By now you’ve figured out:

1. What you want to do with the rest of your life
2. How much your education influences your earnings
3. The best type of educational program for you
4. The type of college you want to attend

Now that all that’s out of the way, it’s time to give you the tools you need to make the best possible decision. It’s time we got to what you’ve been waiting for:

How in the world do you choose the right college?

I’m glad you asked. Here’s our list of resources and tools.

Our Web sites

Tell me you didn’t expect shameless self-promotion at some point . . .

EdSoup.com: Exists to help students find the best college for their needs. Our college search advisors provide a free service to help you find the right college.

CollegeDirectoryNetwork.com: Another one of our Web sites. College Directory Network is the largest online directory of post-secondary educational opportunities. Search on your own, or use EdSoup.com to get help.

Careers and career training

Career Voyages: A government Web site to help you plan your career and see how education can be a part of it.

Career Colleges and Technical Schools: Questions to ask before enrolling. 

High school-related resources

MyCollegeOptions.org: This resource is primarily for college-bound high school students. 

GED Testing Service: A service provided by the American Council on Education.

Other Resources

Non-Traditional Student Resources: Resources from the Department of Education.

CollegeNavigator: A tool provided by the National Center for Education Statistics.

CollegeFinder: A tool provided by the Department of Education.

KnowHow2Go.org: An informational site produced by the American Council on Education and the Lumina Foundation for Education.

College Access: Information on State-level resources.

The next post in this series will help you determine whether or not you’re a good fit for the college of your choice.

Need help finding the right college? Click to get started now!

This is the third post in our 7-part series College search 101. The first two posts looked at how to figure out what to do with the rest of your life and the relationship between education and earnings.

Now, we’ll look at the different types of educational programs that exist.

What type of program is best . . .?

Choosing the wrong type of program can complicate your quest for a good job and more money.

Do you need education to help you figure out what to do with your life?

If so, a liberal arts program at a traditional college or university might be your best choice, but traditional academic programs don’t meet everyone’s needs.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m the proud product of some small state college in a beautiful little town in the middle of nowhere. I’m just saying that traditional academic programs aren’t for everyone.

Career and trade programs

Where academic programs are often broad in their scope, career and trade programs are more focused. Their primary goal is to help students master a set of skills required for competence in a very specific field.

These programs can often be completed quicker than traditional academic programs. They include subjects like:

• Healthcare
• Dental Assisting
• Massage Therapy
• Paralegal Studies
• Computer Technology
• Cosmetology
• Culinary Arts 

Career and trade programs are designed to help someone qualify for and secure a very specific type of job.

Licensure programs

Some fields require that their professionals have a specific type of license to perform their job functions:

• Pilots
• Truck drivers
• Real estate professionals
• Pharmacy technicians

These types of programs are often considered a subset of the career and trade group.

Specialty programs

Believe it or not, there is a school out there for just about every type of education. Specialty schools are the way to go for less-common career types.

Consider the following:

• R. I. Merrill Institute of Bootmaking, Vernal, Utah
• Barnett Bicycle Institute, Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Aroma Apothecary Healing Arts Academy, Austin, Texas

If there’s something you want to learn, I guarantee that there’s someone willing to teach you.

Professional programs

Some professions require advanced types of degrees. Professionals in these fields, and others, are usually required to get education beyond a traditional 4-year degree:

• Medicine
• Law
• Optometry
• Pharmacy
• Accounting
• Religious Ministry
• Education 

Continuing education

Continuing education comes in all shapes and sizes.

Many professions, like teaching, require that their members continue their education throughout their career.

Other people turn to continuing education programs to supplement their professional knowledge or personal interests.

Non-degree seeking educational programs are very important to the ongoing education of society.

What’s best for you?

While, traditional academic programs make great learning environments for a large number of people, they’re not for everyone. 

Choosing the right type of program is the most important thing you can do to get a better job and make more money.

The next post in this series will look at how to choose the best type of college for the program you’ve selected.

Need help finding the right college? Click to get started now!

This is the second post in our series College search 101. Earlier we looked at how to figure out what to do with the rest of your life. Now we’ll look at the secret to getting a better job and making more money. 

More know equals more dough

How would you respond if I told you there was a way for the average adult to increase their earnings by $1,030.31 a month?

Well, according to U.S. census data published in 2006, a single increase in level of education equals exactly that for the average American.

Take a look at this chart:

If the information from the U.S. Census Bureau is correct, someone who never finished high school stands to make another $802.83 a month just by getting their GED.

No wonder my high school counselor pushed me so hard to go to summer school.

What else is in it for me?

The College Board – the organization behind the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT®, and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) – produces a great document each year called Education Pays that lists out dozens of other benefits from higher levels of education. Including:

Increased employer-provided health insurance and pension benefits.

More positive perceptions of personal health and healthier lifestyles.

Lower:

• Unemployment rates
• Poverty rates
• Smoking rates

Higher levels of:

• Civic participation
• Volunteer work
• Voting
• Blood donation

College education also correlates with greater levels of openness to the opinions of others.

While I certainly am motivated by a desire to have greater levels of openness to the opinions of others, these studies make me look at my little bachelor’s degree and wonder how much prettier a master’s would look sitting next to my extra $1,173.58 each month.

It makes sense to me.

The next post in this series will look at how to choose a program that will help you get a better job and make more money.

Need help finding the right college? Click to get started now!

In this series, College search 101, we’ll look at some tips and tricks to help you find the right college.

Before we start digging into the meat of the series, let’s take a quick look at why education is so important.

What do I want to do with the rest of my life?

It’s a question we ask ourselves at regular intervals – during high school, during college, at our first real job, at our second, at our third . . . I think you get the picture.

Birthdays are especially bad for pushing us to reconsider – Jerry Seinfeld said it best:

“Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year’s gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it’s not to be. That for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably. Happy birthday? No such thing.” (Episode no. 56)

Depressing, isn’t it?

Regardless of whether it’s a birthday or not, everyone has moments of dissatisfaction, and usually, it’s because some need isn’t being met.

What does everyone need?

Now, I’m not going to be all Abraham Maslow about the whole thing and discuss hierarchical needs, but the fact is that we become most dissatisfied when there are deficiencies in our lives.

The deficiencies that move us to take action are:

• Physiology (eating, drinking, sleeping, warmth)
• Safety (security from crime, unemployment, illness, accidents)
• Love (belonging, friendship, intimacy, family)
• Esteem (confidence, achievement, respect)
• Self-actualization (morality, problem solving, fulfillment)

Whenever one of these things is missing from someone’s life, they are driven to take some sort of action.

As much as I hate to say it, many of the stressors and deficiencies in our lives are related to our jobs and levels of income.

It all boils down to how much we like what we do each day, how much money we make, and what we do with the money once we have it.

Do you like what you do each day? Need more money?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I physiologically well? Am I healthy? Do I have enough money to make healthy choices?
• Am I safe? Is my family? Would I benefit from making more money and moving my family to a safer place?
• Am I happy in my relationships? Do my finances place unnecessary strain on my family or the people I care about?
• Do I like what I do for a living? Would I make more money if I were better at my job or if I went down an entirely different career path?
• Does what I do every day bring fulfillment to my life?

When people are honest with themselves, they usually admit that a better job or more money will make them happier.

If you don’t believe me, answer this question – what would you change in your life if you had another $1,000 each month?

Would the change make you happier?

That’s what I thought.

For most people, the answer to the question “what do I want to do with the rest of my life?” is very, very simple.

I want to have a better job and make more money.

The next post in this series will look at how continuing your education will increase your earnings by an average of $1,030.31 each month.

Need help finding the right college? Click to get started now!