The Other SAT (StraighterLine Aptitude Test)

If you’ve been paying attention to the posts on this blog, you know that we took a swipe recently – a BIG swipe – at the stranglehold that the Scholastic Aptitude Test has on American higher education.

What can we offer as an alternative? In the interest of fair play, we are offering up an SAT of our own – the StraighterLine Aptitude Test. So sharpen up your pencil, put fresh AAA’s in your calculator and here we go . . .

MATH SECTION

1. A small state college charges $250 per credit hour and requires you to take a minimum of four courses a semester, each carrying three credit hours. At StraighterLine, you can take those same four courses for $39 apiece*. Your total savings for taking those four courses at StraighterLine would be:
a) $150
b) $2,844
c) $39,965
d) All of the above
*after paying $99/month for as long as you are enrolled; that sum is not included in the calculations for this question.

WRITING SECTION

2. Paying an extra $2,844 to earn 12 college credits could only be described as ______.
a) Insane
b) Irrational
c) Irresponsible
d) All of the above

READING SECTION

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows it.

Given the current recession, families are becoming belligerent when faced with rising college expenses that can often rise to $40,000, $50,000 or even more in the current educational arena.

3. In the above passage, the word “belligerent” (line 1) most closely means:
a) Angry
b) Hostile
c) Argumentative
d) All of the above

ESSAY SECTION

Read the following quote from a recent article in BusinessWeek:

“The idea of some kind of open-source, online, low-cost revolution in education has become a lit fuse, sparking and crackling its way toward an explosion. Here and there, in places ranging from Silicon Valley to Indonesia, a few bold universities and entrepreneurs are taking pokes at the concept. Start-ups such as StraighterLine . . . are offering online courses for college credit for hundreds of dollars, compared with thousands of dollars at most universities.”

Assignment: Write an essay that answers the question, “Is there ever a justification for spending a minimum of $2,844 to pay for four college courses, when you can save that amount at StraighterLine for the same four courses?" Support your viewpoint with personal observations and supporting material of your choice.

How to Submit Your Score

Not all colleges will accept the Straighterline Aptitude Test in place of the standard SAT. But we will! Contact us now to find out how to get started.

Answer key:
Question 1: B
Question 2: D
Question 3: D

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The Final Four: Why It Costs More to Sit in the Stands than it Costs to Earn College Credits

Which costs less – attending college basketball games or earning college credits?

Okay, that’s a trick question. But before you answer it, here’s some perspective. Let’s say that you’d like to head out to Indianapolis to watch the men’s NCAA Final Four, or off to San Antonio to watch the women’s. Good for you, but you’d better bring suitcases full of money.

If you visit the NCAA’s Website and click on the “buy tickets now” tab, you will find a variety of packages that let you reserve game tickets and hotel rooms. (These packages are not sold by the NCAA, but by sports travel packagers.) And guess what? If you are traveling alone, you will have to pay about $2,500 for a package that includes a five day/four night stay in a hotel and tickets to the games. If you are traveling in a group of four and you don’t mind bunking with your friends, you can cut that cost to about $1,500 apiece. Those rates don’t include airfare – but they do include hotel breakfasts and a lanyard for each member of your party. (Hopefully, a pretty nice lanyard.)

If you compare those sums to the cost of earning college credits at StraighterLine, you will find that earning college credits really does cost a lot less than basketball tickets. At StraighterLine, you can take as many online college courses as you like for $39 apiece after paying a monthly fee of $99 for as long as you are enrolled in the program.

With the money you save, you can become a college student instead of just watching them run around in short pants. You can also use the money to buy a flat-screen TV to watch the NCAA finals. And after those expenditures, you’ll still have money left to buy lanyards for all your friends.

So think about it. StraighterLine is an extraordinary bargain.


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Breaking the SAT’s Choke Hold on American Education

Did you know that the first Scholastic Aptitude Test was administered way back in 1901?

Fewer than 1,000 students took it that year. Over the years, the SAT grown from a psychological experiment into a test that is taken by between 1.5 and 2 million students every year, at $45 a pop. Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organization that administers the SAT, doesn’t like to tell how many students line up to take the test annually.

The SAT has become a staggering money-maker for ETS, and for dozens of other businesses that swim alongside it like those remora fish that swim next to sharks, scavenging the dollars that ETS has somehow let slip through its jagged teeth. These hangers-on include tutoring companies that charge jumbo fees to coach students to take the test. Also, publishers that churn out new manuals every year on how to ace the test. Plus, software companies that sell packages designed to help kids boost their scores.

And let’s not forget there is another test, the ACT, has entered the field of battle too. The ACT is administered by a nonprofit organization. It was planned as a rational alternative to the SAT. Good idea! But the bottom line is, students still have to pay $32 to take it – or $47 if they opt for the longer version that includes a writing section. And many students today are taking both tests, just to see how they do.

Just how much money are students feeding into this educational meat grinder every year? Again, it’s anybody’s guess. But even if only 1.5 million kids are paying $45 apiece to take the SAT, that alone is stuffing $67.5 million into ETS’s coffers. And that’s just the foundation under all the SAT-spawned businesses. In total, the profits generated from this one test probably come close to the GNP of a third-world country.

It all begs the question, why is the SAT test still in business? There are many justifications for it – it helps students gain access to competitive colleges, and so on. But let’s face it. The SAT is mostly a service provided to colleges and universities, not to students. For colleges and universities, the SAT offers a quick way to discourage under-qualified students from choking their admissions offices with applications. Also, the SAT serves as a down-and-dirty tool for eliminating under-qualified students from consideration after they have applied. Into the dumpster go the applications from students with SAT scores that fall below a cut-off point that the college has determined. In an admissions office with applications piling high, that’s a valuable tool to have.

So, if the colleges and universities are the entities that benefit from the SAT, why don’t they pay for students to take it, instead of forcing the student to pay? It’s just another one of the cruel ironies about the SAT.

In light of the fact that the SAT generally benefits the schools instead of the students, why aren’t more ethical educators speaking up against the test? Actually, many are. A growing number of institutions are no longer requiring their applicants to submit scores from either the SAT or the ACT. They include specialized schools (such as the Beth Yehuda Yeshiva in Pennsylvania, the Baptist Bible College in Missouri, and a number of fine arts schools), but also more prestigious institutions that include Drew University in New Jersey, Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, and the schools in the University of California system.

Fighting Back . . .

How can you avoid feeding bushels full of dollars into the standardized testing monster?

• You could apply for an SAT fee waiver, which ETS makes available to some needy students.
  
• You could apply only to colleges that no longer require standardized tests.
  
• Another way? Start out at StraigherLine, and start earning college credits with no standardized testing requirements whatsoever. Then consider transferring your StraighterLine credits to Potomac College or one of StraighterLine’s other affiliated, accredited colleges.

Yes, there is a better way. And do you know what? You just found it.


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3 Classic Study Strategies that Speed Online Learning

If you want to get some perspective about the power of computers as teaching machines, think about Socrates. That’s right – Socrates, the dude who did himself in by drinking hemlock juice. History tells us that every day, Athenian students would gather in a circle around Socrates while he gave long talks and engaged them in spirited conversations.

That’s a pretty inefficient way to learn. Today, we can fire up our computers and review page after page of information, all presented in an engaging, interactive format. If Socrates saw the teaching power of computers, he would probably drop his toga and run for the nearest Best Buy to get one of his own.

Yes, computers are powerful learning tools. But the problem is, they are also capable of quickly delivering vast quantities of information - more information than most people can easily absorb. If you’ve ever had the feeling that it’s challenging to shuttle all that information from your computer screen into your cerebral cortex, these classic learning strategies can help.

1. Strategy one: Take notes. Sounds pretty unexciting, right? But the fact is, taking notes on paper while you are studying online is a highly effective way to internalize information. And there is more to it than simply writing down facts so you can study them later on. When you write down information, you remember more of it. Try it – it works.
   
   
2. Strategy two: Talk to people about what you are learning. Old Socrates knew the power of dialogue as a learning tool. When you talk stuff over, you remember more of it. And it still works today. So if you’re taking say, an online accounting course, get in the habit of saying to a friend, “Hey, let me tell you what I learned today.” (You might need to get new friends every week or two, but you’re learning, right?)
   
   
3. Strategy three: Start using your knowledge as soon as you can. If you’re taking an online college statistics course, say, start analyzing companies right away – or find a way to start using your new analytical chops on the job. One of the most powerful ways to internalize concepts is to start using them. As soon as information becomes practical, not theoretical, it sticks in your mind.
   

And another strategy for better online learning . . .

Make sure to select online courses that have been developed by organizations like Straighterline, that deliver information in an engaging, interactive format. It takes great course developers to create great online college courses – and you’ll find them here.


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The New York Times Questions that Value of For-Profit Trade Schools

We all know that there’s a boom happening in post-secondary trade schools. Chances are that you have seen some of them opening their doors not far from where you live. Some of these schools can teach you to be a chef or a computer technician. Others will train you to be an electrician, a medical information processor or an X-ray technician.

There’s a reason why these schools are booming. Some of them offer training for professions where a lot of hiring is actually taking place. Some of them offer lots of job-placement assistance to their grads. And most of them help incoming students qualify for federal loans and other sources of financial aid.

Yet a recent article in the New York Times, “The New Poor: In Hard Times, Lured into Trade School and Debt,” reports some troubling news about how trade schools are conducting business. Here’s a summary of what Peter S. Goodman, the author’s article, found out:

• The tuition is no bargain. The national average is $14,000 a year. Some students are paying $30,000 a year or more.

• Many of the schools derive a large part of their profits from “harvesting” federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants that were created to help low-income students. “For-profit schools have long derived the bulk of their revenue from federal loans and grants,” Goodman writes, “and the percentages have been climbing sharply.” One example: According to the article, the Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix, “derived 86 percent of its revenue from federal student aid last fiscal year. . .”

• Some trade schools exaggerate the number of jobs that are awaiting their graduates. Goodman interviewed one student who racked up $30,000 in loans to train to become an auto body craftsman – but who is now earning $12 an hour repairing foreclosed homes.

So the bottom line is . . .

Remember the old saying, “Let the buyer beware.” Investigate any school, and its placement percentages, before enrolling. And remember, earning college credits through online study at an institution like StraighterLine is still the greatest educational bargain on the landscape today.

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How Distance Learners Can Make College Rock

There’s more to higher education than sitting in a classroom. After hitting the books, college students play ultimate, date, party, flirt, order pizza, and grab late-night lattes to keep their eyes open.

Sound good? Yes, it is. But what if you are a distance learner? Does that mean that you can’t enjoy all those extras? Not necessarily. Here are some ways to keep college rocking, even if your campus looks more like a laptop than a grassy quad.

• Join a Facebook Group for your online college. Our StraighterLine group is a great example. It works like a virtual campus where students can connect and communicate about their online college experiences.
  
  
• Visit your online school’s blog and comment on what you see there. Hopefully, your school has one where you can stay attuned to what is happening – and interact with your school’s representatives and other students.

• Create your own Facebook Group to stay connected to other students in your area. Setting up a Facebook Group is quick and easy. Consider starting one for students who are taking the same courses that you are – or for all distance learners who live in your area. The result? An instant community that keeps the college experience real.

• Set up a Twitter account and send out tweets about your learning experiences. The result can be a fast-growing community of people who are attending your online school – or tweeting about distance learning in general. Example: A quick search for “Straighterline” on Twitter just turned up a bunch of tweets that have already been flying around about us.

• Find real-world replacements for the stuff that your online school doesn’t offer. Instead of the university gym, you can head to your local health club. Instead of hanging at the dining hall, you can grab lunch with other students – maybe those who you just met on Facebook or Twitter. Instead of flirting with that cutie over a foamy barista drink, you can . . . hey, we don’t have to tell you everything, do we?

The point is, taking courses online doesn’t mean that you have to go it alone.


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Why Online Study Takes the Risk Out Of Learning

If you’ve been visiting this blog, you already know the benefits of taking college courses online. You can save money – a lot of it - and even cut the cost of your first college year down to a few thousand dollars. You can pursue your studies at the pace that’s right for you. You can take your classes anywhere, anytime.

But you might not have stopped to consider that online learning has one other big benefit too. It reduces the high cost of failure in your college work – and we all know that with tuition costs today, failure can cost you a lot of money.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways online study takes the risk out of learning:

• Reason #1: You minimize the cost of failure. If you take a class in a regular college and you don’t do well, that course will appear on your college transcript indefinitely. Plus, you paid a lot of money for it. It you study online and a course doesn’t go too well, there is very little downside. You simply don’t have your results reported to the colleges where you are applying, or you don’t report them to your employer. The bottom line? You can try the course before it counts for real.
  
  
• Reason #2: You can front-load your learning. If you have to take a course in English composition in your first year of college, why not hone your skills by taking an online writing course before you arrive at school? The result? You start your learning from an advantageous place.
  
  
• Reason #3: You can shore up weak areas as you go along. You could look pretty bad if a professor calls on you in a classroom and asks, “What’s the difference between a trapezoid and a parallelogram?” But if that same question comes up during your online study, you simply pause the course while you look up the information. The result? You get the knowledge, not the blame.
  
  
• Reason #4: You can take the time you need to prepare for tests and exams. In a regular college setting, you have to take tests and exams on the dates your instructors specify, whether you are ready or not. In online college courses, you can vote yourself extra time to study before you log on and take your tests. The benefit? You can take more time to prepare carefully and earn better grades.
  

Online study represents a terrific, risk-minimized value with a very big upside. So before you write that big check and walk into a college classroom, why not give college online learning a try?


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Happy Pi Day

March 14 is Pi Day. No, that is not a typo. It means that 3/14 is the day when people the world round (some people, anyway) celebrate the invention of that wonderful number, 3.14, known as Pi. (Actually, you can roll Pi out to 3.141593 and then keep adding numbers infinitely to the right.)

Need a brush-up? Okay, here we go.

Pi is a number that is equal to the value of the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter. Just when Pi was discovered is anybody’s guess, but there is evidence that the ancient Egyptians already knew about it in about 2,500 B.C., when they constructed the Great Pyramid at Giza. The neat thing about Pi is that it is the same for any circle – whether it’s your wedding ring or a manhole cover or a crop circle that just appeared in your back yard.

If you want to analyze a circle, Pi is an incredibly useful ratio. Circles, you know, are ornery geometrical shapes. If you want to know the area of a square, you simply square the length of one side, and you know it. Even triangles aren’t that tough. But circles are a lot tougher – as you might have noticed, they have no sides.

But armed with Pi, you can find out just about anything you need to know about any circle, by using one of the following formulas:

To find the area of a circle, the formula is Pi x R2. (Pi times the radius squared.) In everyday English, that means that you measure the width of a circle at its widest point (the diameter), divide that in half (that tells you the radius), and multiply that times Pi (3.14). Presto! You now know the area of your banana crème pie, or any other circle.

To find the circumference of a circle, the formula is Pi x D. (Pi times the diameter.) In other words, you measure the width of the circle at its widest point (the diameter) and multiply that times Pi (3.14). Viola! You now know the distance you will have to go if someone makes you walk around the world’s largest pizza, 30 feet across, that was just baked for your state fair.

Learning More about Mathematics

If it’s been a while since you studied mathematics – or if you would like to study math for the first time - maybe this would be a good time to take a college-level math course online that can teach you the basics.

In addition to Pi, you might even learn about the Pythagorean Theorem, which can help you analyze triangles.

Want another quick review? Pythagoras, who invented that theorem, was a Greek mathematician who lived about 500 B.C. According to legend, his mathematical discoveries were so powerful that he figured out a way to appear in two different cities simultaneously, where he would give speeches to people. You might not discover how to do that in your mathematics course. But one thing for sure. You will discover a way to have your Pi and eat it too.

Special Offer:

Enroll in one of our College Algebra, Precalculus, or Statistics online college courses between 3/9/10 and 3/20/10 and save $31.42 (Pi x 10 - rounded). Just enroll in a course then call our customer support department and tell them you want your Pi Day Blog discount and they will give you a one-time $31.42 refund on your monthly subscription fee. Go ahead and celebrate Pi Day – it is fun, educational and you can save some money...

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Are Public Colleges a Hedge Against Rampaging Tuition Costs?

Only a few years ago, many college applicants regarded state universities as discount-priced “safety schools” that they could fall back on if other schools rejected them.

That scenario is quickly changing. Here are some of the reasons why . . .

Tens of thousands more students are applying to state schools. According to The Boston Globe, 2008 applications for early admission to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst surged 29 percent over the previous year. The same article also reports that applications to Framingham State and Westfield State increased by more than 40 percent in that same year. And according to one source at the University of Massachusetts, applications are just as heavy this year, and many applicants are going to be disappointed.

It makes sense. When a parent loses a job or the family house lurches toward foreclosure, the first words that come to mind are, “State School.” The result is that state schools are fielding many more applications than they did in past years.

Admission to state schools has become more competitive. According to data on MyChances.net, a Website that compiles statistics on college applications, about 53 percent of applicants to Florida State University were rejected last year. Those statistics don’t put Florida State in the ultra-competitive admissions category (top-tier universities can reject as many as 90 percent of applicants). But make no mistake about it – admission to a state schools is no longer a given, even for state residents.

Tuition at state schools is predicted to rise. A recent CNN article, “Tuition at Public Colleges and University Skyrockets” reports that “Tuition at many public colleges and universities is skyrocketing, thanks to state budget deficits that have choked off funding for higher education.” The article further reports that tuition will jump between 10 and 15 percent at the universities of Florida, Nevada and Washington. And the University of California expects to raise tuition by as much as 30 percent, thanks to the state’s budgetary shortfalls.

So are state universities still the safe, economical choices that they once were? Yes, but the window seems to be closing on the opportunity to take advantage of this educational bargain.

A better choice? It might be a good time to investigate sources of online college course instruction.

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College in Three Years?

“Some colleges offering 3-year bachelor's degrees”

An article just published in USA Today, reports that a small number of American colleges are starting to offer degrees in three years instead of the traditional four. Justin Pope, author of the article, writes: “Not much else seems to be helping keep down college costs, so maybe this will: a three-year college degree.”

What colleges are offering three-year degrees? One is Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, According to Pope, Hartwick is the “most high profile school yet” to offer the option of completing a degree in three years.

But other colleges have officially entered the fray too. A little online research shows that they include Chatham University, Purdue University the University of North Carolina at Greensborough.

Of course, some smart students have discovered other strategies to cut their degree programs down by a year or even more:

• Simply take more courses in each of the semesters when you are in school. Taking five courses in one term might not be easy, but it could save one of those $50,000 annual tuition fees.
• Earn credit for life experience. To find out how, talk to admissions officers at the colleges where you are applying.
• Pack your high school schedule with lots of advanced placement (AP) classes. It’s a no-cost way to earn college credit and shorten your time on campus.
• Take college courses online and then transfer the credit that they carry to another institution.
  

So, is it possible to cut your time in college down to three years – or maybe even two? Yes, it is. With the growing cost of education, it’s a trend that is likely to grow.

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Can the U.S. Government Help You Pay for College?

"The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens.”
- President Barack Obama’s speech on education, March 10, 2009

Since President Barack Obama spoke those words nearly one year ago, has the U.S. Department of Education done anything to make it easier for Americans to attend college?

The short answer to that question is, yes it has! In fact, the government has significantly ramped up its efforts to help Americans access higher education. It’s helping provide grants and loans to worthy students – and you can be the beneficiary.

If you want to learn about government sources of financial aid, here are some links to online sources of funding information:

• The U.S. Department of Education’s main Website gives an overview of government sources of financial aid.
• The Department of Education’s Guide to Student Aid Programs is a free downloadable PDF guide to sources of funding.
• The Discretionary Grant Application Website lists Department of Education grant programs that are currently open, with links to application forms and information. (Content changes.)
• The IES Funding Opportunities Website provides information on research funding opportunities from the Institute for Education Sciences. (Content changes.)
• Grants.gov is a listing of government grant competitions – both education grants and others.
• GovBenefits.gov offers information on more than 1,000 government assistance programs for education and other purposes.
• The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a standardized financial aid application that is accepted by nearly every college and university in America.
• E-grants.ed.gov is a portal to the Department of Education’s online grant application system, with links to application packages for various programs.
• EDPubs offers a list of downloadable application packages for a number of grant competitions. (Content changes.)
  

Many of these grants can help for online education too. If you start clicking on the links above, you could fund that the government really is waiting to help you pursue your educational goals.

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