Sign up for the Nontrad News. And leave a comment, fellow nontraditional students.

Some Nontrads Newsletters to read.

This photo is by Ed Schipul.

Hi, fellow nontraditional students.

I hope you are all doing well, and going for your educational dreams. Leave a comment here at the end of this posting to share your nontraditional student experience.

I know both myself and my readers would love to hear about how it is going with a fellow nontraditional student, going back to school after a break.

We have readers here of all ages, all across the country and probably other countries too.

Are you signed up for the Nontraditional Student newsletter? You can do that here:



And here are a few newsletters you might like now if you did not sign up in the past:

The Nontrad News #14 May 2012 

The Nontrads News #13 - January 2012

The Nontrad News #12 - December 2011

The Nontrad News #11 - November 2011

The Nontrad News #10 - August 2011

I hope you like these!

Nontraditional Student Owls - painted and photographed by Vicci

Many nontraditional student groups have the word Owl in their name. I usually think of older, nontraditional students as being wise in the ways of the world, and perhaps knowing what they want to do, or which classes they want to take. 

If you are a nontraditional student, or help them, are you older? Do you feel you know more about what you want to do with your life? Leave a comment about it!

 
Betsyanne

PS You CAN do it!

Some Nontrad links to help you are:

The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook

Nontrads on Yahoo, and

Nontrads on Twitter 

More info:

Vicci's blog (the owl artist) is moon stars and paper.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend.

This photo is by Beverly & Pack on Flickr.

I am thinking some nontraditional students and advisors have the weekend off, and may be enjoying being with loved ones.

Other older nontraditional students may have lost a loved one recently or in the past. May your Memorial Day weekend be filled with good new memories.

Do you have a relative or parent who is a veteran? Share your memories, stories, or information below as a comment. Or perhaps Memorial Day is a day when you visit your relative's resting places.

My father was at the Bikini Atoll for atom bomb tests. Sometimes I think about what he must have thought witnessing that. What an experience.

My good wishes go out to all the families of nontraditional students this weekend, and of course to all the brave veterans, alive and dead, who fought for this country.

Betsyanne
Former Nontraditional Student (WKU)
and Student of Pottery, online revenue, and SEO today.

Some Nontrad links:  
The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo
Nontrads on Twitter

Some great advice from a Nontrad Yahoo Group member

Some great advice from a nontraditional student - 7 tips

This photo of St. Aidan's College is by John Phillips and has a CC license.

Amanda is a nontraditional student who is a member of the Yahoo Nontrads Group.

She wrote a new member who is going back to school, and gave some great advice to her today. It is advice that all nontraditional students can use.

Here are some of her tips:

#1.  Learn to say no sometimes. Just because you are a student, that doesn't mean you have lots of free time. Often, it means you don't!


#2. Guard your study time, because it is important.


#3. Learn to lower your housekeeping standards - it's necessary sometimes. She made a schedule for this too.


#4. Go on autopilot and don't feel guilty about it sometimes too.


#5. Try using different kinds of planners, whatever kind is easy for you to use.


#6. Keep organized... color-coding can help too.


#7. Keep easy-to-prepare food on hand to save time.

I love these tips.

Thanks, Amanda!


Betsyanne
Current and Former Nontraditional Student
Current: Ceramics, art, and online selling
Former: Education.

Some Nontrad links:

The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook

 Nontrads on Yahoo

 Nontrads on Twitter

Job Finding Resources for Nontraditional Students and others

This is for all you just-graduated nontraditional students out there.

I have found some great job resources that I will share with you. Some internet and job-seeking savvy nontraditional students will already know about these.

Others may have other great links. If you do, please share them with other nontraditional students by leaving these good links as a comment at the end of this posting. Thank you!

Here are a few of the job-seeking links I like and some links that look worth exploring too:

#1. Linked In - I have already seen messages from groups I have joined (think: Alumni groups) about jobs. These jobs may not even be listed in papers or online. These people may want somebody like you. Here is the Linked In Link.

(scroll down for more sites)

#2. The official U.S. Government Jobs site.

#3. The Monster Job Search Site.

#4. The Career Builder Site.

#5. The Internet Inc. Job Search Pagehas job search categories based on what kind of job you want to research.

And here is my Job Search Pagepage I made for Kentucky.

-Betsyanne Current (art lessons) and former (teacher ed program at WKU)nontraditional student.

Some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook

Nontrads on Yahoo

Nontrads on Twitter

Please excuse the sometimes weird look of this posting. I am just now learning how to post using an iPad, and it is a lot harder to format for me so far. I hope to get better at it later. :-)

I like this idea from Louisville, Kentucky - The Family Scholar Program

Family Scholars - a Louisville, Kentucky nonprofit - they are doing great things!

I ran across this article yesterday. It is about the Family Scholar Program, which includes a place for families to stay while mothers go back to school.

Here is that article:
Family Scholar program helps single mothers reach special day (and a few fathers too). Via the Courier-Journal.

What a great idea. Wouldn't it be terrific if more schools did this? I enjoyed this article about how this organization is helping so many families.

Here is a quote from the article:


"Family Scholar House, which provides subsidized apartments, day care, academic help, counseling, social services and career counseling, has expanded rapidly in recent years — growing from four families in 2005 to 171 now on three Louisville campuses. More than 80 parents have earned degrees since its inception, and double that number are working toward diplomas."

The group has received a wonderful donation that will allow them to expand their program even more.

I love good news like this, and hope it inspires other similar donations and programs too.

Betsyanne

The Family Scholars Article Link

Former Nontraditional Student (in Education at WKU)
and Current Nontraditional Student (Taking pottery classes at The Pots Place).

Today's Nontrads pay too much to go back to school - some thoughts...

Hello, nontraditional students and those who help them. 

I am downtown today at the Pots Place today in beautiful Bowling Green Kentucky. I ran across a newspaper article yesterday. Another Kentucky University is raising its tuition prices, because they are facing a shortfall in State funding.

Is this happening at your school? I hope not, but it could very well be happening all over. And we may also have a hike in interest rates for those going back to school too.

I wish it weren't happening.

For some, going to a less expensive school or a community college can be an answer. For others, getting a loan via the regular avenues (Stafford, etc.) will be the answer.

It's just not feasible for many students to just say, "Oh, well... I guess I'd better wait to go back to school..." because they may NEED the extra training to get a good job.

Yes, it's easy to be pessimistic about going back to school right now. But many people are taking the chance and doing it anyway.

My advice? Be careful. Make sure all your credits transfer if you are going to try a for-profit school or a community college even, or if you are taking an online class. Make sure that the job outlook is good for what you want to learn. And remember that you will be needing to pay your student loan off when you are out of school.

I would love it if we could all go back to school and have it be low-cost, or even free. Maybe some day this will happen. After all, it's good for the country to have well-educated citizens.

What are YOUR plans? Are you in school already?

Share your thoughts about today's school costs below as a comment.

Betsyanne 

Former Nontrad Student (who took Education classes at WKU)
and Current Nontrad Student (taking pottery classes at The Pots Place)


Some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo
Nontrads on Twitter