I covered college freshmen essentials last year. It became one of my most popular posts for the whole summer as new college students were looking for guidance in this area. This year the list has of course expanded. Let’s take a look at more college freshmen essentials for your dorm room/pad:

Leave your wardrobe behind. Don’t bring every single piece of clothing that you own. This will only take up space in your room– oh and it will bother your roommate who’ll be stuck with zero closet space.

Vacuum cleaner. Cleaning may not be your thing right now, but when a few months of pizzas and cookies catch up with you, you’ll be dying for that vacuum cleaner. You likely won’t have to bring your own vacuum cleaner, but it would be helpful if you could have one ready to borrow.

Cleaning supplies. To go along with the previous point, as much as you’re going to hate the thought of cleaning up, you’ll realize how important it is when your place begins to stink and nobody even wants to come in. You can’t have a college dorm essentials checklist without some paper towels and disinfectant spray. This may seem ridiculous at this very moment, but trust me you’re going to want to keep your place clean and fresh.

A stack of DVDs. I mentioned a DVD player as a college dorm room essential last year, but I never mentioned the stack of DVDs. It’s super helpful to have movies ready for every kind of situation. Nothing beats Super Bad on a Friday night, just like nothing beats a scary movie on a date night.

Headphones. Your roommates won’t be too happy with you blasting music in the middle of the night. A solid pair of headphones will come in handy when you feel like blasting some music in the middle of the night to pump you up for that assignment that’s due in a few hours.

Earplugs. There will be times where all you want to do is sleep. Having a roommate and a million other distractions, might make falling asleep next to impossible. The best way to combat this is through getting yourself a nice pair of earplugs (just don’t let this be an excuse for missing your alarm wake up in the morning!).

There goes another list of college dorm room essentials. What did I miss this time around? What could you not live without?

Don’t forget to check out important apartment hunting advice if you still haven’t found a place to stay this semester.

I’m always browsing and reading about topics related to personal finance to bring to your attention. Just recently, Yahoo listed the worst paying college degrees. A few months ago I wrote a piece on the harsh reality about student loans. I stressed the importance on how your ability to pay back your student loans is directly dependent on the money you’ll earn from the degree that you obtain.

I wanted to highlight some of the jobs/worst paying college degrees that really caught my attention:

Social work (starting annual salary: $33,400; mid-career annual salary: $41,600)
Elementary education (starting annual salary: $33,000; mid-career annual salary: $42,400)
Hospitality and tourism (starting annual salary: $37,000; mid-career annual salary: $54,300)
Drama (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $56,600)

Why did these jobs catch my attention? Some of them are really admirable and rewarding careers (teaching and social work). While the other two would fall under the “follow your passions” category. Yet all of these careers made it onto the worst paying college degrees list. Where am I going with this? I just wanted to throw out a few questions for you guys to ponder…

1. How important is money to you?

How much do you care about money? Would you prefer to “follow your passion” and make a decent living or work a job that you’re simply content with and it pays you lots of money?

2. How will you finance your education?

If you plan on racking up over 30 grand of debt for a career that will earn you less than $40,000/year (before taxes), then it’s going to take you a long time to pay off your student debt. This will hinder any future goals that you may have.

3. Have you considered this information?

Many young people (myself included) blindly enroll in college programs without even checking out the potential income post-college. We enroll in programs because they interest us. This is very important, but potential income is even more important.

For further reading/help check out my piece on killing student loans while still a student.

One more thing– HAPPY CANADA DAY!

(Quick note: I’m very selective with my guest posts. For some reason I’ve received a few emails over the past few years about specific colleges and college programs. When the opportunity came for me to publish a post on this specific program, I decided to take. I hope you enjoy the guest post.)

A career in medical assisting is exciting and challenging. In order to be successful in this field, you need to ensure that you’re getting into the right medical assistant program. But how exactly do you choose a medical assistant school? Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind while choosing a Medical Assistant School.

Career Placement Options

The first thing that you should find out about a medical assistant school is whether they have a quality career placement department. After all, you are enrolling in the program in order to find a job. The career placement department helps students like you with finding jobs and may even help you with your resume. Sometimes they partner with particular employers. If employers have hired graduates from their school and was pleased, they’ll often give priority to applicants who are recommended by or come from that school. However, if the school doesn’t have a career placement department, it could be an indication that the school does not really care about your career. Also make sure to check how many students get placed as medical assistants. On an average, most decent schools have a 70% placement rate. Compare the ratio with other schools before deciding on which school to attend.

Hands-on Training

Though most medical assistant schools offer hands-on training, find out exactly what they mean by it. Knowing the number of hours (class time) dedicated to hands-on training is also important. It’s because hands-on training is the key to picking up the skills required as a medical assistant. Also, talk to a few of the students on campus to check what they feel about the hands-on training provided and the overall program.

Internship

Check if the school offers internship programs. An internship will help give you an opportunity to work in a real medical facility along with medical professionals. Apart from getting you practical knowledge, an internship also serves as reference while looking for a job.

Experience of Medical Assistant Instructors

Find out the work experience of the teaching faculty. It’s always better to learn from instructors who have worked as a medical assistant. Their experience will show in their teaching. Their personal experience and practical knowledge about medical assisting that they share will be an added bonus to you.

Whom to approach if you have issues

While you study at the school, it is important for you to be comfortable in the class. There may be occasions when you have an issue or problem with certain instructors. Find out who would be your first point of contact in such situation. Also, knowing how easy or difficult it would be to change the instructor will help. The president of the school should be approachable, accessible and helpful in resolving your issues.

Veronica Davis is a freelance writer covering an array of topics. She often writes about career development, college help topics and pretty much anything that will help others reach their full potential. Medical assisting is just one of the many careers she has researched and written about.

If you’re one of the many college students who would like to avoid a job that requires you to wear a paper hat, then you’re lucky to live in an age when work is literally a click away.  The internet offers a wide variety of job options for the motivated student, and chances are good that you can take advantage of most, if not all of them.  So take a gander at the top five jobs that you can do from the relative comfort of your very own dorm room (bean-bag chair optional).

1. Freelance Writer – You got into college, so chances are, you can write a basic essay or produce some engaging prose.  So why not sing for your supper (so to speak)?  Websites like ODesk (www.odesk.com) and Elance (www.elance.com) are looking for gifted voices just like yours to tackle the many writing needs of their corporate clients, piecemeal, as it were.  You can even look for jobs on Craig’s List (www.craigslist.com), but unlike the other sites, this one offers no guarantees or recourse, so be careful.
2. Graphic Designer – A picture is worth a thousand words, so if your creative tendencies lean more towards the visual, you can still take advantage of the many freelance jobs in graphic design.  Reputable sites like ODesk and Elance can help you in this arena, as well.
3. Tutor – This is a great job for college students, although you may have to leave your dorm room to do it.  You can sign up with an online service provider like http://collegetutors.com, or apply with organizations like Sylvan Learning Center or The Princeton Review, just be prepared to do house calls.  However, it’s still a great way to make money while working around your own school schedule.
4. Virtual Assistant – Many businesses are now turning to the internet for virtual assistants to do all sorts of work, such as customer service, website maintenance, data entry, and other administrative tasks.  You can find these types of jobs on sites like Elance and Able Web Professionals, Inc. (www.ablewebpro.com).  There are even services for remote receptionists (www.telassistant.com).  So if your talents lean more towards the clerical than the creative, this may be a better solution.
5. Blogger – You may wonder how you can earn a living by starting and running your own blog.  Well, I’m not going to lie, it may take a lot of time and effort.  The way to make money off a blog is by selling ad space.  And the way to attract advertising is by building a following.  Advertisers want to see a lot of traffic before they invest, so you may have to do some research to ensure your site generates enough hits to make it solvent.  In the long run, though, this last option may produce the most profit.  If your site gets big enough, it could become a full-time business (think Perez Hilton or TMZ), or you could end up getting bought out by someone bigger.

Guest post by: Sarah Harris of Zen College Life where you can browse online colleges programs and find college scholarships.

This is a guest post from Edwin Ivanauskas over at Finantage. It’s a new blog combining economics and personal finance. If you like this post, consider subscribing to the RSS Feed.

I’d like to discuss one question that we never really think about in great detail. Why are you going to college? Here are some of the common answers:

1. To get paid more
2. To live better
3. Networking

These reasons will be the three you hear most when talking to college students. They all involve money and careers. College is often seen as a ticket to a better life. All you have to do is get accepted and get through your classes and after graduation you will make more money. But there is more to it than just that, and I’d argue the above isn’t even true. So why did I go to college? Here’s my list of reasons:

1. To get an education

Getting an education means that I don’t care to just learn a basic trade skill and make some more money. Getting an education means learning about a variety of subjects, this is what you hear many college students complain about. “Why do I have to take a science class when I’m going into business? It will never be useful!”

Colleges have you take a variety of classes that aren’t directly related to your field. This is the concept of “liberal arts” and its purpose is to expose you to a variety of subjects or “get an education”. Liberal arts colleges are focused more
around this concept than other colleges. This is in contrast to vocational schools which offer training exclusively for jobs.

2. To refine the way I think

To refine the way I think, what does that even mean? To me this is a combination of 1) the knowledge received in college, and 2) methods of analysis.

1. The knowledge you receive includes general knowledge gained from all classes
   along with the field-specific knowledge you may gain from your more specialized
   classes. While you may not have everything you’ve learned memorized, you know the
   general concepts and more importantly, you know what type of information you need
   even if you may not know exactly what it is (you can look it up).
2. The tools are the way by which you think. These include rationality, analogy,
   and context among wide list of others. With a good education you will be better at
   making connections, evaluation situations, and making informed decisions. Having a
   better understanding of the world allows you to more quickly and effectively do all
   of these things. This not only makes you better at your job but also better at
   other things in life and happier in general.

3. Be more qualified

This doesn’t refer to having a piece of paper that tells someone what I’m capable of doing. Here’s a little secret: Once you graduate college, you will be nowhere near fully prepared to do what job you take. A college degree is only the starting point.

As an example let’s take a look at the education of a doctor. First they get an undergraduate degree in a scientific field. After that, they apply for medical schools. Assuming they get in on their first try, they then spend 4 years in medical school. So far they have spent 8 years in school. Now they move on into an internship and residency at a hospital, depending on their specialty they could spend up to 8 years in this stage.

The internship and residency portion can be compared to getting a job in a different field, wherein they work but are doing fairly basic tasks while learning more complicated ones. During every single stage of this process they are constantly learning to do their jobs, only many years after the academic portion of their education are they ready to be on the job.

Now, using a doctor as the example may be a little more extreme than other professions but principal still holds true. Getting a bachelor’s degree in accounting will land you a job. But it won’t be as the senior accountant of the firm. You would get a job as an entry level book keeper entering numbers all day. During this you will learn more complicated tasks and more intricate workings of the company. If you excel at your “on the job training”, you qualify yourself for a
better position. I will repeat this because it’s very important; a degree is only the starting point.

Why you should be going to college?

If you have an outlook of college being a way to make more money with no goals beyond that, it might not be the right place for you. This doesn’t mean a college education doesn’t make you more money, it definitely does. But the route to doing that is to first find your passion and what you love to do. Then you go into your college career with that in mind (don’t worry you don’t have to decide right when entering, you have some time).

After college you will have the right type of education and passion to be the starting point of a successful career. If you go into it hoping to just get through and be handed a job and never change that mindset, you could be in for a nasty surprise. You won’t have the ingredients to excel at a career let alone get accepted in a good position over someone who does have the ingredients.

Now I’d be interested to hear your opinions. Why are you or did you go to college and how has that worked out for you?

If you’re a college student that juggles studies with work you know how difficult it can get at times. You know what I’m referring to- the long days, the short sleeps, early morning anxiety, and the last minute stress.

I was initially going to throw out a list of ways to stay motivated as a college student that holds a job but I figured I would just say write whatever is on my mind without any particular format. It is a blog after all, right?

Just remember that it will all be over one day. Your studies will be completed. You will have a degree in your hand. You will graduate from college debt free or with minimal student debt. You may even have some money saved up in your bank account. This financially buffer will alleviate some of the stress that comes along with the career hunt after college. You won’t have to jump at the first offer that comes your way (unless it’s an amazing one).

Obviously life won’t get easier after college but at least the stress of studying for exams and worrying about earning the grades you want will go away. Now you can push yourself in a totally different discipline. The discipline of the real world. The discipline of finding that first career and negotiating your starting salary.

Another way to stay motivated when working during the school year is to use some of the money to reward yourself. This doesn’t mean to pick up a serious drinking or smoking habit. That will only make things worse for you. However, there is nothing wrong with planning a weekend trip a few times a semester. I choose to plan a week vacation at the end of every semester to keep me sane and motivated throughout the tough times. In the back of my mind I stay focused knowing that once I write my final exam I will be gone for a week.

Others just simply need a quick escape at the end of the day or at the end of a long week to stay motivated while working through college. What is the escape for you? Some common escapes include: alone time, playing video games, a free drinks with friends, a workout, playing your favorite sport, etc.

Before I conclude I wanted to throw out one more idea. Think of working as a way to keep yourself focused and out of trouble. If you were not to work you may spend most of your time studying. On the other hand, all of that free time may not be good for you. Personally I know that free time is not the best option for me. When I have free time my mind tends to wander. I look at my to-do list in the morning and then by night time the list remains identical. On paper free time is perfect for completing all of your school work. Realistically, let’s be honest. Most of the free time is spent watching the Hills or old UFC fights. So if you ever are low on time, look at it from this perspective. If you were at home there is no guarantee you would be 100% focused on your school.

How do you stay motivated while working during the school year?

When it comes it an online college education there are many myths prevalent amongst young people. I have already discussed the benefits of earning an online degree. I want to look at some of the myths involved with earning a college education and explain why they aren’t true.

This article is perfect for current college students that are considering enrolling in a few online courses or for college graduates that are looking to upgrade their skills in their spare time.

Myth #1: Earning an online college education is easy.

Just because you don’t have a physical classroom for your course it doesn’t make it a “joke.” It just is what it is. A place of learning without a physical location. Of course an online college program is not for everyone but you can’t dismiss it as being easy. You should also not plan on having an easy time earning your college degree online. The workload, assignments, and exams are pretty much identical to that of a regular college classroom. You just don’t have a cute blonde sitting beside you to distract you.

Myth #2: An online college education is only for computer experts.

I hate technical computer stuff but even I have managed to be successful in the few online college courses that I took. Online college courses have become so easy to use that literally anyone can earn an online college degree. If you know how to use Internet Explorer or Firefox and then you will have no technical problems with your online college courses.

Of course you need to try as hard as you can to make sure your laptop is as distraction-free as possible. If you are anything like me then the most difficult time you will have with doing your online work is clearing all of the distractions and turning off Facebook.

Myth #3: An online college is boring and not interactive.

It may seem like an online course consists of only reading course material online and then completing your assignments. It can actually be pretty interactive though. One of the online courses I took that was offered by my college ended up having meet up sessions every few weeks. Some of these sessions were mandatory while others were strictly voluntary. I found that the voluntary sessions were much morel liberal and there was pretty much an open forum between the students and the professor.

I hope you found this article valuable and that you will have an easier time deciding whether to enrol in that online college course. Just remember that with the advent of online college courses young professionals no longer have any excuses when it comes to going back to school, even on a part-time online basis.

The following is a guest post from Gregory Pennington.

By following the tips in this short guide, you should be able to save yourself a considerable amount of money,stay out of debt and still have a great time.  Going to college can be a particularly expensive time for anyone. The cost of buying your own food and looking after yourself can soon add up if you’ve never done it before.

We have all at one point or another read a list of ways to save money in general. Now it’s time to look at easy ways to save money when you go away for college:

Split the cost of your shopping

If you live with a few people, why not split the cost of your weekly shop? You could collectively create a shopping list and agree to eat the same meals on some nights each week – that way, you don’t have to buy too much while in the store. There really is no best way to save money but by splitting the cost of your shopping you will save yourself a considerable amount of money while at college. Money that could be spent on other things (like books), or put away in a savings account.

Nights in are just as good as nights out

Again, if you live with a few people, you should try having nights in as well as nights out. By this I mean throw your own parties and movie nights. For example, if you wanted to throw a party, you could invite all your friends and ask each of them to each bring something when they come (that can cover their ‘entry fee’) – so, one friend could bring some popcorn, someone could bring the music, while another could bring some drinks. This is arguably one of the best ways to save money because you won’t have to go out and buy everything yourself.

Snap up all those second-hand items

While away at college, second-hand items should be top of your shopping list. If you need textbooks, workbooks or anything else for that matter (other than food!), go out of your way to find them second-hand. Save money by ordering cheap college textbooks from an online used textbook distributor. Another example, when I was at college, I needed a textbook that was priced at $48 new – but I managed to pick it up second-hand for just $5! Students at your college may post their old books and possessions on the ‘for sale’ notice board, so it’s a good idea to check the board every day to find the latest bargain – but only buy it if you need it. Remember that it can’t be one of the best ways to save money if you simply don’t even need the book for the course. Before you begin to save money on college textbooks you should ensure that you save money on your college tuition.

Travel to college? Share the ride

If you don’t live on campus and have to travel in every day, it may be worthwhile to find someone to share the ride with. There should be someone who drives past (or at least near) where you live, so if you can find out who it is, offer them some money to pick you up on the way to college. This will save you money in bus fares, cab fares and gas.

I do not know how to introduce this so I will just say it- college is the best time for starting up a business.

I was working on a guest post on balancing your college life with starting a new business and it hit me. I will say it again. College is the best time for starting up a business.

But why?

You need money in college

Starting a business may came as a hobby but it will most likely come out of necessity. Sometimes desperation drives innovation. We all know that many great businesses were started by college students working out of their parents garage. I will avoid the anecdotal advice and feel good stories today but I’m sure you guys know what I mean. College students need money. Starting up a business can be a significant source of income.

You have free time in college to start a business

We all would like to think that we are so busy that we have absolutely no time for anything. In that case how do most of us have time to catch every football game? How do we keep up with our favorite tv shows? Realistically the only time we are completely busy is right before an exam. I wrote all of my midterms and reports during the past 2 weeks. This week I have been focusing on my blog. The time is there. It’s just a matter of using this time better.

How can you improve your time management? Look no further than my time management tips to help you kick butt (sounds like I’m violent when I write these things but I’m not, I promise).

Your living conditions are ideal

Let me rephrase that- you live at home with your parents. If you moved away for college then this obviously doesn’t apply to you. Also I don’t mean to draw attention to college students because I’m sure many of you college graduates and young professionals are still living at home.

With a roof under your head how can you complain? You have no mortgage to stress about. All you have to stress about is having enough beer money for Friday night. Starting up a business is a lot easier when you don’t have the added stress of being responsible for a family and a mortgage.

Starting up a business has become increasingly easier

First of all I will steal a quote from Ramit- “Stop debating minutiae !” Seriously, I worried about the details of starting a blog for a few months. How would I host my site? How would I claim the income? Who would do the paperwork for me to setup an LLC? Do I even need an LLC?

Then one day I finally started writing blog posts. As I wrote posts I was still concerned about the server and all of those minor details.

On November 7th, 2008, I decided to it was time to pay the server costs and get my own domain name. Within hours the blog was running. The coffee change the blog earns didn’t come until many months later. Making that first move was the hardest part. The networking and connecting with other bloggers/readers can be very fun. Once I had the domain running, it was time to pump out content and try promoting it somehow.

Seriously, if you want to distribute your own t-shirts then just make the damn shirts! Draw up a unique design and get it on a shirt. Do not worry about the finance stuff because I doubt you are going to need to hire an accountant for the first few months while only your 4 closest buddies buy your shirts.

It’s really easy to worry about all of the minor details that come with starting a side business. In fact this is usually the greatest barrier to entry. Not the money or capital funding.  It’s the psychological barrier of breaking through mainstream knowledge that suggests we should simply look for a job with someone else.

I will have more about earning money online and internet entrepreneurship for 20 somethings in an upcoming ebook project that I’m still working on. For now, I listed possible side businesses you can start in college when I wrote my ultimate financial survival guide.

Help from awesome Twitter followers

I threw out the question on why college is the best time for starting up a business on Twitter and received some great feedback.

@FourPillars: It’s all about the $$$.

@NoDebtPlan: Start with minimal capital and maximum time+energy. Failure is meaningless because you can always go get a job.

@amabiae: You have nothing to lose…and your entrepreneurial creativity isn’t burdened by as many mundane anchors.

@MoneyEnergy: You may be more motivated during college than at any later time & have the energy and fresh perspective to put into it.

Do you think college is the best time for starting up a business? Or do you believe that all of your time in college should be spent on studying?

photo: dow5

I’m sure every college student reading this blog has heard the horror stories of some last year college courses. Every college program has the one or few courses that are so difficult that they basically act as a filtering system. We have all heard the depressing rumors:

“4th year Organic Chemistry has a 50% failure rate.”

Or better yet, “the professor never gives anyone an A in that course.”

I’m also positive that every financial stud reading Studenomics cares about money. Retaking a college course because you failed or because you want to improve your grade, will cost you hundreds of dollars. Why not pass the course the first time around? Why not get the desired grade the first time?

I wanted to share some tips to help you kick butt in your most difficult courses in college!

Read the material the first time as if it were a novel

The first time I go over the material the goal is not to try to figure everything out right away. The goal is to skim through the content so that you know what to expect. It will become information overload if you actually expert to absorb all of the content on your first reading of the material.

Come to class prepared

Drink your coffee.

Eat a meal.

Get enough sleep.

Do whatever it takes to come to the class prepared.

Sit in the front of the class

When you sit at the back of the class you are more susceptible to start talking with someone. At the front of the class you can’t get away with that. I know nobody wants to sit at the front of the class but it can be very beneficial in your difficult courses.

Leave the distractions behind

I know that I’m that fool that brings his laptop to class to write blog entries. If you have a difficult course you must be distraction free! No iphone, no laptop, no blackberry, no head phones, no sitting next to the cute girl in class.

Set a daily goal

My daily goal is to look at the course material for at least one hour a day. In that one hour I try to go over difficult past midterm problems and see how promptly I can solve them. This may seem excessive but there’s a reason that the 4th year course has the highest failure rate. What will your daily goal be?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Yes I’m that pain that annoys the professor by sending him emails. So what? I pay for my education and if I come across a question that I can’t possibly answer then I email to professor for help. Some professors will get upset. Others will appreciate your effort and take note. You benefit by obtaining the help you need.

Go over the most difficult possible problems before the exam

You know the exam isn’t going to be easy. Prepare yourself by going over the most difficult problems from the textbook or from past exams. I figure I would rather scramble my mind trying to figure out how to answer that impossible finance question before the actual exam when it counts.

photo: claudiogennari