Technology and education coming together to make college students smarter, faster, better! I’m so excited I can barely keep my pants on!

CourseSmart announced today that they’ve launched some sweet techno wonderfulness for reading eTextbooks on mobile devices. It means carrying fewer of those spine-telescoping textbooks and saving reams of tree parts.

SAN MATEO, Calif., November 21, 2011 — CourseSmart®, the world’s largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, today announced the launch of their new, industry first, mobile Web app that provides students and faculty access to a catalog of more than 20,000 eTextbooks andother digital course materials on a variety of mobile devices including the Kindle Fire and the iPad®. This breakthrough brings thousands of digital course materials to the most popular mobile reading devices furthering the company’s mission of anytime, anywhere access to course materials in higher education.

“Our mission is to connect students and faculty with affordable course materials that they need to become successful. With this new Web-based application, we are putting the world’s largest catalog of eTextbooks and digital course materials in the hands of an increasingly growing number of digitally-dependent students and faculty,” said Sean Devine, CEO at CourseSmart. “As mobile devices like the Kindle Fire and iPad continue to make their way onto college campuses and into the classroom, we are excited to offer yet another option for our users to not only access their digital textbooks but to improve their reading experiences with features such as page fidelity.”

The mobile Web app is optimized to best support multi-touch screens of today’s most popular mobile devices and it is designed to offer users the:

&bullConvenience to view all eTextbooks from a single location,
&bullAbility to search for a topic within your eTextbook including access to the Table of Contents,
&bullCapability to zoom in on text and graphs as well as to add and view notes, and
&bullSame page fidelity experience as found in a print textbook version equivalent.

There is no downloading process to access the free Web app. On supported browsers, CourseSmart users with an active eTextbook account will automatically be prompted to sign into the Web app when they begin reading their eTextbooks. Any future enhancements for the app are automatically updated, eliminating the need to visit an app store to obtain the latest app version.

The app is supported by Amazon Silk, Safari and Google Chrome browsers on the following devices: Kindle Fire, iPad and Androidâ„¢ 3.0 and higher OS tablets.

Further Reading:

CourseSmart Research Reveals College Students Lerve Their Digital Devices
College Students, eTextbooks, and Tablet Devices
Buying Textbooks: New, Used, Rented, or Digital
CourseSmart’s eTextbook App for the iPhone

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Forbes has an article up on the 10 Things College Students Waste Money On. Tuition seems to be the least avoidable item on the list, but textbooks and school supplies are certainly full of frugal options.

1. Textbooks
2. Tuition
3. Automobiles
4. Housing
5. School Supplies
6. Food
7. Socializing
8. Applying for Credit

Also included: excellent advice on how fresh-faced college students can learn early on how to live below their means, which sets them up for a better financial life later on down the line.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(fancy school supplies)

The five commandments Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post has come up for college freshmen (so they won’t screw their first term up too badly):

Thou shall be responsible for YOU.

Thou shall take advantage of what college offers.

Thou shall be a student of learning.

Thou shall develop a personal brand.

Thou shall not forget those who are making college possible and gave you this great start in life.

It’s difficult to balance the learning part with the taking advantage of everything college life offers, but you’ll figure it out eventually. I hosed Fall Term of my freshman year pretty well, but I maintained a life and a solid GPA after that. Good luck, everyone. Here’s some advice from me:

Further Reading:

College Advice
Don’t Screw Up Your Future
I Live In A Van Down By Duke University
Year One: A College Blog

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(fall foliage campus)

Purchasing spankin’ new copies of textbooks unrelated to your future field is unnecessary. I’m the first girl to yell in lecturely tones that keeping relevant texts around for future reference is just plain common sense (what dumb-ass wouldn’t?).

However, unless you’re majoring in psychology, you do not need to buy a mint copy of the Psych 101 text. At the very least, buy it used and vaguely highlighted. Even better: rent it. It saves money, trees, and fights the Textbook-Publishing Man (he’s a corporate sh**head).

BookRenter is worth a perusal; they guarantee customer satisfaction and have free shipping.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image)

For-profit colleges, the schools for which I employ my “If you can’t say anything nice, then please keep your sarcastic mouth shut, woman!“ policy, have angered consumer advocacy groups. The advocacy groups have officially complained to the U.S. Department of Education, and now there will be official rules. That’s right. Official. Rules.

Starting in July 2011, for-profit schools, like DeVry and Phoenix, will be required to tell prospective students statistical facts concerning the school’s track records in two specific areas: Graduation rates and post-graduation job placement rates. This information must be handed over to students prior to the application process.

Additionally—and I particularly adore this part—if the Feds find out a given for-profit college is spewing graduates who can’t pay back their student loans (usually due to the fact that the school is academically shoddy and a certificate or a degree from said institution is meaningless in the real world, thus resulting in a significant portion of the institution’s graduates being less than hireable), the school loses its funding. It is an effort for me to dial down the giddy and only hum (not sing) the super fancy Diploma Mills Suck song. It’s really good. And it rhymes.

Further Reading:

Government To Hold For-Profit Schools Accountable To Pricey Tuition
Career Schools May Lose Loans

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image: University of Phoenix)

Arjun Muralidharan, aka the Productive Student, has a list of 14 ways college students can strive for greenness on Earth. You’ll want to do them all to slow the destruction of the planet, but you’ll actually do them to save yourself some coinage.

14 Ways to Be a Greener Student (and Save Money Doing It):

-Eat less meat or go vegetarian
-Do more efficient laundry
-Buy groceries with less packaging
-Eat out less
-Buy a greener computer
-Optimize your commute
-Decompose organic waste
-Bring your own bag for shopping
-Recycle paper
-Buy recycled notepads and textbooks
-Put old and unwanted textbooks up for sale
-Use a durable water bottle
-Be conscious about lights everywhere
-Reduce and manage electronic devices

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(recycled notebooks)

Oh, it’s coming. Denying it won’t help you. Fall Term is starting up soon whether you’re ready or not. When the first week of classes have been attended and while you’re still focusing on first chapters, small quizzes, tolerable assignments, and the finer points on your professors’ syllabi, at the very least please skim this: How to Study: A Brief Guide. Learning how to learn is, how do you say, crucial, of the essence, invaluable, indispensable and totally effing necessary.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(take notes)

Not being a gambling girl by nature, I’m nonetheless fascinated by Alec Torelli’s post about ditching college to play poker. As a career. Never in a thousand years could I leave school for the gambling life. First of all, I dislike the odds. Secondly, I know way too much math to ever see gambling as anything more than a little bit of skill laced through a huge pile of less-than guaranteed luck.

I’ve gambled twice in my entire life: I bought one $2 lottery ticket and won $20, and I played my pre-decided limit of $20 in a slot machine in Vegas and won $60. Done. Never have to gamble again. Do you know what the odds are of playing twice and winning twice? Total crap. The probability of my being that far ahead again is insanely low, so there is absolutely no reason for me to hand over one cent more.

I clearly have a bad attitude about gambling and the mathematically challenged chuckleheads who continually shove their money down the toilet. That being said, I’m still somewhat impressed by Mr. Torelli’s post. He’s not an idiot, and despite myself I enjoyed reading his argument (see below).

While everyone wrote [college] off as a mandatory rite of passage that follows high school, I had my doubts. I did what I knew best and ran the numbers. I began by breaking down the cost of a standard degree at a supposedly lucrative university.

University of Southern California annual fees

Tuition: $ 40,384
Insurance: 1,040
Fees: 614
Books: 1,500
Room/Board: 11,458
Personal / Misc: 1200
Transportation: 828
Season Football Tickets: 145
Total Cost: 57,169
Estimated Hours or Opportunity Cost (including studying): 50/ week x 40 weeks = 2,000 hours

Note: For relevance, these numbers were updated for the 2009/2010 school year, copied verbatim from the USC website.

Multiply this figure by a minimum of 4 years and you get a stunning $228,676 and 8,000 hours of time. Does this sound absurd to anyone besides me? I couldn’t help but think to myself, “do you know what I could do with these resources? Shit give me the money and I won’t go to school.” More…

Who knows what his future will be like, but at this point he’s doing well and makes a decent argument for his current path in life. His numbers work out as long as he’s staying ahead, but, you know, what are the odds his luck won’t run out?

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source)

Ten more days until taxes are due for the 2009 tax year. And by “due” I mean that they must be postmarked by April 15th, 2010 or you’re in trouble with the IRS.

If you’re doing your own taxes, it’ll be fairly simple. College tuition, scholarships, and college tax credit rules make it slightly more paperwork-y. If your parents are footing your higher education bill, then it’s their taxes that will be wrapped 80 billion times over with red tape. Fun!

Below please find several resources for pertinent tax-time information for college students and their parental units.

2009 Tax Year Deadline: April 15th, 2010
Tax Credits, Deductions, and Tips for Students
U.S. Taxes: Education Credits
IRS: Tax Benefits for Education
College Tuition Tax Credits
The College Tax Breaks Explained
The New, Improved College Tax Credit

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source)

Obama is upgrading the higher education system in this country (we hope), starting with an increase in Pell Grant award amounts. What does that mean for Pell Grant applicants? Who qualifies and for how much? Basically, the results of the FAFSA number-crunching are what determine a student’s eligibility.

Sandra Proulx lays it all out and takes a closer look at Pell Grant qualifications:

…there is no “one size fits all” recipient.
Keep in mind, the Pell Grant is awarded to undergraduates with a high degree of unmet financial need; most Pell money goes to students with a total family income around or below $20,000. But, students whose families have a total income of up to $50,000 may be eligible too. In 2005-2006, students with family incomes of less than $20,000 accounted for 57% of Pell Grant recipients.

…Pell Grant qualifications can be affected by a student’s enrollment status as well as income earned through employment, too. Think about it — if you are enrolled half-time, your tuition is less and therefore you will require less aid. Undergraduates who work while they are enrolled are more likely to have incomes that decrease their eligibility for federal need-based aid (ahh, didn’t think of that, did you?). Some low-income students may even find themselves ineligible for Pell Grants because they are enrolled part time at very low cost colleges, or they work while they are enrolled, or do both. More…

Further Reading:

Excellent FAFSA Resources

Posted by Alexa Harrington