Tag: college

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Education

3 Ways to Pay for College Without Parents

Keira Burton Pexels

Not everyone has a strong relationship with their parents or even any family they can turn to for help with college tuition. Perhaps your parents have told you they won’t contribute financially, so you have to find out how to pay for your degree yourself. Paying for college on your own is a massive undertaking, but it is possible. 

Student Loans/Tuition

There are both government-backed and private student loan options. Federal loans are issued through the U.S. Department of Education, but private loans can come from banks and other lending institutions. Private student loans offer greater flexibility, and they can help you cover your education bills as well as budget more efficiently after graduation. You should carefully research federal vs. private student loans before you commit to any. Everyone’s financial situation and prospects are different, so you should plan ahead and choose the option that works best for you.

Scholarships and Grants

Government and private scholarships, as well as grants, are available for students who qualify. Many organizations and even colleges offer merit-based scholarships for students who can demonstrate financial need. You can also qualify for funding if you are in the military, have a child, or meet other standards. You can browse a scholarship directory to find different award opportunities based on your own talents and needs. You should also talk to your school’s financial aid office to ask about different scholarship opportunities. They may know of some that you don’t find on your own.

Work-Study Programs

Most colleges and universities offer work-study programs that employ actively enrolled students and allow them to allocate a portion of their pay toward their tuition. While you may not earn enough to fully cover the cost of your degree, this is an excellent way to offset the cost of how much you have to borrow and ultimately graduate with less student loan debt. If you plan on working part-time in school, you can also look for jobs that offer tuition reimbursement benefits. If you decide to pursue a traditionally demanding career like one in the legal or medical field, these work-study programs can also help you learn important life skills like how to balance responsibility and fun. A work-study might not be one of the most common tips to help you survive nursing school but look at what is not obvious and revel in the benefits that exist under the surface. 

 

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Education Featured

10 Easy yet Effective Ways to Polish Essay Writing Skills in a Week

10 Easy yet Effective Ways to Polish Essay Writing Skills in a Week
Essay

Unfortunately, college students have to do a lot of writing. This is a major part of all college courses. Students are graded based on their essay writing abilities, which can play a role in their final grade in the course.

Not all students are skilled in the area of writing. Some are naturally better at solving math problems or testing science experiments. This leaves some students in a tricky spot. If you can’t write a strong essay, your grade will be affected negatively.

According to this study, how well you write can even influence your future jobs. In many career fields, you need to be able to write and communicate effectively. If you can write well, you will likely advance in the workplace. If not, you may be held back while others move ahead. Writing well is necessary for college and in your career too, so you need to find ways to improve your skills.

If you aren’t a strong writer, it’s important that you work on your writing skills. You can’t spend a lot of time polishing your writing skills because you likely have more essays to write. Luckily, there are some quick and easy ways that you can improve your writing abilities.

Here are a few of the most effective ways that you can improve your essay writing abilities and become a better student:

  • Write for fun. One of the easiest ways to become a better writer is to try writing in your free time. This can be in a journal or on a blog. By doing this, you will become more familiar with writing. If you learn to enjoy writing, you will likely put more time and effort into it. This will then help you to become a better writer.

 

  • Use custom essay writing services. Many students are aware of academic writing services available online. These essay writing services give students access to professionally written papers. You can look at these essays to learn more about writing and how to write well. You might notice patterns in the professional papers that you can mimic in your own writing.

 

  • Read scientific papers. Many of your college papers will involve scientific papers or research studies. By reading these, you will become more familiar with how they are formatted and the type of information that they contain. They can also help you to write well because you will be getting used to the language.

 

  • Read for pleasure. Many students neglect reading for pleasure because they are swamped with homework and assigned readings. If possible, try to read for fun for five or 10 minutes per day. Becoming familiar with books can show you the new vocabulary and grammatical structure to use in your own writing. Again, this will help you when it’s time to conduct research for your essay. By reading regularly, you might end up liking reading more. This will then help you when it’s time to read for academic purposes.

 

  • Take advantage of a writing center. At many colleges, students can visit a writing center. At these writing centers, students can share their papers and have them edited by other students. The students who work at writing centers are usually English majors or have extensive writing knowledge. Some writing centers have online services so that you don’t have to stop by in person.

 

  • Meet with a professor. You can meet with one of your professors to ask for help with your writing. They might have ideas and tips to help you to get on the right path. For a lot of professors, putting forth the effort to get help goes a long way. Your professor will understand that you are attempting to improve your writing and may assist you further.

 

  • Watch YouTube videos. As you know, there are YouTube videos for nearly anything. One of these things includes writing videos. A simple search for “how to become a better writer” will give you access to countless videos. Here are a few to get you started.

 

  • Attend webinars on writing. Webinars are similar to YouTube videos, but they have more lesson-based approaches. Some universities offer writing webinars online. Some webinars are archived on websites so that you can go back and watch them at any time. Here are a few websites that offer webinars.

 

  • Take an online writing course. There are lots of websites where you can take free or very affordable courses. On each of these websites, you can find courses for all skill levels and for a variety of topics.

 

  • Listen to podcasts. You can find podcasts to listen to via Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, and other apps. Writer’s digest has podcasts about writing that you can find here. To listen to others, search for “writing podcasts” wherever you get your podcasts from. You can find time to listen to podcasts while driving, walking, or just hanging out!

Learning how to become a stronger essay writer doesn’t have to be complicated and intense. Select a few of these methods and give them a try for a week. You may have to experiment to see what works best for you, your lifestyle, and your writing skills. Be sure to explore the options available at your own universities, such as writing centers or webinars!

Categories
Events

DOC NYC Festival Showcases Even More Events and Films

This year’s DOC NYC Festival has been upgraded to include more student-oriented programming in its mission to celebrate and promote documentary filmmaking.

The major student-focused event introduced this year is the DOC Showcases, where films from students at different universities and colleges across New York City are previewed to take a peek into up-and-coming voices in documentary film.

“This is something we want to do every year now,” said Basil Tsiokos, the director of programming, “The idea is, we’re in New York City, there’s great documentary filmmaking programs at various colleges, universities, in the area, and we recognize that a lot of this work is ready to go.”

Tsiokos added that the showcases are a good way for the organization to show its support of rising filmmakers.

“We want to support emerging voices,” he said, “and these showcases that we’re doing are a way to give audiences a way to look at the new generation of filmmakers.”

While students usually submit to the documentary film festival regardless, the showcases are a way to directly support school programs that are geared towards film.

“We worked in partnership with the schools to have them help sort of determine which films can be shown at this point within the showcases,” said Tsiokos in regards to how their connection with New York City colleges has changed this year, “I think we’ll probably continue that in the future, but we certainly have included and continue to include shorts that have been made by students in our normal shorts program as well.”

The festival has also revamped the set of panels aimed at filmmakers. What used to be called ‘Docathon’ is now NYC Pro, a collection of events aimed to educate everyone from the beginner to the expert filmmaker on how to improve.

“We try to provide advice through different experts, filmmakers and other folks there,” said Tsiokos, “If something wasn’t necessarily smooth, that’s great because it’s a learning opportunity.”

Tsiokos noted that DOC NYC’s growth has allowed the festival to accommodate more films and adapt to new interests in film subjects. According to Tsiokos, the film festival now features over 100 feature documentaries and approximately 70 shorts—that, in addition to the panels and other programming, has grown the festival to a collection of 200 events. The growth means more voices can be heard, which creates new themes for both audiences and filmmakers to explore.

“It can seem overwhelming,” said Tsiokos, “but I think if people do look at the thematic sections it allows different films to stand out a little bit so that its not all about just the competition films, not just about the music films. If someone wants to sample a food documentary or sample an animal documentary, there are really great films in those sections that deserve attention.”

The film festival will run until November 19 at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village and Bow Tie Cinemas in Chelsea. For more information on ticketing and events, click here.

-by Kari Sonde