Choosing an education field for a bright career

Posted by admin | Posted on 01-08-2010

Category : Pharmacy Students

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Choosing an education field for a bright career

Education is the need of the hour, every student today, is required to take proper education in order to develop his bright future. To make themselves achieve a proper stage and reach the top of the field chosen, a student needs to take proper education in the respective field. Education is surely the basis of all the developments taking place in the country, which enables the person to lead his life in a right manner. Looking at the today’s scenario, people are expected to choose an education program, which suits their personality, and paves a way for a good career. Choosing the career field has really become tough for the students, because of the fact, that these days, there are many career fields which are available, out of which the students needs to choose the career.

Today, every body wants success at a faster rate, and without education, job or business, nothing is possible. Therefore a student has to very wisely choose for the course and the college he wants to take admission in. The courses like engineering, medicine, has slowly started getting replaced by more research oriented and demanding courses like biotechnology, pharmacy, software courses, etc. The choices have increased, and so has the confusion of the students, as in which field to opt for. This decision is very important and tough at the same time, because it is this decision on which the whole future and career of the student is based.

With the availability of a number of career options, it often becomes confusing and tough for the students to choose from the career options provided by different colleges. For choosing the right career option, a student should keep in mind the following points:

v     The choice and the interest of the student matters a lot, therefore a career field of the choice of the student should always be opted by him, to build a prosperous career for himself.

v     The subjects chosen should have bright future prospects, making the student earn satisfactory amount of name and fame in his future.

v     These days, there are many professional courses also available, which comparatively are of short duration and makes the student land in the job market quickly as compared to the students doing regular courses. Some of the professional courses available in the colleges of India are:

Mass communication
Journalism
Public relations
Hospitality courses
Hotel Management
Animation courses
Fashion designing
Photography
Pharmacy
Aviation courses

 

v     The student should do a proper research about each and everything of the course, the future prospects, the fees involved, the colleges providing the course, the time involved, the difficulty level, subjects taught and many other things, which are collectively responsible for forming a productive career for the student.

v     The student should be very well aware of the subject, he is choosing and should keep on searching for better possibilities and chances, which a student can get, by opting the respective course.

v     The faculty and the infrastructure available for the particular course in his state or country are also important, therefore, the student must check all these things, before applying for the course in a particular college.

v     If the course or the subject demands entrance examination, then the student should prepare himself for the same, and should make sure that he is aware of all the possibilities and the latest happenings in the respective career field.

Therefore, by opting a course, which is everlasting and the demand of which never, ends with the change in time, a student can safe himself from getting waved off with the developments. Also, students should always keep themselves updated about the latest advancements in their field, which are necessary to implement in the work, and which can make the student gain importance and demand in his college and in future at his work place.

Enough Complaining About Changes to Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship!

Posted by admin | Posted on 28-01-2009

Category : Region II

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Enough Complaining About Changes to Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship!

Proposed changes to Florida’s Bright  Futures scholarship – a merit scholarship that covers either 75% or 100% of tuition only, are annoying.  Here’s why.

A Florida Senate proposal would lift standards for a partial scholarship as follows:  3.0 GPA  and 970 SAT (or 20 ACT) to 3.0 GPA and 1050 SAT.

The full merit scholarship standards would go from a 3.5 GPA and 1270 SAT (28 ACT) to 3.5 and 1290 (or 29 ACT).

Critics claim the changes would have a “disproportionate impact” on Florida’s low-income families.

While it’s undeniably true that low-income students don’t test as well as their more affluent competition, that’s not the point. It’s time for a reality check.

Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship was designed to keep the best and brightest students home in Florida – by making it easy to send them to Florida’s public universities, get educated and then use their knowledge to contribute to the local economy.  Particularly in the “STEM” disciplines – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

However, reality is far from the ideal.

STEM courses are so tough that many Bright Futures students dropped them, because they need a minimum 3.0 GPA to maintain the scholarship, according to a 2008 study by Professor Shouping  Hu of Florida State University’s College of Education.

You don’t need to show outstanding performance to qualify for this merit scholarship – the national average for SAT scores is 1,000.  You need only a 970 to qualify.  So if you’re a Florida high school student, you can be literally below average and still “earn” a merit scholarship courtesy of Bright Futures!

This is horrible public policy – Florida’s lawmakers have legislated that less than average students can qualify for “merit” money!

To me, this is like the end of every youth sports season when the entire league gets a trophy.  Not for winning – just for showing up.  Yay.

This may not make me popular, but I don’t “buy” the criticism about minorities’ disadvantages.  Our country is a nation of minorities, many of which have bootstrapped themselves, overcoming daunting barriers such as skin color, religious background and language comprehension to achieve greatness.

A recent example is the Asian-American community – about twenty years ago, admissions officers from highly-competitive colleges practically tripped over each other to admit qualified students in order to diversify their colleges’ student bodies.   As is the case with most selective colleges, they allowed Asian-American students entry despite lower than average standardized test scores, because their desirable ethnicity counter-balanced these shortcomings.

Now we’ve come full circle – Asian American students’ test scores are discounted – they’re scoring so well on these tests that admissions officers expect it from them.  This is just a simplified example, but a perfect score by an Asian-American kid might count the same as a 95% percentile score from another student.

Perhaps the biggest confusion surrounds the financial aid that is available to disadvantaged students.  There happens to be a TON of money out there for needy students – billions, in fact. It’s in the Federal Financial Aid system and in the endowments of the colleges themselves.

But this is money is not merit-based.  The vast majority of it is given out on a need-based analysis, according to the financial formulas of the Department of Education and the colleges themselves.

There are several hundred, maybe more than one thousand colleges in the country that meet 90% or more of a student’s financial need.  Many are accessible for students with average or slightly better-than-average performance on the SAT or ACT.  Some don’t even look at performance on standardized tests.

I’d like to see the discussion shift to how to use the Federal Financial Aid system to fund a college education.  Quit whining about the death of Bright Futures – it’s not productive.  Not only is it unsustainable financially – we’re million short according to a recent Miami Herald article – but it’s a bad message – we reward below average students.

Something’s gotta give.

 

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