10 Great Resources for Nontraditional Students
While making a website, a blog, and other networking resources for nontraditional students (who are students going back to school after a break) I ran across many great resources that I found extremely helpful.
Here are 10 of these to share with my readers today.
#1. Study Guides and Strategies by Joe Landsberger: This site has it all - pointers on online learning, time management, ideas for taking tests sucessfully, making a school budget, and much more.
#2. The Adult Education pages at About.com. Deb Peterson has articles galore just for students going back to school after a break. From study skills to certification, and from GED hints to college tips, this site is a winner. Check out her latest posting about 8 Great Affordable Gifts. This is a website you can go back to time and time again for upbeat, new information.
#3. The Official FAFSA Page - if you have not already checked this site out, you need to. Not only can you apply for Federal Student Aid here, just completing the form can be the start of your finding out about grants that you qualify for. And if you already didn't know, Federal Student Aid is for every citizen who needs it.
#4. The ProfEval site - if you are going back to college, you definitely want to check out how students rate the professors at their school. Warning: some ratings can be a little harsh. But you can get an idea of which professors are most well-liked, and who is easy vs. hard. At the very least, it is fun to read some of the off-the-wall comments, even if you don't agree with them.
#5. Facebook - if you have not explored Facebook yet, you are in for a treat. You can join your classmates here and keep up on all their news. Of course, be careful NOT to log in to a fake Facebook page and don't click on a link when you are not absolutely sure it is going to Facebook. You are OK with many of the game programs, just be careful. If you are up to date on your antivirus programs, you should be OK on Facebook. It's worth the hassle of being careful, because Facebook Is FUN.
#6. The Return to College Forum - this Ning group has 97 members. Eduardo Peirano is the Moderator there. He has much expertise in the Education and Computer 2.0 fields, among others. He is networking on many sites and posts much helpful information for nontraditional students of all kinds. In addition, he has other communities online. Any nontraditional student is welcome to join this forum group. I have met several very knowledgeable people here, and any time I ask a question somebody is happy to answer it. I like this group a lot.
#7. The Returning to School Forum - this Ning group has 19 members. They have discussions about what it is like going back to school. Like the Return to College Forum, its members come from all over the world. Cynthia, the moderator, is also currently going back to school. This group is for
those who are returning to school 10, 20, 30+ years later. (That quote is from the site itself.)
#8. The Sophie Maddox Adult College Education Information site. I like this site because Ms. Maddox's articles are fun to read and original. She also gives away a free ebook for getting on her email list. Some recent articles she has had on her site are about laughter and how important it is, how to recognize FAFSA myths, and definitions of important college terms.
#9. Career Voyages - this is another official government site. I like it because it lists current jobs that are in demand. If you are thinking of taking classes or going back to school, this site is extremely helpful. You can look up what you are interested in and find out if it pays well, and what jobs are going to be needed in the future. You can also find out what kind of education each job entails. It is the really SMART website to visit before you go back to school.
#10. The Son of Citation Machine site. I know, teachers and professors always want you to try to do citations on papers totally by yourself. But I used this site and it really helped me. And my professor was very picky, and I know she double-checked these. So now I highly recommend this site to others.
This site takes the information you input (like what kind of source you are using for your paper) and automatically generates the correct citation format you can put at the end of your paper. This is the second site that was made to help students do citations for papers. The other one was called just "Citation Machine." Of course, you must double-check these against your official book or papers your teacher recommends. (Just in case...)
I hope you like these sites as much as I do.
#8. The Sophie Maddox Adult College Education Information site. I like this site because Ms. Maddox's articles are fun to read and original. She also gives away a free ebook for getting on her email list. Some recent articles she has had on her site are about laughter and how important it is, how to recognize FAFSA myths, and definitions of important college terms.
#9. Career Voyages - this is another official government site. I like it because it lists current jobs that are in demand. If you are thinking of taking classes or going back to school, this site is extremely helpful. You can look up what you are interested in and find out if it pays well, and what jobs are going to be needed in the future. You can also find out what kind of education each job entails. It is the really SMART website to visit before you go back to school.
#10. The Son of Citation Machine site. I know, teachers and professors always want you to try to do citations on papers totally by yourself. But I used this site and it really helped me. And my professor was very picky, and I know she double-checked these. So now I highly recommend this site to others.
This site takes the information you input (like what kind of source you are using for your paper) and automatically generates the correct citation format you can put at the end of your paper. This is the second site that was made to help students do citations for papers. The other one was called just "Citation Machine." Of course, you must double-check these against your official book or papers your teacher recommends. (Just in case...)
I hope you like these sites as much as I do.
Some of my links!
The Nontrad site and blog
Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on MySpace
Nontrads on Twitter