Pamela Yellen over at the Huffington Post gives advice on How to Avoid Graduating College Summa Cum Debt. I’ve read dozens of articles on this topic over the years and none have irked me and impressed me with their proposals and solutions the way Yellen’s article has.

Her main piece of advice is to flat out not head off to college at all “unless or until you can afford it.” Not the standard higher education version of the American Dream. Usually everyone’s telling young adults to do whatever they and their parents can in order to acquire a college diploma, regardless of how many decades beyond graduation both parties will be swimming in debt.

Whether you agree with her or not, it’s interesting stuff to think about:

Four Paths to a Debt-Free College Education
1. Save it first.
2. Postpone it.
3. Do it smarter.
4. Skip it altogether.

Further Reading:

Ways to Kick the Ass of Student Loan Debt
Number-Crunching the Effects of Student Loans
Adventures in Education: Paying for College
The Economy and Higher Education
No One Likes a Recession
Calculating Potential
Investing in Students’ Futures
Extremely Useful Guidance for the Newly Salaried
Fall 2011 Facebook App for Financial Aid
College Grads and Student Loan Debt
Arne Duncan: Direct Student Loans
Increased Tuition Increases Some More

Posted by Alexa Harrington

It turns out parents and students are less than rational when it comes to choosing institutions of higher learning for the prospective college student’s matriculation. Paying for the education venture twists everyone’s grey matter into knots as well. Let’s keep our heads in the game, people! Read this article in the Wall Street Journal: Get Smart About College.

From the article:

When weighing present obligations against future potential, it can help to take a step back. College is an investment but it’s a peculiarly intimate one; students are investing in themselves, parents in people they love. To get some perspective on the matter, families should look at choosing and paying for a college like starting a small business (You, Inc.). Would someone launch an enterprise without a line of credit? Or skimp on equipment and human capital to avoid cutting into short-term consumption?

Families should also think carefully about context when they’re making estimates of future earnings. Someone who graduates in four years is likely to have a shot at a much better first job than someone who graduates right now; many experts hope and expect the economy to look quite different by the time today’s high school students finish college.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: campus)

Forbes has an article up on the 10 Things College Students Waste Money On. Tuition seems to be the least avoidable item on the list, but textbooks and school supplies are certainly full of frugal options.

1. Textbooks
2. Tuition
3. Automobiles
4. Housing
5. School Supplies
6. Food
7. Socializing
8. Applying for Credit

Also included: excellent advice on how fresh-faced college students can learn early on how to live below their means, which sets them up for a better financial life later on down the line.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(fancy school supplies)

According to the Associated Press, American public colleges and universities have managed to spend their way through the $10 billion-pile of government stimulus money. Insanely large tuition fees and class sizes along with decreased course offerings are still front and center on American campuses, but at least the stimulus money helped to prevent (or maybe only slow) the shutting down of degree programs and entire schools. Now that the money’s gone, I predict more and deeper tribulation.

Is it too obvious to suggest that keeping higher education a viable option for Americans should be among the highest priorities? An ever-expanding cohort of young, energetic, jobless and uneducated Americans sounds like the crappiest American Dream ever.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: ed andrieski)

It’s painful receiving the short, simple advice that paints one pristine illustration which you will never ever be able to remove from your mind. The kind of advice you understand you need to know, but that you sorely wished you’d never heard, read, or seen.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy sums up saving for college versus borrowing with this vomit-inducing blow:

Every $1 you stash away for college will save you from borrowing $3.

Stupid logical math.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Loathe student loan debt and all the evil it represents? Congratulations! You are super special and we are here to celebrate the unique perfection that is you, you trailblazing badass!

Not really. It turns out you’re just like the rest of us. I thought I’d make better use of everyone’s time by pointing out the practical words of wisdom in Jill Greenberg’s article: How to Combat Student Loan Debt.

[I]f you’re currently a student or will be soon, how can you ensure you don’t end up with enormous debt that you can’t pay off? Here are some things you can do to lighten your financial load:

Think about ways you can reduce the cost of your education. Being a part-time student can help you lower fees each semester and give you time to work while you are going to school. While it may take longer to complete your degree, you can reduce the total amount of your debt by paying for some of your education while attending school.

Talk to your employer to see if they can help with tuition. If your degree pertains to your current job, your employer may offer some type of tuition reimbursement or assistance, so check in with your boss or your HR department.

Don’t borrow more than your starting salary. Financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz cautions that if you borrow more than that, you’ll have to repay your loans with an alternate repayment plan like extended repayment or income-based repayment instead of standard 10-year repayment and extend the payments even longer.

Consider a job in public service after school. With federal programs like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, you may qualify for loan forgiveness after 10 years of paying on time. In addition, some universities will also offer similar types of programs. More…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image: ninja!)

What do you get when you smash Bill Clinton, a UNLV grad, MTV, Bill and Melinda Gates, College Board, and Facebook? No, not that. (It was my first guess, too.) A Facebook App that matches college student with any financial aid they qualify for. The vast powers of social media being used for good, not evil. So relieving.

It’ll be out this fall. Have fun with it, and avoid all the student loans you can.

Further Reading:

Pres. Clinton Announces MTV and College Board Collaboration on First-Ever Social Media Tool for Financial Aid
“Get Schooled” College Affordability Challenge
The Gates Foundation Kicks Ass

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Student filmmakers who can grok vocabulary words like nobody’s business should consider entering the Vocab Film Festival. Cash and scholarships are involved should you require fiercer motivation than the simple purity of knowledge acquisition. Download the word list here, and vote on student films and photos here.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Tuition rates, in case you’ve missed it, have reached new and astonishingly execrable heights. Paying for college is like some kind of monetary gauntlet. Don’t make your folks do it alone—apply for as many scholarships as you can! (Unless your parents are lacking in kind souls and goodness, then by all means take them for all they’re worth.)

Three different bits of scholarship advice from the Scholarship Coach at U.S. News and World Report.

4 Dos and 1 Don’t for Finding Scholarships
Skip These 6 College Scholarship Errors
11 Sexy Scholarships Reward Fashion, Romance, and Humor

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(money roll)

One must always be learning. Even if you’re one of the learning ones and you’re an educator, who’s supposed teach. Because even teachers have to keep learning. Did they not tell you that in Teacher School?

Ric Murray wrote a piece about a profound moment he had: learning something completely unexpected from a student. He’s a seasoned teacher, is incredibly involved with his school and with his teaching and coaching work. He’s not effing around when it comes to going above and beyond the call of duty, and so was caught totally off guard when he realized he had missed something that was so significant his students.

Mr. Murray is a seventh grade Social Studies teacher and some of his students, being new to the U.S., are English Language Learners (ELLs). A former student, Rocio, was a newly minted high school graduate and a Gates Millennial Scholarship recipient when she showed up to say goodbye to her old school before heading off to college.

Mr. Murray asked her to say a few words to his new class about her experiences as an ELL student and what it’s possible to achieve after coming to the States knowing how to say only “Hi” and “Yes” in English.

She began to speak, explaining her path and how she’d gotten to this moment—heading off to college. Most of the students gave a disrespectful look and turned away. To which she responded with two items:

First she said, “I know why you are looking away. You think this can’t happen for you. You think you’re not smart enough. You think you’re not meant to go to college. You think it would be disrespectful to your parents; who did not even go to high school. I know that’s what you are thinking, because I sat in your chair just a few years ago, thinking the very same thing when teachers talked about students going to college.

But let me tell you something, Your parents would not have left their families, struggled with their children to travel here, and now work 16-18 hours everyday if they didn’t want you to get your education. So make them proud. That’s why they came here. Not for them, but for you.”

Second she said, “I’m not saying it will be easy, but I am saying it will be worth it. What we know that your teachers don’t know is that we can’t even be ourselves or show our real personality to them, or our classmates, because we don’t have a personality until we own the language the people around us use to communicate. We know that you can’t be who you really are in someone else’s language. But when you do learn the language, and you will, you will be able to reveal the real you to them.”

Realizing the absolute truth of that statement, You can’t be who you really are in someone else’s language, Mr. Murray now asks his ELL students to tell him about something they’ve done recently, something fun. First he asks them to tell him in English. Then in their own language. The information is given and received satisfactorily in English. But in the second telling, when the students tell ostensibly the same story but in their native tongue, they laugh, their eyes light up, more of them comes through.

Ric Murray usually posts here, but the excerpts above are from his piece, I Only Thought I knew My Students, which can be found at Teaching Village.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source)