College costs

Marketing guru Seth Godin rants about the cost of college today:

According to The Chosen, an exhaustive study of college admissions, there's no measurable difference between the outcomes of education with the most exclusive schools and the next few tiers. Graduates don't end up happier. They don't end up with better paying jobs. They don't end up richer or even healthier. The whole thing is a sham (which costs a quarter of a million dollars a person at the top end).

Part of his assessment is that what really separates the "best" schools from the "average" schools is marketing and branding. This make sense, particularly, as he points out, among the baby boomer generation, who always want "what's best."

Godin's rant hits at a topic that Dr. Richard Vedder of Ohio University has been ranting about - from an academic perspective - for some time. His book, Going Broke By Degree, dove into this topic extensively, and his Center for College Affordability and Productivity spends its days trying to figure out why college costs have spun out of control even as the efficiency and effectiveness of college education seems stagnant. If this is a topic that interests you, CCAP, particularly its blog, will provide you with lots of information and insight, such as this suggestion to control costs.