On the Money Trail
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College You Can Afford

by Al Jacobs, author of Nobody's Fool: A Skeptic's Guide to Prosperity

September 2011

                                                   Doctrine of the faith:

                                                   Academic excellence

                                                   results from the

                                                   spending of money.

September is upon us and it’s school time once again.  With high school for you or your offspring now visible through the rear view mirror, college must be considered.  To prosper in this society, higher education is necessary, and that education must be selective as well as extensive.  The trick is figuring out what to study—and where.

What to study requires a certain degree of clairvoyance.  Who would have predicted in 1970, for example, that many of the prestigious and sought-after masters in business administration degrees would, within a short ten years, have slight acceptance and negligible value?  As universities throughout the nation hurriedly set up MBA courses to cash in on the fad, a skeptical analysis would have revealed many of the programs to be devoid of substance.  What initially escaped the academic world became painfully obvious to the business community: that many holders acquired an advanced degree of no consequence.  Although this diploma has now, in the internet age, regained some luster as a money-making accessory, its actual educational value is questionable.  If there is a moral, it is that the academic establishment cannot be relied upon to develop and implement meaningful courses of study.  You, as the prospective student, must conduct your own investigation and make that determination for yourself.

When it comes to determining where to study, the options become even more confusing.  If you believe the brochures of the major universities, you will conclude that a graduate of other than a renowned institution is forever doomed to mediocrity.  The official line is that only name universities offer quality education.  In this regard it is worth comparing the 2-year colleges with the 4-year schools as to value and educational opportunity.

From the standpoint of tuition, the standard community college normally is the less expensive, at least for legal residents of the district.  Note, however, that many jurisdictions impose a hefty surcharge for out-of-district students, which can dissipate any cost advantage.  As to whether the lower cost is reflective of lower quality, there is disagreement.  According to a past president of the University of California, the network of community colleges throughout that most populous state is little better than its high schools, and does not begin to compare in academic quality with the University system.  Unquestionably his opinion would be echoed by the twenty-four members of the UC Board of Regents as well as most of the faculty members of the nine campuses.  Though it is hard to refute such an authoritative group, a personal testimonial is in order.  It was my good fortune to attend not one, but three, community colleges in Orange County during the years 1979-1981, completing courses in basic inorganic and organic chemistry.  My next several years were spent at the University of California Irvine completing the requirements for both a bachelor's and a master's degree in that subject.  From this experience, I can say, without reservation, and contrary to the claims of that unnamed past president, that the quality of instruction at the community college is far superior in virtually every respect to that at the university.  This is not to suggest there are no good instructors in the nation's universities.  There are!  Nor should you think all community college instructors are first rate.  They are not!  It is that the quality of schooling seems generally to decline as the prestige of the institution increases.  If there is a reason, it is because the 2-year schools exist to provide education, whereas the universities, particularly those offering various graduate degrees, derive their sustenance in a different manner.  For a well-documented view of the role of the modern university in America, you should read ProfScam, a 1988 in-depth analysis by Charles J. Sykes.

Whether or not you commence your higher education at a 2-year institution, the bachelor's and higher degrees must be earned at the more expensive university.  Where you choose will be a personal decision, and there is no end to the recommendations you will receive.  Numerous guides are found in the college reference sections of most bookstores that evaluate the many schools, and you may be inclined to browse through them.  Probably the most comprehensive is the 2011 edition of Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, which retails at Amazon for $18.95, and includes an attached CD.  Its superbly-indexed 1,680 pages are overwhelmingly thorough, and include information on housing, programs of study, faculty, classrooms, student life and financial aid, as well as much else on each institution.  Although the data to be found there may be of some peripheral value, my personal belief is that there is not much useful academic guidance to be gleaned, particularly as to assessing the quality of education offered.  The reason for this is that the scholastic benefit to be obtained is more dependent upon the student's efforts than anything else.  Neither the architectural characteristics of the campus and classrooms nor the credentials of the professors will determine the extent of learning acquired by a motivated student.

I subscribe to the principle of college-on-the-cheap.  The first two years of post-secondary education, the freshman and sophomore years, are pursued at a local community college.  Here in my state of California, tuition costs are $26 per semester-unit.  With a little counselor guidance, subjects that are fully transferable toward a university degree can be chosen.  In this way, a year’s course of study, consisting of a full load of 30 units, is available at a $780 tuition charge.

The next two years, as a Junior and Senior, will be earned at a state university.  Tuition charges vary with each state, but legal residents generally enjoy low preferential rates.  The annual tuition for a full academic load at the California State University system is currently $4,335 plus about $800 in various fees.

My next dictum is that the student live at and commute from home during the full course of study.  This requires cooperative parents, of course, and perhaps some negotiation will be in order between all parties involved.  Family dynamics change as children grow into adults, but the favorable result of an economically obtained degree for the progeny should encourage compromises.

For those of you unfamiliar with modern schooling, the price of textbooks has become something awesome.  It’s not unusual for hundreds of dollars to be spent on them each semester.  It’s for this reason that I recommend used books.  Unfortunately, most university bookstores that deal in them set prices approaching those of a new issue.  Your best bet will often be purchasing them directly from a student just completing the course.  And there’s a serendipitous benefit to a used book.  It’s not unusual to find helpful underling of important sections as well as worthwhile comments written in the margins.

My final recommendation is that the student spends each summer between academic years working at a paying job.  The one benefit is obvious: money earned will help finance the forthcoming school year.  But there’s an additional value.  There is a component in toil that instills appreciation for what learning is all about.  The mixture of education and experience is a winning combination.

  I’m thoroughly convinced that two years at a local community college followed by the junior and senior years at a reasonably priced state university is the way to go.  The accoutrements are of little concern.  My mastery of algebra is in no way diminished because my classroom was a primitively lighted and ventilated Quonset hut at Los Angeles City College.  Similarly my grasp of partnership law did not suffer owing to a nameless and faceless course instructor located in a post office box at the LaSalle Institute correspondence school some two thousand miles away.  Admittedly a smiling and enthusiastic professor in a prestigious university will add a touch of stature to the process, but the student who strives to learn will do so regardless of the circumstances. 

Let me share my personal bias with you.  Unless you or your parents have more money than you know what to do with, attendance at an acclaimed university represents an unwarranted expense.  The time will come when your textbooks have been sold, your course notes burned, the names of your instructors forgotten, and your framed diploma relegated to a wall at which you rarely glance.  At that point your education is what is left in your head.  That is what really counts.

I’ll conclude with a response to those critics who contend that a degree from an institution without an exalted reputation will forever stigmatize its holder.  To you, I pose this question: Do you actually know from what schools your dentist, attorney, accountant, and physician received their bachelors’ degrees?