May 7, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in Uncategorized.Tags: guest blogger
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Today’s guest post was contributed by Jillianne Hamilton from myusearchblog.com/
..Do you hear that? That’s the sound of pennies being pinched all over America.
But while many are pinching pennies, others are getting ready to make one of the biggest investments of their lives: A College Education.
Thousands of high school seniors are graduating this month and many adults are choosing to go back to school during these tough economic times to upgrade their skills and try to wait out the recession. Almost all of these to-be college students are finding that the cost of college tuition and room and board are going up while the recession is driving their bank accounts down. This can make getting a college education and choosing the right college a little tricky.
But before you give up on college because of the cost, there are a few often-overlooked options you should consider:
1) Broaden Your College Choices: There are more than 4000 colleges in the US, most of which you’ve probably never heard of. Do some research online or consult a college counselor to broaden your list of affordable colleges [Insert list of affordable colleges.
2) Apply to More Colleges: Applying to more colleges may be a good idea too. If you get accepted to several schools, you can compare their financial offers before making your final decision. Remember, you should never compare schools based on their sticker price. Wait until you have all of the financial facts before you eliminate some of your choices.
3) Community College: For a couple of years, community colleges have had higher enrollment rates than ever before. Community college tuition is often much less than the price of most universities and can be a great option for working adults that need to improve their skills or students that need to get some basic classes out of the way.
4) International Colleges: If you’re looking to get a quality education without the price tag of an American college or university, colleges outside of the US may be an alternative. Besides saving a couple bucks, it can also let you enjoy other cultures and meet new people. Just north of the border, Canadian universities offer programs of the same quality as most American universities. Dalhousie (http://www.dal.ca) in Halifax, Nova Scotia is one of the top universities in the country. The University of Prince Edward Island (http://www.upei.ca) attracts students from all over for its vet program. Big city folk might want to check out the University of Toronto (http://utoronto.ca) which is regularly ranked as one of the world’s best universities and one of the top medical schools in North America.
5) American Universities Outside the US: There are also several US-based colleges that teach full English curriculums in locations outside of the US. Ave Maria University (http://www.avemaria.edu.ni) has a campus in Nicaragua and there’s also the American University of Paris (http://www.aup.fr) and the American University of Rome (http://www.aur.edu). These programs are often far less expensive than their counterparts on American soil.
6) Financial Aid: Many students think they won’t qualify for financial aid, but often times they are dead wrong. Check out these financial aid tools (http://www.finaid.org) to help you figure out whether you would qualify and how much your Expected Family Contribution would be.
7) Apply for Scholarships!: Apply to as many scholarships as you can- even ones that you doubt you’ll get. Winning scholarships [insert: winning scholarships is a numbers game — you just never know. But be honest in any essays you have to write for them. Some small private schools are willing to offer more financial aid than some larger institutions, so that’s worth looking into as well.
For more info on college hunting during the economic crisis, visit this article at the myUsearch blog: Should the Economy Affect Your College Search? [Insert: Should the Economy Affect Your College Search?,
And, of course, myUsearch is a great way to compare colleges [Insert compare colleges. I hope this helps and please don’t get discouraged. Your future depends on it!
Author Jillianne Hamilton is a student at Holland College (http://www.hollandc.pe.ca/), the founder of The Blog of Jillianne Hamilton (http://jilliannehamilton.wordpress.com/) and student blogger for myUsearch.com
How to get the best prices on textbooks for summer classes April 8, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in college bookstores, new books, reading, search for books, summer classes, textbooks, used books.Tags: cheap textbooks, compare book prices, summer classes, summer semester textbooks, textbooksfor summer classes
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Getting cheap textbooks for summer classes is an especially unique challenge. This is because of the duration of summer classes. A normal class that you might take in the fall or spring semester lasts about 4 and half months, and most of the time the first week is spent on the introduction. This means that if you were to not think ahead, and order your textbooks online on the first day of class, you would get them in time for your first, or second assignment (and if you were to plan ahead, contact your professor before hand, or ask another student, then…)
Summer classes, on the other hand work differently. Most summer classes last 4 weeks, although some may last 6, and you typically have class 5 times a week, with assignments from day one. Given this short duration it becomes difficult, if not impossible to order a textbook online and wait for regular delivery, and no one wants to pay for overnight shipping. In this case most students end up going to the bookstore and paying full price for the textbooks.
The solution to this problem is one that is quite simple, but one that few students think of – plan ahead. Summer classes are rarely a last minute thing, therefore, the same day that you register for a summer class contact the professor (email usually works best) and find out what the required books are, and order them 2 weeks before the start of class, this way you can be sure that you will receive the books in time for class.
Planning ahead and ordering your books online before the start of class has another advantage, and will help ensure that you are getting the absolute lowest price. Towards the end of every semester students start to sell their textbooks online; given the increase in supply and the fact that demand for textbooks typically peaks after a course starts, this is the optimum time for you to get the best prices on textbooks! And the best way for you to ensure that you are getting the best price on new/used textbooks is to use a textbook price comparison site such as We Compare Books
Some of my latest Twitter friends March 29, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in Twitter friends.Tags: new friends, twitter
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Lately it appears as though Twitter has become my new home, rather it seems that I am spending so much time on Twitter that it is starting to feel like home.
If you want to follow us on Twitter I invite you to do so, my Twitter handle is @wecomparebooks
I want to take this time to tell you about a few of the new friends that I’ve made on Twitter in the past week. All of these sites have much quality information and I hope that you find them as useful as I did.
I recently ran across a site, Gradversity/ this is a very neat site run by Trevor Wilson, that is dedicated to helping college students enter the workforce after graduation. This site is a great resource for any student who is graduating and looking for a job.
Recently I also met Jessica Kunkel on Twitter. She is the owner of the Truth About College blog. This is a really cool blog that has some reaslly cool tips on college. I am sure that every college student will find this blog to be useful.
One thing that is very important for college students is getting a job. There are a ton of career websites around that help students get jobs, here is a cool career site that I’ve recently ran accross through Twitter
If you like cakes, and you like to bake cakes, than check out one of my latest friends on Twitter Little Lady Cakes. This site is really cool and has some create cake recipes!
You can also Tweet this site @littleladycakes.
Great resource: Online professional Development courses March 29, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in Interns, Kyle Schiller, Twitter friends, e-learning, online courses.Tags: elearning, online courses
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Integration and innovation with the help of the internet and new communications technology is changing the way we do everything nowadays. The realm of education is no exception. From online training courses to e-conferencing to complete degrees done online, education and career training are becoming more convenient and crafted to fit the individual.
WeCompareBooks.com recently came into contact with Knowledge Delivery Systems, a site which offers online development training courses for teachers and educators. In their own words:
“Knowledge Delivery Systems provides K-12 educators with award-winning, convenient online professional development. Educators can take KDS courses to earn the credits they need to meet state Department of Education licensing requirements, to increase their salary through district-approved in-service, or to earn the graduate credits they need to advance their careers.”
The cool thing about KDS is that many of the courses offered are interactive, with ideos and are taught by very interesting professors.
The courses available are broken up depending on which state you live and work in, as each state has different requirements and acceptance of KDS courses. Certain courses are available through partnerships with colleges, universities and school districts to help education students and teachers develop the skills necessary to become the quality educators we need and to help them realize their own professional goals.
KDS’s newest course delves into teaching English language learners and the principles of language acquisition. The course goes into extreme detail, from basic communication skills to fundamentals that apply specifically to second language learners.
If you are an educator or an education student, you can request information on their website to find out if your district or school offers KDS courses.
A book review of, Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment March 22, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in Interns, Kyle Schiller, book reviews, books, economy, new books, used books.Tags: better world, environment, Green
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Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment by Jennifer Clapp and Peter Dauvergne is a book written, to shed light on the ongoing debate about the relationship between environmental issues and political economy. Too many times, say authors Jennifer Clapp and Peter Dauvergne, is the big picture completely bypassed in order to delve into the details surrounding and permeating environmentalism. By putting things into perspective using political and economic theories, one can illuminate the socioeconomic causes and consequences of environmental change. This also helps to avoid any emotional or moral entanglements which many times accompany analyses of environmental issues.
In order to look at the socioeconomic factors behind environmental policy, Clapp and Dauvergne address four main camps involved in environmental change: market liberals, institutionalists, bioenvironmentalists and social greens. These categories are intentionally multi-disciplinary so as to not be too focused on one portion of the issue. By taking a wide swath of the areas which environmental issues touch, one can see the big picture instead of getting caught up in the details of one discipline. It also lets one focus on the international and government levels, especially how globalization and the type of political economic system employed in a state affect environmental issues, challenges and outcomes.
Using these four groups, the authors take a critical look at various elements within today’s political economy, including globalization, trade, international and domestic markets, distribution of wealth, poverty, health issues, and so forth. Each view takes a different stance on the issues. For example, market liberals view globalization, trade agreements and free markets as good things which will eventually work to stabilize economies and give incentive to businesses and consumers to switch to sustainable practices and products. Bioenvironmentalists, on the other hand, have a negative view of today’s free market economies, globalization and trade agreements which lead to over-consumption and over-population beyond the capacity of the planet.
I agree with many of the sentiments contained within the above reviews. It is a very balanced book; it does not give priority to one viewpoint over another, giving each equal representation on all topics discussed. The four viewpoints in themselves were also very helpful in making sense of the environmental debate. The book did exactly what it promised to do: it took a “big-picture” look at the debate and issues without getting impeded by details or moral sentiment. By taking an objective view on the different stances I was able to more fully understand the various groups involved in the debate, what they actually believe and why they believe it. It is also very thorough, discussing the multitude of issues involved, including everything from the WTO and NAFTA to different industries (mining, oil, timber, etc.) to environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund as they relate to the issues at hand and the four viewpoints at work.
The lessons taken from the book can be applied to the huge number of different issues, problems and cases in the environmental world, and in that it is an invaluable resource for anyone studying environmentalism, sustainable development or political economy. It is also helpful in bringing light to different arguments concerning sustainable development and creating a dialogue which will hopefully aid in developing actual policy prescriptions to the various problems we face.
Get the best deal on, “Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment” and save money by clicking Here
Faster searches March 17, 2009
Posted by Olivier Hubert in We Compare Books, fixes, upgrades.add a comment
We are proud to announce that We Compare Books is now much faster than before. Most searches now take less than one second, and comparison speeds have also been boosted. If you haven’t used WCB in a while, give it a try, we guarantee you will notice the difference.
You choose. To save money on textbooks, or not to save money on textbooks : a study of textbook prices, University bookstore vs. We Compare Books March 17, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in Interns, Kyle Schiller, books, bookstores, college bookstores, financial aid, new books, textbooks, used books.Tags: cheap books, cheapest textbooks, compare prices and save, compare textbook prices
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(From the editor)
Choice, we live in a world in which we all have many choices, starting from the 100’s of varieties of bottled water we can choose from, (all of which are basically the same) to the choice of which electronics store where we choose to purchase the latest gadget at (and of course the choice of the gadget itself). We often make dozens of choices a day, and typically, given competition, and the marketplace, these choices do not end up costing us more money (most bottled water, regardless of the brand costs the same, as for gadgets, they tend to fall in a price range, where we pay more to get more). The point I am trying to make is that our daily choices do not end up costing us money; additionally, if we had to choose from 2 items, both identical, but with a price difference of $50, most of us would obviously choose the cheaper item (this is commonsense!). When dealing with textbooks this is the exact scenario that you are faced with: you can choose to go to the bookstore and pay the full price for the book, or you can choose to go to your favorite online bookstore and pay a slightly lower price, but if you want to get the true lowest price on the book your best bet is to use a service that is designed to compare prices, and is guaranteed to save you money, a service like, We Compare Books
I recently asked our intern to do a study, I told him to pick a semester of courses he had, and to pretend that he was going to buy books for said courses now, and to compare the difference in price between the university bookstore, and We Compare Books, below is what he found.
Here’s a little experiment I did. I went on to my alma mater’s website and did a course search of a typical 15-credit semester course load in my major, International Relations. After compiling the listed prices for the books from the school bookstore, I then did a search for the books on WeCompareBooks to find the lowest price. I even included the estimated shipping costs. You can do the search yourself to verify.
Essentials of International Relations by Karen A. Mingst
ISBN: 0393928977
- Bookstore price: $61.50
- WCB lowest price (plus shipping): $33.99
Understanding International Conflicts by Joseph Nye
ISBN: 0321472012
- Bookstore price: $61.75
- WCB lowest price (plus shipping): $47.23
¡Dímelo Tú! by Francisco Rodriguez
ISBN: 1413031609
- Bookstore price: $211.00
- WCB lowest price (plus shipping): $39.00
Western Civilizations by Judith G. Coffin
ISBN: 9780393926996
- Bookstore price: $90.25
- WCB lowest price (plus shipping): $4.24
A Pocket Guide to Writing in History by Mary Lynn Rampolla
ISBN: 9780312247669
- Bookstore price: $20.50
- WCB lowest price (plus shipping): $4.24
World Religions: A Historical Approach by Solomon A. Nigosian
ISBN: 9780312442378
- Bookstore price: $48.00
- WCB lowest price (plus shipping): $24.00
Total bookstore price: $493.00
Total WCB price: $152.70
In this instance, you would save $340.30 or 69%! This proves that if you really want to save money on your next textbook purchase, use We Compare Books. Please take note, though, that prices change on a daily basis and that the prices you get may vary slightly.
A mystery novel perfectly molded to the current economic downturn March 13, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in Authors, Stephen Kahn, Thriller, book reviews, books, depression, e-books, new books, reading, recession, search for books.Tags: Death Wave, fiction books, financial crisis novel, Stephen Kahn
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In an effort to escape from the ever present bad news that seems to be the cornerstone of our current civilization I have spent much time recently watching old movies, and reading good books.
The desire that I feel to escape to a “happier time” is understandable, after all, we are living in an unstable world, where no one knows what the next shoe that will drop will be. Oddly enough, instead of turning to fantasy or other such genres I find greater comfort in books that mimic reality, reading about the extremes of what could be possible, but thankfully what has not yet occurred.
One such book is “Death Wave” by Stephen Kahn. This book provides an excellent analysis into much of what is currently happening in our world – in terms of the financial crisis.
From the book cover:
“In the midst of a financial crisis one man must save the world with the aid of a maniacal serial killer, his dead hamster, and a homeless bum named “Troll”.
Stewart is a young man trying to keep it together during the worst financial crisis since the great depression. The corrupt politics and corporate scandals…”
If you want to read more about this book, or listen to free excerpts from the audio book, please go to http://www.kafilmworks.com/deathwave/contents
A cool organization working to fight the ever rising cost of textbooks March 12, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in Interns, Kyle Schiller, We Compare Books, books, bookstores, college bookstores, education, financial aid, international editions, new books, publishers, textbook publishers, textbooks, used books.Tags: cheap books, compare prices on books, compare prices on textbooks, textbooks
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If you are in college already you know the cost of textbooks can be quite outrageous. Each year they seem to get more and more expensive, and the textbook companies continue to introduce superfluous new editions that really don’t change that much.
There is one group (I mean there is one group besides We Compare Books) – or rather a collection of groups – that is trying to “fight against the machine”, http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.com. This site is dedicated to addressing the problem of escalating textbook costs and advocating solutions. They are a collection of student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups) from across the nation that want to address the concern of ever rising textbook costs. Their preamble reads:
“The cost of college textbooks has become a major affordability issue for low and middle income students, adding to the potential that these students will either drop out, take on additional loan debt to pay for textbooks, or undercut their own learning by forgoing the purchase of textbooks.
Textbook publishers have not responded adequately to these concerns, but have continued to exacerbate this problem by raising prices and employing practices such as unnecessarily issuing new editions of textbooks.
Faculty and students both share a concern about textbook affordability and its impact on student success.
We must address this problem without undermining the academic freedom of faculty to choose course content.”
Their website is full of useful information about why the textbook industry is broken, how it takes advantage of students, and what students can do to educate themselves and try to fight back. They also have a sign-up page where you can add your signature to the cause to increase their numbers and influence. I definitely recommend every student check it out.
