Touring Harvard University
Touring Harvard University including Main Gate, Statue of Harvard, Harvard Hall, Memorial Church, Dining Hall, Science Center, University Museum, etc
Online MBAs from Public Universities Ranked Best Buys by Online Education Experts
The average cost for a regionally accredited online MBA: $20,528. “But,” warns educational analyst Vicky Phillips, “consumers can pay as little as $7,000 or as much as $45,000. The best deals will go to consumers who research online education providers thoroughly.” WNews Imagehere can consumers turn to find their best buys in online MBAs, and who offers some of the worst deals in distance education?
GetEducated.com surveyed 168 accredited distance MBAs: 91 of these offered by graduate business schools accredited by one of the regional accreditation boards. GetEducated’s survey of 91 regionally accredited MBAs revealed learners in the United States should be prepared to pay as little as $7,065 or as much as $45,000 for a regionally accredited distance grad degree in business administration (MBA).
Premiering at the number one ranked “most affordable” spot this year is Chadron State College (Nebraska), a public institution with a modest cost of $7,065 for an online MBA degree, regardless of the learner’s state of residency. Athabasca University, a public institution located in Canada, but approved to award degrees in the USA, topped the price chart at an estimated cost of $45,000 for tuition and fees for American learners.
Every school on GetEducated’s list of Top 40 Ranked Best Buys in Online MBAs - Regionally Accredited costs less than $20,000. GetEducated.com’s Top 40 Ranked Best Buys in Online MBAs - Regionally Accredited is archived online at Best Buy Online MBA, Regional
Consumer Tips: Selecting Best Online MBA
“Consumers searching for their Best Buys in online education should start by considering public universities in their own back yards,” says Phillips. Brand name, brick and mortar, public universities continue to dominate GetEducated.com’s list of highly ranked values in online learning. “Ten years ago most distance degrees came from universities few had heard of. Today, the best online degrees are being granted by universities that have been helping people get educated for a hundred years or more,” comments Phillips.
GetEducated’s top ranked values include names that have earned the trust of consumers and employers alike. Most are publicly-supported universities that have ported their degrees nationwide using online delivery. Many publicly-supported institutions offer the same low tuition they offer state residents to learners everywhere. A distance MBA from California State University Dominguez Hills, for example, costs $12,000 for all learners, regardless of their state of residency.
“$12,000 may sound like a lot of money,” says Phillips, “but in truth the average regionally accredited MBA costs $20,500. CSU costs $8,500 less than the national average. Consumers need to know that a quality MBA need not cost them their life savings.”
GetEducated’s top ranked values in regionally accredited distance MBA business schools include, among others, California State University, Western Governor’s University, Fort Hays State University, Baker College, Empire State College - State University of New York, Upper Iowa University, Excelsior College, Northcentral University, and Troy University.
Free Guidebook to Distance MBAs
Consumers can explore all their online business school options by downloading a free copy of the clearinghouse’s 2008 guidebook to accredited online business schools, GetEducated.com’s Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools, Business, Management and Online MBAs, available at Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools, Online MBAs
About: Founded in 1989, GetEducated.com, LLC is the safest place in cyberspace to shop for an online degree ™. In a nationwide effort to help consumers get educated about quality online learning the clearinghouse publishes and disseminates free ratings and rankings of online universities. The clearinghouse operates the Diploma Mill Police, (SM), a FREE online degree accreditation verification service designed to help protect online learners from educational fraud, and publishes a series of 100% FREE ebooks to online colleges.
What Are Your College Loan Options?
Heading off to college the first time is scary for anybody looking at the price for your college education may even scare you more. The good news is that there are many ways you can find your college education if you are willing to do your research and take the time to fill out the necessary applications. Even if you have not saved for your college education for years, you can still go to college and find a loan that will help you get through the next few years. Here is a look at your college loan options for the future.
The Perkins Loan:
If you have done your research on college loans you have probably heard of the Perkins loan. This alone is also called the Formerly National Defense Student Loan, the Perkins Loan Program and the National Direct Student Loan. This alone is based on need and can provide you with a low interest loan to help you finance your college education. In addition, if you qualify for a Perkins loan over 1800 participating colleges will take the Perkins loan. This gives you plenty of opportunity to find a college that fits your needs. If you are interested in taking out a needs-based college education among such as the Perkins loan, then you need to make sure that you qualify, you can do this by going online in learning more about this particular loan or speaking to your college education counselor about this loan.
Federal GRAD Plus Loan:
This loan is for graduate students need financing for their graduate school. This one is also a needs-based loan and offers a low interest repayment after you have graduated. In order to qualify for this loan, you must be a citizen of the United States or an eligible noncitizen. You also must be a student in a graduate or professional program and enrolled at least half of the time. Currently this loan has a fixed interest rate of 8.5%. The amount of money you will get when you apply for this loan will depend on your need and may vary from student to student. You should also remember that when you take out the loan. You will not be responsible for repayment while you are in school. However it does accrue interest, while you are in school. You will be responsible for the total amount plus interest while you are repaying your loan after you have graduated.
Subsidized Stafford Loan:
This loan is available to United States citizens or eligible noncitizen who are enrolled in a college program or professional program at least half of the time. The amount of loan that you will receive will depend on your financial needs. Not everybody can qualify for this type of loan. The amount of money that you will receive with this loan is $3500 for the first year, $4500 for the second year, and for your third through fifth year in school, you can get $5500 each year. If you are a graduate student and you qualify for this loan, you can get $8500. The interest rate on this loan is currently fixed at 6.8%. In addition, it is important to remember that your repayment schedule began six months after you graduate or, if your school enrollment drops below half-time. You do have up to 10 years to repay this loan and extensions are granted in certain situations. There are a variety of ways to pay back this type of school loan. So you should check with your loan officer or the Internet for information about this very popular college education loan.
529 College Investment Plan : Your Options
It doesn’t matter how old or young your child is, its never too early or late to invest in their future. It’s time to research your investment options with the 529 College Investment Plan. You need to know your options to make the best choices for your money.
Age-Based Investment
This seems to be the simplest way to save for college. Age based frees you from adjusting your allocations over time. Your assets will be managed according to the age of your child. Younger children will have portfolios with a higher stock concentration. As your child ages, the assets are automatically shifted to a higher ratio of short-term investments and bonds that are more stable and will reduce your market risk.
You have three choices of age-based investment options: conservative, moderate and aggressive. For most age groups, the conservative investment has a higher concentration of assets in short term investments or bonds than the moderate. Following suit, the moderate investment has more short-term investments and bonds than the aggressive. For example, conservative 529 portfolios for a 5 year old typically would be 50% stocks and 50% bonds. A moderate portfolio for the same age would be 35% stocks and 65% bonds while an aggressive age based investment would be 100% stocks. Bond investments are safer as they do not decline as stocks do when the market sinks. But, keep in mind that they will not grow in value as much when the market rises.
Other More Aggressive Options
You may find that the age-based funds are either too mild or too wild for your investment tastes. If this is the case you may want to set up an individual portfolio made of equity funds. In 529 college savings plans there are so many different options. It depends upon the plan provider and your state. They tend to offer the same type of options as mutual funds.
Some of the investment options offered for 529 plans are growth funds, value funds, small-cap funds and mid-cap funds. Let’s just briefly look at these options. A growth fund tends to buy companies in the consumer staples, technology and health care. They typically sell at higher price to book value ratios. A value fund tends to buy companies in industrial, energy and financial arenas. They typically sell at a lower price to book value ratios. They tend to outperform growth stocks over longer time periods. Small-cap funds own companies with market capitalizations of less than $1 billion while the mid-cap funds own companies with $1-$5 billion in market capitalization.
What does this mean for your plan? Individual portfolios offer many, many choices of stock funds, bond funds, balanced funds and money market options. Unlike the age-based investment options, the asset allocation of your portfolio will remain fixed over time. Regardless of your child’s age, your investment choice will not be altered.
If you decide to go the route of individual portfolio investments when starting your child’s 529 plans, take a look at the age-based plans. Use them simply as a guide for concentration of stock, bond, short and long term investment allocation. Then, if you opt to go the individual portfolio route, they can help guide your future investments into the account as well as help you move your existing funds into more conservative investments, as your child gets closer to college age.
Your child is not getting any younger. Today is a great day to make some plans for college funding. Your investment options with the 529-college plan are so vast. It’s time to do your homework and pick an investment option that works for you.
Free Money For College Student : How to Find It
Making college affordable is the goal of many families. Unless you are independently wealthy, most families will have to find some way to pay for tuition, housing, and all the other expenses associated with attending university. Finding free money for college is every family’s goal.
Here are some tips for finding it:
The FAFSA – Let Uncle Sam Help You Find the Free Money
Every family looking for free money for college student should fill out the FAFSA. The FAFSA—the Free Application for Federal Student Aid—should indeed be your first step to tracking down the free money. Lower income families may qualify for a Pell Grant. A Pell Grant is money given to college students that does not have to be paid back. In recent years, the Federal government has gradually reduced the amount of Pell Grants that are made available each fiscal year, but they are still there. Who qualifies for a Pell Grant? The federal government uses a formula to determine who qualifies for a Pell Grant. A student’s Student Aid Report will show any Pell Grant awards, and funds are usually distributed during the first week of school. If you do not qualify for a Pell Grant, you will probably be offered either an unsubsidized student loan or a subsidized student loan. While these are technically not free money sources, a subsidized student loan can be a good way to get the funding you need at a reasonable interest rate.
Riding the Full Tuition Scholarship Wave
No one ever said that finding free money for college student would be easy. Indeed, finding the free money can be a full time job. Fortunately, there are many helpful guides out there that can help families track down suitable scholarships. The most highly sought after scholarships are those that will cover tuition. These are usually paid directly by the college or university. Many state schools offer full tuition scholarships to high school graduates graduating in the top percentage of their class, as well as full tuition scholarships for students transferring to a state university from a local community college. Contact prospective college and university financial aid offices for more information about their full tuition scholarships. In most cases, you will have to demonstrate satisfactory academic progress in order to retain or renew your scholarship.
A Scholarship for Everyone – Hunting Down the Free Money
If you are not able to get a full tuition scholarship, you are not alone. Fortunately, there is a world of specialty scholarships out there that offer financial assistance for prospective college students. Visit your local bookstore or library to find a compendium of scholarships. You will find that there is free money for college student available not just for ‘straight A’ students, but to anyone who is willing to look for them. There are scholarships available for students from a certain background (African-American, Irish-American, etc.), who are entering a specific field of study (Journalism majors, Accountants, Artists, etc.), who have overcome adversity (students who have lived in foster care, etc.), and many more. The monetary value attached to these scholarships can vary widely, from a full tuition scholarship to textbook money.
Contests – Winning Your Way to Free College Money
Along with scholarships, there are many contests open to prospective college students or students already enrolled in an accredited college that offer anywhere from a few hundred dollars in prize money to a full tuition scholarship. Take advantage of essay exams, especially those that are open only to certain students. For example, a broadcasting association may hold an essay contest for prospective broadcasting majors only. There are many guides that offer guidance on how to win these types of contests.