Scholarships for Online Students

Just like traditional students, online students hunt for valuable scholarships to avoid the unpleasant, huge student loan debt.

Fortunately, students enrolled in properly accredited distance learning programs have essentially the same eligibility for scholarships as traditional students. Students pursuing an online degree from a traditional college will likely qualify for many of the scholarships in the college’s and college department’s general funds.

We put together an extensive list of scholarships focused on online students including scholarships from traditional schools and online schools.

Looking for scholarships? Check out The Best Schools Online Learning Scholarship! Each year we award six $1,000 scholarships to enrolled online students.

Online Student Scholarships

(Alphabetically arranged by school name.)

Ashford University

Business School Scholarships: Ashford’s business school provides the Senior Project Scholarship and the Entrepreneur Scholarship.

Community Scholarships: Ashford University provides scholarships to students living in specific counties in Iowa, Illinois, and in San Diego County in California.

     The 25 Best Master of Social Work Degree Programs

A Master’s in Social Work (MSW) is one of the best degrees you can have for helping others and getting paid to do so. Social workers serve individuals, families, and communities. They can work for themselves, corporations, schools, and the government.

Direct-service social workers help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives, while clinical social workers diagnose and treat behavioral, mental, and emotional issues. Those with an MSW degree usually are employed as case workers, counselors, or therapists.

Full-time students typically complete work on their MSW degree in two years. However, many schools offer advanced-standing MSW programs to students with a bachelor’s degree in social work. These programs take less than two years to complete.

Salaries

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average salary in 2011 for social workers was $53,900.  The annual mean wage for social workers in industries with the highest level of employment for the occupation was the following, in descending order: Federal executive branch; general, medical, and surgical hospitals; local government; state government; and individual and family services.

The median salaries by skill/specialty of employees with a Master of Social Work degree are shown below:

• Counseling: $49,500
• Case Management: $54,267
• Geriatrics: $40,976
• Spanish language: $45,750
• Psychiatric: $51,000
• Operations Management: $64,709
• Fundraising: $49,500
• Program Management: $57,250

(Source: PayScale, April 2012)

Employment Growth

The BLS forecasts a 25% employment growth for social workers, faster than the average for all occupations. The expected job growth is due to an increase in demand for social services and healthcare, but will vary by specialty. The BLS forecasts a 34% employment growth for healthcare social workers, 31% for mental health and substance abuse social workers, and 20% for child, family, and school social workers.

Some of the employment opportunities for people with an MSW are shown below:

• Aging
• Public welfare
• Child welfare
• Justice corrections
• School social Work
• Health care
• Employment/occupational social work
• Developmental disabilities
• Community organization
• Mental health/clinical social work
• Management/administration
• International social work
• Research
• Politics
• Policy and planning
• Adoption and foster care agencies
• Private practice
• Employee assistance programs
• Advocacy and coalition groups
• Domestic violence agencies
• Drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers
• Nursing homes/skilled nursing facilities
• Homelessness & hunger advocacy networks
• Women’s shelters
• Long-term care facilities
• Military counseling offices
• Assisted living facilities
• Senior centers
• Social and human services centers

                    The 25 Best Entry-Level Jobs

The best entry-level jobs go to those with a marketable skill. Some companies want people with technical skills, especially in math and computers. But many are looking for people with social skills in communications, leadership, and team-building.

Entry-level jobs typically require two years of school or less. In our list of the 25 best entry-level jobs, we looked for

• personally rewarding jobs that also
• provide a good salary,
• have good projected employment growth,
• provide career advancement opportunities, and
• require only a certificate,
• or else an associate’s or bachelor’s degree.

The jobs are listed in alphabetical order. We urge that you scroll through the entire list to see if there’s a job here that fits you.

ASSISTANT ACTUARIAL ANALYST

What they do: In the field of insurance, assistant actuarial analysts use mathematics and statistics to estimate the possibility and cost of claims associated to death, injury, illness, or property damage in order for an insurance company to cover its expenses and stay profitable. They also help decide the premium. Some assistant actuarial analysts work for private or public employers to manage risk for pension plans and programs such as Social Security.

Education requirements: A degree is not required; however, many companies prefer to hire people with an associate’s or a bachelor’s degree, and who have good computer skills.

Median salary: $54,000 (PayScale.com, 2010)

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER

What they do: Biomedical engineers have improved and saved lives throughout the world through their innovations. They develop devices and procedures to solve health- and medical-related problems. They help develop and improve a wide array of medical instruments and device,s including kidney machines, heart valves, and lasers used in eye surgery. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a whopping 72-percent employment growth from 2008 to 2018, which is much faster than the average for all occupations.

Education requirements: Most biomedical engineer entry-level jobs require a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering or a related subject.

Median Salary: $81,540 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010)

The 50 Best-Paying Careers with Only a Bachelor’s Degree

Before you spend the time and money to acquire a bachelor’s degree, it’s best to take a look at salaries. Students who strategically choose their major have a good chance of landing a good-paying job.

This list shows high-paying jobs which only require a bachelor’s degree; however, some of the jobs are management positions which also require some experience.

The salaries are provided by PayScale and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as of 2012. Jobs are listed in order of their median mid-career salary. Median starting salaries are also given.

1. Petroleum Engineer

$93,000 (median starting salary)

$157,000 (median mid-career salary)

Petroleum engineers design and develop procedures for extracting oil and gas from deposits located below the earth’s surface and from old wells.

Personal characteristics: An aptitude for math and science and strong analytical skills.

2. Aerospace Engineer

$59,400 (median starting salary)

$108,000 (median mid-career salary)

Aerospace engineers design new technologies for defense systems, aviation, and space exploration, as well as missiles.

Personal characteristics: Strong analytical skills, creativity, and an aptitude for math and science.

         20 of the Best Colleges Providing Free Tuition

Looking for a free college or at least free tuition?

A free college education isn’t the norm in the United States; however, many colleges, including some prestigious ones, provide free tuition and other financial assistance.
 
College Student Debt

In 2011, due to the high cost of attending college, the total amount of American student loan debt was more than $1 trillion.

About 25% of borrowers are behind on their loans. University of Wisconsin demographer Jason Houle finds students from middle-class families pile up more student loan debt on average than other students.

According to a Harvard University study, due to the high cost of a college education and other factors, American college students are leaving college without a degree at higher rates than in other developed countries.

In addition, the National Center for Education Statistics finds that the average total cost of attending college in 2010–11 for first-time, full-time students living on-campus and paying in-state tuition at public, four-year schools, was $20,100. The average cost at private, nonprofit, four-year schools was $39,800. The total cost includes tuition, required fees, books and supplies, and the average for room and board and other expenses. At the campus level, the average student debt numbers collected for the report vary widely, ranging from $3,000 to $55,250.

Moreover, according to the Project on Student Debt, provided by the Institute for College Access & Success, students who borrowed money to obtain a bachelor’s degree in 2011 graduated with an average student loan debt of $26,600. The report also shows that about two-thirds of students in the class of 2011 had loans. Approximately one-fifth of all student loans are private, with the rest supplied by the U.S. government, in one form or another.

Thus, many college students begin their careers with significant debt. Many of them can’t afford to take an unpaid internship, which could help put their career on an upward trajectory.

The College Board reports the following average 2012–13 tuition and fees:

• Public, four-year, in-state students: $8,654
• Public, four-year, out-of-state students: $21,706
• Private, nonprofit, four-year: $29,056
• For-profit schools: $15,172

    The 100 Best U.S. Colleges and Universities by State

What are the best colleges and universities in America considered geographically by state? In this ranking we present the best four-year liberal arts college and the best full-fledged university in each of the 50 states.

Most rankings of colleges and universities are top-heavy with schools from the East Coast (the Ivy League, MIT, etc.), California (Stanford, Cal Berkeley, etc.), and a few schools scattered throughout the rest of the country (University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, etc.).

In this ranking, we make geographical diversity our main focus, lookingalas for the best education offered in each state, from Alabama to Wyoming.

Our criteria for putting a school on this list include the reputation of the school and its faculty, its dedication to a broad liberal arts education, its accreditation, and its overall academic caliber compared to other institutions of the same type within the same state.

Some states have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to institutions of higher learning (such as Massachusetts and California). In those cases, our job was not easy. Where two institutions were dominant—one primarily oriented towards the liberal arts and the other towards science and engineering—we went with the liberal arts school as offering a broader range of excellence across the curriculum (hence Harvard over MIT).

The result is a unique list of schools, two from each state, one a full-fledged research university, the other a college focused on undergraduate education. We believe this list identifies the very best that higher education has to offer across the length and breadth of this great land.

Note: For each state, we list the university first, and the liberal arts college second, regardless of alphabetical order. Also bear in mind that names can be misleading: Several of the institutions on our list that are essentially 4-year liberal arts colleges use the word “university” in their name. By the same token, one of our nation’s top research universities calls itself a “college” (see if you can spot it).

The 50 Best Online Colleges for 2016

                    The 50 Best Online Colleges for 2016

Online colleges and online education more generally have seen an enormous increase in student e-learners over the last decade. Ten years ago, America saw around 2 million higher education students learning online. That number has now almost quadrupled.

According to a 2015 report by Babson Research titled Tracking Online Education in the United States, today the number of college students learning online exceeds 7 million. With the overall higher education student body in the U.S. currently at 21 million, that means one out of three college students is taking at least one course entirely online.

It’s therefore no surprise that online colleges and universities, which focus on delivering course content exclusively online, have proliferated. These schools enable students to finish a degree program and graduate with little more than a laptop and internet connection.

Nonetheless, online colleges and universities differ widely in quality. Moreover, with increasing competition for online students, many campus-based schools are now getting into the mix and offering online degrees. For this reason, rankings of online colleges and universities need to be regularly updated. Hence this ranking of the top 50 online colleges for 2016.

Although online education gives students unrivaled flexibility in pursuing a degree program, it is not right for everyone. Online education requires self-discipline and a set of study skills that some students on first attending college may lack. For this reason, we have supplemented this ranking with our highly informative “Savvy Student’s Guide to Online Colleges and Online Education” (located below right after our ranking).

Together, our ranking of the 50 best online colleges and universities for 2016 as well as our student guide to online colleges and online education provide the most comprehensive resource available on the web for helping prospective students determine whether online education is right for them and, if so, deciding which online college is best for them.

This ranking of the best online colleges and universities is based on extensive research and familiarity with American online education. In formulating this ranking, we looked to such factors as academic excellence, scholarly strength of faculty, online teaching methods, tuition costs, reputation, awards, financial aid, and range of degree programs offered.