Careers: Energy Storage Technician

As community colleges struggle with over-crowding and a lack of funding, for-profit colleges are offering to help, giving community college students the opportunity to earn transferable credits at low tuition rates.

Kaplan’s Online Courses Can Count Towards Community College Degrees

The Wall Street Journal reports that Kaplan University, a for-profit college owned by the Washington Post Co., is offering California community college students the option of taking courses at its online schools. These credits can be applied towards a degree at their home campuses.

In addition, the newly created Community College Connections program will allow students to take Kaplan’s online courses at a 42% discount, which will make the cost of courses similar to that of a community college course.

Kaplan will also allow graduates of California’s community colleges to transfer to one of its degree programs and complete their bachelor’s degrees at a 10% discount, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This video gives an overview of Kaplan education.

Community College Credits Count Towards B.A. Degrees at Bridgepoint

Meanwhile, Ashford University, which is operated by Bridgepoint Education Inc., is signing articulation agreements with a number of community colleges and public universities and colleges. The articulation agreements usually outline that students transferring from the community college or public university may transfer up to 90 credits towards earning their degrees from Ashford University.

A press release issued by Bridgepoint indicates

Many Americans are searching for a new career in today’s shifting job market. One option worth considering may be working in polysomnography technology.

What is Polysomnography Technology?

Polysomnography technology is a branch of healthcare devoted to studying sleep disorders. Sleep technologists monitor individuals while they sleep, recording their brain activity, muscle and eye movements, respiration, and blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. These measurements are used to help diagnose sleep disorders such as:

• Narcolepsy
• Insomnia
• Sleep apnea
• Restless leg syndrome

What Can a Polysomnography Technologist Expect to Earn?

Starting salaries vary by region, but are generally quite impressive. The website for the Moraine Valley Community College Polysomnography Certificate program indicates that a typical sleep technologist in the Chicago area earns $51, 773.

The Shift Work Disorder News indicates that those who have completed sleep technologist training programs can earn “$42,509 to $80,300 annually, depending on the certification level and the years of experience.”

Texas’s Alvin Community College, which offers certificate and associate’s degree programs in polysomnography technology, indicates that “starting salaries are typically $20 to $25 per hour.”

What Jobs Does a Polysomnography Technologist Perform?

A sleep technologist may perform many duties. According to the website for the American Association of Sleep Technologists (AAST), a sleep technologist’s jobs may include:

• Ensuring that equipment is functioning properly
• Monitoring and analyzing polysomnograms (sleep tests that measure air flow, eye movements, oxygen, and other variables)
• Recognizing

After serving time for their crimes, sex offenders must register their residence, but should more steps be taken to protect society from them? According to a Michigan community college, the answer is a resounding yes.

Lake Michigan College, a community college in Benton Harbor, Michigan, made news recently when it announced that it is banning anyone who is registered as a sex offender of children from enrolling in courses.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the college decided to make the new rule after a student who is a registered child sex offender identified himself as such during course registration in October. The college decided not to let the student register and to suspend other students who are registered sex offenders of children. The college identified three currently enrolled students who are also registered child sex offenders by using a public sex-offender registry, and it suspended these three students in February.

Registered Offenders Cannot Attend On-campus Classes

The college has declared that students who are convicted of sex crimes against children are “suspended” from being on the college campuses until they are no longer required to register as child sex offenders and are no longer on probation or parole. Michigan’s Herald Palladium notes that under Michigan law, those who commit sex crimes against children are required to register themselves as such for either 25 years or life. Thus, these “suspensions” are more like expulsions. Registered child sex offenders will still be allowed

Many teenagers look forward to finishing high school and beginning college as the time when they can finally escape their parents. But for an increasing number of American families, the start of a teenager’s college career is coinciding with a parent’s return to the classroom. For these families, attending college becomes a multi-generational affair.

While some teenagers might cringe at the idea of being in a class alongside a parent, others are finding that sharing the experience of community college with Mom or Dad provides unexpected benefits alongside its inevitable challenges.

Why Parents and Children are Increasingly Attending Community College Together

A recent Chicago Tribune article notes that the increase in parents and students who are sharing the same community college campus is a result of two social forces:

1. The recession is driving many working adults to return to school to pursue a new degree. According to the Tribune, Illinois’s Harper Community College has seen the population of adult students jump by 17.5 percent this semester from spring 2009.
2. Tighter family budgets are causing more high school graduates to start taking courses at more affordable community colleges rather than going immediately to a more expensive four-year college or university.

This video offers tips for parents going back to college.

The Benefits of Parents Becoming Students Themselves

Parents who attend community college along with their adolescent children often find unexpected benefits.