The Millennials are the latest -and some would say, greatest – generation to emerge in America. Currently defined as those between the ages of 18 and 29, Millennials have many recognizable characteristics that researchers have deemed typical of the generation: optimism, tech-savvy, liberal leanings, and a solid educational background. Indeed, it’s easy to see that the Occupy rallies across the nation are populated largely by people who fit this description. It’s definitely been a Millennial-based movement. And though the Millennials are making themselves heard on the streets, they’re represented the most strongly in colleges and universities: the Millennials are already set to become the most well-educated generation in American history, with 40 percent attending college. Perhaps even more remarkable than this, however, is the astounding rate at which Millennials go on to pursue graduate degrees: a whopping 50 percent of those in college say they plan on entering graduate programs afterwards. It could be a sign of the tough financial times, or just evidence of the remarkable smarts and ambition that define this generation. Or perhaps it’s a little of both.

With tuition costs spiraling upwards with each passing year, and endowments shriveling up, financial aid is at an all-time premium. Students are increasingly taking out loans to pay for college – but risk-free financial aid is always the more attractive – and smarter – option. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of misinformation out there about financial aid. These myths are propagated because they have a ring of truth, and they paint an especially dreary picture of the financial aid situation. However, things are not so bad as they seem. Strangely enough, these myths intensify around the area of graduate programs, where the financial burden on the student is perceived to be larger. In fact, grad school doles out aid to a bigger percentage of its students than undergraduate programs do. This infographic dispels 8 of the most common myths surrounding the world of financial aid.

As we steadily approach the edge of the long-anticipated ‘double dip,’ the Great Recession continues its third straight year as the central topic of economic discussion in our country. It has affected, and continues to affect, everyone in the US in one way or another – whether through unemployment, defunding of state and government institutions like school and infrastructure, or the violent fluctuations of the stock market. Unemployment, in particular, has long been pinpointed by numerous economists as the number one economic problem in our midst. And as the regrettable debt ceiling debacle begins to recede into our memory, President Obama is finally preparing to tackle job creation head on, with an address planned for September 8 revealing his plan.

Though unemployment has been wide-reaching across industries, some have clearly been hit worse than others. Certain professions, such as mail sorting and photo processing, are being phased out by emerging digital technologies rapidly rendering them, arguably, obsolete. Others businesses, such as independent record stores, are in decline because of the way their respective industries have radically become transformed – once again, thanks to digital technology.

Other jobs, however, against all odds, are on the rise. The steep rise. And while everyone knows that the tech giants are constantly hiring the best and brightest, you might be surprised to hear about a few of the others. Any interest in becoming a performance makeup artist? Now’s the time, with 40% projected job growth into 2016. Or how about dabbling in mental health counseling? There are more than societal benefits to this job, with a remarkable – though somewhat unexplainable – projected growth of 30%. So if you’re sick of your job and craving a new profession, now might be the time to head back to school and get that secondary degree in one of these 10 specializations. These jobs, according to data, have nowhere to go but up.

Why You Shouldn’t Specialize

For a long time, graduate school and doctorate programs have encouraged students to pursue a career in academia, dreaming of professorships and research grants and eventually achieving tenure. But the simple fact of the matter is that tenure-track jobs are hard to come by, and getting harder all the time. There aren’t enough of them to go around as it is, and as we look toward the future it’s easy to see that academia is not a sound career goal.

What does that mean for doctorate and graduate students? It means that your specialization isn’t going to make you an expert in your particular field of study, increasing demand for your skills – it’s going to make you unemployed. The more you pursue teaching assistantships and concentrate your energy into your dissertation, the further you get from the skill set that can get you a career in the “real world” – you know, the one outside of the university.

Once you’ve realized that the real world is the place you need to eventually head toward (and the economics say it is), the questions will start coming hard and fast. What sort of qualifications does the real world require? How can I get there and still get my Ph.D.? Should I just drop out of graduate school now?

Is My Ph.D. Still Useful?

Fortunately, a future outside of academia is still compatible with getting a Ph.D. You just have to be very aware of the fact that you probably aren’t going to get a cushy tenure-track research teaching position at a prestigious university. You’re more likely to end up somewhere in corporate America, or starting your own business. Instead of putting all of your experience into teaching assistantships and research assistant positions, look for internships outside of your university, or within the university but not in a teaching or research field. Employers look for experience, and if all of your experience is as a teacher, then that’s all you’ll be qualified for no matter how smart you are.

Getting a Ph.D. won’t hurt your employment chances, but it isn’t a sure-fire ticket to getting hired. There are lots of other Ph.D.s out there. You may feel overqualified for most of the jobs you apply for, but that’s just what happens in such an educated society. In the end, it’s the skills you picked up when you were dragging yourself through graduate school that will matter – not the degree itself. Employers respond well to hard workers and analytical thinkers. These are the sorts of things your Ph.D. will say about you. Your expertise on amazonian butterflies won’t be as important.

Remember – the “real” world is about who you know as much as the academic one is. If you don’t start reaching out early, you won’t have the necessary connections when the time comes to look for a job. This is another reason to get experience outside the university as early as possible.

Benefits of Cross-Discipline Studies

Additionally, you should give serious consideration to broadening your skill set through cross-discipline studies. Instead of focusing in on a particular area of your field, add a second area of expertise to your repertoire. For example, if your area is English, try taking some marketing classes, or computer science. With both marketing and English skills, you can make your way in just about any business, especially marketing or research companies. If you’re qualified for English and computer science, you could become a technical writer, and get jobs with big-name companies like Google or Microsoft. By combining skill sets, you create opportunities for yourself that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Plus, by using your time in graduate school to gain more than one useful field of expertise, you get the most out of your education. Instead of spending a lot of money to qualify for one thing, that money has been spent to get you the necessary qualifications to actually become employed quickly. If there’s a specific career that you think you would enjoy, try to tailor your graduate studies to direct you toward that career path. Don’t let your professors pull you back toward teaching exclusively – it’s best to keep your options open.

Peer Pressure

While you’re still in graduate school, it may seem like planning for a career in the outside world is a cop out. After all, the best and brightest are the ones who end up in academia, right? The rest are the drop-outs and the people who couldn’t handle it.

It’s exactly this sort of mindset that has so many intelligent and well-qualified people out of work, or unhappy in their positions. You can still aim for tenure, but there’s nothing wrong with being realistic about your future prospects and having a back-up plan. You can make more money in the business world, and you may even find that you’re happier without the constant pressure to teach and publish. Professorship is a dying profession, which makes it a poor career goal. If you want to do right by yourself, don’t listen to your mentors, urging you to follow in their footsteps. They are the lucky minority, and most of them probably still don’t have the jobs they really wanted. Instead, figure out what it is that you want, and work from there. Don’t let graduate school dictate your future, or else you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

So don’t be an insect. Be a human being. Keep your mind open and your eyes peeled for opportunities, and learn everything you can while you still have a chance. Academia isn’t big enough for everyone anymore, and soon you’ll have to fend for yourself in the “real world.”

*Photo courtesy of wiki commons.

Reasons to Go

There are still plenty of benefits to getting an MBA, particularly for those who know exactly what they want to be doing with their careers. An MBA is an effective way to build credibility with those already in the business world, learn to think like a business person and pick up the business jargon you’ll need to be able to succeed around your future employers and employees, along with other Reasons You Should Get an MBA. But the true benefit in getting an MBA doesn’t lie in the networking connections or the knowledge or even the skills you will acquire while in school – these are all things that you can cobble together on your own, or learn by doing in the working world. There are two situations in which an MBA is an invaluable tool:

1. You want to work in corporate America. Nobody plays by the rules like the big corporations, so if GM is your goal, the MBA isn’t just a benefit – it’s a requirement. The old boys don’t take well to upstarts who haven’t paid their dues in university before venturing into the business world.
2. You want to make a career change without taking a demotion. Say you work in IT for a large company, but lately you’ve found yourself quite jealous of those lucky folks over in the marketing department. You aren’t qualified to work in that other area, so how can you make the switch without starting back on the bottom? Get an MBA. This will help you gain the necessary knowledge and show that you’re committed to making the change. Not to mention that your company might even be willing to pay your tuition.

For more on this topic, take a look at Is an MBA Worth It? by Gal Josefberg, or I have a Great Career; Why Should I Get an MBA? from the Job Whisperer blog, written by Cathy Martin.

Ultimately, the biggest reason to get an MBA is still the same as it’s always been: higher salaries. But the actual data may surprise you. The top 25 business schools may have the prestige you’re looking for, and there are still business leaders who value them highly, but they’re not the soundest investment on the market anymore. In fact, in a recent study Bloomberg Businessweek found that while MBAs from top-ranked schools take an average of ten years to pay back their student loans, 2^nd tier schools took as little as four or five. The fastest return went to Texas A&M, with just under three and a half years. There are a number of reasons for this discrepancy, including the fact that top 25 schools have much higher tuition rates and that MBAs attending those schools tend to have had higher before-salaries, but it’s still something to keep in mind when considering business school. Going to a lower tier school may be a much better investment for you, because you’ll have Faster Returns.

Additionally, the job market is not as soft as it once was, and pay rates and job offer numbers are both steadily rising. In 2011, 55% of business grads had job offers at graduation, which beats the previous 2001 record of 51%. Thus, with More MBA Job Offers and Higher Pay, business school is still a smart investment, if you have a clear idea of how an MBA will help you reach your desired career.

Reasons Not to Go

But there are still plenty of compelling reasons to skip the MBA and jut dump straight into the deep end, especially if you don’t fit into one of the two categories mentioned above. Just a few of these reasons are as follows:

1. The cost. While business schools like to flash the numbers around, claiming higher pay rates for MBAs, the actual difference isn’t much – and they fail to factor in the cost of university and the money lost while you spend two years in school racking up debt. If your goal is more money, and MBA is not going to be your magic trick for getting there.
2. The opportunities. If you’re already in an upwardly mobile position and can see the rest of your career on the horizon, don’t stymie your progress by abandoning it all for the ivory tower. You’ll be much better off learning by doing, and picking the brains of your bosses and supervisors along the way.
3. The mindset. Academia has a rigid system and a set way of thinking, which will get you nowhere if you want to be an entrepreneur. Keep your creativity safe and strike out on your own, making your own rules instead.

Ultimately, if you’re already good at business and succeeding in a (frankly) bleak economy, there’s nothing business school can teach you that you can’t figure out on your own. What’s more, in some environments an MBA is a “Kiss of Death” – it labels you as someone who failed to succeed on your own, and thus had to buy a credential. Be very certain that an MBA is necessary for your career before you invest the time and money into becoming potentially “over-qualified” in an area that there’s isn’t much demand for in a .com environment. If you don’t believe us, take it from the experts:

• 4 Reasons an MBA is Bad for Entrepreneurs
• Don’t Bother with an MBA
• MBA Education is an Oxymoron
• Never Hire an MBA
• Read Before Getting an MBA

Make Up Your Own Mind

Thus, you should think long and hard before going to business school. The fact is, getting an MBA isn’t the right choice for everyone. There are lots of factors that go into determining Who Should Get an MBA – and Who Shouldn’t. As a general rule of thumb, the people who benefit the most from getting an MBA are those who…

• are looking for a career change;
• are stuck in lower levels and want to advance in the business world; or,
• know exactly what they want to do, and have a set plan for how to get there.

Don’t go to business school just to fill a gap in your life plan, and definitely don’t go if you already have a Big Idea and the resources to act on it. For entrepreneurs especially, getting an MBA costs more than it earns, particularly if it means someone else gets to your idea before you do. Plus, an MBA isn’t a particularly academic pursuit – if you like university life, you’re better off going into economics or even mathematics. Business school is all about the real world, building skills for leadership and networking, and it’s not a friendly place for people who want to focus on academics alone.

If you still think an MBA is the best option for you, but you’re not sure about your finances, take a look at Forbes.com’s MBA Payback Calculator – a nifty little tool that helps you calculate the cost of your MBA and how long it will take you to pay it back, based on your current salary and projected starting salary after graduation.

The day is finally here. The letter comes in the mail. Excited, you tear it from the mailbox, then, trembling, gently break open the envelope and peer inside.

Your heart drops. Your throat goes dry. Rejection. And all you can think is those two horrible little words:

Now What?

Don’t panic! You’re not alone. Today, the application pool for graduate school is tougher than ever. With job opportunities apparently hard to come across, an increasing number of college grads who might have gone into the workforce in other years are going straight to graduate school instead. You have stiff competition, and they’re getting just as many rejection letters as you are.

But here’s the good news (yes, there’s good news): that rejection letter may have done you a favor.

Despite what professors and other academics want you to think, being smart doesn’t mean you necessarily have to go to graduate school. In fact, for many people graduate school is the biggest mistake they could possibly make. It’s a huge commitment, both in time and in money, that doesn’t necessarily mean a brighter future. Let’s look at some of the numbers:

Statistics

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 1.6 million bachelor’s degrees were awarded in the United States in 2009. But that same year, only 460 thousand first-time graduates were enrolled in graduate schools. While these numbers are higher than they have ever been in the past, the fact is that there simply aren’t enough graduate school positions available for the number of college graduates who want them, even after you factor out those students who don’t even apply. Your rejection doesn’t mean you’re a failure; it means that you’re just one of the unlucky ones.

Meanwhile, the job outlook for college graduates is actually better than is has been in past years. 73% of students with bachelor’s degrees were employed in 2010, with students willingly not in the labor force accounting for 18%. Those with a master’s degree or higher had employment rates of only 77% – a 4% different paid for dearly in tuition fees and time. As it turns out, going to graduate school isn’t as beneficial for your career outlook as many people would have you think.

What do you want?

Given that graduate school won’t help much with your future job prospects, that leaves only your own personal desire to attend. You may protest the implication – of course you want to go to graduate school. You’ve always wanted to go. Why else would you have worked so hard all those years?

But the sad fact is, the academy has a tendency to push people toward graduate school when they should really be striking out on their own. In some ways, it works almost like a cult: it demands all of your time and attention, minimizes your contact with the outside world, indoctrinates you into one way of thinking, and, worst of all, convinces you that not going to grad school means “not living up to your potential” – emotional blackmail.

Of course, the link is only superficial. Going to graduate school does not make you a kool-aid drinker, but it is something to think about: what are your real reasons for wanting to go? Is it because you like the challenge, because you love your area of study, because you can’t imagine life without 60% of your time spent with your nose in a book? Or is it because you feel pressure from professors and peers, because you think if you don’t go, you won’t have a future?

Questions

Before making a decision, ask yourself these questions:

1. Can I handle the time commitment that grad school represents? Too often, college grads think they’re prepared for graduate school because they survived college, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The sheer magnitude of required work in graduate school is enough to crush the average college student, so be prepared.
2. Do I know what I want to do? Having a career in mind is key when deciding whether or not to attend grad school. The simple fact of the matter is that some careers care more about experience than education, and your enrollment in grad school will only mean time you weren’t working. Make sure you know what kind of credentials your profession looks for, because you don’t want to waste anyone’s time or money – especially your own.
3. Where did I get the idea for grad school? This may seem like an obvious question, but it’s an important one to consider. If graduate school was your own idea, and you’re sure that it’s what you want, then by all means go for it. But if graduate school was suggested by a professor, friend or even a parent, think twice. Are you really going for yourself? Or are you just doing it to make someone else happy?
4. Am I hoping graduate school will balance out my useless degree? It’s common to think that a “useless degree” (you know which ones) means that you won’t be qualified for anything straight out of college, and will thus have to go to graduate school to make something of yourself. But this is a myth. In fact, just having a bachelor’s degree of any sort means that you have gained tons of important skills: knowing how to write, the ability to keep track of and meet deadlines, planning ahead to ensure that all of your requirement are taken care of before the fun things, etc. You may not be able to find a job in the field you majored in, but you’re more qualified than you think. And besides – is a master’s degree in the same subject really any better?

So when that rejection letter comes, don’t hang your head and sink into the pits of despair. Instead, use it as an opportunity for reflection. Maybe graduate school isn’t right for you. Maybe you are ready for the real world after all.

*Photo courtesy of wiki commons.

The first step to resolving any conflict is, of course, to recognize that there’s a problem. But as shown in documents like the Higher Education Employment Report, the problem isn’t as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Academic jobs are actually on the rise again, and while universities are still favoring part-time and adjunct positions over professorships, hiring increases have occurred across the boards. Of course, jobs in higher education only account for about 1.31% of jobs in the United States, while almost 11% of Americans have masters or doctorate degrees. Thus, many PhDs are forced to look outside of the academic sphere for employment, and they’re seeing great results. For example, the owner/manager of Sellout – a website dedicated to helping people leave the ivory tower.

In this guide, we hope to give you the information and tools you need to find the employment you really want after your graduate career is over, whether its inside the university or out in the regular job market.

Academic Positions

When applying for an academic position, it’s important to understand how the game is played in a university setting. It doesn’t work the same way job searches in the outside world do, or the way it did when you were putting yourself through school with part-time work. Instead, you have to focus on finding mentors who you look up to, winning their approval and finding positions through those connections. Additionally, you have to conduct yourself with the proper attitude, viewing the environment you enter as more of a family than a job. Spend some time studying the Etiquette for Entering an Academic Job Market before you start actually applying for positions, to make sure you don’t commit any major faux-pas when you’re marketing yourself. Listen to any Academic Job Search Advice you’re offered, because with the market the way it is, any hand up is a godsend, and make sure to apply early and often. Here are some basic tips:

1. Apply about a year before you actually need the job, in October or November. Getting early attention marks you as an eager applicant, and means that you’ll have fewer applications to compete with. Most schools stop accepting applications in January, but keep applying into late winter anyway – you never know who might take a liking to your CV.
2. Make sure all your papers are in order before you start applying. And that means all of them. Polish your CV, draft your research and teaching statements (six or seven times if you have to), and let your letter writers know well in advance what you need from them. Keep them posted throughout the process, too – people like to know how things turn out.
3. Have a back-up plan. Lots of fields go through tough years where nobody is hiring anywhere in academia, and you’d be lucky to get an adjunct position, much less a professorship. Don’t panic, though. Take a couple of years to do something else while you’re waiting for the market. Join a start-up, become a post-doc, do some traveling – whatever appeals to you. But don’t stop looking for work in academia, because you don’t want to miss it when the market comes back.

For more tips, take a look at Tips for a Massive Academic Job Search. There are plenty of resources to help graduate students find work within the academic sphere, so don’t panic if things look grim. Here are a few sites to help you out:

• Academic Careers Online
• Academic Employment Network
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• Higher Education Jobs

Non-Academic Positions

For those of you willing to leave the cocoon of the ivory tower – or just tired of being trapped up there – the broader job market might be a better option, though certainly not a more secure one. Job outlook across the boards is pretty grim, though it’s picking up these days. If your ultimate goal is outside of academia, there are a few career paths that you should consider especially. These are the fields with growing employment rates, in spite of the bad economy:

1. Computer Science – The world is becoming ever more digital, and it shows in the job market. If you’re a whiz with computers, then a masters or doctorate in computer science is going to be worth your while after university.
2. Nursing/Physician Assistant – No matter what the economy is doing, there will always be a need for medical professionals. For those not willing to go through the hassles and struggles of med school, nursing is a great alternative that offers quite a bit of job security.
3. Civil Engineering – Engineering has always been a fairly safe career route, but with an ever growing population and the demand for more space, civil engineers have their hands full designing roadways and buildings to accommodate everyone.

For more information about growing careers, take a look at Forbes.com’s Best Master’s Degrees for Jobs.

Once you’ve graduated and it’s time to look for non-academic work, there are some things to keep in mind. Job searching is very different in the “real world” from the way it is inside of academia, and if you spent your graduate career firmly entrenched in your research or teaching it’s unlikely that you’ll have the connections you need. While you’re still getting your degree, be sure to branch out and accept internships outside of the university, and try to network with people who have jobs you want. Find out how they got there, and ask their advice on what you should do. Use these resources to help you get everything straight:

• Beyond Academe – A guide to finding work outside the university for history graduates, but the advice also applies to masters and doctorate students in general.
• Developing a Nonacademic Career – A detailed guide to the differences between academic and non-academic job hunting, from the Modern Language Association (MLA).
• Non-Academic Career Guide – A graduate student career guide from the University of California-Irvine.
• Overcoming the 3 Barriers to the Post Academic Job Search – Julie’s blog is an exercise in figuring out what you love to do, even if it means leaving behind the career you always thought you wanted. A great read for those hesitant about choosing a non-academic career path.
• Recasting Yourself for Non-Academic Jobs – A helpful article for PhDs who think they aren’t qualified for anything outside of academia. Hope is not lost!

*Photo courtesy of Guillaume Paumier / Wikimedia Commons, CC-by-3.0.

The financial aid office presents a great hurdle to get across for many students.  While most strive to allow you to gain the largest amount you can in order to fund your education, others almost inhibit your chances at remaining within the school.  It is a lengthy process that begins when you first enroll at the university your senior year in high school and must complete the FAFSA in order to determine whether your family qualifies for financial aid.  This qualifying step is very difficult to determine overall and does not take in to account any additional debts or finances the parents must pay for per year.

However, the FAFSA is only the first step in a list of complicated addendum.  Once you determine if you are eligible for financial aid, you must then also apply for scholarship after scholarship.  Many websites now aid in this process, such as Fastweb, but it becomes a continuing disappointment to apply to so many different scholarships and not be awarded one.  Adding to this continued frustration is the knowledge that should you persist in your hunt for scholarships, you feel the need to do so after every year.  If you don’t constantly look for scholarships, you almost feel as if you are throwing away tuition money every year which progressively adds up. 

Some financial aid offices are very helpful in getting the word out when new scholarships come in, while others make the students work to discover new scholarships within the school.  Most students are more compelled to research for scholarships during high school, when they have considerably more time to research items outside of school subjects as well as time to write essays for each scholarship.  However, you should always be on the lookout for scholarships that come your way, in order to ease the burden of loan payments on yourself or your parents later on in life.  Most scholarships simply require a short essay, and some do not even require that much.  When you are thinking about your future and the next decades of your life, this stress will be much alleviated by the prospect of smaller loan repayments due to scholarships. 

Loans are another area in which the financial aid office deals with.  Loans come in all shapes and sizes, and while federal loans and grants do have limitations, most private loans do not, although be wary of high interest rates which accompany private loans.  Your accrued debt could end up becoming twice as much as the amount you took out simply because of high interest rates.  On the other hand, having a parent cosign loans electronically helps to decrease the amount of interest owed, which becomes very helpful after you graduate.  Keeping on top of loan deadlines is also important, since most schools have a time period during which they accept payments.

The financial aid office is intended to aid students in ways to finance their education and should be there to offer advice and various ways in which to gain funds.  Whether you receive grants, scholarships, or loans, the purpose of this office is to keep you up to date with these funds, as well as assist you in any way they can to make this confusing process easier, which is why it is important to make frequent visits.

The end of college is always a scary and fulfilling time of your life; it is that moment where you have almost endless choices in front of you, yet at the same time are still cautious about making a significant life choice.  College is part of growing up and discovering/determining who you are, but at the same time, you are thrown out into the world upon graduation.  Most students opt for some type of graduate school in order to further their education, which lately, has been proven to be one of the better choices to take.

Further education of any type, whether it be law school, med school, or grad school, requires a great amount of planning and concentration.  All further degrees require an entrance exam upon enrollment in a specific program, which can be intimidating to think about while still in college because of the extensive amount of studying which is required in order to do well.  The entrance exams alone are one of the main reasons you should have a plan already forming in your mind about your next steps in life.  These exams (mostly the LSAT, GRE, GMAT, and MCAT) require at least a few months of preparation, in addition to different testing fees and later application fees.  Then there is also the decision as to whether you want to take a prep course for the exams, or if you wish to study on your own.  Studying on your own opens up a new deliberation as to which study book is the best to use.  Every study book claims it is the best, but more research needs to be delved into in order to make an informed decision.

You also need to make sure to schedule your test ahead of time in order to plan for application deadlines.  Some schools have their application deadlines set as early as November, and many have early decision deadlines in October.  Most schools encourage early applications as well in order to make sure the student gets all the materials turned is, an additionally increase their chances of getting in.  If you turn your applications in on the day of the deadline, the risk of getting waitlisted by the university increases greatly.  This is yet another reason to plan early on, in order to determine which schools you want to apply to, and therefore determine when you need to schedule your tests and set aside time to complete your applications.  Most med schools require interviews, while law schools base much of their decision on a candidate’s personal statement.

This preparation for the future is necessary if you decide that what you really want to do is further your education.  Lately, with the economy the way it is, higher specializations in specific fields are in high demand, which has increased the number of applicants to different schools, and thereby increasing the competitiveness. Getting a jump start on the process will allow you to gain that much of an advantage towards having your pick of schools.
 

The concept of ecotourism is not a new one.  For approximately two decades, the term ecotourism has been used to promote travel to countries whose primary attractions are its natural wonders.  Ecotourists are a socially and environmentally conscious group of people who wish to have authentic experiences in the lands they travel to, without making a negative impact on the environment or the communities that they visit.

More and more, opportunities to study abroad within nature are providing students of all ages with holistic experiences that bring together the natural elements and those of the classroom for a truly enriching educational endeavor.  Additionally, universities around the world are offering courses, certificates, and degrees in ecotourism to meet the rising demand.

Education is inherent in the ecotourism model.  The entire concept is based around learning from other cultures and environments while making a minimal impact on the ecosystem.  An appreciation of flora, fauna, and terrain is another reason many make visits to certain countries.  

Another focus of the ecotourism trade is to help the communities being visited to become prosperous while maintaining the integrity of the environment around them without catering to big businesses that try to greenwash their operations.  Learning how to live more sustainably while supporting these communities is another goal of this growing group of travelers. 

In the end ecotourism is an educational endeavor, whether one is studying abroad, learning to become a guide, or simply traveling with an eye on the environmental aspects of the places they visit.  People interested in ecotourism should seek out opportunities to learn from other lands and cultures while promoting a sustainable and holistic approach to traveling.