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^{The 21st Century has seen the number of online colleges virtually explode. Where once there maybe a few dozen there are now several hundred. This is a good thing for the shopping student. The greater the selection, the better one’s chances of finding a school that fits one’s particular needs.}

^{This is a good thing. If the number of schools online is on the increase, so are the odds of finding one that best suits your particular needs. Still, with that many operations offering online degrees, what are some tips to help find that one? Here are some tips to help you narrow the field.}

^{Make sure the college is accredited. This means whatever credits you earn can be transferred to another university, on or offline, with a minimum loss. This is particularly important if you are upgrading your degree, from Associates to Bachelors, Masters to Doctorate. The best way to check is to go to the U.S. Department of Education. See if they recognize the school. If the DoE recognizes it, then the school is truly accredited. If it doesn’t, time to move on.}

Check out the resumes of the teaching staff. If you are taking a creative writing course, find out if you’re teacher is a published author and where she has published. If you’re taking a computer course, who and what have your prof worked on? How long have they been teaching and where did they get their educations? Also find out how accessible the teaching staff is. The more accessible, the better.

Third, don’t forget graduate school scholarships. Not only as a way of helping pay your way, but as a way to weigh the legitimacy of the school. The more financial aid options the school provides, from federal funding to private grants, the more recognized the school is in the outside world. Another thing to consider is if the school offers tuition installment payment plans. If it does, that takes some or the pain out of the paying.

Remember you are going for an online education so that you aren’t restricted by schedules. Therefore make sure make sure the classes they offer are available at times convenient to you. In fact, some of the materials, such as educational files and videos, should be accessible 24-7. You should be able to start a course anytime, but still be able to complete it within a certain time limit.

Will the course load involve any offline/field research? While the internet has become a good substitute for an average library–and that’s fine for a lot of disciplines–getting a medical or nursing degree of some type should involve actually putting one’s hands on a patient. See how the online university handles such a situation.

In all, getting an online education is not like it was ten years ago. Back in those hoary old days before the 21st Century, there were only a handful of schools, so they could set the agenda. Ten years later and there are now hundreds of online academies. This means you, the student, are much more in control. Remember that when you make your final decision and you’ll do well.

It’s now time to hit the books and get to work. If you thought getting student loans, registering and setting your course load was tough, think again. Now it’s time to actually get your online degree. That can be as much as a four-year long grind, and approaching it without a touch of internal discipline is a sure way to failure. Oh yes, this discipline applies outside the online arena as well.

One could say going to school while holding down a job and in living in the offline world is similar. What one has to do is strike a balance, both online and off, and going to college online won’t seem anywhere as difficult. Here are five tips to help you get started.

Become Adept at Time Management – Set a schedule for yourself, and stick to it. Tell the kids not to bother you between the hours of 8:00 to 11:00 pm unless it’s an absolute emergency, your spouse too. Also, sticking to that kind of schedule will develop the regularity you need to do this over the long haul. Developing that kind of discipline at home will carry into your study.

Manage Your Time Online, Too – The backbone of an college degree is its syllabus and its schedule. The syllabus explains what you are going to learn. The schedule sets the pace for how fast you are going to learn it. Used properly, the schedule is your friend. It’s been used on hundreds of students before you ever knew it existed. It helps you plan your time, both on and offline.

Have Backup; Offline – Make sure to have a member of your household, extended family, or just a good friend to run interference for you while you study. If that person keeps the distractions to a minimum, it will help your studies exponentially.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Help; Online & Offline – Online conferencing with your teacher and fellow students is an absolutely invaluable tool. So is making friends with your local librarian or someone who has already where you want to be. You can get incredible information from your colleagues, both inside and outside your school of choice. So don’t be afraid to involve yourself. The payoff could be invaluable.

If You’re Having A Problem, Say So! – No professor expects his students to absorb his/her information at the same pace. Said teacher would much prefer that if the student has some kind of issue, that they speak up and as quickly as possible. S/he who hesitates to speak up, Fails, plain and simple. Those who do so as quickly as possible will find guidance easily available.

Upon reading this these tips seem so obvious, don’t they? Yet you’d be surprised how quickly common sense goes jumping out the window when a person pursues their online degree. Using these simple rules will clear many a problem before they even start.

Many nursing professionals are happy right where they are and do not achieve a higher level of competency and responsibility. It’s a perfectly understandable contentment. Those with an RN have valuable medical knowledge and professional competency. There is potential for much greater knowledge and responsibility. With an RN BSN Online degree, current registered nurses are able to increase their leadership, improve their pay, and grow in their effectiveness as a nurse.

Barriers to Obtaining a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing

Obviously, whenever someone mentions “continuing education” or suggests getting a bachelors of science in nursing, there are plenty of objections. Here are the big ones.

•    Time. Who has the time to fit in an education around a full work schedule, mealtimes, commitments, family, friends, fun, and who-knows-what-else? How often do you hear someone saying they have tons of time on their hands? Very few, especially among nurses, many of whom work long hours and are called upon for emergencies and extra shifts.

•    Schedule. A nurse’s schedule is the least accommodating to continuing education, especially considering the demands of nursing degree programs. For nurses, twelve-hour shifts, late-night hours, and weekend time all combine to combat any effort to take classes.

•    Cost. And then there is the money factor. Education costs money. And few people in the current economic climate have money to burn.

Overcoming the Barriers

So there are barriers – pretty significant ones, it seems. If you really want to get your BSN, there are ways to hurdle the obstacles. Now, RNs can obtain their bachelors of science in nursing through an online BSN degree. With coursework, tests, class involvement, projects, and total degree completion all available on the Internet, few of the barriers retain their threat. Here’s why.

•    An online BSN takes much less time. With no commute, a pace that fits you as an individual, and the ability to speed up or slow down as you see fit, the time argument flies out the window. Yes, it takes time. The benefit is you get to decide exactly how long and when to take that time.

•    Schedule. Not an issues here. An online BSN fits the schedule of anyone, even nurses. Want to go to class at 2am after the late shift at the hospital? Not an issue. Log on, and you’re ready to go. Maybe you’re a morning person and can crank out a few classes at the beginning of your day. Whatever your limitations, preferences, or constraints, an online BSN adapts to your challenges.

•    Cost. An online BSN can cost less than attending a brick-and-mortar educational institution. With no need for transportation, and no extra enrollment costs, you are saving money from the start. But the real cost factor comes when you realize that obtaining a bachelors of science in nursing means, most likely, a significant salary advantage for you. More education translates into more pay. Choosing not to go from RN to BSN means a lifetime of lower pay.

Only Advantages

With the recent advances of Internet education comes a major advantage for nursing professionals. For the RN interested in gaining his or her bachelors of science in nursing, there are only advantages to getting an online BSN.

Colorado Christian University challenges students in their nursing degree programs to become compassionate and competent nurses who will impact their profession.  From an associate or bachelor’s degree in nursing to their graduate degree programs, CCU is arming students with tools needed to be the top of their field.

The history of our country can easily be paralleled to the history of college grants. In fact, grants for college were created in 1643, when one Lady Anne Radcliffe Mowlson set up the first such fund for Harvard. Another important act happened in 1862, when then President Abraham Lincoln created the ROTC and the state college system. Then in 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented the GI Bill to Congress.

One of the beneficiaries of such a student loans and grants was one Claiborne Pell. He obtained his Bachelors before World War II, and then served in the Great War until it ended in 1945. From there, he got his Masters from Columbia University thanks in part to the GI Bill. He would go on to be part of the officials that created the United Nations and become a U.S. Senator.

In 1972, Pell promoted an act to create the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant, also known as the BEOG. It would provide federal money, based on need, for academically worthy students to achieve advanced degrees. It became so successful that in 1980, Congress renamed it to the Pell Grant, which this act still goes by.

The grants for online college has changed considerably. Over the years, it had expanded its qualifications, allowing more students to get financial aid. That’s ended up being a two-edged sword. While the number grants permitted has grown geometrically, the cost of going for that degree, whether for a campus or online degree, has risen even more.

When it comes to obtaining college grants, the U.S. Department of Education has just released a report that’s truly cautionary. It shows the maximum amount of money one can get from Pell Grants has increased to as much as $5,350, the cost of higher education has increased to over $15,000 per year.

Even with President Obama pushing for an increase next year to $5,750 a year, these college grants will only cover barely a third of overall college costs. The cost of a higher education is clearly outstripping the money the Fed is willing to give.

For comparison, USA Today reports that when the Pell started in 1973, the maximum college loans was $452, but the average tuition at that time was $438. In hard numbers, if Obama’s proposal goes through, the Pell will have gone up 1275%. At the same time, costs have exploded by 3400%, nearly three times faster than the money provided to the Pell. To top it, state grants have shrunk considerably, citing the current economy as the reason.

The good news is there still are plenty of other grants out there besides the Pell. It takes a work and patience to get more than just the Pell. Still, private grants like the one Lady Mowlson gave Harvard are out there. You just have to look for them, and you could be on your way to that Bachelors degree everyone needs to advance in these modern times.

It’s one thing to decide to advance your education. It’s quite another thing to get those college grants to help you advance your education. No one wants to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt before they get their diploma.

The simple truth is there are thousands of programs offering millions of dollars in grants for online college. True, there are others professional grant writers will warn are frauds. So how can you get your hands on some of those legitimate grants for college?

What it takes is patience, stamina and resourcefulness. If you have your share of all three qualities, there very well could be a a Bachelors, college courses online or trade certificate in your future, without a debt that will haunt you for many years to come. Here are five tips that will help you considerably:

1) Take A Hard Look At Yourself – Are you a single parent? Do you have a physical impediment? Were you the head chair of the first violin section of your high school orchestra? Are you an athlete who didn’t make the pros? Have you done your share of community service? Be extremely self-critical. List the positives and the negatives. Many negatives become positives when it comes to financial aid, particularly if the goal is self-improvement.

2) Do Your Research – Whether at home or wherever you can get your hands on a computer, services such as Google, Bing and Yahoo are crammed with information. You’ll find over 14 million different listings by just typing “grant for online school,” ranging from full service academic institutions, online degrees to trade school assistance. A good place to start is with the Federal government itself. The U.S. Department of Education has a site devoted to this issue.

3) Sift The Chaff – When there are that many different organizations saying offering “free” money, one can bet a number of them are looking to get “free” money out of you. A handy tip is if they want to be paid up front, get back on the net and double check. Type the individual/organization’s name and followed by the word “scam.” If that name is filled with scam alerts, think twice before proffering your credit card or bank account info.

From there, you should talk to financial aid officers. Just about every institution of higher learning employ a number of them these days These people are paid to help you find the cash to study at their place of employment. The more students they help, the more money they bring to their school…and in these days of 10% national unemployment, that helps them keep their jobs. Cynical? Yes, but also true. Use them.

5) Go For As Many Grants As You Can – Not every institution is going to give you money. At the same time, the deeper the pool, the better your chances of scoring those grants. So if you find ten different institutions that fit you, go for all of them, no matter how much paperwork it means filling out.

Federal financial aid is like free money. Get a grant and you never have to repay the government. If you need money to pursue your degree, there are more funds available this year whether you’re studying online or in class.

The first step is filling out a “free application for federal student aid” or FAFSA. This one application makes students eligible for all federal, state and some private institution programs. You can download the application from the U-S Department of Education website. If you don’t have a computer, check your local library.  Federal student loans and grants is good at more than five thousand colleges and universities.

The U-S Department of Education distributes grants based on financial need. Students must be pursuing an undergraduate degree or a professional degree. The money is awarded based on family income and expenses. Only 10% of student who get Pell Grants came from families earning more than $41,000 a year.

The U-S Department of Education decides which students receive financial aid based on need. The money is awarded based on a family’s income and expenses. Students must be enrolled in an undergraduate degree program or a professional program. Only 10% of students who get Pell Grants came from families earning more than $41,000 a year.

To get a Pell Grant for an online degree program, you will generally need to study a field that is in short supply, such as science or education. There are other grants available specifically for online students. For students with grave financial need there is the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant. The Academic Competitiveness Grant benefits students who graduated from an academically rigorous high school program.

The amount of money a student gets is determined not only by financial need, but also tuition costs and enrollment. There is even special assistance if a student lost a parent or guardian died in military service after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The same amount is given to each student each year, which makes budgeting for your education easier.

Last year, the maximum amount given was just over five thousand dollars. The federal government has increased college loans for the 2010 to 2011 school year. Qualifying students receive checks at least once each semester or trimester. The school can pay you directly, apply the funds directly to your tuition or a combination of both.

Your school or the Department of Education website will have even more information on Pell Grants and the FAFSA.  Grants are the best kind of financial aid, because you don’t have to repay the money. So, if you need money for college or an online degree, spending a little time filling out an application can pay off.