Excelsior

Excelsior

As a military member, the easiest choice I made about college was where to go.  There are countless reasons to choose Excelsior College.  Excelsior has a long tradition of helping military members, and have whole sections of their website dedicated to Military members and Veterans.  They also have staff members who specialize in military and veterans benefits.  They are helpful on the phone or online for assistance any time.  They know all the ins and outs of Tuition Assistance, and they know how to help make the most of your GI Bill.  Classes are affordable for just about anyone, but even more so with TA or the GI Bill.

Excelsior is great about accepting transfer credits.  This includes credits from military training, that’s right; I got college credit for basic training and tech school.  They also accepted my transfer credits from before I joined the military.

Excelsior also offers testing similar to CLEP and DANTES tests that if you pass them you get college credits without even taking the class!  Twelve of my credit hours towards my degree were from tests like this.  I saved a whole semester of school in just a few hours of testing that I barely studied for.  Study guides are available at most libraries, including base libraries, which are designed to help you specifically with these tests.  The best part is that these tests are available for military members to take for free!

Class schedules are flexible, which is very important for Active Duty military members.  They offer classes year around, and their distance learning classes are exceptional.  Their online classes are easy to use, and work well with a busy lifestyle.  I even did one class while I was deployed to Afghanistan.   They have deployment policies to help people through their classes if they get deployed during the semester.

Excelsior is nationally accredited and is a great way to work towards your bachelor’s degree while you’re still in the service.  It is a great way to get your degree so that you can apply for an Officer Commission while you’re enlisted.  Many officers of lots of different career fields including pilots, navigators, intelligence officers, etc have their degree from Excelsior College.

If you’re in the military and you want to pursue a higher education, Excelsior College is the best choice.

*This article was guess written by a friend of mine in the Air Force*

School Help Center

School Help Center

Does your School have a ‘School Help Center‘?   Some schools have put in place a help center where students can go for assistance in any part of their lives.  At this center they can get homework help on virtually any subject or help dealing with a situation at home or even assistance with picking the best college.  Having all these resources located in one area can help a school save money by consolidating.  In a time when staffing cuts are common, this may be a way for schools to be able to continue to offer the same great services with less staffing.

One great service many school help centers offer is access to school consolers which can help the students in many ways.  One common thing the consolers can do is give students advice on how to decide what to do once they graduate high school.  Today there are more options than ever including, Going directly into the work force, attending a college or university, attending an online college or university or even signing up for the military.

Each student will have different needs and desires so its important for any school help center to have information for every type of situation.  Many students today have even found that they can start earning college credits while in high school by attending an online college or university.  This is a great way to get a jump start on their higher education and sometimes the high school can even help with the payments if they don’t offer the class locally!

Every student should ask if their school has a school help center available and if not they could even help their school create one.  It does not take much of anything that is not already available.  An empty class room can serve as a great location.  Once a location is set all it takes is gathering all the information needed and the other resources such as the school consoler and any other tutors or resources into the room.  This can be a permanent placement or just something that is open a few hours per day or week.   Most schools start it off as a small thing and as popularity grows it expands to meet the growing demand.

Its important to work smarter and not harder in these days when money is short and staffing is low in our schools.  Implementing a school help center is a great way to continue helping students on a limited budget.  Many students could even volunteer to help out in the center!

school help center