Free Republic

Millions of people applying to college this fall are grappling with how to write the first sentence of their essay and where to send the first application. Behind these worries, however, is a broader anxiety about not which college to attend, whether to attend at all. Is college worth it, any more? The case for college is established: The value of higher education has never been higher, period. A college degree -- not only from Harvard, but from community colleges -- turns out to be a better investment than stocks or homes. The fastest growing jobs in the next 10...

As the cost of a college education skyrockets, some parents may be wondering about the value of going to college — especially with the examples of billionaire Harvard drop-outs Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg front and center. The price tag for four years at a public university averages about $35,000, according to The College Board. A private college or university can cost about $120,000. So what’s the best return on investment, especially if a student is taking out loans to help finance college? Part of the answer lies in selecting a major that offers the opportunity to quickly move into...

One in five mothers in America have children with different fathers, a new study shows. Researchers found that the trend was higher in minority groups and mothers with low income and education backgrounds. The data was taken over a 27-year period from nearly 4,000 U.S. women who had been interviewed more than 20 times. The study's author Cassandra Dorius said of the one in five figure: 'To put it in perspective, this is similar to the number of American adults with a college degree. It's pervasive.'

For students and their parents, it's an important question and one that has been devilishly difficult to answer—until now. PayScale, which collects pay information from individuals using its online pay comparison tools, dug into its trove of 1.4 million reports on U.S. college graduates for Bloomberg/BusinessWeek. CLICK ON ABOVE LINK FOR TABLE OF COLLEGES AND WHAT GRADUATES ARE WORTH AFTER GRADUATION.

Employers and career experts see a growing problem in American society — an abundance of college graduates, many burdened with tuition-loan debt, heading into the work world with a degree that doesn't mean much anymore. The problem isn't just a soft job market — it's an oversupply of graduates. In 1973, a bachelor's degree was more of a rarity, since just 47% of high school graduates went on to college. By October 2008, that number had risen to nearly 70%. For many Americans today, a trip through college is considered as much of a birthright as a driver's license. Marty...

Dropouts Seek a Boost From Equivalency Exams Numbers Seeking a Degree Swell -- But Gains May Be Limited A growing number of Americans are taking high school equivalency tests in their hunt for any leg up in a bleak labor market. Adult-education centers across the country report backlogs and waiting lists for prep courses cramming dozens of topics and years of lessons into weeks or months. But the potential for a better job and pay that drives many to seek a General Educational Development diploma comes with a caveat: The certificate generally is of limited value unless students use it...

The soaring costs of a college degree are prompting colleges to consider a three-year degree program. Britain has long granted a degree for three years of college. I would like to suggest a one-year degree program. And I don’t mean an associate’s degree. Here are some hard facts most colleges will never tell you and most parents could not tolerate hearing. The general requirements of the first two years at most colleges are what high school should have been. That is what junior should have learned had he not been busy getting high, getting drunk, and being socially promoted. Better...

Ready, Shoot, Aim!: Napolitano's higher education proposals are off the mark By Matthew Ladner, Ph.D. Governor Janet Napolitano called for the doubling of the number of college graduates by 2020 in her 2007 state of the state address and paying the tuition for students who graduate high school with a B average. How fast can you say grade inflation? What's important to note, however, is that there isn't any reason to think Arizona needs such a doubling. In the Carnegie Foundation's publication Change, Paul Barton wrote that the notion that the U.S. has a dire need for an ever increasing...

The near doubling in the cost of a college degree the past decade has produced an explosion in high-priced student loans ... While scholarship, grant money and government-backed student loans - whose interest rates are capped - have taken up some of the slack, many families and individual students have turned to private loans, which carry fees and interest rates that are often variable and up to 20 percent. Many in the next generation of workers will be so debt-burdened they will have to delay home purchases, limit vacations, even eat out less to pay loans off on time. Kristin...

When it comes to education, conventional wisdom argues that it’s better to go to college after high school. Conventional wisdom states that an educated society will spur economic growth, that a college degree leads to a higher income, and that America needs to increase college enrollment to strengthen against international competition. However, in George Leef’s essay, The Overselling of Higher Education, he argues that this conventional wisdom has flooded universities with apathetic students, subsequently causing a “deterioration of academic standards, credential inflation and soaring costs of college attendance.” Leef serves as executive director of The John William Pope Center for...

Reggie Mathis wishes he could go back. Wishes he hadn’t squandered that last spring he was on the OU campus. Wishes he had been as partial to the library as he is now. Mathis has gone back. Back to the state he left in 1979. Back to the people who helped before and are willing to do it again. Back to school. Reggie Mathis awoke today with a new title. A new way to describe a man who in March turned 50 years old. College graduate. Twenty-eight years after Mathis finished his Sooner football career, he graduated from the University...

When and where on earth can you see the longest sunrise? And how long can you see it? Stumped? Well, then, sample another. What would you see from the moon more often: the sun or the earth? A five-member team of 14-to-17-year olds will hone their skills over the next 10 days to unravel a few more secrets that the skies hold. Their aim: to win as many medals as possible at the International Astronomy Olympiad that kicks off in Beijing on October 25. It will not be an easy task — they will be up against competition from over...

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Like a lot of new college graduates, Promethea Pythaitha is thinking about what to do next. But unlike the other grads, Promethea is just 14. She'll be receiving her diploma during spring commencement at Montana State University. She's the youngest graduate in MSU history. She said she would like to study for four or five more bachelor's degrees. But paying the tuition is a problem. Promethea said she feels discriminated against because she's a genius. She noted that every other kid in America gets to go to school for free until they're 18. While an undergrad, Promethea...

I've been getting asked more and more about my position that high school is a waste of time and my recommendation for parents to give their children a choice to skip high school. This is in response to the liberal agendas now prevalent in high schools as well as the simple fact that such a strategy would give kids a 4 year head start on their peers. Below are some useful links for investigating this option. I will repost my own experience under that. http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/school/equivexam.html UCB Parents Advice about School Taking the High School Equivalency Exam Advice and recommendations from...

An engineer by any other name Legislature to decide if computer programmers can legally use the title By R.G. RATCLIFFE Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau AUSTIN -- One of the oddest battles of the 78th Legislature is pitting Texas' licensed professional engineers against the high-tech industry's software dudes. At issue is just who in Texas can call himself an engineer. "It's one of the silliest issues we're having to deal with this session, but it's also one of the most important," said Steven Kester, legislative director of the American Electronics Association, an organization of computer companies. Texas has one...