May 2010

Free Tuition U. vs. Living With Dad at Engineering School

May 28, 2010

I recently graduated from high school.  I was a decent student and graduated with highest distinction (basically equivilant to valedictorian). I’m going to assume for our purposes that it’s more like top 5% of Kacie’s class, rather than valedictorian. Valedictorian is pretty cut-and-dried — it’s the highest-ranking person in the class. The Univ of Nebraska [...]

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Can Private Schools be Cheaper than Public Schools?

May 27, 2010

If you read this blog often enough, you might get the impression that I’m totally anti-private school. I frequently advise you guys to ditch private schools and their fat tuition bills in favor of cheaper public schools, and all else being equal, that’s probably going to be my advice most of the time. But I’ve [...]

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Work-at-Home Jobs: Can They Get You Through Journalism School?

May 26, 2010

The Internet is awesome. I think we can all pretty much agree on that. If you’re old enough to remember life before the Internet, you can probably also remember all the predictions about how it was supposed to unleash us from corporate slavery — or at least let us telecommute a lot. And while that’s happened [...]

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We’re Closed For Flooding Today

May 25, 2010

Hello, loyal readers. Just a quick note to let you know that there will be no regularly scheduled post from me today due to some wicked flooding that my family and I sustained last night. My family and I just recently moved and we have our old house up on the market. Unfortunately, we got [...]

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Should Natasha Get Married For the Financial Aid?

May 24, 2010

Hi Judge Josh. I read most of your articles, and find them very interesting. Sweet! However, I haven’t read one that helps me in my situation. Dang. My senior year of high school, I participated in the joint-enrollment program, taking 2 classes in high school, and 2 at a university. Unfortunately, I failed one class (I [...]

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Minority Scholarships: Why Are There So Many?

May 21, 2010

It’s Friday, and I have to admit, I’m pretty worn out this week. My mind is already into the weekend, so I’m not going to tackle a big, convoluted topic today. Instead, we’ll feature an email with a little bit of venting in it. Maybe you guys have more energy to help out than I [...]

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Is “Follow Your Dreams” A Bunch of BS?

May 20, 2010

You know, I get lot of “follow-your-dreams” style questions around here. Should I or shouldn’t I? Usually there’s a money issue involved; otherwise, why wouldn’t you follow your dreams? Unfortunately, it seems few of us “dream” of jobs that pay a truckload of money, are easy to get and easy to do. I guess that’s [...]

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How Not To Destroy Your Future With Student Loans

May 19, 2010

Student loans are, and probably always will be, the most recurring topic on this site (yeah, I thought it was gonna be scholarships, too. Maybe I should change the name of the site. Any suggestions?). But that’s fine, because there are an endless number of students and parents out there with questions and dilemmas regarding [...]

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Online Degrees: Legit Contenders or Weak Pretenders?

May 18, 2010

If you’re like me, you can’t be on the Web for five minutes without coming face-to-face with about 85 different flashing banner ads for online degrees and colleges. In fact, there’s an excellent chance that as you read this, there’s an ad fitting that description in the top right corner of this very page (and [...]

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From Vegas to L.A.: Should Brittany Transfer as a Senior?

May 17, 2010

It’s Monday and I’m excited, because tonight the Phoenix Suns get started on their upset series victory over the heavily favored and extremely boring L.A. Lakers. Wishful thinking on my part anyway, but it’s a perfect segue into today’s topic. Brittany loves L.A. and is considering ditching UNLV to transfer to UCLA — even though [...]

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Art Double Major vs. Soul-Crushing Debt

May 14, 2010

Sometimes I get emails that I just don’t have great, uplifting answers to give in reply, and I figure it’s only fair to include some of those in the usual rotation here, since not everyone has an easy path in front of them. Erika’s in a tough spot, and she’s just going to have to [...]

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Electives: Tough & Interesting vs. Easy & Boring

May 13, 2010

Hi, all — we’re back today answering a great question from a fellow named Sandeep who wants to challenge himself with a tough elective outside his major, but he isn’t sure whether that’s kosher. Read on and see whether your advice for Sandeep is the same as mine. Hello. I have a question for you. [...]

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Expensive Grad School vs. Low-Paying Job

May 12, 2010

You know, after our Nancy Goes to Maryland and Elizabeth Goes to Harvard posts, I was thinking you guys might be tired of these dilemma, “What should she do?” types of posts. But the more mail and comments I get, I’m thinking you guys are pretty fond of ‘em. Hey, I love them, so I’m [...]

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Internships vs. Graduating on Time: What’s More Important?

May 11, 2010

Today, for the first time I believe, I’m dedicating the entire post to the topic of internships. I can’t believe I haven’t done it before now given the importance of the topic, but thanks to Allen from Florida, I’m now on the case. He writes: Hi Josh! Hi! I’m currently a sophomore at a public [...]

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Scholarship Microtip #1: Treat Others Well (Car Wreck Edition)

May 10, 2010

What a weekend. In the midst of my family moving from one house to another and my son having a big birthday party, my wife was in a serious car accident in which her Explorer rolled three times. She was released from the hospital a day later without serious injuries, but it left us thinking [...]

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ASVAB Test: Your Secret Weapon for Finding a Job You Love? (Counselor Buddy!)

May 6, 2010

There are some days when I’m sitting here in my office when I didn’t sleep enough the night before and my coffee has worn off and I feel like I could actually fall asleep sitting totally upright in my chair if I just tip my head back…and then I realize I haven’t made my post [...]

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How to Get a Job, Part 4: Be Flexible

May 5, 2010

It’s the final day of this little how-to-get-a-job sequence, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it thus far. Bookmark those posts; they were true 40 years ago and they’ll still be true 40 years from now. Today’s final tip is simply to be flexible on the job. And if possible, indicate in the interview that you’re [...]

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How to Get a Job, Part 3: Be a Nice Person (or at least act like one)

May 4, 2010

We’re back today with the shortest and sweetest of the four tips on how to get and keep a job: Be nice. Or at least act like you are. This has almost nothing to do with your ability to do the actual work you’re hired to do, but it has everything to do with people [...]

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How to Get a Job, Part 2: Put Your Heart Into It

May 3, 2010

Happy Monday, everyone, and my deepest apologies for no-showing you in this space on Friday. I was in Minneapolis for American Advertising Federation business (including the National Student Advertising Competition, which was outstanding — congrats Wisconsin-Madison!) and was occupied literally every moment of the day from waking up at 6:30 to hitting the rack around [...]

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