Category: Your Education (Page 5 of 22)

      Dealing with rising college costs

      December 16, 2012 /

      The issue of rising college costs is a hot topic these days, as young students and families grapple with the issue of how to pay for a college education. Too many young people are saddled with crippling college debt, and as this has gained more attention, it has certainly focused the minds of many Americans as they weigh their options.

      Universities are reacting as well, and some of the trends are very promising. Davidson College has created an innovative no-loan policy.

      “When I got my acceptance letter and my tuition bill, it told us that everything was mostly paid for,” she recalls. “I had heard something about Davidson’s no-loan policy, but it didn’t make sense because it sounded too good to be true. My mom was like, ‘This can’t be right. We need to go talk to them.’ ” The admission counselor explained that, because of the Davidson Trust, the school was able to cover 100 percent of demonstrated need without loans. Her mother cried. “At the time, I felt kind of embarrassed. When we walked back to my car, she said, ‘I’m so happy. I feel like I should make [the counselor] something.’ ”

      Other schools like Harvard are also making it much easier for students to get grants instead of loans in order to lower the student debt burden. Families and students need to do their research, and you have to factor in costs and debt into your decision. Otherwise students will have this debt hanging over them for much of their careers.

      You can read more about the student debt crisis and the value of a college education versus the costs here, here and here.

      Read all of these materials, and you’ll be much more prepared for the decisions you’ll have to make.

      Your Career, Your Education

      Law school applications plummet

      December 15, 2012 /


      Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalImages.net

      With all of the recent controversies surrounding the number of jobs law school graduates are actually getting, the idea of going to law school is starting to become less appealing, especially when you start to consider the ridiculous cost of law school.

      Now comes word that applications in this admissions cycle appear to be in something like free fall. As of December 7th, they are down 24.6% from the same time last year, while the total number of applicants has declined by 22.4% year over year. These numbers suggest that law schools will have a total of somewhere between 52,000 and 53,000 applicants to choose from in this cycle, i.e., slightly more than half as many as in 2004, when there were 188 ABA accredited law schools (there are 201 at the moment, with an emphasis on “at the moment”).

      To put that number in perspective, law schools admitted 60,400 first year JD students two years ago. Since a significant percentage of applicants are unwilling to consider enrolling at any school below a certain hierarchical level, and/or will decline to enroll at certain other schools without receiving massive discounts on the advertised tuition price, these numbers portend fiscal calamity for more than a few schools. But out of that calamity will come the beginnings of a more rational and just system of legal education for the next generation of lawyers.

      Things are going to have to change. Students don’t want to do into debt and then end up without a job. The entire notion is silly.

      The third year of law school is often a complete waste of time. Law schools should take a serious look at finding ways to give students internships for the third year where they can learn how to actually practice law while making money to pay for their tuition.

      Your Career, Your Education

      Emergence of Massive Open Online Courses

      September 16, 2012 /

      We’ve been discussing the importance of the self-education revolution, with the emergence of free college courses allowing people all over the world to educate themselves. As more universities and start-ups put more college level courses online for free, the media is paying more attention to this trend.

      USA Today recently discussed this revolution in a recent article on Massive Open Online Courses:

      Jonathan Salovitz’s course load sounds as grueling as any college undergraduate’s: computer science, poetry, history, math and mythology, taught by professors at big-name schools such as Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

      Except Salovitz, 23, is not an undergraduate. His effort won’t count toward a bachelor’s degree, and he hasn’t paid a dime in tuition. Nor have his classmates, who number in the tens and even hundreds of thousands.

      Instead, Salovitz calls himself a “guinea pig.” He’s participating in a grand experiment in higher education known as Massive Open Online Courses –MOOCs, for short. Learners of all ages around the world are flocking to them. Top universities are clamoring to participate. And MOOCs already have attracted the interest of some employers, paving the way for a potential revenue source. All in less than a year.

      The articles goes on to describe many of the new courses and companies that are driving the interest here, so it’s definitely worth a read. It also points out how Moody’s Investor Service calls MOOCs a “pivotal development” that has the potential to revolutionize higher education.

      Over time, we can expect to see employers start to react. Imagine how impressed you would be interviewing someone who either used these resources to complete a virtual college education, or someone who used it to gain a new skill. Think about a medical professional who decides to go online to get a virtual business or accounting degree.

      The possibilities here are endless, and there will be plenty of ways apart from the old grading/diploma system to verify that the student has actually completed the courses and learned the material.

      The future in education suddenly looks bright.

      Your Career, Your Education

      The crippling cost of college

      September 11, 2012 /

      One of the themes we keep emphasizing has to do with the crippling costs of a college education today in America. Sure, college campuses are much nicer with all the new buildings and new technologies, but they are failing in their basic mission if students leave there with massive student debt that will hang over them for the rest of their lives.

      More publications are doing good work discussing these problems. In Newsweek, Megan McArdle asks whether college is a lousy investment.

      Why are we spending so much money on college?

      And why are we so unhappy about it? We all seem to agree that a college education is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing so much in this supposedly essential good. Maybe it’s time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious: is all this investment in college education really worth it?

      The answer, I fear, is that it’s not. For an increasing number of kids, the extra time and money spent pursuing a college diploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot on campus.

      Given the costs, it’s hard to argue with her on this point. She discusses how college was critical for many families in building a better life for the next generation. But sitting on an English degree with $150,000 of debt seems like a pretty bad deal.

      That said, we can’t overreact to the current economic conditions. When the economy improves, more of these kids will get jobs with their degrees.

      Yet something has to give, and it was very encouraging to hear President Obama challenge colleges to slow down tuition inflation.

      Also, the future of free college courses looms on the horizon. Universities would be wise to start figuring out how to lower costs, or they might really have a problem in the future.

      Your Career, Your Compensation, Your Education

      Some regulations on for-profit-colleges struck down

      July 3, 2012 /

      It was a pretty technical decision, but a court has struck down some of the regulations put in place by the Obama administration to regulation the for-profit-college industry. This is problematic as many of these colleges are loading up students with a ton of debt, while their degrees don’t get them a job. We’ve also seen some pretty shady practices in recruiting students to these schools. Unfortunately, there are far too many for-profit college scams out there.

      This unfortunately tarnishes those colleges that provide good training for students. Hopefully the media attention will make students more selective, but the problem is that these schools are playing with our money, as the taxpayers help fund these student loans. We need more accountability and the court just made it more difficult.

      Your Education

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