Pursuing an online degree can be immensely rewarding, but it does require work and commitment. Like any quality education, obtaining your degree demands the best from you, including strong study habits. This can be a challenge for adult learners who have been out of school for a while. Fortunately, anyone can instill strong study habits. It may take a little practice, but you will be a pro before you know it.
In high school, kids with day planners – students that actually used them – were pretty rare. In the higher stakes world of degree seekers, planning properly is a requirement. This is especially true if you have a busy personal life, including children, a job or social commitments (or all of them). Proper planning and time management is a must at this stage.
Today, a multitude of options exist for planning your days, including apps for your phone and tablet, online calendars and the old tried-and-true paper planners. Whichever you use, try to be consistent. The more you create plans and stick to them, the better you will get at the whole process.
When you first go back to school, make sure you choose classes that you are truly interested in. Going to school again will be challenging. The more enticing your entry-level classes, the easier it will be to transition to the lifestyle of a student. Some people make the mistake of going full force right at the beginning of their education, which can lead to fatigue and frustration. Avoid this by going easy on yourself when you start out. You can always up the intensity later on.
There are probably other adult learners in your class, people that you can bond with and study with. Even if your interaction is completely online, having a human connection is a nice way to keep you motivated. Also, much research indicates that cooperative learning can actually improve student achievement. Schedule a study group with some other students to pool your abilities and attain better results for everyone.
Your available time for study will vary depending on your lifestyle and your commitments, but you must find some time if you want to be successful in your degree. Once you determine a study time, you need to guard it from intrusion. Turning away friends and family can be hard at first, but eventually they will learn to respect your study time and will avoid interrupting you. Be vigilant in this — close the door, put up a sign and refuse to respond unless it is an emergency. Do whatever it takes to protect this valuable time.
This is a strategy utilized by a lot of successful people, student or otherwise. Driving yourself hard into the most difficult task first will ensure you have the most energy to deal with it. Once you have completed that assignment, you will feel re-energized and excited because you know everything else will be easier.
You can review lectures and other audio materials while you are working out, on your morning run or commuting to work each day. Many adults discover they have a lot of extra time in these situations. This is time when you can at least listen to the information you are trying to instill in your mind.
Even the largest projects can be broken down into smaller tasks. You may have never written a ten-page paper before. You may have never written a two-page paper. But you have written a paragraph, and probably a page. Five or six paragraphs make a page, and a page a day is enough to build a novel if you keep at it for a year. Everything can be broken down into smaller pieces, something you want to remember as you tackle progressively more difficult classes.
There are many different approaches to this, but they all rely on the same principle — starting is the hardest part. Once you begin a task, you are more likely to continue and finish it. If you are feeling overwhelmed by a study session or homework, set a timer for 20 minutes. Tell yourself you are going to work full-force for that 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, you can take a break.
You will find that you often continue and finish a task, even if the initial time is up. Even if you don’t, you will only need a few timed sessions to accomplish most tasks.
At Smart Degree, we offer personal mentors for your degree success. If you want more personalized study tips, contact your mentor and see what he or she recommends.
Have you ever walked an unfamiliar path and wished someone more knowledgeable was by your side? Someone who could guide you and point out pitfalls along the way?
As more adult learners step foot on campus or enroll in online college courses, some find themselves lost. Everyday tasks like organizing schedules, completing projects, and registering for classes can seem overwhelming, preventing them from staying on track with their classes, and eventually causing them to abandon school totally.” College mentoring programs have demonstrated the power an ally can have in helping others reach their dreams of undergraduate degree completion, as the story of Estiven Rodriguez shows.
In January of 2014, Rodriguez, the son of a Dominican factory worker, found himself in an unlikely place: an invited guest of President Obama at the State of the Union Address, sitting next to First Lady Michelle Obama herself. As an immigrant and a first-generation college student, he had attended the College Opportunity Summit at the White House the summer before where President Obama pointed to Rodriquez as an example that where we come from and our individual circumstances do not dictate where we go. An invitation to the State of the Union followed and Rodriquez was mentioned in the President’s annual address to Congress.
Just for fun this week, we’re looking at famous graduates (and almost graduates) of Smart Degree partner schools within the arts and entertainment industry. Now, we all know that a college degree is not always needed to become famous in your craft, but do you want to know the best thing about a college degree? Once you’ve earned it, it’s yours for life. No one can take the education, experience and prestige away from you.
And now, without further ado, here is our list of stars:
Erin Andrews – The host of Dancing with the Stars and FOX College Football, Andrews graduated from University of Florida in 2000 with a BA in Telecommunications.
Margaret Carson – A former publicist influential within classical music, Carson earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Toledo followed by a master’s degree from Ohio State University.
Richard DeVore – A famous ceramicist, DeVore earned a bachelor’s in art education from University of Toledo and then went on to earn his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Faye Dunaway – An Academy Award-winning actress (“NO WIRE HANGERS!”), Dunaway studied at Boston University and Florida State University before graduating from University of Florida with a degree in theater.
Mari Evans – A famous poet, Evans studied at the University of Toledo but left prior to earning her degree.
Charlos Gary – A famous comic strip author of the Working It Out series, Gary attended both Ohio State University and University of Toledo.
Philip Baker Hall – A famous actor in films including Secret Honor, Hard Night, Boogie Nights and Magnolia, Hall went 
to college at the University of Toledo.
Jon Hendricks – A famous jazz lyricist and singer, Hendricks studied pre-law at University of Toledo.
Jeff Johnson – A journalist and motivational speaker who appeared on Rap City to discuss a variety of issues including violence and voting, Johnson was the president of the student government and the black student union at University of Toledo.
Leopoldo Minaya – An award-winning poet, Minaya received his law degree from the University of Santo Domingo and later studied urban education at Mercy College.
Olivia Peguero – A famous contemporary landscape and botanical painter, Peguero earned a BFA in studio painting from Florida Atlantic University, a bachelor’s in management information systems from Mercy College and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.
Cale Young Rice – A famous American poet and dramatist, he attended Cumberland University and Harvard University.
George Beverly Shea – A gospel singer and hymn composer nominated for 10 Grammy Awards and the recipient of the Best Gospel or Other Religious Recording (Musical) award for “Southland Favorites” in 1965, Shea attended Annesley College and Houghton College, where he sang with the Houghton College Glee Club.
Gabourey Sidibe – An Oscar-nominated actress famous for her role in Precious, Sidibe attended Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College of New York before graduating from Mercy College.
Danny Thomas – A comedian, producer and actor most famous for the TV show Make Room for Daddy (later known as The Danny Thomas Show), Thomas attended University of Toledo.
Arnold Voketaitis – A former New York City Opera singer, Voketaitis is a graduate of Quinnipiac University.
Joan Wolf – An author of romance novels, Wolf earned her bachelor’s degree at Mercy College followed by a master’s degree in English and comparative literature at Hunter College.
If you know you have what it takes to be a star, but you’re not sure what field is right for you, the free career assessments offered by Smart Degree can help. Just contact a Smart Degree mentor or click here to sign up and get started.
There are so many great reasons to become a lawyer, ranging from large salaries (the median lawyer salary was $114,300 in 20131) to prestige to having the intellectual challenge of solving problems or convincing others to believe your side of the story. But perhaps the best reason to be a lawyer is the chance to help others. The American Bar Association published reasons in their ABA Journal why lawyers love their jobs, including the following tales:
Not surprisingly for such a rewarding profession, it requires a lot of schooling to become a lawyer: a bachelor’s degree plus a law degree. And then you typically have to pass the bar examination for the state in which you’ll practice.
Not up for it yet? “Lawyer” is just one of the types of law careers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists five groups of legal occupations:
If you’re thinking about entering a law career, getting started on your bachelor’s degree is a great way to start. Smart Degree partner schools have graduated a number of top individuals in the legal profession, including:
Not sure if a law career is the right for you? Take a career assessment to see where your skills and interests lie. If you’re signed up with Smart Degree, you can get started right away.
1Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Do you have a hankering for Hawking? Dream of Darwin? Meditate on Marie Curie, or envy Einstein? Maybe you want to invent a tool that will be used to make life better for decades and centuries to come. Or perhaps you want to be the one that discovers something important, to actually change what we’re taught in school (like Pluto being a “massive body” and not a planet).
How do you get started? Well, it’s not a requirement, but a college degree can certainly help. One of the great benefits of a college degree is that, no matter what you study, the coursework involved teaches you to be a better thinker – to think scientifically. In fact, the general education courses alone are designed to make you more well-rounded and comfortable with topics ranging from math to politics to, well, science.
Of course, you’re going to eventually want to pick an area of focus. After all, “science” is a pretty broad term. Astronaut Dr. Sally Ride, made the suggestion, “…find something that you really like and then pursue it as far as you can…” when answering how to follow in her footsteps. That’s because NASA, like other employers of scientists, recruits people with a diversity of backgrounds and education. Just look at this list of 38 typical college degrees NASA seeks for aerospace technology positions. It varies from astronomy to ceramics to mathematics.
We have more good news – a number of famous scientists graduated from Smart Degree partner schools. Here’s a list of some of them to get you inspired:
One of the great things about science is you don’t have to figure everything out right away. Dive into a subject you find interesting and discover where it takes you. Career assessments are a great way to point yourself in the right direction, and you can get started on them right away if you’re signed up for Smart Degree.
We can’t wait to find out what will make you famous!