When visiting a college, everyone asks about the dorms or the food.  Here are somethings that should be asked, but often are not.  In many cases the parent may have to ask the tour guide or admissions person about these:

1. Health Care

Don’t just take it for granted.  Sure the school could be huge, and most likely they will have a docotor and nurse on campus.  However, some schools are small and may not have these facilities available to students.  Especially if the school is mostly a commuter college.  So be sure to ask what kind of health care is available to students.

2. Anti-Drug/Alcohol Housing

I was just at RIT and it is the first college that said they offer housing for students who are totally against drugs and alcohol.  The students make a pledge not to bring drugs or alcohol on campus and not to use off campus.  This is something worth investigating if you don’t feel comfortable around people who abuse substances.  I personally know someone who came into school clean, not having alcohol or drugs, but is now using both every weekend.  Parents, you will probably have to be the person who initiates this question.

3.  Teaching Assistants

Ask if the teaching assistants teach or if they are just used as helpers in labs.  Teaching assistants are just that, assistants; they should not be teaching.  In my experience, every time I have had a TA assigned to me to teach a class, I have learned less, become more frustrated, and had less questions answered because they don’t know what the professor meant by X in this situation or Y in that.  Get into a school that does not allow TA’s to teach, but to do research, help in class, field questions, and collect papers.

4.  Ask for more money

This is something you will have to do after you have been accepted at a college or university.  When you receive your letter of acceptance, some schools will include a scholarship package.  In many cases you will be blown away at how much money they are willing to give you.  It will bring many schools into the affordable range.  However, don’t be afraid to ask for more money.  A simple letter to the admissions office explaining why you deserve more money is usually enough.  Tell them about your good grades, all the extra-extra-curricular things you participated in, and most of all tell them what you will bring to their school–why you are deserving.  In many cases, just asking for more money will be enough.  I know someone who asked for more money and they just about doubled his scholarship.  It doesn’t cost them anything, and you gain a lot more.

5.  Cost to education ratio

This may sound weird and it isn’t something you ask the admissions people.  It is something you will ask current students and yourself based on observations.  Ask other students if they feel they are getting a good education for the price they are paying.  Ask them about the professors, do they let out before class is scheduled to be over?  Do the professors seem knowledgeable or do they just b.s. their way through the class?  Ask students about events that the school puts on.  What speakers does the school bring in, are there perks for students in the community?  After all part of the college education is learning and experiencing things that make us more cultured; these happen outside of the class room.  And after you have done this asking, ask yourself based on the information you have gathered and your experience: Is the cost to education ration even? or would I be wasting my money by coming here?

So there you have it.  Some uncommon things to ask when visiting a college.

I have a Moto Q running Windows Mobile 5, and it is a batter hog.  I mean seriously, my phone died once already today.  Granted the 100+ text messages I receive each day isn’t helping, but what am I supposed to since I need to contact people and they need to contact me?

Well, with some researc I found this app that will help anyone one who uses a smart phone (I think) or at least those of us that have one with Windows Mobile 5.  The program is called Candelight and it comes as a .CAB file.  You download it, install it on your phone, and then click on the icon to activate it.  Presto!  It dims your screen, instantly saving you battery life.

But on the other hand, I still have the problem of receiving a gross amount of text messages.  Everyday I receive well over 100 texts and my phone battery just cant keep up with it.  Part of the problem is the fact that I have a Moto Q, and that it is running a lot of other tasks at the same time.  My problem is really the vibrations.  One it is annoying, and two making parts move kills the battery.  To my knowledge, there is no way to turn off the vibration notification on the Moto Q.  I have tried going through the menus and researching it online to no avail.  Does anyone know of such a way to turn of vibration?  A hack, anything will do.

If not, is there someone out there willing and adept at writing .CAB files that would be willing to take a few minutes *ahem* and write a program that will install and give you options to control the vibrations of your smart phone?  Espcially in the case of a Moto Q running WM5.

For years now I have been mooching off of the online world.  Just taking, taking, taking and never thinking of giving back.  Well now, I have made a step in the right direction.  I finally purchased some webspace and intend to begin learning like I should.

I have always blamed the fact that I have used post to hosts as my inability to or desire not to, try and create something good, or to learn more about the web, applications, and the design process.   In case you don’t know, post to hosts are sites like http://core-fusion.net that offer webspace to people who meet a monthly post requirement on their forums.  While it is good for people who just want to play around, develope small things, and teach their kids, it has been my experience that they are unstable and slow to respond to your problems.  Core-fusion was one of the better ones that I have used and would recommend it if you just want some free space.  Post to hosts like Roxr.com are now gone, probably due to legality issues.  I think Roxr was run by the same people who manage Rapidshare.

A few weeks ago, I had already promised myself that I was going to do this as soon as possible.  After a meeting with Alex Hillman and Bart Mroz, two of the three founding partners of Round3Media, I was even more excited and compelled to do so. They mentioned that I should be blogging like crazy, which I already realized, but I was having trouble adjusting to the fact that I would have to use some known CMS rather than something I whipped together myself.  I did, and still do recognize the fact that I am, at this moment in time, not capable of writing something flexible, manageable, automated, and secure enough that I wouldn’t have to use a CMS like WordPress.

With that in mind, and already having used WordPress before, I set out with that option.  So here I am.

What I want to do:

First and foremost, I want to learn.  Learn everything that I can.  I guess this leans on the side of take, take, take, again, but at this point it is necessary.

Secondly, I want to share.  Share things I find, what I am doing, where I am going, who I have met, what has been discussed, all so that the world can progress and grow around me and through others.

Finally, I want to give back.  I want to be able to mentor and/or be able to help people with furthering their learning and developing of ideas.  However, there are no promises in this category for the time being.

What I am most interested in learning about:

Graphic Design - color theory, typography, Photoshop, etc.
Web Design - Why pages are laid out a certain way, why the code works the way it does (I have experience in HTML and some CSS), best practice
Web Development - Writing applications for the web (this is probably furthest out on my timeline)
Photography - self explanatory

If you have resources, please share them with me through commenting.  That way others will be just as able to benefit from them.