Colleges, Universities Hit by Credit Crisis

It's a four year—or more—waste of time, author says

(NEWSER) - College is a must if you want to have a real career, right? Nope, it’s “a scam, a self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme that needs to stop right now,” writes James Altucher for DailyFinance.com . Here are his seven reasons you shouldn’t send your kids:

• It’ll cost more than you think: Thanks to the fact that more than 60% of college students will take more than 4 years to wear that cap and gown.
• It doesn’t matter, money-wise: Yes, the difference in income between a college grad and a non-grad is approximately $800,000 over a 45-year career. But if you invest the $200,000 likely college cost in bonds yielding 3%, over those 45 years plus the 4 spent in college, you’ll end up with $851,000.

Officials walk line between shoring up budgets, maintaining reputations

(NEWSER) - The unraveling economy is spurring a boom in applications to public universities as students pursue higher education at lower prices, the New York Times reports. But while increased enrollment may help offset the budget cuts that many public institutions expect as states trim budgets, it can also diminish the student experience—and ultimately a school's reputation, leaving officials to walk a tightrope between cash flow and prestige. More»

Introduces plan to control tuition costs

(AP) - President Barack Obama today called for an overhaul of the higher education financial aid system, warning that colleges and universities that fail to control spiraling tuition costs could lose federal funds. Speaking to students at the University of Michigan, Obama said he was "putting colleges on notice" that the era of unabated tuition hikes is over. "You can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can't stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down," Obama said on the final stop of a three-day post-State of the Union trip to promote components of his economic agenda. More»

First, make sure you develop no marketable skills: Walter Russell Mead

(NEWSER) - If you want to emerge from college "with massive debt loads, major attitude problems, and no marketable skills," Walter Russell Mead has a 7-step plan that's sure to work. Disgusted with a recent Boston Globe column about "awesome" college courses (among them: "The Culture of Burlesque," "Puppetry," and "Surfing and American Culture"), Meade explains on the American Interest that these are the vapid, "glittering fripperies" American students are going tens of thousands of dollars into debt for, though all it will lead to is a life of misery. Highlights of his plan to ruin your life: More»

Requirement was team-building exercise, he says

(NEWSER) - For the first time in 39 years, Psychology 101 students at Sacramento State may find themselves being taught by a hungry Parrott. For decades, professor George Parrott has told students that if they fail to bring homemade snacks for the class to share, there will be no class. The university told him to end the requirement after he walked out of a snackless class two weeks ago and students complained, the Sacramento Bee reports. More»