Laurence J. Kotlikoff, a Harvard-trained economist currently teaching at Boston University, recently suggested that borrowing money for college is a waste of money. Kotlikof recites the downsides of incurring massive debt to finance a college degree (you have to pay it back, with interest) and cites some statistics about the average amounts of debt college students graduate with (an average of $33,000 debt upon graduation, with over 15% owing more than $50,000).
But, to me the far more interesting part of Kotlikoff’s article is his review of creative options to obtain a value-laden college degree with little or no debt.
· Find a cheap college.
· Go to community college for three years (cheap), and finish your last year at a better (more expensive) school.
· Work for a few years before starting college, then apply for grants and scholarships on your own financial situation (presumably less income than your parents’ situation).
· Attend community college, while also attending inexpensive online certificate programs. That doesn’t get you a college degree from the elite institutions, but it certainly gets you good credentials for the job search. Harvard, MIT, Stanford and many others offer these kinds of certificate programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment