Here is what I did to make college more affordable for me:
1) I selected a public university, not a private one.
2) I selected a public university near my house, and lived at home, not in a dorm while earning my college degree.
3) I avoided excessive partying and fraternities.
4) I worked two part time jobs while in college.
5) I kept student loan borrowing to a minimum.
6) I bought only used text books whenever possible.
I still think many students today could avoid massive student loan debt by doing the same things I did to get through college if they wanted to.
How to make college affordable: reform the accreditation system.
Students at the College of the Ozarks Graduate Debt-Free
http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2012/03/students-at-the-college-of-the-ozarks-graduate-debt-free/
I dunno--I see plumbers and auto mechanics doing a lot better financially than most liberal arts graduates.
Stop sending all the stupid people to college.
Stop student loans and grants from the government.
There’s a debate among economists about why a college degree is worth so much. That the credential is valuable is not in doubt. According to the Pew Research Center, college graduates earn about $17,500 more annually than high school grads.
If it were the fashion for highly intelligent and hardworking people to have a third eye tattooed on their foreheads, it doesn’t mean the tattoos deserve credit for the fact that these people have much higher earnings, nor that average people can improve their life in the ling run by getting a tattoo (though some might want to, just to defraud employers and business contacts into thinking that they are smart or hard working.)
Get government out of it and student loans. Remove all State schools.
bfl8r
Transfer credits from a local community college, finish up a four year degree at a state university. Children of numerous acquaintances and extended family are doing this of necessity. Half a lifetime of debt servitude ahead of you with poor employment prospects upon graduation is no way start out.
The dirty little secret is we are seeing the effects of several generations of academic meritocracy combined with assortive mating. The reality is that it is a waste of money to try to subsidize the higher education of most of the lower classes and even much of the middle class.
