I have another video I'd like your input on.

[Rapunzel]

My student loans are nearing 50 thousand dollars and I have not even finished my masters degree yet. Where exactly can young inexperienced students today work that allows them to make ends meet as well as pay off the gigantic amount of student loan debt they are accruing while they attend college?

Frankly, that is not my problem. I didn't have children. I already paid for you to go through 12th grade.  The rest is on you. 

BTW you ignored my question about your GI benefits. 

Also this government you liberals all love to support is why the cost of your education is through the roof.  When the government took over student loans all that did was encourage universities to charge even more.  Like we said yesterday, you really should take a economics course or two.

And you do have alternatives........ here is one....

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/10/12/the-educational-trend-that-could-put-an-end-to-stu.aspx

The Educational Trend That Could Put an End to Student Loan Debt

By Amanda Alix |

October 12, 2013

Imagine obtaining a college degree from the comfort of your own home, using your own computer or laptop -- without having to actually enroll in the institution that offers the courses. Not only would you be learning from the best minds from schools like Yale and MIT, but the coursework would be offered at minimal cost, or no charge at all.

As college attendees continue to rack up record levels of student loan debt, any innovation that promises to cut college costs is welcome. Thanks to the increasing popularity of Massive Open Online Courses, which offer global audiences course lectures and assignments over the Internet, the above scenario is moving closer to reality.

The evolution of online courses
Online courses are not new, but the idea of MOOCs has only been around for a couple of years. It may seem like the two types of courses would be very similar, but they actually differ quite a lot.

While online courses usually are a dedicated offering at a particular college or university, MOOCs are available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. As for affordability, online courses at a given school may not be much cheaper than traditional classroom offerings -- because of the need to train faculty, as well as develop the courses themselves. MOOCs, for the most part, cost nothing.

MOOCs are not perfect. Most, for example, are not being offered for credit, which means getting a degree from the experience is nearly impossible. The dropout rate is extremely high, as well; experts estimate that up to 90% of those that sign up for these courses never complete them.

Things are changing -- fast

But MOOCs are quickly becoming the next big thing in higher education, and colleges and universities are jumping on the bandwagon. This semester, Georgetown University is offering a seven-week MOOC that has attracted 20,000 enrollees from all over the world. The University of Wisconsin at Madison rolled out its own MOOC this October, which consists of four pilot courses, with an enrollment of 80,000.

With MOOCs getting a lot more attention, the idea of treating them more as for-credit, matriculating courses is catching on. The University of Maryland is now taking a look at bestowing transfer credit to those who are able to demonstrate a specific level of knowledge after completing a MOOC.

The Georgia Institute of Technology has taken the MOOC concept to the ultimate level, opening the application process earlier this month for the first-ever degree program delivered through the MOOC platform. The Master of Science in Computer Science will be offered for a cost of less than $7,000 -- an absolute bargain, especially when compared to the traditional on-campus price of $45,000.

An education-industry partnership
The speed with which MOOCs are taking off and becoming a true alternative to an on-site college education may be due to the involvement of big business. The Georgia Tech program involves communications giant AT&T, which plans to utilize the program for employee training. The platform is being provided by Udacity, an online education provider, which will share in the MOOC's profits.

Meanwhile, Google has taken an interest in the technology, as well. The company has partnered with university coalition edX in order to create a massive open-source educational platform. The new project, dubbed Open edX, will provide a means for anyone to create and host online courses.

Whether MOOCs become an integral part of higher education remains to be seen, and much will depend upon the success of Georgia Tech's new offering. If the degree program performs well, the model will likely be duplicated very quickly -- good news for students, who will stand a better chance of beginning their working lives free of crippling student loan debt.


You also have not replied to our questions about what you have read. 

[Rapunzel]

Winston Churchill once said, "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. It's inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery".

[Liberal_Spy]

Frankly, that is not my problem. I didn't have children. I already paid for you to go through 12th grade.  The rest is on you. 

That's all you needed to say.

[NavyCanDo]

How long did it take the majority of you to pay off your massive student loan debt after you were finished with college?

My parents could not afford to send any of their kids to college, and none of us kids believed that racking up a huge debt for college was a wise decision so we didn't take that route. So instead after high school I chose the military, so that if I wanted to continue on with a college education I could do so on the GI Bill. My brother got right into the job market after high school not wasting a moment. Both of us today are probably making a larger salary than many of our classmates that went on to college, and far more than I dreamed I would ever make. All through hard work and good work ethics.    The problem with college is way too many people are going to college. It not only causes tuition to skyrocket, it also waste a lot of young peoples time. 

I heard said once that there are 3-things that  if done will give you an 89% chance of having a successful fulfilling life.
1. Finish High school
2. Don't have children before marriage
3. Don't get married until you are at least 24.

That's it, just those 3 things. 89% is fantastic odds. If you add college as #4 it has very little impact on the percentage.

[truth_seeker]

My student loans are nearing 50 thousand dollars and I have not even finished my masters degree yet. Where exactly can young inexperienced students today work that allows them to make ends meet as well as pay off the gigantic amount of student loan debt they are accruing while they attend college?

I had the GI bill, and a family, and I worked full time. And it took me 8 years for a BA. I went to schools that I could afford, without loans. I repaid one small loan.

And I took hard subjects which would prepare me for a good paying job, in fields which were in demand. Accounting, economics, engineering, etc.

I started but didn't finish a masters, because at age 26, it was time to work hard at my career position.

I never, never thought of having something like school loans that would be forgiven, when I ran them up beyond my ability to repay.

Your attitude illustrates what is wrong with a generation that has come to feel entitled to more than their ability to EARN.

Do you realize the national debt has been nearly doubled under Obama? Do you realize he has added as much to the national debt as all 43 Presidents before him?

Many people are very pissed off about such irresponsibility. EBT and Disability have exploded. Full time jobs are becoming part time jobs of 29 hours or less.

If you had studied and learned basic economics, you'd be pissed that your opportunities are being downsized while government cost is exploding, and you are on the hook to repay it to the Chinese and Japanese, who are admonishing the Obama administration for irresponsibility.

A generation which grows up on a delayed, relaxed schedule or not at all. You'll find scant sympathy for loans one has no means or plans or ability to repay.

More money won't improve education. It will be squandered by highly paid administrators, who have low expectations for students, who promote based on birthdays, not demonstrated mastery of basic material previous generations learned for much less school funding.

Thanks by the way, thanks for your service, but with a bachelors degree, you should by now have some marketable skills, or it wasn't worth the $50,000.

[Rapunzel]

I worked during the day and went to college at night.  I paid for each semester at the start of the semester.  Taking out a loan for the semester never even crossed my mind.

A nephew of one of my best friends graduated with an MBA from Princeton three years ago. He studied "writing."  So far he has managed to find a couple of part time writing positions - very part time - and a job at McDonald's.    Having met him, I do not hold out a lot of hope for him to find a great job any time soon, he lacks the basic skills of eye contact, firm handshake and speaking up in a strong voice when you ask him a question.   Frankly, I have no idea how he will ever be able to pay back his student debt.  BTW my friend and her husband own two businesses, their son runs the business in California. They would not hire the nephew for anything - not even shipping.

[EC]

How long did it take the majority of you to pay off your massive student loan debt after you were finished with college?

3 years, first working double shifts in a factory that made beds, then in a cheese factory, then in the army which at least fed and housed us for cheap. My debt may not sound massive - it was a hair over $10,000, but this was back in the 70's when that was a serious chunk of change.

Doctorates I earned taking night courses and studying while working , so no debt for those.

[aligncare]

Where LS goes wrong is in thinking the department of education adds value. It does not. It is just one more federal middleman that drains money from the system.

Liberal_Spy, did you know the federal agency did not exist before 1980? How did America's children learn before the federal Department of Education was forced on us by the liberals of Jimmy Carter's day? (by the way, Ronald Reagan campaigned on getting rid of the Department of Education – and won on that "dangerous" campaign promise. "He hates children" the liberals screamed! Why, he must be crazy!)

How did we build the greatest nation on earth? How did we invent computers and get to the moon without the Department of Education?

Stop thinking constructing one more federal agency will solve problems. They only take away choices and freedom and your money—which IS your freedom. Americans have many problems. If we keep constructing federal agencies to deal with these problems pretty soon they'll construct a building in Washington DC and cut the ribbon on the Department of Ingrown Toenails.

[EC]

The USA had a 98% literacy rate in 1910. It is now hovering around 60%. Something went wrong. Badly.

[happyg]

The USA had a 98% literacy rate in 1910. It is now hovering around 60%. Something went wrong. Badly.

People wanted to learn back then. Learning was even a form of entertainment. Now, kids just want to be entertained, and consider education as work. There are so many options today, and parents take the easy route, which is television and other electronics.

[Liberal_Spy]

Where LS goes wrong is in thinking the department of education adds value.

Regardless of what the situation is now, I feel devoting money to education and learning can add value, and that is just one of several places I feel money from the federal government could help a lot. It'd certainly do a lot more good than it is doing while wasted on the war on drugs.

[Liberal_Spy]

and parents take the easy route, which is television and other electronics.

My ex and I will be homeschooling my son because of how atrocious the public school system is. I can give my son a much better education than he would receive from public schools.

[EC]

Learning is a form of entertainment.   

Fun as hell, pushes your boundaries and makes you think, not just absorb passively while half asleep.

[EC]

My ex and I will be homeschooling my son because of how atrocious the public school system is. I can give my son a much better education than he would receive from public schools.

Be grateful you have that option. Most countries do not.

However - well done to both of you.

[Bigun]

I think we could do a LOT of good for education in this country if we started actually providing good funding to public schools. Maybe they'd be able to hire some more teachers and reduce the size of classrooms so teachers would be able to properly teach our children. Maybe they'd be able to buy some of the teaching materials that a lot of public schools desperately need. Maybe if we reduced some of our enormously bloated military spending as well as ended the war on drugs we could easily afford to let people do something horrible like go to college for free (or even for reasonable prices that don't put them in debt for the next 20 years). Maybe we could afford to hire more good professors so professors aren't overwhelmed with more students than they can handle and the quality of education can be improved in college as well.

Good golly man you REALLY don't have a clue do you? We are spending 5 times the money on education we did just a few years ago and getting half the results! Money ios not, and never has been the answer!

Buy a clue!

[Bigun]

My student loans are nearing 50 thousand dollars and I have not even finished my masters degree yet. Where exactly can young inexperienced students today work that allows them to make ends meet as well as pay off the gigantic amount of student loan debt they are accruing while they attend college?

I believe I remember you saying somewhere that you were ex military. What happened to your GI benefits?

I worked a full time job and went to school at night while my sweet wife (almost 46 years now) worked and kept things at home together. Payed with GI benefits and out of my own pocket! All of this was pre computer and word processor so all papers had to be manually typed on a typewriter (do you know what a typewriter is?). No fancy graphing calculators either! We used a thing called a slide rule!

Get to work and STOP Whining!
 

[EC]

If I never see a slide rule again - to the heat death of the Universe - it will be too soon.

[Bigun]

The USA had a 98% literacy rate in 1910. It is now hovering around 60%. Something went wrong. Badly.

   and  !

And one of those things that went wrong was the federal department of Education! That and the rise of Colleges of Education in our universities!

[massadvj]

Regardless of what the situation is now, I feel devoting money to education and learning can add value, and that is just one of several places I feel money from the federal government could help a lot. It'd certainly do a lot more good than it is doing while wasted on the war on drugs.

The federal government dramatically expanded its role in both primary and secondary education over the past 20-30 years.  If federal involvement makes things better, then why are things going in the wrong direction?  Costs are up, student performance is down, in direct correlation to heavier federal involvement.  Why do you think that is?

[Bigun]

People wanted to learn back then. Learning was even a form of entertainment. Now, kids just want to be entertained, and consider education as work. There are so many options today, and parents take the easy route, which is television and other electronics.

Back then people understood the difference between being exposed to a certain body of knowledge and the ability to actually DO something! Those are two VASTLY different things!

[massadvj]

How long did it take the majority of you to pay off your massive student loan debt after you were finished with college?

When I went to college, a college education was affordable.  I worked my way through.  I didn't have to grovel to the government and make myself their slave for life.

You owe them $50k and yet you think they aren't doing enough.  You ever hear of Stockholm Syndrome?

[Bigun]

Regardless of what the situation is now, I feel devoting money to education and learning can add value, and that is just one of several places I feel money from the federal government could help a lot. It'd certainly do a lot more good than it is doing while wasted on the war on drugs.

You say you want to be a professor of history so that means you have to play the game and get all of the proper creds. but at the end of the day you STILL will have little knowledge of ACTUAL history. If you REALLY want to learn history you will be far better off spending your time in libraries researching original documentation  rather than spending all that money to be pumped full of the revisionist crap they are now teaching!

[Bigun]

If I never see a slide rule again - to the heat death of the Universe - it will be too soon.

LOL! I couldn't agree more!

I used to have a bunch of them and wish I still did because they have become quite valuable to collectors.

[Lando Lincoln]

When I went to college, a college education was affordable.  I worked my way through.  I didn't have to grovel to the government and make myself their slave for life.

You owe them $50k and yet you think they aren't doing enough.  You ever hear of Stockholm Syndrome?

Bingo.  I paid as I went while working 24 hours a week at a grocery store. 

[massadvj]

You say you want to be a professor of history so that means you have to play the game and get all of the proper creds. but at the end of the day you STILL will have little knowledge of ACTUAL history. If you REALLY want to learn history you will be far better off spending your time in libraries researching original documentation  rather than spending all that money to be pumped full of the revisionist crap they are now teaching!

If he is a history major, he is not really learning American history.  He is learning "identity" history: the revised history of African Americans, the revised history of women, the revised history of GBLT peoples, etc.  Basically, the curriculum follows the political strategy of the Democrat Party.  Find subcultures and split them off from the dominant culture by showing them how oppressed they were, and are.

Virtually no one teaches traditional American history today, and when they do, the books all make heroes out of people like Wilson and FDR, and paint people like Coolidge and Reagan as short-sighted idiots.

I really feel sorry for you, LS, that you have put yourself $50K in debt to be programmed to think the way you do.  As a marketing professor, however, I have to really admire the marketing savvy of the Democrat machine.  Not only did they reel you in as an advocate to their way of thinking, they got you to pay $50K for the privilege of being brainwashed by them.