PRESS RELEASE Spellings Announces Academic Competitiveness and National SMART Grants Data Results Over 360,000 students nation-wide benefiting from these new grants U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the first year national data results from the Academic Competitiveness (AC) and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (National SMART) Grants.

Results show that in the first year, $233,038,410 in Academic Competitiveness Grants were awarded to 299,089 students nation-wide, and $195,544,735 in National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grants were awarded to 60,976 students.

“Math, science and critical foreign language skills are the new currencies in our global economy, and we must continue to work hard to inform students about the money available for them if they take classes in these fields,” said Secretary Spellings. “These grant programs will not only enable more students to attend college but also better prepare our students for a globally competitive workforce.” (more…)

Do you waste time? Are you lazy and indolent or are you continuously on the go, using every minute to the maximum?If you are in the first category, there are a lot of very obvious things you can do to improve, but in this article I want to concentrate on those of us who are already using our time constructively and examine how you can squeeze even more from your day.

You may think that your life is so full that this is impossible, but I recently ran an inventory of how I used my time and realised that there was still some room for improvement. Here’s what I discovered.

Timespace #1 – For years I avoided doing any kind of exercise. It was pretty easy for me, I had been skinny all my life and even though I wasn’t too fit, I was still the right weight. As I got older, though I realised that I had to take my body a bit more seriously. (more…)

#5: Piling Up ‘Incompletes’ on Your Transcripts and/or Taking Too Long to Complete Your WorkBefore you enter a graduate program you should know what the average length of time it takes to complete the program. Generally, the more structured the program the less time it takes. Unlike professional graduate programs such as law, medicine, and business, no degree is guaranteed at the end of several years of coursework. Traditional graduate degree programs with a required thesis or dissertation component have been characterized by less structure, fewer formal classes, more self-motivation and independence.

In spite of an academic environment with less direction and more responsibility, your goal from the very first day of graduate school is to build a professional career. In graduate school your measure of success is not grades; getting all As doesn’t mean anything if you have not developed excellent research skills. (more…)

Many people with ADD find it very difficult to stick to a four-year program at college and to get their degrees. College can be hard for anyone when there are 5 papers due all on the same day. But you have the added handicap of being easily bored and quickly finding distraction. So, though it’s no cakewalk for any college student, getting your degree can be particularly hard when you have ADD.

How can that be helped?

Find a school that will work with you and your ADD. Most colleges require 15 credits to be classified as a full-time student, but most will also allow you to take fewer credits, though you’ll only be classified as part-time. If this isn’t a tax issue for you or your parents, being a part-time student with fewer classes to worry about may be a solution for you. (more…)