Preparing for college is tough, there is the making friends and if you are living on campus, living with people you don’t know, not to mention the coursework, it can be downright overwhelming I know I felt that way.
Now what if I told you that there are some seriously great MOOC’s that will help you be better prepared for college academically. These classes will you help you to learn how to learn so that you have enough time to party while getting great grades. I think that college is a lot easier if you know how to play the game so that is why I want share with you five MOOC’s that will help you to crush college.
The first class I want to tell you about is the UC San Diego class called Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental tools to help you master tough subjects. This class is taught by Dr. Barbard Oakley a professor of Engineering and Industrial Engineering . It is also taught by Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, the Fracis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute. I like this class because it teaches you about universal learning techniques from subjects like math ,art, music and other fields. This class gives you insight into how your brain learns and by using the techniques taught it will help you to figure out how you best learn and help you to use this information as a tool to study effectively( in between your hangovers of course)
The next class I want to tell you about to Personal Family and Financial Planning. I can tell you from experience as a broke college student that knowing how to manage your money it a key skill not only in college but in life. That’s why the next course I love is also from coursera and its all about managing your money. This class is taught by Michael Gutter PHD. from the University of Florida. It teaches you about cash, credit, wealth, and risk management as well as the environmental effects on personal and family financial management. After taking this class you will know how to budget to have enough money to pay for nights on the town as well as tuition payments.
Nihao, the next class I think is crucial for college is Chinese for beginners. This Nihao (Hello in mandarin), while in the US ,Chinese is not the main language spoken I believe language skills are very important to learn in college (I’m biased towards Chinese) due to the rapid globalization of our world. It can’t hurt to know another language and its makes you way more marketable for jobs after college if you are fluent in a language other than English. So get a head start before college by taking a foreign language.
Hungry anyone, This class by Stanford University , Child Nutrition and Cooking talks about how to prepare healthy meals for children. I believe it is also very helpful for college students while (I would hope) that as a college student you have no children, this class not only teaches you about nutrition but also how to cook healthy meals and even teaches you how to stock a kitchen do you have the staples available so you never go hungry. This is enormously helpful because it helps you to eat out less (saving crazy money) and is the gift that keeps on giving for a lifetime.
So, to recap language skills, personal finance planning, learning Chinese and knowing how to cook are the life skills that the MOOC’s featured teach you and what I think you would need to know to make it throughout college and life. What do you think are the best MOOC’s to take that will help prepare for college?
Yours in Awesome Learning,
Janeille
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