Posted by Alexa Harrington

I’ve been a fan of Ramit Sethi for a long time. He’s smart and I like the way he thinks—simple and logical and rarely what I’m expecting. He comes from a money/business/finance direction, so reading what Ramit has to say about higher education, graduate degrees, necessity and money had to be done. As always, different and it made me think.

Ramit’s friend Josh Kaufman, a business teacher and author, had his own ideas to add about Unbundling College: How to Avoid Spending $100,000 (or more) on a Credential You Don’t Really Need. If you can pull the hook of Society’s Set of Standard Beliefs With Regard to Education out of your head long enough to read what Ramit and Josh have to say, your mind and its thought processes will be improved, I promise.

Related Posts:

Financial Education
Schools of Entrepreneurship

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(money)

The parents who will be driving their offspring to insanity as soon as the kids can spell S-A-T start in on the psychotic haranguing early:

Try to stay off of my sh*t list, lesser humans.

Further Reading:

What Makes A Good Parent?
Media Frenzy Around High Pressure College Admissions
Testing Season Begins
Play-Doh Smeared Credentials
Find Your Happy Place
(Possibly) The End Of Helicopter Parenting

Posted by Alexa Harrington

I don’t want to agree with Michael Platt that for-profit schools succeed and not-for-profit schools are seemingly always in financial straits, but he makes a certain amount of sense. I’m not saying I’d relish earning a degree from a for-profit college, but there must be some way for traditional colleges and universities to support rich and deep learning while also not sucking fumes financially.

From the press release:

It is the LACK of profit/incentive that has caused many of the primary and postsecondary schools in this country to fail the students.

If primary schools were profit-driven, maybe they wouldn’t hold onto crappy teachers. Maybe they would abandon the ridiculous agrarian calendar. Maybe they would stop allowing unions to place teachers’ rights above student rights. Our government should not be running the business of education.

If universities were profit-driven, maybe they would stop misleading students with noted professors who then rarely step into a classroom. Maybe they would strive for better graduation rates as opposed to throwing out challenged students because they are afraid it might hurt their overall outcomes/reputations. Maybe they wouldn’t have one placement advisor for every 2,000 – 5,000 students. Maybe they would warn students who pay $80,000 for their education that their starting salary is likely to be well below DOE-proposed GE metrics. Our government should not be running the business of education.

Ooof. And then the big fat bucket of True Knowledge Must Never Be Based On Financial Gain worms is dumped unceremoniously in front of me and it’s back to square one. Damn I loathe square one.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(square one)

I think we all know how I feel about college rankings lists: unreliable. (That’s me being restrained and polite. Enjoy it now. It won’t last.) If you need to catch up, you can read this, this, this, and this.

What do we learn in high school these days? How to get into college. What do we learn in college? We learn how to learn and we perfect our inner bull**it detectors. If you’re in the process of choosing colleges, then you’re in high school and have less-than-precise bull**it detecting instrumentation.

Here’s a friendly tip: Even research scientists, the humans I’ve revered since I was six years old, are capable of dishonestly crunching their data to make their work more grant-worthy. Scientists, who spend their lives peeling back the layers to find the molecular structures of truth, will bend facts for money.

One could argue that scientists are at least doing it for more funding so they can continue to search for the truths of our universe, but whatever, it’s still dishonest. If they can lie for money, then no one should be surprised that most college rankings lists come from questionable versions of reality. Just something to keep in mind if you’re planning to peruse U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges 2011.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

For years you’ve been working toward the ultimate goal: college. It’s within range of reality that some high school students have been working toward college since they were still pooping in their pants and their parents were politely crushing any toddler standing in the way of their kiddo’s spot at Kids-Who-Finger-Paint-Here-Get-Into-Yale Preschool.

Now you’ve attended all the right schools, you played the sports, you joined and led the clubs, you’ve taken prep courses and passed any standardized test the system could think up, your grades are stellar, your letters of recommendation are plentiful and glowing. You’re almost there. One more bit, kid. The penultimate act before the ultimate goal is reached: choosing the perfect college.

I know, right? You’ve done everything, haven’t you?! You’ve been thinking about little else but sex and college for years now. How can you possibly be expected to focus your thoughts, your hopes, your dreams, and choose one single perfect school?

Don’t look at me–it’s your perfection, not mine. Allen Grove can help. He’s got a simple list of 15 Points to Ponder when choosing the perfect college.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(UW Oshkosh)

Practical advice for all prospective college students facing college admissions interviews:

Breastage covered, ladies.

Gentleman (I use the term loosely), keep your mitts off the package.

And for all of you, I would suggest NOT bringing any parental units along to babysit/control you. Having your mom take an interview with you sends the message:

I can’t handle this weensie step alone, so there’s no way on earth I’ll be able to deal with matriculating at your school without lots of intense parental input. I need my mom for crust-cutting, bathing, and paper-typing. I am also thrown by shoelaces, Scotch tape, and the making of any level of decision. I’m the academic version of Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan; my higher education at your school is likely to end badly for both of us.

Here’s what you can do:

Don’t be so nervous that the interviewer(s) feel you must surely have misunderstood the word “interview” in the letter and you clearly believe you’re to be shot against that wall over there. College admission interviews are not life and death, I promise.

Be the polite, grown-up (without going overboard) version of yourself and try to limit your interviews to schools you really want to attend, as this will help you have something real to say.

Bring something to the table; don’t just sit and answer whatever questions the interviewer shoots at you; have something to say that adds to the conversation. Having an actual opinion about the school and what you envision your place to be in it will assist you greatly in answering the questions asked.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(interview)

Arjun Muralidharan, aka the Productive Student, has a list of 14 ways college students can strive for greenness on Earth. You’ll want to do them all to slow the destruction of the planet, but you’ll actually do them to save yourself some coinage.

14 Ways to Be a Greener Student (and Save Money Doing It):

-Eat less meat or go vegetarian
-Do more efficient laundry
-Buy groceries with less packaging
-Eat out less
-Buy a greener computer
-Optimize your commute
-Decompose organic waste
-Bring your own bag for shopping
-Recycle paper
-Buy recycled notepads and textbooks
-Put old and unwanted textbooks up for sale
-Use a durable water bottle
-Be conscious about lights everywhere
-Reduce and manage electronic devices

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(recycled notebooks)

I don’t care how high your SAT scores are: if you’re planning to attend any institution of higher education that isn’t blatantly obvious in its accreditation (Stanford, Yale, etc.), and you don’t take the so-easy-a-monkey-could-do-it step of checking your intended school’s official accreditation status, then you’re an idiot.

Go here or here and get it done. You’ll spend hours more time texting today than you will ascertaining that your institution will hand you a valid degree after you’ve given said school your blood, sweat, tears, time, and money. Avoid this woman’s mistake.

Accreditation Resources:

Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)
U.S. Dept. of Edu. Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(graduation joy)

Oh, it’s coming. Denying it won’t help you. Fall Term is starting up soon whether you’re ready or not. When the first week of classes have been attended and while you’re still focusing on first chapters, small quizzes, tolerable assignments, and the finer points on your professors’ syllabi, at the very least please skim this: How to Study: A Brief Guide. Learning how to learn is, how do you say, crucial, of the essence, invaluable, indispensable and totally effing necessary.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(take notes)