FINDING FREE ONLINE COURSES AT TOP UNIVERSITIES around the watercooler.(Career Connection) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

I am not sure I can afford to continue my college education this fall. Someone told me you once mentioned free online courses at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Is this correct? And how is academic credit awarded?

- J.W.

That"s the catch - academic credit is not awarded for free university online study. But the MIT (mit.edu) education is top of the line in a wide variety of courses. More than 1,800 free courses are offered through the school"s OpenCourseWare project. The courses are delivered in text, audio and video formats. Check out this opportunity. Even if you can"t scrape up college tuition at the moment, at least you"ll stay in a learning mode until school money materializes.

Other U.S. universities now provide free online learning opportunities. Among the best:

Carnegie Mellon University (cmu.edu) courses can be yours in a program called the Open Learning Initiative.

Stanford University (stanford.edu) works with iTunes U to deliver free courses that can be downloaded and played on iPods, PCs and Macs.

Tufts University (tufts.edu) offers free learning through the OpenCourseWare program.

University of California, Berkeley (berkeley.edu) and University of California, Irvine (uci.edu) have hundreds of OpenCourseWare offerings.

If it"s too late in this school year to collect free money (scholarships and grants that you do not have to repay), start scouting for next year. Get smart on these Web sites: scholarships.com, collegeboard.com/student/pay and fastweb.com. You don"t have to be the brightest crayon in the box to win a scholarship if you fit a specific requirement, such as ethnicity, talent or physical characteristic.

Don"t overlook local free money - you"ll usually face less competition. Search on Google for your city"s name and scholarships; example: "St. Louis scholarships." Never pay an application or processing fee.

I"ve noticed that you often mention the necessity to research a position before going on a job interview. The e-jobs I seek usually don"t pay enough to justify hours upon hours of preparation. Why?

- F.T.

If you hope to move up in the world, spend a bit of time waking up your "wow," advise Robyn Freedman-Spizman and Rick Frishman. They are the authors of "Where"s Your Wow?: 16 Ways to Make Your Competitors Wish They Were You!" (www.wheresyourwow.com), published by McGraw-Hill. In this bouncy little book written to show you how to be so fresh, innovative and impressive that you are memorable, super publicist Frishman explains one of his hiring rules:

"One way I test the passion and interest of my hires is to find out how much research they"ve done before the job interview. Have they been on the Web site? Have they read some of the things I"ve written? Have they taken time to find out what we do and how we do it? If they don"t know that I have a cockapoo named Rusty, the chances are they"re not going to get hired. I mention Rusty at the end of all the pieces on the site."

That"s your answer: The hiring is in the details.

I read someplace that a failing economy is a good time to look for a new job. Yes? No?

- P.P.M.

No. Down times are not really the best times to voluntarily change jobs unless you have little choice, or you spy an opportunity with your name on it. What is true is that there are good jobs in all job markets because of promotions, departures, retirements and deaths.