Deciding where to attend college is one of those big life decisions—kind of like buying your first car or choosing a place to live. It’s not just about the prestige or the campus vibes; it’s about finding a place where you can thrive academically and socially for the next few years. This decision becomes even more critical when you’re considering an objective such as pursuing a business degree online, where the fit with your lifestyle and career goals must be spot-on.
Knowing What You’re Getting Into
Think of choosing a college like planning a road trip. You wouldn’t just jump in the car and go without a map, right? Researching colleges is your way of mapping the journey ahead. It’s about more than just ensuring you have a place to study; it’s about making sure that place is one where you’ll be happy, productive, and successful.
Balanced College List: When you start your research, you’re aiming to create a balanced list of schools. This means having reach schools that might be a bit of a stretch, target schools that fit your qualifications well, and likely schools where you’re almost certain to get in. This strategy ensures you have options when decision letters start rolling in.
Dive Deeper Than the Brochure
Colleges are great at marketing themselves. Brochures show sunny campuses and happy students, but your job is to dig deeper. What’s the real story?
Academic Programs: If you’re aiming for a business degree, what kind of accreditation does the program have? What are the credentials of the faculty? And importantly, what do current and past students have to say?
Culture and Social Fit: Are there clubs and organizations that match your interests? What’s the campus culture like? If you’re considering an online program, what support systems are in place for online students?
The Online Education Angle
With the rise of online education, especially for degrees like business, understanding the nuances of an online program is crucial. This is where your research needs to zoom in on aspects unique to online learning.
Flexibility and Support: How flexible are the course schedules? What kind of technical support is available? This is vital for online students who may rely on robust tech support and flexible schedules to manage their studies alongside other responsibilities.
Networking Opportunities: One of the potential downsides of an online degree is the limited face-to-face interaction. Check how the school facilitates networking opportunities for online students. Are there virtual meetups, seminars, or perhaps even in-person events?
Utilize Every Resource
The internet is your research playground. Use every tool at your disposal to gather information about your potential schools.
Official Statistics: Start with the basics—graduation rates, employment outcomes post-graduation, and average class sizes. These can usually be found on the college’s official website or through educational statistics portals.
Unofficial Insights: Dive into student forums, social media groups, and review sites. Here, you can get the unofficial scoop on what it’s really like to attend the school or be part of an online program.
Why It All Matters
Doing thorough research before making your college choice can save you from the headache of transferring later or realizing too late that the school isn’t a good fit for your personal or professional goals. It’s about making an informed choice that aligns with your long-term objectives, ensuring you invest your time and money into a college experience that will serve you well beyond graduation.
Conclusion
The effort you put into researching colleges can dramatically shape your educational journey and influence your career trajectory, especially in fields like business where the market is competitive. Take the time to explore, question, and understand exactly where you want to spend the next crucial years of your academic and professional life. With the right research under your belt, you can confidently choose a college that not only meets your academic needs but also supports your career ambitions and personal growth.
The District has updated its health and safety protocols in response to the State mandate requiring in-school universal masking that will expire on March 7, 2022. These changes have been made in consultation with the Village of Ridgewood Health Department and the School Physician after careful review of the revised NJDOH guidance.
University of Chicago faculty tell Obama to move ‘socially regressive’ library
Letter from Faculty Concerning the Obama Center
We members of the University of Chicago faculty who sign this letter support the idea of establishing the Obama Center in our neighborhood, in the South Side. However, as details of the plans have become public we share concerns expressed by neighborhood groups throughout the South Side. The neighborhood groups are diverse. They include the Community Benefits Agreement Coalition whose active members include the Black Youth Project 100, the Bronzeville Regional Collective — which itself includes Blacks in Green — the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Southside Together Organizing for Power, UChicago for a CBA, the Westside Health Authority and Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights; and whose allied members include the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Women in Trades, Friends of the Park, Metropolitan Tenants Association, Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors, Chicago Jobs Council, Chicago Rehab Council, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and many others. Other groups opposed to the current plans include the Midway Plaisance Park Advisory Committee, Save the Midway, Jackson Park Watch, and South Shore Nature Sanctuary. The concerns of these groups are different. But taken together they form an intelligible whole.
First, there are concerns that the Obama Center as currently planned will not provide the promised development or economic benefits to the neighborhoods. Because the current plans place the Center next to the Museum of Science and Industry and across the street from the University of Chicago campus, there is no available adjacent land in which to start a new business, set up a new café or restaurant, bring another cultural center to the neighborhood. It looks to many neighbors that the only new jobs created will be as staff to the Obama Center, hence the widespread support for a Community Benefits Agreement.
Second, the current plan calls for taking a large section of an historic public park and giving it to a private entity for development. Jackson Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the most important urban parks in the nation. Construction of a permanent architectural monument violates Olmsted’s vision of a democratic urban park. On the current plans the intrusion into the park is huge: twenty-one acres, the size of two large city blocks. At a time of increasing complexity and pressure in urban life, Chicago should be dedicated to preserving our public parks as open areas for relaxation and play for all its citizens. We also note that the Obama Center has abandoned its original plans to be a Presidential Library. It will be a private entity with no official connection to the National Archives.
Third, because of the planned location of the Obama Center, the Obama Foundation plans to take over a section of another historic, public park — Midway Plaisance, also designed by Olmsted — and turn it into an above-ground parking garage. They have to date rejected many pleas of neighborhood groups to place the garage underground. The planners say they need the parking lot there so that visitors can walk directly across the street to the Obama Center, but that raises problems of its own. (1) The planners also intend to close Cornell Avenue to traffic, thus making Stony Island Avenue the only major north-south thoroughfare on the South Side, other than the Interstate Highway. So every visitor who comes by car or by Metra will have to cross the busiest street on the South Side. And those of our neighbors who depend on driving north or south for their livelihoods will inevitably be significantly held up. This is a traffic-jam in the making. (2) Those who can walk straight across the street to the Obama Center can also walk straight back to their cars and go home. Given the location, if they do any visiting at all it is overwhelmingly likely they will visit those areas that are already well developed, the Museum of Science and Industry and the University of Chicago campus. (3) A parking lot, of course, privileges cars and those who can afford them. Parking is expensive, and though public lands are being given away, all the profits from this parking lot will go to the Obama Foundation. None of the funds will go back to the City to improve train lines and public transportation infrastructure. Overall, this is a socially regressive plan (4) Again, this is a precious, historic urban park that ought to be preserved for future generations not given to a private entity for development into a parking lot.
Finally, it is the taxpayers of Chicago who are going to be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for this project, according to estimates by the Chicago Department of Transportation. The required widening of Lake Shore Drive alone is estimated to be over $100 million. Not only are public lands being given to a private entity but the public will pay to have Cornell Drive closed and Stony Island Avenue and Lake Shore Drive widened. We are concerned that these are not the best ways to use public funds to invest in the future of Chicago.
We University of Chicago faculty who sign this letter are ourselves a diverse group and different issues will matter more to some of us than to others. But we share with so many of our neighbors the belief that the current plans need significant revision. We are concerned that rather than becoming a bold vision for urban living in the future it will soon become an object-lesson in the mistakes of the past. We urge the Obama Foundation to explore alternative sites on the South Side that could be developed with more economic benefits, better public transportation, and less cost to taxpayers. We would be pleased to support the Obama Center if the plan genuinely promoted economic development in our neighborhoods and respected our precious public urban parks.
(Please sign below. The list of signatures will be updated each day.)
Jonathan Lear, Professor, Social Thought and Philosophy W. J. T. Mitchell, Professor, English, Art History, and Visual Arts Tara Zahra, Professor, History Richard Strier, Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, English Martha Feldman, Professor, Music and Romance Languages Mark Siegler, Professor, Medicine William Mazzarella, Professor, Anthropology Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Divinity School Michael Geyer, Samuel N. Harper Professor Emeritus, History Jessica Stockholder, Professor, Visual Arts Rosanna Warren, Professor, Social Thought Matthew Jesse Jackson, Associate Professor, Art History and Visual Arts Emilio Kourí, Professor, History Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Emeritus Frances Ferguson, Professor, English Linda Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Professor, Political Science Elizabeth Helsinger, John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, English Gabriel Lear, Professor, Philosophy and Social Thought Robert Pippin, Evelyn Steffanson Nef Distinguished Service Professor, Social Thought Susan Gal, Professor, Anthropology and Linguistics Susan Goldin-Meadow, Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor, Psychology Jonathan Levy, Professor, History Dipesh Chakrabarty, Professor, History Daniel Brudney, Professor, Philosophy Robert Richards, Morris Fishbein Distinguished Service Professor, History Catherine Sullivan, Associate Professor, Visual Arts David Wellbery, LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professor, Germanic Studies and Social Thought Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, Divinity School David Levin, Professor, Theater & Performance Studies and Germanic Studies Haun Saussy, University Professor, Comparative Literature Eric Santner, Philip and Ida Romberg Distinguished Service Professor, Germanic Studies Nathan Tarcov, Professor, Social Thought Elaine Hadley, Professor, English Annie Dorsen, Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice, Theater and Performing Studies John Muse, Assistant Professor, English and Theater & Performance Studies Steven Rings, Associate Professor, Music Heidi Coleman, Senior Lecturer, Theater and Performance Studies Thomas Pavel, Professor, Romance Languages Florian Klinger, Associate Professor, Germanic Studies Anne Robertson, Claire Dux Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Music; Dean, Division of the Humanities Françoise Meltzer, Professor, Comparative Literature (Chair) and Divinity School Philip Bohlman, Ludwig Rosenberger Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish History, Music Danielle Roper, Provost’s Career Enhancement Postdoctoral Scholar, Romance Languages Nicholas Rudall, Professor Emeritus, Classics Richard Neer, William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, Art History James Conant, Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities, Philosophy Catherine Baumann, Director, Chicago Language Center Margareta Christian, Assistant Professor, Germanic Studies Andrew Abbott, Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor, Sociology Kimberly Kenny, Senior Lecturer, Norwegian Studies Michael LaBarbera, Emeritus Professor, Organismal Biology & Anatomy Andrei Pop, Associate Professor, Social Thought Salikoko Mufwene, Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor, Linguistics Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Associate Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures, HLBS Ben Laurence, Lecturer, Philosophy David Finkelstein, Associate Professor, Philosophy Itamar Francez, Assistant Professor, Linguistics James Wilson, Assistant Professor, Political Science Daisy Delogu, Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Lauren Berlant, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor, English Patrick Jagoda, Associate Professor, English and Cinema & Media Studies Charles Lipson, Peter B. Ritzma Professor, Political Science Loren Kruger, Professor, English James Chandler, Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Professor, English Aaron Turkewitz, Professor, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology Mark Berger, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Humanities Adom Getachew, Assistant Professor, Political Science Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor, History Mario Santana, Associate Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Kristen Schilt, Associate Professor, Sociology Spencer Bloch, R.M. Hutchins D.S. Professor Emeritus, Mathematics Adrian Johns, Maclear Professor, History Bozena Shallcross, Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures Francois Richard, Associate Professor, Anthropology Petra Goedegebuure, Associate Professor, Oriental Institute Norma Field, Robert Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, East Asian Languages and Civilizations Elena Bashir, Senior Lecturer, South Asian Languages & Civilizations Veronica Vegna, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Romance Languages and Literatures Lucia B. Rothman-Denes, A. J. Carlson Professor, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology Choudhri Naim, Professor Emeritus, South Asian Languages & Civilizations Christopher Skelly, Associate Professor, Surgery William Sites, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration Joel Isaac, Associate Professor, Social Thought Na’ama Rokem, Associate Professor, Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Howard Stein, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy Daniel Yohanna, Associate Professor and Interim Chair, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience William Sewell, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Political Science and History Laura Letinsky, Professor, Visual Arts Leora Auslander, Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor of Western Civilization, History Paola Iovene, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations David Orlinsky, Professor Emeritus, Comparative Human Development Moishe Postone, Professor, History Michael Bourdaghs, Robert S. Ingersoll Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations William Tait, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy Anna Mueller, Assistant Professor, Comparative Human Development Hans Schreiber, Professor, Pathology Michael Silverstein, C. F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, Linguistics, and Psychology Fred Donner, Peter B. Ritzma Professor, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and Oriental Institute Matthew Boyle, Professor, Philosophy James Hopson, Emeritus Professor, Organismal Biology & Anatomy Allan Rechtschaffen, Professor Emeritus, Psychiatry and Psychology Jim Lastra, Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies Joshua Scodel, Helen A. Regenstein Professor, English Janet Johnson, Hull Professor of Egyptology, Oriental Institute and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Jennifer Cole, Professor, Comparative Human Development Godfrey Getz, Emeritus Professor, Pathology Seth Brodsky, Associate Professor, Music Elizabeth Asmis, Professor, Classics Nicole Marwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, Assistant Professor, Cinema and Media Studies Daniel Morgan, Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies Robert L. Kendrick, Professor, Music Jason Grunebaum, Senior Lecturer, South Asian Languages and Civilizations Janel Mueller, Dean of Humanities Emerita, William Rainey Harper Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, College Daniel Johnson, Professor, Pediatics John Woods, Professor, History Rachel DeWoskin, Lecturer, Creative Writing George S. Tolley, Professor Emeritus, Economics, and former Director of the Center for Urban Studies Anna Di Rienzo, Professor, Human Genetics Michael I. Allen, Associate Professor, Classics John McCormick, Professor, Political Science Ralph Austen, Emeritus Professor, History Neil Harris, Preston and Sterling Morton Professor Emeritus, History Joel Snyder, Professor, Art History Kenneth Warren, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor, English Eve Ewing, Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholar & Assistant Professor, School of Social Service Administration Catherine Kearns, Assistant Professor, Classics James Shapiro, Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Travis A. Jackson, Associate Professor, Music Mark Bradley, Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor, History Douglas Bishop, Professor, Radiation and Cellular Oncology Jessica Baker, Assistant Professor, Music Christian Wedemeyer, Associate Professor, Divinity School Patchen Markell, Associate Professor, Political Science Hussein Ali Agrama, Associate Professor, Anthropology Andreas Glaeser, Professor, Sociology Alida Bouris, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration Joseph Masco, Professor, Anthropology Wadad Kadi, The Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Miguel Martinez, Assistant Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Julie Orlemanski, Assistant Professor, English Darryl Li, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Cornell Fleischer, Kanuni Süleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies, History and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Yali Amit, Professor, Statistics Maria Anna Mariani, Assistant Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Jennifer Scappettone, Associate Professor, English, Creative Writing, Romance Languages and Literatures Elissa Weaver, Professor Emerita, Romance Languages & Literatures Gary Herrigel, Paul Klapper Professor, Political Science Larissa Brewer-García, Assistant Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Colm O’Muircheartaigh, Professor, Harris School of Public Policy Jenny Trinitapoli, Associate Professor, Sociology Chad Broughton, Senior Lecturer, College George Tolley, Emeritus Professor, Economics, and Former Director, Center for Urban Studies Ross Stolzenberg, Professor, Sociology Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Professor, Anthropology
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