Best Business Schools

There is a growing number of business schools sprouting up all over the world in a rather fast pace.  All of them guarantee prospect students’ success and expertise in advance business management techniques through their MBA, Executive MBA and doctoral programs.

The primary reason why students attend business schools is to increase their salary potential and their marketability in the business world. An effective business degree leads them to a wide range of opportunities they can pursue, which include finance services, sales and marketing, human resources and operations management, accountancy and consultancy services.

But while it’s true that a business school degree advances your career and helps you earn more money, the key to a successful career in business still lies in finding the right business school. At a top business university, you will learn the art and science behind business and gain the skills you need to work in the corporate arena. It is a great place to find your niche.

Consider the following pointers in choosing the right business school.

•Cost of studying. If budget is an issue, scout for a school with reasonable rates and which wouldn’t compromise the quality of education offered. A business school degree can cost you a lot of bucks, therefore cost should be carefully considered before applying.

•Programs offered. Does the school/university offer the type of program you want? As stated earlier, there are different program varieties to choose from in business schools to date. A two-year MBA degree, for instance, can be crammed up in a single year depending on the institution.

•Admission system. Some universities have a really strict system of student selection. Their competitive application process makes make it hard for average students to get in. To calculate your chances, match your credentials (GPA, test scores, etc.) to the school’s requirements.

•Program curriculum. Most school curriculums encourage specializing in a single aspect of business. The recent education review, nevertheless, proposes a revision to this – an inclusion of special courses that would lead students to different fields of specialization. When you’re looking for advance studies, consider one that has an updated program curriculum.

•Teacher-student ratio. If you are looking for individualized attention, consider a school with relatively small class sizes.

•Institutional statistics. If you’re gunning to make it really big in the corporate world, choosing a school with remarkable placement statistics is imperative. Search through the records or ask around about the school’s reputation. Current students and alumni can give you a succinct background of the institution’s performance.

To determine which schools are the most reputable, the recent issue of Forbes magazine features an updated list of the best business schools in the world. It is the publication’s sixth biennial ranking of universities offering business-related courses based on company-administered surveys.  The instrument used ranks universities based on return of investment (compensation five years after graduation minus tuition and the forgone salary during school). Ranking is as follows:

1. Dartmouth (Tuck)
2. Stanford
3. Harvard
4. Virginia (Darden)
5. Pennsylvania (Wharton)
6. Columbia
7. Chicago
8. Yale
9. Northwestern (Kellogg)
10. Cornell (Johnson)
11. NYU (Stern)
12. Duke (Fuqua)
13. UC Berkeley (Haas)
14. Texas-Austin (McCombs)
15. UNC (Kenan-Flagler)
16. Iowa (Tippie)
17. MIT (Sloan)
18. Brigham Young (Marriott)
19. Michigan State (Broad)
20. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)

If you wish to learn more about the different business programs offered in each of these schools, there are many different degree search portals that are free to use online.

# Exclusive vs. Co-Ed Schools: Which is Better?

Many parents can be really indecisive when it comes to choosing whether to put their kids in exclusive or co-educational schools. Well, with so many achievers and celebrated personalities hailing from both, and so much debate going on about one being better than the other, it’s just natural for parents to have a hard time deciding—unless of course they already got their established biases. So let’s discuss some of the grounds where these debates are rooted.

Educators and parents alike say that the single sex grouping factor in exclusive schools can give students more confidence and better shape their character. They get to identify with almost everybody in their school because they have at least one common ground: gender. Thus, they need not worry about gender discrimination. In some countries where women rank lower than men in society, there will inevitably be a discrimination or clash between the two sexes even among youngsters in school. Boys will be given priority and girls will have limited options probably in academics and extra-curricular activities. Thus, girls may develop an inferiority complex or a mindset that they can’t do some things because they aren’t capable.

Gender discrimination may also show in subjects or electives that students choose. Many school boys in co-ed schools think twice about taking or concentrating in subjects and activities that are branded as feminine, such as literature, music, arts and crafts, and designing. That’s because they consider the girls who may make an unwanted impression about them. Likewise, some girls in co-ed schools think twice about joining clubs and classes which always tend to get more male students than females.  

Students in co-ed schools get to socialize with people of the same age from the opposite sex regularly. Thus, the ability of students in these schools to better socialize with any gender is generally higher. On the same vein, not a few graduates of exclusive schools admit that they had or still have difficulty interacting with members of the opposite sex. And they think it’s because of their limited exposure in school.

Homogeneity in class composition, however, proves more advantageous for students who are mentally or physically challenged. They have lesser tendency to compare themselves to others too much and are able to find more support from more people of the same gender.

Many experiments also show that students in exclusive schools get to focus better in their studies than those in mixed gender schools. That’s because they don’t have too much issues to deal with. A couple of examples would be the simple issues of whether one’s “crush” is looking at him or her and who likes whom in class. These may be very shallow issues to adults but they can be quite disturbing to adolescents.  

Still, some studies support the view that children will have a more holistic and better education—socially, emotionally, and mentally—if they study in an environment where both sexes are present. Research says that co-ed school students are able to better perform academically and handle themselves well in public. With the presence of members of the opposite sex, a student is able to regulate his or her violent tendencies better than in an all-boys or all-girls environment.

Well, all these data and opinions may not help clear up the issue or answer the question of which school type is better. But these should at least guide parents on what to consider when determining the right schools for their children.

# Alternative Places of Learning in Schools

As many have come to know, schools are places of instruction and learning, depending on your standpoint. Students spend a very significant amount of time inside their respective classrooms, listening to the lectures and litanies of their teachers and instructors.

But sometimes, what you learn in the classroom does not come close to the things you learn outside of it. This article aims to explore other parts within a school that have the potential to give valuable lessons in and about life.

Our first stop is the gate. Yes, that gate. The sometimes rickety, sometimes rusty gate that serves as a boundary between school life and the outside world. The gate where you enter the hallowed grounds of the school. The same gate that so painstakingly gives students a choice: enter or do not enter.

Some make this choice unconsciously, resigned or just willing to step inside the campus to do their tasks. Others face a more conscious decision, others who aren't too keen on the idea of attending school. In any case, the gate is a symbol for the first measure of responsibility in a student. Do your thing or skip class.

Next stop: the library. With its quiet atmosphere and often just-right room temperature, where else would be more conducive for studying, doing your homework, and…sleeping? Many have gone there intending to study, but instead of putting a book’s content into their head, they end up putting their head on the book. So the library is one place to test one’s will and discipline.  

The cafeteria is another location in school that has the potential to teach alternative lessons to the students. For many, the canteen or cafeteria is only a place where they will take a quick lunch before proceeding on to cramming for their remaining homework. As author Douglas Adams once said, “time is an illusion; lunchtime doubly so.” Students, in many ways, can attest to that.

Still, the cafeteria is an invaluable environment that further makes the school a valid microcosm of adult society. On one hand, you have the economic aspect of the cafeteria. It is, essentially, a place where students get one of the basic needs in life: food. It is a market for a commodity, and thus represents problem solving in terms of how to budget one's lunch money.

It may seem a trite task, but you definitely won't be laughing when you are budgeting the lunch money of an entire family in the future. It is also the kind of microeconomics that poses such options to students: do I buy this lunch, or do I go for something cheaper and save money for that video game I want to play? This, then, provides a scenario where the student has to identify his or her priorities.

On another hand, the cafeteria provides a social environment as well. Who are the kids sitting together? In what way can you classify the groups? Who are left out? How do the students treat their teachers in the cafeteria environment, and vice versa? The cafeteria doubtlessly illustrates how robust and dynamic the interactions between this microcosm of society is.

The gate and the cafeteria are just a couple of locations within schools that surely offer valuable alternative lessons for the students who spend countless hours on their chairs facing a blackboard or whiteboard while listening to the drone of instruction. These locations allow a different kind of instruction altogether, the kind that the individual student finds out on his or her own. Sometimes, it is the kind of lesson that could prove to be more valuable than any formula or any fact.

# Affluence Keeps Top Liberal Arts Schools Thriving

As the economic condition makes schools and universities take a long slow look at their finances, deciding what programs to continue and what to leave behind, it is becoming crucial to redefine what is important and not.

Now, more than ever, humanities programs in most educational institutions are already being discontinued. Though for most of the programs, the effort and motivation of everyone involved are appreciated, the simple fact is that the programs did not merit enough importance to run for another year or semester.

Most liberal arts courses include history, literature, cultural studies, gender studies, languages, religion and the arts. These days, students enrolling in a liberal arts program are discouraged. Some universities even turn away applicants into the programs. When faculty members resign or are transferred to another department, a few educational institutions no longer find replacements for them, wanting to keep their faculty members in the philosophy or language department to a minimum.

These are but only stopgap measures though. Some universities are now seriously considering whether to let their humanities programs continue or simply let them die a slow but inevitable death.

While one cannot help but lament current circumstances, budget cuts continue. In as much as universities want to provide kids with a liberal arts education, unless the economic landscape improves, it will continue to be out of reach for most students.

However, while liberal arts programs suffer in many universities, in top Ivy League Schools, the humanities departments continue to thrive. Endowments, donations and funds keep them alive. In these institutions, a liberal arts education is valued. Students are taken in, cared for, taught. Curriculums are developed. Time, patience and money are invested. They present an ideal breeding ground for a humanities education.

But first, students have to have the financial wherewithal to get into these universities and institutions

The scenario is all too familiar. The old struggle between the haves and have-nots. As they say, the humanities may, once again, go back to being “the province of the wealthy.” Yes, disheartening, certainly, particularly the way economic conditions have effectively cut off a greater portion of the populace from a humanities education.

In such conditions, it would be a much more difficult task for academicians in the liberal arts to disassociate themselves with the “Old Ivory Tower” perception. And while it is going to be interesting to watch efforts to develop literature or philosophy programs that offer economic value of any kind, in the confines of well-off academic institutions, it will not be that necessary. After all, the humanities is there to teach students every aspect of how it is to be human, to explore the human condition. And while critical, moral and ethical thinking is taught, the central essence of a liberal arts schooling is to think about life, about what we value in it, about what it means.

Meanwhile, students who can afford to attend major liberal art schools meet over wine and cheese while they listen in on a poetry reading. Philosophy majors are able to debate to no end the many different instances of existentialism. Painters can continue to produce abstract works that continue to delight a select few and confuse plenty. But compared to the divide between art and the practicalities of life, the long-time skirmish between the haves and have-nots still remains an even bigger and deeper chasm.

# F1 in Schools: F1 for Kid Engineers

They wear long-sleeved overall suits or short-sleeved collared shirts designed with stripes and lines of bright colors. Some wear matching caps printed with their team name, logo, or sponsors. They could easily pass off as members of a car racing team in Formula One—if not for their age. Still taking graders’ and high schoolers’ math lessons, these kids are part of F1 in Schools, an international racing competition for school children aged 9 to 19.  

But don’t get it wrong. “F1” in F1 in Schools doesn’t mean they make race tracks out of schools’ baseball and soccer fields. Students who compete here don’t drive seven-foot long racing machines loaded with powerful V10 engines. Instead, they “drive” (well, the term still fits) miniature cars no bigger than their own hands.

These mini racing wheels are just like those in the Japanese anime series Crush Gear: they are made to run fast (except that they are not made to crush each other during the race like in the anime). These little cars may actually look like the top shelf toy cars you can find in toy stores. But don’t underestimate them just yet, because these mini cars aren’t just toys. They are very special in their own right. First, they are made of balsa wood—setting them apart from the die cast or plastic bodied toy cars.

Second, they are crafted using Computer Aided Design (CAD) or Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) programs so the balsa cars would be tailored with as much precision as possible. One example of such programs is the F1 Virtual Wind Tunnel software or F1 VWT, which is specially made for the F1 in Schools’ participants. This program makes use of computational fluid dynamics or CFD so that the probable amount of air resistance against a balsa car being designed is taken into consideration. That means the balsa cars undergo almost the same design process as a real F1 car.

Another thing that makes the mini cars unique is that they are made by intelligent youngsters who want to tough it out as a team in the tilt and bring home the bacon for their schools. Well, that’s not far from what the founders of F1 in Schools Ltd. wanted when they first launched the competition in 1999 in UK . They wanted to raise students’ awareness in motor sports (specifically the F1) as well as change their perceptions of engineering as a boring field of science and technology.

Now, with the competition having been participated in by around nine million students from 30 countries, anybody can say that the F1 in Schools company is indeed successful in realizing its objectives. The competition is held every year in any of the following countries: Australia , China , England , Wales , Germany , Malaysia , Ireland , Northern Ireland , Scotland , South Africa , South Korea , United Arab Emirates , and the United States .

After the registration and screening process, student teams get access to tips, CAD tutorials and sponsorship referrals. But other than those things, they need to work pretty much on their own. They should raise their own funds to finance their equipment, materials, research, and travel and accommodation if the race will not be held in their own country. With this system of the competition, F1 in Schools is no doubt a good training ground for all future adults.

# Humanities Schools Look for Meaning

These days, having a job that pays the bills and puts food on the table is the first concern of many Americans. The recession has made it extremely difficult for families to continue coping with high costs of living. With these conditions, it is fairly easy to understand why parents are urging their children to go to schools and acquire intensive and extensive training in science, business, mathematics, engineering, as well as in any other field where success is certain to bring in money to the table, sooner or later.

This accounts for the great number of the student populace flocking to the halls of educational institutions to make their dreams come true of becoming high paying doctors, nurses, engineers, physicists, lawyers and businessmen.  

However, while most go to where the money is, there are still a few students who find themselves determined enough to enroll in courses in the liberal arts, despite the current state of the economy. However, undergraduates set on getting that degree in philosophy or cultural studies may face more than the usual opposition. While most people still associate a career in the arts with next to little financial rewards, present conditions are forcing more and more parents, students and educational institutions to redefine what a Humanities education is all about and why it should even continue to be provided.

Unlike courses in medicine or law, liberal arts majors do not leave their classrooms knowing how to wield a scalpel to save another human being’s life or how to argue a case in order to fight for a client’s rights. A literature major, for instance, will not spend hours tinkering with the motherboard of an obsolete computer unit to find out how to invent a computer that is even better than Apple’s Mac. A liberal arts major will not do any of these things. The training that a humanities schooling gives is not going to help students save lives or build computers that would improve the country’s communications systems.

And while humanities departments do train its students on analysis, articulation, ethical reasoning, critical thinking and the many disciplines of art, a humanities education is designed to teach one thing and one thing only: to instruct students on the meaning of life. What is it? How do you look for it?

It is not really a surprise why, in a time when dour economic conditions is compelling everyone to do everything they can to land a job and keep it, the essence of a humanities education is often lost, if not completely forgotten. How do we explore what it is to be human when we earn barely enough to keep a chicken alive? How do we discuss and marvel over Plato’s theories, the poems of Neruda, great paintings, history records and cultural differences when we do not have a roof over our heads or we have just lost our jobs? How do we admire past discoveries when our stomachs grumble because they are empty?

The advocates of liberal art schools are right. Looking for the meaning of life is worthwhile. But before we do, it’s always a given that our basic needs be taken care of first. Without that, one cannot expect people to go off and pick a slim volume of poetry over a book discussing useful business strategies, or the fifty best moneymaking schemes.
 
# Liberal Arts Schools–Going, Going, Gone?

The recession has brought along numerous budget cuts in nearly all sectors of all industries. Money is tight. Everyone is feeling the pinch. And it does not seem as if we could expect things to turn around any time soon. With the atmosphere, it cannot be helped that every one on the payroll or every project on the table is going under the microscope. In most schools, this includes the implantation of course subjects in a number of Humanities colleges.

Educational institutions are already taking measures to provide greater medical, engineering and business training as well as strengthen pre-existing programs to help prepare students for their vocational lives.

However, in various colleges, students enrolling in many liberal arts subjects find themselves faced with subtle discouragement, if not outright refusal.

Unattractive economic conditions have made universities take more care with how they spend money around. One way to cut back on expenses is to sacrifice academic pursuits that do not seem necessary. And judging from the way Humanities subjects such as history, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, the arts, languages and religion are getting cut from the curriculum, it is easy to see who and what are being sacrificed.

Early reports this year have confirmed that a number of colleges and universities have an ongoing “freeze hire” policy in Humanities departments. Others are on a partial “freeze hire.” In addition, it has already become a common practice not to replace professors or classroom instructors who leave Philosophy or Literature departments. And students wanting to enroll in any humanities subject are firmly being turned away.

While staunch supporters of the humanities strongly believe in the importance of liberal arts institutions, a number of them fail to make a convincing case.

The main problem is that, some academicians still operate under the belief that a Humanities education is essentially the old “inside the Ivory Tower” education. That old separatist theory makes it difficult for some, if not all, to associate liberal arts with anything economically valuable or practical. The essence of a humanities education, after all, is not really to train people in any particular skill, but to teach them critical thinking, analysis, articulation and yes, values.

But with the way things are going, a humanities education is becoming less and less popular. According to the results of a poll survey, only a small percentage of the student populace is enrolling into the liberal arts programs. Some students, when asked for their reasons why they are not going after a liberal arts education, stated that they want high paying jobs, something that a philosophy or cultural studies degree is unlikely to give them. After all, side by side with MBAs or a medical degree, employers are not likely to see much of a contest between those who can deconstruct T.S. Eliott’s multiple voices in “The Wasteland” and those who can handle a complex financial sheet. When times are this tough, it is hard to see what is important in knowing how to debate history or what being a humanities major is even all about.

Until the abstract concepts of exploring how it is to be human meets up with the practicalities of earning and keeping a living, students in many liberal arts schools will continue to remain a select few while other undergraduates search elsewhere for much greener pastures.

# More Students Work Part-time for Schools and Off-campus Bosses

Providing their children with a college education is the dream of responsible parents. However, with the economic recession, sending off their children to the top schools and colleges could land some families in debt. These days, a greater percentage of parents and students are finding themselves applying for financial aids, scouring for grants and basically finding ways in order to cut back on costs.

Education is Hard Work

Students are opting to work part-time jobs in order to supplement their allowance and spending money. The pay not only comes in handy when it is time to shell out money for school expenses like fees, text books and others, it also allows some undergraduates to pay off their student loans, a little bit at a time.

According to an American Council on Education analysis, 75 percent of all undergraduates under the age of 22 have part time work. Chief reasons characteristically include covering up the tuition as well as fees. 56 percent of students work to pay for their living costs, 32 percent say they do it to earn their spending money, and 8 percent say they want to gain job experience to their skills more marketable when it is time for them to look for a profession. 4 percent accounts for other reasons.

Researchers too have shown that students who work a total of 20 hours or less every week have greater chances of getting better grades as well as being able to graduate rather than those who work for more than 20 hours. Since students are learning to juggle in order to fit part time work and classes into their schedule, time management is becoming key. Thus, students are choosing their classes carefully in order to ensure that the work does not compromise academic performance.

Sometimes though, even after juggling the hours, students still find themselves foregoing a class or two if they clash with their work schedules. Hard yes, but practicalities must rule. A number of students working part time choose jobs a little later in the day, saying they know they would be tired after working and would need to rest before they could take up with their books again.

However, when schedules do not fit, undergraduates are forced to work in between classes just to get by.

Where to Work

The majority of students choose to go for off campus work. The pay is better for some though it is generally known that off-campus employers are often less understanding when it comes to the educational needs of a working student rather than employers who are directly connected to the school or university. Add to the fact that commuting to and from work can be costly and time consuming.

Help

Some students though say they need the work in order to help out their parents with the college expenses as well as avoid mountains of student loan debt. Helping out in every little way counts and children who see how hard the economy is these days, try to contribute to the family in any way they could. A few join their family businesses as part time workers in order to offer assistance to their parents as well as add a little extra to their spending money.
 
Whether it’s the tuition, the fees, parents or worry over debt, more and more students are spending less time in schools debating philosophical questions regarding existence for hours on end as they try to earn money and keep up with costs.

# Schools in Anime and Manga

Schools feature prominently in Japanese cartoons, or anime, and Japanese comics, otherwise known as manga. Some of the most popular series nowadays are slice of life stories that center around characters that are mostly students and their activities while in school. These schools serve as a fundamental setting, as well as sometimes being able to function as a character in itself that helps define some of the main characters and events of a story.

Most people who have watched a ton of anime will notice one thing about the depiction of schools in various series: they all look practically the same. One white structure that is wide and has a clock atop the central structure. Of course, some depictions are different. But, essentially, it's really the stories and the narrative and how the school is utilized as a setting that makes it a worthwhile consideration.

Iconic schools hold some of the best scenes and memories that fans have of a particular series. For example, there's Furinkan High School from Ranma ½, where much hilarity and action ensues in many episodes. A more recent example is the school in Lucky Star, home to the slice of life anime that showcases a group of young girls that reflect not only the culture of the youth, but also the culture of Japan as a whole.

And then who can forget the shifting and transforming school in Raijin-Oh? That school housed three powerful robots, and the sequence that shows the school making way to launch the robots is still one of the most memorable scenes from a fan's standpoint. In this sense, the school as a setting acts not only as a place where the characters do most of their activities, but also functions as a tool used by those same characters.

From the title itself, you can tell that Cromartie High is an anime that is centered around a school. In this anime, the school (Cromartie) acts as a character in itself, which gives the various characters a sort of umbrella personality. It defines the expectations of the viewer and also shapes the perception the viewer has of the reality within which the events of the series unfold.

The school in the recently concluded anime Toradora, Ohashi Junior High, is practically the only setting apart from the houses of the main characters. The events of the series are shaped by the school in many aspects, such as a field trip that leads to revelations and a confrontation held in one of the school's rooms. The school acts as a witness to both the anguish and the happiness of the show's characters. In the end, the school provides an all-important device for concluding the series: the leading female character hides inside the locker where the brooms are kept, and the male lead character finds her there and finally utters his “I love you.”

Majority of the characters in the anime series Honey and Clover are students. What quite sets it apart from other school-based anime and manga is that the students here are not young graders or high school students.

In any case, schools truly prove to be important elements in any anime or manga that has them. They provide not only a setting, but also a permanent fixture that can sometimes be an important pivot point for characterization as well as an objective correlative for the lives of the characters in those series.

# Students to Enjoy Textbooks at Lower Costs When Schools Start

Within the span of nearly 20 years, textbook costs in many schools have gone up considerably. However, there’s a great chance that families would be seeing price cuts in the near future. By availing of a number of alternatives, students can now save themselves more than a couple of dollars a year.

First, a bipartisan agreement on a proposal to control book prices was settled on and passed to congress, the summer of 2008. The agreement requires publishers to inform professors of book prices by providing them with accurate price lists so that professors could consider whether to assign a book to a class or not. This way, professors could consider if it would be worth it if they assign hideously expensive books to their students or not? Some students forgo buying assigned textbooks when they are too pricey. If aware of such concerns, professors may even start assigning selections that are easier on the pocket.

The new law also requires publishers to discontinue “bundled” textbooks, referring to packages that typically consist of a textbook, CD-ROMS along with workbooks and Web tools. While it is true that students get better grades when they learn about all the extras, some are choosing not to buy at all because the extras still add up to a considerable tag price. Now, with this law, students can buy just the tools they need. There won’t be any reason to spend money on the entire set anymore when a textbook is all they are after.

The emergence of E-books has also provided undergraduates with many options. While some may still appreciate the tactile experience of reading a book they’re holding in their hands, plenty of students actually prefer reading E-books nowadays. Some E-books could even be downloaded at a reduced price—with 30-50 percent discounts—or at no cost at all. There are already numerous E-books archived on many sites like Project Gutenberg. There’s also the trusty Google Books that is considerably helpful when students need to read or research on books that have no copyrights such as literary classics. It’s not any wonder why many undergraduates who insist on cutting on costs and saving their dimes and nickels while they earn their degrees in university believe the E-book is a better choice than its printed counterpart.

However, while it’s certainly a load off a student’s shoulders for textbook costs to be taken care of, downloading a number of books from many sites has its own drawbacks. One is the fact that downloading entire books feel too much like the illegal sharing of original works. Sites like textbooktorrents.com came under fire last year of July for offering entire books for download.

Another option that students can explore is to go to college bookstores or national companies that have a rent-a-textbook program. Why buy it if you can borrow it, at less the price? A student, who absolutely needs to buy an assigned book or two and is under a tight budget, can resort to the use of second-hand books to save up on fees. However, if a student ends up damaging or losing the book, he or she would need to pay the full retail price of the item.

So whether it’s the new law, e-books and book rentals at schools, one thing is for certain: cutting down on expenses is hard enough. Having these options handy would help tremendously in controlling the costs for parents and students.