions we use cause our brain to lead us down the path to destruction. Is it all in your head, and persistence-and- determination don’t count? Life is action – not thinking about doing. It’s not who you are deep inside – it is what you ‘do’. Our brain is affected by the words we use, and by non-verbal body-language that reveals how we feel about things, people and situations. Success is all about thinking, feeling and doing.

Here’s an analogy - the brain is our hardware, while our mind is the software and sets the goals. What we must remember is that our brain is listening to our words, and awaiting its marching-orders, just as your fingers on the computer ‘point-and-click’ your commands. How you expect-to-be-treated causes people to modify their behaviors. What results you expect to obtain – affects the amount of effort your mind-and-body produce. Give-it-a-thought – and implement a ‘success-orientation’.

Endwords

It is time to change our attitude about the power of ‘expectation’, and how our mind affects our body. Your thinking – (words and pictures), and body-language work in tandem to produce the results we get.

Produce a Duchenne-Smile on your face three-times daily and you feel better and produce better results.

Now we know for the first time that it is not just ‘fooling-yourself’, but enlisting the help of your mind to affect meaningful and significant changes in your body.

Want to produce better results in your life?

Be aware of the specific words you use about yourself and your activities – cursing is a nocebo, and positive expectations and directed-effort - is your placebo.

See ya,

copyright ? 2005 H. Bernard Wechsler www.speedlearning.org hbw@speedlearning.org -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author of #1 book on Speed Learning, published by Barron's Educational, partner of Evelyn Wood, creator of speed reading, graduating 2 million, including the White House staffs of four U.S. Presidents. http://www.speedlearning.org hbw@speedlearning.org

Nowadays we hear from everywhere more and more people are obtaining university degrees online. You wonder if this is something that you might consider also. Before you sign up for your first online course you might find the information presented in this article useful.

1. You can study at your own pace, in the comfort of your own home and there is no need to quit your job or relocate.

2. University degrees do not come cheap however staying at home helps to save a lot of money. Do your budget calculation.

3. Since there is no direct supervision it takes a lot of self discipline, planning, and time management skills to succeed. Ask yourself if face to face communication is important to you.

4. Research all possible information about the university of your choice. Find out if your degree will be accepted by employers or other universities if you decide to continue your education somewhere else? Does this university meet appropriate approvals from accredited institutions? How many students in each class? How many classes / courses are taught through online? Can you get references from graduates?

5. Make a list of your questions and concerns. It will help you to define your individual needs. Remember: the better decision we make with regards to setting our goals, choosing university or college, the better results we get. It also saves our time and money.

Do your homework and your efforts will be absolutely rewarded. Good luck with making your dreams come true.

About the author: Tania Wagner works for an internet marketing company. Her recent articles are about on-line education. Please visit http://www.universitydegreesonline.org for more information.

You've Got the Wrong Attitude

Your belief system is what may be standing in the way. Most academics cling to the belief that they must set aside large chunks of time, do a lot of preparation, and be in the proper frame of mind to be able to write.

What this means is that when you finally sit down to write, it's going to be an unpleasant marathon. You have placed such importance on this writing session that you feel anxiety about it living up to your expectations. And you know it's going to be difficult. After all, there are thorny issues you haven't addressed, articles you haven't read or reread, and a lack of coherence to your thinking. You need to solve those problems. And if you don't do it now you'll be quite disappointed in yourself. How unpleasant! And how counterproductive!

What Should You Believe Instead? Or 'Oh, The Irony!'

Research by Robert Boyce actually shows that first and second-year professors who participated in a study on writing productivity were able to turn out more publishable pages in a year by
? Writing 30 minutes a day
? Only writing on workdays
? Shoehorning that writing into small gaps in their busy schedules

The difficult part, it turns out, was convincing these professors to try this low-key method in the first place. Ironically, they all insisted that the only way to get real work done was to do it in the marathon way that I described above. The second irony was that when Boyce actually measured the amount that they were writing per week (before the intervention,) it was less than 30 minutes per week! This was much less than their retrospective reports of how much time they had been spending writing.

The third irony was that those who most adhered to the idea that you must write in large doses were the least productive. The fourth irony was that although these professors considered writing a private activity, they did best when they were accountable to someone for maintaining their 30-minute writing habit.

Do It Already!

So what's stopping you from learning from these professors and writing a small amount each day?

Here are typical excuses:
? It's just not rewarding writing in small amounts. I feel like I've gotten nothing accomplished.
? I have a big issue to work out. It will take more time than 30 minutes.
? I feel guilty if I don't work more each time.
? I'll never complete my dissertation/paper/research project at that pace.
? I've waited until it's too late and I can't afford the luxury of that small amount of time per day.
? It just doesn't feel right.
? I've got more time than that, I should be putting all my time to good use.
? It's so overwhelming that I don't know where to start, and by the time I figure it out my 30 minutes will be up.

My answer to those responses? Bull! Except for the emergency deadline, there is no reason not to try this technique. Give it time to see if it works for you. If you're like every other academic I've worked with, you will resist the idea. I suggest that the more resistant you are, the more problem you've probably had with procrastination in the past.

An Action Plan

Try it for a week. Select a time each day, preferably not the evening unless you're a night owl, and write for 30 minutes, without email, reading or other distractions. Don't listen to the voices in your head saying you 'should be getting more done,' or 'you should be writing more than this.' I'll bet at the end of the week you'll be pleasantly surprised at your output, and pleased with the increasing ease with which you can sit down to write. You’ll start to see progress on your dissertation or article and maybe come to believe that you will finish one day.

Furthermore, don't forget about being accountable to someone. Let someone else know that you're going to be doing daily writing. Perhaps you can find a writing buddy, or someone in your dissertation group.

Don't forget, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. Start setting yourself up for success starting right now!

? Gina Hiatt, PhD. Gina is a dissertation and tenure coach. She helps academics, from grad students wondering about their dissertation topic to faculty members who want to maintain a high level of research and writing, to reach their goals more quickly and less painfully. Get Gina's free assessments & ezine at http://www.academicladder.com