When it comes to protecting veterans, service members, and their families from getting bamboozled for their GI Bill benefits, President Obama isn’t taking any chances. Though members of Congress have introduced legislation to protect veterans from deceptive and misleading practices by educational institutions, the president recently bypassed Congress, issuing an executive order to protect vets.

“It’s not enough to just help our veterans and service members afford school – we need to make sure they have all the tools they need to make an informed decision when it comes to picking the right program,” says President Obama.

Unfortunately, when some schools see veterans and service members, they see dollar signs. (So far, colleges have collected more than $4.4 billion under the new GI Bill.) The president gives an example of a college recruiter who visited a Marine barracks and enrolled Marines with traumatic brain injuries so severe that they couldn’t recall what courses they had been signed up for. That may be a worst-case scenario, but the reality is that aggressive recruiters have a long-standing reputation for preying on GI Bill beneficiaries.

These beneficiaries include active-duty service members (under the Pentagon’s Tuition Assistance Program), veterans who have served after September 10, 2001 (under the Post-9/11 GI Bill), and their family members (under the Military Spouse Career Advancement Account Program).

“The sad truth is that there are people out there who are less interested in helping our men and women in uniform get ahead and more interested in making a buck,” says the president. “They bombard potential students with emails and pressure them into making a quick decision. Some of them steer recruits towards high-interest loans and mislead them about credit transfers and job placement programs.”

The executive order contains new rules for how institutions receiving military and veteran education benefits recruit students, disclose financial information, and track student outcomes. The goal is to help veterans and service members make informed decisions about higher education.

Institutions participating in the Tuition Assistance Program will now provide service members with a “Know Before You Owe” fact sheet, which discloses information about tuition, fees, financial aid, student loan debt, and graduation rates. GI Bill institutions will be encouraged to provide vets with the same information. Schools will also be required to offer counseling to help students finish their degree even if they have to move or deploy.

In addition, the Department of Veterans Administration is beginning the process of trademarking the term “GI Bill” in order to crack down on fraudulent and deceptive websites. (Just Google “GI Bill Schools” and you’ll see how many sites are trying to reel in vets.) The order is also directing the Defense Department to develop a uniform set of rules in order to keep dishonest recruiters from accessing service members on base.

And for those times when predatory practices slip through the cracks, the executive order is creating a centralized complaint system to make it easier for students to file grievances and for the Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments to act on those complaints.

“When our men and women in uniform succeed, our country succeeds,” says the president. “They have our back – now it’s our turn to have theirs.”

–Robyn Tellefsen

Having an entrepreneurial spirit may help you earn scholarship money to earn advanced degrees.

Schools such as the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, known as NYU-Poly, encourage students to pursue their inventions and innovations with scholarship programs.

The Graduate Scholarship Program for Entrepreneurs at NYU-Poly in Brooklyn offers up to $10,000 over two years (or $5,000 a year) for entrepreneurs enrolled in a graduate program at the school.

You will get the advanced training and skills you need to make your start-up venture a success, but be rewarded for your entrepreneurial efforts.

Here’s an idea of some of the innovations that graduate students at NYU-Poly are pursuing. Two students who are working with doctors to develop an affordable, easy alternative to existing medical diagnostic software and to reduce the errors that cost up to $17 billion annually in U.S. Another student has developed an electronic home urine test to check pets’ health.

If you’re working on a start-up venture, check with the graduate programs you’re considering to see if any of them offer scholarships for entrepreneurs.

Just think: If Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg would have had this opportunity, he might have continued at Harvard and earned his degree while being rewarded for his technological savvy and innovative thinking.

After years of enduring standardized tests, from elementary school (it starts in 3^rd grade in New York) all the way through high school and then college entrance exams, most students breathe a sigh of relief at the lack of standardized testing at the undergraduate level. Unless you’re going to grad school or entering a credentialed profession, your college admission is a chance to say goodbye to those dreaded, broad-stroke assessments.

Not so fast.

If you thought all those standardized tests were just a means of torturing you and comparing you to your peers, well, that’s only part of it. Test scores are also used to determine the quality of the public school you’re attending. As such, test scores can make or break a school, giving governing bodies reasons to close underperforming schools and empowering choosy parents with facts and figures to determine how well a school’s students are presumably performing.

When it comes to college, however, we have data about the scores required for entrance, letting us know how selective a school is, but no concrete data to reveal student outcomes. All that might be changing.

National assessments – yes, even standardized tests – are gaining traction at the college level, with more than 1,000 colleges using at least one of these methods, reports The New York Times. For example, since 2004, Texas has required its state colleges to administer standardized tests and make the outcomes public. It’s a move to increase transparency and give consumers a way to compare colleges more effectively.

The federal government has not yet mandated standardized testing for colleges, but the prospect is not far off.

It makes sense on some level – if you’re going to make such a hefty investment in a college education, you might want concrete evidence of a return on that investment, such as a significant increase in knowledge and skills. Simply put, you want the most bang for your buck.

Currently, the Voluntary System of Accountability, an alliance of more than 300 state colleges, has approved three competing standardized tests for colleges: the ETS Proficiency Profile; the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency, produced by ACT; and the Collegiate Learning Assessment, from the Council for Aid to Education.

The goal of these collegiate assessments is not merely to measure performance, but improvement, especially in key areas like critical thinking and problem-solving.

However, selective colleges say it’s difficult for students to show marked improvement on standardized tests when they’re starting with high aptitude and critical thinking skills from the get-go.

And standardized tests are imperfect measurements in themselves, especially given that not all schools are reporting the data, nor are they using the same tests at the same time and in the same way.

If the higher-ups in higher ed ever do come to a consensus about how to measure learning at the college level, students could be looking at four more years of test prep and Scantron forms. Just what you always wanted.

–Robyn Tellefsen

If you’re applying to college, you’re probably already aware that admissions officers can peep your Facebook profile. Any information that’s been made public on the Internet is, well, public information. Many of us are cognizant of that fact and have blocked our profiles and posts from public consumption. But what if a school asks permission to become part of your friend network – or worse, asks for your password to tool around Facebook as if it were you?

No, this isn’t a fictional scenario from George Orwell’s “1984;” it’s a 2012 reality. News and blog sites have been lit up these last few weeks with reports of employers asking job candidates to reveal their social media logins. The public outcry has been loud and clear, with senators, representatives, and Facebook itself decrying the practice as an invasion of privacy. Though House Republicans blocked an amendment to a reform act of the Federal Communications Commission, Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer (NY) and Richard Blumenthal (CT) are pushing for a federal investigation as to whether the practice of employers demanding usernames and passwords is a violation of the Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

While this storm is brewing, we’ve got to wonder how all this Big Brother-esque spying will affect college admissions. The fact is, student athletes are already prone to social media policing. Many schools are requiring athletic prospects to “friend” a coach, granting the school access to friends-only information. At the University of North Carolina, for instance, at least one coach or administrator is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings. So even when you’re in, the scrutiny goes on.

Colleges may also enlist the help of social media monitoring companies like UDiligence and Varsity Monitor to automate the time-consuming task of digging up your dirt. Programs like these offer a “reputation scoreboard” to coaches and send “threat level” warnings about individual athletes to compliance officers.

While Facebook has taken a firm stance on password-sharing (it’s a no-no), the company has yet to take a position on collegiate social media monitoring. Will this kind of monitoring spread past the athletic department? Word is, it already has.

According to Kaplan Test Prep’s most recent annual surveys (check out the infographic), 20% of college admissions officers, 27% of business school admissions officers, and 41% of law school admissions officers said they have Googled an applicant to learn more about them, while 24% of college admissions officers, 22% of business school admissions officers, and 37% of law school admissions officers have checked out an applicant on Facebook or other social networking site. And the results haven’t been pretty. As it turns out, 12% of college admissions officers, 14% of business school admissions officers, and 32% of law school admissions officers who researched an applicant online said they discovered something that negatively impacted an applicant’s admissions chances.

On the other hand, some colleges, like Kenyon College, explicitly forbid looking beyond what prospective students submit in their applications. Eastern Washington University went so far as blogging about the fact that it will never use Facebook, Twitter, or Google to learn more about applicants.

But it seems that these schools are few and far between.

So what’s a prospective college student to do? Consider using Facebook to your advantage in the admissions process. If colleges are looking – and so many of them are – an online presence that showcases your strengths and achievements may actually boost your admission bid.

–Robyn Tellefsen

Yep, it’s only Tuesday. If you’re already bored with the week, maybe it’s time you considered a FUN job. If your current job ranks low on the happy scale, get inspired by these fields that make a career out of having a good time.

Fun Career: Video Game Designer
Imagine that everything you dream can come to life. That’s the reality for video game designers, who brainstorm all the concepts of a game, including plot, characters, and game play.
Fun factor: Creating video games for a living? The fun factor is kind of a no-brainer.
Fun training: A college degree in game design, game development, or computer science comes in handy when you’re looking for a job in video game design. You’ll also need some back­ground in programming and knowledge of scripting languages, especially Lua and Python.
Fun bucks: According to Game Developer magazine, in 2010, video game designers earned an average of $68,000 per year. Of course, salaries vary by experience and location.

Fun Career: Home Stager
If you’ve got a knack for design and marketing, consider the up-and-coming career of home staging. Home stagers work with real estate agents and their clients to improve the appearance of houses for sale and increase their appeal to potential buyers.
Fun factor: Transforming spaces from dull to divine is a creative person’s dream come true.
Fun training: Though home staging is not a licensed profession, many professional home stagers start out by earning a degree in interior design and later pursuing certification that’s been accredited by the California-based Real Estate Staging Association.
Fun bucks: Home staging companies are coming out of the woodwork these days, but many stagers are still self-employed and set their own fees. According to AOL Jobs, national averages run about $175-$400 for an initial consultation and $85-$250 an hour for the staging work, with the biggest bucks available in major metropolitan areas like NYC.

Fun Career: Resort Activities Director
This job might as well be called “Director of Fun,” since that’s what it’s all about. Resort activities directors get to create, organize, run, and enjoy a wide variety of entertainment opportunities, such as tournaments, wine tastings, and shows.
Fun factor: Vacation-related jobs offer a great mix of work and play. What could be better than making a living by planning good times, all the time?
Fun training: Many activities directors have a bachelor’s degree in parks and rec­reation or a similar field, and some hold a master’s degree. Work experience through an internship, summer job, or volunteering is a great way to get in the door of the recreation industry.
Fun bucks: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, recreation workers earned a mean annual salary of $25,270, but activities directors report­edly earn more.

Fun Career: Aquarist
Like other animal keepers, aquarists are responsible for feeding, monitoring, and training animals, but these workers do it in a wetsuit. Aquarists take care of fish and other underwater creatures at aquariums; they may also train seals, dolphins, and other marine mammals.
Fun factor: How awesome would it be to spend your days diving into tanks and working underwater?
Fun training: Most aquarists have a bachelor’s degree in a biology or animal science, and they must also be certified SCUBA divers and super-strong swimmers.
Fun bucks: According to JobsInWildlife.com, entry-level aquarists typically earn between $27,000 and $33,000, while experienced aquarists can earn between $45,000 and $50,000.

Fun Career: Sommelier
Attention, wine connoisseurs: you can actually procure a career in the fermented juice of fresh grapes! Sommeliers serve as wine experts in high-end restaurants, utilizing their skills in the art of matching wine with food to augment the flavor of a meal.
Fun factor: Those who love the finer things in life will be in their glory in this deliciously upscale career.
Fun training: Successful sommeliers often start out with a degree in restaurant management and then pursue a diploma from the highly regarded Court of Master Sommeliers. Master Sommelier candidates must pass four levels of rigorous (and expensive) examinations.
Fun bucks: According to Salary.com, the median sommelier salary in March 2012 was over $50,000. The Court of Master Sommeliers reveals that Master Sommeliers earn between $80,000 and $160,000 per year.

–Robyn Tellefsen

We all want to be supportive of our friends and encourage them to pursue and earn their college degrees.

Now some students can get paid for doing that!

Online schools Ashworth College and James Madison High School are paying students and graduates $50 for every friend they refer who enrolls in their programs. The friends have to be in a class for a minimum of 30 days for the students to get the cash.

Refer a friend programs that offer cash are offered by stores, restaurants, credit card companies, banks, attractions, and even college saving plans. We’re not seeing many colleges getting in on the act, though.

Ashworth College and James Madison High School (the for-profit schools are owned by the same company) are encouraging students and graduates to invite their friends via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail or direct mail. The school set the limit at earning $100 per year.

Ashworth College officials say the refer a friend marketing program is a way is seeks to introduce people to online education as an affordable alternative. Ashworth College and James Madison High School, both accredited schools, online high school diploma programs, more than 115 online college degrees, and online certificate programs.

We all can use a little extra cash, and for you, the program offers another way you can have a stake in your friends’ education.

One of my kids’ favorite storybook characters is Lilly, the heroine of such clever tales as “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” by Kevin Henkes. Amid all her antics, we learn that Lilly, a spirited young mouse, wants to be a teacher when she grows up – but only on the days when she doesn’t want to be a dancer, surgeon, ambulance driver, diva, pilot, hairdresser, or scuba diver.

Today, on Look Up at the Sky Day (I kid you not!), Lilly’s shoot-for-the-stars aspirations remind me of all the fun things people dream about becoming before they get old and crotchety. From princesses and superheroes to ballerinas and professional baseball players, kids let their imaginations run wild when answering the question of what they want to be when they grow up.

These days, my kindergartner says she wants to be an astronaut and an artist. (Or maybe she’ll be a writer like her mama – she’s already got the alliteration down pat!) I don’t think she quite understands what these careers entail, but she loves her science and art classes in school, and she’s always drawing and coloring. The earnings potential for artsy types isn’t so bad – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2011, artists earned a median annual salary of $58,040. And according to NASA, an astronaut can earn anywhere from $64,724 to $141,715 a year, depending on academic achievements and experience. The salary differential speaks for itself, but I think I’ll leave my daughter’s career decisions up to her. She’s only 6, after all.

My second grader is dead set on becoming a meteorologist. He watches The Weather Channel, clips weather forecasts out of newspapers, and reads books about weather phenomena religiously. He also likes to invent his own forecasts for all different parts of the world, and abbreviations like “precip,” “temp,” and “t-storm” are sprinkled throughout his everyday conversations. This may seem like strange behavior for a soon-to-be 8-year-old, but I think he’s on track to a career as a future Bill Evans (my son’s favorite weatherman). He already knows he’ll have to take lots of science and math classes in high school and college. What he doesn’t know is that the salary forecast is pretty good – in 2011, meteorologists pulled in an annual salary of about $89,790, reports the BLS.

As for my own childhood dreams, actress and singer were pretty high on the list, and ballerina, doctor, and lawyer were in there at some point, too. I didn’t recognize my penchant for writing until college and beyond, though I should have – I used to write pretend newspaper articles in my backyard, and I’ve got stacks of personal journals revealing a lifetime of small moments.

So I will encourage my kids to follow their dreams, but I will also tell them that we don’t always end up living out our childhood fantasies. Sometimes we do something even better.

–Robyn Tellefsen

Certificate programs are becoming more in demand by college graduates and job seekers. They’re seeing the value of a certificate program as more than another piece of paper to frame and put on the wall.

Instead, earning a professional certificate can lead to job offers, promotions, and salary increases.

Continuing education certificate programs offer you the opportunity to study in a specific area, either related to your existing job or in a field you are exploring. To earn a continuing education certificate from a college or university, you have to complete a number of required courses and electives. Most can be earned in one to two years.

No matter your profession, you’re likely to find a school offering a certificate for you and courses taught by professionals with real-world knowledge. There are certificate programs in everything from health care to law to management to nonprofits to technology.

Mary Walshok, dean of UC San Diego Extension, and co-author of the book Closing America’s Job Gap says:

“Unlike the 1950s through 1970s, when schools of continuing education and extension services were more like second-chance universities for adults who didn’t have the opportunity to get a college degree, these programs today are hubs of education and training providing the practice oriented credentials which combined with a solid liberal arts degree make for globally competitive careers.”

The University of California San Diego reports a 19 percent increase in students enrolling in certificate programs. In 2011, 3,841 students entered continuing education certificate programs at UC San Diego, compared to 3,217 during 2010. UC San Diego Extension offers 102 certificates, and for most of them, the entire program costs $1,875-$3,200.

The majority – about 85 percent – of students already hold a college degree. And employers are paying for the extra schooling, so it’s an option to inquire about if you’re currently employed.

Here are 10 areas where UC San Diego are seeing more students enrolling in certificate programs – and they reflect trends in other schools, too:

• Lactation consultant
• Biostatistics
• Paralegal studies
• Data mining
• Lean Six Sigma
• Leadership and management
• Fundraising and development
• Copyediting
• College counseling
• Reading instruction from research to practice

We’re seeing schools grow their certificate programs, too.

Lake Michigan College in South Haven, Mich., recently approved two new one-year Certificate of Achievement programs in logistics and energy production technology/line worker.

New certificates at UC San Diego include graphic design, in vitro diagnostics, career advising, mobile applications development, mobile device programming, and video and imaging technologies, clinical trials administration in Latin America, and global service entrepreneurship.

College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, N.Y., is offering career-focused certificate programs – a Pharmacy Technician Certificate Program and Medical Assistant Administration Program.

As you’re looking at college programs, you may be able to transition to a new job or more rewarding position by adding a professional certificate to your resume.

When you look ahead to your retirement years, what images come to mind? Will you be spending more time with the grandkids? Tending your garden and cooking mouth-watering meals? Sitting on a beach somewhere sipping Mai Tais? However you envision the ideal retirement, the reality may turn out to be a bit different than what you had in mind.

And the reality is this: Unemployment is high, home values are low, and retirement accounts are in the toilet. So for many of us, getting out of the workforce entirely just isn’t an option anymore. Last year, about 36 percent of workers said they expected to keep working past age 65, compared with 20 percent in 2001, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

That’s why a good chunk of the 78 million baby boomers entering their retirement years are heading back to school to boost their job skills. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of students ages 50 to 64 increased 17 percent nationwide between fall 2007 and fall 2009.

If you’re wondering where the 50+ set is going in droves, the answer is clear: community college. According to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), 388,000 older adults were enrolled nationwide in fall 2009 – up 6 percent from 2007 and more than 12 percent from 2005. Nationwide, people over the age of 50 typically make up between 5-6 percent of community college enrollment.

Going back to school isn’t a death sentence for retirees, though. For many, it has breathed new life into their golden years and given them purpose that they’d been missing.

Just look at the students benefiting from the Plus 50 Initiative of the AACC, which is tailored to the needs of adult learners/workers. Through the Plus 50 Initiative, community colleges create or expand campus programs to engage the 50+ population in learning; training or retraining programs; and volunteer, civic, or service activities.

Michael Wright is one of these students. After working for 30 years in Washington State’s Department of Corrections at McNeil Island, he was left without a job last year when the island prison was shut down.

“I was down to $139 in my savings account, not knowing where my money was going to come from,” he says.

Fortunately, Wright discovered the aerospace composite technician program for military veterans at Clover Park Technical College (Lakewood, WA), and is now looking forward to starting a new career with Boeing or another corporate partner.

“This program is going to allow me to rise above being a feeder fish from the people above. I feel blessed,” he says. “I’m on a mission. I know I’ll succeed.”

–Robyn Tellefsen

In honor of National Organize Your Home Office Day today (we’re not joking, click here), we decided it’s time to blow away the dust bunnies that have accumulated over the winter months and clean up. There’s just something refreshing and rejuvenating about studying in a clutter-free environment, don’t you think? When you’re schooling from a home office – however makeshift it may be – it’s critical to ensure your space is comfortable and well-organized. Check out our picks for fun products to aid you in the quest to spring clean your school space.

Make Memorable Memos
Ditch the Post-its and catch the wave of the future with Native Union’s “Play,” a fun, vibrant video memo pad. Use the Play to record up to three minutes of messages, like your ongoing to-do list or reminders about assignment deadlines. Featuring a 2.5 inch LCD screen and 40-day battery life, the Play can stick to any surface and help you keep your desk clutter free. Available in black, blue, green, pink, purple, red, and white. ($59.99, nativeunion.com)

Stay in Tune with Nature
If you simply must have paper notes adorning your walls, at least you can keep them neat, tidy, and au naturel with this whimsical Bird Corkboard. See Jane Work offers a variety of cute and stylish office supplies that can breathe life into your workspace. You’re sure to study with a smile when this bulletin board catches your eye! ($12.00, seejanework.com)

Go Green for Lighting
In all your spring cleaning efforts, don’t neglect the consideration of energy-efficient lighting. SYLVANIA’s DOT-it Dimmable is the perfect solution for shining light in the dark corners of your desk or on the spring semester books in your bookshelf. DOT-it Dimmable sticks to almost any surface and offers three levels of bright, white LED light that’s easy on the eyes – and the wallet. ($9.99, sylvaniaonlinestore.com)

Digitize Your Content
If paper clutter is killing your school sanity, tame the monster with NeatDesk. This high-speed, ultra-cool desktop scanner and digital filing system can help you archive your old term papers, tests, and projects for future reference; manage your finances by scanning receipts and student loan information to maintain a budget; develop and maintain a career database by scanning letters of recommendation, portfolio work, transcripts, and awards; and more. ($399.95, neat.com)

Trick Out Your iPad
You take your iPad everywhere you go, but when you’re ready to park it in your home office, you want it to function like a sturdy desktop computer. Enter RTA Products’ 2COOL 2C-TCK02C iPad case, a trendy, ergonomic case that comes with an adjustable stand and a built-in silicone, spill-proof, dust-proof Bluetooth keyboard. Never worry about coffee spills again! Available in black, red, pink, and white. ($49.99, wayfair.com)

Write Smart
You may be a techie to the max, but you still use pens and pencils for some school tasks, right? Rather than sorting through a junk drawer to find the proper writing implements, reach for Hipcycle’s fabulously unique pen and pencil holders, like the Chopstick Pen Cup. Hipcycle is dedicated to the growing upcycling trend in green design – taking something that would otherwise be thrown away and transforming it into something of greater use and value. ($10.00, hipcycle.com)

Clear the Desk
No review of home office products would be complete without a nod to Martha Stewart, the queen of beautiful (and practical) spaces. Martha’s Stack+Fit desk accessories can help you eliminate desktop clutter and get organized in style. Mix and match drawers and trays, organizers, stackable inboxes and more to fit your own space and storage needs for your school supplies. (Prices vary, staples.com)

Don’t Stop Now…
If you’re inspired to go further in your quest for home office organization, take a look at Smart Office Organizing: Simple Strategies for Bringing Order to Your Workspace by Sandra Felton (The Organizer Lady) and Marsha Sims (president of Miami-based Sort-It-Out, Inc.). The book can help you assess the mess, create an action plan, and maintain an organized office so you can stay on top of your schoolwork. ($13.99, bakerpublishinggroup.com)

–Robyn Tellefsen