A blog hiatus

I will be taking a summer break from blogging at Cost of College.

Other priorities are taking my attention away from this blog, so posts will be infrequent over the next few months.  Please continue to check and read this blog, and I can still be reached through my contact page.

As always, thank you for reading and commenting on Cost of College.

Top ‘Cost of College’ posts in 2014

Cost of College posts that received the most page views in 2014:

1. A warning to petroleum engineering students
2. Only two of the top ten universities give out merit scholarships
3. Don’t pick a college major based on today’s hot jobs
4. Purdue scholarship chart clearly spells out basics, but the devil is in the details
5. School bus drivers collect unemployment benefits during summer break
6. Will a year of college cost $100,000 in 18 years?
7. No, no, no! – $200,000 in debt after a degree in communications
8. University of Maryland College Park merit scholarships for out-of-state students
9. Will checking ‘no financial aid needed’ help your admissions chances?
10. Online degree from London School of Economics for $5,000

I hope the top post about the boom and bust cycle of the oil industry has been helpful to students contemplating choice of major.  Given the dramatic drop in oil prices over the last few months, I should write a new post about petroleum industry jobs.

Happy New Year and thank you for reading Cost of College in 2014!

 

 

Top ‘Cost of College’ posts in 2013

Posts that received the most page views on my blog in 2013:

1. A warning to petroleum engineering students
2. Only two of the top ten universities give out merit scholarships
3. School bus drivers collect unemployment benefits during summer break
4. No, no, no! – $200,000 in debt after a degree in communications
5. Will a year of college cost $100,000 in 18 years?
6. Online degree from London School of Economics for $5,000
7. Purdue scholarship chart clearly spells out basics, but the devil is in the details
8. Will checking ‘no financial aid needed’ help your admissions chances?
9. Don’t pick a college major based on today’s hot jobs
10. Reminder – automatic zero EFC maximum income DROPPED TO $23,000

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Top search terms that brought visitors to my blog in 2013:

1. london school of economics online degree
2. university of chicago merit scholarships
3. administrative
4. how much will college cost in 2030
5. guaranteed merit scholarships

The most popular post about petroleum engineering was linked by several widely read sites, including CollegeConfidential and Reddit.

The search terms data became less reliable this year since Google made changes in how it handles serch activity.  I’ve noticed inconsistencies in the way search terms have been reported for my blog.

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Thank you once again for reading and commenting on Cost of College in 2013!

Related:

• Top ‘Cost of College’ posts in 2012 (Cost of College)
•  Top 5 ‘Cost of College’ posts in 2011 (Cost of College)

Top ‘Cost of College’ posts in 2012

Posts that received the most page views on my blog in 2012:

1. In a tough economy, graduates of top colleges available as personal assistants
2. No, no, no! – $200,000 in debt after a degree in communications
3. Online degree from London School of Economics for $5,000
4. Only two of the top ten universities give out merit scholarships
5. Stricter Pell Grant rules raise standards for ‘satisfactory academic progress’
6. The Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’
7. ‘jobs that pay the most for the least amount of work’
8. Reminder – automatic zero EFC maximum income DROPPED TO $23,000
9. Can webcasts replace 200-student college lecture classes?
10. About

My top ranked post was linked by Instapundit, creating an instalanche for my blog.

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Top search terms that brought visitors to my blog in 2012:

1. london school of economics online degree
2. lse online degree
3. pell grant rules
4. seton hall logo
5. cost of college

Clearly I need to write a follow-up post on the LSE online degree.  The “seton hall logo” search popularity has always puzzled me.
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Thank you for reading and commenting on Cost of College in 2012!

Related:  Top 5 ‘Cost of College’ posts in 2011 (Cost of College)

Mark Cuban on the higher education bubble

MARK CUBAN ON THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE:

This comparison between higher education and the newspaper business seems apt.

The Higher Education Industry is very analogous to the Newspaper industry. By the time they realize they need to change the costs to support their legacy infrastructure and costs will keep them from getting there.

Easy loans

Its far too easy to borrow money for college.  Did you know that there is more outstanding debt for student loans than there is for Auto Loans or Credit Card loans ? Thats right. The 37mm holders of student loans have more debt than the 175mm or so credit card owners in this country and more than the all of the debt on cars in this country. While the average student loan debt is about 23k. The median is close to $12,500. And growing. Past 1 TRILLION DOLLARS.

We freak out about the Trillions of dollars in debt our country faces. What about the TRILLION DOLLARs plus in debt college kids are facing ?

The point of the numbers is that getting a student loan is easy. Too easy.

You know who knows that the money is easy better than anyone ? The schools that are taking that student loan money in tuition. Which is exactly why they have no problems raising costs for tuition each and every year.

Purpose of college

As far as the purpose of college, I am a huge believer that you go to college to learn how to learn. However, if that gaol is subverted because traditional universities, public and private, charge so much to make that happen, I believe that system will collapse and there will be better alternatives created.

Reading this on Cuban’s blog, I was amused by his writing errors.  I’m sure he writes quickly and eschews basic spell checking.  Somehow, it’s entertaining to see “its” and “thats” with missing apostrophes in a billionaire business magnate’s writing.  The lesson might be that perfect grammar and correct spelling are not always essential for good communication.  There are probably a few other self-made billionaires who can’t be bothered to know when to use “it’s” instead of “its” *.

* Actually, I think the more common mistake is to add an unnecessary apostrophe.

Related articles

• ‘Higher Education Bubble May Explode in Taxpayers’ Faces’ (costofcollege.wordpress.com)

Another try at a typing test, but no improvement

I took this typing test again, thinking I would have improved because I wasn’t trying my best when I first took it in November.  But my score stayed the same.  Bummer.

Visit the Typing Test and try!

The fastest 50 typists who tried this test over the last 24 hours had speeds ranging from 160 WPM down to 94 WPM.  I’m feeling very mediocre.

Top 5 ‘Cost of College’ posts in 2011

Posts that received the most page views on my blog this past year.

1. The Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’
2. Online degree from London School of Economics for $5,000
3. Leading reasons for high college costs are research and public service
4. ’10 Reasons to Skip the Expensive Colleges’
5. Save money on college textbooks by using Kindle

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These received the most comments.

1. Khan Academy classroom pilot declared a ‘success’ based on no data
2. College for everyone? As long as you’re willing to pay for everyone’s ‘six-year bong party’
3. M.I.T. adds credentialing to its online course program
4. College students find that STEM majors are too darn hard
5. Should they be occupying universities?

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Interesting that there’s no overlap.

Thank you for reading and commenting on Cost of College in 2011!

I took a typing test

Visit the Typing Test and try!

Hmm, not too bad for it being the first time and for not following the instructions.  I’d like to try again and see if I do better.

‘Cost of living’ – Ronnie Dunn

This song inspired the name of my blog, and it seemed appropriate to post on Labor Day.

Written three years ago, the original lyrics included the line, “two dollars and change at the pump, cost of living’s high and going up“.  At the time, record executives thought the song would be irrelevant by the time Ronnie Dunn’s album debuted this year.  Instead, it proved very timely and Dunn actually had to change the line to “three dollars and change at the pump”. 

When challenged that he was too wealthy to relate to current economic struggles, Dunn countered that he grew up in trailer houses in New Mexico, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

I am a country music fan, having been born and raised in Texas.  My favorite Ronnie Dunn song is probably Boot Scootin’ Boogie, sung with Kix Brooks.

Cost of Livin’  lyrics, written by Philip Coleman & Ronnie Dunn