Whether or not you are a fan of Lady Gaga and her music, you’ve got to admit that the woman is a pop culture phenomenon. From her garish performance at the MTV Music Awards to her catchy dance tunes (I admit getting the lyrics to “Love Game” stuck in my head at the most inopportune times), Lady Gaga is kind of a big deal these days.
That’s right. Leotard- and thigh-high-boot-clad Lady Gaga was once a student at NYU. As a precocious 17-year-old, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta wowed the admission counselors at the CAP21 musical theatre program at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts and was awarded early entry. The word on the street is that back then, Stefani was too pop music-y for Broadway and too theatrical for the record labels, so you’ve gotta give her props for finding a happy medium.
Lady Gaga’s musical theatre background is clearly evident in her onstage antics, and NYU would be proud to claim her as an alumna, but alas, Germanotta withdrew from college to follow her dreams of stardom, and the rest is history.
I wonder what Lady Gaga looked like as she headed to class in Greenwich Village back in the day. Something tells me that she wasn’t the college sweatshirt kind of gal, but I like to think of her as having at least an NYU tee shirt stashed somewhere in her closet. Did she live in the dorms? Did she order food with friends? Did she grab a venti at Starbucks before heading off to class? I know I’m having trouble separating Lady Gaga from Stefani Germanotta, but for some reason, I can only picture her in a concert hall, not a lecture hall.
It’s not surprising to hear that megastars dropped out of college to pursue their art, though equally surprising are the A-listers who do matriculate and even go back for grad school. And while I’m sure that Lady Gaga doesn’t regret her decision as she prepares to launch her concert tour next year, I can’t help feel bummed that she didn’t finish what she started.
Are you tired of hearing about “Cash for Clunkers”? So are we. Especially since ‘tis the season to be talking about “Cash for Collegebounders” instead. That’s right—now that you’ve gotten past your initial back-to-school jitters and have gotten into the groove of another school year, it’s time to set your sights on the cold hard cash you can score for college.
Maybe you’ve heard those urban legends about students who have earned so much in scholarship money that they even have enough left over to pay for part of grad school. News flash—those stories are true. There are a growing number of students who apply for college scholarships like it’s their job and they are rewarded handsomely. Do they all have 4.0 GPAs? Sure, a bunch of them do, but what all of them definitely have in common is a drive to sock away as much money as they can to help lower—or eliminate—their college bills.
So where do you start? Well, you can always put your Internet research skills to good use, but be prepared to be quite overwhelmed by search results when you Google the phrase “college scholarships.” There’s tons of money out there waiting for you, so here are a few options that we’ve narrowed down to help you get started.
Cash in, bookworms! Reading Area Community College in Reading, PA sponsors a–ha!–reading contest that offers students cash for reading books. Not in the Reading, PA area? Then try the national Ayn Rand Institute Essay Contest, which offers more than $80,000 in scholarships. The contest involves writing an essay about one of Rand’s three most popular novels: Anthem, The Fountainhead, or Atlas Shrugged (title depends on age and grade levell). All three novels are acclaimed for their engaging prose, but The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are also known for being heavy enough to double as doorstops. That means that many would-be applicants will be turned away by such a hefty contest requirement, leaving a smaller pool of competitors for you to dive into.
Hey Mom and Dad, will your boss send me to college? If one of your parents or guardians works for a large corporation like Verizon, there is a very good chance that there is some kind of scholarship program for which you are eligible. CVS, Intel, and Lockheed Martin are just a few of the other major corporations that offer scholarship programs. Search the website of your parents’ companies—the info you are looking for is usually in the foundation or corporate responsibility section—and see how to apply for an award.
Don’t sweat the small stuff (or small scholarships). Just because a scholarship doesn’t have as many zeros at the end as you’d like doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply for it. Remember, a thousand dollars might seem small when compared to a $40,000 a year tuition bill, but it is just enough to cover your book bill for both semesters without having to bust out the credit or debit card. BookScholarship.com gives away a number of $1000 book awards with no purchase necessary. Chances are also good that the college you choose will also award small grants for books. In fact, many alumni are realizing that they do not have to break the bank in order to give back to their colleges, and book scholarships are becoming a popular way to show support for their alma maters.
Remember, the more scholarship applications you submit increases your chances of winning something—and lots of somethings just might add up to a whole lot. Just like college applications, these scholarship contests have deadlines, so mark them down on your calendar and get going!
Like the millions of other show biz news junkies out there, I look forward to regular updates of celebrities’ shocking behavior in Hollywood. So imagine my surprise when a recent juicy tidbit had nothing to do with wardrobe malfunctions or scandalous love affairs, but with a certain star’s decision to go back to school. And to think it’s all happening on Wisteria Lane: not only did I discover that “Desperate Housewives’” temptress Eva Longoria already has a college degree, but she’s also heading back to campus for her master’s.
Now, I am not suggesting that you can’t be both beautiful and brainy. In fact, there are lots of good-looking college students (and alumni) already. And Longoria is certainly not the only movie or television star to have enjoyed a stint in academia. But when you have established a career based on the fact that you look pretty darn good on camera, it’s an easy choice to put down the books and pick up a movie or television script instead. Not so with Longoria, who (according to IMDB.com) earned her B.S. in kinesiology from Texas A&M University, Kingsville. The blogosphere is now abuzz with the news that Longoria will soon be honoring her Mexican heritage by pursuing a graduate degree in Chicano studies and political science.
Longoria’s career is still pretty red-hot right now, so it’s even more refreshing to hear of her plan to return to school. There are about a million different reasons people go back to school, but learning for the sake of learning has always been one of my favorites. Mum’s the word so far on which lucky student body she’ll be joining, but you can bet it’s a campus that will keep her close to both her agent and her NBA hubby, Tony Parker.
Time will tell how well she’ll be able to balance her A-list lifestyle with reading lists and research papers, and I’ll be patiently waiting for the paparazzi photos that capture Longoria on campus. Hopefully she’ll ditch the gowns and stilettos for something more grad student-chic, but then again, it is Hollywood.
Other Celebrity College Grads:
Glenn Close, College of William and Mary
Jay Leno, Emerson College
Natalie Portman, Harvard University
Howard Stern, Boston University
Denzel Washington, Fordham University
Renee Zellweger, University of Texas
Hey students—think you’re the only ones who get a little nervous about returning to school in the fall? Here’s a news flash—teachers get the back-to-school jitters, too. Even though they are on the giving end of homework, tests, and papers, teachers have their own stress and anxiety that start way before the first day of school.
You’ve heard of stage fright, right? Well, teachers sometimes get classroom fright. It’s not easy standing in front of the room, expounding on a subject in front of students who range from alert and engaged to asleep and snoring. It’s actually similar to what stand-up comedians go through—sometime a lesson can bomb completely, but there are times that a lesson really hits home with students, and the resulting euphoria reminds teachers why they got into the profession in the first place.
When I taught middle school and high school English, I would actually have nightmares about returning to the classroom that would haunt my dreams starting as early as July. Two of them were recurring themes: there was one in which I would lose my voice as my students became increasingly boisterous during a lesson, and another in which a group of angry students ganged up on me and beat me up after being assigned homework. I woke from the latter one laughing—after all, I taught at an all-girls’ Catholic school and was fairly confident of my safety in a classroom full of plaid-uniformed adolescents–but you get the drift. I was obviously pretty nervous about starting in September.
While students are nervous about doing well, or at least worried about getting through tough subjects, teachers are worried about how to keep things fresh. You think you had it rough trying to get through Romeo and Juliet? Talk to a 20-year teaching veteran who is on her 20th time teaching the play and find out how she puts a new spin on “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” each year. That’s why teachers with years of experience continue to go back for more coursework, with some giving up their entire summers to return to the classroom to learn about how to make their subjects more exciting for their students. And for those who choose to relax during the summer, chances are that their minds are still whirling with ideas for new lesson plans and revised curriculum guidelines.
Consider this—students and teachers have the unique ability to celebrate a new year twice. Sure, you might not be as inclined to bring out the funny hats and noisemakers for September as you are on December 31, but the point is teachers and students have the opportunity to make a new start twice in one year. Turning over a new leaf is exciting, but also daunting. Teachers know what mistakes they might have made the previous year and will be fighting hard not to make them again in the new year. Sound familiar?
If you are feeling a surge of butterflies in your stomach as you gear up for the start of another school year, remember that you are not alone. Take a breath and give it your best shot–which is exactly what your teachers will be doing—and it will be a happy new year after all.
Today we welcome Elizabeth King as our guest blogger. Elizabeth is the author of Outsmarting the SAT. Be sure to visit her site for more tips!
Of course you don’t want your SAT scores to tank — who would? But just for fun, let’s pretend you do. Here are five ways to make it happen!
1. Take Practice Tests and Never Look at Them Again
You may like to think you’re “prepping” when you’re sitting around pecking through SAT practice tests, talking on the phone, updating your Facebook status, and watching Jimmy Fallon. In fact, you may also think you’re prepping if you sit down every couple of nights or so and do a timed section in The College Board book and score it. However, if you’re not continually reviewing mistakes you made, tracking them in a notebook, describing what you got wrong (Was it something you didn’t know? Was it the way the question was presented?), you’re not really studying.
You should have a running list of all the vocab words you’ve missed, all the grammatical constructions that have eluded you, and all the math facts and question styles that have given you trouble. Review it, love it, learn it.
2. Plan to Cram
Cramming is a not-too-distant cousin of the classic prep strategy “cutting corners.” Both involve finding as many ways as possible to alleviate the amount of effort you put into your SAT prep. No effort = lousy score. Here’s how you may be cutting the corners that will surely cut your score:
You rely on calculator programs that claim to help you solve math problems on the test by plugging in variables. They will ultimately slow you down and they’ll be worthless on the most difficult problems, which actually challenge your critical and creative thinking skills.
You’re ignoring the SAT all summer and planning to squeeze prep in during pre-season/back-to-school/last-minute summer reading.
You’re pretending the flashcards can wait, thinking that you’re going to learn 2,000 new vocabulary words a week before the test.
3. Become a Sugar Addict
OK, this one is painful, but your sugar addiction is killing your ability to be in tip-top test-taking shape. You’re up! You’re down! You’re solving a math problem! Ohhhhh, you can’t remember the formula! You’re yawning! Annnnnnnnd… you bubbled the wrong answer. Test: 1. You: 0.
Seriously, though, you really need to think about your diet and your daily reliance on refined sugar. Being on a perpetual sugar high/low cycle effects your ability to sleep, your ability to stay awake, you energy levels, and your focus. And during a four-hour test? Forget it: you need real food that packs a punch, including complex carbs and protein. Your brain needs calories to work. Please feed it.
Moreover, the New York Times recently published an article saying that binging on fat (think that huge burger and fries you had last night) can have equally disastrous effects on your ability to focus. Considering a donut and a sausage muffin for breakfast before the test? Bad call.
4. Swear Off Reading Like the Plague
You swear off reading because you think it’s boring, you struggle to pay attention, or you’d prefer to be playing video games. But let’s face it: if you don’t learn to read and focus, you’re going to find yourself struggling on a test that is primarily 4 hours of reading. Plus, once you get to college, you’ll be required to do enormous amounts of reading on a weekly basis from which your profs will actually want you to learn. If you don’t read, you’ll either find yourself with a score that keeps you from getting into a school that’s worthy of your intelligence, or you’ll eek in and find yourself drowning in a college curriculum that’s caught you completely off guard.
So, start reading now for an SAT score, a college experience, heck—a life—worthy of your brilliant brain.
5. Freak Out on Test Day
Want do to poorly on any test, any time? Stress out from start to finish. Some classic freak-out inducers for SAT day:
Go to the wrong test center.
Lose your admissions ticket/ID.
Forget your #2 pencils.
Pass on breakfast and don’t bring a snack.
Show up under the influence of some sort of illicit substance.
Take the test for the first time on the very last test date before you apply to college to really enhance that “it’s now or never” panic.
Be seen with your cell phone and have it confiscated.
… or worst of all…
Open your test booklet and realize you didn’t prepare. (See Tip #1)
College loans getting to be too much? Why bother trying to pay them back when you can just sue your school?
That’s what Trina Thompson did. After taking out $70,000 worth of loans in order to earn a bachelor’s degree from Monroe College, Thompson graduated this April only to find she had no job. Four months later, and the 27-year-old is still jobless, but now she’s too busy filing a lawsuit against her alma mater to bother sending out resumes.
In her lawsuit, Thompson complains, “They have not tried hard enough to help me [get a job].”
It’s a subjective claim that experts say will likely hold no weigh in court. After all, while Monroe College may have touted its ability to get grads hired and promised to help via their Office of Career Advancement, it’s doubtful they explicitly stated how much they would help or even guaranteed that they would land every graduate a job.
You may be tempted to brush off Thompson’s lawsuit as a frivolous news item — it certainly seems to be — but the truth is that it could have far-reaching effects. Other schools may see her actions and, out of concern that unsatisfied students will launch similar lawsuits, decide not to offer career services anymore. Or, at the very least, they will heavily review the claims they’re making in regard to job placement. While it is certainly sad that Thompson is facing mounting bills without a job, we have to face a fact: Despite the recession, there are plenty of jobs out there and Thompson may just not want to settle.
Perhaps she had in mind a cushy IT job at Google after she had graduated. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s no reason why, while she sends out resumes and looks for a full-time position, she can’t supplement her income by working a part-time job in another industry. Instead, Thompson has chosen this attention-seeking move in a bid to somehow either win, or guilt her college into forgiving part of her loans.
It’s a lazy move. But hey, maybe she has a career in law now?
As some of you may remember, we reported back in October that Emma Watson, who plays none other than Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, had been touring a few U.S. college campuses. Now we can happily report that Watson has made her choice: Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Watson will join approximately 1,300 other students as Brown’s Class of 2013. We’re sure Professor Dumbledore would be very proud.
It’s official: the latest victim of the recession, is the higher education system – specifically, college sports teams. From cross-country to skiing, schools have been forced to halt scholarships and cut some teams entirely or face troubling budget deficits.
Here is a small sampling of the colleges affected: Stanford University’s fencing team will have to find some non-Ivy funding fast or be forced to put away their swords; the University of Cincinnati will no longer offer scholarships for men in cross-country, track, or swimming; and the University of Washington is cutting all of its swimming teams in order to cut back on $1.2 million in spending.
The trend is continuing at universities big and small, and teams as popular as soccer and as lesser-known as competitive pistol are feeling the crunch. The NY Times warns that this could “deeply alter the college sports landscape” while also affecting the country’s performance during future Olympic events.
Let’s just hope that the situation doesn’t reach as dire proportions as the Space Olympics did.
With their close quarters and high population density, as well as some students’ rebelliously unhygienic ways, college campuses are popular breeding grounds for disease and viruses. Combine all this with the fact that many students regularly travel abroad – whether for spring break or study abroad programs – and you’ll understand why college administrators sit up and take notice when talk of a global pandemic looms.
The latest cause for concern is H1N1 (swine flu). Originating in Mexico, this virus has a little over 200 confirmed cases across the nation with one incidence of death. College administrators have taken notice, especially considering the amount of schools that have study abroad programs in Mexico, and have begun taking action to inform students about the virus and protect them in whatever ways they can.
If you’re curious about what colleges have had reported H1N1 cases, or how they’re reacting to the virus, you can check out the International Association of Emergency Managers-Universities and Colleges Committee’s online map or this article from Inside Higher Ed.
Some people test well, and some people test exceptionally well — like Willa Chen, for example. Chen, a 17-year-old high school student from Detroit, recently did the unbelievable: she got a perfect score on not only the PSAT, but the SAT and ACT as well.
According to the ACT, the odds of getting a perfect score on their test are one in 14,000. The odds for a perfect score on the SAT? One in 2,400, says the College Board.
With these amazing scores now under her belt, Chen hopes to attend Princeton University. For now she’ll continue spending time with her school’s Math Olympiad and indulging in some of her favorite pastimes: tap, jazz, and ballet dancing.
Join four girls who are in love with grammar, coffee, and their iPods as they dish on everything you need to know NOW to make the transition from high school to college. It wasn't too long ago that we walked a mile in your excited, eager, and slightly nervous student shoes. Believe us -- it really can be the best four years of your life.
Are you tired of hearing about “Cash for Clunkers”? So are we. Especially since ‘tis the season to be talking about “Cash for Collegebounders” instead. That’s right—now that you’ve gotten past your initial back-to-school jitters and have gotten into the groove of another school year, it’s time to set your sights on the cold hard cash you can score for college.
Like the millions of other show biz news junkies out there, I look forward to regular updates of celebrities’ shocking behavior in Hollywood. So imagine my surprise when a recent juicy tidbit had nothing to do with wardrobe malfunctions or scandalous love affairs, but with a certain star’s decision to 
Hey students—think you’re the only ones who get a little nervous about returning to school in the fall? Here’s a news flash—teachers get the back-to-school jitters, too. Even though they are on the giving end of homework, tests, and papers, teachers have their own stress and anxiety that start way before the first day of school.
Today we welcome Elizabeth King as our guest blogger. Elizabeth is the author of Outsmarting the SAT. Be sure to visit 
College loans getting to be too much? Why bother trying to pay them back when you can just sue your school?
As some of you may remember, 
