Straight Talk: February 16, 2011

Straight Talk:  The StraighterLine e-Newsletter Issue #4, February 16, 2011
Edited by Jeffrey Lee Simons

In this issue…

Best of The StraighterLine Blog

Shocker: College Will Cost $400,000 in 2026
The soaring cost of college is out of control, and Barry Lenson has some shocking numbers, some good news, and a great way to minimize those costs. Read Full Post

Why ‘Virtual’ Internships Can Be Better Than ‘Real Ones’
Find out why virtual internships are growing in popularity, and whether they make sense for you. Read Full Post

Online Education in The News

Online University Launches Two New Scholarship Programs
U.S. News and World Report University Directory, Scott Manning, 2/08/11

In order to help students afford higher education, Kaplan University has just announced two new financial aid initiatives. One, for students who live in California, will provide up to $5,000 in scholarship money towards an online degree program at Kaplan. Read full story

Community college students prize Internet access over teachers
The Washington Post, Daniel de Vise, 2/09/2011 

A new survey of community college students finds that over 40% of community college students are currently taking at least one course online. Among other findings, students are “more likely to believe online education is "highly important" for them to succeed. This is presumably because online education is a flexible learning model, available to students almost anywhere and at most any time." Read Full Story

Straight Answers: This Week’s StraighterLine Survey Question:

Thanks to everyone who answered our first Survey Question, “What time of the day do you prefer to study?” The most popular answer was: Prime Time, (8pm to 12am), with 33.3%. (To see the complete survey results, click here.)

Now, on to this week’s question:

Answer the survey here and see how your answer compares to other students.

Burck’s Blast: "Do colleges overcharge for their courses?"

Opinion from StraighterLine's founder, Burck Smith

"What does it cost to deliver a college course? What do colleges charge for that course? Finding cost data is surprisingly hard to do. Through the National Center for Academic Transformation’s Course Redesign program, some of this information for large enrollment courses can be found. Using their data and acknowledging that this isn’t an exact study of all costs, the direct instructional cost to deliver a large enrollment course is about $100 per student. For these courses, most colleges receive between $2,000 and $3,000 in revenue. This includes tuition, fees and state support. The difference between the two – call it profit, surplus, fund balance, overhead – supports other functions of the college. Students residing at that college may think that this is entirely reasonable. However, students not residing at that college are effectively subsidizing all of the non-academic things that others are enjoying. For online students and commuter students that realize limited benefit from this massive overhead, colleges are dramatically over-pricing courses.

Read Full Blast