It’s pretty much over and back to school. Time to get serious again and hit the books after most students enjoyed a break lapping up the sunshine, enjoying the beach, parks and well, all the great stuff of holidays. But not all students opted for a break from the books or a holiday. Some decided to study through the summer and others chose to undertake some very different vacations. These are a couple of their stories.

A Southeastern University student spent the 10 weeks of his vacation amongst the homeless, living on the streets with them. The wealthy Long Island native decided he wanted to see how the other half live. A desire that was born he said of a Christian ethos. Fortunately for him Southeastern chose to let him count the experience as an internship.

A group of ten high schools students decided to give up their summer vacation to work in Michigan State University labs in the Future Scientist Program. The program is designed to encourage kids into research careers by providing them with the experience and cutting edge facilities of a modern research organization. That is kinda cool. Although these kids had to put in 40 hours a week and attend seminars they were compensated $2000 each at the end of the program. That isn’t actually bad money for a high school student!

Meanwhile the vast majority did decide to take the opportunity to lax out and chill with their mates. Although stats show that the majority of Americans didn’t travel this year a lot of students still found the opportunity to read a good book, skull a cold beer or just hang out with friends a welcome one after a stressful year of work and study. Let’s hope it was enough to get everyone ready to step back into research and writing mode.

It is a continually astounding fact that some students amid all of their responsibilities and stresses, manage to do some truly wonderful and amazing things. An example of an incredibly resourceful student in Britain really epitomizes what is possible. This particular student was able to take what she had learnt in her science lessons and create a truly unique invention which no-one else (no big corporate or doctoral student or research lab) had thought of before. Kudos to Emily Cummins in the U.K., this is what she did.

She invented a solar powered, portable, eco-fridge using bits and pieces in the family shed. The fridge is now being used extensively in poverty stricken countries where the simplicity of its construction makes it viable even amongst the poor. In addition to providing chillers to poor hot countries, the use of the solar powered fridge has expanded to include a portable model for transporting chilled goods in a fresh state. This includes medical supplies and bio chemicals.

The fridge wasn’t Emily’s first invention. She is also credited with inventing a toothpaste squeezer for people with arthritis and a water carrying device.  She says she came up with the idea for the fridge by considering how humans cool through sweating, or the process of evaporation. Of her own invention Emily says, "My time in Namibia made me wonder how often we miss the simplest solutions to problems." Wise words!

Here’s the most ironic part of this story. This woman was refused admittance into an engineering program because she lacked the correct credentials! Instead she is studying Business Management at Leeds. Somehow I don’t think she’ll need that engineering degree anyway.

Choosing a topic for the most important paper you may ever write in your life can be an overwhelming prospect that many students are happy to have to do only once! Going about deciding upon a topic is not an easy task and students are often tempted to choose complicated or ground breaking subjects that will really wow their professor and dissertation committee. That isn’t always the best choice to make unless a number of other factors are considered.

Is your topic researchable?

Topics which have very little supporting data or which are so obscure that researching them is a time consuming and mammoth task will create an overwhelming volume of extra time and effort. It is just as impressive to pull together a thesis about a well researched subject which you put into new perspective. That option also provides you with the opportunity to spend your time creating a brilliant well written piece rather than scrounging for information or testing difficult results.

Write what you know!

A dissertation is a reflection of your knowledge and skill. It is a super opportunity to show off years of study and hard work. By using a topic that is familiar you will be able to show yourself in the best light and come off sounding like a real expert. That is especially true if you are able to show that you have understood what you have learnt and have been able to further develop the idea independently. Writing what you know also has the advantage of being a topic you have already been in interested in; it will likely hold your attention and interest for the time it takes to write your dissertation.

If you really can’t decide upon a topic, or you’re too nervous to take such a leap without advice, consult your dissertation chair or committee. They will likely offer suggestions and these will have the advantage of appealing to the people you need to impress at the end of the day!

Wake up some days and wonder why the heck you do it? Years and years of study for a degree and your not sure if it’s worth it – well it is! You might have other reasons but we all know money is a big motivator, money makes the world go round, and the further along you get in your degree program the more money for you. That’s true if you are a man or a woman but unfortunately it’s truer if you are a man. This is what the U.S. Census Bureau tells us about education and money:

If you don’t finish high school your average income will be $19,989 per year. If you finish high school but don’t go on to tertiary education your pay will average $27,448. That s an excellent pay increase just for making it to the end of high school. A bachelor degree will get you $47,853 and a graduate degree $63,174. That’s the difference between a barely comfortable lifestyle and an excellent lifestyle with holidays abroad and lots of toys.

Unfortunately if you’re a woman with a graduate degree you will still make less than a guy with a bachelor's degree. In fact he’ll make $7,000 more a year than you will so what’s going on - why are there more women in varsity than ever before? Well the $52,301 average a woman with a graduate degree will earn is still better than the female high school graduates earnings of $21,711. If you can get away with it, for example if you are in a profession where you aren’t seen, for example a writer, you might be better off changing your name or writing under a pseudonym for the extra man dollars!

Even if the pay disparity does piss you off the thing to take from these stats is that education does, at the end of the day pay off, so keeping slogging away!