With the thousands of applications colleges receive each year, it is very unlikely that you will be granted a personal interview to best present yourself. While trying to win a spot in the school of your dreams, your College Admission Essay could be the one vital factor that may conclude your application package. Though your GPA and SAT are not that easy for just anyone to obtain, keep in mind that other applicant’s grades and test scores can be just as impressive as yours, or even better. These scores still count, indeed, and will keep you in the running. However, your essay can be where you either earn yourself a spot or earn yourself a rejection letter.

Now beating the competition and leaving a lasting impression on someone who reads hundreds essays a day can be a huge challenge. With just limited amount of words to do all this, you have to get your point across and show the admission advisor that you are different than everyone else. Here is where these helpful tips come into play:

As getting started is mostly the hardest part, consider the following in developing your ideas:

Brainstorm. Note that the most important part of your essay is the subject matter, thus, should be considered carefully. While you need not necessarily spend weeks to find ideas for your essay, do not simply jump into the first thing that crosses your mind just because it’s the most comfortable thing to write about. While not ruling out anything at this stage, brainstorming will actually help you find a subject you had not considered at first.

Get Help from family and friends. If you find it difficult to characterize yourself and identify your personality traits, you would be surprised with what you’ll hear when you solicit friends and family for opinions on you. Try to find out why they identify you with such traits, and you’ll see how an image of your personality will begin to emerge.

Consider a Motivating Factor. Think of an experience that inspired the interests you have today and incorporate this in your planned essay. If you aspire to become like someone you admire, you may want to include in your essay a discussion of that model and the traits you admire in him.

Learn from Others’ Works – Reading sample admissions essays can be a great way for you to learn on what topics other applicants chose and how they presented their selected subject. As not all the essays you will find are good, it will give you an idea which approaches have little effect, results to negative impression (and should be avoided) and which ones are inviting.

Recognize your Goals – Ask yourself: How will the degree you are trying to earn help in the fulfillment of your goals? Here, it is important to think broadly. Would you be satisfied with just a career? How else will your education fit your needs and lead you to a fulfilling life? Once you recognize your goals completely, you will be able to talk about them in your essay more fluidly.

In finally selecting your topic, be certain about what impression you want to make on the admission officers. Note that even seemingly boring topics can be made exceptional with an innovative approach. Just bear in mind that you must persuade the admission officers on being truly worthy of admission and you must make them aware that you are more than what your scores suggest – you are a real-life, intriguing and a promising personality. Though there is no surefire method to writing the perfect essay, the following tips can come in really handy:

Spend Time on Your Introduction – The admission officer usually spends 1-2 minutes reading your essay. Presenting your introduction in a way that the reader would want to finish the rest of your essay takes you closer to sending all your messages across. If you summarize your entire essay in the introduction itself, they need not go through the rest of what you put in there. You may not even need to give away the subject matter in the first line. Creating a little mystery, perhaps intrigue, raises questions in the mind of the admission officer which forces them to read on.

Focus on Personal Qualities – Though you would normally talk about important experiences in your life, never forget to center the most relevant points of your essay on your own personal qualities. If you would speak of past unfortunate events and only whine about it, you would turn to be remembered as the pathetic applicant. If you use these bad experiences to highlight your own positive characteristics, the admission officer will see you as the applicant who showed impressive qualities under difficult circumstances.

Be Careful with First Impressions – While honestly matters, don’t mention weaknesses unless you absolutely need to explain them away. Remember that you want to make a positive first impression. Keep away from subjects on drinking, drugs, and anything that undermines your goal. Besides, why talk of your weaknesses when you’re supposed to showcase your strengths? As far as honesty goes, you may find yourself tempted to invent hardships in an attempt to portray how you stood up beyond all the challenges. That is completely unnecessary.

Be Yourself – Admission officers want to learn about you being the point of interest in your essay. Don’t force to talk on grand themes and issues you have little personal experience with. Write about something more meaningful and describing your thoughts and feelings on it better appeals to the emotions of the admission officers, allowing them relate to your subject matter.

Keep the Balance – When writing about your accomplishments, don’t get too carried away and end up bragging. Temper that pride on your achievements then balance it with humility and generosity towards others.

Don’t Forget Mechanics – Excessive grammatical errors, poor use of punctuation, and misspellings can get very distracting and may hurt your chance of being accepted. Even the slightest error can be a strike against you as these are indications of lack of quality, and perhaps, lack of interest. If English isn’t your greatest strength, there’s nothing wrong with seeking help. Ask a trusted friend or a person with editorial skills to go over the essay with you.

Be consistent – Your essay’s body paragraphs must follow and relate to your introduction. And to preserve the logical flow of your essay, carefully transition one paragraph to the next. Remember that transition is not limited to phrases like as a result, in addition, while, since, etc. but can also be done by repeating key words and progressing the idea.

Remember that Conclusions are Crucial - The conclusion is your last chance to persuade the admission officer, so you need to make those words and thoughts count. In trying to leave a lasting impression, however, many stumble on a few common mistakes which make them lose that chance to win the approval of the reader altogether. Keeping in mind the DONTs better keeps you on track as you put together your conclusion. Though you would remain connected to your introduction and subject, remember that your conclusion should not be just a reworded introduction, or worse, a summary of your entire essay using entirely different words. Another common blunder others make in efforts to avoid repetition is introducing a completely new idea in the conclusion. Leave the sudden brainstorm for an entirely different essay. As you conclude the one you’ve just written, stay on topic.

Try to end your essay on a positive note. Think of the conclusion as where you can butter up the admission officers just a bit without being cheesy. Express how you would love to get an education at a campus that is meant for you, how you feel about their university and why. Conclude with your eagerness to hear from them and have your dreams to be in the course of study you are applying for. That way, you stay focused on your essay objective.

So, you’ve finally completed your essay. But your job isn’t really over yet. Even the best writers need to proof-read their work several times before saying they are sure about it. Below are a few more things you might need to do to get you closer to that college entrance.

Revise, Revise, Revise. As you are only allowed a certain number of words, use them wisely. Always remember to stay within the subject matter, thus, remove anything in the essay that does not relate to your main argument. On the process of tweaking some lines, you may even have to allow room for evolving your main topic. Make sure you adhere to the word limit. If your essay runs a little short, don’t feel obligated to fill the extra space.

Proofread your work. Make sure you find every single grammatical error and don’t rely on your computer’s spell check tool alone. Though some software programs make grammatical changes for you, you still need to read through and make sure your intended meaning is coming across.

Ask for Opinion. Have other people read your essay but choose those whom you can trust to give an honest, critical opinion. Not all people are that comfortable with criticizing others’ work. People who tell you your essay is “great” even when it isn’t, so not to offend you, are doing you more harm than if they told you about every little error you made. Sparing your feelings isn’t going to help your application at all. It may sound silly, but you may have to ask them to really be critical (and even mean).

Remember not to skimp on time when writing your essay. Spend whatever allowable number of hours you can set aside to show your skills at their best. However, view your essay as an opportunity rather than a chore. And whatever you do, don’t let the essay stress you out. Be in your best as you begin on it until the end. You have no idea how your mood can ruin your essay, and your chance for admission. College admissions officers read piles of poorly written essays every year. Don’t let your application get buried in the heap.

Must be very frustrating looking for employment options but keeps getting slapped in the face with ‘Degree Required’? Let’s face it. College graduates are employed at much higher rates than non-degree holders. In fact, actual statistics show:

The overall unemployment rates are hovering around 10 percent (last reported by US Bureau of Labor Statistics at 9.8% on November 2010). From these figures, only 4.5 percent of college graduates are unemployed.

With that, you don’t need to be an economist to conclude that completing some form of higher education is the best insurance against unemployment.

Online courses have been around for nearly two decades, but enrollment has soared dramatically only in the recent years as universities become way too expensive. More than 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term, that’s close to 1 million increase versus the reported figures in 2008.

Virtual learning indeed began taking the internet and campuses by storm in the past few years. You now have a choice between the traditional mode of learning and learning within the comforts of your home. Like many things in life, taking college courses online can have both advantages and disadvantages.

The Rewards:

Learning Can be Done Anywhere

Online degree programs allow you to learn from home or practically in any place that has internet access. Talk of convenience and the tons of time saved. You can practically watch and listen to lectures, do homework, write papers, communicate with your instructors and classmates and even take your exams without all the traditional rituals.

Cut Huge Costs

With the ability to study from home, you can take out your carpool budget or bus fare expenses from your list. With prices of almost anything now soaring beyond control, learning materials that can be downloaded for free or at a very low cost is definitely a better option if your want to hold on to your cash. Comparatively, fees for online degree programs are also lower compared to campus degree courses.

Earn More than One Degree at the Same Time

If you are good in managing your time, you can even earn more than one degree. This puts you on a better position as far as career advancement or job promotion goes.

Be in Touch with Technology

Being able to understand the functions and advantages of technology tools might be the leading edge you could need to advance your position, or get a job in the first place. Virtual education can reach students who are not that too acquainted with these types of technology, allowing you to possibly add a new skill set to the resume you are building. Read the rest of this entry »

Majority of the work force first steps into the world of employment with an associate degree. And with busy working life and personal commitments alongside, they often find themselves stuck on the same cubicle where they started out some years back and with the same paycheck while some of their colleagues have moved into an office of their own, working on wide desks, and now driving the best company car.

Although many jobs require only an associate degree to begin, everyone well knows that a bachelor or masters degree can give you the competitive edge to work your way up to supervisor or management level. But going back to school, especially if you have been gone for quite a while, can bring a lot of hesitations and apprehensions. With your age, hectic work schedule (and even your personal relationships to deal with), you do not have that much time (anymore) to sit down in a classroom and study. Others even have ‘extra’ commitments like a second job to pay off credit debts, or taking care of some family or ill parents.

On the process of trying to get a better degree, you will also be faced with the difficulty of leaving your current position — which means losing your regular source of income. Now nobody would want that especially at this time. But if you really have been considering pursuing your education and better compete in work, why not take advantage of getting an online degree? Decades back, the idea may not be as attractive as it is now, but with the economy in a mess and more working adults now returning to school, the idea of studying online really does have some merit.

In the modern age of technology where almost everything you need is online – you can now say sayonara to good ol’ days of reading and consulting bulky books and oversized encyclopedias for information. Today, the internet can answer most, if not all of our research needs – and now- even your advanced degree requirement.

Here is why Virtual Education is best for anyone with an existing career:

Zero Travel Time

Because you can participate in the course without having to be physically present in a classroom, you can save a great deal of time (and travel-related expenses) apart from the physical effort of getting form one place to another. You can quit worrying about dropping off your kid to the nanny and drive like a madman to grab at least a decent parking space. With a few and simple clicks of the mouse (and with a nice cup of coffee on the side), you are already in class!

You Get to Save Big-Time

Perhaps the best benefit to getting a degree online is the cost. Aside from the lower tuition fee itself, gas prices are going nowhere but up. Saving your car from the general wear and tear is already a huge thing. Getting your degree online is way cheaper than traditional learning. The costs to rent an apartment or dorm room close to school are simply nuts. And definitely, downloading course materials is way easier to do than digging for over a thousand bucks from your pocket to pay for your entire year’s textbook.

You Get to Go on With Life

Working adults cannot drop what they are doing to get that degree they need to advance their careers. Read the rest of this entry »

We devote a lot of our time on applicant.com defending the integrity of online education, and for good reason. But there are some courses available online that make our job a bit more difficult. To some, these classes might be indispensable fonts of practical wisdom, but to the mainstream they seem more like the online version of underwater basket weaving. And just for fun, we threw in one completely fictional online course, you’ll have to follow the links to find out for sure (click on sub titles to visit the link). Read the rest of this entry »

Online education can be a more affordable option than traditional universities, but it’s not free. Assuming your online degree will be easy to pay for is a sure road to discouragement. But you also shouldn’t assume you can’t pay for it, there is financial assistance out there. We’ve highlighted 15 scholarships, grants, and resources aimed at funding your success story via online education. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a reason why there are laws against basing hiring decisions on factors like age, religion, race, gender, and sexual orientation: if there were no such laws, many hiring managers would use those factors all the time. Hiring for full-time employment is an exercise in prejudice, some of it inexcusable, and some of it necessary.

Think about it: job applicants submit their resumes, which answer the essential questions about qualifications. Hiring managers then must rely on incredibly short interviews to make long-term decisions. They use certain prejudices (pre-judging criteria) to narrow down the field. They read into an applicant’s body language to tell them if he’s dishonest. They look at her clothes to see if she fits in with the corporate culture. More often than they admit, people do make hiring decisions based on age, gender, or race. That’s an outrage, and it needs to stop because it’s based on faulty stereotypes, not on fact. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things about being unemployed is you’ve got time. You can either be stupid about it and waste it buying beer and watching TV with whatever is left in your bank account, or you can utilize that time in finding work and diversifying your career options. Many job seekers who are out of jobs fail to realize that there are more possibility in changing your career than there was a couple years ago. Online education has become the next big thing among people who are too busy to go to school, older people, people wanting to expand their education and above all people who are out of jobs. It sure is a win win situation and the cost of an online education is considerably less as compared to attending school in traditional ways. Think of travel time, gas money and other expenses. If you are thinking of changing your career give online education a try.

Below you will find a list of some of the best online schools where you can get an online degree from home. We’ve also included a description and the degrees and programs they provide from their page. Be sure to visit the school of your choice and check out what they have to offer. The degrees mentioned here are only a glimpse and there is a lot more under each online degree. We hope this list provides you with some option in pursuing an online education. Read the rest of this entry »