How Do America's University Giants Compare?

Besides MIT we'll look at neighboring Harvard, both based in Massachusetts to the north-east of The States. And we'll contrast their admissions rates to Stanford to the west. These institutions are bound by their age-old rivalry, history and stature.

First things first; Many 'outsiders' are surprised to learn that MIT & Stanford aren't actually members of the famous 'Ivy League'. The league is a union, bound by athletic events and including higher education institutes based in the north-east of america. These members include Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Darmouth, Princeton & The University Of Pennsylvania.

Just how do the settings of Stanford's home, Palo Alto, and Boston based Harvard & MIT contrast then? Stanford is nestled next to Silicon Valley. No coincidence since Stanford pupils have been so vital businesses based there, such as Google & Hewlett Packard. The latter of course, was founded by Dave Packard and William Hewlett, former students.

Stanford's only a short CalTrain trip to San Francisco towards the north and San Jose towards the south. Stanford's location is a huge selling point to would-be learners.

Meanwhile the founder of Silicon Valley based Facebook, one Mark Zuckerberg, notoriously went to Harvard. Harvard & MIT students benefit from studying in historic Boston, the stage of the famed Tea Party and the home of the American revolution. Students of MIT & Harvard have gone onto to shape the world breeding Nobel laureates, Rhodes Scholars and National Medal of Science recipients. Graduates of these institutions are highly regarded and respected by employers around world.

What are the requirements to join the universities? You will not a bit surprised to find out that your grade point average (GPA) are an important starting point. That said, those with 4.0 GPA and 2400 SAT results are not guaranteed entry. No, you'll have to have standout extra-curricular's and shining references too.

Stanford and Harvard have a similar admissions rate of about 7%. MIT comes with a marginally greater success rate acknowledging just under 10% or 1742 for the class of 2015. Meanwhile, Harvard boasts the best financial aid of any US University, with $172,000,000 available for prospective students.

At Harvard, over 60% of students benefit from financial aid. So, if you're application is strong enough, you will get in regardless of your families financial background.

Students of Harvard, Stanford and MIT become leaders trend-setting in technology, commerce and politics. If you decide to brave the application process spend some time to look through the links below. We wish you the best!

The Importance Of College Textbooks To Students And How They Can Save Money On Buying Them

In history, textbooks have been used in order to ensure the consistency in the coursework which were offered to the students according to the grade level of the course requirements. In today's textbooks, it continues to provide countless academic benefits to the students as well as the instructors. College textbooks when used in conjunction with a variety of other materials like online books, videos and as reference books provide a lot of value to a student's education.

College textbooks were usually used in the colleges in order to be used as references for learning. These books were published in order to cover the subjects in the syllabus that the students were supposed to learn. Every college student uses different college textbooks for their subjects.

One advantage in using these books is that they provide essential information. The professors are the one reliable source of the information; the textbooks were used in order to provide more information. The reason why the professors do not always impart all of the information is due to the limits in the duration of the lessons.

The textbooks also help the students in highlighting and noting the key points. These textbooks serve as a guide for an easier understanding of the subject matter. If the students note the key points, it will make it easier for them in remembering the lessons especially during the examination periods.

They can also be used for future reference. The students may always forget what their professor had taught them. Therefore, they need textbooks in order to keep referring to; they are also a tool to refresh their memory. Also a reliable source of much information needed by the college students which will help them prepare for their thesis and term papers. These textbooks will come with instructions as well as guidance for the students on the kind of questions that they would be likely to encounter in the examination.

The books also act as an aid to the instructors as well as the professors in order to ensure that their lectures were more organized. The books as a fact, are divided into chapters, the professors find them very reliable in following these chapters and make constant references to them during their teaching. In this way, the professors were helped by these textbooks especially when checking that the students were learning the subject. By doing this the professors will know which topics that their students find difficult and will also know the ones that they have already understood.

The price of the textbooks is continuously rising and there are ways that the student can save money on them. Some stores stock the previous versions of the books and these will be available at a lower cost. It is also a good idea to have a look at the online stores that stock the books as they are normally considerably cheaper than buying from bookstores. Another way to save money is to ask students at a higher level if they have finished with their books and whether they would be willing to sell them to you at a cheap price. Most of them would be willing to do this.

College education is extremely important and every student will need all the help that they can get to study well and pass their examinations. college textbooks are essential and it is possible to get cheap college textbooks if you take the time to shop around. It is not possible for the professors to teach everything in the short time that they have available in lectures. Also people learn at different rates so having reference books will always help.

Regional Colleges Hope To Lure Students Getting A Degree Online

From the Pacific Northwest to the coast of New England, lesser known institutions of higher learning have suddenly achieved a level of financial stability they'd thought impossible just years before, and their salvation couldn't have come from a less likely source. Faced with spiraling costs of operation and a new breed of competitors emerging via online Associate's degree and online Bachelor's degree providers, a select group of visionary administrators embraced the possibilities of digitized remote instruction to resolve their own schools' long standing budgetary difficulties. Though treated as an afterthought by local media sources, these colleges and universities many of whom have struggled for decades to keep their doors open despite limited endowment dollars and an essentially nonexistent presence outside shrinking communities have managed to forge a second life by means of the internet.

For all the potential bounty of remote pupils to be reckoned with, the administrators of these institutions attempting to reshape their appeal must acknowledge that only a brief window of time separates current opportunities from the eventual flood of larger institutions angling for their share. As the time honored standard bearers of classical academic instruction increasingly turn away from campus based educational programs to construct distinct virtual tutorials that meet the spiraling demand for students getting a degree online, professional ad campaigns highlighting the benefits of significantly more practiced educational resources will overwhelm the prospects. Even beyond the increased competition from public and private institutions coasting upon previously established reputations (for centuries in some cases), the relatively recent arrival of such brands as Kaplan and the University of Phoenix have already begun carving out distinct identities and building a sense of trust among an ever broadening potential consumer base.

Competing against the emblems of corporate stability and approachable technological development on the one hand and the monumental sentiment wielded by the pillars of higher learning (college athletic teams as crucial a signifier of American locale as any to be imagined) on the other, regional schools late in coming to the cyber studies party would appear to have an enormous challenge ahead, but the smaller, more dynamic variants all too well accustomed to rolling with the punches have advantages all their own. Authorities within the United States Department of Education have officially designated the so called hybrid programs that incorporate aspects of the wholly online Bachelor's degree alongside components of the classroom model to be the most effective tutorial, and smaller regional schools are simply best equipped to meet the differing capacities needed.

The e-learning giants that have grown up around distant education aren't bound to publicize the aforementioned findings. If these studies are mentioned at all, the Secretary of Education's report will usually be paraphrased to suggest graduates of either format possess essentially equivalent levels of knowledge. While technically accurate, that's still far from the government's point, but the hybrid approach isn't so easily introduced. The new titans of online Bachelor's degree prowess can't just go ahead and build brick and mortar centers to test the varying pedagogical imperatives. For that matter, even if their current financial largesse would cover the purchase of campuses abandoned by failed schools throughout the country, the virtual institutions have affirmed the supremacy of purely remote tutorials for so long that their corporate image would suffer tremendously from a shift in emphasis among an American public already prone to doubt the validity of getting a degree online.

Choosing a Gown and Cap for Your Graduation Day

Depending on your level of education, there are different types of graduation regalia that you are supposed to wear on the particular day. These graduation gowns come in different colours and they are usually accompanied by a matching graduation cap as well.

There are different styles of graduation gowns, and they are meant to help you look your best during one of the best days in your academic life. They can be made of different material, from cotton, to velvet with piping and bell sleeves, especially if you are looking for doctoral gowns. All the various choices can be found and purchased inexpensively through the internet.

Most institutions of higher learning have specific colours of caps and gowns depending on the degree that you are graduating in. You should ensure that you know the right colour before purchasing your grad gowns so that you do not stand out from the rest of your group in the wrong way.

Professional outfitters are in plenty on the internet and they know the colours which accompany certain degrees and academic qualifications as well as the material choices. They will help you to purchase the right combination of colour and material to match your degree and your education level.

The graduation caps are also part of the adornment for this special day, and they usually come in different shapes and colours. There are some that are four cornered while others may be six or eight cornered with gold or plain tassels. It is important to know the specifications of your institutions as well as the requirements of your education level before purchasing these academic regalia as all these specifications are determined by these factors.

Online stores offer a wide variety of options, and one only has to search as the best grad gowns are just a mouse-click away. Anybody can go shopping in these online stores, from parents looking for a cap and gown for their young children in kindergarten to high school graduates and PhD graduates. There is a wide selection of grad gowns for each level and a short search through the internet will reveal that the graduate is spoilt for choice.

For individuals on a budget, there are also selections of inexpensive graduation gowns that will help you to look your best during this day without necessarily breaking the bank. All these options are available on the internet, and if you do this last homework correctly, you are bound to end up with the best choice for your graduation day in terms of style, colour and price.

Graduation caps and gowns will help you to remember this special day with your fellow classmates, and getting the graduation regalia that is just right will help you to commemorate this day in style. A picture with your classmates wearing these gowns is one of the highlights of the day that you will take home with you to remind you of the special day. The day involves a lot of activity and celebration, and it can be quite hectic, therefore, it is better to reduce the stress associated with the ceremony by visiting an online store to purchase your cap and gown.

College Admissions: What To Do If You're Wait Listed

You carefully crafted your application, followed the instructions exactly to the letter and when that response comes from the college it doesn't say "Yes", but it doesn't say "No" either.

You're on the "Wait List". Now what?

Each year, my office is flooded with emails and calls from stressed-out students (often their parents) who have been wait-listed and want to know what it really means and what, if anything can be done about it.

There's a lot of anxiety and confusion surrounding the idea of waitlists, mostly for two reasons: 1. there's no clear, foreseeable outcome; and, 2. the odds are somewhat grip as reported by major media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

While there are no guarantees, let's look get a clear look at reality- for many colleges, the waitlist has become the "polite no".

This year, Princeton put over 1,400 students on their waitlist.Maybe they'll take 164 students from the list (past years) or maybe they'll take 0. There's no way to predict. But it's not just "Ivy League" schools.

In previous years...

• American University offered 2,025 spots on their wait-list, accepted 40 from the wait-list.
• University of Virginia placed 4,326 students on the waitlist, only 191 were accepted
• Boston University placed 2,307 on their waitlist and accepted 8 students from the list.
• Vanderbilt placed 5,515 applicants on the waitlist and only 212 were offered a spot in the freshman class.
• UC Berkeley waitlisted 201 students and accepted none.
• University of Maryland, College Park wait-listed 1,023, accepted none from the wait-list.

So, what can you do if it's your top-choice school and you find yourself waitlisted? Take Action.

Your Smart Plan For College Assignment:

1. Follow the school's directions for making sure you actually get placed on the wait-list (send back the postcard or respond to the email, or indicate on your online account - follow exactly whatever procedure THEY TELL YOU)
2. Call (after May 1) the admissions rep with whom you have been talking with AND write a follow-up letter to ask more information about the waitlist and to make your case. Mention your acceptance at a comparable school (telling Princeton you were accepted at State U, won't really cut it) and why you prefer the college that waitlisted you.
3. Update them on any additional, recent awards, accomplishments, etc that may not have been in your original application. This is where your "elevator pitch" is a must - clearly communicate the value you bring to campus.
4. Send an updated letter of recommendation from a teacher to support your case. Ask them to speak about the impact you're making in his or her classroom.

Bottom line, you'll have to do a lot of work and there may not be any payoff; but, at least you can have the confidence that you did everything possible to make this college dream a reality.

Final Word of Advice: Get back in the game. Just because one college "benched" you, doesn't mean a thing. You have several other colleges that absolutely LOVED you enough to accept you outright. You loved THEM enough to go to the trouble of applying for admission. Remember that.

Focus your attention on making the best choice from the colleges before you. IF you should get a call over the summer letting you know there's a spot for you at the school that waitlisted you, then you'll need to make a decision.

There's always hope, but don't keep from making a decision now because you're waiting for a call that may never come.