How to Make the Most of Your College Degree
For many so-called traditional students, college is just a way to get away from home, earn some independence and have fun with friends. Friday nights come first, and education comes second. However, if you want to make the most out of your college experience and academic investment, there are a few things that should factor into your decision of where to attend school, what to study and how to approach your academic years.
Major Bummer
You have more choice than ever when it comes to your focus of study. With so many course options at today’s universities, you need to decide the best route. More than 20 million students now flood American campuses, and even with the amount of variety offered, the same majors top the list of most popular subjects to study. That means a couple of things: First, there are some credentials that will always be in-demand and provide lucrative post-educational compensation; secondly, there’s a whole lot of opportunity out there for those who are willing to step outside the box.
Business, psychology, nursing, biology and teaching degrees round out the top five most popular majors. These fields are crowded, and even with the amount of jobs available, there are still plenty of college grads with these degrees who can’t find employment. That’s why you need to think different. Kind of like this:
The Major of the Future
While your old classmates are spinning their wheels looking for any low-level opportunity out there, you can be making sizable early career leaps in a specialty field. And it doesn’t even take a niche college halfway across the globe to find a program that will get you there. Among others, there are autism certification programs online that will launch you into a successful and fulfilling career your friends only dream of.
Completing a program such as this one will allow you to help those in need while bringing home a healthy paycheck. A rewarding and financially beneficial field like this is something that most high-school graduates don’t even consider when selecting their colleges. If it’s something you can see yourself doing (and liking), the negatives are hard to find. Not only will you secure a financially sound future after you graduate, but you can save money while attending school simply by electing to complete your degree via online courses. Sounds like a win-win, doesn’t it?
Consider the Job Market
Though we shouldn’t celebrate any increase in difficulty, more problems in the world generally requires more people to create solutions.
Such is the case in a field like autism education. Now one in every 59 children is diagnosed with the disorder. On one hand, this means more students are struggling to learn and relate to peers; on the other hand, it means these students are achieving greater visibility, which results in increased need for qualified professionals, like you. Not only does that mean that there will be a need for your position, but it also means you’ll be genuinely helping a cause. Making money and feeling like you’ve done society a service all in one job is about as good as you can ask for. In an industry where so many people need help, you can be a beacon of light.
Easy Does It
While specialized fields like autism education may be challenging, it is not as difficult to break into as you might expect. You can complete your chosen degree in a relatively short time, especially if you choose an accelerated online program. It’s important to remember that not every major is created equally. While some programs will take time and dedication, most will leave you plenty of time to do what all college kids love to do.
There are hundreds of majors to choose from, and it’s almost impossible to know which one is right for you when you’re being forced to pick. But entering a field that most people don’t aim for provides a long list of pros and a short list of cons. If you’re undecided how to approach your college experience, this is a good place to get started.
Is There a Place for Machine Translation in Business?
Five years ago, the answer might have been “definitely no”. However, since then artificial intelligence has made significant inroads into business writing. You may be surprised to know how many articles machines generate on Huffington Post and Harvard Business Review.
Naturally, a human tidies them up afterwards, but the spadework is already done. Similar technology is evolving in the translation industry. Hence, it is best to understand the mix we require, before we contact a company specialized in document translation services.
Striking the Right Balance before Contacting a Translator
Human effort comes at a cost. If we can find a machine to do the heavy lifting, we save money and time. This is especially true for translation, because unlike original writing the content of the document is already set.
However, we do need to find a company specializing in document translation services with a thorough approach. This may mean comparing the original and translation line by line, as opposed to simply tidying up the latter. Here are a few examples of what I mean by this.
Product Descriptions for Internet Catalogues
E-Traders with hundreds of items are more interested in cost than exemplary grammar. Much of their content is there to meet Amazon/eBay requirements. Besides, shoppers are more likely to want to know what comparison sites say. Therefore, a tentative thumbs up for machine translation here.
Product Descriptions for High Tech Industries
However, if I were a nuclear power station operator to cite an extreme case, I would not recommend letting a machine loose on critical procedures. The words “must,” “should,” “may,” and “might” can be mission critical. Therefore, I would contact a company specialized in document translation services in this instance.
What about Marketing Copy and General Business Translation?
Yes, those are two good examples where a blend of machines and human translation provides the best mix. Any multinational corporate will see the sense of mass machine translation into multiple languages. However, I would ask a translator fluent in the destination language to cast an eye over the result and comment.
Things Are Seldom Black or White, Including in Translation
The third dimension to the decision is, of course, cost. I would love a Ferrari but I settle for a Toyota because it gets me there, albeit it at the loss of privilege. Professional translators understand the cost dilemma and always do their best to find the right balance.
Hence I recommend you contact a company specialized in document translation services that understands the potential, and the limitations of machine translation.
The Main Reasons Why Alcohol & Drugs Will Affect Your Academic Performance… Badly
“I drink too much. Last time I gave a urine sample, it had an olive in it.”
– Rodney Dangerfield, U.S. comedian
Ask your parents if they drank too much alcohol during their time at college, and their replies will vary somewhere between the complete, swear-on-the-Holy-Bible and God’s honest truth kind of answer, and the blatant, downright lie. Ask them if they did drugs, however, and, chances are, pretty much all those responses would probably get thrown out in a court of law, with the judge threatening contempt.
“Hey, Mom, you ever get stoned? Were you a pothead in college, Dad?”
Not the conversation to be had at the evening dinner table at the end of a long day, unless your Mom and Dad are going through a period of enlightened California-style parenting. For many parents of kids in college, it wasn’t that they drank or did drugs during their time. It’s more a case of they got through college in spite of them. Perhaps, just like what you’re doing.
I’ll be honest. College, when I was younger, was a blur. My memory of it now is just a retail collection of moments like old polaroids – putting them together in some semblance of order is the problem.
Allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Andy, I’m a mid-thirties digital marketing entrepreneur, running a successful agency, who, for over 9 years now, has lived a completely clean and sober life. No alcohol, no drugs, no nada. Just abstinence.
However, for the vast majority of my adolescent years, I was an alcoholic and a drug addict, saved only my own Mom and Dad finally threw me on the backseat of the family car, drove me to the next state over, and deposited what was left of their son, hopeless addict, physical and mental wreck, and an ex-con to boot, on the steps of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.
Get busy living, Andy, and all that. So I did, and I gave rehab everything.
6 months later, I emerged, clean, sober, physically and mentally the fittest I’d ever been or felt, and now with a decent education. I had majored in addiction, and in rehab, I learned as much as I could about this chronic, sometimes fatal disease that nearly took my life – it’s amazing what you can do with a clear head.
If you want to know how drugs and alcohol will negatively affect your academic performance, read on. If you’re reading this, and thinking, “You know what, Andy? You seem like a nice guy, and I’m glad you turned your life around, and all that. To be honest, though, I don’t really care,” then what follows will make you care.
Let’s look at the 2 most popular substances used, and often abused, on any U.S. campus, and why they will affect your academic performance… badly:
- Alcohol, and
- Marijuana
The intoxication from both will continue to have a detrimental effect on a student’s cognitive function – primarily, attention, concentration, and memory – for around 48 hours afterward. In other words, get drunk on the Friday night, because you’ve got exams on Monday to study for, and the weekend is your only revision time left, and you’ve just shot your academic self in the foot.
Serious abuse of both can lead to the spiral of addiction, and I’m sure you don’t want to have that conversation with Mom and Dad…
Alcohol
Memory: As described above, heavy drinking will affect cognitive function long after you wake up with the obligatory hangover, and will probably mean you start the day with a positive blood alcohol level as well as your pounding head. This alcohol still present in your system directly affects your ability to process and store new information – to fully understand it, and then to successfully retain it in its entirety.
For the biology students out there, “intoxication is produced by a temporary impairment of brain receptors key in creating long-term memories in the hippocampus“, says Duke University’s Jeff Georgi, an Alcohol and Addictions Program coordinator at the school. “If you study for four hours…then go drinking, it affects this anchoring process.”
Sleep: Alcohol messes with your sleep too. Normal sleep cycle interference results in irritability, fatigue, and an increase in anxiety, all of which will directly affect a student’s learning ability for up to 48 hours.
Stress: As the old joke goes, alcohol is only a solution if you’re a chemist. In reality, alcohol doesn’t stop stress, or “academic success-anxiety,” just the symptoms of it – temporarily. By actually not self-medicating with alcohol or drugs, you are giving yourself a far better chance to naturally resolve what is causing the stress.
Marijuana
Memory, Concentration, & Attention: As described above, marijuana use (well, pretty much all drug use) will affect cognitive function long after you wake up, directly affecting your ability to simply pay attention and, indeed, concentrate in the classroom, and then being able to store that information in your memory.
Sleep: When used in the evening and at night time, marijuana is pretty much the same as alcohol when it comes to your sleep cycle, resulting in increases in irritability, fatigue, and anxiety, again, directly affecting learning ability.
Motivation: Now, if you’re sat there reading this, and you’re a little surprised by the use of the word “motivation,” oh, please… Seriously, there is mounting evidence that marijuana use affects your motivation, likely due to a combination neuronal suppression (the hippocampus, again), the blocking of nutrients through cells, and fatigue following disturbed sleep.
Anxiety: Although not an academic reason, it’s worth mentioning that marijuana use increases heart rate, weakens the heart muscle, and increases blood pressure – all of which should concern someone already diagnosed with anxiety. However, as with self-medicating with alcohol, marijuana does nothing to resolve the issues creating your anxiety and stress.
No Lecture
There you have them – the main reasons why alcohol and drugs will affect your academic performance… badly. Forego the alcohol consumption (if you’re binge drinking, and college students have been known to do that on a regular basis, please cut it out of your life – it’s seriously dangerous), and forego getting stoned in the belief it will only do you good. You’ll feel better, and perform better academically without them.
Without these substances, you’ll feel so much better, you’ll be naturally happier, you’ll be more attentive, you’ll be able to concentrate fully, and you’ll enjoy a better memory. As a college student striving for academic success, it makes sense, doesn’t it?
How does alcohol or marijuana use affect your academic performance, or do you believe it doesn’t? Let us know by sharing a comment below.
The 5 Negative Consequences Of Partying Over Studying
“I don’t get high, but sometimes I wish I did.
That way, when I messed up in life, I would have an excuse.
But, right now, there’s no rehab for stupidity.”
– Chris Rock, U.S. comedian, and actor
Right now, there really is no rehab for stupidity. There’s no place you can go to detox, away from other stupid people, under the correct professional guidance and supervision, to get yourself a little brighter, a little bit smarter, and then to re-enter the local community as a valid member of society, prepared to never return to your utterly nonsensical ways of the past – indeed, as someone now in possession of a few more sandwiches in the picnic basket.
Unless, of course, I’m subconsciously discussing college here…
Take any typical college campus. Throw in a free(ish) weekend, and the majority of young people are going to be looking to enjoy themselves, have the proverbial good time. And why not? And so what if those Monday memories of it all are a little jaded, a little sketchy, filled in only by amigos who approach you with a look of fair disbelief on their face? There’s time enough in your life to be putting your shoulder to the wheel, making the mortgage payment this month, every month, and filling the tank every couple of days. If cars still have tanks then…
That was my attitude during my college days. Add the fact that I was well down the road of chronic addiction (liquor and meth, to be precise), and a free weekend was a done deal. Winner, winner, blackout dinner. Tell me about it on Monday. Or Tuesday… Or never. Just avoid me in the corridor.
Nowadays, I’m a little more focused, to say the least. Nearly ten years ago, and thanks to my parents, I found myself in one of the other kinds of rehabs – the ones where they detox you and then make you well from the years of substance abuse that you subjected yourself to. And, with good luck and a following wind, I’ve been clean and sober ever since. And sobriety feels good.
Real drug and alcohol rehab, for me anyway, was a far better source of meaningful education than college ever was. But, I guess, it comes down to what you’re studying. I, as it turned out, was majoring in a chronic disease that came close to killing me. Now if that doesn’t get you to sit up and pay attention in class, I don’t know what will.
I’d like to share some of my class notes with you here. Especially aimed at those students who are tempted by a weekend of drunken and drug-induced debauchery as opposed to settling down with a nice History essay or five. Here are your 5 negative consequences of partying over studying:
Alcohol Overload
“It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.”
“What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?”
“You ask a glass of water.”
– Douglas Adams, British author, and playwright
Drinking alcohol at college parties is as endemic as textbooks. It’s there, and how you deal rationally with it is an important aspect of your college life. Fail to do so, and rationality will go out of the window as your reliance upon it increases. Take it from one who’d chug a shot before the first class of the day. Alcohol’s effect on any student will take various forms – here’s a few to get you thinking:
- Liver Disease
- Pancreatitis
- Cancer
- Ulcers & Gastrointestinal Problems
- Immune System Dysfunction
- Brain Damage
- Malnourishment & Vitamin Deficiencies
- Osteoporosis
- Heart Disease
- Accidents & Injuries
Being young doesn’t make you exempt. Many of the fellow addicts I shared rehab with were experiencing a number of these, and some were irreversible. Irreversible.
Sleep Deprivation
One of the main consequences of partying like you’re Prince (am I showing my age here?) and it’s 1999 is this – sleep deprivation. Not enough of it, poor quality sleep, or not even being able to get there in the first place. And this can be whether your party fun was chemically-induced or not. So, say goodbye to past levels of concentration when the lesson bell rings. And everybody knows that Monday morning feeling of wishing for a brand new weekend to suddenly begin again.
Sliding Grades
“Striking a balance” is pretty good advice for anyone when it comes to getting through life. Yes, there is doing what needs to be done, and, yes, there is doing what doesn’t need to be done, but you want to anyway. Get the balance right, and they won’t be able to wipe that smug smile off your face. Get it wrong at college, and your teachers and professors will know before you do – your grades will snitch, and will tell on you. Guaranteed.
Remember, it’s never too late to recover your academic performance, and get back on track. Or is it? I’m an example of principal-stamped proof of the latter. I actually remember one tutor telling me that I needed more than a miracle to pass the semester, and considering I had failed every Monday morning to rise from the dead as Jesus had done, that was probably a little too far-fetched for me. That was my “Satirical Humor” class.
Ever-Changing Moods
Partying should make you happy. Usually, it does. However, the after-effects of any binge, drugs or alcohol or both, is going to hit you emotionally. You are in no way going to be your usual motivated, leveled, industrious self if you have become a permanent fixture of the house party circuit. Two biggies to watch out for here: anxiety and depression. If either of these sound alarm bells with you, it really is time for a time-out.
Conflicts Where There Should Be None
When you become out of control on a reasonably regular basis (and take it from me, control wasn’t one of my things), conflicts will invariably arise, some of which you will have no idea about until the other side decides to vent at you. And, in my experience, vent they will. Too much partying will always try and knock down the walls of personal relationships – romantic, friends, and acquaintances. You have been warned.
What Happens Next…
Well, that’s up to you. Tone it down, hit the books a little more, strike that balance, and all will be good. Carry on like you’ve got one month to live, and, like me, maybe you’ll be told that for real one day. Yes, it’s college, yes, it’s your life, yes, you’re younger than I’ll ever be, but, unless you make changes if you are bearing witness to the consequences described above, then maybe you’ll wake up one morning, back of a dumpster, no money, no home, no nada, just an angry thirst. Yes, many a time, in case you’re wondering.
Have you been out too much lately, living it up when you should be handing it in? Please let us know by sharing a comment below. The last thing – take it easy. Because life gets no easier.
Things for College Aged Women to Know About Breast Augmentation Surgery
Many college age women are not happy with the size of their breasts and are considering getting breast augmentation surgery. This procedure promises to help any woman increase a few cup sizes and have a larger, fuller breasts. The reasons for a woman seeking breast augmentation can vary. Some want to feel more confident, others want to look better in their clothes, while other do it because their husbands or boyfriends have asked them to do it for them.
There are also situations where women get breast augmentation because their breasts are not symmetrical or because they have had cancer and want a set of new and bigger breasts. Whatever the reasons, this cosmetic surgery has surged in demand all across the United States creating a demand for skilled surgeons like Dr. Nina Naidu, who has an expertise in making the new breasts look natural and the clients feel satisfied. Dr. Naidu services dozens of women every year who are looking for new and larger breasts. She not only performs the operation, she also counsels them on important things they should know before the operation. Here are a few of the key items to understand.
Breast Augmentation Surgery is the most popular type of cosmetic surgery
Nearly 300, 000 women every year in the US have breast augmentation surgery. It is the most popular type of major cosmetic surgery and shows no signs of losing its popularity. This can give you comfort that many other women are doing it and the reasons for this surgery remain strong. Breast augmentation surgery when done by a reputable surgeon is safe and the results are fantastic. And with new techniques it is less invasive and more natural looking.
You Will Need Time to Recover
Breast augmentation is surgery and like every surgery, it will require a recovery time and during that time you will have to get lots of rest and curtail many activities that you might be used to doing. These include strenuous exercise, walking up steps and no heavy partying. The most critical time of your recovery will likely be two to three weeks after surgery, where you will have to be very careful. Expect your surgeon to give you a specific timeline because your case might have special circumstances.
You must also look out for any complications that may develop. Breast augmentation has become a common and low risk type of surgery. But like with any surgery there can be complications and setbacks. These might include excessive bleeding or even complications with the implants. In the event of any circumstances happening outside of what your surgeon tells you to expect, you should call her immediately and tell her exactly what has occurred.
It Will Take Time for Your New Breasts to Take on Their New Look
In the weeks following your breast augmentation, surgery your breasts will be swollen and may loo misshaped a bit. You are also not used to seeing a different set of breasts sitting on your chest so they will probably look weird to you. Also where they sit will look and feel different. They may also be relatively high up on your chest. Give yourself the few weeks or perhaps a little longer for the swelling to subside and then you will see how they will look going forward.
Breast augmentation surgery is a big step that demands you take time to research. Find a great doctor like Nina Naidu and have her walk you through the procedure, recovery and how you can will look with your new breasts.
