Blog Contest

Details coming soon...

Please keep watching- www.anycollege.com !!!

It's contest day!!

If you haven't done so, you have until 5 PM CST today to check this out and post it!!
http://www.anycollege.com/contest/index.cfm

Win a $250 giftcard for Target to deck out your future dorm room if you're an incoming college freshman in 2009 or 2010!!

New Contest!! $250 Giftcard to deck your dorm!

Win a $250 giftcard to decorate your dorm room! 3 easy steps below:

Step 1 Must be one of the following:

Follower of AnyCollege.com on Twitter (www.twitter.com/anycollege)
Fan of AnyCollege.com on Facebook (www.facebook.com/anycollege)
Friend of AnyCollege.com on MySpace (www.myspace.com/anycollege)

Note: Increase your odds of winning by adding AnyCollege.com on more than one social network!


Step 2: Must have the provided logo as your profile picture on August 12th
(Here's the link for the images: http://www.anycollege.com/contest/index.cfm)
Step 3 Make the following post to your profile on August 12th:

' Win a $2,000 AnyCollege.com Scholarship! Take five minutes to apply at http://www.anycollege.com/scholarship.cfm '

Special Instructions:

Twitter followers, RT @anycollege
Facebook fans, post to ‘What’s on Your Mind’
MySpace fans, post to ‘What are you doing right now?’ or ‘Bulletin Space’


Full Contest Rules:

1. Must be an incoming college freshman as of 2009 or 2010.
2. Must be a fan, friend, or follower of AnyCollege.com on Facebook, MySpace and/or Twitter. Note: Joining more than one network increases your odds of winning!
3. Must have the provided AnyCollege.com logo as your profile picture on August 12th (all day!) AND post the following link to your page – Win a $2,000 AnyCollege.com Scholarship! Take five minutes to apply at http://www.anycollege.com/scholarship.cfm.
4. Winner will be chosen at random for a $250 giftcard and will be notified on August 13th through instant message on Facebook, MySpace and/or Twitter. No information submission is necessary to win, however the winner must provide us with a mailing address for the giftcard.

New Blog Site

We've moved the blog now to:
http://www.anycollege.com/blog/

Diving In

I think I heard the most amazing thing ever on the radio driving home yesterday. Talking with a panel about community organizations in a small, northern MN iron range town a local woman came up and said "If you're going to complain about apathy, start with yourself." This one hit home.

I moved back to a small town a little over a year ago from living in a mid-sized city as well as two large metro areas for almost 10 years- in which time I became accustomed to the variety of resources and opportunities that were available for any interest that a person could have.

Upon moving up to this area I knew that there wouldn't be as many organizations and whatnot, however I was not expecting the attitude that surrounded them. I kept hearing over and over "This town needs a ______" (there would be a variety of things to fill that gap). But when I would ask "Then why don't you start one?" I would get a look of complete and utter astonishment, followed by a myriad of excuses from I don't have time to I don't know how to nothing at all....

So, after my experiences in Student Services of trying to get student organizations up and running on campus, which often came up with the same excuses (and that students wanted to be involved but didn't want to start something) I got myself in order and started three organizations in the city. Two are still growing but one took off like a rocket, and it's brought together over 500 people in the community. Was it a risk? Sure! Was it time consuming? Sure! But I have gotten to meet a lot of really fun, neat people that I would not have otherwise met.

So, the moral of this story is: if you get to campus this fall and realize that there isn't a group for whatever activity it is that you like to do: start one! Don't complain that your college doesn't have a group for people like you- chances are there are others on campus complaining about the same thing! Start with your own apathy, get rid of it and dive in head first!

PS- it's a resume builder too!

Link to us!

If you're interested and wanted to place a link on your site to quickly direct students to our search here is a set of links and images that can easily be copied and pasted to your page.

https://www.anycollege.com/linktous.cfm

What does "College" mean to you?

Just read a good blog post on the different connotations that "going to college" has with some people.

I'd like to revisit a few, and ask you to see where you fall in the list:

"Going to College" means a thing you just do after high school... a time to move out, meet people, party, and then move on with your life. (Whether or not that college pertains to it...)

"Going to College" means trying to get into the most prestigious college available... whether or not you like it, it's all about how hard it is to get in. Eventually you'll have a piece of paper you can brag about on the wall.

"Going to College" is about expanding your knowledge. Taking classes you wouldn't have the opportunity to anywhere else and learning about... well, whatever you can learn about!

"Going to College" is the first step towards a career and career training.

"Going to College" is something you do when you don't know what else to do with your life.

Chances are, one or more might apply to you... but I think it's something important to think about. Where were you when you started your college search? What did going to college mean then that it doesn't mean now? Why did it change? Why do you think you fall into the category you do? Did I miss any categories?

Just some food for thought for the week...

Respecting Students

I came across an interesting article today about how one professor turned his class around by getting a more positive view of his students and his material.

I thought it was an excellent point he made when he said he went into his material and found that it was put together on the idea of "You must learn this though it is a painful process". When he went back and tried to make the experience of learning more interesting to his students and a more enjoyable experience (note: not easier, just more enjoyable) by celebrating the discoveries with the students suddenly fewer students dropped his course and more were passing with higher grades.

Funny how that works... a little respect pays back 10 fold, rather than just dismissing students as "impossible to teach."

Pointing Fingers

I have heard some variations of this theme in my time through higher education, and it's one that has perplexed me quite a bit.

There seems to be a pointing fingers game within student success between student and professors. Students blame the profs for being bad teachers, and the profs blame the students for being lazy and unwilling to learn. So where is the line?

Many of the professors that I know are unwilling/unable to change their teaching style. To many, "changing teaching style" is equated with "dumbing down the class", which obviously they are unwilling (rightfully so) to do. However, as many in education know, there are many ways to teach the same material without "dumbing down" the class or making it easier. Making the material easier to learn does not mean making the material easier overall.

I guess I come down on the side of the student: if the material is being taught unsuccessfully then the style of teaching needs to change. I think the way to tell this is the continued success rates in a classroom. If semester after semester large numbers of students are failing the same class taught by the same professor, then maybe that professor should take a look at the teaching methods (not material...) being used in the classroom.

Maybe it's that I have a hard time thinking entire classes of students would not turn in homework in class after class... again, if that is happening where is the information getting lost?

However, this isn't to say that there aren't lazy or bad or poor students out there (I've been one too at times!), but when it's consistent then I think it's a problem.

On the other side, if there is a student failing similar classes over and over and over again at what point is there an intervention to understand how the student learns best and find where s/he is struggling? I know this takes time and manpower on the side of the school, but isn't the retention of a student worth it? Again, this isn't to say to put together a specialized plan for the student, but simply to help him/her understand how best to approach school work.

I was 23 before I realized I was an auditory learner. If I take notes I am far less likely to remember information than if I simply listen to it- at which point I can replay it in my head like a tape recorder. I recall a class in which I was yelled at in front of the class because I was not taking notes- and when I tried to explain that I learn better by listening and processing the information rather than mindlessly writing down the words being spoken it just resulted in being forced to write down the notes that he insisted people took to remember things- he even stopped to check that I was writing at points that day. It's a good thing that was only a one day for work kind of class, because I would have never gone back had it been a regular college class! (Yes, I'm stubborn like that.)But it would have been much better had it simply been accepted that I knew what kind of a learner I am and moved on from there. I think also had I known this earlier in my college career some classes would have been easier and I would have learned more, rather than trying to fit into what I "should" be doing to retain information.

The latest place where this has come up is with online vs. traditional vs. blended education. Obviously the some of the three formats work for some students and professors better than others. But they seem to all be pointing fingers accusing the other style (whichever one that is) of holding them back. A study came out showing blended education to be bringing in a lot of good results with students as well as high retention rates, but naturally there is outcry against having to change a teaching style or a learning style.

Again... we get profs blaming students for not knowing how to use the software (Blackboard, Angel, etc.) properly and students blaming the profs for not structuring/designing the class to be online user friendly. (A lovely quote from a comment on the subject: When it works, it's not an online utopia--it's just another space for meaningful learning. )

So at what point must the student or professor or admin at a school step back, stop pointing fingers at everyone else and say "Maybe it's not "them"... maybe it's me?"

Sadly, that's a very, very hard statement for many people to make.

Bizarre quizzes

There are some of those quizzes that are supposedly supposed to help you determine what you're supposed to be when you grow up, or whatever else (not one of those "Which Superhero Are You" kind of ones). I just tried to take one from an affiliate site here and I got totally confused. Here's the survey if you'd like to give it a shot.

The questions were laid out in an either/or kind of fashion, but often the two choices were completely unrelated. It was like answering "Are you more interested in riding an elephant or creating a calendar?" Most of the time I kept thinking "Well, neither of these". And when the questions kept clearly being centered around the medical or tourism industries (neither of which I personally am too interested in) I ended up making a fairly false impression of myself. Truth be told I only made it halfway through the survey.

Does anyone know how these are supposed to work? If I have to continually indicate that I'd be more interested in the tourism industry than the medical industry (but never get to indicate that I'm not very interested in either and never get to compare those two to anything else...) then I wondered if I would get a response of "You should go into tourism and be a travel agent!"

Riiiiight.

So, I remain a little confused, and still don't want to be a travel agent when I grow up.