Education Articles from College Matching Service

Most of the students are very enthusiastic about living independently in a college dormitory. Though there are many advantages of living in a dormitory, you will need to adapt some skills to cope up with diverse situations and live with strangers in harmony.

The following are some guidelines you need to follow to survive your dorm life.

Dealing with your roommate:

In order to make your college days comfortable you need to develop a good relationship with your room mate. Thereby avoid doing such things or behaving in a way that you will find annoying. These are some of the tips for dealing with your room mate:

• Be courteous and try to understand your room mate’s requirements.
• Keep the noise down and clean your part of the room regularly.
• Putting the lights on till late night regularly is indeed annoying. In case there is an emergency ask permission from your room mate.
• Be open to your room mate and tell them directly if you are having trouble with any of their habits.
• Decide some home rules and schedules together with your room mate.

How to confront:

Use tactful conversation to sough out the problems you are having with regards to your room mate’s attitude or habits. You need to respect the other’s viewpoint as well. The other confrontation tactics include:

• Tell the specific problem to your room mate politely and try to find out a solution together.
• Keep in mind that your room mate is also paying and thus have equal rights to get a fair treatment from you.
• Be open enough for any future comments or compromise.
• Report directly to the dormitory supervisor in case the problem continues even after a polite confrontation.

How to ascertain your territory:

Be considerate about the living space of your room. Since you have to share an already small space, put your possessions only in the part of the room that belongs to you. Divide the room evenly and if possible share certain things to avoid doubling. If you want to create boundaries be polite. You can use mats or carpets to indicate your part of the room.

The price of gasoline is rising at an alarming rate. It is already beyond the reach of a sizable section of the population. Students are a part of this section, specially those students who do not have well to do parents or rich relatives backing their academic endeavors. These are students who finance their education through scholarships, loans and part-time jobs. They need to save every penny they can, but that is not always possible. If we limit our discussion to the rising gasoline prices and their effect on students, then the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that colleges are frequently situated at substantial distances from the places where a student might be staying. Living in a hostel or college dormitory also has its share of expenses. And even a student, who lives in the college, may have to spend money on traveling long distances to visit his family or for other purposes. All the above activities would involve expenses which would be hard on the regular student.

An effective solution to this would be going for an online degree over a conventional one. Online education has progressed remarkably well and nowadays one can get online programs on almost any subject under the sun. Online Universities have come a long way, they follow excellent and updated curriculum, maintain great faculties with solid working experience and have a good support mechanism in place. Overall these universities offer education that is as good as the education offered by conventional universities. Their degrees are recognized and respected by various companies and institutions where the students might seek work after completing their online programs. The students do not have to physically attend online universities since everything is online. They can take their classes, submit their assignments, as well as take exams sitting in the comfort of their home. They would not be required to spend money on long commutes to their college or university.

You can make your kids money smart by teaching them to manage credit efficiently. By teaching them the teen credit card basics you will help you children to manage their financial matters independently during their college years.

It has been observed that 75% of the college students have their personal credit cards with a balance of at least $3200. Moreover the present bankruptcy rate for under 25 years is above 5%. Therefore, it is better not to put off this matter until they reach college.

The following are some guidelines to teach your children money management.

• Start your training by the time your children start their middle school. You can give them some amount to buy school cloths and ask them to save the additional amount to buy something later. This will help them to control their spending habit and they will also start building up a saving habit.

• Teach them to check their personal accounts by the time they reach their high schools. This will include reconciling bank statements, writing checks as well as avoiding check bounces. This is an essential money management lesson as you can provide them credit cards only after they have mastered handling their checking accounts.

• It is better to start with a debit card or a prepaid credit card. The charge of the former will be deducted from their existing account balance whereas the later will help you to pre-set and monitor their spending limit. You can also give them some low limit credit cards to begin with.

• Teach them the importance of good credit rating as well as the necessity to pay off the bills on time. This will help them in the latter life to build a good credit history.

All these guidelines will help your children to be money smart kids by the time they reach their college. They will not only help your kids to get their own credit card but will also help them to build a good credit history.

It has been observed, that debt is the most alluring problem of the society. Almost majority of the debtors get into more debts, because of their carelessness in handling credit cards at the student level. If you could teach money management to your kid right from the beginning, there can be a check on the increasing debtors.

Follow some unique ways to teach money management to your kids.

To start off early, you can give them 1 dollar per day and ask them to maintain their regular accounts in their chart. At the end of the week ask them to add up the amount they have earned. Whenever they require money, allow them to use that account but inform them that they will have to pay back the amount. You maintain a record on your part, as to how much they have paid and how much they will have to pay.

Teach them to save. Whenever they ask for something, tell them to make savings for it. They will surely try to do it as fast as possible, till they have managed to accumulate the required amount. Say your son wants a music system for himself; ask him to accumulate the cost price of the music system. If he has a burning desire for it, he will try to gather the money faster, reducing other costs. This will teach him to manage his costs on most essential and essential commodities. For him the music system is an essential commodity at this stage

When you are making your son as the nominee for your car insurance policy, ask him to bear his share. Sometimes they may not agree, but try to teach them this procedure. This will help them to learn the art of managing finances even if they fall short of money.

Never allow your kid to use a phone if he is not paying for it.

No doubt, it is very difficult to apply such procedures in your daily life, but try to teach at least some of these money management techniques. It will surely help your child in the long run.

College expenses are increasing day by day. Some college courses require textbooks that cost thousands and thousands of dollars. This create huge burden on students, and it becomes quite difficult for them to spend money on tuition fee and other expenses. It is easy to buy college textbooks from campus bookstore, but students may have to spend several dollars per semester. However, there is a solution to this problem. There are several online resources from where students can get college textbooks at huge discount. Let us now see how to buy college textbooks at a cheap price using the online resources.

Tips You Must Follow

• Make a list of all the college textbooks that you will need for your course. You may consult your teacher personally to make sure that they will teach the prescribed books. You may also check the website of your college to get the required information. Find out the ISBN number of the book found on the front of a book.

• Visit any bookstore sites such as Half.com, Nobles.com, Barnes.com, or Amazon.com. Enter the ISBN number in the search field. The number is usually ten to thirteen digits long.

• The exact edition and title will be shown up; select the section where texts will be listed according to the condition or price. If not in good condition, you may contact the seller and ask for more specific condition.

• The website chosen by you will ask you to open an account. You can do that process before beginning your search or before you check out your order. You must have debit/credit to buy college textbooks online; however, few are compatible with the Paypal payments.

• After the end of your course, you may use the same website to sell the college textbook to some other student who might need it. The entire process sometimes cost not more than 15 dollars between initial cost and sellback.

The cost of college textbooks have increased to a great extent in the past few years. On an average, every year, students spend a minimum of $500 to buy their college textbooks. However, most colleges and universities have campus bookstores where students can get books at a cheap price. Here are few do’s and don’t that you must follow while buying college books on campus.

Things You Must Do While Buying Books On Campus

• Before buying college textbooks on campus, make a list of all the books you need. Also, list down the names of those books that you may need in the future. This will save your money and time while buying books from campus bookstore.

• If possible, buy another copy of the book. Your friend may borrow your book and may end up losing it.

• While buying books on campus, ask for already used up textbooks. You will find that in campus bookstores, used books generally remain in good condition, and you can also get them at a much low price compared to the new books.

• Find out the return policy of your campus bookstore. Some campus bookstores have long return policies that may come quick.

Things You Must Not Do While Buying Books On Campus

• Don’t wait for the last moment to purchase your college books on campus. Sometimes, the bookstore may run out of stock, and you may have to buy books from other stores at high price.

• Never buy books from a campus bookstore that does not have proper identification.

• Never throw the receipt after buying books on campus. Your college professors may decide to change the syllabus for the next semester. You may need to change the books that you have already purchased. Hence, you will need your receipts in this regard.

Limit yourself to purchase college textbooks only from a particular campus bookstore. This will help you to avoid any type of confusion regarding your books in future.

Every year student needs several college textbooks to pursue their courses. Since the cost of college textbooks are increasing day by day, students have to spend huge amount of money buying them. Some students prefer to buy college textbooks that are already used. Campus bookstores provide the opportunity to buy used textbooks at cheaper prices; however, the discounts offered by them are often insignificant. Colleges have libraries of course; however, you will find very limited amount of books in the college library.

How To Save Money While Buying College Textbooks

Most governmental institutions and colleges do not take any step to solve this major problem. Hence, the only way is to purchase cheaper books from those students who have already passed graduation and do not need the textbooks any longer. In this way the students get the textbooks they need at an affordable price. It is profitable both ways; its helps the students who cannot buy college textbooks at higher price and it also helps the seller who can make earnings from something that would have been wasted otherwise.

Students can buy second-hand college textbooks and save huge amount of money. For this purpose, they can visit those websites that specializes in selling college or university textbooks. This way, students will find all types of college textbooks they need. The websites have search section, where the students can search for the books that are followed in their college. Students can get all sorts of books from astrophysics to biology to chemistry to mathematics online at a cheaper price. Also, students can use these websites to sell their old college textbooks.

Until the government provides more funds to colleges and universities, the method mentioned above is perhaps the best possible method to get college textbooks at a cheaper rate. Hence, if you need college textbook, either search for the websites that sells books at a cheap price, or try buying used textbooks. This will help you to save a good amount of money.

Buying college textbooks is always very painful because of the high price involved. A half price university or college textbook is priceless for those who are willing to save money. Students can save more cash by avoiding the campus bookstore and searching online. Hunting for books on campus may take a lot of time; hence, most students prefer buying college textbooks online since it is an easier and faster process. There are several places online from where students can buy college textbooks at a cheap price.

Buying College Textbooks Online

• Alibris.com – This website will connect the students to individual booksellers all over the U.S. Students can find books at cheap prices here.

• Addall.com – This website compares the prices of textbooks all over the web. It provides information on all fine details such as the shipping and taxes involved.

• Powells – Powell gives great discount on all news college textbooks. Students can find college textbooks at half the price here.

• TextbooksRus – If you want to get used books at a very cheap price, try this website. It can offer you college textbooks between $1 and $5.

• Amazon – This is a popular website for buying college textbooks because it offers discount on every purchase made. Amazon connects you to the independent sellers from whom you can get books at great rates.

• Betterworld.com – students can save huge cash on college textbooks with this website. Betterworld.com also offers free shipping.

• Halfvalue.com – This website sells both new and used college textbooks. The information in this website is almost same to that of Amazon. At Halfvalue.com students can save between 15 percent and 85 percent depending on the type of college textbook a student needs.

• eCampus.com – This is a place where you can purchase and sell discounted college textbooks. You can see their advertisements in the campus newspapers.

Everyday, the cost of living is increasing to a great extent. Some students want to fund their own education; however, due to high cost of living they are unable to do so. Reducing living expenses is probably the best means to increase savings. Students can follow some general steps to reduce their living expenses in order to finance their education.

Steps To Follow

• Make a list of all your expenditures. Reduce on those things that are not needed. Healthcare, utilities, clothes and foods are necessities; however, by adjusting on them, students can cut down their expenditures.

• Luxuries and entertainments are not necessities. Students can significantly reduce on them, or may get rid of them, by changing their lifestyle.

• Electric bill is generally the most expensive utilities these days. Turning off gadgets when not used will help to save electricity to a large extent. Instead of air conditioner, students can use ceiling fan; instead of washing machine they can do hand washing. This will help students save a lot of money to run their own education cost.

• Students can save money, by cutting down on phone cost. They can avoid making long distance calls in the peak hour when charges are high. They can wait for weekends and nights to make calls from their cell phones.

• Most students prefer eating fast foods in hotels and restaurants. This not only brings bad effect on their health, but is also wastage of their pocket money. They must resort to eat home cooking. It reduces the cost by five times. And if possible, students can take their lunch in college, rather than buying from outside.

• Some students prefer to go for late night parties for fun and entertainment. Instead, they can ask their friends to visit their house on weekends. This will give them both fun and entertainment, and will also help them to reduce their expenses to save money for education.

It has been noticed that student loans comprise of the majority of debts of a debtor. Often teenagers get trapped into more debts, owing to their extravagant nature. If you have taken a student loan, your aim should be to pay off the loans on time. Do not get allured by the beautiful dresses, or the other attractive materials at the shopping mall ignoring your unpaid student loans. You may often decide to control your finances. But when it come to shopping it is really difficult. Here are some 5 basic techniques for you to save some penny and clear your student loans.

Prepare a shopping list:

List the items you want to purchase. Strictly avoid every other thing that is not in the list. You will find that you can save nearly 10% to 15 % on your shopping.

Check out the price comparison sites:

Go to the price comparison sites. You will get every detail of the price list of different items in different stores. Go through the customer reviews. This will help you to narrow down your search. Moreover it will be a practicable way to make some savings.

Go through the magazines:

A lot of magazines give good shopping tips. Read them regularly. This will help you to develop a fair idea on the general trend of prices in different stores. Refer to the magazines that give genuine guidelines on shopping. Visit those concept stores directly; it will save time and money.

Decide your budget:

Making a list of items is not enough. Do not fail to frame a proper budget along with it. Justify your budget. If you need to cut down on your budget, do it. Always stick to the budget. Even if you are shopping with your credit card, do not cross the budget. Spending more on credit card will lead you to pay the actual cost as well as the interest rate if you are late in making payments.

Shop in a planned manner:

Fix up a target while you are shopping. Purchase those items which are of real importance. First shop those items which are in the priority list. Do not deviate. Control your desire for other expensive goods.