“Am I a terrible mom?” Carson’s mother wondered, watching her son struggle through another chapter of his tenth grade literature book. None of the half-dozen homeschool curriculums she’d tried through the years seemed to work. Getting Carson to study was still like pulling teeth.

His intelligence definitely wasn’t the problem: Carson’s IQ was 110, on the higher side of normal. “Maybe his dad can talk to him about work ethic,” she mused. “Then again, Carson studies for hours, and it doesn’t seem to help.” She sighed, sinking into a chair. “I’m just trying to give my son a good education. What am I missing?”

Is your teen getting more and more lost in high school? Have you wondered if there’s more behind their frustration than difficult coursework and too many late nights?

Believe it or not, a learning disorder could be the culprit.

What is a learning disability?

A learning disability occurs when a person’s brain manages information in a different way than other people do, complicating and slowing down their learning. About 4 million American school children have diagnosed learning disabilities, varying from mild to severe.

The most common kinds of learning disorders are:

• Dyslexia, trouble with reading and comprehension. (Dyslexia encompasses 80% of diagnosed learning disabilities.)

• Dysgraphia, difficulty with forming and recording written thoughts.

• Dyscalculia, a challenge with numbers and math skills.

• Auditory Processing Disorder, a condition that makes it hard for children to translate sounds into coherent thoughts.

• Visual Processing Disorder, difficulty translating images into meaningful information.

How could I miss my teen’s learning disability for so long?

If they have an undiagnosed learning disorder, your student has probably been using their scholastic strengths to compensate. Students often compensate by:

• writing sloppily to cover up spelling problems

• adopting a lazy demeanor to cover up lack of skill

• making you believe he can do a task when he really can’t

• memorizing information to make up for not being able to calculate or read it

• recognizing context and patterns to get right answers

• picking up knowledge from TV, social interaction, or other sources outside school

What are signs of a learning disability in my high school student?

Some symptoms of learning disabilities are:

• Exaggerated difficulty, dislike, or delay in writing, reading or computing (think back to early education as well)

• Withdrawal or “acting out"

• Inconsistent learning

• Disconnect between reading and comprehension OR comprehension and expression

• Difficulty with mental fact organization (i.e., can’t remember facts or connections between facts)

• Frustration or apathy toward school

• Extreme disorganization or sloppy work

Of course, just because a student may be frustrated with a class or have poor handwriting, doesn’t mean they have a learning disability. But, especially if several signs are present at once, this list can help you uncover the truth.

Do I need to get my student tested and into a therapy program?

Ultimately, the only way to know for sure that your teen has a learning disorder is to get them tested. Specialists use an array of tests to pinpoint the kind of learning disorder that your student has, enabling you to focus on the best education and therapy options for their unique needs.

Many parents are reluctant to have their student “labeled” or prefer not to involve doctors, but that is not always the best thing for either you or your teen. Especially if your student has severe learning problems, it may be wise to seek outside help.

One significant reason to seek help sooner rather than later is that in K-12, the educational system generally takes more responsibility to diagnose and help a student with a learning disability. In college however, the burden increasingly falls on the student to document their learning disability and request an "accommodation."

An accommodation is a term used to describe the exceptions a school may make on behalf of a student with a documented learning disability. These accommodations can include things like more time to take an exam, an alternate assignment, or someone to read questions to them. Getting tested and helped early not only maximizes the help available, but it also means your child enjoys more years of success in their learning.

You have two testing options, public testing or private testing.

Public Testing:

Public testing is free to public school students. If your teen is in a public school, you can simply contact the school and request testing under the IDEA legislation.

Note: While free public testing is legally available to all qualifying taxpayers (including those who choose homeschool or private school), disputes and attendance requirements can make it a big hassle for homeschool families. Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) recommends that homeschoolers should not seek public testing for their students.

Private Testing:

Private testing is available through specialists such as clinical psychologists or psychiatrists. (Medical insurance does usually not cover testing for learning disabilities, so this option can be quite expensive.)

To find a private specialist, ask for a recommendation from your family doctor, call a medical clinic, or search online for a local specialist to set up an initial visit.

If my child does have a learning challenge, what’s next?

If you chose public testing, you can also get free therapy through the public school system. If you went the private route, private therapists are also available to work with your teen. Usually, they will help with what they call "interventions" as part of an Individualized Education Program, or IEP.

If, after weighing all your options, you don’t want or can’t afford professional testing, you still have diagnosis and treatment options:

• Books and websites offer a world of diagnosis and educational resources, including quizzes to pinpoint a learning disability. The Complete Learning Disabilities Handbook is another helpful tool.

• Experiment with different teaching methods to find what works well for your student. For example, some families have found great success with reading, writing, and grammar struggles using the Stevenson Program. The program uses mnemonics, rhymes, and other techniques to help students get around a "mental roadblock."

• If finances allow, private academic therapists provide intensive, informed learning therapy.

• If you don’t feel able to teach your student yourself, but can’t afford a therapist, you may be able to hire a tutor familiar with learning disabilities. Teachers willing to put in after-school hours, local reading classes, or homeschool co-ops may be good places to start.

Experts acknowledge that even very involved parents can miss a student’s learning problems. Don’t feel bad if you are only beginning to suspect a learning disability in your teen.

As you and your student discover the best way to face their challenges, be encouraged! Scholars believe many famous people, including General George Patton, inventor Thomas Edison, and renowned writer Agatha Christie, struggled with learning disorders. Through their brilliance and hard work, they overcame their difficulties and each made an unforgettable impression on the world.

With determination, your student can do the same.

Special thanks to private academic therapist Marlee Joynes, whose gracious answers helped me fill this post with practical guidance and so many invaluable details.

With authorities advising social distancing and college campuses across the country shutting down in response to COVID-19, thousands of college students are suddenly stuck at home trying to figure out what’s next.

If you’ve spent most of your college career on a campus, the transition to at-home studies can be jarring, especially if your school doesn’t typically offer online classes.

But studying in a new location isn't the hardest part. Honestly, it's the last thing on many people's minds. Fear of how this illness may continue to impact our families, communities, and world leaves us feeling helpless and trapped.

In this crisis, it might help to remember that you aren't actually trapped. You're not being “forced” to remain indoors. You’re choosing to exercise the power you have to help keep yourself and your community healthy and safe.

Social distancing is a power move, and it doesn't have to spell the end of activities like graduating college—activities that will remain important to your future after this crisis has passed.

If your college is just figuring out the transition to online studies, or if it’s completely shut down for now, you have other options to keep you on track for graduation. By taking flexible college coursework online from institutions that already have the online systems in place, you can avoid falling behind in your college studies. Then, once schools are cleared to resume regular campus studies, you can transfer these courses into your degree.

If you'd like to use this time of voluntary isolation to keep up with (or even get ahead on) your college studies, here are a few guidelines to choosing the perfect online class:

Confirm your college's transfer policy

Most institutions accept between 15 and 90 outside credits, but your school will still have very specific rules about what courses can apply to your particular degree. It’s important to figure out what these requirements are so you can take online classes that meet those standards.

To find out which credits your college will accept, search your college’s website for their transfer policy. Schools typically have this information thoroughly explained in their online resources.

If you want to keep working on your degree while you’re staying safe and germ-free, here’s a quick guide to transferring credits to your college.

Make sure the course you take is actually required for your degree

After you confirm that your school accepts outside credits but before you sign up for an online class, you’ll want to check on a few things to pinpoint whether your course fits your specific degree:

1. Course Types

Your degree is made up of three types of courses: general education, area of study, and free electives. Depending on your degree, your school will have specific requirements for what courses are accepted in each category.

General education courses cover fundamental subjects like English, math, natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Area of study courses cover the specialized topics in your degree and are the most highly-regulated portion of your studies. Schools are typically pretty strict about which courses count for the area of study, so it’s probably not the best course type to try substituting without help. Finally, free electives give you the chance to try a variety of courses that don’t have to relate to your major. While your institution will likely have rules guiding what free electives you can take, this is often a great place to insert outside transfer credits.

2. Degree Requirements

Engineering majors will have significantly different degree requirements than English majors, so make sure you check up on your specific degree guidelines before committing to an online class. Your institution will typically list the number of credits you need for each course type on its website and give an overview of specific subjects required for your major.

3. Course Codes

Course codes are your key to comparing the course you want to take to your college’s degree requirements. These codes clue you into two very important pieces of information about a course: its type (the abbreviations ENG, MAT, BUS may stand for “English,” “Math,” and “Business,” respectively) and its level (100, 200, 300, or 400*). Each college has their own unique system for applying course codes, but they’re still your best shot at finding a course that will be accepted by your school.

First, you want the course abbreviation or prefix to match. If your degree requires a BUS (business) course for example, don’t take a MAT (math) course. It likely won’t transfer.

Second, you’ll want to match the course numbers as closely as possible too. Here, you’ll mostly pay attention to the first digit, as this is what clues you into what level of course your degree requires. If the first digit is 1 or 2, it’s a lower-level course. If it’s 3 or 4, it’s an upper-level course. You’ll want to make sure the substitute course you’re signing up for is the correct level or else it’s unlikely to transfer.

Finally, find an online option whose name and description aligns closely with the course required by your institution. The closer the match, the more likely it will be an acceptable substitute.

If you want to learn more, here’s a detailed guide to translating course codes.

*Some colleges number their courses using more than three digits, though the rule we talked about still applies—the first digit represents that course’s level, so it’s the most important one to match up.

Make sure the course you take is accredited

Accreditation is the stamp of approval given to a course by a governing educational organization. It tells you how well the course meets education standards. Colleges and universities vary on their level of accreditation (as well as the level they require for transfer courses), but typically you’ll want to look for regional accreditation. This is the highest level of accreditation, so it provides the most security when transferring courses.

Make sure the course you take is flexible

The beauty of online classes is their potential for flexibility. If there’s ever a time to be stressing about homework deadlines or showing up for an online meeting, it’s not in the midst of a pandemic. So find courses that make your life easier.

Plenty of online credit sources are self-paced or only require one final exam at the end to make the process simple and streamlined. Here are a few good options:

• DSST exams were originally created for busy military personnel and are now open to the public. As the name implies, this credit-earning option is examination based, works well for strong test-takers, and has exams covering most general education topics.

• CLEP exams, produced by CollegeBoard, the creator of the SAT, are similar to the DSST’s credit-by-examination format. After studying suggested resources, a student takes a single pass/fail exam to demonstrate proficiency in the topic and earn college credit, typically for general education or elective courses.

• UExcel exams from Excelsior College are another credit-by-exam option that offer both lower-level and upper-level courses and provide many study materials to help students do well as they prepare.

• ALEKS courses provide college-level mathematics credits in an online format. Students demonstrate proficiency by taking multiple tests throughout the learning process, building on the mathematical skills until they gain passing proficiency. The intelligent programming maps out a perfectly customized path for each student as it measures their skills and growth needs.

• Study.com offers over 200 accredited college-level courses with their College Accelerator membership. With this plan, students are allowed to complete up to 2 final exams per month!

• Sophia courses are 60-day, self-paced courses that cover introductory college material. With a one time fee rather than a membership, they can also be very cost effective.

Make sure the class you take is approved

If you’ve already started your degree, your college most likely has an approval process for you to follow if you want to take outside material. To make sure your hard work doesn’t go to waste, you’ll need to contact your school to get your chosen online class approved before you start it. Give your college registrar’s office a call (hopefully they’re working remote right now) and ask how to get outside courses approved for your degree. Have information about the class you’ve selected ready, particularly the source of the credit, course name, course code, and course description.

Talk to an advisor

If the process I’ve just laid out feels overwhelming, I get it. Fortunately, we can help! Here at Accelerated Pathways, we’re dedicated to helping students find a better way to do college. If you're interested in finding the most affordable, flexible online credit that's guaranteed to transfer into your college, just talk to us. Our advisors have been helping students do this for over a decade. Click here to find out if we can help you.

You have enough going on without the stress of doing your own research. Your chat with an advisor is free, and we can even connect you with course discounts designed to help students displaced by COVID-19.

The entire world is calling on each of us to do our part to keep our friends and family safe, even if that part is as “small” as staying home for a while. Whether you choose to spend that time studying or resting and enjoying your loved ones, remember that you’re doing one very important and impactful thing: keeping calm in the midst of a crisis. That's how we're going to beat this.

Before you ditch your laptop and study notes for sunglasses and suitcases, hold on a sec. You might want to pull the desk back out of storage and get started on an online class this summer, and here are 5 great reasons why:

1. Balance is important to you.

You work crazy hard. So it feels absolutely amazing when that last class ends and you finally get to take a break! Science backs up this fact: vacations are necessary for good health, especially if you’ve been marathon-running your way through the school year.

But once you’ve caught up on sleep and finished the last season of your favorite Netflix show… then what? You may find yourself a few weeks into the summer staring at the ceiling, wondering why your vacation doesn’t seem so fun anymore.

The mind and body were made for regular rhythms of work and rest. Just like professional athletes use easy workouts to break up hard-core training, you can achieve this balance with your college schedule.

With Accelerated Pathways’ online courses, you don’t have to load your summer down with classes or quit school cold turkey. Over the break, consider keeping your brain in shape with however many affordable online courses as you need.

2. You’re serious about your goals.

When some people look at summer, they see a good excuse to do nothing for several months. But not you. When you look at summer, you see a chance to do more than other people are doing. You see an opportunity.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.”

Adding an online course to your summer bucket list gives you a head start on your goals. While everyone else is zoning out, you’re moving your graduation time a few months closer.

3. You don’t follow the crowd.

Nothing is improved without change.

College students like you are figuring this out. Aubry ditched traditional college in favor of hitting the road with her husband and graduating debt free. While in Accelerated Pathways, Destiny chased her dream job opening a nonprofit horse therapy program. I taught a children’s orchestra, Brian attended a local Korean congregation to help his language studies, and Brent pursued a degree in business management while directing the maintenance of a small farm.

Life is about so much more than college. Like these students, you are unwilling to forfeit experience for education or trade out dreams for debt.

Taking a summer course is one way you can raise an eyebrow at the status quo, set yourself apart from the masses, and take back your college experience.

4. Your time is your own.

Ah, college lectures. The ubiquitous, mind-numbing staple of centuries of higher education.

If only there was a way to avoid the interminable hours of half-asleep professors droning on about topics that won’t be on the test. If only there was an alternative to rearranging your whole life around class times. If only—

Wait. Oh yeah…there is an alternative.

You can study with Accelerated Pathways. You can have all the time in the world to be spent any way you choose. No inconvenient lecture times. No nodding off to monotone powerpoints.

Just you and the schedule you make for yourself.

5. Nothing is holding you back.

Not only are there many great reasons for taking a college course this summer, there is also nothing stopping you. Here are just a few things you don’t have to give up to study this summer:

• You don’t have to give up your summer job. Cha-ching! No need to put school on the back burner if you’re strapped for cash. Taking an online course in the summer means that you have ultimate flexibility. (Plus, the stunning affordability of Accelerated Pathways means more moola in the bank! Or more frappuccinos at Starbucks. It’s a win either way.)

• You don’t have to give up your travel plans. The flexibility of Accelerated Pathways means you can take your studies wherever your wanderlust leads. And no need to drag that extra suitcase of ridiculously-heavy textbooks around the airport, because Accelerated Pathways' study materials are included online. Ain’t no strings on you!

• You don’t have to give up your freedom. With Accelerated Pathways, you aren’t stuck in a degree program for 4-6 years. You are on your own time, and you can go as fast or as slow as you like. Whether you want to take just one class or a whole semester-load of courses, it’s totally up to you!

• You don’t have to give up time with your family and friends. Taking a course in the summer doesn’t mean your social life is over! With a little bit of planning and discipline, you can get studies out of the way quickly each day, leaving plenty of time to hang out with your family, take road trips with your besties, make a new friend, or volunteer with a nonprofit summer program.

• You don’t have to give up your future. You might have heard… college doesn’t have to be a debt sentence. You don’t have to blow your life savings, hock your antique baseball card collection, subsist on Ramen, or pledge the life of your firstborn in order to get a good education.

• You don’t have to give up recreation. A social life and a well-paying summer job sound great and all—but I know you would also like some time to just chill, right? A single course only takes a couple hours a day, leaving you most of the day for goofing off, catching some shut-eye, and doing summery stuff. And you’ll have another class checked off your degree plan. Sounds pretty good!

If you’re completely wiped out and don’t think your brain will survive the addition of school to your summer repertoire, it’s okay. Live up that vacation, kiddo!

But if you’re ready for something different, consider a compromise with Accelerated Pathways. Whether you put your head down and knock out an entire semester of courses or kick your feet up and just tick off one or two, you’ll be ahead of the game when the summer is through.

Like many motivated teens, Kylie started college in her junior year of high school.

To make this happen, she supplemented her regular classes with advanced courses that counted as both high school and college credit. By the time Kylie walked across the auditorium stage to accept her high school diploma two years later, she also had a semester’s worth of college credits completed, a trophy to two years of discipline and extra study.

About a month after she received her high school diploma, she got a call from her prospective college’s registrar. “Sorry,” they told her. “These credits won’t work with the degree program you have selected. You’ll have to retake them.”

Kylie was horrified. All the extra work she put into earning dual credit in high school was wasted.

Stories like this might make you wonder if dual credit is worth it. Going through extra-hard classes that might end up not counting for college? No thanks.

But the good news is, dual credit doesn’t have to be the game of roulette that Kylie experienced. That terrible phone call could have been avoided if her parents had known about the 4 most common mistakes parents and students make when pursuing dual credit.

If you avoid these pitfalls, your student can safely navigate the choppy dual-credit waters, save time and effort, and emerge from high school victorious, with credits that will actually transfer to their future college.

Mistake # 1: Rushing into college

I get it… the rosy promise of earning college credit at a young age is tempting.

But be warned. Ushering your child into the halls of higher education too soon can backfire. Rather than give them a boost, the stringent courses can erode some students' motivation and confidence. Starting college in high school could also steal time away from life lessons your student might need before taking the plunge into adulthood.

Dual credit is an amazing opportunity... if your student is ready for it. Your student is probably not ready for dual credit if they:

• must be prompted to do homework well or complete it on time

• depend on tutoring or study help

• struggle with their current high school topics

• have a full schedule

• have extracurricular activities which demand a large amount of energy or focus

• are uncomfortable interacting with a wide range of ages or beliefs

• fear communicating and advocating for themselves in a classroom setting

• have non-scholastic goals that they want to complete B.C. (before college, that is)

If you feel your student may not be ready for college, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When it comes down to it, education isn’t about a person’s age when they don a cap and gown. Education is about pursuing a personalized, curiosity-fueled learning plan at the best pace for your student.

Not enrolling your student in dual credit could be the chance they need to grow before diving into the rigors of higher education.

Mistake # 2: Taking courses without researching college transfer policies.

Colleges and universities make their own rules about whether or not a course from another institution “fits” their degree requirements. This independent standard makes reliably transferring credits really complicated.

In fact, over 70% of students lose at least half of their transfer credits. Here are a few ways you can actively prevent this from happening to your student:

• Match accreditation. There are a few different kinds of accreditation… and they are not all equal. Be on the lookout for the term “regional accreditation,” which indicates the most transferable and respected level of nation-wide accreditation. The accreditation level of your dual credit institution should match the accreditation level of your student’s prospective college.

• Talk to the Office of the Registrar. If your student already has a good idea of where they want to go to college, take a list of desired dual credit courses to that chosen institution’s Office of the Registrar. The registrar can tell you 1) whether the courses are transferable under the school’s current policy, and 2) if the school can “grandfather in” your student’s credit at a later time, even if policies change.

• Take general education courses, not specialized topics. Transfer policies change all the time. A specialized course locks a student into a particular field of study, with the high likelihood of the course being rejected as transfer credit or going out of date before it can be applied to a degree program. Instead, stick with general education classes, which are required by nearly every institution and major. They’re so common that they transfer much more easily.

• Enlist help. To protect yourself from credit waste, consider a credit transfer advocate such as Accelerated Pathways. Our Central Registrar’s office compiles dual credit options accepted by over 1,200 institutions to pinpoint the exact transfer requirements of your target school. Free from the worry of losing transfer credit, you and your student can fearlessly choose the best dual-credit route for your lifestyle and higher education goals.

Mistake # 3: Choosing a dual credit option that cheapens the college experience.

Depending on what dual credit option you pursue, you could end up undermining your student’s college experience rather than enhancing it.

High schools that offer dual credit, for example, can be guilty of offering watered-down courses, particularly if they are taught by lower-credentialed high school teachers instead of tenure-track professors from a local college.

Outline what would make a good “college experience” for your student before choosing a dual credit program. A respected local university may provide the serious classroom setting that a more structured student craves, while a free-spirited child might prefer the flexibility and self-paced access of an online course.

Identifying just what you want out of the experience will help you find the best path.

Mistake # 4: Making Dual Credit about something other than learning

It can be easy to make college about something other than equipping your student for life. College is expensive. It takes a long time. Plus, with credential inflation, it seems like higher and higher degrees are expected just to find a good job. That takes more time. (And more money.)

Dual credit offers solutions to these problems. It can be incredibly efficient, propelling students into an early career launch.

But remember: dual credit is about learning. Not money. Not time. Not bragging rights for seeing your child graduate early. It is about the zest to live a curious life.

Sit down with your student and think together about their educational future, apart from the distractions of study time and finances. What is good for them?

Pursue that goal relentlessly. If that goal is best served by combining high school and college studies, you have found yourself a truly excellent reason to pursue dual credit.

Dual credit is a fantastic option for many high school students. And it might be perfect for yours.

So do your research, respect your child’s maturity level, find a dual credit program that fits their needs, and keep your eyes on the prize of an excellent college education, and your student can’t go wrong.

Now that you’ve demystified dual credit and paved the way for your student’s smooth transition from high school to college, it’s time step back and enjoy the process. You’ve got this!

If you’re interested in pursuing dual credit with your student, don’t do it alone. Accelerated Pathways can give your student everything they need to succeed. Our online courses will blend in seamlessly with your student’s high school studies, allow them to study at their own pace, and are guaranteed to transfer to their future college. Click here to learn more.

I hate to burst your hopeful college student bubble. But it’s for your own good.

What bubble, you ask?

You might know it better as the glimmer of hope that hangs like the North Star over your fact-crammed head. The mantra of positivity you chant to yourself when you have three exams in one week and are running on 4 hours of sleep and a case of Monster. The light at the end of the near-eternal procession of coursework.

You rub your bleary eyes and whisper over your Spotify study playlist, “This is all going to pay off when this degree lands me a job.”

I’m sorry, somebody’s gotta tell you. That degree won’t get you anything.

And here’s why.

1. It’s everywhere.

You aren’t a special snowflake for getting a bachelor’s degree. Over one-third of adults in the United States have one, meaning the job market is flooded with qualified (or overqualified) applicants.

Degrees are still a requirement for most jobs, which makes earning your bachelor's a valuable step in preparing for almost any career. But that degree just doesn’t make your resume jump out at potential employers like it would have 50 years ago.

A bachelor’s degree is not an automatic hall pass into grown-up land.

2. It doesn’t make you an expert.

When you graduate with a degree in, say, accounting, you aren’t going to actually know that much about accounting. You’ll know the basics, and you’ll definitely be ahead of anyone who didn’t suffer through Auditing 101. (If you’re one of these unlucky souls, I am so sorry for what you’ve been through.)

But you’re not going to be an expert in your field of study. You’ll have a good start, but that piece of gold-embossed paper with your name on it says you’re a beginner, not a master.

3. It can’t guarantee experience.

Your degree tells prospective employers a couple of things. First, that you had enough grit to stick with college, and second, that you know some generic stuff about whatever is on your diploma.

It tells them nothing about what you can do or if you have ever worked a job remotely related to your degree. As national statistics show, almost anyone can get a degree. Not everyone can do a job well.

4. It isn’t a measure of your common sense.

A degree says you’re good at taking tests and learning required materials. But a degree tells a potential employer nothing about your good judgment.

The philosopher Voltaire wrote, “Common sense is not so common,” and employers understand this sad fact better than anyone else.

A degree can’t guarantee you a job because it can’t guarantee that you actually have basic human wisdom about how to operate in a workplace. You have to figure out how to demonstrate that yourself in a job market full of highly-educated people who were skipped over by the common sense gene (if you know what I mean).

5. It doesn’t network for you.

One of the best ways to get hired is by knowing the right people. Why is that?

Because while a bachelor’s degree says you’ve spent untold hours isolated, cramming knowledge into your aching head, it doesn’t tell anyone you’re actually a good person to hire.

People, however, know things like that. A network is basically a personalized group of professional character witnesses—people who know your work ethic and worth to a team. A piece of paper can tell employers what you know, but only another person can tell employers if they want you around.

6. It doesn’t make you good at adulting.

Soft skills (like communication, a team mindset, and poise) are not necessarily included in your college coursework. Which means earning a degree doesn’t make you a shoo-in for living life well.

A bachelor’s degree is definitely a rite of passage, but it can’t do your taxes for you, make you stick to a budget, give you confidence speaking to strangers, or get you to work on time.

In an interview, potential employers will most likely look for a degree as a baseline qualification, but believe me, they’re much more interested in learning whether or not you’re a capable human. They’ve seen degrees before.

I’m sorry your hard-earned bachelor’s degree isn’t the magical life kickstart potion that you wanted it to be. Though if I may reinflate that bubble just a little...your bachelor’s degree is a start. It lays the groundwork for constructing a stunning resume.

Instead of focusing only on earning a degree or on only gaining work experience, why not do both? This is the sweet spot of career preparation: pursuing your bachelor’s degree alongside real-life skill development.

As you earn your degree, keep in mind all the credentials it can’t magically create and figure out how to get those another way. No university, degree, or work experience has the power to define you or your skill set. But you do. Crafting the ideal education for your life is totally up to you.

I’d say it’s time to get to it.

Want to earn your bachelor’s degree and work experience at the same time? That’s hard to do on a campus. But it’s not so hard through Accelerated Pathways. Accelerated Pathways allows you to take flexible online coursework which is guaranteed to transfer into the university of your choice. Meaning you have the freedom to work a job, volunteer, or earn practical hands-on experience however you please without giving up your college studies.

As a child, I sang. I danced. I hid under my covers with a flashlight and a good book. From designing herb gardens and crocheting misshapen blankets to scrapbooking and dreaming up experimental recipes to inflict on my family—if it was dreamy and artistic, I did it.

When it came time to pick a college major, I surveyed my most-beloved high school subjects—classical music, history, grammar, literature, Spanish—and landed on... accounting.

Yep. Making heads spin since 2011, that’s me! I picked a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, a typical 4-year, 120-hour degree in a subject I had previously had zero experience in.

Shock (or outright terror) became the most common reaction when I told friends and family about my degree choice.

If you believe the cultural stereotype, I was an unlikely accountant for sure. Accountants are the stern, semi-monastic gurus of great financial mysteries beyond the pale of the happily-unaware. I was just a starry-eyed dreamer longing to organize a world I had never explored.

That’s how I discovered the stereotype was dead wrong.

Signs You Have an Accounting Brain

I chose accounting for two reasons:

1. I didn’t hate math, and

2. I wanted a firm grasp on a concrete business skill to round out my artistic tendencies.

After focusing on the humanities in high school, I wanted to gain more practical expertise as I entered adulthood. Accounting seemed like a prime career option with great earnings potential and lots of job location flexibility. But honestly, I had no idea I would actually be good at it, much less enjoy it. As I began my studies, I found out why accounting fit strangely well into my creative personality.

Here are some signs accounting might be a more likely match than you think:

Numbers don’t make your brain hurt.

Accounting isn’t hard-core math. It’s basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Possibly some light, entry-level algebra, but that’s it. You don’t have to understand calculus. You just need the mental ability to associate abstract information (numbers printed on a page) with real-world quantities (money and other valuables).

Organizing gives your heart joy.

For a whimsical bookworm, I was surprisingly skilled at accounting… but why? Design. Abstraction. Labeling. The adventurous pieces of my childhood were all indicators that I would be really, really good at categorizing things.

Turns out accounting is organizing on steroids. Less math, more Marie Kondo. (Except you can’t throw out the numbers that don’t bring you joy. Don’t do that. That’s called fraud.)

You’re a little bit of a perfectionist.

Disorder nags at the back of my mind like that cringe-worthy sound my car bumper makes when I drive over the curb for the millionth time. There is nothing like the satisfaction of neat columns of numbers balancing out on the crisp ledger lines of an Excel workbook.

If you can’t rest until everything is exactly where it needs to be, welcome to the spreadsheet family. Your perfectionist tendencies are welcome here.

However, if counting, obsessing, and lining up things in even rows makes you a little crazy, run now. Accounting will kill you slowly.

As I approached the end of my degree, it was clear that—unlikely candidate as I seemed— accounting was a great fit for my weird little brain. It worked for me. But I still wasn’t quite sure exactly how I wanted to work for it.

What Can You Do With An Accounting Degree?

I suspect that you might think of an accounting degree the way I did. I saw a very specific career path laid out for my chosen degree, and I wasn’t sure how it would apply to much else. I was surprised when I found out just how open my options were

Accounting education follows a basic hierarchy, but each level leads to a similar place: a computer full of numbers crying out for your love and attention. How big the numbers are and what you’re allowed to do to them depends on your certification level.

Here’s a quick run-down of the typical levels of accounting work:

Bookkeeper

Bookkeeping involves basic accounting, but you don’t necessarily need a degree to do it. A bookkeeper tracks spending, pays bills, and keeps up with a business’s financial paperwork like invoices and reports.

Accountant

Just up the ladder from bookkeeping is accounting. An accountant typically holds a bachelor’s or a master’s degree. While not recognized as certified by the IRS, accountants can generate financial statements, prepare tax documents, and conduct audits of a company’s ledgers.

CPA

An accountant is not the same as a CPA. CPA stands for Certified Public Accountant, and this certification requires an exam plus an extra 30 hours of college credit. As the gold standard of accounting prowess, CPAs are authorized to perform general accounting work as well as prepare tax returns and, most importantly, legally represent other taxpayers to the IRS.

Accountants often devote themselves to a particular area of finance that interests them, such as internal accountability and improvement (managerial accounting or cost accounting), external reporting (financial accounting or tax accounting), or financial review for legal purposes (auditing or forensic accounting).

But as I hinted at before, traditional accounting fields are definitely not your only option with this degree. Despite my original plans of a home accounting office, I have actually never worked in an accounting position.

I write articles and talk to people about their health insurance for a living. I’ve also administered online learning platforms, developed courses, and taught music—all since earning my degree. I plan to do other things over the course of my life too, maybe even own a business.

My degree doesn’t just belong behind a desk or inside a spreadsheet. I learned about the inner workings of business, economics, marketing, communication, finance, and taxation. My diploma awarded me with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration with a focus in accounting. (Although a person can get a bachelor's or master's in accounting without the business administration part.) I’m a businesswoman with an edge.

My accounting degree gave me so much more than just an understanding of contra accounts or how to balance a ledger. It gave me critical insight into business and a broad base of knowledge that I can bring to any job I pursue. It balanced my artistic intuition with concrete intellectualism, allowing me to act as a human bridge between the worlds of language and numbers.

Accounting isn’t for everyone, true. But as I learned, it isn’t limited to a few nerdy, introverted geniuses. It was also perfect for a bubbly, artistic girl who needed boxes large enough to organize her imagination.

You never know. Accounting might take you by surprise too.

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