Why a Higher Tuition May Not Equal a Better Education

Whether you're the parent of a child who is shopping for colleges or an adult returning to school, it's important to understand what you'll be paying for. There's a notion that the more expensive a college, the better the education. Unfortunately, many people find out that this isn't always the case only after they've spent tens-of-thousands of dollars for a semester. Here's why a higher tuition may not equal a better education:

1. Debt vs. Degree 

In 2010, close to two-thirds of college undergrads borrowed money for their education. Student-loan debt has jumped ahead of credit card debt. If you or your child has to take out loans to pay for an Ivy League education, think twice about just how important Harvard and Yale really are to your family. First loan payments are due six months after the last class is completed. Without a high-paying job, paying back the loans that got you through Stanford can be crippling.

2. Teaching Assistants Aren't Worth the Tuition 

Consider the fact that professors at Ivy League schools and research universities are more interested in getting published than teaching class. While a professor may hold lectures for hundreds of students at a time and then foist the class off on a TA or an undergrad. Don't assume that classes at these universities are taught by star professors; you'll be sadly disappointed.

 3. You're Paying for Offices   

 Colleges across the nation have doubled the number of administrators that they once had. Instead of looking at professor-to-student ratios, look for administrator-to-student numbers. Tuition at expensive universities tends to go to running the offices of student nutrition directors, communications coordinators and other superfluous departments. What does that mean to you? It means that you aren't paying big money for an education but for unnecessary offices filled with unnecessary staff.

4. Success Is Not Guaranteed

There's no doubt that some employers will hire a Harvard grad before they employ an alumnus of the state's public college. That said, a class of 1,000 students will only feature a handful of recognizable names 20 years from now. Having the name of an Ivy League school adorning your degree does not guarantee success; hard work and perseverance does. An employer is far more likely to hire you for your skill set and knowledge than for the name of the school you attended.

5. Honors Programs are Available 

Many public colleges and universities have honors programs. These programs are more intimate, and often more beneficial, than the general programs available at elite schools. Students in honor school are given first chance of scheduling and are able to take classes specially designed for them. Before you enroll in an Ivy League school, look to see if there are honors programs that are more cost-effective.

Higher tuition don't always mean better education. Before you decide to spend hundreds-of-thousands at Harvard, Yale or Brown, ask yourself why. If you think that a fancy name on your degree is going to guarantee a successful career and a high salary, think again.

An EASY trick that has increased my productivity by 1000%

Yeah, so I'll admit it. I'm one of those people that gets unfocused very, very, very easily. My whole first two years was nothing but bouncing around from one great idea to another, always learning something new, but never finishing any of them and never making more than chump change on the results.

After a lot of time spent and wasted... and a lot of situations where I got really angry at myself... I forced myself to find something, anything that got me to just focus on one thing and finish it before going to something else.

That's when I read a small book called "Getting It Done". (I forget the name of the author, but it's google-able, it's a pretty famous book). The book is not the point of this post... but rather a single concept that I got from it that changed my mindset about my work forever.

That concept is the following: Every open loop inside your mind creates a brain-suck that drains your energy and your creativity.

What does it mean? It means every idea that you have that hasn't been properly dealt with, will stay inside your mind, and your own mind will try to remind you of it at every possible second so as not to let it go to waste. These constant little "reminders" are a never-ending investment of mental energy that might not seem to add up, but they do, and FAST.

This is why, even when you promise yourself that "THIS time it's going to be different", this time you won't get distracted... you suddenly get another idea, and you try to put it away for later, but you don't, and it keeps popping up again and again until it becomes so loud that you just have to act on it and forget about the previous one! This used to happen to me every single day.

How do you deal with this? The answer is really simple. You need to record and file away this idea in a way that you trust yourself to get back to later. Once you subconscious mind trusts the fact that the idea has been recorded properly, the it will shut down the "open loop" and free up that mindspace and mental energy for you to continue and finish whatever it is that you want.

So here's what you do: You make yourself an "subconscious inbox".

You take an old shoebox, a pack of 3x5 index cards and a pen and place them right next to your keyboard. You begin your work of the day, whatever it is. And, here's the crucial part: Whenever you have a thought, idea, possibility, reminder or anything that isn't directly related to your work at hand, you take five seconds to scribble it down on an index card, toss the index card in the shoebox, and immediately continue working. This has the effect of showing your subconcious mind that you respect it and that you are acting on its input, and that the idea will get due consideration. But later. Not now.

Now, the other trick is to actually get to the ideas in the shoebox at the end of the day. When you finish work, for every card in the shoebox, you do the following: read it, consider it, and either toss it out, or decide on an actionable step that you can take. Then you put that actionable step on a list: either As Soon As Possible, Later, or Some Day. Then you throw the index card away, and do this until the shoebox is empty every day.

If you do this simple thing every day, what will happen is that your subconscious mind will begin to trust you. It will stop being flighty and intruding upon your work time and your focus and your productivity will increase exponentially as time passes. You will have what is called "a mind like still water"... a mind that is clear of distractions and serene, ready to deal with and affect the world around it.

Don't believe me? Try it... I've been seeing the results of this for years. I actually have my "inbox" right next to me right now and have actually put two cards into it as I write this post! So... hope this helps some of you out there, that have flighty and restless minds like mine, to get them under control a little bit!

Different Games That Can Help You Improve Your Memory

There are many people out there today who have a bad memory but something that they never give much thought too is that they can improve their memory by playing games. Of course we're not talking about the traditional kinds of games that you can end up playing in arcades or on your home gaming system, but specific games designed to help with memory. In this article we're going to be discussing some of the different games you can end up playing that will help your memory, and also where you can find these games online.

The first game I would like to talk about is a game called Pattern II, and it is a great game for helping you improve your memory. When you first begin playing this game you're going to see a Tic-Tac-Toe style game board, and they're going to be placing colored blocks in the squares. They are only going to show you the pattern for about one second, at which point they clear the board and you need to recreate the pattern with the colored blocks. The game itself starts off rather easily, only placing three colored blocks on the game board, but the game gets progressively harder as they add new colors and more blocks that need to be filled.

The next game that can actually help you end up boosting your memory is a game called Path Memory. The way this game starts is that they put three houses on a screen and they create a path going from one house to the other, and then you recreate the path. The first one or two levels of this game are rather simple because there are only three and four houses in these first two levels. But, as the game progresses they keep adding house after house, making the game much more difficult as you go along.

Another game which is similar to the old Simon game that you may have played is called Five UFOs. In this game there are going to be five different colored UFOs, and they're going to light up, and you simply need to repeat the pattern in the same order. But, unlike the old Simon game, this does not simply add a new color at each level, instead each new level creates a new pattern you need to follow. This is something that actually makes this game much more difficult than the previous two that we have mentioned above.

Not only can these games end up helping people that are younger improve their memory, but they will be very beneficial for older people who are starting to have memory slips. For those of you wondering where you can actually play these gains you're going to find that they are available for free at improvememory.org. You're also going to find that they have a lot of other memory games available that you can play for free, and the variety of games should help you from getting bored.

Coping With Adversity - An Important Leadership Skill

If you are successful in business or in your career as a manager, there will be times where you are faced with difficult situations and how you cope with these can define you as a leader. The types of adversity you face can come in many forms and they could involve problems with staff or outside situations that impact your business. If you can stay strong in these moments, you can grow as a person and learn from the experience. In this article we will look at some of the ways you can cope with setbacks in your business or career and how you can use it to help you in the future.

It is always important to accept responsibility and ownership of problems that directly impact you or your business. If you start to place blame elsewhere, this can be counter productive and won't help you to find solutions. This is not to say that you do not make others aware of their responsibilities but you do need to find a way forward. This can include training where necessary or changing processes so that you can avoid similar problems in the future. If you focus on solutions rather than problems you have a far greater chance of overcoming any setbacks you encounter.

There are of course situations that will occur that are completely outside of your control such as a big change in the marketplace or poor economic conditions. This can mean that you need to make some tough decisions that will help you survive in a new environment, so at times like these you need to show strength of character and you should not fall into the trap of avoiding what may be inevitable. The faster you take action to address a challenge the far more likely you are to move forward and adapt to changes. A key aspect to coping with adversity is how flexible you are in changing your approach and aligning yourself with new market conditions.

It is important not to dwell on things that go wrong and you should instead see this as a challenge and something you can learn from in the future. If you can stay calm in troubled times, you will have more clarity in what needs to be done and how you are going to achieve it. This means you should be able to handle high levels of stress which can impact on your health and performance if you allow it to. There are many cases in both business and other areas such as sport where very stressful situations have led successful people to higher levels of performance and you want to see this as a goal for yourself. In addition, if you are strong in these situations, it will help those that look to you for leadership to also remain calm.

In business and in managerial positions, you will always meet with adversity from time to time. If you can handle these situations with the right attitude, it can help you to be more successful in the future.

Can Step Up And Speak Make You A Great Public Speaker

One of the most powerful skills you can possess in life and in your career is the ability to speak confidently in front of a group of people. This is particularly true for business leaders and managers who need to project themselves as strong leaders and if you aspire to reach the top in your career then confident public speaking will help you. It may be that you know that being able to make great presentations can help you to succeed but you find that fear is holding you back. If this is the case for you then you are not alone as there are plenty of people at all levels of business that seem to struggle when making any kind of group presentation or speech. It is with this in mind that Dale Mercer, who is a professional speaker, released his Step Up And Speak system.

If you want to learn how to be a confident public speaker it does make sense to learn from an expert and when you see the details of the course, you do get a chance to see him in action before you decide to buy. This demonstrates that he does have the skills to teach you to become a great speaker yourself as you see him actually making a presentation. The program is now available as a digital course that is a mixture of audio and video and very much presented in a step by step way so that you can get started even if you have no experience in speaking in public.

The Step Up And Speak training is really broken up into two sections with the first part concentrating on how you need to prepare for making a speech or presentation. There are five sessions in this first section which look at the qualities of great speakers and what you need to do to mentally prepare. It includes a video lesson that shows you how you can keep the attention of your audience which is important as you can probably think of times yourself when you lost interest in a presentation you were listening to. It is often the case that you are captivated by speakers who use stories and powerful words in their talks and these concepts are covered in the next two sessions.

The second part of the training focuses on actual speaking techniques and is divided into six sessions. The way you project yourself and how you use your voice together with utilizing the power of emotion is covered in the first two lessons. This is where you really start to learn how you can influence an audience and captivate them in a way where they want to listen to what you have to say. A video lesson follows on from this which looks at gestures and the right way to use these so that you are adding more meaning to what you are saying. It is quite a well known fact that repetition will implant ideas into a person's mind and Dale covers how you can use this in your presentations. The final part of the training looks at how you can speak with little or no notes and how you should practice so that you can make really confident presentations.

The Step Up And Speak system is a well structured course that can help you to become a confident public speaker.

Some Simple Things You Can Do To Improve Your Memory

Many people want to have a better memory and you're going to find that there are very simple things you can do in order to accomplish this. Many people feel that their mind just can't retain the information that they learn, but you must understand your brain is like a muscle and it must be exercised in order for it to work properly. In this article we're actually going to be talking about some of the things that just about anyone can do in order to boost their brainpower and their memory.

One of the first things you must realize is that getting the proper nutrition is going to be very important to allow your brain to function properly. You should understand that there are certain foods which contain vitamins and minerals that can actually help you boost your brain power. While we're not going to be going over these foods or vitamins that you can use you can simply do a search on the internet to find out which of these foods are best for your memory.

Something else you must understand is that your body needs to be getting the proper amount of rest each and every day to allow your brain time to rest. When you are sleeping your mind has a chance to not only recover from the daily activities but also store everything that you've learned that day. This is actually one of the reasons people end up having strange dreams because your mind is trying to process all of this information and store it. Of course if you're mind does not find the time to rest and store this information there's a good chance that it will end up being forgotten.

Another great technique for improving your memory is to use different breathing techniques as this will end up providing your brain with more oxygen. As I'm sure you know your brain runs on oxygen just like the rest of your body, and when you can provide your brain with more oxygen it will have the ability to function better. You're also going to find that the opposite is also true, if your brain is lacking oxygen, you'll find that you may end up being very forgetful and may even end up light headed.

Something else you're going to find is that by doing crossword puzzles or other types of puzzles that make you think you're going to be exercising your brain. By making your brain work harder than it normally does by doing a crossword puzzle, you'll find in time that your brain becomes stronger providing you with a better memory.

These are only a few of the techniques that you'll actually be able to use in order to boost your memory but you'll be able to find a lot more if you do a little research. Of course the first step is to start with the suggestions above as these will definitely help.

Knowing More About Speed Reading

When it comes to speed reading you're going to find that many people actually have no idea what this actually is and what is involved in learning how to do it. The first thing you should understand about speed-reading is the fact that it is simply a language skill just like many other language skills you come across. You should also understand that you do not have to be a genius with a high IQ in order to learn these skills and learn how to read faster. In this article we're going to be taking a deeper look at this skill and explain some of the things that are involved in it.

One of the first things you should understand about speed-reading is that it is not just about how fast you can read but is also about comprehension of what you read. You must understand that even if you can read a page in 10 seconds, unless you understand what you just read it was like you did not read it at all. So one of the most important things about reading fast is actually being able to comprehend what you are reading to begin with.

Just like any other skill that people can pick up you're going to find that this is something that is going to take practice in order to master. Something I should point out about this is once you actually get a good grasp of speed-reading you may actually have the ability to just glance at a sentence and comprehend the entire thing. You're also going to find that there are many different types of drills in order to prepare you for speed-reading, and you can find these drills in books or on the internet.

One of the main things you're going to find out about speed-reading is that it is very important not to move your lips when you are reading as this slows down your process. The reason for this is because when you're using your lips, imitating that your reading out loud, this actually ends up slowing down the reading process. In order to be able to read fast you're going to find that you need to read in your mind, simply because your mind can work much faster than your mouth.

As we mentioned before, learning this skill is going to end up taking a lot of practice and you may find that it could take you quite a long time to master this skill. Some people may have the ability to get through a page in 30 seconds while others will still end up taking 2 minutes or so, it all depends on their skill level. One thing will be true no matter who you are and that is the more practice you put into it the faster you will be able to read and comprehend what you have already read.