I often receive questions from parents regarding how to save for college, but lately, I’ve been getting emails from financial advisors. They are looking for tips to pass along to their clients who are overwhelmed by the cost of educating their kids. What’s the best way for families to save for college now?

My response is that it may be a lot smarter to save on college than to save for college. With tuition and other costs rising, portfolios shrinking and home values stagnating, a savings plan is helpful but certainly no guarantee of affordability. Families are beginning to look at the true value of education rather than simply scrimping and paying for what they’re told is best for their kids.

Times are changing—and our strategies for educating our children (and paying for that education) must change, as well.

The traditional four-by-four model (4 years of high school followed by 4 years of college) is outdated. That’s good news for both students who are rolling their eyes at the idea of spending five or six years in college and parents who are having heart palpitations thinking about paying for it.

The key to the Bold School approach—and the best way to reduce college costs—is to look for ways to blend and balance learning opportunities beginning in high school. Through dual enrollment programs, IB diplomas or AP tests, many students are earning college credit while in high school. Others are picking a more personalized path, getting a GED at 15 or 16 in order to enroll in college early or getting an associate’s degree by the time they receive their high school diploma. Some are taking college courses, either online or in person, during their summers in high school and transferring to a four-year university at 18 as a junior. And it’s not just a matter of racing ahead to finish early—these students are using their time for meaningful experiences, such as spending a significant period of time abroad before the age of 18 (as exchange students or through extensive study/volunteer opportunities) in order to hardwire their brains for flexibility and language learning and develop a greater understanding of themselves and the world around them.

What they have in common is a clearer idea of their interests because they have been exposed to more options early on and have built momentum in their learning.

One of the easiest ways to ensure that your son or daughter gets the most value out of their time in college is to compress it rather than extend it. The average college student now takes more than five years to graduate and students no longer expect to graduate within four years. As some college students have been known to say, graduating after four years is “like leaving the party at 10:30 p.m.” But that’s a very expensive party and families need to understand that they do have options for reducing the length and cost of college while still giving students that full “college experience.”

Colleges contribute to the added length by not counseling students on how they can finish earlier and by making courses critical for graduation scarce, necessitating an extra semester or two to finish up. In addition, many counselors, worried that students won’t be able to juggle their social life and their classes successfully, advise students to take a minimal load of courses each semester. This may be helpful for some students, but for many, it establishes a pattern early on of spending more time on recreation than on studying, and reduces their expectations regarding the course load they can handle. The truth is that most students find that they budget their time, get more accomplished, and get better grades when they have a full load rather than a lighter schedule.

Here’s what we can do to save money on college, help our kids develop a clear idea of their interests and enable them to graduate early while having transformational experiences along the way:

1) Shift from achievements to interests. The focus during the high school years should be on developing interests and enthusiasm for learning rather than gaining a particular set of academic achievements. This is crucial. By the age of 16, students need to know how to find, understand and synthesis content. They must be able to develop ideas of their own and research the heck out of them. Students who spend years languishing in high school when they could be blasting forward are wasting the most critical period of their adolescent brain development. Kids should be on fire during these years, and as parents, it’s our job to help them come alive rather than simply plod along on a prescribed path. A 17-year-old who can’t wait to learn more about his favorite subjects is going to be more successful in college and life in general than the 17-year-old who does what he is told in order to pass the test. Make this shift in your focus, and your student will be one of those who dives into higher education with great enthusiasm—and graduates early.

2) Break free of four-by-four thinking. The key is to look for ways to blend high school and college, getting credit along the way for a variety of learning opportunities and experiences that help our kids figure out what they’re good at, what interests them, and how they want to spend their time. Students have a tremendous amount of freedom regarding how, where and what they study during the high school years and beyond. But too often, we simply enroll them in a decent school and tell them to just take tough courses and graduate with good grades. We need to question why we think the education we received twenty or more years ago is enough for our kids today, and stop assuming that any given school will have it covered. Remember how motivated you were to expose your son or daughter to a range of rich experiences when they were five years old? What would happen if we took that same approach with our fifteen-year-olds instead of assuming that AP classes, sports practice and a part-time job could maximize their potential?

3) Release the idea that getting into a top school is a prerequisite for success. There are new cracks in those ivy-covered walls. The recession has shown that even those with the most sought-after degrees are not guaranteed a job upon graduation. Those who are resourceful enough to have designed their own best education in a variety of settings will be in a far better position to find work they love than those who are relying on the name on that college diploma or their connections to get their foot in the door. Young adults who are not hampered by enormous student debt are free to take jobs that truly appeal to them rather than whatever pays the bills, and this leads to greater enthusiasm for work, more willingness to explore options and more excitement about their possibilities. We need our kids to want to work diligently because they love what they do—that’s the winning combination that will lead to personal fulfillment and success.

4) Recognize that those who graduate early because they know what they love to do are also saving thousands of dollars. They are not spending five or six years going to the same university—thanks to blending high school, college and study abroad, they may spend less than two years as full-time college students at their final degree-granting institution. By 19 or 20, they’ve got hip-deep experience, a college degree without debt, and tremendous enthusiasm about the next stage of their lives. And when someone suggests that they might have “missed out” on that extra time in high school and college, they simply laugh—they know they’ve packed far more excitement and learning into their personalized education than their peers on the just-tell-me-when-I’m-done track.

I know that families are struggling to pay for college. I don’t have all the answers, and I think parents should run from anyone who claims they do. But the fact remains that simply saving for college is no longer a proactive approach. Selecting a smart blend of education options is more strategic and far more likely to give students the kind of education that is both personally enriching and professionally beneficial without breaking the bank.

Bottom line: be flexible and aware in order to see and seize the best opportunities available—and keep the focus on real value and sustainable growth. That holds true for both finances and education.

Blake Boles has written a remarkable how-to handbook that is destined to change the lives of young people across North America. In College Without High School: A Teenager’s Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College, he offers a step-by-step plan to help students envision their best educational experience and make the most of the time they would have spent in high school.

We didn’t have Blake’s book when our youngest daughter was figuring out how to do high school differently. As a freshman, she spent a year as the only foreigner at her high school in Mexico, and then started taking Spanish classes at a local university in Buenos Aires alongside college students from the U.S. After a great semester of college courses, enrolling in high school seemed like a huge step backward, so she took advantage of some wonderful opportunities to work with tutors and mentors and then spent a summer in Oregon taking a full load of college courses while preparing for her GED tests. That fall, at 16, she enrolled as a freshman at an American college in Buenos Aires, and the following year, she got a nice scholarship/grant package when she transferred as a junior to a private college in upstate New York at the age of 17. She spent the summer doing an independent research project in Argentina and is excited to complete her BS this December just two weeks after she turns 19.

But that’s just her story. Her three older sisters also pursued alternative routes, and there are many, many ways to prepare for and get into college without attending high school. Blake’s book is full of tips and stories to help students plot their own best path.

I had the chance to interview Blake between his sessions leading the Not Back to School camp for teens. He shared some thoughts about the book.

You had an epiphany in college while majoring in astrophysics. Tell us about that—and where it led you.

Since early in high school, I had a passion for physics. Getting high grades in my math & science classes and watching the movie “Contact” also nudged me in that direction. So, I entered UC Berkeley under the astrophysics major and studied it diligently for two years. It was in my third year that cracks started forming in the edifice. In quantum physics I started to see that astrophysics was really just hardcore math, and I began to question my motivations for becoming a professional astronomer. Luckily, that same semester a friend from a 1-unit elective class handed me a book by famed public-school-teacher-turned-homeschool-advocate John Taylor Gatto.

Like a chainsaw, Gatto quickly cut through every assumption I held about the necessity and benefits of regular public schooling. I consumed his book in three days and immediately did a Google search for related authors, which led me to Grace Llewellyn, The Sudbury Valley School, Summerhill, and John Holt. Within two weeks I saw that my passion for astrophysics, genuine but faltering, was no match for the immense intellectual curiosity I held for alternative education. I scoured Berkeley for a design-your-own-major option, argued and pleaded, and eventually got my way. For the next two years I studied alternative education exclusively, following a plan of my design. My curriculum included volunteering at a local “free school”, reading Gatto’s gigantic Underground History of American Education, taking numerous upper division education courses, and designing and leading my own elective course for undergrads (entitled “Never Taught to Learn”). The intellectual and emotional high that I derived from self-directing my college studies was the major epiphany of my young adulthood, and it set the foundation for later writing College Without High School.

What advice can you give to students who have parents who remain unconvinced of this alternative path to a college degree?

Parents should be rightly skeptical of anyone peddling college admissions snake oil–there’s a lot out there. My ultimate response to skepticism is: Look at the evidence. Look at MIT or Stanford’s online admissions guidelines for homeschoolers. They don’t want high school diplomas. They don’t want some perfect equivalent of 4 years of high school classes. They want teens who have taken personal initiative and designed meaningful, independence-building activities for themselves. They want teens who have boldly explored the realms of business, international travel, and college-level research prior to convincing themselves that they actually need college. Traditional high school is very often a handicap in pursuing these character traits. And while not every college has explicit homeschool admissions policies like MIT and Stanford, the logic remains the same: colleges want dynamic, innovative teens who leave the cookie-cutter approach behind for greener pastures.

Skeptical parents often compare their child’s college preparatory journey to their same journey of yesteryear. It’s important to realize that high school diplomas don’t hold nearly the same cachet today as they did a few decades ago. Community colleges are much easier to get into as a teen, and dual- or early-enrollment programs abound. The biggest bureaucratic hurdles exist in public college admissions, but an easily obtained GED can soothe those ruffled feathers. These facts are the kind of evidence that parents should seek out to decide whether their fears are founded or unfounded.

What tips do you offer to students who have been in public or private schools through the 8th or 9th grade and are now considering preparing for college without high school?

My book is actually written for just those teens: the ones who have attempted to diligently follow school’s path but have only met disillusionment and boredom in the process. (Middle school is usually when this sets in.) A majority of the teens interviewed in my book made their unschooling decision in 9th grade.

What’s most important for a teen making the transition away from traditional school is to identify, as specifically as possible, their personal dreams and goals. Read the books that have always caught your eye in the bookstore. Take the train to visit your friend three states away. Build a computer in your garage or spend six hours a day writing music. Unschooling should be a “moving toward” something, not “moving away”. Once these values are clear, they should start pursuing them ruthlessly–and then figure out how college prep can be mixed into the brew. Following this order (interests first, college prep second) is vital for maintaining enthusiasm and self-motivation as an unschooler.
If a teen doesn’t know what truly excites them (as often happens with first-time school refugees), a short “deschooling vacation” might be in order. This is a period of time during which no structured academics are required, no schedule is followed, and parental nudging is kept to a minimum. The point is for the teen to push through the “no one is going to tell me what to do” barrier and enter “I have to motivate myself” land.

Though you encourage students to get creative about designing a personalized college-prep education, you suggest they prepare for and take standardized tests like the SAT or AP tests. Why not continue their alternative approach by finding other options for admission?

The SAT is certainly not required for all college admissions as a homeschooler., but the vast majority of traditional schools require at least one traditional academic achievement indicator (SAT, ACT, GED) and often more (SAT Subject, AP). The good news is that these tests have always existed independently of high school, and for that reason, it’s easy to prepare for them as a homeschooler. Grab a few SAT study guides, figure out exactly where your weak spots are, review hard in those areas, and take the test when you see fit. It’s a self-directed and results-oriented approach to college prep.

In view of the financial challenges facing many families, what’s your advice for those who need to reduce their college costs?

Community college is a golden bullet for financial hurdles. Many of the college-bound unschoolers with whom I work start community college around age 16, gather a significant number of transferable credits (or an Associate’s degree) by 18 or 19, and have lots of cool adventures along the way. Then they’re ready to apply (or transfer) into a 4-year school with sophomore or junior standing, saving thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

What options do you recommend for those interested in increasing their knowledge of the world and themselves?

As you argue excellently in The New Global Student, international immersion provides teens with an incredible wealth of self-knowledge. But many teens don’t want to participate in a packaged tourist program that carefully clings to the beaten path, and many parents won’t let their teens leave the beaten path alone. The solution lies somewhere in the middle–in finding a program that provides some modicum of safety and structure while providing teens with ample time to explore a new culture and learn from the common travel mistakes that they’ll inevitably make.

To find such opportunities, I recommend that teens first explore Idealist.org and search for volunteer positions specific to their age and desired location (using the “advanced search” feature). Often these programs provide a host family, English-speaking support network, and both structured and unstructured time. Another option (for those who don’t mind getting their hands dirty) is WWOOF: World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. In exchange for a small number of hours of farm work each day, students get to enjoy total immersion in the rural life of a foreign country. Both volunteering and “WWOOFing” offer the coveted combination of low cost and high immersion that a globetrotting teen seeks. There are also, of course, my own Unschool Adventures (http://www.unschooladventures.com) and Homeschool Leadership Retreats (http://www.homeschoolleadershipretreats.com) that strive to offer a similar experience.
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I highly recommend Blake’s book to any middle school or high school student seeking more excitement and engagement in their educational journey. Smart parents should buy this book for their kids and be bold enough to encourage them to forge ahead in new ways. To learn more, visit http://www.CollegeWithoutHighSchool.com

I’ve read several articles and blog posts recently about education consultants who charge as much as $40,000 to get a student into college. Now, I recognize that there are many education consultants who offer valuable assistance to families struggling with the college admissions process and that most don’t charge anywhere near that amount. However, I think it’s important for parents and others to understand that there is a booming business based on fear and ego and that parents are the target market precisely because they are feeling helpless and afraid that they can’t navigate the college admissions process without professional assistance.

I love reading the comments posted below the online articles from students whose parents paid big bucks to get into a top school–and who now feel it was a total waste of money (for various reasons). Generally these students learned that:

1) an elite school does not guarantee them any advantages

2) the money their parents paid would have been better spent on experiences to help the student prepare for life as a young adult rather than getting into a more prestigious college

3) they feel stupid for being suckered into paying that much for services that they could have duplicated for far less

Listen, if a family has the means and the desire to have someone help their kids get into the college of their (parents’ or kids’) dreams, that’s their business. The problem is that they are teaching their kids that they are helpless and must rely on others to get what they want in this world.

Those who flock to specialists to help their kids get into college are perpetuating the learned helplessness that characterizes so many students’ lives before, during and after college. These kids are learning that they can’t do it on their own (despite the fact that thousands of other kids manage somehow) and that they need high-end coaching for years in order to make things happen.

Whenever we hear about twentysomething who don’t have a clue what they want to do, we need only look at the path that has led them to that point–and how seldom they have had an opportunity to make and trust their own decisions and move forward without relying upon help from others.

Why would parents send the message that their kids aren’t going to have a chance to succeed unless they get into a prestigious college? Why don’t parents have more confidence in their kids’ ability to follow the steps required to get the job done? Why do we put so much more emphasis on the process of getting into college rather than the process of becoming a confident, competent, compassionate young adult who is able to thrive in the world without help?

I believe that most parents have good instincts, but these get buried under layers of fear, ego and learned helplessness. Every day, I get emails from parents asking me to help their kids get into college. I tell them I offer a 30-minute kickstart call after they’ve read my book, but that I think they are fully capable of moving forward without any more help from me or anyone else.

Now, a savvy business person would say I should milk these parents for all they’re worth, and my bank account would certainly be much fatter if I did. But I know that parents don’t need a ton of coaching to help their kids get into college– what they need is information and inspiration to help them become less helpless and fearful. They need encouragement to become calm, wise mentors who allow their kids to become confident enough to lead their own education process.

When we rely on expensive services to “prep” our kids for top schools, we are telling them that they can’t possibly compete in the Real World without our assistance–and our money. Parents who want their kids to be able to get great jobs they love after graduation (without their help) would be better off teaching their kids how to flesh out an idea, research the heck out of it, and follow the thread that leads to the most thrilling and fulfilling opportunities.

Parents: if you are considering paying for college help, consider what you are saying to your son or daughter by hiring a consultant to do what most families handle without assistance. Think about how you might spend that money in a way that would give your student more opportunities to develop confidence, relevant skills, a clear sense of direction, and flaming enthusiasm.

The biggest problem with learned helplessness is that it’s both contagious and hereditary. Stop the cycle now, and your kids will have a much brighter future.

In this article in the Boston Globe, we hear that more US students are considering applying to colleges in Canada. Of course, Americans have been going to Canada in order to get a great deal on an outstanding education for years, but current economic circumstances (and, it seems, more recruiting) are nudging more families to look north.

Although I don’t discuss this much in my book, three of my daughters have attended college in Canada, and two graduated from the same university. When my oldest daughter returned from her junior year of high school abroad (in Chile), she knew that she wanted to go outside the US for college. However, she also knew very well that there’s a big difference between studying another language abroad and studying IN another language abroad, and she wanted her college experience to be in English. After checking into European options and others, she chose Acadia University, a small liberal arts college in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

The exchange rate was definitely in our favor (she enrolled in 2004) and she absolutely loved her experience there. One thing we really appreciated was Acadia’s willingness to accept transfer credits, which ultimately made it possible for our oldest daughter to graduate at 19. (This wasn’t a fluke–our third daughter also attended Acadia and graduated at 19 as well.)

It’s hard to know how difficult it is to get credits transferred until you’re actually in the process, because a university might imply that yes, they accept transfer credits, no problem, but when push comes to shove, you learn that they accept only SOME of them. The good folks at Acadia kept their word.

And in general, it does seem that Canadian universities are easier to work with than US colleges (just speaking as a mother of four daughters who have all navigated the system as transfer students). They seem a little less…mercenary. The application process is more relaxed, deadlines aren’t as hard-core, and the excellent admissions staff people we’ve connected with have been unfailingly helpful and accessible. There is, indeed, a nice factor when it comes to Canadians.

Another daughter attended Mount Allison in New Brunswick, but left after a semester. In her case, it was largely the weather–after a year in Brazil and a year in Mexico, she just couldn’t take the freezing temperatures. (We had tried to explain to her how cold it would be, but since these conversations occurred in the heat of Mexico, it sounded refreshing rather than bone-chilling.)

What appealed to all three daughters was the small town environment in a part of the world they’d never visited (each moved to campus without ever having been there first). Having experienced firsthand the big cultural differences between the US and Latin American or Asian countries, they wanted to learn about the subtle distinctions between the Canadian and US cultures.

And while it’s true that Canada is another country and US students who attend a university up north are considered “international students” (and pay for the privilege), I want to emphasize that the differences are not so great as to make it much of a challenging international experience. So, though more American students may be heading to the UK, Australia or Canada for college, it’s nothing close to the perspective-shifting/life-changing study abroad experience one might get from spending time in a non-English-speaking culture. (Apologies to Quebec.)

One thing we hear again and again from students, parents and others who are familiar with both university systems is that Canadian universities do less hand-holding (much like their European counterparts) than US universities and there is much more emphasis on academics rather than the “college experience” we have come to expect in the States. Now, let me be clear–there is plenty of partying in Canada. In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that the party culture is alive and well on Canadian campuses. But the difference is that the next morning, Canadian students actually show up to class without making excuses, and they tend to expect college to be, well, academic. In addition, there’s less grade inflation–you won’t find long lists of students receiving a 4.0 each semester. An A takes some serious work to earn, and unlike US college students who became accustomed to getting an A in every subject in high school, Canadians don’t expect a perfect grade point average and aren’t destroyed when they don’t have one.

Okay, that’s a sweeping statement and I know it’s hard to compare such things. I’m just saying that these notions are generally recognized among those who have spent time both in the US and Canadian university systems.

Should we expect a flood of US college freshmen heading north in 2009? Maybe. It’s nothing new–it’s just becoming a more acceptable option among students who always pictured themselves attending a US college. And in general, it’s a great choice for US students looking for an excellent education for a fraction of the cost of a private university in the US.

This news won’t come as any surprise to regular readers.  After all, I’ve talked about study abroad scams, er, irregularities frequently in this blog, and will be talking about far better alternatives that can save you thousands of dollars in my forthcoming book, The World Is Your Campus, due to be published by Random House in spring of 2009.

This Associated Press story about NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s probe into the way more than a dozen universities are handling their study abroad programs is stirring up a lot of commentary. 

Many, many universities have partnerships with organizations that handle their study abroad programs.  Outsourcing the details seems like a reasonable idea considering that universities aren’t really in the business of coordinating travel arrangements or homestays in other countries. 

But what IS NOT reasonable is the way students end up getting gouged.  

You see, some of these contractors have very cozy arrangements with the universities.  How cozy?  Well, would a three-week all-expenses paid trip to, say, Italy “encourage” a university administrator to sign up with a particular provider?  Probably.  How about some hefty kickbacks to the university for every student who signs up?  Yep. 

I don’t have any problem with program providers.  They are free to run their businesses the way they choose.  But I hold the universities accountable.  When you’re paying thousands of dollars to a particular college for your education, you’d like to think that the university administration is out to find the best deal for you.  Ha!  Not likely. 

And so, parents and students have been paying THOUSANDS of dollars more for each semester abroad than they need to.  The prices are high precisely because most universities are using such services–and well, it’s a seller’s market.  Students want to go abroad, so they just sign on the dotted line, assuming that it really does cost $30,000 to spend a semester in Europe. 

In reality, it costs a fraction of that amount.  (A good chunk of my book is a how-to section for those who want to get the very same study abroad programs for the true price.)

Which schools are being scrutinized?  Harvard, Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., American University in Washington, D.C., Brown University in Providence, R.I., and Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.; and, in New York state, Columbia University, Fordham University, Alfred State College, Alfred University, Manhattanville College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Pace University, Cornell University, Siena College and the College of New Rochelle.

I’m delighted about this investigation, especially since it was the attorney general’s office that was bold enough to question the outrageous private student loans many universities were “encouraging” students to take on.  What happened with that?  Well–a lot.  Colleges are now shying away from offering them, some are walking away from them completely, and some are posting very wordy statements on their websites about how they never want to push students to get loans that aren’t in their best interests.

I’m heartened.  If it takes lawyers and subpoenas to get colleges to consider behaving more ethically, so be it.  Reduced tuition, reduced loans in favor of grants and scholarships, and reduced price tags for study abroad will be the result of these investigations.  We need this shakedown.

Bring it.

Okay, this is a braggy post.  You see, my #3 daughter, who is a junior at a small liberal arts university in Canada, just told us that she has been selected to be a TA (teaching assistant) this term–and she wasn’t even applying for the position!  She’ll get paid in Canadian dollars–right now, that’s a GOOD thing.

How did she get it?  Well, by being the top Spanish student at the school.  Oh, so she’s a Spanish major?  Yes–along with sociology.  But here’s the kicker–she brought all of her Spanish credits with her when she transferred to this university and she is taking only ONE COURSE on campus in order to get a major in Spanish.

How did she get so good at Spanish?  By living in a Spanish-speaking country for a while.

How did she get so many credits?  By taking Spanish courses abroad–for cheap.

And then she told us that she was also selected to be an RA (resident assistant) for next fall.  This means that she will get free room and board while serving as the RA in a dorm that attracts a lot of international students.  Perfect! 

And here’s the coolest part:  she is only 18, and she is scheduled to graduate at the end of December. 

Great job, T!  We are so proud of you! 

I am getting tons of emails from parents and students asking me more about what I will include in the book I’m writing called The World Is Your Campus:  Skip the SAT, Save Thousands On Tuition, and Get An Outrageously Relevant Global Education.

They want to know what kinds of things I’m going to talk about.  They don’t want to wait for the book to come out, dang it–they want to know NOW. 

Well, I can’t spill it all here.  I’m sorry.  It’s a legal/contract thing.  But here’s my handy dandy list of the kinds of things you’ll learn about (and my apologies if this just makes you more impatient….)

A Taste of Freedom:

▄ Never worry about your GPA, SAT score, or class rank 

▄ Enter a top liberal arts university as a junior at age 18 

▄ Get paid to work virtually while spending the summer in exotic locations–and get credit for it  

▄ Graduate at the age of 20—even if you’ve studied in four universities on three continents 

▄ Get two years’ worth of college credits—during your senior year of high school  

▄ Get a degree from a top-ranked college at a total cost of less than $40,000 (No loans, no debt.) 

▄   Explore the ruins of Machu Picchu, go snowboarding in the Andes, sleep under the stars in a Chilean desert, dance all night in Buenos Aires, celebrate Carnaval in Brazil, hike the glaciers of Patagonia, become a cherished member of a family in another country, and develop a global perspective by sharing experiences with friends from around the world—as an exchange student at 16 

▄ Speak two or more languages fluently 

▄ Pay $1500 instead of $15,000 for the same study abroad program as your Ivy League peers  

▄ Start your sophomore year of college—at 16 

▄ Connect with accomplished mentors who can boost your skills, reveal your talents, and open the door to new levels of learning 

▄ Master the art of self-management 

▄ Travel widely, find meaningful and well-compensated work, and discover your place as a valued and valuable global citizen

My four daughters have done all of the above.  Really.  This book will show you how they did it and give you everything you need to get an extraordinary global education that doesn’t cost a fortune. 

You’ll have to be a bit of a rebel–or, more precisely, a free agent (don’t worry–I’ll show you how!)  You won’t be hanging on to old notions about how long it takes and how much it costs to get a great education.

You’re going to feel liberated–and a little pissed off, frankly.  Because what you’re going to learn is that there is a much easier, more effective, more engaging and more inexpensive way to get a college degree than the one most students know–and nobody is telling you about it.

I will.  I promise.  And I’ll provide as many tips and hints here as I can until  the book hits the shelves. 

Stay with me.

Most college websites offer some sort of blah-blah about their commitment to establishing a richly diverse student population.  A little digging generally turns up some sobering statistics, like maybe the fact that only 4% of the student body is non-white or only 2% of the student body comes from outside the US.

In fact, diversity (or lack thereof) is one of the hottest topics among university administrators these days.  It seems that everyone is scrambling to offer scholarships and other benefits to minority students–or at least, that’s what they say.  Some are making diversity their priority and rallying cry, but even those who are most strident in their statements about the need for student diversity recognize that there are challenges.

Anecdotally, private college campuses are looking different these days, and it’s not what you might expect.  I’ve heard and read many comments from students who are saying how their own campuses have become playgrounds for upper-middle class students.  The white-vegans-with-Range-Rovers crowd is growing. 

State schools, on the other hand, are seeing an increase in diversity. Part of this is due to the rising costs of private universities.  Part of this is due to the fact that a higher percentage of high school students are going to college, and they’re more likely to be able to afford state schools.   And part of this is due to an admissions process for private schools that favors legacies and those who are more likely to be able to afford the programs and activities that help them rise to the top of the list of applicants.

So, if you head to a small private university–especially one on the East Coast–expect a pretty white experience.  Campuses don’t seem to be getting more colorful on their own, so colleges are scrambling to send their admissions people on international recruiting tours–those international students make their numbers look better AND they pay those higher international student rates.   

So, how’s a college student supposed to meet people from other cultures and countries?  The best answer is to get off campus–but NOT as part of a packaged tour with a bunch of other upper-middle-class white American students. 

The key is to break out of the pack and seek out internship opportunities or study abroad possibilities on your own.  Remember:  the US of A is a diverse nation.  You can find people who are very different than you without leaving the US, and you can even immerse yourself in a different culture if you’re game. 

My daughter, for example, is a blond white girl working in Harlem.  She is the only white person on staff and the only white person anyone there is likely to see all day long.  She is passionate about digging in and getting a hands-on experience.  She could have chosen to go to Columbia University to get her master’s in public health, but she recognized that if she wanted to study side-by-side with those who are in the trenches instead of those who are padding their resumes, she’d be far better off at Hunter College’s urban health program which is packed full of professionals who really know the issues because they have worked in their communities for years. 

As my daughter puts it, “Working in Harlem has been a greater leap for me culturally than when I lived abroad for a year in Chile or traveled throughout Latin America. I work in two clinics–one that offers services largely to the African-American community, and one that offers services to those from the Dominican Republic.  Half the time, I’m speaking Spanish. ALL of the time, I’m learning how to connect with my patients and colleagues who have had a very different life than mine.  It’s an amazingly valuable and enriching experience for me.” 

If you can’t find diversity on your campus, know this:  you can CHOOSE to have any kind of experience that helps you understand and connect with others, and if you want to prepare for a world that is becoming increasingly diverse, getting used to working with others who are not like you is your single greatest advantage. 

Those who’ve had the experience of living and working in cultures that are new to them are far more likely to become innovative about developing creative solutions to social problems. 

If you want to make the world a better place, dive into it first. 

My book is about (among other things) avoiding college debt, but if you’ve just graduated and you’re looking at making your seemingly endless monthly loan payments, I’m going to send you on over to this post on Geezeo.  Melissa Eastlake is a recent college grad who is figuring out how to handle loan repayments and she’s got some great advice in this interview.

A lot of students will relate to her story.  She sailed along through college without really thinking much about her student loans and how she’d repay them.  Many students get freaked out when they imagine those payments stretching out for the foreseeable future and prefer to avoid thinking about it until they absolutely have to.

That’s pretty much what Melissa did, but she decided to start building good spending/savings habits BEFORE her grace period ended so it wouldn’t come as such a huge shock when that first payment came due.

Read her story and follow her advice if you’re in her position. 

If you haven’t started college yet, keep reading this blog!  You’ll be happy to know that there are some great ways to save thousands of dollars on tuition.  Oh, you might not think that’s such a big deal NOW…but you’ll be grateful when you graduate and you’re not staring at a decade of monthly payments that obliterate large chunks of your earnings.

A little planning now can make your 20s a lot easier–and way more fun.  Trust me.

After enjoying the holidays with my family–visitors from Seattle, a trip to a lovely beach town in Argentina, time to relax with my oldest daughter who is visiting from New York–I’m ready to dig into 2008 and focus on the writing of my book and this blog.

I’ve had some great correspondence and conversations in the last few weeks with some education experts and heads of organizations related to global education.  I’m honored and excited to have these respected individuals’ voices and advice included in The World Is Your Campus.  Stay tuned in the weeks and months ahead as I share some tips I’m gleaning and explore even more ways to get a creative global education that doesn’t cost a fortune! 

And it turns out that I’m also helping my youngest daughter choose the US college to which she will transfer in the fall of 2008, so that gives me another reason to research universities, talk to admissions people, compare programs and prices, and take a look at some outstanding but not necessarily name-brand universities.  There are some dramatic changes ahead for universities in terms of the way they attract new students and how they offer aid (more scholarships and grants instead of loans, for example). 

All in all, there has never been a better time to be an intellectually curious student.  There are some fantastic options and the best news is that now, more than ever, students have the ability to be free agents in order to select their own ideal combination of venues, teachers, majors, programs, and learning methods.  Private schools, public schools, homeschooling, tutoring, online learning, experiential learning, study abroad–the savviest global students are making sure that they incorporate every one of these in their educational portfolios. 

You see, it’s not about doing four years of high school here and four years of college there and then shooting out into the work world.  That’s like, SOOO old school.    And old is okay except when it is no longer relevant. 

2008 is going to be a very exciting year for those who are ready to step off the traditional blinders-on path to that college degree and open their eyes to their own possibilities.  Good, good stuff ahead. 

Thanks for reading!