The Benefits Of A Distance Learning Associate Degree by
I Henman -Education is a very important part of todays job hunt process, not just for you but also for employers. The days are gone where you could put in your time to keep a secure place in the work force, todays employers are hiring younger employees right out of college with degrees that suit them to jobs that were once held by experienced workers. The question is what can you do about it to stay ahead of the curve. The answer is in distance learning and associate degrees.
An Associate Degree What is it?
What heck is an associate degree? Simply put it's like half and undergraduate degree, spanning 2 years and about 60 credit hours in the field of your choice. Like an undergrad degree you can enroll for an associates degree in an array of facilities including science, and business. The big step that has occurred most recently in associate degree studies the the chance to enroll in an online college to complete a program while maintaining employment at your current job.
Earn your Distance Learning Associate Degree
Of course there's no arguing that the Internet has made all of our lives a heck of a lot easier, from banking to communicating with old friends. Now you can take it one step further and simplify how you attain your education. By enrolling with an online education center you can take a distance learning associate degree in the same time frame you'd complete it at a brick and mortar school but on your own terms.
The majority of those that do take distance learning courses over the Internet do so because they don't have the free time to enroll at a traditional college and free up the required time for traveling, studying, and pre scheduled class times. Taking courses via the Internet simplifies everything by studying from the comfort of your own home, and earning your associate degree step by step in your free time.
Before handing any money over to an educational center claiming to offer distance learning associate degrees be sure to do your home work on the school. There are fake schools out there attempting to pass themselves off as accredited when in fact the degree you'd earn from them wouldn't be worth the paper the diploma is printed on.
Each state has accreditation bodies, that certify schools that they are allowed and recognized to be offering the programs they do. Be sure that a program and schools is accredited before registering.
There are numerous resources on the Internet along with the schools themselves that allow you to requrest free information about programs, enrollment and financial assistance. Take advantage of these sites in your search for the right school for your distance learning associate degree.
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The Benefits Of A Distance Learning Associate Degree
GPA - How It Helps In College Admissions
By Devin Yeo
There?s really nothing more important in your college application than the strength of your academics. Unlike essays and the SATs which can be polished in several weeks, the transcript is a culmination of four years of academic work you did in high school. There?s little you can do to change your academic record. That is why admissions officers will always turn to the transcript before anything else. After all, to get an idea of how you will perform next time in college, it?s only logical to assess how you?ve been performing so far.
What courses you take in high school and what grades you get will determine where you end up in September. When colleges look at your folder, the first thing they will see is your transcript. ?Has this student challenged herself?? ?Are his grades showing an upward trend, declining, or stagnant?? Challenged means taking the toughest courses you can handle.
Please bear in mind that when while you are encouraged to go for the most demanding schedule, you must be able to do well. No point taking the toughest courses if it eats into your social and extra curricular activities. Admissions officers can see that you?re trying too hard, and it may instead work against your favor in the college admissions process.
?Is it better to get a B in the Advanced Placement class or an A in the regular class??
Not surprisingly, this question gets asked a lot of times. Of course, the best thing would be to get an A in the AP class. But seriously, admissions officers would rather you get a B in the AP class. AP classes are much tougher than regular ones, and getting a B ? despite the grade itself ? shows that you can handle tough workloads.
Just think about it, if A was so important, then every student would try to pad his and her transcript with courses like Getting Slim for the 21st Century just so they could fatten their GPA. That is why grades alone are not enough.
An important thing to note here is that while colleges consider grades, they also consider your performance relative to your classmates. That is where class rank comes in. Class ranks help colleges determine whether the C you got in Calculus is a result of slacking on your part, or a really strict marking system. If your school does not rank, don?t despair. Colleges are adept enough at coming up with a ranking for you based on your school profile and academic trend in your school report.
For example, my school does not rank. But my guidance counselor was able to predict my rank as if there was a ranking system, by looking at the performance of my peers in my class that year. So she will write something like ?Top 5% of the class this year? for her students. Even if your school policy forbids ranking ? as mine do ? your transcript can still tell a great deal about what kind of challenges you went through in high school.
Know Your Goals
You academic preparation should also reflect your goals. What kind of school do you want to go to? If you are eyeing for highly selective colleges, then you should take as many AP classes as you can; again, without harming your grades or extra curricular activities.
At the Ivy Leagues and its cousins, you?d probably need all the As you can get from AP classes to have a shot. These academic behemoths are so competitive that a B might (read: I said might because it will still ultimately depend on your overall application strength) not work in your favor.
On the other hand, large state universities use a different rule. These schools attract tens of thousands of applications each year and so they often rely on grades and test scores to make decisions. Here GPA would be more important than the level of courses. In other words, how tough your course selection is isn?t necessary, as long as they are college preparatory.
?What if my school does not offer AP courses??
Don?t fret. Designing the curriculum is the responsibility of your school; your job is to take the most challenging ones available. If your school doesn?t offer AP English, and every senior takes regular English classes, then yes, that is the most rigorous one. If you come from a really competitive high school, you will be evaluated based on the school?s curriculum. Even if you rank near the bottom, there are some schools who will love to take you in since you come from a ?strong? school.
But if your high school isn?t so tough, then it may be more important for you to rank near the top.
A really good way to stand out in a selective pool is to go beyond what your school has to offer. This means doing things that are otherwise not offered in your school. If you?ve studied all the physics courses in school, try taking up advanced courses at a local college. If you love maths and finished calculus in junior year, work with a professor to do research into multivariable equations. These actions show adcoms that you are intellectually curious and always ready to learn new things ? a plus point in the admissions process.
About the Author: Devin is a college applicant who has researched the complexity of the college admissions process for two years. His acceptances include the honors program at the Univ. of Michigan and Cambridge University in the UK. He runs an admissions website at
http://www.admissions-guide.info dedicated to helping students in the college admissions process.
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