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THE PC is changing our world. Rapidly. And those who don't keep up will be left behind. A good example is higher education. If you're not sure (or are doubtful) you are getting value for all those after-tax dollars being spent or about to be spent on higher education, read on. It's sad to note how many families are struggling--no, actually killing themselves--to get their offspring through school for college, graduate level or advanced professional degrees. Too many. Coming up with enough after-tax cash to fund traditional education Ann's easy. Just ask any wage slave. Add to this financial obstacle the additional money pressures Joe citizen has on him or her today, which include the looming specter of retirement and normal day-to-day overhead, and it's amazing more of us don't drop dead on a regular basis. On top of familial sacrifice, the average college student today graduates with debt of around $16,000--which must be paid back. Overall college borrowing, which has doubled over the past five years, is now over $30 billion. This means our graduates start out with a crushing debt load, greatly limiting their career and personal flexibility. (These figures do not include advanced degrees, where borrowing is even more intense.) There must be a better way.Relax. Financing higher education no longer has to be a burden. In fact, minimal advance planning can be done while still assuring a student a quality college degree, along with any necessary advanced training. Two phenomena have merged to create financial slack with educational costs: (1) the virtual classroom (quality, easily accessible and now recognized in the commercial workplace), and (2) recent tax legislation. Merge them and you've got a recipe for a new, less painful process for funding advanced degrees. Distance learningThe concept of distance learning has been around for decades in the form of correspondence courses for specific disciplines. Now it has taken on a new dimension, thanks to the synergy of the PC, the Internet, and society's search for "value." While the entire globe has been downswing and becoming more efficient, higher education has been moving along as though "nothing's different." Hey, things are different, and if schools don't get with it and change with the times, many of them will become relics in the not-too-distant future. Too many years devoted to educating a student, teachers and professors whose class loads haven't changed for decades, and plant and equipment that sit idle for months each year are no longer acceptable. Don't take my word for it; read the interview with Peter Drunker (leading management guru) in the March 10, 1997, issue of Forbes magazine. Some schools are beginning to leverage off technology, and like the global efficiencies taking place in manufactured products, the end consumers (students) are the ultimate beneficiaries. Did you know there are now more than five million people a year attending college through the virtual option? Or that there are over a thousand institutions of higher learning now offering courses, many with degree options (undergraduate, graduate, and professional) through off-campus opportunities? Want to live in Paris and obtain an MBA degree from Duke? You can. How about taking your introductory year of law school from your living room? It's possible. In fact, you can get a law degree from the Concord University School of Law. And the quality of education is first class, similar to that which has been obtained on some of the best college campuses around the country for the past hundred years. What doe it cost?A lot less than traditional, on-campus attendance. Here are two examples:
Additionally, on-line universities can be bundled with financial assistance programs similar to those on the traditional route, so help is available if funds are a problem. As on-line education becomes more accepted, the "opportunity cost" of lost wages that accompanies attendance at an on-campus, traditional institution will more regularly be factored in with other costs, further tilting the advantages toward a virtual education. It may eventually become a no-brainer to attend college on-line when compared to the time and expense of an on-site education. Tax breaksMerge some tax law changes with the PC's frontal attack on college costs, and you've got the makings of an incendiary revolution involving expenses for advanced degrees. Three tax law changes in particular warrant close perusal.
Mix the greatly reduced costs of attending college via the virtual route with the tax breaks noted, and you've got a new mind set for obtaining a college degree. And the end result (the virtual graduate) may be worth more to society. Here we have a degree that mandates computer and Internet proficiency, one that throws off minimal debt, if any, due to the reduced educational costs, and produces significantly more work experience along the route to graduation. The virtual graduate may quickly leapfrog past his traditional cousin who opts for a four-year degree on-campus. The former has been "jump-started" into a career with minimal financial baggage. One more plus. The professors available on-line are often leading figures that didn't "have time" to teach courses while writing textbooks or doing cutting-edge research. So the student gets an opportunity for "one-on-one" chats with teachers and mentors often inaccessible with the traditional route. Lastly, if you still believe "where" you go to school really makes a difference in the long run, look at "200 Best Small Companies" in America, (Forbes, November 3, 1997), and study the profile of the CEOs who run these companies. A minimal number went to pedigree schools, but most went to mainstream American universities, many of them state sponsored. The old expression "It's who you know that matters" just ain't so. It's what you learn and how you apply it, and going to a fancy, expensive school probably isn't worth the bucks forked over. Another argument reinforcing the value of a basic, no-frills education, which now can be easily obtained over the Internet. Want to know more? Your local library has excellent reference material to get you started. A few of the best are: Distance Learning Programs 1998 (Peterson's); The Independent Study Catalog (Peterson's); College Degrees by Mail & Modem 1998 (John Bear, Ph.D.); Virtual College (Pam Dixon); "I got my degree through E-mail"(Forbes, March 10, 1997). A good Web site is "Distance Learning on the Net" by Glen Hoyle (www.homepage.interaccess.com/~ghoyle/). One caveat: As the concept of on-line learning takes off, it will (and already has) attracted some scam artists ready to prey on the unsophisticated. The recent sad saga of Columbia State is an example of a diploma mill that hooked unsuspecting degree-seeking students into an unaccredited "study" program of little value. Check out the credentials and reputation of a school before sending money. One source to start with is the Council on Higher Education Accreditation's Web site at www.chea.org. And if you decide online learning is right for you, use the Internet, along with e-mail, for contacting and applying to schools, further reducing expenses while simultaneously accelerating the admission process. In fact, there's now a "universal application" accepted by more than 1,000 colleges (www.applytocollege.com). |
| Robert Preston, a local CPA and actuary, is interested in the merger of select areas of personal finance with the computer. |
