The Financial Aid Counselor – You must meet with or make an online appointment with your Financial Aid Counselor for your online college or university before enrolling in courses. This is an absolute MUST! Do not skip this step for convenience. Do you think you know everything about financial aid and have all the necessary steps covered? Set a meeting with the financial aid counselor anyway! I have lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars by skipping this one small step.

Program  Advisor – Meet and converse with your advisor. Make sure you are taking the “best choice” of courses for your chosen online degree program. Often classes have to be taken in sequential order and involve prerequisites. You can lose much time and funds by missing steps, taking classes out of order, or not taking enough classes. Your advisor often can also advise you on courses that may transfer or be substituted for other courses.

Former Student – Try to find a former student. This is an especially good idea if you can find a student in your program or that has already taken the courses that you plan to take.  Gather advice on the best instructors, best classes, and even more valuable information. They may also be able to sell you used textbooks and help you find the best study materials online.

• Online College at Ashford University, Reviews, and My Cousin’s G.I. Bill     My cousin has three children and a G.I. Bill that runs out in like 6 months. She has applied to Ashford University. This is how she tells me that it works: You can take classes one at a time. Once you finish one class, you can go onto......
• Income Based Repayment for Online College Loans  Still worried about racking up debt at an online college and not being able to repay it? No worries. Income based repayment is here. What this means is that, if you qualify, your online college loan payments could be as low as $10 a month. Family size, income and......
• Online College Courses and What to Expect This is screenshot of the online college courses I am taking this semester at Clayton State University in order to complete my fully accredited, online Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology. The blue tacks mean that a discussion is due. The yellow pages with the clock in front mean......
• WEBBSIT, BSIT at Clayton State University Clayton State University, as well as Georgia Southern University, and other universities in the University of Georgia system offer an online Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology via the WEBBSIT program. This is a great, accredited, trustworthy online college degree program offered online. The catch is that some......

• Yahoo! Blows the Deal Well, it's official. Yahoo! has blown the deal with Microsoft. Yesterday afternoon before the official announcement was made, it was obvious that the cat was already out of the bag....
• Are You a Broke College Student? Get a Dirty Job... I Did! One of my favorite shows over the past few years has been The Discovery Channel hit series - Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe (plus a crew of brave cameramen) pick a...
• Vocational Training Can Beat the Old College Try I read several things this week that raised my blood pressure again about the student loan debt scam that so many colleges are running on many students.  First, I read an...
• Repeat After Me: Retirement First, College Second mujitra (´･Ï�ï½¥) A recent U.S. News & World Report article recommended the obvious - fund your retirement accounts before you fund your child's college education.  I agree.  While there are...

• Open Office and Free Google Apps for Poor People Who Can’t Afford to Download Microsoft Office     Sun Microsystems offers a free alternative for struggling online college students to Microsoft Word, Access, Excel, and Powerpoint through a free and open productivity suite, OpenOffice.org. All of the source code is available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), and you may use OpenOffice.org binaries......
• 3 People That You Must Meet Before You Enroll in Any Online College or University The Financial Aid Counselor – You must meet with or make an online appointment with your Financial Aid Counselor for your online college or university before enrolling in courses. This is an absolute MUST! Do not skip this step for convenience. Do you think you know everything about financial......
• Online College TextBook Companion Sites   Most college textbooks have wonderful companion sites that feature quizzes, flashcards, podcasts, or PowerPoint presentations of textbook material. These are the best study companions for online college courses because the material is identical to your textbook and supplements your required reading. The majority of Thompson Course Technology and......
• How to Survive The Online College Spring Exam Cram Going to school online is often not as easy as it sounds on television. It is often filled with 10+ hours daily of computer work, study, or writing in which no one is/can be around to communicate with. Going to school online can be as demanding and boring as any......

• Diamond Oaks Golf Course, Roseville, CA Diamond Oaks Golf Course is located in: Roseville, CA Phone: 916-783-4947 Website: http://www.roseville.ca.us/parks/golf_roseville/diamond_oaks_golf_course/ Course History: Ted Robinson designed this municipal course which is open to the public. It's combination of...
• Tip: Making Money Online Making Money Online isn't hard if you go into it with the right attitude. If you are just trying to sell a "business opportunity" you will find yourself on the...
• Learn How To Find Right Online Business If you see no other way but to start a business to get rid of your worries; It may be earning more money, taking care of your child, unwell or...
• Non Iron Shirts Since my husband and I bought our own place, my  job has been to do the dry cleaning (among many other of the household chores, but that is another story)....

Most college textbooks have wonderful companion sites that feature quizzes, flashcards, podcasts, or PowerPoint presentations of textbook material. These are the best study companions for online college courses because the material is identical to your textbook and supplements your required reading.

The majority of Thompson Course Technology and McGraw Hill textbooks are now charging fees to access the companion site if you do not purchase the textbook new from the store. This is frustrating to those of us who routinely purchase used textbooks from Amazon to save money. The sites now cost around $50 to access without keys that come new from the manufacturers. Just keep this in mind when purchasing your new textbooks and purchase more difficult course textbooks new from Amazon.com or the  manufacturer.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073052337/student_view0/chapter3/multiple_choice_quiz.html – This is a great example of an online college course textbook’s companion site. The site features quizzes, learning objectives, chapter outlines, PowerPoint Presentations, Case Studies, Templates, Mobile Resources, Software Options, Systems Architect Tutorials, and an MS Project Tutorial. It is a must have for the Systems Analysis course, and a very valuable study tool.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072880082/student_view0/ – This is the companion  site for my Discrete Mathematics course. Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications With Combinatorics and Graph Theory by Kenneth H. Rosen is not the easiest book to comprehend just by reading it. If  your online instructor does not provide much content outside of the book you really may be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Luckily my instructor provides sample practice quizzes and lecture notes, but additional resources can be found here that are great for extra practice. 

• 7 Great Reasons to Go To College Online Online Colleges and Universities are an excellent idea for students without cars or with cars that do not run very well. Do you drive something that could qualify for the clunker’s program and just might not make it to the grocery store once a week, much less the University......
• Is Googling Your Answers Cheating?   I routinely Google my answers to online college homework. Sometimes Google provides you with tutorials, hints, and even direct answers. The temptation is definitely there to recreate the answer as your own. Is this illegal? Some college guidelines say so. At Clayton State University, the guidelines are as......
• Why Go to Online College When You Can Just Buy a Degree?…Just Kidding…Really… I think that if I fail college, I might just buy myself a degree online. You see if you just can’t make it through college or afford actual college, you can just purchase a degree online from a “paper mill” degree factory for about 98% off of the regular retail......
• How to Start Going to School Online – The Basics The first step in any online college experience is applying for financial aid online. Financial aid is available to 95% of the population regardless of credit rating, family situation, religion, ethnicity, or income. Preference is given to those with lower incomes, but even if you make upwards of $60,000......

• Different Kinds Of Earning Online Different kinds of earning online. Now the Internet is so full of curious advertising. The matter is that these advertisers are willing to pay you for showing you some ads....
• North Fork Marina, Lake Isabella, CA North Fork Marina is located on: Lake Isabella, CA Phone: 760-376-1812 Average Water Depth: Lake Isabella can change dramatically in depth. It is best to call ahead before you arrive...
• Are Social Shopping Sites Too Enticing? How many of you use Groupon, LivingSocial, or some other social shopping site? These social shopping sites get local businesses to offer significant discounts and sells the product or service...
• Start Promoting Your Online Business Hi there, Before I went away on holiday I promised to go into more detail about how to start promoting your online business, today I'm going to tell you how...

This is my latest, greatest online college video find. It is a series on Operating Systems hosted on Google Video from the University of Notre Dame. 

These are the basic steps that I use to learn my online college course material while attending school online.

1. Read the book. This is a very important step. Sometimes it can be omitted in a traditional classroom setting, but never online. Well, if you already know the course material…

2. Peruse the teacher’s material. Usually teachers will post lecture notes and sometimes videos or podcasts for online material.

3. If you still don’t understand the material, search like crazy for videos on:

• Google Video
• YouTube
• Personal Professor’s Websites from other institutions.

    Normally I can find teachers teaching from my books. Then, it feels like a real classroom setting.

Don’t forget your videos!

• Online College Courses and What to Expect This is screenshot of the online college courses I am taking this semester at Clayton State University in order to complete my fully accredited, online Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology. The blue tacks mean that a discussion is due. The yellow pages with the clock in front mean......
• Open Office and Free Google Apps for Poor People Who Can’t Afford to Download Microsoft Office     Sun Microsystems offers a free alternative for struggling online college students to Microsoft Word, Access, Excel, and Powerpoint through a free and open productivity suite, OpenOffice.org. All of the source code is available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), and you may use OpenOffice.org binaries......
• How to Start Going to School Online – The Basics The first step in any online college experience is applying for financial aid online. Financial aid is available to 95% of the population regardless of credit rating, family situation, religion, ethnicity, or income. Preference is given to those with lower incomes, but even if you make upwards of $60,000......
• Online College Term Papers   *Microsoft Windows 2007 Template   We are often required to write term papers for online college courses. Some of my term papers have been over things like VRML and Windows 7. I enjoy writing papers because it can prove very interesting. There are some resources on the web that......

• Utilize YouTube Effectively In Your Online Business YouTube Marketing can be one of the most effectual free approaches of marketing if utilized. This article will show why YouTube Marketing has such potential. If you were not already...
• Video Marketing Strategy - A Tried And Tested Metho If you want to find video selling tips, then browse this now. You may learn how to use a proven video promoting strategy to create cash online. In brief, video...
• 11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year [/caption] The new school year is here for many teachers. For those who haven't started school yet, the new school year will be here soon. If you've set the goal...
• Free Accelerated Learning Techniques Modern professors in institutions of higher education can take advantage of many free accelerated learning techniques just by spending a certain amount of their own personal time browsing the internet,...

 Still worried about racking up debt at an online college and not being able to repay it? No worries. Income based repayment is here. What this means is that, if you qualify, your online college loan payments could be as low as $10 a month. Family size, income and Federal Student Loan debt are all factors that determine your eligibility and loan repayment amount. To preview your loan payment information, estimate the lowest amount of money that you might make after college, place that amount, your family size, and your federal student debt in this free online calculator: http://www.aie.org/College/Calculators/IBR/index.cfm and view the result!

IBR caps your monthly payments based on your income. Also, any remaining debt, including interest, will be forgiven after 25 years of payments. Non-profit employees, government workers, and teachers will be forgiven after 10 years of payments. IBR is available to anyone with a student loan. Even those who have acquired student loans in the past. A family of three earning $26,000 will pay nothing at all! For more information, IBRinfo.org is a great place to visit and learn more about Income Based Repayment.

This is great news if you’re still trying to contemplate college online, but you just don’t want the hassle of the loans afterwards. The idea of $40,000 in debt after college was a deterrent to my college ambitions. Imagine, $300 monthly payments on a $28,000 salary. Hopefully, I’ll make more, but there are no guarantees in life. Now, worry less, pay less, and finish college. To find out how more information on Income-Based Repayment, go here:

http://www.ibrinfo.org/how.vp.html.

• Scholarships for Online College Students and Where to Find Them Online college students can also find scholarships online. The process is much the same as the scholarship finding process for traditional students. There are millions of scholarships and grants out there that may help to fund your college education. Knowing where to look and what to look for can......
• Random Thoughts About Online Tuition Vs. Standard Tuition This is the in-between time for semesters right now and is the end of the Fall Semester and the beginning of the Spring Semester. This is the time when we choose classes. I attend college online at Clayton State University via WEBBSIT, and sometimes I really ask myself if......
• How to Start Going to School Online – The Basics The first step in any online college experience is applying for financial aid online. Financial aid is available to 95% of the population regardless of credit rating, family situation, religion, ethnicity, or income. Preference is given to those with lower incomes, but even if you make upwards of $60,000......
• Online College Courses and What to Expect This is screenshot of the online college courses I am taking this semester at Clayton State University in order to complete my fully accredited, online Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology. The blue tacks mean that a discussion is due. The yellow pages with the clock in front mean......

• Student Loan Debt Cripples Recent College Grad & Prompts Shocking Confession! Student loan debt suffocates college grads before they even earn their first paycheck. Recent college grad Hernan Castillo confesses, " Every day I wish I had never gone to college...it...
• Girl Turns to Prostitution to Pay Off Student Loan Debt Photo courtesy of .craig We have all read stories of shocking things people have done to get out of debt.  However, a recent US Weekly story takes things to a...
• Free Mass Transit For Utah Students Who Pledge To Use Alternative Transportation. Now this is what I am talking about. How fantastic of Westminster College of Salt Lake City to offer free mass transit to any and all students & faculty who...
• The American Dream Didn't Mention Anything About Student Loan Debt As sad as it is to say, many 20s Something college graduates have no clue what's in store for them when it comes to repaying their student loan debt. As...

This is screenshot of the online college courses I am taking this semester at Clayton State University in order to complete my fully accredited, online Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology. The blue tacks mean that a discussion is due. The yellow pages with the clock in front mean that an online quiz needs to be completed soon. The names of the instructors are purposely removed in order to protect their privacy. My favorite class is probably the Digital Media course, and Web Applications Development is so much tougher than I expected.

Books for these courses normally retail for around $100.00 each. Of course, I buy mine mostly at Amazon.com, and that saves me tons, but there are occasions where new books have to be purchased from the campus bookstore. Clayton State even has an online store where textbooks can be purchased. Even used, the books usually run me around $250 a semester.

For a typical week, each class typically has one assignment or online quiz and a discussion that you must participate in. There are generally two to three exams per semester, and the classes are slightly shorter than normal semesters. Exams are normally proctored at testing site or administered online through this portal. Online, open-book does not mean simple. Often exams and quizzes must be completed in a given time period and the material is often equally as difficult as a closed book exam. Homework and online quiz examples will be highlighted in future posts. Just keep in mind that online often means teaching yourself. I will show you tricks and method of learning online that simplify the process, but you are largely educating yourself with few opportunities for one-on-one sessions or questions in an online college environment and the initiative and ability to learn and do for yourself are a must for this type of education. Logging out…

• College Online – Learning With Video Lectures   This is my latest, greatest online college video find. It is a series on Operating Systems hosted on Google Video from the University of Notre Dame.    These are the basic steps that I use to learn my online college course material while attending school online.   1.......
• Online College at Ashford University, Reviews, and My Cousin’s G.I. Bill     My cousin has three children and a G.I. Bill that runs out in like 6 months. She has applied to Ashford University. This is how she tells me that it works: You can take classes one at a time. Once you finish one class, you can go onto......
• Why Go to Online College When You Can Just Buy a Degree?…Just Kidding…Really… I think that if I fail college, I might just buy myself a degree online. You see if you just can’t make it through college or afford actual college, you can just purchase a degree online from a “paper mill” degree factory for about 98% off of the regular retail......
• 3 People That You Must Meet Before You Enroll in Any Online College or University The Financial Aid Counselor – You must meet with or make an online appointment with your Financial Aid Counselor for your online college or university before enrolling in courses. This is an absolute MUST! Do not skip this step for convenience. Do you think you know everything about financial......

• Should You Pay for Your Child's College Education? Paying for college for yourself or for a child can drop you into debt faster than many other things. Aside from huge disasters like medical emergencies or a home fire,...
• Adult Education Classes in Central Florida In this uncertain economic climate, it’s a good idea to consider ways that you can increase your value as an employee. You want to give your bosses lots of reasons...
• Your Own Online Business: Key Pluses You Will Be Provided With You must budge to get a firm foundation in your life if you are not overjoyed your job. Online business is a rub for you. You can afford yourself to...
• Internet Network Marketing - Connecting The Dots For the longest time I was confused on how to get all this Internet Network Marketing stuff to work. I mean it seemed simple enough, get traffic to my affiliate...

The first step in any online college experience is applying for financial aid online. Financial aid is available to 95% of the population regardless of credit rating, family situation, religion, ethnicity, or income. Preference is given to those with lower incomes, but even if you make upwards of $60,000 a year and have horrible credit, you may still qualify for college loans to go to school online from the Federal Government of the United States. But first, you must file taxes and fill out a FAFSA online.

Don’t be fooled by the millions of .com sites that just redirect you to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. Go directly to the site with a copy of your taxes that you filed last year in plain view. You may also want to make a list of the online schools and colleges that you are interested in. Fafsa.ed.gov will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to fill out the necessary forms for financial aid. Most online colleges and universities qualify for some type of financial aid, and this is often a good indicator of the quality of the online college or university.

The image above is an actual screenshot of my financial aid award. It is extremely personal information, and the only reason that it is being published is to inspire you to apply for and go to an online university or any college. If you’re anything like me, you think that you will never be able to afford this, that they don’t give loans to people like you, or that you just can’t. Erase all those negative thoughts.

If your online college qualifies, the Pell Grant provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate and certain graduate students to promote access to postsecondary education. The Pell Grant is reserved for low-income students and the income cap is currently $15,000 a year to qualify for 0 EFC, which means that you qualify for the entire Pell Grant. EFC is your expected family contribution and is calculated using your income and other factors like your age and marital status. An EFC calculator can be located at http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml . Follow the instructions to determine how much of your online educational costs you are responsible for.

There are many other grants and scholarships as well as loans that are provided to assist you in your online collegiate experience. Some additional information can be found here: http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/, but it is a good idea to perform your own search as each person is unique. There are often more grants provided to single mothers and diverse students seeking further education. Additional information will be highlighted in future post, but this is the first step in your online college experience. This step should be completed as quickly as possible so that you may choose an online school within your budget. Don’t delay. Often scholarships and grants are provided on a first come first serve basis and offered until funds are diminished. Apply now!

• How to Decide on an Online College How to Decide on an Online College In this day and age, picking an online college can be difficult. Not only are there thousands of choices, but many of them are diploma mills that are simply trying to get your money. To avoid paying for an education that is not......
• Online College Term Papers   *Microsoft Windows 2007 Template   We are often required to write term papers for online college courses. Some of my term papers have been over things like VRML and Windows 7. I enjoy writing papers because it can prove very interesting. There are some resources on the web that......
• 7 Great Reasons to Go To College Online Online Colleges and Universities are an excellent idea for students without cars or with cars that do not run very well. Do you drive something that could qualify for the clunker’s program and just might not make it to the grocery store once a week, much less the University......
• Online College TextBook Companion Sites   Most college textbooks have wonderful companion sites that feature quizzes, flashcards, podcasts, or PowerPoint presentations of textbook material. These are the best study companions for online college courses because the material is identical to your textbook and supplements your required reading. The majority of Thompson Course Technology and......

• A Simple Way to Determine Retirement Readiness Am I financially able to retire? Isn't that the number one question being asked by older baby boomers when thinking about retirement? It has to be in the top five....
• Maximizing Your Financial Aid   It's time to start anew semester. I decided to update a post on getting the most financial aid. If you have any suggestions, please leave some tips in the...
• Stretch Your College Fund Are you a parent interested in helping your child earn a college degree? Are you a student looking to save money on tuition? Having completed a B.A., M.A., and a...
• Expanding Your Financial Horizons Do you like to dream big or do you prefer to keep your financial dreams in check? The way that you answer this question may have a big impact on...