Paying for college is never an easy task, but it can be made even more difficult when a student has lost a parent. Fortunately, there are organizations that recognize the special needs of students like these — organizations like the nonprofit LIFE Foundation.

This year, the LIFE Foundation will award 45 scholarships through its LIFE Lessons Scholarship Program. To win one of the scholarships a student must first submit a video or essay in which they explain the impact that losing a parent/guardian has had on them and their efforts to fund their college education.

While this year’s finalists for the Grand Price Video Entry category have already been chosen, it’s up to people like you to decide who wins. Head over to www.lifehappens.org/vote to view each of the finalists’ videos and select one to win the $5,000 scholarship. But don’t worry, the two runner-ups will each receive a $1,000 scholarship as well.

Winners will be announced in September.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

Whether you’re a busy high school grad, a college student looking into his/her first profession, or a budding career changer, one thing you’ll wonder is how a job will fit with your life schedule. Will you have time to get home and tend to your responsibilities? How about just having the time to have fun or work on furthering your skills or education?

We’ve thought about these questions too and narrowed things down to three careers that can accommodate a busy schedule as well as the training they require:

Nursing: In addition to helping out those in need, a nursing career gives you an alternative to the average 9-to-5 office routine. While some nurses do work normal office hours, the various 24-hour hospitals and care services around the nation allow nurses to schedule work shifts that compliment and accommodate their busy home lives. Need the daylight hours for errands or school? Then work evenings or nights as a nurse. Of course, you’ll need the proper degree and licensure in order to land a nursing career. Depending upon the specific field you are pursuing this may take anywhere from two to four years.

Teaching: Though teachers for elementary schools and above often have workweeks that exceed 40 hours, they often enjoy a two-month vacation for the summer. In addition, many preschool and kindergarten teachers work part-time in light of the shorter school day schedules. In either case, the teaching profession allows you a greater amount of flexibility when it comes to scheduling your day or year. In order to get into this field you’ll need the right credentials. All teachers, except private school teachers, need a license to teach, but depending on the age group you instruct you may or may not need a bachelor’s degree in education.

Medical Billing and Coding:
If you’re interested in health care but prefer the behind-the-scenes approach, medical billing and coding may be the career for you. While medical billers work on the business side of health care, keeping records on the costs and nature of various hospital services provided to patients, medical coders specialize in coding info on patients to provide to insurers. Thanks to the nature of their work many people with medical billing and coding careers work from home, setting their own hours, or establish their own businesses. To get your own medical billing and coding career you’ll need to train with an accredited program and attain national certification in billing and/or coding.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

It’s that time of year again when school rankings hit the presses! Today The Princeton Review, in coordination with USA Today, revealed their 100 “Best Value Colleges for 2009.” Based upon a variety of factors — including tuition, financial aid, the academic quality of students, and student satisfaction — they came up with a list of the colleges and universities that will give you the most bang for your buck.

Of course, we don’t want to bore you with the same-old listing you can find elsewhere, so instead we’re spotlighting the top three schools in the private and public categories and giving you the need-to-knows.

Private Colleges

3. Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey)
Tuition: $34,290
Enrollment: 4,918
In the news: As of 2006, Princeton University has stopped accepting Early Decision college applications.
What others say: In 2008, Forbes magazine gave Princeton University the top position on its list of “America’s Best Colleges.”

2. Harvard College (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Tuition: $36,173 – $47,215
Enrollment: 6,648
In the news: In order to reduce overcrowding, Harvard College has decided not to admit any transfer students for the next two academic years.
What others say: This year, U.S. News and World Report declared Harvard University the best college in the country.

1. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pennsylvania)
Tuition: $34,564
Enrollment: 1,491
In the news: As of the end of 2007, all student loans have been eliminated from student financial aid packages with scholarships taking their place, instead.
What others say: Recently ranked the third top liberal arts college in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Public Colleges

3. College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
Tuition: $18,276 (in-state) and $37, 356 (out-of-state)
Enrollment: 5,792
In the news: Three College of William & Mary alumni, are slated to be members of President-Elect Obama’s cabinet.
What others say: U.S. News and World Report ranked the College of William and Mary 32nd amongst all universities nationwide.

2. New College of Florida (Sarasota, Florida)
Tuition: $4,127 (in-state) and $23,766 (out-of-state)
Enrollment: 785
In the news: The New College of Florida’s rise to the top of the rankings is a big deal, considering it only just became its own institution in 2004.
What others say: In 2007, U.S. News and World Report had the New College of Florida tied for the top position on its list of the best public liberal arts colleges in the nation.

1. University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Tuition: $20,173 (in-state) and $40,473 (out-of-state)
Enrollment: 13,726
In the news: In 2008, for the first time, the University of Virginia did not accept any Early Action or Early Decision applications.
What others say: The University of Virginia has the noteworthy distinction of being one of the eight schools to make up the original Public Ivys.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

How’s this for an all-star? Myron Rolle, a safety for Florida State University, was just awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. The honor didn’t come easily though; not only did Rolle finish his pre-med program in just two and half years with a 3.75 GPA, he also managed to juggle his interview in front of the scholarship panel with a performance in one of his team’s most important games of the season.

After finding out that he and Parker Goyer, a former women’s tennis player for Duke University, had been selected to attend the University of Oxford (also known as Oxford University) in England care of the Rhodes Scholarship program, Rolle raced to the game on a private plane. Although the game was already in progress, Rolle made it in time to play in the second quarter and celebrate the 37-3 win with teammates.

Whether Rolle’s future lays in the N.F.L. or in Oxford is still up in the air but, should he choose the latter, the Rhodes Scholar has indicated interest in a one-year master’s degree program in medical anthropology with plans to work as a doctor in a clinic in the Bahamas.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

Photo courtesy of the Florida State University Sports Information Department

In honor of Halloween, I decided to investigate the things from our college days that will always leave us shrieking in terror. In no particular order, here are “Five Things That Still Scare Us About College.”

1. Tuition rates: While it’s possible to make your way through college with a cavalry of scholarships, loans, grants, and assorted financial aid at your beck and call, the ever-rising rate of tuition is something that still stirs fear in our CB hearts. Too bad we can’t ask a horror movie star like Ghostface to slash the price of admission.

2. Missing a class: It’s not unusual to pick and drop a couple of courses during the first few weeks of the semester — but doing so much schedule juggling has left many a college student with an acute fear of forgetting what classes they’re enrolled in. Computerized class registration only increased our worries, lest an overzealous HAL 9000-like computer program decide we don’t really need that intro course for our major.

3. The all-nighter: No matter what you do, you can’t prevent the all-nighter. Even the most well-intentioned of students will eventually fall victim to the task of completing a 10-page paper the night before their 8 am class. On the bright side, you won’t have to worry about nightmare-crawling Freddy Kreuger invading your dreams if you’re too busy researching classical composers from the Baroque period for your music history class.

4. The showers: Don’t worry; college showers are pretty devoid of Psycho-stars like Norman Bates, but that doesn’t mean you can claim the right to shower so easily. You’ll probably end up sharing a bathroom with at least one other roomie, so prepare to do battle over hair left in the drain, stolen shampoo, and a mysteriously small soap bar that you could have sworn you just opened.

5. The Freshman Fifteen: College is no reason to do away with healthy eating habits. Unfortunately, many college freshman become the Blob and start eating any — and every — greasy, fatty food in sight. Before you start settling for unhealthy fast foods and restaurant stops, consider expanding your culinary prowess, or at least buying healthy easy-to-prepare meals.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

While no one can knock all the features that Microsoft Office has to offer, there are alternatives around that will grant you some of the same options (or more) for free.

Though this list doesn’t cover all of the writing software that’s available on the Internet, it will clue you in to some of the more interesting ones and who they’re best suited for.

Join the Dark Side

Designed for the PC and PC/Mac/Linux, respectively, the Dark Room (they.misled.us/dark-room) and JDarkRoom (codealchemists.com/jdarkroom) are distraction-free writing zones where the document takes up your entire screen and refuses to show pop-ups of any kind. No toolbar, no desktop, just you and your words. It’s the perfect solution if you have a hard time concentrating. Both Dark Room and JDarkRoom are free to download and use, and boast customizable colors.

If you feel like putting down a little bit of cash you can purchase WriteRoom (hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom), the software that inspired Dark Room and JDarkRoom, for $24.95.

Perfect for: Easily-distracted students, minimalists, hackers, anyone who misses MS-DOS
Drawbacks: When I say distraction-free, I mean it. There’s no spell-check or grammar-check, so once you’re done writing you should import the document to another program for a double-check.

Open Your Mind to Possibilities

What if you could have something that sort of looked like MS Office but without the $100+ price tag? OpenOffice.org (www.openoffice.org) is what you need. An open source office bundle designed for PC/Mac/Linux, OpenOffice.org features free alternatives to Microsoft staples like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. There’s no worrying about compatibility either thanks to the ability to save in multiple file formats.

Perfect for: Students on a budget, computer science majors/minors, anyone who hates the latest version of MS Office
Drawbacks: The dictionary doesn’t seem to be as comprehensive as MS Office’s, so you’ll have to do some old-fashioned dictionary flipping if you see a red squiggle underneath an uncommon word. (To be fair, though, MS Office regularly accuses me of misspelling “dialectical.”)

Shakespeare Says Celtx Rocks

Just because Shakespeare had to put up with quills, messy ink, and the occasional bout of writer’s block, doesn’t mean you have to. While Celtx (celtx.com) can’t save you from a lack of inspiration, it can help when it comes to formatting plays, screenplays, and comics — and, like most other programs on this list, it’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux .

There’s no more fine-tuning MS Office to indent just so and overriding green grammar squiggles when it takes issue with the screenwriting staple of “INT. BOB’S ROOM – NIGHT,” because Celtx gives you preformatted templates that take into account the difference between writing a term paper and the next Sundance Film Festival must-see.

Perfect for: Budding filmmakers, playwrights, comic artists, and more
Drawbacks: If you’re really into using a quill and inkwell then you’ll never like it. Sorry, Shakespeare.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

As school begins, you’ll want to be sure that you have all the tools you’ll need to be successful, right at your disposal. And theClassConnection is a great find for the start of the 2008-2009 school year!

TheClassConnection was designed by two students in 2006, who were working on a student project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It’s a free online resource for students in high school, college, and graduate school that aims to help students boost their GPAs by using study tools and lecture notes from other students that may help kids better understand the material and study well. Think of theClassConnection as a “digital trapper keeper” and the path to good grades. And what’s even better is that theClassConnection believes in their ability to help you so much that if you don’t boost your GPA, they will give you $1,000 in private tutoring with SmartThinking.com.

Dave Sargent is the Chief Marketing Officer of theClassConnection and thinks it’s a great tool that will help students be even more successful than they were in the past. “People have been talking about the web and computers taking education to the next level since the dawns of PCs,” he says. “Yet hardly anything has been developed that actually helps students study more efficiently. We wanted to create the first academic network that allowed students to organize and streamline every part of their academic life online. That’s why we started theClassConnection.com.”

Some helpful tools and features of theClassConnection include digital flashcards, online storage of files, the ability to organize study groups, tutors, and more. If you’re having an issue with a class or particular subject, it’s almost certain that there will be some sort of help on theClassConnection.

TheClassConnection is a social networking site for students and even professors who want to have more in-depth discussions and share ideas without ever having to trek to the library during those cold winter snowstorms for a study sesh. It’s convenient, it’s helpful, and it’s guaranteed to help students do better. Work harder this year and use theClassConnection in the process on your quest for success.

-Amanda Fornecker

How would you like to get a college education completely tuition-free for your four-year degree? This is possible for all students who attend Berea College (Berea, KT), where every single student admitted gets a free ride. There is a catch, however. Students who are admitted are from low-income families and show exceptional need and promise for completion of academics.

Berea College is just like a regular college – you get a great education, you can participate in extracurriculars, and there is a staff that cares about your academic success. Students not only do all these things but they also work on campus (and get paid too!) at least 10 hours per week. Internships, co-ops, and study abroad opportunities abound. And there are more than 45 majors and minors from which students may choose.

Students are chosen based mainly on their family’s income to give students who may not be able to afford college at all, the chance to get a solid education. At Berea, they “don’t think your income should dictate your outcome.”

For more on Berea, see the article in the Times.

-Amanda Fornecker