Slashdot Mirror
Beating the College Bubble
An anonymous reader writes "The real estate bubble is long gone. Oil prices are sliding down. Are we in
an education bubble? The author of
Beating the College Bubble says so.
He's written a short, simple guide to avoiding the crushing college
debt that he thinks is about to bankrupt all of us. Just as easy loans encouraged people to dream big and buy a
McMansion, big college loans are tempting students with too much Comp Lit and Frat
Parties. When they graduate, the debt is so hefty that the students are stuck living
in their parents' basement for 10 years until they've paid it all off. I can
tell you from personal experience that there's some real truth to the hangover.
The beer headache is gone after a week, but the monthly payments just keep going." Read below for the rest of cdog40's review
Beating the College Bubble
author
C. Davis
pages
140
publisher
Edububble Press
rating
9
reviewer
cdog40
ISBN
1438235909
summary
Don't go to college. Save your money.
The author spells out why he wrote the book:
his kids are graduating soon and he wants to do the right thing. Should he encourage
them to spend big on an impressive, Cadillac-grade education or should he
be really cheap so they can be free of loans? Which will help the kids?
Chapter 2 works through a handful of examples of people who spent too much on education. Of course he brings up the fact that all of the big guys in the computer business skipped out on college after a few courses. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates started the trend and now it looks like Mark Zuckerberg is following in the famous footsteps.
The author writes out that some of the people in Chapter 2 really did benefit from their education. The lawyers and the doctors who sell their credentials did very well with fancy diplomas.
Chapter 3 is a largely obvious summary of what we all know: lots of college courses don't have any real use in the world. It's not as bad as jokes like: What do you call an English major? (Waiter!) The problem is that the Internet is very good at exporting bits and most college degrees specialize in manipulating bits. The Internet can and will ship this work to the lowest-wage countries in the world. So if you're interested in making money by manipulating bits, the Internet is going to cut you off at your knees. The real secret to making money he says is getting a career in something like sewer maintenance because that can't be exported despite what that famous Senator says about the Internet just being a bunch of pipes.
Chapter 4 is a great piece that explains where the money is going: into the pockets of the college presidents. Many of them make more than a million dollars a year in salary. Well, that's not all true. Some of it is going into the big, expensive buildings. Apparently long ago, students put on shows without fancy state-of-the-art, high-tech arts complexes. They just used an auditorium. No longer. Schools love to spend money on big-name architects. There's a good mention made of the high price tag, the bar, and the leaky roof at MIT's Stata Center.
Chapter 5 is a kind of a nice guy section added so the author couldn't be accused of being completely cynical and nasty. It points out that most schools aren't just spending the cash on the president's new yacht, but on things the students use like fancy dorms and swanky exercise rooms. I know this is true of my school. The dorms are much better. You can't even see the mortar between the cinder blocks any longer. He's still annoyed by this because all of the fancy features pump up the tuition bill.
Chapter 6 is where the book starts to get useful. He talks about how to negotiate for better terms on the debt or how to avoid picking up too much. You can pretty much skip Chapter 7 and move right on to Chapters 8 and 9 which describe how to save money by getting cut rate degrees or skipping college altogether.
I'm not sure whether I buy all of the techniques. He suggests that internet forums like Slashdot are more informative than a college classroom, something I'm not sure I believe. Yes, there's more discussion and the moderation system does a good job of shutting up that bossy know-it-all in the front row, but it would be nice to have a professor. I guess that's what they mean when we're supposed to read the article before commenting. Hah. No one did at my school either.
There are good ones. He tells of low-cost degree programs at most schools. You can save 80% of the price of going to Harvard, for instance. I think he's pretty honest about this because he does point out that you lose something when you take the cheap route. But freedom is just another word for nothing left to pay on your loans.
The book's website is trying to make the book interactive by posting new news stories and alternative solutions for college. It listed the new School of Everything as an alternative.
This is where the meat of the book lies. The only way to avoid getting hurt by a bursting bubble is to get out early. This book made me think long and hard about college. You can't go back and do a scientific experiment because you can only live life once. But I do think that's how he put it. We're really in love with the idea of college that we'll spend anything. It's like when you fall head over heels over some beautiful girl that you don't even know. Then you run up your credit card on an expensive meal to impress her only to find out that she's kind of snobby or flakey or just not interested in the right things (PS3, BitTorrent, Android, Erlang etc). When the bill comes a month later, you feel kind of dumb. This book is trying to help the next generation avoid that headache.
You can purchase Beating the College Bubble from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Chapter 2 works through a handful of examples of people who spent too much on education. Of course he brings up the fact that all of the big guys in the computer business skipped out on college after a few courses. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates started the trend and now it looks like Mark Zuckerberg is following in the famous footsteps.
The author writes out that some of the people in Chapter 2 really did benefit from their education. The lawyers and the doctors who sell their credentials did very well with fancy diplomas.
Chapter 3 is a largely obvious summary of what we all know: lots of college courses don't have any real use in the world. It's not as bad as jokes like: What do you call an English major? (Waiter!) The problem is that the Internet is very good at exporting bits and most college degrees specialize in manipulating bits. The Internet can and will ship this work to the lowest-wage countries in the world. So if you're interested in making money by manipulating bits, the Internet is going to cut you off at your knees. The real secret to making money he says is getting a career in something like sewer maintenance because that can't be exported despite what that famous Senator says about the Internet just being a bunch of pipes.
Chapter 4 is a great piece that explains where the money is going: into the pockets of the college presidents. Many of them make more than a million dollars a year in salary. Well, that's not all true. Some of it is going into the big, expensive buildings. Apparently long ago, students put on shows without fancy state-of-the-art, high-tech arts complexes. They just used an auditorium. No longer. Schools love to spend money on big-name architects. There's a good mention made of the high price tag, the bar, and the leaky roof at MIT's Stata Center.
Chapter 5 is a kind of a nice guy section added so the author couldn't be accused of being completely cynical and nasty. It points out that most schools aren't just spending the cash on the president's new yacht, but on things the students use like fancy dorms and swanky exercise rooms. I know this is true of my school. The dorms are much better. You can't even see the mortar between the cinder blocks any longer. He's still annoyed by this because all of the fancy features pump up the tuition bill.
Chapter 6 is where the book starts to get useful. He talks about how to negotiate for better terms on the debt or how to avoid picking up too much. You can pretty much skip Chapter 7 and move right on to Chapters 8 and 9 which describe how to save money by getting cut rate degrees or skipping college altogether.
I'm not sure whether I buy all of the techniques. He suggests that internet forums like Slashdot are more informative than a college classroom, something I'm not sure I believe. Yes, there's more discussion and the moderation system does a good job of shutting up that bossy know-it-all in the front row, but it would be nice to have a professor. I guess that's what they mean when we're supposed to read the article before commenting. Hah. No one did at my school either.
There are good ones. He tells of low-cost degree programs at most schools. You can save 80% of the price of going to Harvard, for instance. I think he's pretty honest about this because he does point out that you lose something when you take the cheap route. But freedom is just another word for nothing left to pay on your loans.
The book's website is trying to make the book interactive by posting new news stories and alternative solutions for college. It listed the new School of Everything as an alternative.
This is where the meat of the book lies. The only way to avoid getting hurt by a bursting bubble is to get out early. This book made me think long and hard about college. You can't go back and do a scientific experiment because you can only live life once. But I do think that's how he put it. We're really in love with the idea of college that we'll spend anything. It's like when you fall head over heels over some beautiful girl that you don't even know. Then you run up your credit card on an expensive meal to impress her only to find out that she's kind of snobby or flakey or just not interested in the right things (PS3, BitTorrent, Android, Erlang etc). When the bill comes a month later, you feel kind of dumb. This book is trying to help the next generation avoid that headache.
You can purchase Beating the College Bubble from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
big college loans are tempting students with too much Comp Lit and Frat Parties. When they graduate, the debt is so hefty that the students are stuck living in their parents' basement for 10 years until they've paid it all off. I can tell you from personal experience that there's some real truth to the hangover.
Well, here's my anecdote. I didn't rack up $100k worth of loans like my friends. I worked nearly full time through my undergrad and didn't receive a penny from my parents. I came out $20k in debt and had to prove that I actually put a lot of effort into my public college undergrad degree. I graduated in 2004, made my employer pay for my Masters from a private college (which I got in 2007) while, again, working full time. I will be making the final payment next month and be debt free for the first time since I was 17.
... " or "if trends continue" followed by "you will save a shit ton of money." I know because I received these offers ... hundreds of them. They all turned out to be variable rate bullshit. I did my homework and only needed minor math skills to figure out the scams. Maybe 5% of the people I know have had loan consolidation work for them (all one of them who graduated years before me). At a Halloween party, one of my friends lamented about trading up 3.5% & 4.5% fixed rate loans worth $80k for a consolidated loan at 3% in 2004. The company now sends her biannual updates informing her that her rates will be going up and she's looking at 7% now. Imagine that. She signed up with a company that doesn't even bother justifying it, she says some of the letters are just one sentence. The sad thing is that she can still afford the monthly payment so apathy wins for the next 10 years.
... I've doled out more than my fair share and often call my friend who is now a CPA.
I know a lot about some of my close friends and if I may impart some wisdom (I have no idea if this is covered in the book), do not consolidate your loans. Just don't do it. So many people consolidated their loans after reading a letter from a third party that used words like "at the current federal reserve rate
I know I am lucky, I was able to sleep 3-5 hours a night with little repurcussions. Most people can't live off of a cup of noodles or day old wheat bread (animal consumption only FTW) for 30 cents from Erberts & Gerberts. Make smart choices, if you aren't good with finances, ask a friend who is
If you want to pay for a brand name college, I'm not going to stop you. Their are plenty of schools like the University of Minnesota that have great engineering programs and although I can't walk into an interview and drop a name like MIT, I don't mind proving I'm worth what you want to pay.
My work here is dung.
And the great thing is that bankruptcy does not wipe out student debt.
As much as I understand the need for that not to happen, this has become a dangerous trap and something may need to be done about it.
Honestly, the easiest way to avoid debt is to avoid it in the first place. Why do students take out $30k in loans for a school that only costs $6k per semester? It might not be the easiest route, but I worked all through school, and tried to pay off all the debt I could during the deferment periods once I graduated. I can honestly say that I am almost done with a Masters degree and have a total of $3k in debt that will be paid off before I graduate.
Maybe I should sell a book... Then I could pay off that last little bit and move on to pure profit!
For many generations a college education generally fulfilled the promise of class mobility. E.G. Dad's a gardener, daughter a lawyer. The key to this dream was two-fold.
1. Cost of tuition/loans were capable of repaying in +/- 10 years.
2. Job you leveraged yourself into PAID the loan + decent standard of living over the 10 year payback.
Neither 1 or 2 hold true any more.
Discussions about class in the U.S. are generally forbidden, but I'll throw it out anyway. I find it almost impossible to see how decades of "winner take all" economics ISN'T creating a massive, permanent, underclass. Economic conditions suggest this is so already.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I disagree. I do not have a degree. The main ingredient for success is not a piece of paper or 'getting your foot in the door', but excelling - and working hard as part of that - and not being dumb about the value of your skills. Sell yourself. I don't consider any break I got 'lucky'. I was in the right place at the right time, and you can be too.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
My experience with federal consolidation was fantastic. I was able to consolidate 80K+ at less than 3% fixed. But as it turns out there is help on the way beyond consolidation. It's called Income-Based Repayment and it begins this year. http://www.ibrinfo.org/ This program has the potential to solve both the consolidation problem and the bankruptcy problem.
We willna be fooled again!
I think it's time that as a country we have a serious conversation about the people making blood money off of our children's college dreams. This is a serious question: why don't we just forgive all outstanding US student loans, and nationalize the assets of the Sallie Mae corporation and use the money to jump-start a program to send students to college for free? Also, how much money is the CEO worth? The rest of their directors? Perhaps a dialog about seizing the asse's they've gained during their tenures at SLM, preying on our nation's youth, is necessary too. Discuss.
As a person who works in the higher ed industry (faculty & scientific research), let me tell you, there are way too many institutions out there.
The fact of the matter is that there are many, many institutions out there that are passing unqualified graduates in the name of keeping the doors open. As much as some participants might disagree, higher education is a business, and students are the customers. If you fail too many students, enrollment (i.e. revenue) drops.
As much as it pains me to say, I believe that we as a society would be better served if 15-25% of this country's marginal universities were to close. The existence of these institutions is not resulting in an enlightened, educated populace, but is instead simply driving down the value of a college degree.