sample personal statement essay

Having to foot the bill for your living expenses and school fees is one of the most challenging parts of college life. Even those who are already working while pursuing their graduate studies may also have trouble with money. As they say, higher education is never cheap. But even on a tight budget, you can still fulfill this dream of yours by exploring different options for financial aid. To help you finance your studies, why not apply for student loans? Listed below are different types of student loans.

Types of federal loans

Federalloans come in three popular types: Stafford loans, Perkins loans, and Plus loans. Stafford loans are commonly obtained through financial institutions such as credit unions, banks, or even government agencies. Based on your financial need, you may apply for subsidized or unsubsidized Stafford loans. For low interest rates, another good option is the Perkins loan. The Plus loan, meanwhile, helps parents support the college education of their children. To qualify, the credit history of the parents should first be evaluated.

Other sources of student loans

Aside from banks and credit unions, private lenders can also be a source of student loans.Though you may easily qualify for these, the only downside is that loans offered by private lenders usually have higher rates.

If you’re already working, you may also ask your employer if the company has a financial program for employees who want to finish college or pursue graduate studies. Some employers may cover a percentage of the tuition in exchange for your service or prolonged stay in the company.

Quick tip when applying for student loans

Always look at the fine print. Read the terms and conditions carefully. Know what you can afford to pay and how you can cut back on other cost. Ideally, you should look for lower interest rates or better payment schemes. Just remember that the approval of student loans depends on your financial capability and credit standing.

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Preparing for either medical or law school is not easy. Intense preparation is necessary for you to be able to go through the rigorous demands of your college major. Some schools offer pre-medical and pre-law courses to help students who are thinking of going to medical school and law school, respectively. Do students who took up a pre-med course in college have an advantage in getting into a medical school? Well, not necessarily. There are instances when a college student who has a non-science major decides that he or she wants to go to medical school. Still, it is best that you take up a related major to be equipped with the prerequisite skills and knowledge needed in these graduate programs. Listed below are some ideas to help you choose which majors to take if you decide to go to medical or law school.

Majors for medical school

Investing knowledge in science classes is vital to earn a degree in medicine. Having a major in Chemistry, Physics, or Biology is best for people looking to get into a medical school. The logic into taking up these majors is that the theories and experience including the training gained is directly relevant and used in medical school.

Majors for law school

There are a wide variety of majors that high school students wanting to enter law school can look into. You can choose to take more popular majors that directly correlate to preparing you as an effective student in law school. These majors include Criminology, Political Science, Philosophy and Psychology. Having a major in these fields is an advantage because some areas of study in law school relate to human behavior and political structures as well as require thorough research and critical analysis.

If you do decide to enter medical school or law school, what’s more important is your openness to new things. Even though you have a BA, not a BS, but you want to go to medical school, you should be prepared to diversify your skills and to catch up on your readings. Remember that when you get accepted to a medical school or law school of your choice, you have to spend some time and effort in learning new things.

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Sexual harassment does happen in many educational institutions. This is a serious circumstance that these institutions of higher learning vow to eliminate. According to studies conducted by the American Association for University Women (AAUW), 60% of both male and female students have experienced being sexually harassed at the college or university institutions where they study. Here are some tips that you can follow to avoid being sexually harassed.

Be aware and alert at all times

Being fully aware and alert is vital to being able to avoid sexual harassment. But before you can avoid it, you have to know what it means. Thus, it is essential to know that sexual harassment is any form of unwelcome sexual behavior. It is very relevant to have a broader perspective on sexual harassment. Just browsing the internet will be very helpful in finding out the more common forms of sexual harassment.

In the school setting, the perpetrator can involve schoolmates, friends, strangers, and even school employees (staff, teachers). You have to arm yourself against people who are causing you to become uncomfortable because of their verbal and nonverbal gestures that are sexual in nature. And more importantly, when you become a victim yourself be sure that you know who to seek advice from and where to reach them.

Pointers to avoid sexual harassment

* Know your surroundings. Being aware of the people around you and the places that surround you is vital. Just the same, it is also important that you avoid unfamiliar faces and places where your friends or acquaintances may want to bring you. School life often involves many extracurricular activities outside the school campus. Gather enough information about these activities before you decide to join them.
* Assess the manner in which you dress up. Dressing up is one factor to getting attention; it is always best to know how to dress to invite wanted attraction and not unwanted attraction.
* Sexual harassment also includes joking and teasing. When you avoid such behavior, you will surely avoid sexual harassment.
* Let people around you know how you feel about sensitive issues such as sex. Seek help especially from your school or educational institution if you think you have been sexually harassed.

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The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis can be applied in various areas needing performance evaluation. For example, it is used to plan and assess the possible behavior of a business venture. It is basically a tool in determining, analyzing, and interpreting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relevant to a project. Similarly, this method can be used to assess your status in school to help you find the right academic career to pursue. To do this, refer to the notes below:

Learning how SWOT analysis works

To conduct a personal SWOT analysis effectively, know by heart how it is done, why is it done and the manner in which the findings are interpreted. The process requires answering to a set of questions that are relevant to your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. For your SWOT analysis process to suit your situation, the questions need to be designed to your academic objectives. Browse online for relevant materials on personal SWOT analysis for help in conducting your analysis.  Formulate your questions in such a way that it focuses on your personal traits, experiences, training and education. Enumerated below are some helpful questions:

1. Strength – Which are my most exceptional skills?
2. Weakness – I am having difficulties in writing which part of an essay or a paper?
3. Opportunity – I am interested in the programs offered by which college or university?
4. Threat – To get my college degree, what factors stand in the way?

Knowing yourself better

The best way to answer and get an efficient result is to answer the questions as honestly as you know yourself. Remember that the data you put in this process will be the same data that will be analyzed and interpreted. When answering the questions on the test, try to answer as honestly as you can. It is significant that, as you reply to the questions, you also find out what other people think as your strengths and weaknesses.

Interpreting the data gathered

After all the questions are answered, sit down and review the results. Assess your answers and relate it to your academic status using the results to choose the best academic career suitable for the person that you are. The following are some tips that can help you analyze and make your decision:

* Pick a course that capitalizes on your strengths
* An academic career can be an opportunity to make your weaknesses irrelevant by focusing on your strengths. This doesn’t mean however that you need not face your weaknesses while pursuing your academic ambition but you can use it as a chance to strengthen your weaknesses. Attending workshops, seminars, group discussions, and other extracurricular activities will help you improve on your areas of weakness.
* Take advantage of all possible opportunities that will help your personal and academic traits excel.
* Threats are inevitable to each ones’ ambitions and career perspectives. Identifying these threats however will provide a more focused solution as early as possible. When you are able to anticipate these threats using the information gathered, you will be able to prepare or avoid possible hurdles to your academic objective.

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Being able to do various job types gives you an edge in following your career path. Two fields that you can look into are the areas of social sciences and humanities, which are areas of study for people whose interests are diverse. The reason why these fields are able to provide you with the coping mechanism is that these cover a wider range of subjects. In case you have not made up your mind on which career to pursue, there are various professions in social sciences and humanities that you may be interested in. Please find below some popular vocations and see if one fits your field of interest and skill level.

1. Teaching profession – Sometimes, the teaching profession is looked upon as an inferior career path. Little do people know that teachers are the link from general knowledge to specific fields. The people who follow this career path are degree holders in areas such as social sciences or humanities who become teachers in high school and college levels. Social science and humanities involve analytical thinking and research.

2. Legal assistance and representation – Equally, social studies and humanities fit very well into the pre-law requirement. Legal assistance and representation focuses a lot on social responsibilities and humanitarian principles. This focus serves as a perfect background for lawyers to focus on their social responsibilities. The subjects on history, psychology, human behavior, and political science are significant foundations to the study of the law.

3. Sociologists and community development workers – This career fits well with social sciences and humanities degree holders. Usually, these people have been exposed to the study of human behavior, social relations and the structures, and the institutions and organizations that provide services. Sociologists deal with in-depth social, economic, cultural, political and even environmental issues. With subjects on psychology, sociology, social studies, and the like, this profession can focus on different societal issues.

4. Political scientists and analysts– This profession is very well specialized as it involves the study of public policies and political systems. This is one area where degree holders of social sciences and humanities are needed. The specialization is necessary as politics forms one pillar of the social structure which is vitally relevant to social relations and structure within a society.

5. Anthropologists – This profession generally tackles studying human behavior and cultural development. It entails broad and specific research, analysis and interpretation of human behavior that further deals with socio-cultural and physical development of human beings in their social context.

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Famous discoveries and great structures are the work of great scientists and engineers. Science and engineering careers are well recognized and respected worldwide. The breakthroughs, inventions, and innovations of scientists and engineers have supported various structures and tools that continue to improve our lives. Indeed these people deserve the salute and respect of humankind. Enumerated below are five of the top science and engineering careers. Check out your skills and find out if you have what it takes to pursue a career in the sciences or engineering

Science

1. Environmental scientists – If you belong to this profession, you will be involved in research and analysis on environmental hazards and solution-setting for the protection of people, wildlife, and plant life. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that environmental science is one among the top science jobs in terms of job increase. The job increase for this profession is triggered by the demand to face the growing crisis on environmental safety and climate change.
2. Hydrologists – To join this vocation, you will need to study the different aspects of the water cycle as related to water availability, water circulation around the earth, and how it gets redistributed into the atmosphere and back to the oceans. Similar to the field of environmental science, the BLS equally rates the area of hydrology as one of the fastes increasing scientific fields of study.

Engineering

1. Electrical engineer – Degree holders of this field are involved in manufacturing, formulating, designing, and developing electrical equipment and appliances. When different kinds of electrical equipment are invented, the necessity to maintain and repair the same is inevitable. There is no other expertise needed than the professionals that configure, install, and maintain electrical systems.
2. Civil engineer – Forms of infrastructure like roads, bridges, water supplies, sewage systems, and airports are intricately designed by civil engineers. These structures need strong foundation and precision thus needing the required supervision by the civil engineers.

3. Mechanical engineer – Mechanical engineers comprise one of the widest engineering careers. These professionals are mostly employed in numerous multi-national industries that are involved in the design, manufacture and maintain mechanical equipments and its parts.

Whatever your decision would be, the preparation to actually succeed and attain your career path is the most significant. There are various seminars, workshops and other activities that can assist you as you study your course in college. Remember, whatever happens to your career path is basically dependent on you.

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To choose the right career path, there are various factors to consider. To be able to decide, you have to undergo various processes and assess your skills and interests to finally relate to your wanted profession. Think about what happens when you land a job you are not inclined to do; most likely you will experience difficulty until you finally decide to quit. When this happens, you have put to waste time, energy, opportunities, and financial savings. Surely you do not want this to happen, here are some things to serve as guidance to be able to prepare for a job you will surely enjoy and build a career from.

Understand who you are and what you want

During your childhood or youthful days, you have probably been asked by your parents, relatives and even friends on what you would like be when you grow up. From then on you surely have started to think and assess your interests and what you are good at doing. Starting from high school, you have probably discussed with your classmates and even your teachers what each one of you will be pursuing as a course in college to be able to land the job and position you will enjoy doing. To organize your decision, it is wise to list your options and do further research. Talk to friends and relatives who might happen to be in a job you are hoping to land on. Browse the internet to gather further details and broaden your perspective with the available information. It is also best to have some fall back options, so list down alternatives which are related to your interest.

Enhance your skills and motivate your interests

After listing down your prospective career and various areas of interest including your fall back options you can start gaining actual experience and test your gut feeling which will trigger your interest and further your skill a step higher. If you are going to college, make it a point to enroll in a course that is closest to your interest. Enhance your skills and motivate your interest by attending relevant seminars and workshops. Join extracurricular activities that would broaden your perspective on various areas of your interests. Remember, skills enhancement and motivation are a continuing process during each day of your life.

Additional pointers

* Maximize every resource available. Human resources that are available in school are very helpful. Sit down with your guidance counselor and discuss freely; they are employed precisely to counsel students and provide input on matters that concern career path and education. Additional advice can be gathered from your professors, classmates, and even your parents.
* Passing through the admission process is crucial to attaining your career path. Take into consideration the necessary requirements, qualifications, and credentials to get admitted. Make sure this is one of your main foci as it is the first step to achieving your target career.
* It is but natural that in every endeavor challenges exists. One must learn how to be flexible as well as resourceful. The power of positive thinking will always be an asset throughout the process. To master your weakness will lead you to mastering your professional career.

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Research is a vital foundation in educational models of higher learning institutions such as universities and colleges including various high schools. Many write-ups done in school, whether from simple essays to complicated theses and dissertations, finishing up the tasks entails simple to in-depth research. It is then necessary to develop and sharpen your research skills for the efficient conduct of your write-ups. Below are some tips for developing or sharpening your research skills.

Decipher the details of your assignment

To help you come up with a clearer approach on how to proceed with accomplishing your assignment, come up with a menu of all its details. Here are some of the details you need to identify:

* Define what is the objective of your assignment.
* Identify what topic is the focus of your write-up.
* Clarify how long should your paper be.
* Know what types of sources are allowed.
* Ask until when you should submit the paper.
* Understand what kind of citation is needed.

Upon clarifying these details, it would be easier for you to write your assignment as you will know when, where and how to proceed with your research work.

Plan each step from the start to submission

It helps a lot to make a calendar of your highlights and post it in your study table. It is however not enough to make a schedule; most significant to it is to comply with your scheduled highlights. Discipline then is one necessary factor toward accomplishing your work. Aside from listing your schedule, plan your research scheme – how to do research, the appropriate reference materials, the structure of your write-up, review and revising your draft paper and the final write-up. List down the sites where you can find materials to surf, books in the library and in your books if any. With your outline and your list, research can now commence. When confusion confronts you with all the references listed, do not lose sight of your objective.

Be focused and apply efficient research strategies

* Focus your topic or scope if necessary. Doing research without a clear focus will render unclear direction. It will take you much time as well as becomes very exhausting. If you have listed down your focus with clearer sub-titles then you are leading towards clearer direction. Usually your professor will make effort to discuss your outline with you. If you are able to do that, it will make your research work easier.
* Start collating information from general references and gear towards the introductory part to form the background.
* Make use of your teacher’s notes and if you opt to use relevant materials in the classroom be sure that permission has been sought as reference for your ideas or opinion.
* Seek advice from peers, classmates and teachers regarding research materials to use and your outline.
* Browse the Internet for books and articles and make sure that you have proper citation format and is a dependable source.

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Plagiarism can get you expelled from college. It further causes a stigma to the wider academic community that could render you to be “black-listed” in other schools. The reason is simple - it is due to the fact that plagiarism is a grave offense and a fraudulent act where one tries to own another person’s ideas and words. Being well aware of its consequence, it is then essential to avoid plagiarism and maintain academic honesty and integrity at all times. Listed below are some reminders for your guidance.

Understand the nature of your enemy

To be able avoid something, you must first know what to avoid. You also need to understand why some people do it. Again you must remember that plagiarism is stealing another person’s intellectual property. Now, plagiarism has two types: first, the intentional and second is the unintentional. The first type or the intentional plagiarism needs no further explanation as it is self-explanatory. In most cases, this type is a violation that cannot be forgivable by various academic institutions. The second type or the unintentional plagiarism happens due to citations done haphazardly. Do further research on plagiarism intensively and take note of pointers for you to avoid doing it yourself.

Gather enough knowledge on the rules

To know the rules on citation sufficiently will be an effective tool to effectively write your assignment and other academic papers. Citations have different technical formats for different purposes, even though they contain the same information. Having the capability to use the right type for different academic writeups will keep you bound to the rules and do your work in line with your teacher’s instructions. Most importantly you must be keen on which section to insert citation, when citations are needed and how to technically arrange the detailed information. Learn the rules properly and get a step ahead with writing your academic statements to completely avoid plagiarism.

Know why the rules should be followed

It is not enough for you to understand the rules of plagiarism, but what is equally significant is to understand why these rules exist. What would you do if one of your colleagues have copied a section of what you have written or cited one of your papers but was interpreted in the wrong way? Surely you will get annoyed and complain to the proper authorities. This is exactly why rules of plagiarism are put in place. It is to provide protection to the idea and intellectual knowledge of original writers or discoverers and have contributed to the advancement of intellectual development. It also serves to assist you discover new knowledge and articulate your ideas and opinions effectively in writing.

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Moving on from high school to college will most probably cause significant changes in your life because you will be leaving your teen friends, your family and your home. You will face the bigger challenge of finding your own peers and place in this new world of various origins and maybe even nationalities. Whether you like it or not, moving on is inevitable. What you will need to learn further is how to fit yourself and gain new friends as you make your way through graduation. To build your desired friends and peers, here are some tips to fitting in and make college environment fulfilling:

1. Manage your time wisely to accommodate more time for college activities

Just as in any other times when new endeavors are confronted, giving more time to familiarize yourself with the particular environment is necessary. The same is applicable with getting into college - you will need to prioritize and organize your time as well as most importantly keeping up to it. There are a lot of things going on in college – studying, attending classes, extracurricular activities and even school organizations. Whichever is necessary for your adjustment, make time for it. What is important is that you are available to broaden your circle of friends and meet new acquaintances.

2. Communicate well and take responsibilities

The best tool to making friends and being able to gain and get along well with your friends and classmates is good communication. Have the courage to spearhead team efforts and accomplish responsibilities. Allotting ample time to mingle with classmates before classes would be a wise strategy to meet people and make additional friends. Aside from class groups, there are various organizations to get involved with. Joining such groups widens the sphere of friendship and responsibility, adding a new experience to each effort you build. Make sure however that your design works by not sacrificing either your academic and personal responsibilities.

3. Take the chance for more adventures

Making new friends entails various chances – for new adventures, excitement and fun. This means that you will have to be open to new ideas as well as fun and excitement. Making yourself free for new adventures is the best way of learning and meeting new friends. Be brave and take the chance to bridge your rigid academic life and serious organizational role with fun and excitement.

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