Good Advice to Parents of the College Age

 Speaking of the higher education bubble, reader Chris Farley offers some advice:

I used to be a college administrator and learned a lot of tricks that you can pass on.


My son is going to graduate High School in three years – not because he is a genius, but because he can arrange his schedule to fit in all the requirements and credits in three years. Anyone at his high school can do it. That’s at least one year of tuition increases avoided. When he finishes High School, we are sending him to the local community college for two years. It is very inexpensive, will give him a chance to mature and will allow him to explore different subject matter prior to choosing a major without wasting a lot of time and money. Two years for about $5K total and then he can transfer pretty much anywhere he wants. It is much easier to get accepted to a school as a transferring Junior than fresh out of high school and he’ll have plenty of money between his college fund and a few small loans. All of my children must take out some small bit of loans to put a little skin in the game so they will be more serious.


The other smart move is ROTC – Running Off To Canada. Tuition, room, board, books and everything else is very inexpensive in Canada and most schools are accredited the same as US schools. My oldest went to the University of Prince Edward Island. When she was done, she worked for the government in Iraq for about 16 months and is now finishing up an internship in Finance and Accounting with the US Army Corps of Engineers. She has about $20K in loans and we paid the difference in cash and one small loan that is already paid off. $20K is a payment she can easily afford now and won’t haunt her forever.


My last bit of advice is to find free money. If a Junior spends an hour a day applying for scholarships over the summer, even one small scholarship of $1,000 would come out to about $11/hr. for the time spent. That’s a pretty good wage for surfing the net and filling in forms!