OpinionatED

  College of Your Dreams or College of Your Means? A courageous conversation more families should have ahead of time This post originally appeared on Edvisors.com How do you go about choosing between the college of your dreams and the college of your means? As students approach the end of their high school journey, many set their sights on college. It’s an exciting time. A rite of passage. But the decision of which college to choose can be emotionally charged, especially once costs are factored into the equation. It is a much-needed conversation between parents and students. Parents may have made commitments long ago to help their son or daughter pay for college without realizing what they were signing up for. After all, when your kids are young and you tell them the sky is the limit, you truly believe it. So, when it comes time to celebrate the accomplishment of being accepted into college—and getting into one’s dream school, at that—parents can find themselves teetering between j...

I hate excuses. And that is one reason for my disappointment in the higher education system right now. There are so many excuses for why it is a hot mess. And the excuses come in the form of finger pointing, the blame game, and defensiveness over the status quo. We just witnessed a year in which students were forced to endure online instruction with schools failing to compromise on tuition costs. This led to a flurry of class action lawsuits from families who legitimately questioned the value of a remote learning structure which was the opposite of what they paid for. The higher education system in America is antiquated. The same model has been around since the 1600’s. And fundamentally, colleges and universities still operate much as they did back then—with some notable exceptions, such as costs skyrocketing beyond comprehension today. But sadly, there is no indication that massive change or reform is imminent, despite the wake-up call of the pandemic.  Additionally, with more...