David Cohen

Here’s the list of five top paying degrees you can earn for under $25,000.

And you can earn one of these top paying degrees in 2-3 years with zero student loan debt.

Computer Science Starting Median Pay: $57K Mid-Career Median Pay: $98K

The best piece of advice I can offer you: get the academic validation from a Computer Science degree and learn an in-demand programming language like Java, Ruby or Python. This will essentially make you unemployment-proof.

In the CollegePlus! IT department we have 10 apprentices learning programming by day and earning their degree by night. Is it rigorous? Yes. Will they have any trouble landing a well-paying job? No.

Choose a college option that gives you the freedom and flexibility to gain marketable skills and the academic validation, like the students in our IT department, and you’re golden.

Economics Starting Median Pay: $47K Mid-Career Median Pay: $95K

Europe is crashing. China’s engineering an economic soft-landing. Wall St. is bi-polar. Banks are scrambling for liquidity. Yes, it’s still a mess in the global financial markets, but this creates tremendous opportunity in the public and private sector for college grads with an Economics degree.

And if law school is your next destination, getting an Economics degree is a smart move because Economics majors typically score in the top 3% on the LSAT.

So, with an Economics degree you could do something like CollegePlus! grad John Shea – he earned his undergrad in about two years through CollegePlus!, jumped into law school, and now he’s a practicing attorney. You can watch a video of his story here.

International Business Starting Median Pay: $42K Mid-Career Median Pay: $84K

Approximately 13% of the country of Tuvulu’s GDP comes from selling .tv domains. What’s the point? The point is that business is done on a global scale. And because the marketplace is becoming more globally-connected, there’s a growing demand for college grads that possess an International Business degree.

You can go here to learn more about earning a fully accredited International Business degree in less than three years for about $18K.

Natural Science/Mathematics Starting Median Pay: $47K Mid-Career Median Pay: $90K

I admit it, I have math envy toward all of you math geeks out there. And if you have a love and passion for ‘maths’, as they say in the UK, you can turn this into a lucrative career with a Math degree.

Startups and Fortune 100 companies alike are dropping serious cash on knowing their numbers and understanding market trends and patterns through statistical analysis, and many of these companies want people with a degree in Mathematics.

Instead of sitting in a classroom for five years, taking classes that have zero correlation with your Mathematics degree and what you want to do with it, you can fast-track your way to a degree and into a fulfilling job.

Political Science Starting Median Pay: $40K Mid-Career Median Pay: $80K

Despite what politicians say, the US government won’t shrink. Our economy relies on a big government to keep chugging. But I do believe there are legit opportunities for people to make a difference in government, and a Political Science degree gives college grads opportunities at all levels of government.

A Political Science degree is very flexible, so it can open job opportunities with think tanks, lobby groups, political campaigns, public policy and various legal sectors.

And by all means, get real experience in the political arena while you’re earning your degree. CollegePlus! student John David Bruegel is 20, he’s one of the youngest political campaign managers in America, and he’s earning his degree while getting real life experience in politics.

So, the key here is not just getting a degree, it’s getting a degree and bringing relevant experience to the table. And a future-focused college option like CollegePlus! gives you the flexibility to do just that.

Share this on Facebook to help others learn about these non-traditional college options.

Tags: Earn, Top Paying

Read the Times Picayune story here, via GothamSchools.

Three thoughts:

1. Great work by all the teachers and staff and kiddos who achieved this.

2. Some wonkish choice plumbing stuff ahead:

The district is hoping to reconcile contradictory inclinations toward choice on the one hand and neighborhood schools on the other. Half the seats at each elementary school will be set aside for students living in the area, although attendance zones will be much bigger than they were pre-Katrina.

Cowen researchers pointed out two particular survey findings that might give district officials pause about how the system is implemented: 68 percent of parents in the poll applied to only one school for their child the district is now asking parents to rank eight and 95 percent said they nabbed a spot at their first or second choice. So there may be more room to go wrong than improve things.

3. From our teacher coaching work in New Orleans, one thing is clear on average, the schools and the students have a long way to go to meet any type of reasonable threshold as being good.

The acknowledgement by voters of improvement New Schools For New Orleans likes to say schools have gone from F in the pre-Katrina days to C sets the table for an equally tough slog to good and even great. We hope to be a small part of that story.

  1. In the opening part, persuasive essays on school usually enlarge on the overall impression on school events. Start with exploring the importance of study for your future career and profession. There should be a thesis statement at the end of persuasive essays on school defining the main benefits and difficulties of studying at school.
  2. In the body of persuasive essays on school, it is necessary to elaborate on the points stated in a thesis. Each issue should be supported either by your experience or by other reliable sources of information.
  3. The concluding part of persuasive essays on school should restate the issues mentioned in a thesis and summarize the points stated in a paper body.

Phrases inspiring you to write persuasive essays on school:

  • As Tom Bodett states, “In school, you are taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you are given a test that teaches you a lesson”. Based on the above statement, you can elaborate on the role of school in your future life.
  • According to a German proverb, “Those who get lost on the way to school will never find their way through life”. Explain this phrase and support it in your persuasive essays on school.

Tags: Persuasive Essays, School

Motion tracking and color keying are two essential visual-effects tasks you need to learn if you want to take your After Effects skills to the next level.

In After Effects Apprentice 12: Tracking and Keying, Chris Meyer covers tracking and keying basic and essential skills including a quick tour of mocha, the third-party tracking software that is bundled with After Effects, and an introduction to The Foundrys KEYLIGHT, an Academy Award-winning keying effect that is also built into After Effects.

Throughout the course, Chris shows you how to use the motion tracker and stabilizer built into After Effects, and offers advice on how to handle a variety of shot scenarios. He also discusses how to use tracking and keying to track a greenscreen shot with a handheld camera and replace its background.

While practice is the secret to mastering your tracking and keying skills, getting to look over someone elses shoulder as they perform these tasks is a great way to jump-start your learning curve.

Interested in more?
• The full After Effects Apprentice 12: Tracking and Keying series on lynda.com
• All 3D + animation courses on lynda.com
• All 56 lynda.com courses on After Effects
• Courses by Chris Meyer on lynda.com

Suggested courses to watch next:
After Effects CS5.5 New Features
• After Effects Apprentice 04: Layer Control
• After Effects CS5 Essential Training
• CINEMA 4D: Rendering Motion Graphics for After Effects

Tags: Color Keying, Effects, Motion Tracking