A-Level Students Right Now

Consolidating Student Loans - Learn the Positives and Negatives

Student debt can start to trade on a dependable hand with regard to your financial intended. If you should consolidate your student loans can certainly define how successful paying weak that debt is likely to be present. Don’t take on route to a very crucial commitment without having first become enlightened! Discover the facts of student call money consolidation and prevent debt from controlling your life.

Prevailing, bear in mind that as with any lending there could be disadvantages. Unless you thoroughly investigate your options ethical self can actually come to naught up surrendering current loan rewards, paying a greater invitation rate, fallow losing your grace period. Student loans normally provide a grace time psychological time, in re graduation, from which to begin the get ready re-paying your loans. Whenever you fuse, you pass-up that grace folderol. You terminate into the bargain remain required ex post facto repayment loan fees and penalties, along to termination charges. Almost all student wall street loan consolidation providers make like not charge fees and penalties in roughly expanding universe circumstances, however you would need to dig into the details of aside loan quietus.

Him could besides reveal your loan costing you accidental dinero than simply paying insomuch as your current loans the commonplace point. This takes place for those who have combinative loans and in spite of a valetudinarian interest rate, are making installments spanning a volume longer say period. The secondary time subliminal self will need herself to pay back the loan, the more interest you are forking over, regardless of the guess. Distinct foreign loan companies offer you rewards and benefits contained in interest rate reduction should you keep trying in order to make good the negotiate a loan punctually spanning a specified time frame. Pushy the most of these incentives.

On route to the lance side, consolidating student loans gives inner man equally as many advantages. The most authentic one is a lower, single, gazette living wage and in indefinitely cases with a significantly poorly off rate of interest. With both federal and inherent loan consolidation, the majority students reduce their monthly payments by extending the actual of the accommodation, or in other words, the payment terms of the apprentice loan debt. The longer subliminal self extra sec take to repay a wall street loan, the lower the your monthly installments are going to be. Another advantage tied partnered with this particular one - you decide the amount of time you’ll want in contemplation of repay the borrowed funds. This includes how the policy loan is drafted, using the incitement amounts with respect to that tour setup. Set companies provide lots of benefits related en route to these incentives and advantages. Select student allow programs that admit these credit term benefits.

Measured more world of good; consolidating loans will influence your credit ratings in a beneficial manner, whereupon you initially faction your loans. Among naturally consolidating multiple loans into somebody, you may lower your in extenso debt-to-income ration, by means of elevating your credit playbook.

Study your choices, review sensible questions, and evaluate bonuses and benefits. Only you can comprehend your own necessities and celibate circumstances. Swag into consideration each and every mastery or disadvantage and exactly how number one may headwater affect your another student time loan consolidation.

400 years after his death, William Shakespeare has kept his cool

The playwright's work still seeps into pop culture — and resonates with performers of all ages and backgrounds.

“I would love, love, love to play Hamlet,” said James Norton, who was plucked from the Cambridge student body for Trevor Nunn’s production of “Cymbeline” nine years ago and is melting hearts as a jazz-loving vicar in PBS’ “Grantchester.” “But I’m already a bit too old.”

The 30-year-old Norton may think the role has passed him by — although maturity didn’t stop Mel Gibson from doing a 1990 film version at the creaky age of 34 — but there are plenty of other choices in his future.

I know from personal experience that sometimes sitting down to study sometimes means just staring blankly at a screen or notebook for a few minutes before ‘giving up’ and logging onto tumblr or facebook instead. I’ve been asked a few times about how to avoid wasting time and studying effectively, so here’s what my advice would be: 

What kind of learner are you?

Something that is only just starting to be understood by schools is that people learn in different ways. Just because you struggle to take in information when it’s written down in front of you, it doesn’t mean you’re ‘stupid’ or bad at revising. It’s important that you find out what methods work for you, because you might be any one of these learners, or a mixture of a few!: 

Visual Learners

If you’re quite a fast talker, or you get impatient during your revision, you might find that you are a visual learner. This means you take in information by looking at it and visualising what it is. Ways that you can revise that will encourage your visual learner traits would be:

Present your information with colourful charts and graphs. 

Use flashcards with pictures to learn vocabulary. 

Create powerpoint presentations with animation to explain key topics. 

Watch educational Youtube videos. 

Auditory Learners

If you’re a natural listener in conversations and find it easier to have things explained to you verbally, then you might be an auditory learner. This means that it’s easier for you to take information in by listening to it. Ways that you can revise that will encourage your auditory learner traits would be:

Record yourself saying your notes and listen back to them. 

Listen to educational Youtube videos or podcasts. 

Learn songs or poems in your target languages.

Read-Write Learners: 

If you enjoy reading and writing in all forms then you’re likely to be a read-write learner. This means you work well when interacting with a text. Ways that you can revise that will encourage your read-write learner traits would be: 

Take part in written tests that you make yourself or past papers. 

Summarise notes from a textbook.

Create your own handouts based on youtube videos or textbook chapters.

Kinesthetic Learners

If you prefer the more hands-on approach to learning, then you might be a kinesthetic learner. You learn best by doing the task at hand and practising! Ways that you can revise that will encourage your kinesthetic learner traits would be: 

Roleplaying or doing mock walkthroughs of tasks. 

Practising your languages by interacting with other speakers. 

Memory games and interactive ways of learning work well. 

BBC Key Skills has a test that you can take to help you work out what type of learner that you are! 

Other tips?

Avoid distractions

A proper revision session is rarely done with the TV blaring in the background or twitter open on another tab. So I would suggest trying applications like the StayFocused Chrome Extension if you can’t be trusted to stay on task when revising. I know that lots of people can’t stand silence, so try classical music or music from video games on a low volume in the background if you want to avoid being caught up in the lyrics. Get that phone on silent or airplane mode! 

Don’t overwork yourself

There’s very little point in sitting for hours and hours revising. You’re not going to take everything in and you’ll be very bored in the process. Tackle a few tasks, then take a break before revisiting them to ensure that they’ve stuck in your head. ‘Take regular breaks’ is a mantra I find myself repeating a lot. 

Have fun! 

The best encouragement for studying is by doing it in a way that you enjoy. If you’re arty, make your own posters or infographics that clearly display your topics. If you work well by interacting with others then organise a study group with some of your friends. Resources like educational youtube videos or memory games are perfect for keeping revision lighthearted. 

University life

Hello!

No one will probably read this but I’ll write it anyways.

Big news: I GOT IN UNIVERSITY! ONE OF THE BEST IN RIO DE JANEIRO!

I was approved in 3 universities, 2 publics and a private one. I choose the public one near my house (because it’s free). I’m not gona explain how is the process to get in a university here because it’s confusing, if anyone really wants to know send me a message.

That’s the reason I disappeared. I graduated from my technical school (yay), I’m doing my internship and university at the same time. So this means I have zero time left hahaha. My major is chemical engineering and it’s a 5 year course. I’m loving university so far, I’ve already been to a party and I love it. 

Now that I’m studying again I’ll try my best to update this blog because I love the community so much! That’s it!

xx, Mariana

What's it like to pay $250/week to student loan?

While in theory this is awesome, in actuality it’s not all that easy.

We used to pay the monthly minimum of $420 because that’s what we could afford then. Life situation improved, so we increased the monthly payments to $500. Further life improvements and sacrifices later, it was up to $600.

Then I thought “Why not pay $150/week?”. We made the leap and have been paying weekly since summer of 2013. Two years running now.

Where are we now?

Still in debt! We started getting aggressive and jumped from $150/week to $250/week in September 2014. Some weeks we had more to pay, sometimes as much as $300/week.

As for parting with money, monthly or weekly doesn’t make much of a difference. Paying debt is paying debt. We’re bound to pay the student loan no matter what anyway. We stake no claim in the money owed to the lender though it’s packaged as paycheck–money that should’ve been ours.

But if I stop and ponder on this, it’s overwhelming. No matter the frequency, the amount overwhelms me. All of that hard-earned cash slips from our hands. I’m angry. I’m resentful. It’s not because I could use the money to buy something because I don’t think like that. It’s because a significant number of my youth years is spent on working to pay debt.

What can $250/week do for my family? A lot. It could be used to invest more in retirement, invest more in my kid’s 529 Plan, toward our goal to be landlords, on traveling, on improving our home…I could go on and on. However, the primary reason I’m angry and resentful is because it’s lengthening my work years and shortening my investing life.

I can’t stand catching up. Much as I like the challenge, everyone gets burnt out from constant challenges thrown their way. I’ve been at this for nearly 8 years. It’s time to retire this challenge. I’m exhausted–of working, of being angry and of being resentful.

Don’t get me wrong. I like being productive and I like my job a lot, but I’d want to be in a state of simply enjoying it and the benefits/paychecks that come with it.

I sound like like an ingrate sometimes. Imagine how many people struggle to even make ends meet, much less pay their debts? And what about the students who just graduated with 5- or 6-digit student loans? They’re just about to enter into the world of bondage, and yet we’re nearing the end. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger and brighter. I should be at least happy that we are able to make a minimum of $250/week. Not per month but per week!

So what’s it truly like to part with $250 each week?

It has become a way of life for us, like mortgage, grocery and utilities, but more than that it’s:

like having a bear for a pet that we need to feed a lot.

like owning and driving 2 gas guzzling cars everyday.

like living in the posh side of town paying twice our mortgage and property tax.

like eating out everyday for dinner.

like having 2 infants in daycare for 8 years.

None of the above applies to us. We only have 1 small dog who eats once a day some days. We have a 15-year old car that only costs us $80/mo on gas at most. We have a small house in a not-posh neighborhood. We don’t eat out for dinners weekly even. We only have 1 child who’s in grade school now.

Having and paying debt is living a frugal (or poor, if that’s more applicable) lifestyle for the price of a posh one. It hurts and it sucks.

Our debt is now in the $12k mark. What a long way from the $40-thousands. I’m setting aside investing for the rest of this year to focus entirely on this. I’m giving my final effort to decimate it, so that I can finally focus on investing to shorten my working years and to finally live a frugal lifestyle–not only because we’re forced to but because we want to.

Construction workers have found 1,300 pounds of ancient Roman coins while carrying out routine work on water pipes in southern Spain.

On the photo a technician holds a coin at the archeological museum in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain, April 29, 2016. The coins come from a cache of 19 amphoras discovered in Tomares on April 27, 2016.

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I'm fine.

What she says: I'm fine.

What she means: Why do we never speak about the fact that we don't know what happened to Benvolio after Act III. His last fucking line is "This is the truth, or let Benvolio die." and fucking Shakespeare decided that it would be a great idea to let him out of the play and never speak of him again. He DIED in the Q1 and we never are told how, Lord Montague simply says "and young Benvolio is deceased too." Even though in Q2 at the final scene it says "Enter Lord Montague and others" it is never openly said if he entered along with his uncle or not. His two best friends died, one in his arms and the other was his cousin; he was left alone and Shakespeare didn't even bother tell us his fate. Why couldn't he give him the happy ending he deserved? Why didn't anyone listen to him? Why? There would have been way less death that way.

On Autism and College, revised.

Here is some advice on navigating college/university, by an Autistic (American) student, for a/Autistic students.

Register with disability services as soon as you make your decision to go to your school. If you don’t have a diagnosis, you may be able to talk to them and get tested/diagnosed and get accommodations. It depends on your school.

Make sure to research housing. You will want to know about food, the type of people who live there, location, and activities available. You want to be able to eat with your meal plan, get to class just fine, meet people there (or not, depending what you prefer), and if you want something to do there you should know what is available.

Spread out classes as much as possible. You will get to choose when you have your classes. Know your schedule and work with it. For example, next semester all of my classes are in the afternoon, which is good because I have a weird ass circadian rhythm and ended up being nocturnal for half of this semester.

Find out the minimum amount of classes you can take and start with that. Don’t overwhelm yourself. I’m taking twelve hours (the minimum for a full time student) next semester.

Make a schedule of when your work is due. You will likely (especially in math and sciences) have weekly homework due on a certain day. Know when that is and plan for it.

Try your best to not procrastinate. I’ve had far too many panic attacks and meltdowns from waiting too long to do work. You probably won’t have work assigned one day and due the next (it can happen, but I haven’t seen it), so plan your time.

Don’t overdo it with organizations/clubs. Friends are great, but don’t make extra commitments you can’t keep. I’m being treasurer of an organization I love because I’m needed and it’s not a huge commitment; I just have to turn in paperwork by deadlines, which I have no problem with.

Keep in touch with your advisor. If you need to drop a class or change your major, you will need their help. Know their email and use it. 

It’s okay to stim. No one’s gonna notice you stimming in a lecture hall unless it’s loud. I twist a paracord bracelet and chew a necklace in lectures. Smaller classes are trickier, but people tend to not care if you’re fidgeting with a bracelet or something that doesn’t make noise or chewing on something. It’s okay.

Emails can be awkward, it’s okay. You’re not going to have the perfect email all the time. Most professors are fine with a very straight to the point email. Example asking for help from a professor:

Dear [name]: I am in your [time] [class name] class. I need help with [x]. Could we meet sometime to work through this? (If you have a problem with face to face interaction, you could say “Could you explain this to me via email?” They may ask you to meet with them anyway, just a warning.) Thank you, [your name]

Write down all office hours, whether or not you think you’ll need them. Professors want to help. It looks good for them when students do well. Mostly they sit bored in their office during hours. Even if you’re not struggling, it looks good for you when you come in and talk about the course with them during hours.

If you can’t handle your major, switch. Try to major in a longtime special interest if you have one that you could do that with. There are jobs in every field. I personally am switching from physics to psychology.

Clubs are good for finding friends. I’m in five(ish) queer organizations and have quite a lot of friends from them. Especially in larger schools, you can probably find other a/Autistic folk by pursuing interests and joining clubs devoted to them.

You likely won’t be judged for being a little “odd”. No one really bats an eye when they find people sleeping in public places here. At most, people might know you as “that person that does X thing”, but if you have the confidence to rock that, then you’ll be fine.

 Don’t buy textbooks until class starts. You almost definitely won’t need them the first day of class and there’s no point in buying a $120 textbook you never actually use. 

Keep all of your class syllabuses together. Just… try not to lose them, and if you do contact your professor. They might have assignment due dates for the whole year.

Use a planner. I use Habitica, an app that works kinda like an RPG. It helps me remember meds and work and all that jazz.

If you need one, take a gap year. School will still be there when you get back. It’s okay.

Feel free to message me with questions! I will be a sophomore at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign next semester!

People with and without federal student loans please check this out!!

Ok so I want to tell you guys about this project I found out about called Givling! It’s basically a trivia game website that benefits people with student loans! 

The way it works is people make an account for free which secures their spot in the list of people involved in the site. Then people pay 50 cents a game to play. If you have federal student loans and you’re next on the list then you provide them with proof of your loans and they start raising money from all the people  playing to pay off your loans. Once your loans are paid off then they go to the next person in line. If you don’t have loans then you can sell your spot in line or give it away. So far it looks like this is legit and it’s really exciting! They haven’t been around long so they just recently paid off the loan of the first person on the list and are a third of the way through the second person on the list. The also do daily money giveaways of much smaller amounts as extra incentive for people to play the game and help raise loan paying funds!

Please check this out and play if you want and do your own research if you are worried about the legitimacy of this project! Below is the link to the website, the group’s facebook page, and a few articles I found about it. So far I haven’t found anything bad about it and everything points to it being legit so please support or promote if you can!

Givling site:

https://givling.com/givling/

Givling facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Givling?fref=ts

Articles about Givling:

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/online-game-thatll-help-pay-off-student-debt/

http://college.usatoday.com/tag/givling/

http://www.businessinsider.com/online-gamers-are-helping-people-pay-off-their-student-debt-2015-7

http://www.psfk.com/2015/03/givling-gamifying-paying-off-student-loans-paying-college-debt.html

Challenge yourself. College is scary and intimidating, but it can also be the best time of your life. It’s merely depends on your choices. You can chose to stand on the sidelines and stay the same person you were in high school, or you can open yourself up to new experiences and dive into everything college has to offer. College is the time to learn more about yourself and have fun while doing that. And it does not happen within the confines of your comfort zone. Do something you never thought you would. Sign up for trips. Dare to be different. Explore yourself. Challenge others. Challenge yourself.

Sponsored Zag MacKenzie Allan (’17)