I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

1. Apprentice in a good trade and you can earn more than the average professor. Seriously, my plumber makes more than than the prof who taught me quantum physics.

2. If you're at all cut out for college, you can get scholarships.

3. Even if you're not brilliant and just persistent, you can get loans.

University administrators and their associated bureaucracy have been expanding for quite some time now. It's actually rather sickening. I went to a conference and inadvertently lost the receipt for a $20 supper that sparked of a month-long shit-storm of gargantuan proportions when I tried to claim it as a travel expense. I think the University must have spent upwards of $2000 in man-hours lost. I honestly would have just paid the $20 had I only know what I was setting in motion! They weren't even coming down on me! They turned on each other like a starving pack of wolves, desperate to establish who was the alpha!

It's worth asking how we can step back into sanity from our current, ludicrous position. Recently, several University of Alberta professors organized a protest in which dozens of professors have applied, in groups, for the position of president of the University. They argued that any of the many groups applying for this position could do a superior job to any single person, and they'd each be getting a raise despite splitting the salary of the position! While the obvious message is that top administrators make far too much, I actually hope the UofA hires one of these groups. An absolute bloodbath for the administration of the UofA would likely ensue! Perhaps those claiming $20 for dinner at a conference will simply be given the $20 without touching off a grand inquisition that costs thousands!

Ambitious. Probably completely overreaching and doomed to failure. Small chance of a wonderful success. Good luck.

" In my mind higher education should be almost exclusively about academics. I’m looking for an affordable degree program that is academically rigorous, and provides me the opportunity to challenge myself and not be restricted to the 10 or 12 classes available in a major."

For someone with these kinds of goals, I think the best perspective is to think of universities as cultural institutions, like marriage. The institution allows young people 3-4 years to spend on education, experimenting with their personality, etc.

Peers are important from that context as are mentors.

This only applies to the UK I guess... Hmm most of Uni's in the UK do not provide a proper degree... meaning you will go there for a CS degree and when you get out you won't know anything about CS... (only a bit)

But that applies almost everywhere, only when you get a job or you are an addict yourself and start reading and getting involved by yourself you will learn.

That doesn't apply to major uni's like Stanford or MIT... when you'll go there you'll seriously get out knowing your field.

I'm diverging from the topic, but isn't it terrible that "a good football team" is a major cost to running a university (in the US)?

We went the other way and have approval to give course credit from the state of Vermont. And are in the process of getting accreditation.