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All-You-Can-Eat College For $99-a-Month
theodp writes "Writing in Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey has seen the future of college education. It costs $99-a-month, and there's no limit on the number of courses you can take. Tiny online education firm StraighterLine is out to challenge the seeming permanency of traditional colleges and universities. How? Like Craigslist, StraighterLine threatens the most profitable piece of its competitors' business: freshman lectures, higher education's equivalent of the classified section. It's no surprise, then, that as StraighterLine tried to buck the system, the system began to push back, challenging deals the company struck with accredited traditional and for-profit institutions to allow StraighterLine courses to be transferred for credit. But even if StraighterLine doesn't succeed in bringing extremely cheap college courses to the masses, it's likely that another player eventually will."
This may be credits for cheap. You may be learning (nearly) as much as a regular university and you may even do it faster. BUT I didn't think that was the purpose of university. I thought the whole point was to get a high paying job. And I'm unconvinced that this can provide.
If you just wanted to go to school to learn sure. But I don't think that has been the main focus for many years now.
If all you want to do is learn for free, you can always watch lectures online.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT
http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity
http://www.youtube.com/user/ucberkeley
You can even get lectures from Australia or India:
http://www.youtube.com/user/unsw
http://www.youtube.com/user/nptelhrd
And if you want to learn stuff like how to solder and splice try http://www.tpub.com/neets/
Or watch someone make vacuum tubes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl-QMuUQhVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S5OwqOXen8
Sure you might not be able to afford all that equipment to actually do everything. But at least you have a better idea of what you might like and what's worth it before forking out lots of money (or going in debt) in fees.
What, just because it's on the internet, it's a new concept?
No, actually, that still doesn't make it a new concept.
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$20/unit for in state tuition at a community college in California (Where I live). Out of state tuition is currently about $185/unit or $200/unit depending on if you are doing summer classes or other.
Books should average about $250/semester
http://www.cos.edu/view_page.asp?nodeid=2822&parentid=2864&moduleid=1
This information is according to the College of the Siskiyous website (Where I went to community college 8 years ago).
Assuming you take 15 units/semester which is what you need to graduate with an associates in 2 years or a bachelors in 4 years that comes out to (approximately):
($20 per unit x 15 units) + $250 books = $550/semester or $1100/year + misc expenses for in state students (subsidized by the state of California)
or
($185 per unit x 15 units) + $250 books =3025 $/semester or $6050/year + misc expenses for out of state students (un-subsidized by the state of California)
This comes out to $275/month for in state students or $756/month for out of state students (8 month school year)
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I took 18 credits per semester and graduated in 3.5 years with 3.7 GPA and honors in a private university. I also had 3 jobs. School is really not that hard in the States. Of course the downside is that it cost me a crapload of money which I'm still paying and forever will.
Lucky you. I did one semester at a local Comunity College. $1200 for tuition and fees, and then another $500 for books.
In my country education is free... :)
And on-top of that we get educational support, which is just about a 1000USD per month... I have to buy my own books, do my own cooking, laundry and have a place to sleep, but student housing programs and government housing support (on-top of the educational support) makes my education virtually free...
But if you want to go out once in a while... Buy a new laptop, tv, stuff like that it's good to have a little savings, or take a student loan (which the government offers at a favorable price).
By the way I live in Denmark, Europe...