When choosing an online school for your bachelors or masters degree, you will want to choose a school with a reputation where students feel that the have had a great experience.  Walden University is one of those schools whose reputation keeps its enrollment high.

Having a college education is an important step toward career success, but alumni and students of Walden University : are benefiting from more than just job opportunities. According to recent survey results, 75 percent of graduates felt their online education helped them to advance positive social change.*

At Walden University, an accredited online university : offering degree programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels, students’ positive experiences begin with faculty and staff members who are dedicated to helping students balance personal commitments and professional obligations.

Students have access to a world-class library, a Writing Center and Career Services Center, and other student services that are necessary for their success. Walden students gain the tools to think critically and apply what they’ve learned to the workplace, and also gain access to an online community of peers, faculty and alumni.

Walden University is known for their variety of degree programs where you can earn your bachelors, masters or even doctorate degree.  With many options for earning your degree online, Walden University is a top choice among students.

Women looking in to earning their MBA degree in high pressure and risky areas such as finance may find that hormones are a factor for their career choice.  A recent study looked at women and their exposure to testosterone as a reason they take on precarious careers.

Higher testosterone levels might explain why some women seek out risky financial trading jobs while others stick to more stable business careers, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Female MBA students with higher levels of the “male” hormone testosterone were far more likely than those with lower levels to choose finance careers such as investment banking that can be lucrative but also risky, a team at Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago found.

“This study has significant implications for how the effects of testosterone could impact actual risk-taking in financial markets, because many of these students will go on to become major players in the financial world,” University of Chicago’s Luigi Zingales, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

“Furthermore, it could shed some light on gender differences in career choices. Future studies should further explore the mechanisms through which testosterone affects the brain.”

Regardless of hormone levels, earning your MBA degree online will put you in a position for the top jobs and higher earnings. An MBA will also let prospective employers know that you have the knowledge and skills to meet the demands of a high level job.

Professional Resources

Professional development is the key to your performance and promotion at a workplace. Lack of professional development is a major obstacle to the progress of your career.

Different industries have different requirements for what they need from their data. Organizations today need quick and precise access to data in order to maintain their competitive edge, and those who have a data modeling degree can start a career in this growth industry.

In today’s business world change is a constant and companies need to ensure that they keep up with that change. Whether the change is an opportunistic response to new conditions – requirements, regulations, market conditions, a merger/acquisition – or a major transformation, companies need the power to succeed and that power is knowledge.

The need for knowledge is expanding what companies require from their data. Not only is there a need to analyze it and clearly understand the metadata (data about data), companies now need to create an enterprise-wide view of their organization through clear, concise, and accurate metadata synergy from all three views of the organization: business, information, and technology.

Starting with traditional Data Modeling, PowerDesigner v15 continues to innovate. In our Physical Data Modeling (PDM), continuous improvements are made to ensure near 100% coverage of all modern RDBMs and warehouse databases are met, with complete round-trip engineering capabilities for over 60 vendor/versions of relational database systems and real multi-level database design. PowerDesigner is the most open and comprehensive physical modeling environment around.

A degree program in data modeling will help prepare you for a career in database administration and program design. Earning a data modeling degree online can be a convenient way for you to start and exciting career.

Earning your art degree online can be a great way to go, but you need to be certain that your program is acceptable for the field you wish to enter.  Students who want to earn their degree in computer aided drafting will need to be certain that their programs are certified by the American Design Drafting Association

Pennsylvania College of Technology’s computer aided drafting technology major recently was recertified by the American Design Drafting Association.

ADDA, an organization for designers, drafters, architects, illustrators and technical artists, provides certification to recognize schools whose design/drafting curriculum meets established and approved standards.

“It is an important credential for our department to maintain,” said Katherine A. Walker, assistant professor of drafting and computer aided design. “This annual activity allows us to closely examine our drafting and design program in many areas, such as curriculum, faculty background, employment placement of graduates and classroom capabilities, to name a few. Earning recertification is a very detailed process, and our department can take pride in this continued accomplishment.”

Schools are certified for one-year periods; Penn College’s certification will remain in effect through Aug. 31, 2010. The college has earned certification for its computer aided drafting technology associate-degree major every year since 1997.

Earning your computer aided drafting, or CAD degree online can start you in a career where you can use your creativity on a daily basis.  With your degree, you can turn your ideas in to reality.

Jobs in the education and teaching sectors have become a very popular area for people going back to school during this economic downturn.  Earning an education degree can open many doors for opportunity.  Even thought these aren’t the big money careers, having a teaching degree can help to keep you steadily employed with great benefits.

Andy Hanson, dean of student services at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, said the school sees stable and strong enrollment in degree programs such as teacher education and social work.

“They are always good, strong programs, but in a weak economy, people evaluate what they are going to go into based on what is in demand and stable,” he said. “Those ‘helping’ professions tend to be popular, even more so than normal.”

University of Phoenix Idaho Campus Director Bill Bach said the campus this fall is launching a master’s program in education. Reasons include that math and science teachers are in demand, teaching is considered stable – Careerbuilder.com recently ranked teaching the third most recession-proof career, he said – and many teachers in the Baby Boom generation are approaching retirement, he said. Students who have a bachelor’s degree in any discipline qualify.

Many of the students are “looking for a different, more secure, career field,” he said.

Earning an education degree online will help you get in to a field that is projected to have relatively fast growth through 2014.  Many people with an education work with children and help to mold them in to productive citizens for our future.

Did you know that your choice of college major could tell someone how religious you are? A recent study looked in to people’s frequency of church attendance versus their choice of major using business degree students at their reference point.

A lot of people might expect that those who study physical sciences become the least religious during their tenure at school. The research found that this is not the case; a course of study in the sciences, such as physics or biology, leads to little change in what the authors term religiosity. The survey found that the greatest positive change—those who become more religious during their studies—are those preparing for an education degree. Those who become the least religious relative to their starting point are those majoring in the social sciences.

The authors reached this conclusion by studying religious attitudes, college attendance, and course of study for over 26,000 high school students that graduated between 1976 and 1996. Not surprisingly, the authors found that personal views often changed in the six years following high school.

Using business majors as a reference point, they graphed how religious attendance and its personal importance correlated with different fields of study. Education majors had a positive correlation with both the level of religious importance in one’s life and the frequency of attendance at religious services.

Earning your degree can also tell someone how serious you are about your future.  Whether you earn your business degree online, or a degree in biology, having one will always help you get the best jobs.

Law enforcement can be a very exciting career choice with great benefits.  The pay however may not be exactly what you are looking for.  Even though starting salaries can be low, earning your degree in law enforcement can give you an advantage to getting the best jobs in this field.

Today’s youth, and even many adults, aren’t thrilled by officers’ relatively low pay, long hours, and dangerous line of work. And they don’t see policing as a long-term career.

“It’s unbelievable the difficulties that we’ve seen,” said Terrence M. Cunningham, the president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. “Over the last eight to 10 years, it’s been difficult to get real strong, quality candidates.”

While hiring has become a moot issue for many communities because of the recession, municipalities were having a hard time filling officers’ ranks even before dwindling revenues forced many to freeze salaries.

About 2,100 fewer people took the police civil service exam this year compared with two years ago: The number is down from 13,188 in 2007 to 11,093 this year.

Few had the qualifications – a college degree as well as clean criminal and driving records, for instance – that departments desire, said Cunningham, who is also Wellesley’s police chief.

So police departments have stepped up recruiting efforts to find qualified candidates and are offering new incentives, such as paying for moving expenses.

Earning a law enforcement degree online can be the start of an exhilarating career.  Law enforcement officers are in high demand, so when you graduate, there will likely be jobs waiting for you.

Nursing degree holders are not only in demand, but having your nursing degree also gives you opportunities to continue your education to move up the career ladder.  With many different levels of education, you can start a career in nursing in as little as two years.

2008 was a year without a Christmas for Clora Snow, RN, BSN. Snow was a struggling minority mother raising five children on her own. Although it was heartbreaking, not having a tree and presents wasn’t the worst hardship that she and her children had faced. Snow, who is black, is a widow who had been remarried and separated. She also coped with being laid off and losing her home and car during some rough years before earning her RN and BSN.

Snow was able to take advantage of the ladder of career opportunities that nursing provides by working as a private duty LPN while completing her BSN. Today, as a private-duty RN working for Independence Plus in Oak Brook, Ill., Snow is getting back on her feet. She has her own place and a car. She is also completing ACLS certification and an IV infusion class and is seeking employment in a hospital ICU. Looking down the road, she is interested in pursuing her MSN with a goal of becoming an NP.

By focusing on getting your degree, you can make your dreams of a great career come true.  Those who earn a nursing degree online will find that there are many directions in which to take your career.

References:

Nursing CEUs with Free CEUs that are state approved with immediate certificates to over 200 contact hours offering unlimited annual access

Online degree programs are taking steps towards making their programs more accessible to Spanish speaking students.  Walden University recently announced the launch of a Spanish language business administration degree program to help English learners earn their degree.

Walden University has launched an online B.S. in Business Administration degree taught in Spanish with the option to learn English. The curriculum is fully delivered in Spanish, and is supported by a full suite of Spanish-language services. Walden’s program is designed to serve those for whom the English-language barrier is an obstacle to a degree from an accredited U.S. university.

“The segment of the Latino population that prefers learning and communicating in Spanish has not been well served by U.S. higher education institutions,” said Dr. Ivonne Chirino-Klevans, director of the Spanish-language B.S. in Business Administration program at Walden University. “Walden’s degree program removes the language obstacles preventing many eligible Hispanics from earning a degree. College ready, Spanish-dominant individuals now have a greater opportunity to improve their lives and advance their careers.”

Walden’s bachelor’s program provides a full suite of Spanish-language support services, including enrollment and academic advising, writing assistance, tutoring, library resources, technical support, financial and personal counseling, and career services. For those students who want to become English-proficient, Walden offers an optional English-language component (ESL). With the ESL component, students can learn English while earning their degree, and eventually may become eligible to transfer into Walden’s English-language B.S. in Business Administration program. Regardless of the path students choose, upon graduation and with demonstrated proficiency, they may be able to enter Walden’s M.B.A. program.

The availability of these programs will help Hispanic students achieve their goal of earning a degree. Earning a business administration degree online will prepare you for a career in a variety of fields.

Budget cuts may hinder the progress of students who may be looking to go to school in the fall and earn their associates or bachelors degrees.  Many schools will be facing furloughs and a lower number of classes to accommodate smaller budgets.

A few weeks after wrapping up their budgets for the new fiscal year, lawmakers in some states already expect a new round of spending cuts, including to higher education, as tax revenues continue to fall.

Estimates of states’ revenue shortfalls have grown worse since the spring, reaching a total of nearly $143-billion when most states began the 2010 fiscal year, on July 1, according to a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures. But at least 11 states are already expecting to make midyear cuts, totaling more than $22-billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an advocacy group.

The midyear cuts being considered in these states and others are signs that the nearly $40-billion in federal-stimulus money meant to shore up education budgets for the current fiscal year may no longer be enough. While the stimulus effort was meant to help states keep spending on education at or above 2007-8 or 2008-9 levels, more than two-thirds of the states are already below that guideline. Most have set spending for public colleges and schools at amounts that are closer to 2005-6 levels, a minimum that the federal stimulus law requires for states that want to qualify for the fiscal-stabilization money.

Earning an online degree in this economic climate is almost necessary when it comes to getting the best jobs.  With many states across the U.S. experiencing budget shortfalls, students who choose to earn their associates degree online, or bachelors degree online will have the best options.