CollegeParentBlog.com

Free Anti-virus for UNC-Chapel Hill Students

2009-10-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

Parents- if you're the proud parent of a Carolina Tarheel, make sure your student knows that they can get FREE antivirus software from the university. And, by free, we mean it's built into the price of tuition. See details and the link below for further details.

Effective Antivirus Protection

Outside of a good password, constant antivirus protection is one of the most critical components on a secure computer system. Viruses can easily cause your system data to be compromised, and their destructive influence is devastating. The university provides Symantec Antivirus (PC) and Norton Antivirus (Mac) for free to all students, staff, and faculty, so there's no excuse not to install it.

http://help.unc.edu/1629

Tankless water heater - 30% tax credit

2009-04-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

I just learned today that there is a 30% federal tax credit available if you purchase a "tankless water heater", eligible up to a $1,500 tax credit. Apparently, this is the renewal of a credit that expired back in 2007.

Several companies currently sell these tankless water heaters. See the link below for a list of those companies (Bosch, Takagi, and Rinnai).

http://www.houseneeds.com/Shop/HeatingProducts/WaterHeating/tanklesswaterheaters_energycredit.asp

I don't advocate spending a dollar to save 30 cents, but if you're in the market for a new water heater, this sounds like an interesting option that is more energy efficient than older "tank" models.

Placefinder.com

2008-08-13T18:47:00.001-07:00

Parents - if your son or daughter needs to find a place to live off-campus, then pass along this website to them. It's free to search and post, whether you're a student or a landlord.

http://www.placefinder.com/

Tesla motors

2008-02-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

Parents - here's the car of the future. It's a fully-electric car. It has a range of 220 miles, can go 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds (faster than a Lamborghini). Think of the opportunities with a car like this. No pollution either. It's a super-charged electric golf cart. There's hardly any operational parts compared to the cars on the road today. Other than the rotor, you don't have to worry about changing fuel pumps, timing belts, oil filters, etc.

You can check out the website below for all the details. It's got a price tag of $90k, so it's not small change for a new car. I think they're hoping to have a $30k sedan come out relatively soon. I think the closest service station to us in North Carolina is Miami, Fl, so I'll need to take a few days of vacation just to have it serviced.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

Airline rankings out

2008-02-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

Well, the Wall Street Journal was just reporting on airlines the other day. It's no big surprise that some airlines are doing well, and others, well, not so much. Southwest continues to be profitable and perform well in customer service categories. You can't beat their cheap ticket prices either. While Southwest lost money on passengers, its' hedging of fuel prices allowed it to profit in 2007. The bigger airlines didn't fare too well in terms of fuel prices, and their profitability suffered as a result. It'll be interesting to see what happens going forward, given the ever-increasing price of a barrel of oil.

Want out of your cell phone contract?

2008-01-27T18:51:00.001-08:00

If you're looking for a way out of your cell phone contract, but don't want to pay the excessive early termination fees, then click the banner link below to visit www.cellswapper.com.

You can make online postings for free.

Parents - read this to your college kid tonight

2008-01-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Hey CP's - we've got something we think is pretty good here. This is a message sent from a familial college student who is in their final undergraduate semester.

What are the differences between public, private, and home schooling, and how does this affect a student's entrance into collegiate education--that really isn't the best way to word the question, because it is more about the nature of education itself about which a student ought to be informed BEFORE he or she goes to college. I mean, it is fairly well-established that a 4-year public high school education does little to nothing in terms of higher educational preparation. Basic questions of learning like 'What does it mean to learn?'; 'How do I read a book so as to understand its content and not just gain its information?' (cf. Adler on this one); 'What should I expect from a liberal arts education (if I am going to a liberal arts school?'; 'What should I expect from a technical institute like VA Tech); and what should I not expect?'; and so on. In other words, a student should have read Adler's book by the time he or she goes off to a liberal arts school, whether one agrees with Adler or not. Liberal arts education is about reading, thinking, reflecting, writing, and other allied activities. A fundamental (mis)conception about the modern American collegiate experience is that it is a rite of passage into adulthood (and to be sure, it is that in a sense), where one 'finds himself' while having a lot of fun doing various scurrilous deeds from good academic work to streaking the lawn after getting smashed at a frat party. A forgotten aspect of the modern American collegiate experience is what brought the university into existence originally--namely, learning. A great referral on this one would be Dorothy Sayers' article 'The Lost Tools of Learning' which should be available via Google, and which answers--by referring to the medieval scholastic university tradition--the question of HOW to learn, i.e., how to learn per se, what it means to learn something, anything. NB: Sayers' and this article are, educationally speaking, extremely conservative (Sayers herself was a medieval expert and a Christian, spec. an Anglican--good buddies with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien)--all of which to say that not everybody agrees with Sayers, classical liberal arts education (along with Adler and van Doren; cf. also Alan Bloom, Niel Postman, and any book on Amazon.com that talks about saving the modern university from the French), or me, for that matter--though I think everybody should agree with me, at least on this matter.

(I just glanced at the lengthy paragraph I wrote above and noticed that it had turned into a sermon. I apologize for this, but I'm not editing it.)

Honors programs, or something like it--if the student is in an Honors or Leadership program of some sort, as early as possible, encourage them to talk with the administrators to figure out what exactly will be required (Are there extra classes I need to take? Is there a senior project or thesis? If so, where can I get advice on how to do it excellently? Will this help me get into a good grad school, etc.?)

Graduate School - perhaps there is a time when it it too early to look into grad school, but if the student is particularly self-started or close to be self-started, start seeking advice from professors and administrators on this issue (and not only with logistics like GREs, transcripts, etc., but on qualitative issues, like the best schools at which to study, what the cutting-edge research is in a given field). If a student has a particular grad school (or schools) in mind, and currently has some professors who studied at that school, encourage him or her to talk to those very professors. Great insight can be given from graduates from graduate schools there.

A exclusive & fancy "timeshare"

2008-01-07T20:25:00.001-08:00

College parents - if you're looking for an luxury & exclusive residence program, then check out the video at Exclusive Resorts.

BIGWORDS.com

2008-01-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

As college students get ready to head back to campus for the start of the spring semester, bookstores across the country gear up for what has to be a very profitable time of the year. Certainly not wanting to pay full retail price for books, I was just informed about a college book website by a familial college student. www.BigWords.com. Check it out. The great thing about this site is that it does all the dirty work for you when it comes to comparison shopping. BigWords calls it their "Multi-Item Price Optimization™". If you're like me, you sit down and go through 4-5 web sites, tracking all the information in an Excel sheet, before coming to a conclusion as to where each book will be procured. With BIGWORDS.com, you won't have to do this anymore.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

With the start of a New Year, we're launching a new site with you, college parents, in mind. We know you're jealous that your kids are away at college. And we're fairly certain that your kids get tired of hearing you call up with nothing super important to discuss - no worries, all your problems are solved. Here's what you do: each time you go to make a call to your kids, stop by our site on the way. Grab something quick to chat about, and give them a ring. Then, they won't be annoyed that you're just nagging them to death, and you'll feel better knowing that you not only talked to them, but you made them just a little bit smarter. Who knows? Maybe they'll learn more from you than from college after all...let's hope not, though. With education inflation averaging 6% annually, I'm sure you're hoping you can retire of your kid's paycheck in just a few short years.

PS. If you have information you think is worth sharing to other college parents, send us an e-mail at info @ ShowYaCare.com.