Anyway, if you’re interested, here’s a new ranking of the top 25 online colleges for 2012:

Here’s the top 10:

#1. Northeastern University
#2. Duquesne University
#3. Penn State World Campus
#4. Washington State University
#5. Drexel University
#6. Regis University
#7. University of Massachusetts
#8. Colorado State University Global Campus
#9. Oregon State University
#10. Robert Morris University

Some very good schools on that list. And there are other highlights in the top 25 too such as: #12. University of Illinois at Chicago, #14. Arizona State University, #16. University of Cincinnati.

For the full top 25 rankings of the best online colleges for 2012, here’s the source.

From: The Best Colleges

According to their site, they entered the rankings fray because they wanted to better reflect what students actually care about like quality of life and economic value (after all, everyone goes to college to get a job right?).

Here are some interesting things we noticed in their 50 best college rankings of 2012:

• Of the three big Ivy League schools, Yale looks injured, 10 spots behind Princeton and 9 spots behind Harvard
• Texas A&M beat UT-Austin by 21 spots in the rankings (that’s slaughter;)
• Williams beat Amherst by 1 spot in the rankings
• UNC beat Duke by 1 spot in the rankings
• College of William and Mary beat out all other public universities
• College of William and Mary and Washington and Lee beat out University of Virginia for best colleges in Virginia
• Rice beat out all other schools in Texas, including the Aggies and the Longhorns
• Pomona College beat out all the other members of the “Claremont Colleges” consortium (Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Spitzer)

Here is a list of the 50 best colleges according to this new ranking site:

1. Princeton University
2. Harvard University
3. The College of William & Mary
4. Swarthmore College
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Williams College
7. Amherst College
8. Stanford University
9. California Institute of Technology
10. Yale University
11. University of Pennsylvania
12. University of North Carolina
13. Duke University
14. Washington and Lee University
15. University of Virginia
16. Vanderbilt University
17. Colgate University
18. Rice University
19. Brown University
20. Pomona College
21. University of Michigan
22. Cooper Union
23. University of California-Berkeley
24. Dartmouth College
25. Claremont McKenna College
26. Texas A&M University
27. University of California-Davis
28. Georgia Institute of Technology
29. Davidson College
30. University of Notre Dame
31. Cornell University
32. Harvey Mudd College
33. Carleton College
34. Bucknell University
35. University of Washington
36. University of Florida
37. University of Texas at Austin
38. Purdue University
39. University of Chicago
40. Bowdoin College
41. University of California at Los Angeles
42. Berea College
43. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
44. Wellesley College
45. Northwestern University
46. Columbia University
47. Georgetown University
48. Washington University in St. Louis
49. Middlebury College
50. Emory University

Congratulations to all the schools on the list, especially the ones that don’t normally get the attention they deserve. For more information about each college as well as the ranking methodologies, check out the original source: 50 Best Colleges & Universities in America for 2012.

1. Who are you? GPAs and accomplishments are just words on a page. Your essay is the one chance you have to be unique and memorable. Tell a story about yourself that will demonstrate to the admission staff your positive qualities. Spend the most time preparing the first and final paragraphs. They should be your best material and contain a central thesis statement which the rest of the paper will address more fully.

2. Can you write? The admissions board will want to see if you were properly prepared in secondary school to be qualified for their program. It is important to have strong transitions and good flow between sentences and paragraphs. Your ideas need to be well-organized and relevant. Of course, it is essential to use correct grammar. It is most common for people to make mistakes with possessive apostrophes, quotation marks, run-on sentences, and hyphenated words.

3. Careless errors are the number one red flag. The board will ask themselves- are you focused and competent? Take your time preparing your essay and be thorough. Proofread again and again to ensure that every word, phrase and punctuation mark is correct. Most often people make mistakes with commas and with words that are spelled right, but are the wrong word for the context (for example- affect vs. effect). After you have proofread it yourself several times, then put it aside and look at it again later with fresh eyes, or ask a skilled friend to help edit.

4. Are you ready to face a demanding curriculum? College will be a marathon of reading assignments, papers, exams, labs and group projects. Show that you have the discipline it takes to follow the rules and meet the demands by sticking to the proposed page limit or word limit. Double-check that you have done all formatting and spacing as suggested. Be sure you have actually answered the question with your essay and kept to the point.

5. Will you succeed in college? Use your words to bring to life your past successes and what is great about you. Think about a few characteristics that enable you to be an achiever and have helped you accomplish past goals. Stay positive. There’s no need to mention negative qualities about yourself, unless it would help to clarify reasons for a low GPA or limited extracurricular activities or incompletes. If you have to discuss flaws in your previous academic performance, then explain steps you will take to not repeat these failures.

This article was written by Amy Clark from Paper Proofreader, a website that specializes in providing help for college application essays.

1. FU from Animal House

2.  Prose before Hos – Shakespeare

3. Shut The F#ck Up

4.  Superman University (you modest bastards)

5.  I’d Tap That  (personal favorite;-)

6.  Beer Pong – Family Guy

7.  Don’t Tase Me, Bro!

8. Yo Mama – Freud

9.  Does This Make Me Look Frat?

10.  Your Mom Goes To College

Here’s the best list of quality schools that we found on a quick search of the Internet: Top 25 Online Schools

In my experience, college professors aren’t to be admired so much as laughed at. They’re dorky. They weird. And they think they’re better than everyone else (when really they’re mostly all just social outcasts). Some of them are criminals too.

Here are some suggestions designed to keep you out of debt, most of which apply not only to college life, but are lessons for the rest of your life.

1. Pool your resources: Establish a central area inside your dorm room for food and other common items. Buying items in bulk saves a lot of money, and working together with your roommate places more money into the pool to buy more things. Each share needs to be equal, else disputes might arise.
2. Stay away from credit cards: You probably receive a large number of credit card offers. The companies will entice you, drawing you in with initial offers of 0% or low percentages. After a few months, that great rate will sour. The real credit card rates for students are usually over 20%.
3. Create a budget: You might be dependent on student loans and money from your parents, but you still have expenses. You might have laundry and books, food and gas. Budget your money according to your expected income, and try to stay within that budget. Put any excess funds into savings.
4. Learn about thrift stores: Goodwill and other thrift stores are excellent resources for finding great deals on clothing, appliances, and furniture. You can find some amazing deals at thrift stores. Look around your area for the closest Goodwill, and be surprised.
5. Tap water is tasty: Tap water is free. After you have drained a water bottle, fill it with tap water. You will have the same effect. If you chill the water, you cannot taste the tap water’s imperfections. Switching to tap water can save you a lot of money.
6. Used books: You can spend a fortune on new books. Fortunately, there are people on campus who have taken the course. You can borrow books from friends and older students. You might be able to purchase used versions of your books at the campus store or online. Buying new is not your only alternative.
7. Pay bills on time: Pay your bills on time. Many companies will let you pay late on their bills, but they will also charge you inconvenient late fees. Sometimes the late fees can become more than the cost of the bill. When you receive a bill, take the time to pay it.
8. Incentives: Companies around your area want your business. They will offer student discounts on everything from car repair to food. You can sometimes receive significant discounts, just for showing your student identification card.
9. Movies: Watching first-run movies is great, but you can pay deadly for popcorn, drinks, and snacks. Eat before you go to the movies, and you will be able to downsize your selections. Choose to drink water, rather than that five dollar soda. The movie will be just as great, and you will have more money in your pocket.
10. Software: There are some excellent free choices for antivirus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware applications. There are trial versions of games. You can get an entire open-source office suite for free. Save your money by going with freeware or shareware.

Staying out of debt is only possible with a lot of effort and persistence. Each small effort against debt adds to the whole, just as each expense adds to the debt which you have. You can be debt free when you leave college.

David Boyd writes at CreditCardCompare.com.au where he writes impartial and in-depth reviews of credit cards for students.

College rankings are all over the place, but the most prestigious and most often cited is U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges. Their college rankings for 2011 recently came out and here are the top 10:

1) Harvard University
2) Princeton University
3) Yale University
4) Columbia University
5) Stanford University
6) University of Pennsylvania
7) California Institute of Technology*
7) Massachusetts Institute of Technology*
9) Dartmouth College
10) Duke University

*These two schools were tied

1. Carry only one credit card. With so many opportunities for college students to get credit cards, it’s easy for them to get carried away and end up with more cards than they can afford. By having just one credit card, students are more likely to keep up with what they owe, and it will be easier for them to establish credit.

2. Use the credit card for one thing only. By limiting credit card purchases to just one thing like gas for the car, groceries, or textbooks, college students are more likely to know exactly how much they owe at the end of the month. If the items designated for credit card purchases are essentials – food, for example – students should know before making a purchase that they’re buying something they can afford.

3. Use the credit card sparingly. College students can establish credit even if they almost never use their credit cards. By just using the card a few times a year, students will be able to build a good credit score, and doing so also makes it easier to pay off a balance since students owe less money.

4. Get a family member to cosign. If you’re a college student thinking about a credit card, see if your parents or other family members with a good credit are willing to cosign with you on a card. College students often sign up for credit cards when they’re away from home, neglecting the fact that cosigning with a family member may allow them to get a credit card with a low interest rate.

5. Shop for a low interest rate. College students shouldn’t just fill out the first credit card application set before them. Many banks, credit unions, and other institutions offer credit cards with competitive rates. These cards are often geared toward college students trying to establish credit.

While it’s easy for college students to head down a slippery slope ending in mountains of credit card debt come graduation time, there are still ways for them to use credit cards responsibly. Considering the credit card options available and knowing how to avoid several common pitfalls can go a long way for students trying to establish credit. In the end, the careful use of a credit card can bring financial rewards.

This is a guest post by Dee Barizo from The Best Degrees, an online school site that picks the top online degrees. Also, the site provides tuition rankings for students looking to save money on their education.