Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!
Daniel asks: Are there any colleges in California that are totally private in the sense of not receiving money from the government?
My reply: Hillsdale College (see here) has an excellent reputation for academics as well as for the value it places on critical thinking. I wasn’t able to ascertain whether the institution itself accepts no government money but students may, in the form of tuition aid.
Another option is to self-educate, academically as well as practically. One has access to an unprecedented amount of material – and instruction – via the Internet. It is possible to become extremely well-read/educated without the formal education. And a degree is less and less necessary these days in more and more professions, excluding medicine and law. One can be a Hell of an engineer – and actually engineer things – without having a $100,000 piece of paper that says you’re an engineer. Und so weiter, especially as regards the so-called “liberal” arts, such as journalism for instance.
If you can write – and think – you don’t need a degree to do either or be successful at either.
Not that I am badmouthing traditional colleges – especially not Hillsdale. I am merely pointing out options and hoping you’ll consider them!
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Unless you’re going into STEM, Law, Teaching or Medicine, skip college
Coach Red Pill and others talk about how it’s irrelevant, and a waste of $$$.
I’d also recommend you leave Calimexistan, and head to Florida or Texas, you’ll thank me later
Morning Eric and Daniel,
As is usual, the market for education has been perverted by GovCo intervention. Accreditation, as with all government regulations, is said to protect the public and guarantee quality. In actuality, it is a cronyist scam, designed to protect established universities from competition, which harms the public. Right now, the “value” of a brick and mortar college education is artificially inflated because a degree from an accredited college still has some legitimate signaling value to employers. Most on-line “colleges” cannot meet the many arbitrary requirements demanded by GovCo to be “accredited”. These include, “a library with a certain number of volumes in it, residential dorms and residential students, a gymnasium with certain facilities, a physical plan for a campus of certain size with certain facilities in it. Meaning that it is impossible to become accredited now unless you’re a billionaire”. (from an interview with Thaddeus Russel).
Because traditional colleges are granted this artificial monopoly, tuition is much higher than it would otherwise be (there are other GovCo interventions that also drive up the cost). Considering that stifling college debt is one of the greatest hurdles facing young people, removing this artificial subsidy and letting the market work to lower prices and improve quality should be at the top of the list of those policymakers supposedly concerned about helping students, of course it is not.
Still, there are some very interesting virtual colleges out there. The grandfather of them all, the Khan Academy is an amazing resource. Praxxis University is interesting and focuses on combining an education with an apprenticeship program that leads to a guaranteed job. Finally, Renegade University offers an ever increasing array of courses, focusing primarily on philosophy and history, but they are planning to expand to a full curriculum. All of these, and I’m sure there are others, can provide a more personal and higher quality education, for far less money, than most traditional colleges. But, due to GovCo collusion, they cannot provide the thing students actually value most, the piece of paper and the corresponding “signal” it provides to potential employers.
Cheers,
Jeremy