My wife and I will be funding “Cool Hands’” 3 summer online courses over the next few days. It isn’t a minor amount of money - Penn State is one of the most expensive state affiliated schools in the country. Those three courses cost about the same as what I paid for my entire undergraduate degree all those years ago. I am not complaining mind you, I have seen ‘Cool Hand’ scrambling to get his work done and he clearly is learning about interacting with people, responsibility and the subject matter. In my opinion we have gotten our money’s worth. The uncertainty on where he will spend his senior year has gotten me to pondering about the the future of “Going away to college”.
We all have been bombarded with story after story of student debt, College cost growing faster than inflation and College’s amenities that rival a pricey spa. Then there are the many former colleagues of mine with student loan debt North of $100,000. I know their stories: “Ray it’s killing me”. What is clear for many the process simply isn’t working. Isn’t it usually some unusual event that triggers a needed change?
Get a great Professor who is good in front of the camera and have him record 1 hour sessions of calculus 101. With today’s software that could mean they join multiple of his best clips. Do that for a dozen or so sessions, then have him or her do lots of example problems on camera and bam Calc 101 on demand. Of course offer office hours. Repeat that for 40 other courses: BAM Youtube University. Yes an oversimplification but IMHO not horribly so. It is happening all over. The cost of delivery for the product “Calc 101” drops every time a student takes the online course.
Did you know room and board make up between 25%-60% of the cost of college. At state schools where tuition is lower it is 50-60%. The savings potential is enormous.
I have some pretty fond memories of my 2 years of undergraduate away from home. I think for me a good portion of my enjoyment was getting away from a pretty stressful situation. Graduating with little or no debt does sound pretty good though. Maybe it could amount to be getting a degree or not getting one.
Interesting stuff... any thoughts?
We all have been bombarded with story after story of student debt, College cost growing faster than inflation and College’s amenities that rival a pricey spa. Then there are the many former colleagues of mine with student loan debt North of $100,000. I know their stories: “Ray it’s killing me”. What is clear for many the process simply isn’t working. Isn’t it usually some unusual event that triggers a needed change?
Get a great Professor who is good in front of the camera and have him record 1 hour sessions of calculus 101. With today’s software that could mean they join multiple of his best clips. Do that for a dozen or so sessions, then have him or her do lots of example problems on camera and bam Calc 101 on demand. Of course offer office hours. Repeat that for 40 other courses: BAM Youtube University. Yes an oversimplification but IMHO not horribly so. It is happening all over. The cost of delivery for the product “Calc 101” drops every time a student takes the online course.
Did you know room and board make up between 25%-60% of the cost of college. At state schools where tuition is lower it is 50-60%. The savings potential is enormous.
I have some pretty fond memories of my 2 years of undergraduate away from home. I think for me a good portion of my enjoyment was getting away from a pretty stressful situation. Graduating with little or no debt does sound pretty good though. Maybe it could amount to be getting a degree or not getting one.
Interesting stuff... any thoughts?
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