Author: Nola Jones

There has always been a certain weight associated with Manchester. It’s difficult to ignore the sense of accumulated history that permeates the Oxford Road campus on any given Tuesday. Old stone buildings coexist with sleek modern architecture, students from more than 160 countries move between lectures, and there’s a general sense of something truly global. It was therefore not totally unexpected that the University of Manchester was ranked in the top 40 worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2027. However, it was still something to be aware of. With an overall score of 84.6, the University of Manchester QS…

There’s a specific moment when Eton College appears as you cross the Thames bridge from Windsor. Rising above the roofline, the chapel tower’s soft grey stone nearly blends in with the cloudy English sky. It doesn’t make a big announcement. The way only very old things can, it simply sits there, calm and unchanging. Situated just across the River Thames from Windsor, Eton is a small town in Berkshire, England, where Eton College is situated. The address is simple: Eton, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 6DW, but a postcode cannot adequately convey the significance of the place. The drive to Windsor Castle…

From the outside, a gym in Shawnee, Kansas, doesn’t seem like much. Shawnee Mission Northwest High School is located in the kind of suburb where dreams of playing basketball seem both near and far away—near because the game is so popular, and far because the route to the NBA seldom passes through this area. Nevertheless, Keaton Wagler was secretly constructing something inside that building that the recruiting services weren’t giving nearly enough thought to. It’s worth taking a step back and pondering that for a while. After graduating from high school, 247Sports ranked Wagler 261st in the nation. There was…

For Ms. Frizzle, Elizabeth Banks is not the most obvious choice. However, the more you think about it, the more it starts to make an odd sense. Sharp-tongued, physically devoted, and capable of genuine warmth beneath the humor, Banks brings something to the role that a more cautious casting choice most likely wouldn’t. Having officially signed Banks to star in the live-action version of The Magic School Bus and obtained the rights to the cherished children’s franchise from Universal, Legendary Entertainment obviously feels the same way. It’s been a while. The project was initially optioned by Universal in June 2020,…

The mailbox seldom brings good news for millions of Americans who are burdened with federal student loan debt. In contrast to most policy changes, the U.S. Department of Education discreetly announced last week that borrowers enrolled in autopay would see their interest rates lowered by a full percentage point beginning on July 1. Not with much fanfare, but more akin to cautious relief. On paper, the change is simple. The interest rate will be lowered by one percentage point for borrowers who have already enrolled in autopay or who enroll before September 30 of this year. The discount is valid…

According to her mother, Karmin Baldassari was a force. Brimming with enthusiasm and affection, this child effortlessly illuminates a space. That was prior to the second grade at Saugus, Massachusetts’ Belmonte STEAM Academy. Lori-Ann Baldassari, her mother, still finds it difficult to discuss what transpired there over the course of several months without her voice becoming tense. Karmin’s weight and appearance were made fun of by her classmates. Before she could eat it, they threw away her lunch. When she eventually reached her breaking point in class one afternoon, she turned around and stepped on a boy’s foot after a…

The streets surrounding Crowborough had a subtly strange quality by Wednesday morning. There were no groups of teenagers wearing blazers. There are no younger children crossing at the lights with big backpacks. The Beacon Academy was shut down. Chailey School in South Chailey was also. In actuality, dozens of other businesses in East and West Sussex were closing their doors hourly. The heatwave that has forced Sussex schools to close has happened quickly, but it wasn’t totally unexpected. Temperatures have been rising to levels that most British buildings, including schools, were never intended to withstand due to a “heat dome”…

There’s a good chance that someone nearby is waiting on an Amazon delivery if you stroll around any college campus on a Tuesday afternoon. Perhaps a package of printer ink. Two days prior to an exam, a used textbook was ordered. An impulsive midnight snack. Amazon’s Prime for Young Adults membership almost seems like a natural extension of being enrolled somewhere because the company has quietly and gradually made its way into student life. Most likely, it’s not an accident. The program, formerly known as Amazon Prime Student, has been renamed Prime for Young Adults and is now available to…

Being a healthcare student comes with a certain type of fatigue. Long shifts, never-ending coursework, blurring clinical placements—and somewhere in the middle of it all is the very real, very banal challenge of choosing what to wear. Of all things, scrubs take on unexpected significance. And that’s precisely where FIGS has created something meaningful. FIGS began as a direct-to-consumer healthcare clothing company with a simple yet subtly ambitious concept: create scrubs that people would genuinely want to wear. Not only is it affordable and practical, but it’s also well-made, cozy, and strong enough to endure the kinds of days that…

These days, it seems almost uncommon to enter your first year of college with a well-defined financial plan. Government student loans frequently fail to cover actual living expenses, tuition continues to rise, and rental prices in the majority of Canadian cities have become a separate crisis. Products like the Scotiabank ScotiaLine® Personal Line of Credit for Students typically find their audience in this gap—the actual, monthly, eat-or-study gap. The fundamental structure is fairly simple. Depending on the year and course of study, undergraduate students can borrow anywhere from $5,000 to $80,000. You don’t have to pay the principal during school;…