NU Editorial Contributors
National University Editorial Contributors include writers, editors, and academic professionals who are experts in creating high-quality educational content that is timely, accurate, informative, and easy to understand. All contributors who develop content for National University follow strict guidelines to ensure they provide credible and authoritative information that is independent, free from advertiser influence, and aligns with the high standards our readers and students expect from National University.
Our editorial expertise at work
At NU, we rely on expert feedback and knowledge to craft and vet the information we present to our learners and staff. Learn more and get some process information about the curation of our blogs, how we ensure accuracy, and what to expect from our written materials.
Articles by NU Editorial Contributors
January 14, 2026Military Grants: A List of Military Grants and Scholarships
Military grants and scholarships provide non-repayable financial assistance to active-duty service members, veterans, and their families, covering education costs, emergency relief, and housing, with eligibility extending in many cases to spouses and dependents. The first step for most education-based aid is completing the FAFSA, which unlocks eligibility for federal programs including the Federal Pell Grant and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), which awards between $100 and $4,000 annually to undergraduate students with exceptional financial need.
January 13, 2026Top Guerrilla Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business
Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional, creativity-first approach to brand promotion that prioritizes surprise, emotional impact, and word-of-mouth over media spend, placing campaigns in unexpected locations or formats to generate outsized attention from modest budgets. The core tactics include experiential stunts and pop-ups designed for direct audience participation, ambient marketing that repurposes everyday environments, escalator rails, sidewalks, public benches, as ad surfaces, street marketing through high-visibility placements such as chalk stencils and projection mapping, and stealth or viral campaigns engineered for organic social sharing.
January 9, 2026Healthcare Management vs. Healthcare Administration
Healthcare management and healthcare administration are closely related but distinct career paths within the same industry: healthcare management focuses on the strategic, organization-wide direction of a healthcare system, setting policy, overseeing financial performance, and driving long-term growth, while healthcare administration focuses on the operational management of specific departments, units, or facilities, including staffing, regulatory compliance, and day-to-day patient flow. According to BLS data from May 2024, medical and health services managers, the umbrella classification that covers both roles, earned a median annual salary of $137,730, with the top 10% earning $219,080.
January 7, 202613 Highest-Paying College Majors in 2026
The highest-paying college majors in 2026 are concentrated in STEM and healthcare, with engineering and computer science fields consistently leading by starting salary. According to BLS Occupational Employment Statistics and NACE's 2025 First Destinations Survey, starting salaries for top-paying majors range from $65,000 to over $90,000, with Petroleum Engineering at the top, followed by Computer Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
January 6, 2026Types of Management Degrees (and What They Lead To)
Management degrees equip students with the knowledge and skills to oversee operations, guide teams, and make strategic decisions across virtually every industry, with core curriculum covering leadership, organizational behavior, business strategy, and finance at every level from associate to doctorate. Programs are available at five degree levels: associate degrees provide foundational supervisory skills for entry-level roles; bachelor's degrees in business administration or management open mid-level career tracks; master's degrees, including the MBA, Master of Science in management fields, and specialized programs, develop advanced leadership and strategic expertise; and doctoral degrees (DBA or PhD) prepare graduates for executive research or academic careers.
January 2, 2026Top Marketing Skills Employers Value in 2026
The marketing skills employers value most in 2026 are concentrated at the intersection of data fluency, AI literacy, and human-centered creativity, reflecting a field where technical capability and storytelling are both required rather than interchangeable. According to the recent reports, about 44% of today's core marketing skills may be obsolete by 2027, making adaptability and a lifelong learning mindset the foundational meta-skill beneath all technical specializations.
- December 31, 2025
Most Employable Master’s Degrees
The most employable master's degrees share three characteristics: specialized training that addresses documented workforce shortages, strong salary outcomes relative to program cost, and high employer demand that persists across economic cycles, with healthcare, technology and STEM, business, and mental health and social services consistently leading by all three measures.
December 30, 2025Military to Civilian Jobs: Best Degrees for Veterans
You’ve learned a lot during your years in service and developed a number of military skills that can translate into civilian life. You’ve figured out what you’re good at, what you’re interested in, and have some ideas of how you want to spend the rest of your life. We’ve broken down military to civilian jobs ...
December 23, 2025Which Countries Send the Most Students to the U.S.?
The United States hosted 1,177,766 international students in the 2024/25 academic year, a record high and a 5% increase from the prior year, with India leading all countries of origin for the second consecutive year at 363,019 students, a 10% increase, followed by China at 265,919 students, which saw a 4% decline.
December 16, 2025What to Know Before Starting Your Doctoral Degree
Starting a doctoral degree requires preparation across three interconnected areas: financial planning, supervisor selection, and mindset, because the experience differs fundamentally from undergraduate or master's education in ways that catch many students unprepared.
December 9, 2025What is Data Science?
Data science is an interdisciplinary field combining computer science, mathematics, statistics, and domain expertise to extract actionable insights from raw, structured, and unstructured data, spanning the full data life cycle from collection and cleaning through modeling, interpretation, and visualization. The three core components are statistics and mathematics, which provide the foundation for predictive modeling through probability, calculus, and linear algebra; computer science and programming, with Python and R as the industry-standard languages for building algorithms and processing large datasets; and domain knowledge, the subject-matter expertise needed to frame relevant questions and interpret findings in context within a specific field such as healthcare, finance, or logistics.
December 9, 2025How to Become a Network Engineer: A Step-by-Step Guide
Becoming a network engineer typically begins with entry-level IT experience, in helpdesk or desktop support roles, followed by vendor-recognized certifications that validate network-specific knowledge and open the door to dedicated engineering positions. The foundational certification path runs from CompTIA Network+, which validates core networking concepts including protocols, devices, and troubleshooting, to the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), which is the industry standard for configuring and operating routed and switched networks, with most employers treating the CCNA as the minimum credential for a network engineering role.
December 3, 2025Can You Really Get a Good Job with an Online Degree?
Yes, employers today evaluate online degrees primarily on accreditation and demonstrated skills rather than delivery format, and a 2023 SHRM survey found that 79% of HR professionals view online degrees from accredited institutions as equal in quality to on-campus degrees.
- November 28, 2025
7 Conflict Resolution Tips for Couples [Updated 2026]
Effective conflict resolution in relationships depends less on avoiding disagreement and more on how disagreements are managed. Evidence-based approaches, including the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), emphasize active listening, emotional regulation, and collaborative problem-solving as the core skills that distinguish couples who grow closer through conflict from those whose bonds erode. The most consistently supported techniques include using "I" statements to express feelings without blame, validating a partner's perspective even when you disagree, and focusing on one issue at a time rather than raising accumulated grievances.
November 26, 2025What is Criminal Justice Administration?
Criminal justice administration is a leadership- and operations-focused discipline within the broader criminal justice field, applying management, policy, and organizational principles to the agencies and institutions that make up the justice system, including law enforcement, the courts, corrections, and rehabilitation programs. As defined by federal regulation and confirmed in NU's own program materials, the field encompasses the detection, apprehension, and detention of suspects; pretrial and adjudication processes; correctional supervision and rehabilitation; and the collection and management of criminal history information.
November 25, 2025Is Getting a Certificate Worth It? What the Data Says
A certificate is worth it when the credential is directly valued by employers in your target field, closes a specific skill gap, and offers a faster and more affordable path than a degree to the outcome you need, but the value varies significantly by industry and the specific issuing organization. Certificates deliver the strongest ROI in technology (AWS, Cisco, CompTIA, Google certifications), cybersecurity, healthcare (medical assistant, phlebotomy, HVAC), and project management (PMP), fields where employers actively require or prefer named credentials and where the certificate has a direct, verifiable mapping to a job role.
November 22, 2025Best Degrees for Law Enforcement Careers
The most valuable degrees for law enforcement careers are criminal justice, criminology, psychology, sociology, computer science, and public administration, with criminal justice being the most direct pathway and computer science increasingly sought for specialized roles in cybersecurity and digital forensics. While a high school diploma remains the minimum requirement for most local and municipal departments, five of the 15 highest-paying criminal justice jobs in the United States require at least a bachelor's degree, and some federal law enforcement agencies now require at minimum a bachelor's degree for new hires.
November 20, 20255 Reasons to Earn a Doctorate Degree
A doctorate is the highest academic credential available, and the decision to pursue one is best driven by a clear understanding of what it delivers beyond the credential itself: higher earning potential, specialized professional authority, advanced transferable skills, a direct pathway to academia and research, and the opportunity to make an original, lasting contribution to a field.