DailyDirt: Tuition Debt Is For Chumps?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, May 23rd 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Crowds of students are graduating (or have just graduated) from college, and they might be a little nervous about how they're going to pay off their student loans. Student debt can be difficult to pay off, so some folks are trying to avoid it completely in a few novel ways. Here are a bunch of examples of students getting financially creative with their tuition bills.

In 2011, Richard Linder got a college degree from Excelsior College for about $3,000 -- without attending any classes in person. Excelsior doesn't require graduating students to have taken any of its own courses, so Linder transferred credits (many of them free) from a variety of online classes. [url]
Ken Ilgunas went to grad school at Duke and lived frugally in his van because he didn't want to get into debt again after paying off his undergrad loans. Ilgunas showered in the school's gym facilities, bummed electricity and internet from the libraries, and wrote a book (Walden on Wheels) about his lifestyle. [url]
Jonathan Hood paid for his graduate education at Auburn University with a TON of mail-in rebate offers. Buying stuff, redeeming the rebates and then eBaying the stuff... it takes a lot of time, but he wrote some automation software to help him keep track of all of it (and he'll likely be able to sell that someday, too). [url]

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Filed Under: degree, graduate school, jonathan hood, ken ilgunas, rebates, richard linder, student debt, student loans, tuition
Companies: duke, ebay, excelsior college

20 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 5:13pm

$3K used to be what a college degree cost...
Some day, the college tuition boom will pop. Hopefully. Maybe.
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 23 May 2013 @ 5:51pm

Re: $3K used to be what a college degree cost...
I'm hoping it keeps on inflating and the government tries to keep pace. Healthcare alone is taking too long to throw us into a proper depression.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 5:52pm

The continual decrease in education funding is very shortsighted. The affects are large and devastating, tuition debt is only one of many problems being caused by this war on education. To make matters even worse, the bozos in DC want to double the interest rate on student loans.

If you need money for college, ask your parents for a loan they say ... Can't afford college, go to trade school they say. College is elitist and brainwashes you into becoming a democrat they say. What a load of crappola.
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 23 May 2013 @ 6:17pm

Re:
College is also entirely unnecessary for the vast majority of jobs. If you want a better baseline education, improve K-12 education and leave college for those it will actually benefit.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 6:31pm

Re: Re:
"College is also entirely unnecessary for the vast majority of jobs."

These jobs you speak of... do they require you to say "do you want fries with that?" alot?
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sorrykb (profile), 23 May 2013 @ 6:39pm

College is also entirely unnecessary for the vast majority of jobs.

These days, even the jobs for which you don't need a college degree require a college degree. With so many people looking for work, it's a quick and easy way for employers to winnow down the field of applicants.
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 23 May 2013 @ 6:45pm

Re: Re: Re:
Some do but quite a lot of them pay better than you'd think. Plumber, electrician, and HVAC guys all make a hell of a lot more than I did at my first sysadmin job, as do most union jobs. For that matter, sysadmin isn't really helped by having a degree beyond basic coding ability and that can be picked up for free online.

Most business positions have no need of what they had to learn for a business degree. Accountants and lawyers being pretty much the only exception.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 6:47pm

Re: Re:
"College is also entirely unnecessary for the vast majority of jobs"

And clearly, a job is the only reason to seek higher education ... what a simplistic attitude.
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 23 May 2013 @ 6:47pm

Re:
Easy, yes. Intelligent, no. You might just as well weed them out by eye color for most jobs.
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 23 May 2013 @ 6:48pm

Re: Re: Re:
Oh but it is. The only thing a college gives you in the way of information that the great, wide Internet doesn't is a piece of paper.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 6:51pm

Excelsior / Regents
Excelsior is legit, though not very prestigious. They are, however, very good at accepting transfer credit from other properly-accredited sources. None of that "you have to take OUR version of Comp120" shit.

Historically, I think their biggest market was US military folk -- who would go to school part-time, get moved around a lot, and graduate from Regents (old name) with a combination of transfer credit and guided-reading-up-on-your-own credit-by-exam.

Linder got a pretty generic Associates with a funny name by transferring credit from a variety of sources. His trick was to find cheap or free classes that he could transfer. If he'd been better at AP or CLEP exams it might have been even easier.

I expect Excelsior is watching and considering MOOC developments very closely, and could be one of the pioneers in transforming MOOC completions into degrees from an accredited institution.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 7:05pm

Re: Re: Re:
* a lot

I learned that before college though... but college would have likely fixed it if I hadn't.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 7:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yeah, everyone has easy access via laptop to expensive equipment. Text and videos are great, but hands on experience is better.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2013 @ 7:57pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
* often
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 23 May 2013 @ 8:23pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
For chemists, electronics engineers, and medical careers I agree. These are proper science and engineering fields and should remain as they are, more or less.

Things that are not proper science or the application of it though? They're better taught in trade schools or learned on the job. Spending years and thousands of dollars on a degree for them is foolish beyond belief and does no good for anyone except the universities.

The humanities? They're another discussion entirely; a fair number of their degrees have no career path whatsoever outside teaching them to the next batch of students.
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Jay (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 4:19am

Re: $3K used to be what a college degree cost...
That's why the Obama administration is going after people so aggressively.

If investors recognize that this bubble could pop just like home mortgages, you'll have all hell breaking loose.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 6:20am

Not that hard
I got an EE degree from a CSU system school in 4 1/2 years that I paid for myself with a part-time job and modest living. I had a decent apartment. Cheap cars (biked mostly anyway). I was married 2/3 the time and had a kid the last year. No student loans (wife also) and I got a degree (she got a degree in Mol. Bio) with which I could get a real job afterward. Of course, only half the courses I was forced to take meant anything to me or my career path. What will cut down on tuition cost and debt is not forcing students to take at least three semesters worth of classes they'll never need.
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OldMugwump (profile), 24 May 2013 @ 7:11am

If you are clever as that
If you are as clever as those people, you don't need a college degree.

Unfortunately, most people are not that clever.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2013 @ 11:57am

That electricity thing? That's actually theft. Think twice before you plug into someone's exterior power outlets.
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JasonSm (profile), 25 Sep 2014 @ 5:17am

First select a career you will find work in. I understand that might be what they are interested in but it won't pay the bills. To often what should be interests or hobbies many try to make into a career. Put a great deal of thought into your education. Trust your gut. Don't come out owing 50K to 100K and wondering what next.
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