Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Strategic Management Accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic Management Accounting - Assignment Example Strategic management helps the management to align the financial strategies of the company with other strategies namely the marketing strategies, operational strategies and human resource strategies (Bonaccorsi and Daraio, 2009). Financial management cannot connect with the external and internal requirements of the business, thus it is used only as a fact finding method. Whereas, strategic management helps to integrate the external impact on the business together with the internal strength and weakness of the organization and create new set of strategies. The paper presents a critical analysis between the use of return on investment and economic value added as means of measuring the performance. Both the techniques are used only for short term periods and not for achieving long term goals (Chrol, 2011). The discussion pertains to how the two different kinds of technique can be used for achieving long goals. Apart from that, the advantages and disadvantages of four different pricing t echniques are discussed namely, market based transfer pricing, full cost transfer pricing, cost plus mark-up transfer prices and negotiated transfer prices. Part A Critical evaluation of the statement â€Å"Both Return on Investment (ROI) and Economic Value Added (EVA), when used as performance measures in an organisation, encourage managers to be short-term in their focus and decision making† Both ROI and EVA are used for performance evaluation but only for the short term purpose. The managers face problems if these two kinds of techniques are applied for evaluating the performance of the company for the long term purpose. In order to discuss how the two different types of techniques can be used for the long term purpose, both the techniques need to be discussed separately and in depth (Clark and Mathur, 2011). In order to understand how ROI can be modified to use for taking long term decision it is imperative to note that ROI actually consist of two different parts. One is the return on sales and the other one is the asset turnover. Returns on sales indicate the profit per sales dollar which measures the ability of the manager to control expenses and at same time increase the profitability by increasing the revenue. The other one is the asset turnover, which indicates the amount of dollar received for each dollar invested. It measures the capability of the manager to increase the rate of revenue generation with the increase in the rate of investment. If ROI is going to be used for taking long term decisions then the focus should be on the asset turnover value. If control is gained over the value of the asset turnover then the ROI can be used for long term decision purposes (Das, Quelch and Swartz, 2000). In order to gain better control over the asset turnover the depreciation policy and the capitalization policy need to be modified. The determination of the useful life of asset and depreciation method used has an effect on both the income and investme nt aspects. This in turn affects the ROI. It is seen that if the depreciation charges are kept unusually high then the ROI is reduced to larger extent. In computation of the return on investment, sales factor is the only constant value, whereas both income and investment are variables. By making the right adjustment in the depreciation policy the depreciation

Module project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Module project - Assignment Example The company operates in all areas of oil and gas industry, these areas include exploration of oil and gas, supplies and distribution, marketing, production, refinery, petrochemical development and power generation (McIntosh, 2001). The company is also concerned about environmental conservation, and it has invested heavily on the production, and distribution of renewable energy (Carroll, 1999). It supports initiatives of developing and distribution bio-fuel energy, wind and solar power, and hydrogen energy. Shell has branches in 100 countries, and operates an approximate number of 44000 service stations. The company producing more than 3 million barrels of oil per day, and this makes it second to Exxon Mobil. Due to its massive size, and huge capital base, the company is an important player in the international system. It has the capability of influencing world leaders to enact policies that will encourage capitalism, and liberalization of their economies (Carroll, 1999). Due to its s ize, and the complex business activities the company engages in, the company operates under four main divisions. These are projects and technology, upstream international, upstream Americas, and downstream (Bruijn et al, 2002). The role of upstream international is to manage business operations of shell that are outside the American continent. The division is responsible for identifying new oil and gas fields. It refines crude oil, liquefies it and transports the gas. The division creates the necessary infrastructure required to supply and deliver the oil products of the company to the target market. The division operates through geographic locations, and each location has its own CEO. In some instances, the upstream international unit collaborates with all its geographic units to deliver a service considered essential and important (Bruijn et al, 2002). This only applies when the geographic unit of the company does not have the necessary skills to deliver the service. The Projects and Technology department is responsible for developing new and technological innovative systems, for purposes of improving the efficiency of the organization. The Unit concerns itself with the distribution of the organizations major projects, and it is not restricted to regions (Carroll, 1999). It supplements the technological innovations of Upstream and Downstream divisions of Shell, and it is responsible for providing leadership and advice on the areas of environmental conservation, health, safety, and procurements and contracting. The downstream division is responsible for the production, manufacture, marketing, and distribution of the products and services of Shell Company. The unit refines, distributes and transports crude oil products (Green, 1985). The upstream America is responsible for the business activities of the organization in North and South America. In this region, the organization looks for new sources of oil, and gas. It also creates an infrastructure that has the capability of efficiently transporting the products of the company to its target markets (Jordan, 2001). The division is responsible for extracting bitumen from oil sand. It converts them to crude oil, and thereafter refines them to produce energy. The main objective of the company is to search for oil and gas, and thereafter produce the product, manufacture it’s, and deliver the product to the market. The company also explores for gas, refines it, and transports

Monday, October 28, 2019

Macro and Micro Environmental Factors Essay Example for Free

Macro and Micro Environmental Factors Essay There are many other products to choose in the soft drink market include Pepsi Co product , the different is those products are cheaper than Gatorade * In order to attract more customers, Gatorade has improved its product quality and spent lots of money on advertising. -Selling products Gatorade mostly is the imported product so most distributor afraid that they can’t sell Gatorade because of Gatorade price * Gatorade has increased the supplier’s commission. -Publics: The customers in the last 1 year with the developing of VN economic has begun to care about their health lately. Many sport center, fitness club, etc†¦ has been opened in the last 15 years. * The big, potential market for energy beverage drink such as Gatorade to grow. As the result, Pepsi has built up many small, convenient store around those places. * Advertising and promoting trough sport events. Gatorade is also focus on McKinsey’s structure include: structure, strategy, and skill, staff, and style, system and share value. + Style: Gatorade is one of the company which have style. It helps Pepsi too adopted to changes so it can reach and fix it quickly. + Strategy: Improve the sport drink market in VN * Improve both product quality and price * Has an production line in VN with cheap resources and good materials but still guarantee the quality. So as to compete, Pepsi has advertised its product a lot and had various surveys to research what their consumer’s needs and produce healthy products are. Macro environment -Political : VN has been the 150th member of WTO so it has attracted many big investors all over the world. The government has supported many enterprises and business investments by changing to the international law, this has led to more active business action which the consumers can approach to the local products and costumers can have more choice within all the global products too. * Pepsi Co considered about importing more Gatorade in each trip to reduce to price and earn more revenue or adding no more product. -Technology: Consumers now mostly pay all the products by credit, master or visa card which allows company to narrow the distance between producer and buyer. gt; It invests not only in one country but open up many branches all over the world and there must be decision whether to use capital for hiring staff, advertising the product, etc†¦. or not Economics environment: The average income of a Vietnamese is affected by inflation and economic ciao. So, the number of selling product s are also decrease. Pepsi has made a decision to having more and more promotion, and held lots of social event to refresh the consumer’s comments about the company to set up a good new one. Environment: The environment issue in VN is becoming more and more serious. This problem is can’t be avoid in developing country. It’s the result of industrialize and modernization. To reduce pollution government has set up a law in order to protect the environment. Even though, Vietnamese’s awareness isn’t as high as other country but the law has been enforced a great punishment to those who pollute the environment. * This make Pepsi spent lots of money in buy new green-facilities , and providing the idea of protecting the nvironment to not only their staff but also their customers. Both help to protect the environment and stil l promote Pepsi good fame. Bargaining Power of Supplier: the soft drink market in VN and foreign isn’t the exclusive market. Bargaining Power of Consumers: * Industries facing powerful buyers: Distributors have the power to negotiate with the company on price, product quality, as well as marketing policy. * Industries facing weak buyers : have little impact on the market, Each buyers will buy the products with different purposes. Some bought to sell, others for political purpose . Numbers of require products is too much for the producer to still keeping it product quality. So that, the pressure is heavy too Threat of entry: Gatorade has many competitors. Competition from substitutes: Gatorade should be change product when customer want and need, also price and quality. Competition between firms: Gatorade have many competitor in Vietnam. Gatorade should always pay attention to your competitors.

Cultural Events and Savings Essay Example for Free

Cultural Events and Savings Essay The article â€Å"Cultural Events and Differences: Evidence from Immigrants to the United Arab Emirates† is catches attention, because it provides through examination of main reasons of immigration and touches the living conditions and experience of being an immigrant. It is known that the potential of UAE is growing and thus the country has to be studied and its policy should be evaluated. Furthermore, the article is interesting, because it examines impact o foreign region ob immigrant’s behavioral patterns and provides examples from different countries. Actually, the article raises debates whether immigrants should adapt to foreign culture or to preserve their culture. Moreover, the strength of the article is that is investigates the nature of savings. Certainly, this article contains lots of new interesting and relevant material for contemporary world, because public is interested in what is going on in Arab world. It is interesting to know, for example, that immigrants from developing countries tend to be more uniform regarding education, age, household and occupation, though they are provided with lower income than that of Arab countries. Nevertheless, the differences in national savings haven’t been investigated yet. The authors of the article suggest that UAE completely depends on immigrant workers.   Apparently, cultural factors have strong impact on governmental policies, partly because they tend to influence saving behavior in the long run in the countries which are considered ethnically diverse. Nevertheless, cultural factors play rather important, though not dominant role in determining differences in household savings. The authors provide several conclusions: the level of per capital income and growth income influences the ability to save; interest rates and inflation rates appear to be insignificant. The article refers to â€Å"Legal, Technological and Political Force† as it examines the impact of cultural differences on the governmental policy within UAE. The article provides information regarding political and economic forces caused the increase of immigration. References Al-Wad, M. Elhiraika, A. (2003, July). Cultural Events and Differences: Evidence from Immigrants to the United Arab Emirates. The Journal of Development Studies, 39, 5, 139-151.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

The Use of Recombinant DNA :: Papers

The Use of Recombinant DNA I agree that recombinant DNA benefits humans only to a certain extent though. During the late 1960s and early 1970s a series of independent discoveries made in rapid succession yielded a new technology whereby humans have the capability to manipulate and direct the very evolution of life itself. This is accomplished through the process of gene splicing (Recombinant DNA). There are four essential elements of the process: a method of breaking and joining DNA molecules from different sources, a gene carrier that can replicate both itself and the foreign DNA, a means of introducing the foreign DNA into a functional bacteria cell, and a method of selecting from a large population the cells which carry the foreign DNA. Using procedures like recombinant DNA, many human genes have been cloned in E. coli or in yeast. This was made possible for the first time to produce unlimited amounts of human proteins. Cultured cells (E. coli, yeast, mammalian cells) transformed with the human gene are being used to manufacture: insulin for diabetics, human growth hormone (GH) GH from domestic mammals like cows and pigs does not work in humans. So for many years, the only source of GH for therapy was that taken out from the glands of human cadavers. But this supply was shut off when several patients died from a rare neurological disease attributed to contaminated glands. Now, thanks to recombinant DNA technology, recombinant human GH is available. While a great benefit to patients suffering form GH deficiency, there has also been pressure to use it to stimulate growth in youngsters who have no deficiency but whose parents want them to grow up tall, erythropoietin (EPO) People with failing kidneys can be kept alive by dialysis. But dialysis only cleanses the blood of wastes. Without a source of EPO, these patients suffer from anaemia. Now, thanks to recombinant DNA technology, recombinant human EPO is available to treat these patients, for treating anaemia, tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) for dissolving blood clots, angiostatin and endostatin for trials as anti-cancer

The Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System Essay -- Education, Asse

Introduction The Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) developed in 1997 by Naglieri and Das conceptualizing on the works of A. R. Luria PASS model theory, represents an analytic measurement of cognitive abilities based on neuropsychological construct. The PASS theory, acronym for planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive, focuses on the neuropsychological foundation in which cognitive processing and human intelligences based on the functional brain and mental activities of input, processing, and output (Das, 1999). Endorsement of the PASS theory endures understanding of human intelligence as it relates to cognitive abilities. Psychometrical Component The CAS is a standardized test geared to capturing the essence of cognitive abilities by placing emphasis on brain functioning and the cognitive processes. The psychometrical properties for the CAS include standardization based on the sampling 2,200 children ranging in ages five through 17. Standardization was based on random sampling using the United States 1990 Census in which the norms of the diverse population is branched by race, gender, region, educational background, environmental setting, and parent educational attainment (Reynolds & Fletcher-Janzen, 2003) In addition, normalization of instruments are reported in four-month intervals (Naglieri & Das, 2010). The instrument is available in two versions, the standard battery that requires 60 minutes to complete and basic battery, which is a shorter version of the standard battery and only requires 40 minutes to complete. For the validity of psychometric measurement, the PASS scales and Full Scale (FS) are used. The psychometrical measurement for the CAS involves taking raw scores from each subtests and c... ...the development of instructional training are questionable. The ethical concerns of using the CAS for instructional and remedial purposes is the reliability of score interpretation and the effectiveness of categorization of cognitive deficiencies. For example, the simultaneous process emphasis on grouping related stimuli by using the cognitive task of integration of information. Naglieri and Goldstein (2009) argued the simultaneous process engages in the visual-spatial perspective by relying on visual memory that might display cognitive weakness in reading comprehension or verbal concepts. The complication of interpreting and profiling an individual with weaknesses in reading comprehension or cognitive deficiencies in word grouping based on the CAS subscale simultaneous involves disregarding phonological skills as a means of declined reading skills (Aaron, 2002).

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Nicolo Pignatelli and Gulf Italia: Case Analysis Essay

1. Pignatelli should first and foremost properly assess the ethical dilemma he faces. The problem before him comes down to the decision between two outcomes both with their share of benefits and risks. He can follow guidelines by waiting several months to receive a response from the Italian government while losing millions of dollars and risking his reputation and fate of his company if the government decides to not allow Gulf Italia to refine at full capacity. On the other hand he can attempt to pay someone off either directly or indirectly, a potential illegal activity, and more quickly have his company produce at full capacity, preserving his reputation without losing money and securing the jobs of his many workers. Because this is an ethical dilemma, a straight forward decision is not possible and a careful consideration of the factors must be taken. No code of ethics is mentioned in the case description, so a measurement of the moral intensity factor will be more relevant. The magnitude of the consequences leans more in favor or Pignatelli paying someone off because the employment of thousands of his workers is as stake and because the risks are not as high as imagined. It is mentioned that this practice is common in Italy despite it being illegal. The social consensus also leans in favor of Pignatelli paying someone off because of the fate of his workers and also because he has gone to great lengths to satisfy the local communities already in moving the location around five times and implementing cleaner technology at a higher expense to his company. The probability of effect also leans in favor of paying someone off because it seems as if his company is not doing any harm but rather is being harmed by the limitations placed by the Italian government. Proximity also leans in favor of paying someone off because his reputation is at stake and he could very well lose everything if he decides to wait it out. For these reasons Pignatelli should either pay someone off or ask Mobil to put pressure on decision makers. Although the bribe option is illegal, that should be the last choice he makes after he tries paying someone connected to take care of it and having Mobil work on the problem as well. If I were in his position, I would do as I have just recommended, but only in the context of what his situation was. It seems as if Pignatelli was under intense pressure to lead his company, to ensure the livelihoods of his workers and to turn a profit. On top of this, it seems almost unfair that his company was promised one thing then given another. 2. If Pignatelli does not pay the bribes directly, it does not absolve him from responsibility because of accountability. If he did not need to have someone indirectly paid off in the first place for a specific reason, then no bribe of that matter would have ever taken place. If Pignatelli ended up paying someone to bribe someone else and the authorities found out, the chain would lead back to Pignatelli and he would most certainly be held accountable for the activity. 3.  The argument that asks if it is justifiable to illegally bribe someone because it is common practice has two sides. On one hand it is simply illegal, should not be done, and will be prosecuted if discovered. However on other side, one could ask the question, is a law really a law if it is not enforced and under what circumstances, if any, would it ever be okay to break that law? If someone is to consider the second stance, they would have to consider the moral and philosophical implications of what justice is. For the example of Pignatelli, if he is doing nothing morally wrong, in fact he is actually creating a commodity for the world to use while ensuring the livelihoods of many of his employees, is it justifiable for him to break the law to ensure that he can maintain his operation? The answer to this question depends on the viewer and what he or she personally believes and defines as justice. I personally believe that justice is a moral virtue which is delineated and refined through the judicial system, and that laws can change over time. I believe that bribing to get something unfairly in return is morally wrong, but I believe that in the case of Gulf Italia because the government already gave him the go ahead to refine oil, then suddenly cut it back, there is a tremendous desire to look more closely at the situation. If his company is more than qualified, and the government made an irrational decision, I believe that in this particular case, that a bribe to ensure the flow of so much else would be justifiable. 4.  Pignatelli does not necessarily have a responsibility to go above and beyond environmental requirements. This does not mean that he could actually go above and beyond. It all depends on his management style. If he believes in social responsibility, then he would go above and beyond. If he believes in efficiency, he would only do what is the bare minimum to pass the requirements. Whether it is appropriate or not for Gulf to spend extra money thereby taking it away from shareholders also depends on his management style. If he believes in social responsibility then he would see it in the sense that he owes something back to society because without it, his company would not exist, and therefore he would take money from his shareholders to enact policies towards social responsibility. However if he believes in efficiency, he would see his responsibility as an owner and manager to maximize profits to the other owners and shareholders because that is basically his job and that issues pertaining to social responsibility are better left the government. 5. Considering the context of the case, I would be perfectly fine.  If I were an Italian working for a huge Italian conglomerate, I would most typically think that one vice in exchange for much good is tolerable. Going back on my response to question 3, my ethical obligations in any other case of bribery would lead me to a moral dilemma. If I were working for a finance company and found out that my bonus was directly correlated to a senior partner bribing someone, I would most likely protest and revolt. However if I were a lower-middle class Italian laborer with a secure and promising job, I would not see it as a bad thing what the owner did which in a way he did to guarantee my pay and security.

Computer structure and logic Essay

Learning Objectives and Outcomes -This assignment addresses the learning objective â€Å"Explain BIOS, POST, and derived processes.† The expected learning outcome that will result from completing the assignment is you will be able to describe the operation of BIOS and POST. In video 1.01 it talks about BIOS and CMOS and how they are different. The difference between BIOS and CMOS is that BIOS stored in ROM, they’re permanent and cannot be edited. On the other hand CMOS stored in RAM, they’re nonvolatile can erase when power goes off and can be edited. BIOS or Basic Input Output System is software stored on a small memory chip on the motherboard. It instructs the computer on how to perform a number of basic functions such as booting and keyboard control. BIOS are also used to identify and configure the hardware in a computer such as the hard drive, floppy drive, optical drive, CPU, and memory. BIOS contain a number of hardware configuration options that can be changed through the setup utility. Saving these changes and restarting the computer applies the changes to the BIOS and alters the way BIOS instructs the hardware to function. CMOS- or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor is a term usually used to describe the small amount of memory on a computer motherboard that stores the BIOS settings. It is usually powered by a cell battery which are said to last a life time on a motherboard, but will sometimes need to be replaced. Some signs of dead or dying CMOS battery are incorrect or slow system date and time and loss of BIOS setting. Video 1.02 talks about system resources, and talk about how POST work and the various types of system resources. When power is turned on POST or Power-on-self-test is the diagnostic testing sequence that a computer’s basic input/output system runs to determine if the computer keyboard, RAM, disk drives, and other hardware are working correctly. If the necessary hardware is detected and found to be operating properly, the computer begins to boot, but if the hardware is not detected or is found not to be operation properly; the BIOS issues an error message which may be text on the display screen and a series of coded beeps. There are four system resources. IRQ, I/O Addresses, Memory Address, and DMA- direct memory access. †¢An IRQ is an assigned location where the computer can expect a particular device to interrupt it when the device sends the computer signals about its operation. It communicates from hardware device to CPU. †¢An I/O addresses or Input/output is a number used to identify a peripheral device such as a disk, sound card or serial port and it communicates from CPU to device. †¢A Memory Addresses- is the total amount of memory that can be addressed by the computer. They’re instructions and work is stored there. †¢DMA – which stand for Direct Memory Access, is a method of transferring data from the computer’s RAM to another part of the computer without processing it using the CPU, and it communicate from device to memory. †¢MBR- stand for Master Boot Record is a kind of boot sector stored on a hard disk drive or other storage device. †¢EEPROM- stand for Electronically Erasable Programmable ROM is programmable read only memory that can be erased and re-used .

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Manufactures car alarms Essay

Costs: Materials: direct, variable1,600 Labour: direct, variable960 Labour: indirect, fixed280 Other production overheads: variable400 Other production overheads: fixed640 Selling overheads: variable480 Selling overheads: fixed360 Distribution overheads: variable280 Distribution overheads: fixed120 Administration overheads: fixed600 (5,720) Net profit for the year1,480 Anhad is planning next year’s activity and its forecasts for the year ended 31 October 2014 are as follows: 1.A reduction in selling price per car alarm to RM8 per alarm is expected to increase sales volume by 50%. 2.Materials costs per unit will remain unchanged, but 5% quantity discount will be obtained. 3.Hourly direct wage rates will increase by 10%, but labour efficiency will be unchanged. 4.Variable selling overheads will increase in total in line with the increase in sales revenue. 5.Variable production and distribution overheads will increase in line with the 50% increase in sales volume. 6.All fixed costs will increase by 25%. You are required to do the following: a)Prepare a budgeted profit statement for the year to 31 October 2014 showing total sales and marginal costs for the year and also contribution and net profit per unit. b)Calculate the break-even point for the two years and explain why the  break-even point has changed. Comment on the margin of safety in both years. c)Calculate the sales volume required (using the new selling price) to achieve the same profit in 2014 and in 2013. d)A director comments that ‘with these figures, all we have to do to work out our budgeted profit is to multiply the net profit per unit by the units we want to sell†. Why is this statement incorrect? Satnam Berhad is considering diversifying their business activities and they are currently reviewing two proposals. Proposal A is to launch their own television station whilst Proposal B is a joint venture with Kaboor Limited to launch a satellite that would enable the African region to receive advertisements for both company’s products. The available data is follows: Proposal A – TV Station Initial set-up costs: RM250 million Annual running costs: RM100 million Estimated life of project: 5 years Value of assets released at the end of the project: RM40 million Increased sales as a result of advertising products: RM60 million in the first year, growing cumulatively by 50% each year for the following four years. Project B – Satellite Initial set-up costs: RM700 million Annual running costs: RM50 million Value of assets released at the end of the project: RM10 million (Note: all the above to be shared 50/50 with Kaboor Limited) Estimated life of the project is 6 years. Increased sales for Satnam Berhad as a result of advertising their products in the African continent: RM80 million in the first year, growing cumulatively by 20% each year for the following five years. Funding for both projects would be at a cost of capital of 6%. Relevant discount factors at 6% p.a. are: Year Cumulative 10.9430.943 20.8901.833 30.8402.673 40.7923.465 50.7474.212 60.7054.917 Required: a)Using the net present value method of investment appraisal, critically evaluate the two proposals and make your recommendation to Satnam Berhad. b)What other considerations should Satnam Berhad take into account in deciding which Project to pursue?

High school Essay

* â€Å"Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy. â€Å"Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy. † (â€Å"Why Is Literacy Important? † UNESCO, 2010) * â€Å"The notion of basic literacy is used for the initial learning of reading and writing which adults who have never been to school need to go through. The term functional literacy is kept for the level of reading and writing which adults are thought to need in modern complex society. Use of the term underlines the idea that although people may have basic levels of literacy, they need a different level to operate in their day-to-day lives. † (David Barton, Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language, 2nd ed. WileyBlackwell, 2006) * â€Å"To acquire literacy is more than to psychologically and mechanically dominate reading and writing techniques. It is to dominate those techniques in terms of consciousness; to understand what one reads and to write what one understands: it is to communicate graphically. Acquiring literacy does not involve memorizing sentences, words or syllables–lifeless objects unconnected to an existential universe–but rather an attitude of creation and re-creation, a self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one’s context. † (Paulo Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness. Sheed & Ward, 1974) * â€Å"There is hardly an oral culture or a predominantly oral culture left in  the world today that is not somehow aware of the vast complex of powers forever inaccessible without literacy. † (Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Methuen, 1982) * â€Å"We expect the contradictory and the impossible. . . . We expect to be inspired by mediocre appeals for ‘excellence,’ to be made literate by illiterate appeals for literacy. † (Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 1961) * Women and Literacy â€Å"In the history of women, there is probably no matter, apart from contraception, more important than literacy. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, access to power required knowledge of the world. This could not be gained without reading and writing, skills that were granted to men long before they were to women. Deprived of them, women were condemned to stay home with the livestock, or, if they were lucky, with the servants. (Alternatively, they may have been the servants. ) Compared with men, they led mediocre lives. In thinking about wisdom, it helps to read about wisdom–about Solomon or Socrates or whomever. Likewise, goodness and happiness and love. To decide whether you have them, or want to make the sacrifices necessary to get them, it is useful to read about them. Without such introspection, women seemed stupid; therefore, they were considered unfit for education; therefore, they weren’t given an education; therefore they seemed stupid. † (Joan Acocella, â€Å"Turning the Page. † Review of The Woman Reader by Belinda Jack [Yale University Press, 2012]. The New Yorker, October 15, 2012) * From the website of California Literacy, Inc. â€Å"The literacy rate in the US has many educators in search of answers about this problem that has plagued our country for decades. Instead of decreasing, the numbers of literacy has steadily increased over the years. This raises a lot of questions about our education system, how it is ran, and why there is such a problem with illiterate people in our country. † (quoted by The New Yorker, Nov. 22, 2010) Pronunciation: LIT-er-eh-see Language * Six Common Myths About Language * Key Dates in the History of the English Language * Introduction to Etymology: Word Histories Elsewhere on the Web * The National Institute for Literacy (US) * The Literacy Project * National Literacy Trust (UK) Resources for Writers * Reference Works for Writers and Editors * Grammar and Usage Advice Sites * Sites for Correcting Common Sentence Errors Related Articles * orality – definition and examples of orality * illiteracy – definition and examples of illiteracy * aliteracy – definition and examples of aliteracy * Adult Education – What Is Adult Education * Writing Degree – Do I Need a Writing Degree Richard Nordquist Grammar & Composition Guide * Sign up for My Newsletter * Headlines * Forum Advertisement. Related Searches achieving gender equality paulo freire education curbing population growth critical consciousness paulo freire personal empowerment Explore Grammar & Composition Must Reads * What Is Grammar? * Euphemisms for Death * Commonly Confused Words * 400 Essay Topics * Introductions to 30 Figures of Speech Most Popular * What Is a Metaphor? * Writing Topics: Argument * Top 20 Figures of Speech * 400 Writing Topics * metaphor See More About: * english language By Category * Writing Tips * Business Writing * Correcting Errors * English Grammar * Punctuation & Mechanics. * Composing Sentences * Words * Composing Paragraphs * Composing Essays * Rhetoric and Style * Exercises and Quizzes * Readings and Resources * Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary Grammar & Composition 1. About. com 2. Education 3. Grammar & Composition 4. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 5. Icon – Lower Case 6. literacy – definition and examples of literacy * Advertise on About. com * Our Story * News & Events * SiteMap * All Topics * Reprints * Help * Write for About * Careers at About * User Agreement * Ethics Policy * Patent Info. * Privacy Policy * Your Ad Choices  ©2013 About. com. All rights reserved. The Greatest Literacy Challenges Facing Contemporary High School Teachers: Implications for Secondary Teacher Preparation Mary B. Campbell Saint Xavier University Margaret M. Kmiecik Saint Xavier University Secondary teachers face significant challenges in their efforts to increase the literacy levels of adolescents. Encouraging teachers to speak out about these challenges and to recommend initiatives that may improve literacy practices for adolescents is vital for future reform efforts. This study examines the questions: â€Å"What are the greatest literacy challenges facing high school content area teachers? † and â€Å"What will help to diminish these challenges? † The data collection questionnaire was distributed to teachers in eight high schools throughout the greater Chicago area. A discussion of the findings suggests compelling directions for secondary teachers and teacher educators. 2 Reading Horizons, 2004, 4, (1) WHILE SEVERAL REFORMS in higher education teacher preparation have made a difference in more teachers being highly prepared and qualified (Smylie, Bay, & Tozer, 1999), preparing teachers to meet the literacy demands of secondary students still remains inadequate. Improving literacy learning in our nation’s high schools needs serious elevation as an educational priority at all levels. The 2002 NAEP (National Association for Educational Progress) Report indicates that 36 percent of students in grade 12 performed at a proficient level, indicating that only a little over one-third of our nation’s high school seniors can understand challenging material (Feller, 2003). This was a decline in performance from 1998 when the NAEP reported the percentage of seniors who performed at the proficient level as 40 percent (U. S. Department of Education, 1999). Additionally the 1998 report states that no more than 6 percent of the adolescents performed at the advanced level which demonstrates students’ ability to analyze and extend the meaning of the materials they read. The NAEP data further show more than one-third of the students did not demonstrate competence at a basic level of literacy. The International Reading Association has taken a substantial leadership role in elevating attention to middle school and secondary literacy issues by establishing the Commission on Adolescent Literacy in 1997 (Rycik & Irvin, 2001). The work of this Commission resulted in the published document, Adolescent Literacy: A Position Statement (Moore, Bean, Birdyshaw, & Rycik, 1999), which recommends principles for teachers to consider when supporting the literacy growth of secondary students. Still much more comprehensive work needs to be done as challenges still persist and â€Å"teachers, administrators, and staff developers have asked for more examples of practices that might renew and revitalize their efforts for middle and high school students† (Rycik & Irvin, 2001, p.4). Teaching has greatly increased in range and complexity over the last decade. Teachers now find themselves in highly pressured environments (Pincas, 2002). Faced with the reality of overcrowded classrooms, high stakes testing, and standards-based environments, using instructional practices that move students to higher levels of thinking through more â€Å"authentic† forms of learning are lost. Additional factors Secondary Teaclher Literacy Clhallenges 3  that compound the situation are high student mobility, absenteeism, minimal student engagement, misbehavior, missing homework, cultural and linguistic diversity, special needs, and increasing numbers of students from poverty and single parent households (Alvermann, Hinchman, Moore, Phelps, & Waff, 1998). Regardless of the number or degree of challenges, teachers still remain accountable for fostering literacy growth among all students. Efforts to improve literacy learning for secondary students must take seriously the realities and challenges persistent in today’s high schools. Reform theorists who suggest â€Å"improvement can be made through a series of workshops, enhanced technology, sanctions and the like,† (Smylie, Bay, & Tozer, 1999, p. 59) are naive at best. A new paradigm requires comprehensive and systemic change. It also requires a serious re-orientation towards broad organizational, political, and economic presuppositions on which definition and acquisition of change must be based. Moreover, it involves a commitment to putting teachers at the forefront of the reform process. Valencia and Wixson (2000) argue that it is time for the voices of teachers to be heard. Without empowered professional voices, we lose the potential for constructing serious reform. Emerging Directions If students are to achieve high literacy standards, evidence strongly suggests that what teachers know and can do is one of the more important factors influencing student achievement. (Darling-Hammond, 1999, p. 228). Research also makes it clear that â€Å"if teachers are to negotiate the demands of new standards and new students, they must have access to a deeper base of knowledge and expertise than most teacher preparation programs now provide† (Darling-Hammond, 1999, p.229). While several studies have looked at reform in teacher preparation programs, Schwartz (1996) concluded that reform changes in teacher preparation have resulted in â€Å"little more than adjusting on the margins† (p. 3). Particularly troubling, in secondary teacher preparation, is the limited attention given to the challenges existing in schools in which future teachers must help students to achieve literacy, and the problems 4 Reading Horizons, 2004, 4, (1) of schooling in a broader social context. Moreover, in many states, secondary teacher preparation programs include a requirement of a content area reading course, whereas in other states there is no equivalent requirement. This has remained literally unchanged for years, even as secondary students continue to struggle with reading and writing throughout the high school curriculum. The wide-spread standards movement has made some impact in requiring newly certified teachers to demonstrate competency on specific literacy knowledge and performance indicators. However, the depth of what is needed to teach content area literacy in secondary schools requires more than one course, and/or a few standards. Connecting Two Distinct Communities Education can no longer be seen as an exclusive function, and the traditional structures cannot remain isolated from social change. Faculties in colleges and universities and the practicing teachers in secondary schools have no choice but to adjust to new paradigms. While it is now more common to find partnerships and institutional collaborations between university faculty and secondary teachers, many of these need redefinition. In many partnerships, â€Å"practicing teachers have related there has not been a high level of reciprocity, as the universities are too dominant† (Campbell, 2002, p. 22). Each entity must put into the equation improvement strategies that are meaningful to their respective organizations; that is, they need to identify areas where they truly need help from one another. Then institutionally and programmatically, they need to find ways to work together to make those intended improvements a reality (Howey & Zimpher, 1999, p. 299). High school teachers and teacher educators alike are looking to move beyond  yet another â€Å"good idea† to realize reconceptualization and transformation for secondary literacy education. This means engaging high school teachers in the process of secondary teacher preparation, determining what factors pose the greatest challenges to literacy development and using this knowledge as a cornerstone for improving Secondary Teaclher Literacy Clhallenges literacy practices in schools. Failure to confront these challenges effectively will undoubtedly compromise the ability of teachers to serve as effective agents of change. Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify the problems secondary teachers face that impede literacy learning in the classrooms and to yield information that may inform the preparation of future secondary teachers. Two broad questions emerged to guide this study: o What are the greatest literacy challenges facing high school content area teachers? e What will help to diminish these challenges for current and/or future high school teachers? The Study ParticipatingS chools and Teachers The schools that participated in this study included eight high schools, seven public and one private. The researchers purposely selected the schools to ensure ethnic diversity as well as urban and suburban representation. Six of the high schools represented grades 10-12 and two included grades 9-12. The school principals granted permission to graduate students enrolled in a Masters Degree Program in Reading to place the High School Literacy Survey in the school mailboxes of the teachers. A total of 450 questionnaires, including a cover letter and a stamped return envelope, were distributed to 9-12 teachers. Two hunared and two questionnaires were returned, realizing a return rate of 45 percent. There were no follow-up attempts to obtain a higher return rate. Most respondents (71 percent) had advanced degrees beyond the B. A. or B. S. : among these were 68 percent with a M. A. and 3 percent with a Ph. D. Teachers from 18 different subject area fields responded to the survey. English (18 percent), mathematics (16 percent), and science (15 percent) teachers comprised the majority of participants. The remaining teachers represented the following subjects; art (3 percent), 5. 6 ReadingHorizons, 2004, 45, (1) business (4 percent), technology (4 percent), driver’s education (1 percent), foreign language (6 percent), history (7 percent), library (1 percent), music (1 percent), physical education (3 percent), reading (1 percent), radio/television (1 percent), social studies (8 percent), special education (3 percent), theology (3 percent), and vocational education (4 percent). Teachers with more than 10 years of experience accounted for 63 percent of the sample, while 37 percent had 10 years or less. Teachers working in suburban areas surrounding the greater Chicago area comprised the majority (67 percent) of the sample population, with the remaining 33 percent coming from urban schools. Forty-four percent described their schools as predominately diverse (> 50 percent), 32 percent considerably diverse (30-50 percent minority), 17 percent somewhat diverse (10-30 percent minority) and 7 percent primarily white (less than 10 percent minority). The Questionnaire We collected the data from a survey instrument, High School. Literacy Survey, designed and constructed by us. The questionnaire requested two types of information: * objective, relating to educational degrees, content field of study, years of teaching experience, diversity of school population * subjective, relating to opinions and values in teaching and learning The subjective portion of the survey was comprised of two broad questions. The first question asked teachers to identify 5 of the 20 factors that posed the greatest challenges in helping their students to attain literacy in their subject field. Respondents wrote the numeral 1 next to the statement representing their greatest challenge, the numeral 2 next to the statement representing their next greatest challenge, and so forth through the numeral 5. (See Appendix) The twenty statements, defined as challenges, were derived from the literature on content area reading. An extensive review of the literature Secondary Teaclher Literacy Clhallenges 7 resulted in identifying twenty challenges, however, these may not represent all possible factors and they may not represent factors that teachers would have included if they were to construct the questionnaire. A space was provided for teachers entitled â€Å"other† for their convenience in identifying additional factors that pose as challenges. Since no specific theory was identified to serve as a foundation for the selection of factors, they represent an eclectic representation. Additionally, the factors were not defined on the questionnaire, indicating that a singular definition cannot be assumed and that the factors may represent multiple meanings in the field. The second question invited the teachers to respond openly to the question, â€Å"What do you believe will help to diminish these challenges for current and/or future high school teachers? † Findings Percentages were used to report the data on the high school teachers’ perceptions about the factors that challenge them most in helping their students to achieve literacy in their subject area. Table 1. Percentage Responses of Factors that Represent the Greatest Literacy Challenges Factors Percent 1 2 3 4 5 Total Assessment of student learning 2 1 1 2 2 8 Classroom environment 1 2 – 1 2 6 Classsize 4 4 6 8 5 27 Cultural and language diversity – 1 – 1 – 2 among students Curriculum – 1 2_ 1A _3 7. 8 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1) Factors Percent 1 2 3 4 5 Total Helping students to construct. meaning from text Helping students interpret graphics in text Helping students to learn and use critical thinking skills Helping students to locate and organize information Helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary Homework issues Integrating technology for teaching and learning Selecting materials for teaching and learning Organizing and managing the classroom for learning State/district/school standards for students Struggling readers Student motivation/interest/attitudes 3 6 6 7 7 1 1 – 3 2 16 8 12 11 12 1 5 5 4 3 8 3 6 11 12 5 8 10 6 7 1 5 2 1 3 – – 1 – 4 1 2 – 2 3 1 1 1 1 2 9 9 8 8 8. 33 17 17 8 7 1 5 5 5 3 19 29 7 59 18 40 36 12 5 8 6 42 82 Students with special needs Secondary Teacher Literacy Chiallenges Factors Percent 1 2 3 4 5 Total Students who lack study skills 11 13 13 13 7 57 Writing skills of students 2 8 5 7 8 30 (A ranking scale, with 1 meaning â€Å"greatest challenge,† 2 â€Å"next greatest challenge,† and so forth) The top five challenges as reported in Table 1 were: * student motivation, interests, and attitudes (33 percent) o helping students to learn and use critical thinking skills (16 percent) o students who lack study skills (11 percent) o struggling readers (9 percent). o helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary (8 percent). The least perceived challenges were cultural and language diversity among students (2 percent) and selecting materials for teaching and learning (5 percent). Examining the data of the largest responding groups of content area teachers, English, mathematics, and science, yielded similar findings. All three of these groups identified the same top two challenges as did the total group. The English, mathematics, and science teachers’ third, fourth and fifth rankings were: * English > (3) homework issues > (4) students who lack study skills. > (5) writing skills of students o Mathematics > (3) students who lack study skills 9 iO Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1) > (4) homework issues > (5) helping students to locate and organize information e Science: > (3) students who lack study skills > (4) helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary > (5) helping students to construct meaning from text The teachers were also asked to respond to the following openended question, â€Å"What do you believe will help to diminish these challenges for current and/or future high school teachers? † Seventyseven percent of the teachers wrote responses to this question. The resppnses were grouped by similar topics from which themes emerged. Table 2 reports the percentages of the most frequently occurring responses to the open-ended question. Table 2. Themes and Percentages of Responses for Confronting the Greatest Challenges Most Frequent Responses by Theme Percent Better basic skills instruction in elementary schools 64 More parent responsibility and support 58 Mandatory inclusion of critical 39 thinking questions on all assessments Study skills classes for incoming students 33 I Iimprove teacher preparation/more methods for 28 secondary teachers. Greater respect and support from society 20 Practical/useful staff development 11 Secondary TeachterLiteracy Challenges ‘ 11 Most Frequent Responses by Theme Percent Teacher task forces making policy decisions 9 instead of politicians and administrators Complete restructuring of the current traditional 7 education model A center at each high school for struggling readers The most common responses cited by the majority of teachers to confront the greatest challenges (Table 2) were better basic skills instruction in elementary schools (64 percent) and more parent responsibility and support (58 percent). Sample responses given by less than 50 percent of the teachers were mandatory inclusion of critical thinking questions on all assessments (39 percent), study skills classes for incoming students (33 percent), and improvement of teacher preparation with more methods for secondary teachers (28 percent). Discussion The results of this study provide insight for the continuing efforts to improve the literacy levels of secondary students. They are, however, neither exclusive nor exhaustive. They are offered with no claim for the universality or total generalizability, but they are offered as a common ground for thinking. Student Motivation andA ttitudes High school teachers identified student motivation to read, write, and do other literacy-related activities as their greatest challenge. The teachers’ written comments on questionnaires indicated that much of the class-assigned reading is often boring and not relevant to the student’s own interests and experiences. They also stated that the students who will not read are as much at a disadvantage as those who cannot. Student 12 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1) motivation was ranked the greatest challenge of all for the participating teachers. The dilemma of identifying and implementing strategies to motivate adolescents is not new to literacy practice. The data from this study confirm what the research (Alexander & Filler, 1976; Au & Asam, 1996; Benware & Deci, 1984; Collins-Block, 1992; Guthrie & Alao, 1997; Schraw, Brunning, & Svoboda, 1995) has documented over time: that student motivation, interests, and attitudes are indeed authentic challenges. Teaching adolescents to become active, motivated, and selfregulated learners is a continuing issue in secondary schools. It is during the adolescent years when reading motivation and attitudes appear to worsen, especially for poor readers (McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995). Serious attempts to advance literacy skills require interventions that address motivation and attitudes as much as interventions that assure cognitive changes in the learners (Verhoevan & Snow, 2001). This generally does not happen. Motivational constructs are usually not given significant vigilance in relation to student cognition and thinking, and at best, are given only passing and superficial attention. A further problem is that standard reading texts and uniform curricula make life somewhat easier for teachers and administrators, but they make it very difficult for students to get involved with the material at the level that is right for them, and therefore to find intrinsic rewards in learning. In the classroom, the teacher is the key element in motivating students to learn. The responsibility is great and the ramifications even greater, yet many responding high school teachers stated they were not adequately prepared in their teacher preparation programs with the knowledge, skills, and instructional strategies to ignite the spirit of their students. These teachers indicated they want more ideas, support, and freedom within the school curriculum to take the lead, and more ways to experience first-hand, in-field, motivational issues in their teacher preparation programs. Critical Thinking Skills. Teaching critical thinking skills was the second greatest challenge for teachers. Large numbers of teachers indicated they feel underSecondary Teachter Literacy Clhallenges 13 prepared in pedagogical methods to help studenis conceptualize problems and solutions. Assisting adolescents to become proficient with these skills is a prodigious challenge for secondary teachers. The capacity for abstraction, for discovering patterns and meanings, generalizing, evaluating, and theorizing is the very essence of critical thinking and exploration. For most students in the United States and throughout the world, formal education entails just the opposite kind of learning. Rather than construct meaning for themselves, meanings are imposed upon them. Frequently, students often accumulate a large number of facts along the way, yet these facts are not central to their education; they will live their adult lives in a world in which most facts learned years before (even including some historical ones) will have changed or have been reinterpreted. Whatever data they need will be available to them at the touch of a computer key. If students are to learn critical thinking skills, teachers must teach them and engage their students in genuine problem solving discussion. Generally these skills are best, and likely only taught and assessed, through extended discourse. This is difficult to do in crowded classes where it is near to impossible to carry out extended discussions. The commitment to teaching these skills in all content areas means gaining support from the public. It also means that teachers must gain the knowledge and skills to do so through teacher preparation programs and inservice education, taking into account the real-life situations and parameters in today’s classrooms. Study Skills Students who lack study skills ranked as the third greatest challenge to teachers. The importance of study skills has been documented over time in the professional literature (Flood & Lapp, 1995). What is known is that many people of all ages have difficulty reading and learning, largely because they are not using appropriate techniques or good learning habits. Often, the adolescents who are dropping out of schools are doing so because they believe they carnot learn. For the majority of these students, they lack suitable reading and study techniques, which 14 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45(1) impede their growth in learning and contribute to their negative beliefs about themselves and school. Although most secondary teachers have a thorough understanding qf their subject, many responding teachers in this study indicated they lack the knowledge of instructional/study strategies by which to help students internalize the concepts. Research shows that with an organized system of study, students can increase their comprehension of subject matter up to 50 percent (Annis, 1983). As nations seek to assist adolescents in gaining higher levels of literacy, the knowledge and skills that teachers need to teach their students effective study habits and strategies may likely become central to the curriculum in secondary teacher preparation programs and in the curriculum of secondary schools. Struggling Readers Struggling readers ranked as the fourth greatest challenge to the high school teachers. Teachers responded that these students can be found â€Å"hiding out† in content classrooms. They frequently are passive and disengaged. , Many have found coping strategies to help (them get by, but they do not significantly improve their literacy skills or their knowledge in the content areas. I Although comprehension of text material is difficult and sometimes impossible for struggling readers, there are research-based strategies that have proven to be successful when used with struggling readers. One such strategy is instructional scaffolding, an effective strategy that gives students a better chance to be successful than if left on their own (Vacca, 2002). Pedagogy, which includes instructional techniques for diverse learners, is glossed over in many teacher preparation programs for secondary teachers. However, it is as important in the preparation of high school teachers as is cognitive knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 2000). If high school teachers are to make substantial contributions to all adolescents, it will require more knowledge of relevant instructional methodologies. Darling-Hammond (2000) found that teacher subject-matter knowledge was related to student achievement only up to a certain point. Secondary Teacher Literacy Challenges 15 Marzano (2003) asserts that the importance of the relationship between pedagogical knowledge and student achievement has been consistently reported in the research literature. Furthermore, in a study conducted by Ferguson and Womack (1993), they found that the number of courses teachers took in instructional techniques accounted for four times the variance in teacher performance and student achievement than did subject-matter knowledge. Teachers stated that more information about how to assist the struggling readers in their classrooms is sorely needed in preservice teacher education programs. Additionally they need to know that the strategies and support to assist these learners are realistic for today’s classrooms. Key Concepts and Vocabulary Helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary ranked as the fifth greatest challenge. Every subject area has its own vocabulary and modes of argument, and its language is the common denominator for learning subject matter knowledge. Vacca and Vacca (2002) agree: they state, â€Å"Vocabulary must be taught well enough to remove potential barriers to students’ understanding of texts as well as to promote a longterm acquisition of the language of a content area† (p. 160-161). Teachers want more knowledge about ways to teach vocabulary and concepts to adolescents, strategies that will provide adolescents with a deeper and richer entry into the content area of study, and strategies that will work in the classrooms of today. Intriguing Findings It is a noteworthy finding that the cultural and language diversity among students in the classrooms was not identified among the greatest challenges. The majority of teachers in this study were from diverse schools, and yet only two percent ranked this to be a challenge. Equally notable was the fact that state, district, and school standards, writing skills, and integrating technology were not identified among the greatest challenges. 16 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1). Of all the findings, the most revealing was that provided by the driver’s education teachers: whereas every other content-area group of teachers, albeit art, music, business, foreign language, etc. , ranked student motivation as the greatest challenge, they did not. This is not surprising as it supports the findings of this study as well as long standing research in the field, as cited in Marzano, 2003. The hypothesis being that when motivated, students strive to learn.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Time With Your Children †Communications Essay

Time With Your Children – Communications Essay Free Online Research Papers Time With Your Children Communications Essay As adults in the United States we lead busy life’s. We have to find time for our family, work and time for fun. In the daily grind of the commute and the eight to five work day it is hard to find time to fit it all in. As a parent I find it hard to be able to accomplish everything that I need to get done in a day. I find myself staying up late to catch up after my child is in bed. Our children are the most important parts of our life’s. They need us to be there to teach them and mold them in to good adults. A part of being a parent is to teach them about their heritage, where their family comes from, about their customs and trends. We conduced a survey to find out how parents communicate with there children and if their customs and traditions had anything to do with it. We interviewed thirty adults in our survey. The Breakdown of racial or ethnic groups is as follows nine Caucasian, nine Hispanic, ten African American, one Japanese, and one Korean. The Breakdown of gender was as follows thirteen Males, and seventeen Females. Those who utilize English or Native Tongue are twenty three English, one Spanish and six uses both English and Spanish. The average time spent with children was 7.6 hours a day. Those who use verbal and non-verbal communication where as follows eleven use Verbal communication only, none only use Non-Verbal communication and nineteen use both Verbal and non-verbal. Do their customs or traditions ever interfere with disciplining your children? Thirteen said yes and seventeen said no. The final thing we found was that if customs and traditions helped with raising your children overall? Twenty three said yes and only two said no. The groups had very different treads. When it came to language Caucasian and black people only use English but Spanish people use a mix between English and Spanish. When it came to disciplining children it was about even and when it came to customs and traditions helped with raising your children most people interviewed said that they did. Here in the United States we are such a diverse county but I believe that we all want to raise good kids and instill our beliefs and traditions of our heritage. Research Papers on Time With Your Children - Communications EssayPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeStandardized TestingHip-Hop is Art19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and

Free Essays on The Death Of A Salesman

The Dysfunctional Family In Arthur Miller’s drama, â€Å"Death of a Salesman† the protagonist is a sixty-year-old salesperson by the name of Willy Loman. Willy suffers from self-delusion and is obsessed with the desire to succeed. Willy’s actions strongly influence his family, which contributes to their self-delusions. Willy’s wife Linda is an enabler and is codependent upon him. Linda encourages and participates in Willy’s delusions. She is unselfish and her life revolves around Willy and their two boys Biff and Happy. The Lomans are definitely a dysfunctional family due to their lack of communication, respect, and morals. The basis for any healthy relationship is communication. Communication is something the Lomans do not practice often, and when they do, it usually ends in a shouting match. Willy has extremely poor listening skills, which is an important part of communication. When Willy goes to speak with Howard about getting a job in New York, Willy would talk over Howard whenever he would say anything that Willy did not want to hear. Howard leaves Willy in the office alone to greet people outside. Willy then notices this himself saying, "Pull myself together! What the hell did I say to him? My God, I was yelling at him! How could I!† (Miller 1350; all page references are to the class text, The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, 5 th ed.). Willy however, is not the only member of the Loman family with problems communicating. Everyone in the family has a habit of interrupting one another, this is obvious when Biff and Linda are talking about Willy’s car accidents: à ¢â‚¬Å"Biff :! ( sharply but contained): What woman? (Linda simultaneously):†¦and this woman†¦Linda: What? Biff: Nothing. Go ahead. Linda: What did you say? Biff: Nothing. I just said what woman?† (Miller 1339). This is a normal conversation in the Loman household interrupting each other, not listening to each other, and lac... Free Essays on The Death Of A Salesman Free Essays on The Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller’s â€Å"Death of a Salesman† challenges the idea of the American Dream. Willy Loman represents a uniquely typical American figure as the traveling salesman, who realizes the disenchantment with the American Dream because it fails him and his sons. The death of this particular salesman raises the issues concerning the significance and value of the American dream of success. Miller portrays the Lomans as an average all American family. He does this with the setting of middle class suburbia as well as with the dialogue. The house is described as â€Å"small, fragile-seeming home† with the kitchen as the center of the household. It could be anyone’s home, in any neighborhood in America. Additionally, the dialogue of the play includes a lot of American slang: gee, Pop, babe, flunk and knock ‘em dead, and the dialect of â€Å"coulda†, â€Å"woulda†, and â€Å"gotta† are also typically American. This is very effective depicting the Lomans as an everyday American family. Willy and Linda Loman attempt to achieve their own version of the American Dream. Their lives are full of monthly payment to pay for possessions that symbolize achieving that dream, such as a car, (Studebaker), home and household appliances. These monthly payments become a source of heartache because of the struggle to pay for them, even though to them they have achieved success because they have them. They also believe they are an ideal American family. Their two sons are built like Adonises; are well liked and even idolized by their peers and seem destined for success. Willy’s typical American job, his â€Å"All American† sons and his commitment to achieve the American dream enhance Miller’s idea of the American ideal. For years Willy has believed that both he and his sons (particularly Biff), will one day be great successes. He thinks that natural charisma, good looks and confidence are the most important attributes ... Free Essays on The Death Of A Salesman The Dysfunctional Family In Arthur Miller’s drama, â€Å"Death of a Salesman† the protagonist is a sixty-year-old salesperson by the name of Willy Loman. Willy suffers from self-delusion and is obsessed with the desire to succeed. Willy’s actions strongly influence his family, which contributes to their self-delusions. Willy’s wife Linda is an enabler and is codependent upon him. Linda encourages and participates in Willy’s delusions. She is unselfish and her life revolves around Willy and their two boys Biff and Happy. The Lomans are definitely a dysfunctional family due to their lack of communication, respect, and morals. The basis for any healthy relationship is communication. Communication is something the Lomans do not practice often, and when they do, it usually ends in a shouting match. Willy has extremely poor listening skills, which is an important part of communication. When Willy goes to speak with Howard about getting a job in New York, Willy would talk over Howard whenever he would say anything that Willy did not want to hear. Howard leaves Willy in the office alone to greet people outside. Willy then notices this himself saying, "Pull myself together! What the hell did I say to him? My God, I was yelling at him! How could I!† (Miller 1350; all page references are to the class text, The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, 5 th ed.). Willy however, is not the only member of the Loman family with problems communicating. Everyone in the family has a habit of interrupting one another, this is obvious when Biff and Linda are talking about Willy’s car accidents: à ¢â‚¬Å"Biff :! ( sharply but contained): What woman? (Linda simultaneously):†¦and this woman†¦Linda: What? Biff: Nothing. Go ahead. Linda: What did you say? Biff: Nothing. I just said what woman?† (Miller 1339). This is a normal conversation in the Loman household interrupting each other, not listening to each other, and lac...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Free Essays on Case Analysis - A Tylenol Crisis

Introduction The following paper will discuss the effectiveness of the communication between Johnson and Johnson in regards to the Tylenol crisis and its intended publics. It will identify the publics involved while differentiated between internal and external. Further discussion of the impacts of the communication, how and if it could have been done more effectively will take place. Public relations tools and techniques, along with benefits and risks will be identified, and the paper will conclude by discussing, what could done differently, had this crisis occurred today. Effective Communication The Tylenol Murder case is a perfect example of an effective public relations campaign. These incidents occurred over a four year period of time within the same company. Bottles of Tylenol Extra Strength Capsules had been tampered with, and people had taking the medication for simple reasons, and died. The first thing that Johnson and Johnson did in the face of this crisis was to recall 93,000 bottles of the extra strength Tylenol capsules associated with the murders and then five days later when a copycat poisoning occurred Johnson and Johnson recalled all extra strength Tylenol bottles at a cost of more than 100 million dollars (Seitel, 2004, p 44). Johnson and Johnson as a company had done nothing wrong; however they began a campaign immediately that was two fold. The first as already stated was to recall all bottles of extra strength Tylenol capsules, which assisted in managing the crisis. Johnson and Johnson also encouraged consumer’s via media across the nation not to consume any Tylenol products, and not to resume use until the extent of the tampering could be determined. Then Johnson and Johnson offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules that had already been purchased for caplets (Kaplan, 2005, p 3 & 5). The second phase of the campaign was that Tylenol extra strength was reintroduced with a new triple seal tamper resista... Free Essays on Case Analysis - A Tylenol Crisis Free Essays on Case Analysis - A Tylenol Crisis Introduction The following paper will discuss the effectiveness of the communication between Johnson and Johnson in regards to the Tylenol crisis and its intended publics. It will identify the publics involved while differentiated between internal and external. Further discussion of the impacts of the communication, how and if it could have been done more effectively will take place. Public relations tools and techniques, along with benefits and risks will be identified, and the paper will conclude by discussing, what could done differently, had this crisis occurred today. Effective Communication The Tylenol Murder case is a perfect example of an effective public relations campaign. These incidents occurred over a four year period of time within the same company. Bottles of Tylenol Extra Strength Capsules had been tampered with, and people had taking the medication for simple reasons, and died. The first thing that Johnson and Johnson did in the face of this crisis was to recall 93,000 bottles of the extra strength Tylenol capsules associated with the murders and then five days later when a copycat poisoning occurred Johnson and Johnson recalled all extra strength Tylenol bottles at a cost of more than 100 million dollars (Seitel, 2004, p 44). Johnson and Johnson as a company had done nothing wrong; however they began a campaign immediately that was two fold. The first as already stated was to recall all bottles of extra strength Tylenol capsules, which assisted in managing the crisis. Johnson and Johnson also encouraged consumer’s via media across the nation not to consume any Tylenol products, and not to resume use until the extent of the tampering could be determined. Then Johnson and Johnson offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules that had already been purchased for caplets (Kaplan, 2005, p 3 & 5). The second phase of the campaign was that Tylenol extra strength was reintroduced with a new triple seal tamper resista...

Bullying Bullying and Facebook Pages Essay

Bullying Bullying and Facebook Pages Essay Bullying: Bullying and Facebook Pages Essay Bullying is a deliberate act to hurt someone physically, verbally or psychologically. Bullying is an issue of power. Bullying is when individuals or groups persistently over a period of time, behave in ways, which cause another person to feel hurt, physically or non-physically. Verbal bullying - such as name calling or put downs, Physical bullying - being punched Social bullying – playing nasty jokes Psychological bullying - you are given dirty looks Cyber bullying - Using technology (texting, calling, Facebook pages, chatrooms) Able to bully without the face-to-face confrontation Bullies can be anyone because they can hide behind technology becoming anonymous. This makes finding the bully very difficult. Cyber bullying is a major concern because technology is such a huge part of our lives. People find these things so serious the consequences can be as bad as suicide. What are some strategies to deal with: Bullying- Tell someone, walk away CONFLICT : Is Normal Occurs when people have opposing views on things and cannot appreciate the other person’s view. Can be resolved or made worse by how we handle ourselves during it. Often other people become involved in the conflict without needing to be. Cyber Bullying- block them, delete account, tell someone What are the effects of bullying on the victim and the bully? Bully- power, may feel guilty Victim- depression, feel alone What is bystander? Someone who witnesses the bullying but does not always report or tell anyone How does a bystander contribute to bullying? Sometimes when they don’t tell anyone of the bullying What can a bystander do to help reduce bullying? Tell someone and get help Participants Not treating people

Sunday, October 20, 2019

How to Pay for College Complete Guide

How to Pay for College Complete Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You did all the work of getting into your dream schools - researching the colleges, visiting campuses, getting great test scores, putting together a polished application - and still have to deal with one major obstacle: paying for college. Few students canpay for a full year at college without some assistance, but almost 2 million students graduate with a bachelor’s degree each year in the US - they must be paying for school somehow, right? Whether you’re a high school student or a current undergraduate, it’s never too early (or too late) to think about minimizing your college costs to make school more affordable. In this post, I’ll go through everything you need to know about how to pay for college. I’ll start off by talking about what college actually costs before moving into application strategies, figuring out how much money you need, how much aid you can get, and how much you should actually be paying. We'll cover all the major ways to pay for college that families usually use. At the end, I’ll offer some more creative options for closing the gap between your financial need and your actual cost. First, How Much Does College Cost? The first step in understanding how to pay for collegeis having a good understanding of what your expenses will be. For the 2014-2015 academic year, the average cost of tuition and fees for one year was: $31,231 at private colleges $9,139 for state residents at public colleges $22,958 for out-of-state residents at public colleges This is the cost that people typically consider when they think of college expenses. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to the picture than just tuition costs - there are also hidden or implicit expenses associated with spending a year at college. These other annual expenses include: Room and board - averages $,188 at private colleges, $8,804 at public colleges College textbooks - average cost is about $1,200 Travel costs - these will vary widely based on the student Lab fees and supplies - these will come to about $50 per class if they're not already rolled into fees Personal expenses - most students budget about $2,000/year to cover personal costs like toiletries and entertainment Lumping together all of these expenses (if you can estimate travel and personal expenses) will give you a school’s real sticker price - the Cost of Attendance. It’s pretty easy to get an estimate of a school’s CoA- just google â€Å"[school name] cost of attendance.† While it's important to know a school's CoA, perhaps a more important figure to know is your "net price" -it’s what you pay after all financial aid is taken into account. This is what you actually owe, out of pocket, for a year at school. Want to estimate your net price at a particular school? Just google â€Å"[school name] net price calculator† - many schools have tools that will give you an estimate of how much you’ll pay out of pocket. These calculators take financial need and sometimes merit-based factors into account. Minimizing Costs With Your College Applications Cutting costs can be as simple as applying to the right schools - make paying for college easier from the beginning. If you’re applying to collegeswith price in mind, your strategy should focus on lowest net price, not necessarily lowest sticker price. Apply broadly so that you can consider as many options as possible. You have nothing to lose by applying to a wide range of schools, aside from application fees. If these fees are an issue, ask your guidance counselor about fee waivers. Once you've been accepted to schools,you’ll receive official financial aid packages. You can then determine which packages you’re most comfortable with (I'll go through some example financial aid packages at the end of the post). Once you start looking over different financial aid offers, you might notice that not all types of aid are created equal. Just because a financial aid package will cover all your â€Å"unmet need† doesn’t mean that it will do so in a way that you’ll find helpful (for example, an aid offer might offer large high-interest loans). Look over each package carefully to determine how much money you’ll actually pay, both now and in the future. Example: Aschool that offers you 5k in grants and 40k in high-interest loans (45k total) will have you paying much more in the long run than a school that offers you 25k in grants, 10k in low-interest loans, and 5k in high-interest loans (40k total). In general,grants and scholarships tend to be better aid options than low-interest loans or federal work-study. High-interest loans are the least desirable forms of aid. You don't have to pay back grant or scholarship money, but you do have to pay back your school loans (and high-interest loans cost you more in the long run than low-interest ones). How Do You Figure Out How Much You Need to Pay for College? Now may be a good time to whip out your trusty TI-84. There are a few different steps to figuring out how much aid you’ll need in order to afford college: 1. How Much Will School Cost? Your total expenses will depend on where you decide to go to school, whether you're living in a dorm, and what sort of travel and personal expenses you'll need to account for. Use the info aboveand this guide to get a good estimate of what your sticker price will be. 2. What Can You Afford? Your family’s idea of what you can afford may differ from what schools and the Department of Education think you can afford. To address this discrepancy, I have two strategies to figuring out what your family can contribute to college costs: an "unofficial" (perhaps more realistic) one, and an official one. Theunofficialstrategy will tell you what your family can reasonably contribute, whereas the official strategy tells you what you may beexpected to contribute. The "Unofficial" Strategy Sit down with your parents/guardians and crunch some numbers. Schools often expect families to contribute at least 10% of annual income to college costs, even if schools themselves can’t offer enough aid to cover the difference. What would it mean for your family if they had to contribute 10% to your college expenses for four years? What if they were asked to contribute more than 10%? The "Official" Strategy Use the FAFSA4caster to estimate your federal aid eligibility. The tool will spit out a number called an EFC, or Expected Family Contribution - this is the figure that the FAFSA4caster has determined your family can afford to pay. The more accurate the info you enter into the FAFSA4caster, the more accurate your EFC will be. When you submit the real FAFSA, the federal government will use the application to determine aid eligibility. Many schools also use the FAFSA to award their own need-based aid. 3. What's the Difference Between What You Can Afford and What You Owe? The final step in determining how much aid you need is figuring out the difference between your CoA (cost of attendance) and the amount you can comfortably afford. The difference will be the amount that (ideally) you can get covered with financial aid, including grants, loans, and scholarships. Anything that remains â€Å"uncovered† is your responsibility to pay. For example, if a school’s CoA is 50k and you get 20k in grants and 20k in federal subsidized loans, 10k will be your responsibility. You can pay the amount that year, take out private loans or PLuS loans, or a combination thereof. How Much Financial Aid Can You Get? Let's figure out how much money you can get your hands on. Unfortunately, just because you have demonstrated financial need doesn’t mean you can get that need covered at any school you wish to go to. Most college students in the US get some help paying for college, but the amount of money you can get will depend on quite a few different factors. In this section, I'll talk about the main variables that affect how much aid you can get and the different ways to pay for college. Financial Need The greater your demonstrated financial need, the more aid you're likely to get. Students with exceptional financial need may beeligiblefor federal programs like the Pell Grant or Perkins loan. Need-based scholarships, like the Gates Millennium Scholarship program, are also viable funding options. Finally, schools that offer need-based aid will award more funds to students with greater need. Your Choice of School Put simply; top-rated schools tend to have more money, which means they can offer more generous financial aid packages. Some schools even claim to cover all unmet financial need. Whether you attend a public or private college will also affect your net costs. Private schools tend to cost more than public in terms of sticker price, but they tend to have better financial aid programs. Public schools are relatively inexpensive for state residents, but can be very pricey for out-of-state applicants. Merit The greater your strengths, the more opportunities you'll have for educational funding. Merit-based institutional aid is often offered in the form of sports scholarships or academic scholarships (for students with high grades or SAT/ACT scores). Not all schools offer merit-based aid, but some do in order to attract high-caliber applicants. Merit-based scholarships are also good funding options for ambitious students. Many private scholarships give out awards based on GPA, test scores, community service, and leadership experience. Being a high performer in any of these areas will help your college applications, but they’ll also help your scholarship applications. Initiative Ultimately, access to many of these financial opportunities comes down to initiative and personal organization. One of the most important ways initiative comes into play is when it comes to keeping track of (and meeting) deadlines - you won't be able to get any forms of financial aid if you don't have an organized timeline. To give you a bit of a head start, I've compiled important deadlines so that you can maximize your aid opportunities: Federal FAFSA deadline -For the 2015-2016 academic year, the federal FAFSA deadline is June 30, 2016. The earlier you apply, the better - you don't want funds for certain programs to run out. For the 2016-2017 academic year, the FAFSA will open January 1, 2016. State FAFSA deadline - These deadlines vary be state. If you're interested in qualifying for state funding (you should be interested), check the FAFSA deadline for your state. CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE deadline - The PROFILE is an aid applications that some schools use in lieu of (or in addition to) the FAFSA. Deadlines vary by school, so check with the colleges you're applying to if you know you'll have to submit a PROFILE. Check this list of participating schools and programs for more info. Scholarship deadlines -Deadlines for different scholarship programs vary widely. If you do plan on applying for scholarships, you may as well go all out and apply to as many as possible. Many scholarships ask for similar things from applicants: a personal statement, transcripts, ACT/SAT scores, letters of rec., etc. Check out our list of top scholarships to get an idea of typical scholarship deadlines. For more information on applying for financial aid, check out our step-by-step guide. How Much Should You Pay for College Out-of-Pocket? How much is too much to pay in cash and loans? So we've gone through strategies for minimizing costs, determining need, and calculating likely aid. What we haven't covered yet is perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself before committing to a particular school: how much should you pay, both in cash up front and in loans after graduation, for your education?If you have the opportunity to attend one of your target schools or even reach schools, but the financial aid package isn’t as great as you expected, what do you do? Is it worth it to pay more than you can afford to attend that college? I can't give you a clear answer to these questions,but I can give you some information that will help you figure them out for yourself: 1. Attending a Better School Leads to Better Networking and Career Opportunities More prestigious or better-ranked schools often have stronger alumni networks andrecruitingevents. A diploma from a better school is also a better "signal" to future employers or graduate schools. Ultimately, you may earnmore money in the long run if you attend a high-ranking college. There are a few caveats to keep in mind, however. First, you may not equate a higher salary with success, especially if you don't plan on pursuing a high-earning career. Second, a college degree on its own (regardless of where you go to school) is correlated with higher earnings. Finally, income is probably more strongly associated with your choice of career than it is with your choice of college. For example, students who graduate in math/science fields tend to earn more than other students. 2. Student Loan Debt Can Limit Your Future Choices Loans often have a grace period (a period of time after graduation where you don’t yet have to make payments), but after this grace period, looming student debt can limit your career options. Things like travel, unpaid internships, or volunteer work may be out of the question if you have to make hefty monthly loan payments. If you have severe financial problems later in life and declare bankruptcy (where all your debts are forgiven - you start with a clean slate, but your credit is destroyed), student loans are essentiallynon-dischargeable. Even if you face extreme financial hardships through no fault of your own, student debt is notoriously sticky, and usually, won’t be canceled by bankruptcy. In sum, student debt is a commitment. The more loans you take out, the more your debt will affect the rest of your life choices. 3. Student Loan Debt Can Be Flexible, and Even Forgivable There are different repayment plan options for recent grads who aren’t making much money, including income-based and graduated repayment plans. You pay more in the long run, but monthly payments are smaller when you’re younger and aren’t making as much money. This affords you a degree of flexibility. Additionally,you usually don’t have to make payments on your loans if you are in graduate school. Finally,some student loans can be forgiven or canceled if you work in certain public service careers. This means you can pursue a (relatively) low-paying career option without worrying about paying back student debt. How Do You Determine Your Willingness to Pay? The right amount to pay out-of-pocket for college will depend on what you’re ultimately comfortable with. Some questions to consider before deciding what you’re okay paying for school, both now (in cash) and in the future (with student loan payments) include: Will this school offer you unparalleled networking/professional opportunities, or can you get similar opportunities somewhere less expensive? Does this school offer an especially strong program in a field I want to pursue? How much do you (realistically) anticipate earning in the 5-10 years after you graduate? Based on your career path, what will you be able to afford in terms of monthly student loan payments? Are there ways to cut down personal costs/expenses to lower your cost of attendance? What sacrifices are you willing to make, and what sacrifices are out of the question? Can you get a student job to mitigate some of your costs? Would getting a student job negatively impact your studies? Last, but not least: how does this amount of debt or expense make you feel? If you anticipate burdened or overwhelmed to the extent that your quality of life is negatively affected, is the expense worth it? Only you know the answers to these questions. I encourage you to be thoughtful and honest with yourself - the costs and benefits of attending a particular school are long-lasting and far-reaching. Paying for college is an investment in yourself and in your future, but you want the investment to be premeditated and purposeful. If you’re dead-set on attending a particular school that’s a little pricier than you’d like, read on for tips on making college a bit more affordable. Creative Ways to Pay for School Let's get the creative juices flowing. There are other ways to get money for college besides federal and institutional financial aid. If you have a bit of time on your hands, these next options could help you make college more affordable. Scholarships You can start applying for scholarships any time - you don’t even have to be in high school! Many of the bigger scholarships, though, are targeted towards graduating high school seniors. Before you even apply to colleges, start checking out scholarship options, ideally sometime during your junior year. There are so many scholarship options out there - big and small - that could make a world of a difference. To start your scholarship search, check out our guides to the top awards for high school juniors and high school seniors. Student Jobs This won’t be right for everyone, but a student job can be a practical (and sometimes even fun) way to cover some of your expenses. Students with federal work study awards, in particular, will have plenty of on-campus job options. Ideally, you can get both professional career experience AND some extra cash. Paying for College: Reals Now that we've gone through everything you need to know about paying for college, from cost-minimization strategies to creative cost solutions, we can put everything together to see examples in action. I'll present two different examples to reflect two different, but realistic, situations. For each example, I'll walk through different payment options for each (hypothetical) student. Example 1 In this example, a high-achieving Arizona student from a relatively wealthy family has received a financial aid offer from Arizona State University. Remember when we went over factors that affect aid? We know that she's applied to an in-state public school, she's high-merit, and she has relatively low financial need. The first two factors will positively affect the amount of aid she receives, whereas the last factor will negatively impact her aid. Here's an idea of what her aid offer would look like: Her net price - what her family would have to pay out-of-pocket for all expenses - comes to $14,260 for the year. She's responsible for paying this entire amount if she wants to register for classes at ASU. She has a few options when it comes to tackling this expense: If her family can afford to do so, they could pay the entire $14,260 for the year. This would be less expensive than taking out loans in the long run because the student wouldn't be responsible for accruing interest charges. The student could take out the entire amount in loans. If she did this for all 4 years of college, her debt would come to about $60,000 - more than twice the average amount of US student debt. She may be able to take out some low-interest federal loans to mitigate these costs. The student's family could pay some amount in cash, and the student could take out the remaining balance in loans. The student could apply for merit-based scholarships, and get part or all of her net price covered. If a balance remains after winning scholarships, the student could pay with cash; she could take out loans, or she could cover the balance with some combination of cash and loans. The student could get a student job and pay down some of her net balance while she's in school. It would be very difficult, however, to earn almost 15k/year while shes's also a full-time student - 2-3k would be a reasonable goal. Keep in mind that if this student were not high-achieving, she likely wouldn't have earned the ASU scholarship. Her net price would have been $27,260 instead of $14,260 - her good grades and ACT/SAT scores saved her $13,000 in her first year of college. Example 2 In this example, a high-achieving California student from a relatively low-income family has received a financial aid offer from Stanford University. We know that he's applied to a top private school with a high sticker price but a generous financial aid program, he's high-merit, and he has high financial need. All three factors will positively impact the amount of aid he receives. Here's an idea of what his aid offer would look like: His net price comes to $5,000 a year, even though the total cost of attendance is a staggering $64,900. He has a few options when it comes to paying this annual expense: His family may pay part or all of his net cost. Given that he comes from a lower-income family, however, they may not be able to afford this. He could apply for need-based or merit-based scholarships. Even if he got several smaller scholarships, he could cover a significant part (or even all) of this annual cost. He could get a student job to cover these expenses. If he got paid work during the summer and the school year, it wouldn't be unmanageable to pay 5k per year. He could take out student loans to cover part or all of his expenses. Given that his family is low-income, he would likely qualify for low-interest federal loans. Even if he took out 5k loans for 4 years of college, his student debt at graduation would be lower than that of the average US graduate. What's Next? Excited to start budgeting for college? Of course, you're not - it's like the least fun part. Even though it's not exactly thrilling, it doesn't have to be painful. Your first stop should be our clear guide to what college actually costs. Your next stop should be prepping for financial aid applications. Read our guides to applying for financial aid and submitting a FAFSA. Ready for something a little more fun? Check out our guides to the top scholarship programs for high school juniors and seniors. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: