Student Credit Cards

Getting a student credit card for your son or daughter has many more advantages than disadvantages; it's a first steep to building credit while in college. Getting a student credit card enables students to slowly build their credit, assuming they pay their bills on time every month. Good credit history will help them when they need good credit to apply for car loans and to pass credit checks when they rent apartments or residences after college. A basic credit building tactic involves getting a student credit card and staying within the credit limit to purchase clothing, school supplies, food and other essentials while at school - and making prompt payments when the bills come due. Make sure you son or daughter is responsible enough to use it wisely. If not, you might want to hold of on getting them one as their credit history will be with them for the rest of their life. They need to learn about the importance of being smart with money; this is one of the most important life-lessons that parents can pass on to their children.

When choosing the right college student credit card, look for the company offering a longer grace period so that you more time to make payments for your expenses, before accruing any interest on the balance. Credit card companies are anxious to acquire student customers, since they know that a good borrowing experience early on can earn them customers in the future. So there is no shortage of offers for both secure and unsecured credit cards in the mail. If you are a college student, whether in your first year or getting ready to graduate, one thing you need to start thinking about is your finances. One of the best ways to start building up good credit is to go ahead and get a student credit card. There are two types of student credit cards that you can get. An unsecured student credit card does not require that you pay any money up front. With an unsecured student credit card, you can usually request a credit limit increase after 6 to 12 months of timely payments of at least the minimum due or more. There are a variety of great benefits to having a student credit card.

Student credit cards have notoriously high interest rate and finance charges can accumulate easily. Interest is charged at a percentage of the overdue balance. Interest rates have been up lately and the lower interest rate cards have been few and far between, even to those with high credit scores. Your child will learn about interest, particularly if he or she is paying the bills. In fact, the only real difference between a student credit card and a regular credit card is that student credit cards have higher interest rates. Over time the interest keeps adding up and eventually if the student is only paying the minimum amount due they are in reality only paying off the interest and their credit card balance is never going to be paid off. Explain to your student that if they fall behind in payments, the credit card issuer will increase their interest rate. When credit cards were first introduced, they were a pretty simple proposition: use your card for purchases, and be charged a single rate of interest on your unpaid balance. Then came the rise of the ATM (cash machine), and credit card issuers realized they could lend money by allowing their cards to be used to withdraw cash on account, and could earn more this way by hiding away a higher interest rate for cash withdrawals in the credit agreement small print. Not to forget the different interest rate often charged for overseas use.

Students not only have tuition costs, but the cost of books, meals, gas, cell. A credit card for college students also provides you with the opportunity to learn how to budget your money and handle your finances as well. For students who are trying to get started early on achieving good credit, a student credit card is a great option. Many students can be tempted by what is apparently "free money", without thinking of the consequences. Likewise, late payment fees can be an eye opening experience for many young students. It's therefore essential that students always pay at least their minimum payment due on time and avoid late payments to build and keep a good credit rating. Track Spending: Students can effectively track their spending by reviewing and storing the monthly credit card statements that will be sent by the credit card company. This will help students understand the importance of budgeting and record keeping.

Global Education

If we could represent the demographics of the world into a village of 100 people, what would it look like? If we gave that global village access to 161 billion gigabytes of data, what would they do with it? If six billion gigabytes of data were shared in email in 2006, what would it contain? Most important of all, how is this incredible rate of exponential change be reflected in the education of children today? Where is the education really coming from, in schools, at home or on-line?

A Global Village of 100 People

If we could reduce the world's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

60 Asian

14 African

12 European

8 Latin American

5 US American and Canadian

Out of those 100 people:

51 would be male

49 would be female

The Standards of Living:

5 people (US citizens) would control 32% or the total wealth

80 would live in substandard housing

24 would not have any electricity

50 would be malnourished and 1 starving

33 would be without access to a safe water supply

67 are unable to read

7 people would have access to the Internet

1 would have a college education

Information Data Explosion in the Global Village

161 billion gigabytes of digital information was created, captured and replicated worldwide in 2006

More than one billion MP3 files were shared over the Internet in 2006

Almost 100 billion digital images were captured and shared using cell phone cameras

More than 500 billion digital images will be captured by 2010

Six billion gigabytes of data were emailed from one person to another in 2006 (excluding spam)

The number of emails grew three times faster than the number of people emailing from 1998 to 2006

Source: IDC & EMC Corp / The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010

What does this mean to Education?

A better question should be, "How should this be impacting are attention to education for children today?"

Did you know that 34 babies will be born in the next 8 seconds, 5 in India, 4 in China and 1 in the US. What will the world be like for them?

In 2006 there were over 1.3 million college graduates in the US, 3.1 million college graduates in India and 3.3 million college graduates in China.

How many of the college graduates in India speak English? 100%

In the next ten years it is predicted that China will be the number one English speaking country in the world.

The rate of change and development is increasing at an exponential pace. In ten years there will be courses and technology and topics that have not been invented yet. Social and cultural barriers are colliding, collapsing, merging and conflicting as rapidly as the access to real time communications, and far faster than political procedural doctrine can respond. How will the next generation use computers that are faster than the human brain, or capable of storing more data than the collective minds of the world population? How will the next generation be prepared for access to such knowledge in a changing world?

Do these facts interest you? Would you like to see even more amazing facts?

Visit http://www.executiveblueprints.com/education.htm to watch the amazing video presentation developed by Karl Fisch, with assistance from Scott McLeod, designed by XPLANE.

Then participate in the global conversation about education at www.shifthappens.wikispaces.com, or initiate conversations about the importance education in your own community.

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Words of Wisdom

"Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation." - John F. Kennedy

"The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." - Herbert Spencer

"Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained." - James A Garfield

"The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life." - PLATO

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John Mehrmann is a freelance author and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital.

How To Make Sure Your Online Degree is Worth the Value?

Online education has made it possible for you to earn your degree online from your comfort home; you no more need to go to a physical university to obtain a degree. An online degree program can easily fit into your busy schedule and you don't need to travel to attend classes. Many online universities and traditional on-campus universities offer online degree programs, some of these universities are accredited universities and others are not. Your degree will be worth the value if it is from an accredited university; in contrary, it will be valueless if it is issued by diploma mills. How you are going to make sure that your online degree is NOT from a diploma mills?

Some of you may think that it is not a big deal as long as you have a related degree to apply for you dream job. You may be right if you are earning your online degree from a diploma mill in the early day, where those scams just start to penetrate into online education field and many employers did not know about them. But, awareness about diploma mills have been increased among employers; majority of employers will treat a degree from university that they have never heard of to be suspicious and will do a re-confirmation about your degree before they decide to hire you. If they found you are holding a "fake" degree which is issued by a diploma mill, you definitely will lose your chance to win the job position.

The most common fast-track degrees that can be earned with a minimum education cost are Life Experience degrees. You can gain credit for what you have learned in your job or any past experience; some of these Life Experience degree programs come with zero hour courses; others allow you to complete in a few days. You must treat these especially with extreme caution because many diploma mills are issuing Life Experience degrees. Although there are online degree programs that count in you life experience, the credits from these life experience may just a small part of the total credit hours needed to complete the degree program. The rule of thumb, if it is too easy to get a degree, then it really is not worth the paper it is printed on.

In order to protect yourself from any trap of diploma mill and ensure your degree is worth the value, consider of taking a degree program that are:

* Required at least two years to complete the degree.

* From university that is listed in accreditation database of CHEA.org

* Followed degree courses and forget about life experience degrees

* Offered by reputable university that has many good or positive feedbacks from online forum, or any discussion board.

If you have suspicious on any of your preference degree program, it's better to drop it from your list then taking the risk to enroll it. You should be able to find the same online degree program from a prestige and reputable university.

In Summary

Online degree issued by diploma mill is useless, it not just can't help you in your career, it causes you to waste your money, time and efforts. You want an online degree that have value and is able to help you in your career move, and it can only be ensured by avoiding diploma mill.

Distance Learning Degrees: The Flexible Route To Higher Education

More students around the world are taking advantage of distance learning degrees and degree programs, thanks to the Internet and the willingness of educators to recognize the fact that many people can't attend traditional school campuses due to work or family obligations. While such issues used to keep hundreds, if not thousands, out of college, such restrictions of time and location no longer remain the key issue when it comes to higher education.

The transition to such opportunities has been a long time in coming, and is long overdue. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost earning wages due to lack of college degrees will no longer hold employees back from obtaining the jobs of their dreams, or from pursuing higher goals within organizations. The benefits of attending online schools are obvious, and detractors have little to say. As little as a decade ago, the idea of attending an online school brought snickers or raised eyebrows. People believed that distance learning education programs were just for those wishing to pursue dental or medical assistant careers, though that was, and still isn't, the case.

Major universities around the world now offer online coursework as well as degrees in just about every field of employment, including medical, education, and law enforcement careers, just to name a few. A well-rounded and accredited online college offers students the same quality and coursework as a traditional brick and mortar college, without having to attend classes on campus. In rural areas, or for people obligated to full time jobs and family responsibilities, online college coursework is a blessing.

Such schools are held to the same high standards as a traditional campus, and must pass an accreditation program just as thorough, if not more so, than those given to campuses around the country and the world. Accreditation experts look at student services, coursework materials, testing methods and financial records to ascertain whether or not any school is able to offer expert and qualified instructors and coursework materials. For those seeking information on online distance learning colleges and coursework opportunities, an Internet search will bring up hundreds of online campuses. When narrowing down your list of possibilities, keep important things at the top of your list. First, are student services available, and are you going to be able to talk to a live person during normal business hours? Will instructors be available online or via email to answer specific questions and issues concerning coursework, testing and lecture schedules?

Of course, financing is also important, and while one may expect to pay a little more to attend an online degree program, the extra cost more than makes up for lost wages or the inconvenience of driving to a physical school campus to complete coursework. Many online degree programs offer student financing, as well as student loans, so always check ahead of time to make sure you get the most from your chosen school.

Online distance learning degrees and programs are the wave of the future, and competition is fierce and continues to rise. Do your research, take your time, and find the online college that offers exactly what you need.