oh then which is higher ? adp or diploma ?

Hi there.

I'm going on a study exchange programme with my university in Australia. For those who're studying in the USA, what do you comment about this universities:

1. Northern Arizona University
2. Ohio State University
3. Purdue University
4. Virginia Commonwealth University
5. Virginia Polytechnic institute and state university

I'm studying business majoring in econs and finance by the way. Which university is good? And also, the life in the cities that the universities are located in? as in, kampung style (no offence, perth is rather kampung too) or is the city nearby?

thank you. appreciate it.

oh then which is higher ? adp or diploma ?

yeap, 1 more term .. officially graduating on May 2010 ...
and hopefully able to continue on Sept 2010 which is Fall 2010 ... (can i still make it on time?)
and yes GMAT is expensive, as of June 2009 its USD250 ...
i am hoping to jump up to 3.7 as my internship and FYP consist a huge amount of credit hour ...
i am not sure which uni's prospectus (due to mixture of UK, Aus) but i will check once i am back in KL, left them in KL and currently back in my hometown ... one of the which i recall is Boston Uni, got it last time when i was aiming for undergrad but instead i further on in Adv Dip ...
wat i would like to focus on is "Information Systems", it can be E-Business & IS but its best to be MIS ... means from wat u said, there aint much Uni for it? .. 

about the budget, i would prefer not to be in the big cities such as NYCity as the expenses is higher compared to others ...

thanks alot patryn33 ... u helped me alot coz if i continue on searching myself, i doubt i will know wat is GMAT ... many thanks ...

The GMAT test would be more for postgraduate business courses. The GRE Test may be more applicable to your case. It is an online test offered monthly. You may go to the website GRE Test to find out more. You could also contact MACEE at

Generally, the Midwest is alright but make sure that it is a big city because the Midwest can be really kampung. I studied at the University of Oklahoma, not much in terms of life there but it is cheap and the people are friendly. Make sure that you make friends and then travel a lot. Then life would be much better. Life in the USA is about travelling and trying out outdoor stuff. These activities do help to give you a new perspective in life.

Personally I think if you choose the Midwest, you should go to Texas or up north like Wisconsin or Michigan. Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma are farm areas. 

Since when is Texas Mid west?

alvinz is doing MIS, its a graduate biz course. US thread use American Terminology, its Graduate not Postgraduate.
Most graduate degree in the Business College would require GMAT not GRE. lower tier uni may replace GMAT with GRE or just don't require!
anyway, the links to the various MIS degree are already posted. no need to speculate the admission requirements.

wouldn't an Education consultant be more credible if one get the facts right?

I guess getting Texas wrong as part of the Midwest would be quite a crisis for alvinz. I guess in your same tone, Biz is not spelt that way, it is spelt as "business", get it right. Need a dictionary? Sorry to the rest, just emulating her highness' tone.

While I studied in the USA, I learnt about being courteous and also allowing people to speak freely. I  suppose some people just did not pick that up. Generally, as long as it is understood by most people it should be alright. I guess you seem to think you are the resident expert here and no one else can post answers or links. I guess just because you may have some of the answers right does not mean that you are right all the time nor own the right to answer all the time.

I guess I gave the wrong answer, or rather MACEE since I called them to verify the information about GRE. I am sorry, I should not have asked him to call MACEE, I guess, he should only listen to you?

By the way, I did not post any links to various MIS degrees nor speculate on the entry requirements, so I guess you should take your own advise or rather arrogant statements to some forumers here and read before you answer them. It is easy to condemn people when you are hiding behind a facade and other insecurities. Sarcastic remarks hidden by a mask hides deeper dark waters. I wonder if you are here to actually help people or unload the emptiness within.

I guess by stating the above I will get a long nagging rambling of emptiness from you to which I will not bother to reply.

Cheers.

I attend Purdue University, and Krannert is pretty well ranked as a business school ... you'll probably have to google Krannert to read up on what they offer

College Degrees More Expensive, Worth Less in Job Market
By KRISTI OLOFFSON – Wed Dec 9, 4:20 am ET

Employers and career experts see a growing problem in American society - an abundance of college graduates, many burdened with tuition-loan debt, heading into the work world with a degree that doesn't mean much anymore.


The problem isn't just a soft job market - it's an oversupply of graduates. In 1973, a bachelor's degree was more of a rarity, since just 47% of high school graduates went on to college. By October 2008, that number had risen to nearly 70%. For many Americans today, a trip through college is considered as much of a birthright as a driver's license.

Marty Nemko, a career and education expert who has taught at U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Education, contends that the overflow in degree holders is the result of many weaker students attending colleges when other options may have served them better. "There is tremendous pressure to push kids through," he says, adding that as a result, too many students who aren't skilled become degree holders, promoting a perception among employers that higher education doesn't work. "That piece of paper no longer means very much, and employers know that," says Nemko. "Everybody's got it, so it's watered down."


What's not watered down is the tab. The cost of average tuition rose 6.5% this fall, and a report released on Dec. 1 by the Project on Student Debt showed that the IOU is getting bigger. Two-thirds of all students now leave college with outstanding loans; the average amount of debt rose to $23,200 in 2008. In the last academic year, the total amount loaned to students increased about 18% from the previous year, to $81 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for recent grads rose as well. It is now 10.6%, a record high.

The devaluation of a college degree is no secret on campus. An annual survey by the Higher Education Research Institute has long asked freshmen what they think their highest academic degree will be. In 1972, 38% of respondents said a bachelor's degree, but in 2008 only 22% answered the same. The number of freshmen planning to get a master's degree rose from 31% in 1972 to 42% in 2008. Says John Pryor, the institute's director: "Years ago, the bachelor's degree was the key to getting better jobs. Now you really need more than that." (See TIME's special report on paying for college.)

Employers stress that a basic degree remains essential, carefully tiptoeing around the idea that its value has plummeted. But they admit that the degree alone is not the ace it once was; now they emphasize work experience as a way to make yourself stand out. Dan Black, director of campus recruiting in the Americas for Ernst & Young, and his team will hire more than 4,000 people this year out of 20,000 applicants. There are a lot of things besides a degree "that will help differentiate how much attention you get," says the veteran hirer, who has been screening graduates for 15 years.


Enterprise Rent-A-Car hiring guru Marie Artim, who says her company will hire 8,000 of 20,000 applicants, has found that her applicant pool is changing. "While 10 years ago we may have had the same numbers, today we have higher-quality and better-qualified applicants," she says.

So what does it take to impress recruiters today? Daniel Pink, an author on motivation in the workplace, agrees that the bachelor's degree "is necessary, but it's just not sufficient," at times doing little more than verifying "that you can more or less show up on time and stick with it." The author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future says companies want more. They're looking for people who can do jobs that can't be outsourced, he says, and graduates who "don't require a lot of hand-holding." (Read "The Incredible Climbing Cost of College.")


Left-brain abilities that used to guarantee jobs have become easy to automate, while right-brain abilities are harder to find - "design, seeing the big picture, connecting the dots," Pink says. He cites cognitive skills and self-direction as the types of things companies look for in job candidates. "People have to be able to do stuff that's hard to outsource," he says. "It used to be for blue collar; it's now for white collar too."

For now, graduates can steer their careers where job growth is strong - education, health care and nonprofit programs like Teach for America, says Trudy Steinfeld, a career counselor at New York University. "Every college degree is not cookie cutter. It's what you have done during that degree to distinguish yourself."

America's Best High Schools 2010

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

Location: Alexandria, VA
Enrollment: 1,805
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 1.3
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 4.9
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 6.9
College Readiness Index: 100.0

2. International Academy

Location: Bloomfield Hills, MI
Enrollment: 157
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 0.6
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 3.2
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.7
College Readiness Index: 100.0

3. Whitney High School

Location: Cerritos, CA
Enrollment: 984
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 11.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 11.5
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.1
College Readiness Index: 100.0

4. Oxford Academy

Location: Cypress, CA
Enrollment: 1.021
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 19.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 12.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.0
College Readiness Index: 100.0

5. School for the Talented and Gifted at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center

Location: Dallas, TX
Enrollment: 209
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 24.9
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 51.2
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 8.0
College Readiness Index: 100.0

6. Newcomers High School

Location: Long Island City, NY
Enrollment: 1,016
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 79.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 60.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.6
College Readiness Index: 100.0

7. Pacific Collegiate School

Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Enrollment: 383
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 0.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 8.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.5
College Readiness Index: 100.0

8. School of Science and Engineering Magnet

Location: Dallas, TX
Enrollment: 391
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 48.3
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 72.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.1
College Readiness Index: 100.0

9. BASIS Tucson

Location: Tucson, AZ
Enrollment: 527
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 0.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 24.9
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.7
College Readiness Index: 100.0

10. International School

Location: Bellevue, WA
Enrollment: 509
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 3.6
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 1.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 3.8
College Readiness Index: 100.0

11. High Technology High School

Location: Lincroft, NJ
Enrollment: 255
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): n.a.
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 7.1
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 3.6
College Readiness Index: 98.9

12. Academic Magnet High School

Location: No. Charleston, SC
Enrollment: 598
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 7.4
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 18.1
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.7
College Readiness Index: 98.2

13. IDEA Quest Academy & College Prepatory

Location: Donna, TX
Enrollment: 644
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 77.8
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 96.3
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.1
College Readiness Index: 97.7

14. Pine View School

Location: Osprey, FL
Enrollment: 2,209
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 4.8
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 6.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.3
College Readiness Index: 96.8

15. Design and Architecture Senior High School

Location: Miami, FL
Enrollment: 483
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 31.3
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 69.0
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 2.7
College Readiness Index: 96.7

16. KIPP Houston High School

Location: Houston, TX
Enrollment: 633
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 87.5
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 97.6
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.1
College Readiness Index: 95.7

17. Stanton College Preparatory School

Location: Jacksonville, FL
Enrollment: 1,458
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 8.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 24.1
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.6
College Readiness Index: 95.6

18. The Early College at Guilford

Location: Greensboro, NC
Enrollment: 191
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 6.2
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 10.9
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.0
College Readiness Index: 95.4

19. The High School of American Studies at Lehman College

Location: Bronx, NY
Enrollment: 332
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 31.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 43.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 2.9
College Readiness Index: 94.8

20. Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School

Location: Montgomery, AL
Enrollment: 400
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 11.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 31.5
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 3.5
College Readiness Index: 94.2

21. University High School

Location: Tucson, AZ
Enrollment: 723
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 11.1
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 25.3
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.1
College Readiness Index: 92.9

22. California Academy of Math & Science

Location: Carson, CA
Enrollment: 589
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 37.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 48.0
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 2.1
College Readiness Index: 92.1

23. Animo Leadership Charter High School

Location: Inglewood, CA
Enrollment: 525
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 75.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 99.6
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 0.9
College Readiness Index: 91.6

24. Raleigh Charter High School

Location: Raleigh, NC
Enrollment: 528
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): n.a.
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 10.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.9
College Readiness Index: 91.2

25. Lennox Mathematics, Science & Technology Academy

Location: Lennox, CA
Enrollment: 468
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 88.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 99.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.5
College Readiness Index: 90.5

Any idea what's a good university for Actuarial science?