One MarketWatch.com writer recently called tuition insurance a “stupid investment” and “a lesson in failure.” But other experts feel that tuition insurance could actually be a smart investment for families whose child is studying abroad, if the child has a history of serious illness, or if the family has more than one child enrolled at a university, college or trade school.

Tuition insurance at private schools is mandatory so that all students are covered under an extended-payment plan. Students can be reimbursed for their education costs if their parents have been laid off, or if they were offered a new job at another location. Some private schools offer refunds if the student has been suspended or dismissed, or if they voluntarily withdraw from school.

College students who decide to purchase tuition insurance, on the other hand, will only get reimbursed if they drop out of school because of a legitimate medical reason, such as a diagnosis of a serious illness or injuries from a car accident.

Over 1,000 private schools and 200 colleges are using A.W.G. Deware’s tuition plan, which offers a 100 percent refund for tuition, fees, and room/board if a student drops out of school because of a physical illness.  However, students who withdraw from their classes due to a mental illness will only get a 60 percent refund.

The price of tuition insurance may also depend on the size of the college or university as well as the cost of tuition. (Usually the average cost of tuition insurance represents 1 to 3 percent of the school’s tuition costs).

At New York University, where tuition costs more than $50,000, less than 2 percent of students are covered with Deware’s tuition insurance plan which costs $448 for the entire year. At the University of Southern California, where less than 1 percent of students apply for tuition insurance each year, the cost of the coverage is $123 because tuition is approximately $41,000.

Other popular insurance companies who offer tuition insurance for students are TuitionGuardian, College Parents of America, and GradGuard. GradGuard’s coverage plan costs $455 a year, and students get $10,000 in accidental death coverage and a “set tuition benefit” of $15,000 per term or $30,000 per year. College Parents of America offer tuition insurance plans for members who can  buy up to $50,000 in tuition insurance for an annual cost of $599. They also provide coverage if a student’s credit card has been lost or stolen, or if they were a victim of identity theft.

Unlike other companies, TuitionGuardian has no limitation if the student has a pre-existing medical condition. Their coverage plan offers $10,000 in Accidental Death Insurance for the student as well as the “primary tuition payer,” and the company also provides a 100 percent reimbursement if the student withdraws from school due to a serious injury or illness. TuitionGuardian also offers identity theft coverage as well as an “un-reimbursed portion” of tuition paid via loans, grants or scholarships. The cost of the plan is not provided on their website, but interested students can contact TuitionGuardian’s customer service department to get a rough estimate.

However, as the Wall Street Journal reports, even though the insurance is usually done through a third-party company such as the ones listed above, the school may actually benefit from a student who purchases a tuition insurance plan:

“[Schools] say they don’t get a cut of the premiums, though they do benefit from the protection. If the student still owes money or has received a scholarship, the claims are paid directly to the school, which deducts its part before sending the rest on to parents.”

Be sure to read the fine print before purchasing tuition insurance

Keep in mind that tuition insurance for college students is extremely strict: some policies may exclude you from receiving your coverage if you have a pre-existing medical condition, and other companies may only offer tuition insurance for full-time students. Also, if the company does provide you coverage if you have a pre-existing medical condition, there may be a 6 to 12 month waiting period before your coverage “kicks in.”

Some companies may require you to provide a doctor’s note if you become ill, and others may only provide a refund if you were admitted in a hospital for a certain amount of time.

Deware’s policy, for example, does not offer reimbursement for students if they had to withdraw from school because of a drug addiction problem or “self-inflicted injury.” And GradGuard’s tuition plan only covers 75 percent of “fees lost” if the student had to drop out because of an “emotional, nervous, or mental disorder.”

Another major setback to purchasing tuition insurance is that it essentially only covers the middle weeks of each semester, because by late semester students are more likely to take an “incomplete” for their classes than withdraw.

Also, before purchasing insurance you should find out if your college or university already has insurance policies which offer tuition reimbursements. Some institutions may offer full or partial refunds if you withdraw before a certain date, which is usually during the first six weeks of the semester.

In other words, tuition insurance will only be a “stupid investment” if you fail to do the proper research beforehand.

As of October 29, 2011, every institution participating in Title IV Student Financial Aid Programs must install a calculator template on their website. Colleges and universities have two options: they can either design their own calculator template, or use the federally-designed Net Price Calculator.

The template was first made available on October 29, 2009 as part of the Higher Education and Opportunity Act. These calculators provide a rough estimate on the cost of tuition after scholarships and need-based grants, and can be beneficial for students or parents who want to shop around to find discounts on higher education.

Using a simple formula, (price of attendance minus grant aid), the Net Price Calculator estimates the cost of tuition by comparing answers entered by the user to financial data from the institution, as well as the average cost of tuition in the previous academic year. But Jeff Whorley, president of StudentAid.com, estimated that the calculator is accurate only 65 percent of the time.

StudentAid.com, which is currently developing custom calculators for 42 colleges, evaluated 145,000 student profiles using the Net Price Calculator to see just how accurate the template was. It was soon discovered that the template left out three crucial factors when determining the price of tuition, such as assets, household size, and merit awards.

In order to be provided with an estimate, the user must answer the following questions:

• Are you applying for financial aid?
• How old are you?
• Where do you plan to live while attending this institution?
• Are you eligible for in-state/out-of-state tuition?
• Do you have any eligible dependents other than your spouse?
• Of the number of people in your family’s household, how many will be in college next year?
• What is your household income?

After answering all of the questions, the calculator provides a total estimated cost, as well as individual estimates on the cost of grant aid, tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, as well as transportation and personal expenses.

But experts are skeptical about the validities of these calculators: Lynn O’Shaughnessy, writer for The College Solution blog, states that the Net Price Calculator is “flawed” because the few questions that are asked are so “generic” that it may provide incorrect estimates. And senior policy analyst for the College Board, Sandy Baum, denounces the Net Price Calculator because of its “one-size-fits-all” template.

After trying out the calculator myself, I can see their point. How can this calculator estimate my “personal expenses” when I was only asked a mere seven questions? What if I owned a car? What if I had monthly medical bills to pay?

To avoid these inaccuracies, many colleges have installed their own calculators on their websites, however questions vary depending on the institution.  The Student Aid Calculator on the Albright College website, for instance, asks a wide variety of questions such as the academic level of the student, or whether their parents own a business or real estate.

To avoid any misconceptions, Lynn O’Shaughnessy recommends contacting a representative to find out who designed the template before using a calculator provided on a college or university website.

On August 4^th, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report which unleashed a storm of controversy surrounding recruiters at for-profit colleges. In the study, government investigators posing as students were sent to 15 randomly selected for-profit colleges and reported that they were given misleading and/or false information about program costs, quality and graduation rates.

The colleges were randomly selected according to whether they received 89 percent or more of their total revenue from federal student aid, or whether they were in a state that was listed as one of the top 10 recipients of Title IV funding.

The 15 colleges that were randomly selected are:

1. University of Phoenix (Arizona)
2. Everest College (Arizona)
3. Westech College (California)
4. Kaplan College (California)
5. Potomac College (D.C.)
6. Bennett College (D.C.)
7. Medvance Institute (Florida)
8. Kaplan College (Florida)
9. College of Office Tech (Illinois)
10. Argosy University (Illinois)
11. University of Phoenix (Pennsylvania)
12. Anthem Institute (Pennsylvania)
13. Westwood College (Texas)
14. Everest College (Texas)
15. ATI Career Training (Texas)

The low-down on for-profit colleges

The GAO report defines for-profit colleges as “institutions of post-secondary education” that are either privately owned, or owned by a public traded company.

The report also states that their net earnings tend to “benefit a shareholder or individual.” Approximately 1.8 million students have been lured to for-profit colleges because of their online courses and open admission policies. In 2009, students who were enrolled at these colleges received more than $4 billion in Pell Grants and over $20 billion in federal loans which were provided by the Department of Education.

But apparently the “scale and scope” of these colleges has changed during the past few years; originally they offered certification programs such as cosmetology and business administration, but now the report states that they have “expanded” their programs to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral level programs as well.

The report also states that students who were enrolled at for-profit colleges are more likely to “default” on their federal student loans than students from other colleges. (The average annual tuition at for-profit colleges in 2009 was approximately $14,000, while the annual tuition at community colleges was around $2,500). Because of this, students who enroll at these colleges tend to have more problems with their credit record which in turn harms their chances of applying for auto loans, mortgages and credit cards.

Undercover applicants uncover “deceptive and questionable marketing practices” at for-profit colleges

Due to Federal statutes and regulations, colleges and universities are required to provide information about their graduation rates if it is requested. However, at 13 out of the 15 randomly selected for-profit colleges, undercover applicants were given false or misleading information about the school’s graduation rates. Also, nine out of the fifteen schools did not provide their graduation rate information either in person or online, and four out of the thirteen colleges did have information on their websites, but the GAO reports that it was quite difficult to find.

One investigator pretending to be an applicant reported that recruiters from three different colleges told him to lie about his savings so he would qualify for financial aid. Another undercover applicant reported that recruiters used “high pressure marketing techniques,” by scolding the applicant after she stated that she wanted to speak to a financial aid representative before enrolling;  in another case two representatives grilled the applicant about his “commitment level” for half an hour.

“College representatives exaggerated undercover applicants’ potential salary after graduation and failed to provide clear information about the college’s program duration, costs, or graduation rate,” the report stated. “Admissions staff used other deceptive practices, such as pressuring applicants to sign a contract for enrollment before allowing them to speak to a financial advisor about program cost and financing options.” And just to make your blood boil even more, here is a list of some of the most ridiculous statements told to GAO’s undercover applicants by these for-profit college recruiters:

• Paying $14,495 for a computer-aided drafting certificate was “really low.” (The GAO reports that completing the same certificate at a nearby public college costs approximately $520).
• If you recruit other students to our school you could win an MP3 player or a gift card to a local store.
• Signing an enrollment agreement doesn’t necessarily mean that you are legally binded to the school.
• After graduation, getting a job is a “piece of cake.”
• Community colleges force students to take classes that may not be helpful for their career.
• Student loans are different than car loans because “no one will come after you if you don’t pay it.”
• Paying back student loans “should not be a concern.”

Believing that “if you build it, they will funk,” and that “funk is not an option, it’s necessary,” Bootsy Collins recently announced the creation of Funk University, the world’s first online campus for bass players.

Beginning on July 1, 2010, “ Professor Collins and the finest bassists in music will unleash an intense curriculum … for intermediate to advanced funk disciples.” First year enrollment will be limited so would-be funkmasters looking to make funk history had best inquire soon about pre-registration opportunities.

Serious funkateers are intimately familiar with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Collins who first gained notoriety as a member of the Pacemakers, the band hired to back up James Brown in 1970. The 11 months that Collins and the Pacemakers teamed with “The Godfather of Soul” yielded some of Brown’s most intense funk recordings: “Super Bad“, “Soul Power“, and “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing.”

Over the years, Collins has also teamed up with Iggy Pop, Madonna, Little Richard and Hank Williams, Jr. The funkmaster has reportedly enlisted a who’s-who of bass legends to serve as guest professors, giving clear indication that Collins means what he says:

“A groove is a terrible thing to waste.”

As the cost of college soars, it is important for students on a budget to recognize multiple job options exist with a two year degree or in some cases, minimal post-high school training. Not only are there plentiful job options, these fields offer respectable pay and in most cases, a decent benefit package.

Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Private Care Attendants

With nearly half a million new job openings expected in the next ten years, nursing aides and personal care attendants positions will be available in a variety of work settings. Aides and PCAs are asked to perform a number of tasks of varying skill levels.

Aides may be involved in preparing and serving meals, making patient beds, and changing dressings. They may also be involved in a variety of social settings including accompanying patients on trips.

Training is now offered at most vocational-technical centers. For those who have already graduated from high school, training may be obtained at local nursing care facilities and community colleges. In some cases, aides can be hired and actually learn the requisite skills on the job.

One drawback can be a schedule that can involve weekends and nights. And the pay can vary significantly depending on how much training has been obtained.

Still, pay exceeds the average for retail work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average salaries in 2008 for home health aides was $21,440; for nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants the average compensation was $24,620; and psychiatric aides was $27,260.

The other critical element to consider is the benefits accompanying such positions. Aides who are able to find work for hospitals and other health care facilities can expect paid vacation and health insurance. Those in home health may not be fortunate to find such benefits initially leading many to begin in the home health field before moving on to more lucrative options.

Of course the most important element to consider is the number of positions that will be available over the next ten years and likely beyond.

Licensed Practical Nurse

With only a minimum additional commitment to one’s education, you can consider becoming a licensed practical nurse. To obtain such certification, you will need to complete a training program that takes most students a year and pass a licensing exam.

LPNs often perform some of the same tasks as nursing aides including feeding and comforting patients, changing dressings and helping patients with personal hygiene. But because of the additional training received, LPNs play a more significant role in the patient recovery process. Tasks may include checking vital signs (blood pressure and temperature), delivering patient injections and collecting lab samples.

With the additional training, it is important to note that the average pay for LPNs is nearly double that of home care aides. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics LPNs earned an average hourly rate of $19.28 and a yearly salary of $40,110 in 2008.

Such positions also carry solid benefit packages including paid vacations, paid sick time, health insurance and access to a retirement plan. And with nearly 400,000 projected openings over the next ten years there will be many jobs available.

Registered Nurses

To become an RN or registered nurse, you must complete an approved nursing program at the diploma, associate or bachelor’s level and pass the National Council Licensure Examination. One of the key aspects to making the RN position so enticing is that you can start work without a bachelor’s degree – in fact, in many instances, your employer will actually help you with the cost of obtaining your bachelor’s degree should you decide to pursue that option.

In addition to the basic care duties associated with an LPN position, RNs may administer and analyze diagnostic tests, discuss symptoms with patients and teach them how to manage their prescribed medications.

RNs work in a variety of settings including hospitals, physician offices, home health care services and outpatient clinics. But a critical requirement for renewal of RN certification is to continue taking education courses so as to remain current on developments in the profession.

As with most health care options, RNs must be willing to work flexible hours. Such hours may include evenings and weekends, or in some cases, 12 hour shifts.

But with more than one million anticipated openings in the next ten years, job openings will be plentiful for the foreseeable future. Throw in a complete benefits package and an average reported pay by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of $66,490 (for RNs working in hospitals) and you have a very solid career option considering the level of schooling needed to enter the field.

As the college years wind down, your thoughts must begin turning to that next phase of adulthood, finding a job. While most of us shudder to think of it, obtaining meaningful employment begins with the construction of a resume.

However, creating a resume today is not all that daunting a task as every college offers a career placement center. Not only will the office be the home to employment leads, it is a place to get help with the construction of a resume and to even learn about specific interview techniques.

But before heading down to the center for help with that resume, you owe it to yourself to learn a little bit about the lingo. Essentially there are three basic types of resumes to consider: chronological, functional and targeted. Most importantly, in the world of work there are sophisticated theories about which type of resume works best for specific job openings.

Resume Types

Below we offer a brief explanation of the basic formats and a sample of the format. Each format should begin with name, address, and contact information followed by your career objective.

Chronological: A chronological resume lists the various jobs you have held. The listing is created by starting with the most recent position then working backwards through time to list the other jobs you have held.

Under each job, it is common to list the major duties performed while performing that role. A simple example:

EDUCATION:

* Handled sales transactions.
* Assisted in training new cashiers.

Etc.

With this type of resume format, the focus is on several years of relevant or noteworthy work experience. This format works extremely well when a person can show that over time the positions they have held demonstrate increasing amounts of responsibility.

Functional: The functional resume format focuses on the skills you have developed as well as your accomplishments. It is more a list of highlights and speaks to what you have done while omitting any reference as to when you developed those skills.

Again, after providing your name and address along with your career objective:

EDUCATION

* Student Government Representative, UMO Student Senate
*Resident Assistant, UMO Department of Residential Life.
* Teaching Assistant, UMO Physics and Mathematics Departments.
* Tutor, Outward Bound Program.
* Volunteer Tutor, Milford Public Schools.

etc.

Targeted: The targeted resume may actually use either of the two types of format noted above. The critical difference is that resume is written for a specific position within a company.

The major difference is that a targeted resume is customized to highlight the experience you have that is directly relevant to the job you are applying for.

As a sample, take our functional resume above, add some chronology to it, then focus on a job opening: an ad for a high school math teacher:

EDUCATION

Teaching Assistant, Physics Department, University of Maine, 1/09 – present.
Tutor, math lab, UMaine Orono (January 2008 – present).
Student Teacher, Bangor High School, Bangor, Maine (Spring 2008).
Sophomore Exploration – Leavitt Area High School, Turner Maine, May-June 2007.

Etc. You can also include a list of activities if any where directly related to the job opening.

Which Format Is Best?

While it definitely takes more time to write a targeted resume, the general consensus is it is worth the effort to do so. In fact, the days of creating one resume, then blasting it off to fifty or more companies is no longer considered good practice. Of course, the targeted format works best if you posses the qualifications and experience that match those needed for the opening.

Functional resumes are considered to be the better format for people with very little experience in a specific field. For example, if you do not have any human resource work experience but have excellent communication skills and extensive coursework in the business field you can highlight those skills in the functional format. Lastly, the functional resume generally allows more flexibility as to how you want to organize pertinent information.

That said, the chronological format is the most common one used. It works really well for those people who have practical work experience and logical periods of continuous employment. It works even better when it is organized in a format that shows demonstrated growth.

Today most resumes become some combination of the above formats. As our example notes, targeting your skills and background to a specific position can also be strengthened by applying chronological order and highlighting functional attributes.

Use Career Center

So don’t fear the creation of a resume. Now that you are armed with the basics of the format, make an appointment with the campus career center office.

But, before you have that first meeting, draft the areas you feel you want to highlight so that you have some hard copy to work with when you arrive. But be open to advice and assistance.

Your campus career counselors will have excellent expertise and they can help you decide the best format for you. Most importantly, those career counselors can be a very important source of potential job leads.

Today it is not uncommon for a college to claim it will meet 100% of a student’s financial aid needs. The result is that the “meeting 100% of need” phrase is tossed around liberally.

When a student hears such a claim, he or she must do a little digging to determine what the school is actually offering. Meeting 100% of need does not exactly mean you will be able to attend college debt-free.

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently offered a startling data table that helps clarify the issue. Sadly, the writer summarizes the table this way: “The poorer the family, the larger the unmet need for financial aid.”

In summarizing the data, The Chronicle noted that “many poorer students seek supplementary help from relatives other than parents and from private loans. In contrast, students from wealthier families enjoy, on average, a surplus of financial resources compared with need.”

To get a sense as to what that means, let’s look at families with earnings of less than $40,000 per year and examine two scenarios: application at a public four-year school and contrast it with a private four-year school.

In the first scenario, the average financial need for families totals $16,496 while the average aid package totals $11,754. That leaves the average unmet need for a family at a public four-year college at $4,742.

At private schools, for those same families with earnings of less than $40,000 per year, the unmet need averages almost twice as much, $8,417.

But the real kicker comes from the aid package itself. In most instances, schools consider federal Stafford loans as part of the aid package. In other words, the aid package is often not 100% grants and scholarships, it also includes an expected level of borrowing.

In fact, when we return to The Chronicle numbers we see the real issue. For those families earning less than $40,000 per year, the expected total student work/loan burden is over $4,000 per year making the unmet need plus student commitment a robust $8,800. For those students considering a private school, the total student work/loan burden plus unmet need is almost $15,700 per year (for a family with similar earnings).

When schools consider Stafford Loans as part of their aid package, the borrowing can be significant, especially over four years. Students must understand that these loan amounts are currently $3,500 per year for freshmen, $4,500 for sophomores, and $5,500 per year for juniors and seniors for the subsidized portions alone.

So a quick run of the numbers reveals that students could be expected to borrow as much as $19,000 through the subsidized Stafford loan process. Yet, at the same time, the school will insist that these loans guarantee meeting 100% of student financial aid needs.

In sum total, when it comes to the 100% need met, students and their families must read the fine print carefully.

Some Examples

Let us consider one of the finer state universities, the University of Michigan. It is an institution that states it “is committed to meeting the demonstrated financial need of undergraduate students who are Michigan residents.”

Though that statement is true, it is important to review the sample on their aid site. As but one example they provide, for a cost of attendance of $22,729 against an Expected Parent Contribution of $8,300, a total need for aid is listed at $14,441.

For the financial aid offer, the school lists in its hypothetical example a grant of $6,082, work study of $2,500 and loans totaling $5,859 to complete the $14,441 aid package. In such a case the school is ensuring funds are available but to complete the aid package a student would need to borrow the $5,859 in year one. Over four years, the sum borrowed would exceed $23,000.

As another example, consider Wellesley’s Enhanced Financial Aid Policy that was activated in February of 2008. The Wellesley plan goes so far as to eliminate loans for students from families with calculated incomes under $60,000. And for those families with incomes between $60,000 and $100,000, borrowing is capped at $8,600 over four years.

In other words, while Wellesley may require some borrowing, the school will not require a student from families of limited or even middle class means to max out their federal Stafford Loan borrowing each and every year. 

Another great example is the University of Richmond, a best buy among American colleges and universities. First, the school adheres to a truly need-blind admission policy. Second, the school’s claim that it will meet 100 percent of each admitted student’s demonstrated financial need results in the school capping need-based loans and work-study aid at $4,000 a year.

Yet another school, Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., provides some very specific scenarios on its financial aid site. One is most telling.

A Texas student, the eldest of three children, is from a family where the father is the sole breadwinner, earning $55,000 per year. The family has very little equity in their home and likewise limited savings.

The aid package by Williams in this situation is extraordinary. The school will provide the student with scholarships and grants totaling $37,710. It will also provide the student a work study opportunity so as to earn $1,550 over the course of the school year to be applied towards tuition and fees. The school is therefore awarding the student a serious aid package of $39,260.

And while the school claims no loans will be required, it must be noted that the cost of tuition, fees, etc., totals $43,460 per year. That means the school will expect a yearly parental and student contribution of $4,200.

At less than 10% of the cost, the aid package is truly generous. But if the family is living paycheck to paycheck because of house and car payments and everyday living costs, the $4,200 could be tough to come up with. The end result is that a family still could wind up borrowing in the long run.

Examine the Fine Print

College costs can be lumped into three distinct categories: parent and student contributions, grants and scholarships, and loans. When it comes to the idea of meeting student’s financial needs, some schools will insist on all three categories playing a significant role.

If a school insists on factoring in loans, then that borrowing should be thought of as part of the expected family and student contribution when considering an aid package. Schools that take this step may be able to say they meet 100% of a student’s financial need, but in reality it is simply arranging for the student to take on debt as part of the aid package.

Clearly, a student and his or her family must do some serious homework regarding a school’s claim that it will meet “100% of a student’s financial need.” A failure to do so could result in a significant surprise when the financial aid letter arrives.

The idea of a college major goes back more than one hundred years. With very few exceptions, the list of available options for students today mirrors the very choices available for their parents and grandparents.

The one significant exception has to be the field of technology where a number of new options exist. But while these fields offer great career options, many are so cutting edge that students may not even understand what the major entails.

Such is the case with one of today’s cutting edge options, computational science. As technology continues to evolve, many industries are now using computer simulations to help them plan for a future that is not yet known.

Computers Simulating the Physical World

While computational science is the name given to the field, students might have a better sense of the major if the term simulation developer were used instead. Simply stated, computational scientists do not study computers; they use the computer and appropriate software models as tools to advance the study of other fields.

The concept of simulation as a tool has been used for a long time in aviation. As part of their training, pilots use machinery that replicates the key elements of flying a plane. In addition to normal everyday flights, these simulators test advanced skills by presenting challenges to the pilot in the form of technical malfunctions or the effects of severe weather.

Today, high powered computers are used to simulate possible world events such as a terrorist attack. Military leaders use computational science to help develop battlefield plans and the appropriate contingencies that should be considered in specific situations.

Meteorologists use simulations to predict the path of a developing storm such as a hurricane as well as the impact of carbon emissions on a warming planet. Large corporations now train executives using simulations that offer specific business challenges that require executives to effectively use their management skills.

Properly constructed, simulation development models isolate individual factors to determine how any one factor alone or several taken collectively can affect an outcome. The results can be used to train specific professionals so that they are prepared to handle any specific problem when it arises.

Majoring in Computational Science

The key to the field’s importance is simple. Simulations create opportunities for training and allow for the testing of theories without ever putting a patient, an employee or a company at risk.

A career in computation sciences demands extensive knowledge of advanced mathematics, computer science, and simulation and modeling. Because a computational scientist creates an abstract model of the physical world then develops a computer program to mirror that world, these professionals must be able to translate abstract models to the language utilized by computers.

In addition, the particular system being modeled may require specific insight into other fields. For example, to create a weather model, simulators would need at least a rudimentary knowledge of physics and chemistry as well as an in depth understanding of the field of meteorology.

In the case of training business executives, computational scientists would likely need a background in psychology, economics, and business management principles. As for developing simulation training models for doctors, computational scientists must possess a strong background in biology, anatomy and physiology.

By the very nature of the field, students interested in simulation development also have the opportunity to be of great service to any number of important disciplines. For those interested in a technology/engineering career yet worried that their work might be of less value to society as a whole, the field of computational science represents a very rewarding career option to consider.

Over the weekend we were stunned by the conservative furor and the nasty diatribes being hurled at President Obama regarding his proposed speech to America’s school children on Tuesday. In “Beware the 8th of September–2 things to watch,” Columbia Conservative Examiner Anthony G. Martin sums up a great deal of the conservative sentiment:

“Tomorrow is being promoted as ‘keep your children home from school’ day. Various names have been used to describe the day from ‘National Truancy Day’ to ‘Hall Pass Tuesday.’ They all refer to the same thing.“

“Parents all across the United States are keeping their children out of school tomorrow to protest Barack Obama’s address to school children.

“Never before has a President given an educational address to students that is so overtly political. This highly partisan address seeks to uplift and magnify the name of Obama, encouraging kids to ‘think about ways they can serve the President.’“

Today the White House released the transcript of the president’s speech. Our read through failed to turn up the key aspects of the speech that constituted Obama’s overt efforts to turn America’s young people into socialist automatons.

We did see the message about taking responsibility for one’s education; that every one has something to offer; the suggestion that a student can aspire to any profession, whether it be a doctor, teacher, police officer, or God forbid, a senator; the clear indication that being successful is hard work: that to be someone of merit, you can’t let your failures define you; that if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country; so most importantly, don’t ever give up on yourself.

Below you will find the speech. And with it you can assess for yourself if the uproar is, as Shakespeare said so eloquently, “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song.

You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

It is important that students of all ages recognize the online learning model has been growing in stature with each passing year. Using a delivery style that allows students the utmost in flexibility, online learning has become the choice for most working adults, whether they are seeking their first degree or to upgrade their skills.

However, once upon a time, the general consensus was that online education might be convenient and worthy, but it would not be anyone’s first choice for a learning model. Ultimately, the belief was the flexibility you gained meant you had to give up the ideal learning environment, the traditional college setting where peers physically gathered in a room with the professor.

With the release of a new report, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning, those standard thoughts must be reconsidered. It seems the data now indicates that online learning may be the better educational option.

The basis for the conclusion was formed by doing quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for identical courses. The Department of Education found that students doing some or all of the course online ranked in the 59th percentile in tested performance while the average classroom student scored in the 50th percentile.

While discussing the summary, the NY Times offered this telltale quote from the study’s lead author, Barbara Means:

“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction.”

Indeed with the arrival of Web-based video, the use of instant messaging and other message boards as collaboration tools, online education has moved beyond the basic correspondence course of yesteryear. Ultimately, as the Times reinforces, the future of online is extremely bright because of its ability to provide “learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms.”

But what has made the online environment take off has been the ability to connect learners through social networking platforms. While learning is ultimately a personal activity, experts agree the most meaningful learning occurs within a community.

Given its convenience and flexibility, online learning is clearly here to stay. In fact, given the online model offers improved student outcomes, it is easy to think that online education could soon replace the traditional model in the not so distant future.

With the networking platforms now available, a learning community is now present in all high caliber online courses. Therefore, the model represents a very viable educational format, one that traditional students now must consider as they pursue their college choice.