We all know that college is expensive, very expensive, and we all know that there are many tricks about paying for college, cheap textbooks, living off campus… Unfortunatly the biggest chunk of college expenses is one that we cannot easily get around, the tuition itself.

The best way to afford college, is to educate yourself on the various ways of funding: loand, grants, scholarships etc… And a very good resource that I’ve recently found to do this is  http://www.Funding-College.net/
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This site is designed to help both students and parents navigate the complexity of tuition, and I would recommend this site to anyone who is going to college and wants to be able to afford it!

A couple of weeks ago Amazon released its new e-book reader, the Kindle II. Reviews have been what I would describe as cautiously optimistic, with people applauding its features and capabilities but distancing themselves from commenting definitively on the still young e-book industry. I’m only 23 and a member of what people consider the tech-savvy generation, but even I haven’t been able to get into e-books. I have a free e-book reader application installed on my iPhone and I never use it. (On a side note, Amazon has a free Kindle application available for download on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is either such a genius marketing scheme that I can’t hope to understand it or a really dumb move – basically forfeiting any revenue they had hoped to gain from iPhone owners who, I don’t need to add, are a large group.)

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully embrace e-books. Not being able to feel the paper pages on your fingertips? No more new book smell? No hearing the crisp cracking of the spine on its first open? Call me nostalgic, but how can that be satisfying? Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, had Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on to talk about the Kindle II and addressed this feeling. “It just doesn’t feel like the kind of thing you want to fall asleep with on your chest,” he said. On the other hand, the idea of being a college student and not having to haul massive, fifteen pound books to class is quite appealing. It would at least cut back on chiropractor costs.

I’m not saying I’ll never own e-books, since I have what I hope to be a long life ahead of me with undoubtedly great technological leaps in store. But there’s something elemental, something intrinsically endearing about the book format that I don’t think will ever go away.

Here are some Kindle II reviews. Feel free to add your opinions to the comments section.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/26/amazon-kindle-2-review/

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/amazon-unveils.html

http://gizmodo.com/5159749/gizmodos-amazon-kindle-2-review-matrix

http://www.pcworld.com/article/139829/amazon_kindle_review_igniting_interest_in_ebooks.html

http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/review-kindle-2-2009034/

Remember as you were growing up your parents inundating you with the idea that to be successful you have to go to college? It was good advice on its own, but guess what? Everyone else’s parents were telling them the same thing.

The ugly truth is that a college education and a Bachelor’s degree is to our day what a high school degree was to kids fifty or sixty years ago. It’s so commonplace to have a B.A. or a B.S. that it doesn’t really set you apart from anyone else in the job market anymore. And it’s no revelation that the quality of collegiate education isn’t what it was back in the days when it meant something to go to college.

So what do you do to set yourself apart from the rest, especially with these challenging economic times and the highest unemployment rate in roughly forty years? As a recent graduate and one facing the grim prospects for the job market in the near future, there are a couple of things I would recommend to current and prospective college students.

First, internships. Though they may be required at certain schools and in certain programs, internships are an invaluable thing to have on one’s résumé regardless. Studying abroad is great if you have the opportunity, but it doesn’t impress as much as an internship. An internship shows employers that you are able to translate classroom learning to workplace skills. A (hopefully) successful internship demonstrates that you have real world experience and relieves worries that they’d have to train you from the start. You may learn how to use a specific software or system that is crucial in your industry, or you may gain management or administrative experience. If you’re lucky, some internships may even become actual job offers upon graduation. At the very least you will meet people and gain networking opportunities.

Speaking of which, the second thing to pursue is networking. This has become something of a hype word, but the hype doesn’t reduce its importance. Networking, or meeting people and making connections, is the most vital thing one can do as a student and as a professional. It has been said that around only 30% of job opportunities are advertised in classifieds or on job sites, while the other 70% are acquired through direct referrals. These statistics may not be completely accurate, but what is accurate is the fact that more people get jobs through contacts in the company or organization they are applying to than through cold applying and hoping for an interview. Networking is a skill that is developed and can’t be learned overnight. I know from experience how intimidating it can be to face a room full of established, successful people and find the courage to approach them. But if you can overcome your fear and master this skill it will become the most essential tool in your belt.

Lastly, learning a marketable skill will always distinguish you from the sea of applicants. Are you a business student? Learn a foreign language. Art? Learn web-based graphics. Whatever industry or sector your studies are taking you, if you take the time to learn the skills that are required and valued in your line of work you show employers that you bring to the table abilities and knowledge that you can use from day one.

Don’t neglect the classroom, but know that academic success won’t necessarily get you everywhere you wish to be. Augment classroom studies with real world experience, networking and a marketable skill and you will be sure to impress on interview day.

Lately, as the economy continues to decline I have seen more and more of this, my friends, and friends of friends, and pretty much everyone else I went to college with who managed to get a job post graduation are now facing layoffs.  These are all people with a graduate education, but given that the economy is loosing half a million jobs a month, and last hired makes you the first to get laid off recent grads (within 2 years of graduation) are being hit hard.  The bright side in all this is that having a college education still makes you far less likely to be unemployed (unless of course you are in the finance, or real estate industry). The reality is, and this is something that has surprised me, a number of my friends who have gotten laid off managed to find new jobs within a few weeks, and a few even got a raise!  And what’s more, some sectors seem to be far less susceptible to the downturn we are having, and a few sectors such as parts of IT, online development, e-commerce are still expanding and are still hiring. So there is some cause to be optimistic!

So the question you might ask is, what is there to do for the rest of us? What can one do if they just graduated from college and have no experience, or what can a person who just lost a job in an industry facing a severe downturn do? The answer is simple! Well OK, not simple, and not easy, but few things worth doing in life really are…

This is probably the best time in many years to start a business, to be an entrepreneur, to follow your dreams, to build or create something new.  Some of the bluest of the blue chip companies we know today were founded during the Great depression, (Boeing being one). Others, such as Coca-Cola took advantage of the depression to codify their brand in the minds of Americans.  What is more, the current recession seems to have significant other advantages for those of us looking to start a business, one being that the barrier to entry, to many businesses has disappeared.  Years ago, if I wanted to start a newspaper I would need significant resources, today I can start a blog for free. If I wanted to produce documentaries, I had to have a studio; today I can do it with a digital camera and youtube. If I wanted to teach anything I had to have some type of resources to get started- today I can use my webcam to create lectures on any subject, from philosophy, and teaching Chinese, to quantum physics, and I can promote these lectures through video sharing sites and my blog, once there is a following for my lectures I can institute a small fee for the more advanced lectures (while continuing to provide the beginners lectures for free).  I can open up a store, or sell widgets online for very little, if any start up cost, and given that we are all looking for ways to save money more and more of us are turning to the internet to purchase our widgets.  The possibilities are really endless, restricted only by your interests, and your creativity.

The point I am trying to make is that there is more than one way to look at this recession, one way is to look at it as years lost, another is to look at it as an opportunity to make a name for yourself, or to grow a business, and this way when we come out of this recession you will be in a stronger position.

This is great advice for students and those with few responsibilities, and I understand that for many of us we need to have money to pay for the kids’ new clothes, and for the mortgage. So to those of us out there with responsibilities, my advice is this, continue networking, continue looking for a job, sending resumes… but instead of doing that for 8 hours a day, do it for 6 hours and spend the other 2 hours on some of the other ideas that you might have.