Why College Students Value Self Storage Units

By Kurt Kleindienst

College students are notorious for their uncanny ability to acquire vast amounts of "stuff" in their door rooms and apartments. When they move back to their parent's home for the summer or graduate into a new home, some of the belongings they have accumulated may not fit or be welcome. That is why every college student (and parents of college students!), should consider self storage as a way to ensure the safe storage of their student's stuff.

Self Storage for Students:

Looking for somewhere to store all the collegiate memorabilia you've accumulated over the year? Perhaps your parents won't appreciate or allow some of your coveted college "decorations"? Self storage provides the perfect solution. With self storage, your parents don't even have to know what sort of out-there collections you've amassed--in fact, no one does. Part of the security of self storage units is that you are the only person who has a key. So you and you alone control who has access to your belongings.

Many self storage facilities use closed-circuit video surveillance systems to monitor the comings and goings of all customers and associates. Plus, modern storage units are equipped keypad-controlled access and individual door alarms, providing additional levels of security.

For college students traveling for a semester abroad, a self storage unit provides a great alternate to moving everything back home. Simply store your items at a storage facility near campus and when you come back from traveling, you'll have everything you need to re-establish your college home. The beauty of a storage unit is it provides an excellent option to keep your things safe and secure--allowing you to travel and explore the world without worrying about whether your parents are 'helping you' get organized by throwing away a bunch of your things.

Self storage is not just for your school's summer and winter breaks, however. Many students securing jobs out-of-town after college are faced with the prospect of having to throw out many of their prized collegiate possessions because of apartment size and storage restrictions. If you cannot bear to part with your collection of memorabilia, and know that you will regret selling it when you eventually purchase a home with enough room to house it, securing your belongings in your own self storage unit is the perfect way to keep your things out of sight, but certainly not out of mind. You'll find residential storage to be a great way to remove clutter from your home.

When the summer is over, or you finally can afford that big apartment, you can pick up your things from the self storage facility and bring them home to enjoy.

Self Storage for Parents:

Your home is your haven and having a college student at home for the summer can definitely create a little chaos. Add boxes of 'school stuff' that litter his/her room or worse your prized garage, closet or attic space--and you're organized home just got a little "unlivable."

Using a self storage unit to keep these items close to school (and out of your house!) is a great way to save your own home's organization, while allowing your student to keep his/her belongings and save the effort of lugging all that stuff home! It also gives your student the opportunity to assume some responsibility. He/she will be responsible for moving in and out of the unit--and while the items are stored, he/she will be the only one with the key to his storage unit. Giving your child the responsibility to store his valuables while away at college is good 'training' as a future homeowner, as he/she learns the lesson that clutter can be remedied without having to throw away priceless memories.

Self storage is the perfect solution for both parents and college students. Self storage units provide a safe, secure, and affordable way to store every valuable belonging--even when it's that famous bottle cap collection.

Mr. Kleindienst is a self storage company executive. He works for Safeguard self storage, a self storage facility that offers various self storage units.

Saint Louis University

By Mark Bradley

Saint Louis University, also known as SLU, is a private, co-ed Jesuit university in St. Louis, Missouri. The Society of Jesus founded St. Louis University in 1818, and that makes SLU the oldest university west of the Mississippi river. Founding a University west of the Mississippi in 1818 was a huge accomplishment, considering how the US was still primarily an east coast nation at this time. The Association of Jesuit Colleges and universities made SLU one of its 28 members, and then was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

These are basically all the dry facts, but St. Louis University is anything but dry when you take into account its stunning architecture and wonderful athletic teams. Currently 12,309 students are enrolled at SLU, and they come from all 50 states and more than 80 foreign countries, meaning that St. Louis University is the 4th biggest Jesuit University in the US. The university provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, and the undergraduate program is ranked 80th in the US.

Let's get to one of my favorite aspects of St. Louis University: the architecture and surrounding neighborhoods! There is some truly unique and beautiful architecture on the SLU campus, and some of the surrounding towns offer great entertainment, food and fun, not just for students, but for the residents as well.

When you take a stroll through St. Louis University, you'll often stumble across a number of interesting and smartly-designed buildings; many of them with their own unique history. Two stand out in my mind as being exceptionally beautiful; with a long and interesting history that will last for ages to come.

The Historic Samuel Cupples House is a St. Louis landmark......well, not officially. The Cupples House is far and away the most beautiful mansion on the St. Louis University campus, and if you get the chance to spend an evening on its historic patio, drinking from a fine selection of wines by the glass, you'll be a more enriched person for it!

The Cupples House is a Romanesque Revival building from the late-nineteenth century. The Romanesque style is quite interesting; refuting the more intricate and complicated style of Victorian architecture, with its winding turns, great arches, and flashy design. The Cupples House, on the contrary, is built in the style of stability, strength, and simplicity.

Venture-off through St. Louis to see a great variety of styles and masterpieces of architecture in the 19th and 20th century styles. You may find something that surprises you, like Art Deco buildings that stimulate the imagination, and even old Spanish Mission Deco buildings like the one found in Grand Center, St. Louis, designed by P.T. Barnett. With its rich Spanish style and unique feel, this building always turns heads.

Mark Bradley is a real estate historian and investor. Specializing in renovating historic architecture. For a 15 page historic report on Mark's Spanish Mission Building at 3207 Washington Ave St Louis Mo 63103 go to: 3207washington.com

Making Sure No Child is Left Behind - Education Law Degree

By Maja Aleksic

While I do not have a law degree, working in education has allowed me to cross paths with education lawyers on numerous occasions. I found the issues they deal with on a daily basis to be both noble and challenging.

What is Education Law?

Education law deals with schools, school systems and school boards charged with educating children. It is a branch of civil law that encompasses the laws and regulations that govern federal and state education, administration and operation of educational institutions, school athletics and education programs, methods and materials.

What do Education Lawyers do?

Education lawyers work very closely with school faculty, staff, students and administration. They spend their time going over issues such as discipline, suspension, expulsion and discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex and disability. Additionally, education lawyer's deal with questions related to school attendance, authority, civil rights, dress codes, drugs, disability, home schooling, immigrant visas, medical requirements, sexual harassment, and special education rights. As you can see, the span of topics coming across the desk of an education lawyer is impressive.

Careers in Education Law

Given that the span of topic covered by this area of the law is quite broad, so are the career opportunities. With an education law degree you could represent post-secondary educational institutions and institutions of higher learning in a number of different matters. Your clients could include a number of colleges, universities as well as school districts.

While representing these education institutions you would work on issues involving discrimination, disability, financial aid, and accreditation and licensing issues facing schools, staff and teachers/professors. Additionally, you could represent individuals, parents or students as well as teachers, professor and school employees on similar issues.

Job Outlook

Education law, and the lawyers that practice it, will continue to be a part of the education system. They are a necessity tasked with ensuring that every student has a fair and equal access to education.

According to the Department of Labor Statistics, employment of lawyers is expected to grow 11% during 2006-2016, about as fast as the average for all occupations. The increased demands for legal services will result in increased job opportunities. However, due to a large number of students graduating from law school, competition for jobs is quite intense. Those with strong academic records will have the best job opportunities.

Maja Aleksic has a doctorate in education psychology and has worked for both the Arizona State Department of Education as well as a prominent Arizona High School District. For more tips and advice on choosing the best legal online degree program, courses and career opportunities go to http://www.Select-Online-Degree.com/education_law_degree.html

College Fairs - Good Reason to Stay Home

By Paul Lloyd Hemphill

I attended another college fair at a Massachusetts high school where nearly 100 colleges were in attendance. Sort of. These fairs are one-stop opportunities to see what a college has to offer, but it's really a time to pick up the school's literature and meet an admissions person.

That's all.

Unfortunately, many of these colleges didn't send their own admissions people, but instead sent people with dated perspectives: alumni with sweet but irrelevant memories for a 16-year-old who shows up to the booth. Perhaps guilty of such bad marketing were colleges like Villanova, Hamilton, Hobart & Williams, Wake Forest, and UMaine. Maybe they knew something about college fairs that made it worthwhile NOT to send their admissions people.

For this post, I submit the following observation. According to my own subjective categories, here are the colleges that impressed me the most:

Most creative and practical presentation catalog: Bridgewater State

Most influenced by a student's interest in their college (HINT: send emails, make lots of phone calls, show your face frequently to admission people): Holy Cross

Most informative catalog so you don't have to visit campus: UMaine, Orono

Most bang-for-your-buck (3 required internships): Endicott

Most worth-looking-into engineering college: Illinois Institute of Technology

Most noticeable college for creative writing: Eckerd (sunny Florida)

Most attractive for accounting and math majors: Eastern Connecticut Univ

Best packaging for college fairs: St Michael's

Most frequented booth: Northeastern

College fairs should be attended only by students (read: parents should stay home) so they can meet the admissions people. It's a way of getting a first sense of the school, but hardly enough of a sense to establish an objective opinion (read: students should stay home).

College fairs are a classic Show & Tell: Here's our fantastic catalog, you should love us because of these three hundred and sixty-seven reasons - with photos, which means you should feel soothing goosebumps about spending your parents' life-savings with us.

If you must, collect literature and free pens because that's about all you or your student are going to get out of it. I suspect 16- and 17-year-olds are more savvy than the colleges: they discovered the internet a long time ago, and they can order all the college's marketing stuff online. Plus, a student makes an impression by visiting the campus, not the fair.

That was the "inside" info I got from these admissions people...who showed up.

Paul Lloyd Hemphill specializes in designing, marketing, packaging and selling a student to a college by using the very same techniques colleges use to design, market, package ans sell their services to unsuspecting students. Visit his free video website: http://www.videocollegedad.com

How to Determine the College Tuition Price Tag

By Vickie Faria

Deciding to attend college can be a positive, exciting step in your life. You will make new, often life-long friends and study various topics that are of interest to you. Before you can attend college, however, you should probably figure out how much it is going to cost.

College tuition can be very expensive or very reasonably priced, depending on which college you decide to attend. It is no secret that universities such as Yale and Harvard come with a steep price tag. Other universities can be relatively inexpensive, it just depends on where you want to go and which college will meet your needs.

Before deciding on which college to attend, ask each one for an information packet, including the college tuition costs. You can compare each university and also get a feel or why one college tution is more expensive than another.

College tuition costs vary depending on if you want to attend school in your state of residency or go out of state. Colleges often charge in-state students less than out of state students. Some states also offer reciprocity to students from neighboring state so it may be beneficial to ask prospective colleges if they offer this.

The initial college tuition price tag that colleges give you when researching their campuses can vary as well, depending on if you are eligible for scholarships or grants. Universities generally offer scholarship opportunities to incoming students. Students will usually have to request the scholarship forms and complete them to be considered for the award.

More information on College Works Painting community benefits for your home is just a click away.

GMAT Blog

By Randy Paes

Starting a gmat blog is a great way to study for the GMAT. It helps you keep a working diary of your progress.

When writing a gmat blog you don't need to spend a lot of time on the design. Blogging isn't about design; it's about focusing on content. Content is key. Many people have done it and their scores have profited from it .

To begin you just need a blogger account. It's completely free and you don't need any website design or coding skills. Blogger allows you to pick a template and start blogging in less than 5 minutes. The cool thing is that blogger allows you to create categories that help keep your blogging entries organized.

Your blog entries don't have to be fancy. I recommend writing an entry every day or anytime you have learned something new. You can focus on any aspect that interests you. You should do your best to try and explain what you have learned in each blog entry. In order to explain it you will find that you have to really understand ideas.

As an added bonus you may get readers to read your blog. It's a great way to study not to mention have a voice. People can leave comments and contribute to the discussion. It's a great way to give back to the GMAT community.

Blogging makes the GMAT experience feel fun and fresh. Everyday is a new period of learning and reflection. In fact, you will look forward to study for a very grueling test. It helps you review otherwise complicated material.

Randy is the author of the 800 gmat blog and is currently working on his MBA. His blog features detailed gmat strategies and resources to beat the gmat. Visit the 800 gmat blog.

How to Write a Quality Term Paper in 7 Killer Steps to Grade A

By Jan Verhoeff

Okay, nobody ever knows if they'll get an A on their term paper or not, but you can do your best and cross your fingers. It's the old online-college charm. Hit the keyboard running after you're too danged tired to care, and you'll have a term paper by morning? Or not.

Back in college after a few years out (even the online variety), you have lost the groove (or you never had it) and your composition teacher is bound to extrapolate on the fine form that you don't have for writing anything suggested in class. The phenomenon is guaranteed! But, you don't have to settle for less than your best. You can give it all you've got in 7 killer steps and hope for an "A".

#1 - Know your stuff

Select a topic you're at the very least interested in, and write what you know. Just get some words on paper, so you can get started building your idea. Your thesis statement will come from these words of wisdom , write well.

#2 - Pick a format

Whatever format your college professor recommends is the best choice. Don't be too creative here. Word 2007 doesn't rule on the grading curve, so stick with APA, MLA, or whatever instant format your professor recommended.

#3 - Get comfy, to write

Put on your most comfortable pair of jeans or sweats and settle in your favorite chair with your laptop on your knee and a favorite drink nearby. (Tea or coffee works well, avoid anything stronger than cola.)

#4 - Research your topic

If you haven't already got a notepad full of carefully prepared notes, now's the time to Google up your topic and find out about the links and references you'll need to insert in your term paper.

#5 - Organize your thoughts

Some folks use outlines to write from, others just set out to get the words on paper. Whatever format you choose, put it together and find a pattern that makes sense to you.

#6 - Write your rough draft

By the end of a few hours, you should have 6 or 7 pages of content that looks somewhat similar to what your finished product might look like, eventually. With a few scribbles of red, notes in the sidebars, and footnotes of some kind in your document with links or references to your source materials.

#7 - Perfect your paper

This is where you cut the end off your red pen and bleed all over the paper, reorganize your thoughts, add some serious vocabulary, and determine the actual content of your final paper with proper grammar, corrected spelling and a stream of thought that flows from beginning to end of the paper. Getting your education online is easy, but you have to write the term paper. Yes, dear, it's required.

Do a little dance, sing around the room, order in Pizza Hut and celebrate. You're done! And it only took five weeks of procrastinating, thirty minutes of shivering, teeth chattering worry and concern, and twenty-four hours of hard labor to write your term paper.

Article writing is so much easier. Visit http://advertizeyourbusiness.com and get Two FREE Article Marketing Templates that will help you find easier ways than term papers to add content to your blog or website, and bring instant traffic to your business online. © 2008 - Jan Verhoeff