Category: Your Education (Page 8 of 22)

      America’s Best Graphic Design Programs

      September 16, 2011 /

      Graphic designers design art and copy layouts for material to be presented by electronic media and visual communications media such as magazines, newspapers, books, television, and packaging. Graphic designers use a variety of techniques to communicate messages such as animation, illustration, color, type, and photography. Graphic designers work for advertising agencies, newspapers and magazines, the film and video industry, publishing houses, and government agencies, design firms, and public relations firms.

      Although graphic design jobs are available in these industries and many others, the biggest employers of graphic designers are marketing and advertising firms. Many graphic designers work on a contract basis. Currently, 25.6 percent of all graphic designers are self-employed.

      Depending on factors from the size of the firm to region, graphic designers can earn anywhere from $42,000 per year on the low end to $95,000 or more on the high end. Entry-level graphic designers usually earn the lowest salaries, but in most cases, these designers advance rather quickly—usually within 1-3 years.

      Graphic designers are in high demand today, but positions are very competitive. However, most graphic designers will agree that the right position is well worth the effort because not only are these creative positions exciting and rewarding, they are also the most stable positions in the creative sector. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for graphic designers is good, based on an impressive 13 percent increase in job growth between now and 2018.

      So, what does it take to become a graphic designer? Employers prefer to hire graphic designers with at least an associate degree, but designers with a bachelor’s degree or higher will find more opportunities. They will receive higher starting salaries as well. Currently, more than 50 percent of all graphic designers have an associate degree or higher and more than 20 percent have some college experience, but no degree. More than 6 percent of all graphic designers have a master’s degree. 

      It is important to note that education alone does not guarantee entry into or success in the field. Creativity, communication skills, and computer skills are a must. Web design and animation experience are also a must for most of the top firms.

      Graphic designers come from many different educational backgrounds. Some have a degree in advertising or marketing communications while others may have a degree in fine art, multimedia arts, or even animation. If the focus is graphic design, students can expect to take classes such as flash animation, marketing design, website design, computer graphics, studio art, printing techniques, principles of design, commercial graphics production, history of graphic design and desktop publishing, to name a few.

      In the U.S., there are more than 250 accredited postsecondary institutions with programs in art and design. Art & Design schools are twice as likely to offer a degree or certificate in graphic design, but many of the schools on the list below are traditional four-year colleges and universities. The list was complied by U.S. News and World Report. If you decide that the schools on the list aren’t for you or they are just too competitive, remember, many other schools offer graphic design programs. If you come across a school that you aren’t familiar with, just check to make sure the program is accredited by The National Association of Art and Design (NASAD) or other recognized accrediting agency. Visit Ed.gov for a list of recognized agencies.

      America’s Best Graphic Design Programs 

      • -Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
      • -Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
      • -Yale University, New Haven, CT
      • -Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
      • -Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
      • -Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
      • -School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
      • -California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
      • -Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
      • -California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
      • -School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
      • -New School–Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
      • -Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
      • -University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
      • -Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN

      Your Career, Your Compensation, Your Education

      How to Compare Colleges

      September 14, 2011 /

      One of the first things to consider when creating a targeted list of colleges is budget. If you plan to finance your education through loans and/or income from a full or part-time job, this will help narrow your search significantly. Many colleges offer grants and scholarships, so be sure to include these types of schools on your your list—even if the tuition is beyond your budget. If you want to find out about grants and scholarship programs, visit CollegeScholarships.org. Just about every college website also lists grant, loan, and scholarship program information. Go to each website’s financial aid section for details.

      After you have considered your budget, price, and the type of financial aid each college on your list offers, it’s time to think about location. Do you plan to live on campus? In state or out of state? Do you prefer to commute? Once you have decided on a location, this should eliminate a good number of schools on your list. At this point, comparing colleges should be somewhat easy, but an even shorter list will make comparing colleges even easier.

      To trim the list to just a few, consider your career path. What do you plan to major in? Engineering? Literature? Architecture? Not all schools offer all programs, so this will help shorten your list to just a select few colleges. If you are unsure about your location, major, and price, you can still compare colleges using the comparison criteria below.

      Comparing Colleges

      Now that you have your shortlist ready, it’s time to compare colleges. A good way to keep things organized is to use the following comparison criteria:

      -Admission Procedures and Requirements
      -Campus Life
      -Cost and Financial Aid
      -Location
      -Type of School

      Admission Procedures and Requirements
      The admission procedures and requirements for any given college discusses the percentage of students accepted. This will tell you how competitive the college is. You will also find out whether an interview and/or essay is required, and any SAT and ACT requirements. The school website will usually list the minimum acceptable SAT and ACT scores.

      Campus Life
      This information is also located on the school’s website and will tell you whether or not the school is in an urban, suburban, or rural setting. This section also includes enrollment figures, so you’ll know what to expect regarding class size, male/female ratio, etc.

      Cost and Financial Aid
      Cost and financial aid information covers tuition and fee information for both in-state and out-of-state students. It will also list costs for room and board or room only.

      Location
      Location is all you need to determine whether you’ll have to commute, live on campus, or relocate to another state.

      Type of School
      The type of school affects price, financial aid, grant offerings, scholarship programs, and more. For example, private colleges cost more than public colleges, and public colleges offer more breaks on tuition than private colleges do.

      When comparing colleges, the best place to find the most reliable and up-to-date information about any given college is the school’s official website. For a directory of colleges visit AllCollege.org.

      Your Education

      Debt after College: Credit Counseling for Students

      September 1, 2011 /

      Credit counseling, also called “debt counseling,” is a service provided by organizations that offer professional counseling for consumers in need of assistance in the areas of debt repayment, debt management, and money management. Credit counseling is also a requirement that must be met prior to filing chapter 7 or chapter 13. The types of debt that credit counseling agencies may assist you with include credit cards, personal loans, home loans, car loans and student loans. Credit counseling agencies also assist with utility bill repayment and tax debt.

      Getting Started with a Credit Counseling Agency

      Credit counseling agencies will require certain documentation to begin the process, so it is important to organize your records before visiting an agency. The credit counseling agency will ask for credit card statements, copies of utility bills, mortgage payment statements or your rental amount/lease. The agency will also expect you to bring a record of spending or a budget that should  include household expenses and any miscellaneous expenses. This documentation is needed in order for the credit counselor to create a realistic budget and debt repayment plan.

      Benefits of Credit Counseling

      A major benefit to credit counseling is that the credit counselor will handle all lenders, collection agencies, and credit card companies for you. This helps to eliminate the stress associated with collection agency and creditor phone calls. Your credit counselor will negotiate a repayment plan that may significantly lower your monthly payments and interest rates.

      You may opt to send monthly payments to the credit counseling agency (by check) or you may authorize a monthly electronic funds transfer from your bank account. Depending on the credit counseling agency, they may offer an option called “debt management system.” If you opt for a debt management system, you will pay the credit counseling agency a lump sum. Out of that lump sum, payments will be made on your behalf. This system can be used as a safeguard against skipped or late payments, which can save money on interest, fees, and any penalties associated with the debt.

      An additional benefit to credit counseling is, it can educate you on how to better manage your finances and it will eventually help to minimize or prevent future debt.

      Disadvantages of Credit Counseling and Protecting Yourself

      While there are advantages to credit counseling, there are also disadvantages. Credit counseling could have a negative effect on your credit, initially. In some cases lenders, specifically mortgage lenders, may not want to extend credit to an individual that may be in the process of completing a credit counseling program. Fortunately, credit-counseling notations will be dropped from your credit report, roughly one month after the credit counseling program is complete.

      Another disadvantage to credit counseling is the potential for fraud. This means that in some cases a credit counseling agency could turn out to be a scam. Look out for the following red flags:

      • -Unrealistic promises (“settle for pennies,” or “this won’t affect your credit report”)
      • -Big upfront fees (fees are typically $10-$15 U.S.)
      • -Delayed or missing payments
      • -No accreditation

      To protect yourself against fraudulent credit counseling agencies, it’s best to make sure that the agency is approved by the approved by the U.S. Trustee Program of the United States Department of Justice. Locating an approved agency is simple. Just log onto www.usdoj.gov and follow these steps:

      • -Under “Resources” click “DOJ Agencies”
      • -Scroll down to “U.S. Trustees Program”
      • -Under “Bankruptcy Reform” click “Credit Counseling & Debtor Education”
      • -Under “Credit Counseling for Consumers” click “Approved Credit Counseling Agencies”

      The search function allows the user to browse through approved agencies by state. Please follow the link below, which should take you directly to the search page http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/ccde/cc_approved.htm.

      Your Education

      Best Schools for Financial Aid 2011

      August 29, 2011 /

      The results are in and the Princeton Review has revealed the list of America’s best colleges for financial aid. What this means is, these colleges have the best financial aid ratings out of more than 600 colleges surveyed, so they were able to meet the financial aid needs of their students better than all others. The top 11 are:

      • -Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME)
      • -California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
      • -Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA)
      • -Harvard College (Cambridge, MA)
      • -Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, IL)
      • -Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
      • -Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA)
      • -Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
      • -Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA)
      • -Washington University in St. Louis (MO)
      • -Williams College (Williamstown, MA)

      The Princeton Review also listed schools where financial aid options are “not so great.” The top ten are Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA), Quinnipiac University (Hamden, CT), New York University (New York, NY), Elon University (Elon, NC), Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), University of Maryland (College Park, MD), Sonoma State University (Rohnert Park, CA), DePaul University (Chicago, IL), Miami University (Oxford, OH), and Grove City College (Grove City, PA). Eleven through 20 include:

      • -California State University-Stanislaus (Turlock, CA)
      • -Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY)
      • -Auburn University (Auburn, AL)
      • -Villanova University (Villanova, PA)
      • -Spelman College (Atlanta, GA)
      • -Howard University (Washington, DC)
      • -Washington State University (Pullman, WA)
      • -The College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ)
      • -University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY)
      • -Westminster College (New Wilmington, PA)

      For a full list of the best colleges for financial aid, visit www.PrincetonReview.com.

      Your Education

      How to Choose the Best Job for Your Skills

      August 27, 2011 /

      It’s no secret that American’s are now living in an employers market. Gone are the days when headhunters lined up at your door hoping to sign you as a client. Hundreds of hopeful job seekers are even lining up to compete for positions that pay less than what was offered (for the same job) just a few years ago. So what does this mean for today’s job seeker? You need a strategy and it starts with knowing your skills and accepting your strengths and weaknesses.

      To get started with assessing your skills and finding a suitable match in the job world, the first thing you need to do is understand the difference between a skill and what you “like” to do or “feel” you’re good at. According to Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D. and career expert:

      A skill is a learned capability to perform actions. A skill is a capability because it gives you the potential to do something competently. A skill is learned because it is not something you are born with, and it is not acquired through normal sensory development or through special physical conditioning. It is not a talent or aptitude. A skill allows you to perform actions rather than just know or feel something, which is what makes it valuable to employers.

      Keep in mind that critical thinking and a positive attitude are considered skills because they require actions on your part such as learning how to see things from someone else’s point of view, speaking with an upbeat tone or offering assistance with any given task. These skills, combined with certain technical skills such as typing, programming, etc., all make up a skill set and they all contribute to completing projects and other work related tasks.

      So, now it’s time to take out a pen and a piece of paper and jot down your skills. After you have written your skills on a piece of paper, take a long, hard look at them. Now rate them. Use 1 for “low level,” use 2 for “moderate level” and use 3 for “high level.” Once you have done this, choosing the best jobs for your skills will be easy.

      Below are just a few examples of best jobs for people with a high level of communication skills, equipment use/maintenance skills, computer programming skills, management skills, science skills, and social skills. These positions are listed as the top ten best jobs for your skills out of 50 by JIST Works, America’s Career Publisher. Please note that these careers require a “high level” of the listed skill and each list offers a wide variety of positions for all different education levels and personality types.

      Communication Skills

      • – Teachers (Postsecondary)
      • – Surgeons
      • – Dental Hygienists
      • – Medical Scientists
      • – Personal Financial Advisors
      • – Physical Therapists
      • – Physician Assistants
      • – Pharmacists
      • – Social and Community Service Managers
      • – Market Research Analysts

      Equipment Use/Maintenance Skills

      • – Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts
      • – Anesthesiologists
      • – Management Analysts
      • – Network and Computer Systems Administrators
      • – Computer Support Specialists
      • – Pipe Fitters and Steamfitters
      • – Plumbers
      • – Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists
      • -Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers
      • -Forest Fire Fighters

      Computer Programming Skills

      • – Computer Software Engineers (Applications)
      • – Computer Software Engineers (Systems Software)
      • – Computer Systems Analysts
      • – Computer and Systems Information Managers
      • – Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts
      • – Computer Security Specialists
      • – Network and Computer Systems Administrators
      • – Financial Analysts
      • – Accountants
      • – Actuaries

      Management Skills

      • – Computer and Systems Information Managers
      • – General and Operations Managers
      • – Computer Security Specialists
      • – Medical and Health Service Manager
      • – Sales Managers
      • – Management Analysts
      • – Marketing Managers
      • – Accountants
      • – Auditor
      • – Medical Scientists

       Science Skills

      • – Anesthesiologists
      • – Internists (General)
      • – Obstetricians and Gynecologists
      • – Psychiatrists
      • – Surgeons
      • – Family and General Practitioners
      • – Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software
      • – Pediatricians (General)
      • – Pharmacists
      • – Teachers (Postsecondary)

      Social Skills

      • – Internists (General)
      • – Obstetricians and Gynecologists
      • – Psychiatrists
      • – Registered Nurses
      • – Family and General Practitioners
      • – Pediatricians (General)
      • – General and Operations Managers
      • – Dental Hygienists
      • – Auditors
      • – Medical and Health Service Managers

      For a complete list of jobs, profiles, salaries, expected job growth and more, visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics at Bls.gov.

      Your Business, Your Career, Your Education, Your Workplace

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