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The traditional four-by-four model (4 years of high school followed by 4 years of college) is outdated.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

There’s a lot of hand-wringing going on about the high school drop-out rate these days, but there’s a silver lining that very few people mention.

You see, not everyone who drops out of high school is giving up on education. In fact, some of the brightest and most innovative students are choosing to “smart out” of high school in order to start college early. In most states, they are counted among the traditional drop-outs, so it’s hard to know how many we’re talking about here. But the reality is that an increasing number of free-thinking high school students are taking a look around and saying, “Hmm. I can do better elsewhere.”

We should be celebrating this. After all, we need students to be able to make smart decisions about where and how they can enhance their own learning experience. For plenty of motivated students, high school just doesn’t provide the educational and/or social setting that is most conducive to learning–and they’re doing something about it.

Now, there are certainly ways to take more advanced courses while staying in high school. AP, IB, and dual enrollment programs allow students to remain enrolled in their high school while taking courses that may lead to college credits. These are great choices for students who enjoy the high school setting and feel satisfied that they are being challenged academically. But what about the students who’ve had their fill of hallway drama and spirit assemblies and feel fully ready to blast forward? The best option may be to call it quits.

The most successful smart outs are those who start with a solid plan. Many students are deciding to take a couple of community college courses at 15 and, if they show they are able to handle the material and the setting, they go on to earn their GED certification at 16, usually during the summer after their sophomore year. (Some states don’t allow students to do it at this age–check with the GED folks in your state to get the details.) It generally takes two or three consecutive weekends for the tests and may require a few weeks of prep or a specific pre-test class as well. Then, rather than start their junior year of high school, they continue on with their freshman year of community college courses in the fall. (No SAT or ACT required!)

The most important part of a good smart-out plan is getting very clear guidelines from a community college admissions counselor who works with those under 18. Those who fail to earn an associate’s degree by 18 or build bullet-proof transcripts that get accepted at a four-year university without a hitch tend to be those who:
1) run out of money or other support for this path
2) take courses without regard to how they fit into a degree program
3) lose momentum because they take too few classes to see any progress

The key to successfully smarting out is to take a full load from Day One. Those who go to community college part-time after leaving high school are least likely to become engaged in their new learning environment. Stick with the intro-level liberal arts courses if the goal is to get an associate’s degree or fulfill basic requirements to transfer to a four-year university.

Of course, there’s some room to play, too! Part of the benefit of smarting out is having a chance to take courses that are not offered in high school.

There’s rigor–and then there’s rapture. When all is said and done, a student’s best bet is to head toward the academic offerings that are the most irresistibly magnetic. Smarting out gives students more freedom to discover their talents and interests, and this is the greatest advantage of all.

Smarting out is not a ticket to slide. Quite the contrary–it’s for those who really want to dig in and compete in a more adult and advanced setting. Students need to be able to do well in community college courses. That is, they must be able to show up, do the work, be prepared for tests AND get good grades. Very few four-year universities will accept transfer students who have earned a C average or below in community college. Transfer student motto: No Cs in CC!

Of course, plenty of homeschooled or unschooled students are smarting out without having the ego-deflating “drop-out” label hung around their necks. There’s nothing new about smarting out–students have been doing it for years, but there’s greater acceptance of the early-college model and more recognition for those who transfer to a four-year university at 18 as a junior. Hooray! (There’s a lot more about this in my book.)

What matters most: strong parental support, guidance from a college counselor, and a student’s flaming enthusiasm for learning.

Smarting out is the kind of dropping out we should encourage.

This article in the New York Times describes how Hartwick College (and others) may offer a three-year degree program that would help students save about $40,000 on the cost of a college education. While I applaud any efforts to reduce the cost of earning a degree, students and parents need to understand that a three-year program may still be far more expensive than simply finishing college in three years on a do-it-yourself plan.

For one thing, the programs described still give students summers off for work or internships, but students who graduate in less than three years (all four of my daughters, for example) know that taking summer terms is the smartest move of all–you can get more credits in less time and have a very intensive learning experience. In fact, by simply taking summer terms each year and overloading for two semesters, students can easily graduate within three years.

The problem with the three-year degrees proposed is that they are requiring students to spend all three years at the same school–and savvy students know that rather than taking intro courses at a private university for $40,000 a year, it’s much smarter to take the basics through a community college and then transfer up, saving tons in the process. And if you go through a dual enrollment program, you can earn two years’ worth of credits by the age of 18 and then take only TWO years at a private university, still earning the diploma with the fancy name on it. The trick, of course, is making sure you take the right classes from Day One and have guidance to help you build bullet-proof transcripts.

There are a few other tricks for getting credits through internships and seminars that really speed things up. No need to be a brainiac or work yourself into a frenzy, either. What matters most: good planning, and being an advocate for yourself. Much more on this in my book!

The three-year degree programs being developed by forward-thinking colleges are a wise response to the fact that more and more college students are figuring out that they don’t need to pay top dollar for four years in order to earn a degree and that they can actually graduate much sooner by taking advantage of community college courses and summer terms. These colleges see the writing on the wall–good for them for doing what they can to adapt to student’s needs and compete with better/cheaper options.

The question is this: will families get savvy enough soon enough–or will they spend an extra twenty, forty or sixty grand before figuring out that they could save AND get a better experience by following a few education design tips?

Whenever high school students are able to earn college credits AND get a head start on a career, I’d say it’s a good thing.

Blending technical high schools (magnet schools, mostly) and community colleges may be a great way to save the state money, streamline the system and benefit students by giving them an opportunity to take relevant high school courses that count toward an associate’s degree. Naysayers fume, but come across as being reluctant to consider innovative solutions. This is no time to cling to Old School notions–and most educators agree that the middle college concept is a great idea (the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has supported the “middle college” idea and is likely to continue to invest in this alternative.)

Learn about Governor M. Jodi Rell’s middle college plan for Connecticut–and read the comments from scowlers–here.

I’m a big fan of swirling–that is, attending more than one college or university prior to graduating. For one thing, it teaches flexibility. If you do it right, it’s a great way to save money and still graduate from an outstanding university. It’s also an excellent way to learn more about your own best learning environment. And moving to new places–even just across town–is always an exercise in adapting. We’re better off when we play with our brain plasticity. (Lots on this in my book!)

Today, Colin Barey shares the story of his swirler education. I met Colin back when he was about 16 when he used to hang out in the store I owned on Main Street in Forest Grove, Oregon. Colin was clearly a very bright, articulate young man, and I always knew he’d do well. I didn’t know he’d do well by swirling, however–I figured he was on the Reed-for-four-years track. Wrong! And he’s better off because he swirled. See for yourself:

My undergraduate academic career was broad if nothing else; kind of a sampler platter of Portland-area institutions. I went to four different schools in the 4-and-a-half years it took me to graduate, guaranteeing that I would have the longest transfer transcript ever printed. I didn’t start my college career by trying to break the record for number of institutions attended. I really wanted to go to one place and settle there. Instead, I became like a wandering tinker, my tin pans clanking as I pushed my ever-increasing cartload of credits down the meandering, uncertain road toward graduation. I started by going for the top drawer: Reed College, the most venerated institution in Oregon.

I was lucky in the offering that term: the Vanport History Project was in its final stage. I was part of a team whose job it was to write and design historical interpretive signs to be displayed on the Heron Lakes public golf course, former site of the Vanport wartime housing project. It was the only time I had the chance to be a real historian; going through the archives of microfilm at the Oregonian, writing copy, and finally helping to fight an ultimately unsuccessful political battle with the Portland Parks Bureau over a sign acknowledging that Vanport was the genesis of Portland’s black community. Though the Bureau could not be moved from its belief that reading about racial history would be disturbing to golfers for some reason, the signs that we were able to make are still there and will be, hopefully, for ever. It was, truly, a capstone, something that gave order and strength to my jumbled hodge-podge of an academic career. It was also the only thing I ever did in college that mattered.

Okay, full disclosure: all four of my daughters took classes or seminars at PCC, one graduated from Portland State University, and I’m a big believer in the value of these “underrated” institutions.

You might be interested to know that Colin ended up getting a law degree at U of Oregon. Where is he now? He’s living and working and loving life in Japan. See, there’s something about swirling that opens you up to the idea of moving around to find the most exhilarating options–and in a changing world, flexibility is critical.

Have a swirler story to share? Email me at maya (at) mayafrost (dot) com.

Sir Ken Robinson, world-famous creativity expert and fabulous TED speaker, is a hero of mine. I love his emphasis on learning in ways that are exhilarating and perfectly suited to our own particular style of synthesizing information.

And I was delighted to come across a terrific post on Tessy Britton’s great blog, Thriving Too. You see, it’s written by Kate Robinson, Sir Ken’s 19-year-old daughter, and she talks about her own education (she left school at 16 and has been taking community college courses), her father’s new book (The Element), and the idea of discovering one’s passion.

I think her choice–and her father’s blessing–speaks volumes. Though Kate did not contribute to her father’s book, my own four daughters each share their stories in mine. I think it’s helpful for all of us to be reminded that there are many different education paths and there’s absolutely no need to get hung up on the perfect SAT/GPA track or believe that getting into a top college is the only way to be successful.

Anyway, it’s refreshing to hear Kate’s perspective and remember that we have the freedom to choose the way in which we wish to learn. Those who are making their own choices are closer to discovering their passions than those who jump through hoops in the name of achievement. (That’s what Sir Ken’s book is about!)

(Kirstin Davy, age 9, with her dad in Morocco)

I’m starting a new thing here on the blog. Each week, I’ll share the story of a Bold Schooler. “Bold School” is a term I use in the book (a lot) to distinguish this approach from the “Old School” models of education. Bold Schoolers don’t do things the usual way–they patch together their own education by selecting a variety of different learning options. Some homeschool, some unschool, some go to regular public school but graduate early and some do all of the above. They tend to be pretty self-directed, mature and creative and also pretty low-key and humble because not everyone understands or supports their choices. That’s why I want to showcase them here and in my book! They deserve recognition and their stories are truly inspiring.

There are as many Bold School stories as there are Bold Schoolers, and the first story I’m sharing is Kirstin Davy’s. Kirstin’s story didn’t make it into the book (I interviewed so many great Bold Schoolers but there’s just not enough space for every one) but I love her sense of adventure and commitment to learning on her own terms. Here it is:

I was 3 years old when I announced that I wanted to read after an evening at home with my parents and sister all sitting with books. My mom thought I should learn my letters first and tried to put me off but when I was relentless about the idea, she started “home” schooling me. That hadn’t been her plan but even at that age it was evident that I wasn’t going to be the average student and a traditional school wouldn’t do for me. Good thing, since within the next few years, my parents profession began to take us all over the world. We lived in different countries for weeks or months, sometimes years, and my classroom was anywhere and everywhere.

This semi-nomadic lifestyle made making friends and answering the usual question of “where are you from?” pretty difficult, but it definitely made the answer and my education more interesting. I had done the co-op homeschooling for several years before we starting globetrotting and I think that provided me with a really good foundation for the following grades. I had other kids to play and learn with, different teachers (mothers) for other subjects and some of the structure one would get at a small private school. Now when I think back, I realize those years were crucial to identifying my academic strengths and weaknesses, developing my love for learning, and also being able to adapt easily and socialize.

My plans for the future include working overseas and continuing to learn through just living life and absorbing all I can. And now, I have no problem owning up to my unusual education because though my unschooling was more unconventional than most, it was more memorable and made learning come alive.

I’ve been delighted to read reports that Dr. Jill Biden, our new “Second Lady,” went to work this week as an English teacher at Northern Virginia Community College. Dr. Biden has been an educator for nearly thirty years and is a staunch supporter of community colleges. (She wrote her dissertation on student retention in community colleges.)

She’s also stated that she intends to focus her efforts on supporting community colleges across the country.

I’m a pretty big fan of community colleges myself (I’ve got a chunk of my book devoted to stories from students who went to community college and then blasted far ahead of their peers) and it’s exciting that there is such a high-profile person singing the praises of these institutions.

Thank you, Dr. Jill Biden. You are my new favorite person.

This article in US News & World Report describes Barack Obama’s experience as a student transferring from Occidental to Columbia and offers tips to students considering making a switch.

All four of my daughters have attended more than one university–and my second daughter, Tara, was enrolled in SIX universities in FOUR countries in THREE languages, and still managed to graduate (with honors) more than a year ahead of her classmates. (She writes the section in the book on how to get credits transferred.) And I am a big fan of the idea of change for the sake of change–students who have to shift gears become more flexible and more confident in facing other changes in the future.

Of course, the common notion regarding transferring credits is that it’s difficult, time-consuming, and that the student always loses in the process. Well, that’s Old School. The Bold School approach ensures that students get credit for every class they’ve taken and leverage these to get the major they want–and on their own terms and time lines.

Now, it’s true that the Ivies aren’t particularly interested in accepting transfer students, and you shouldn’t count on community college to launch you into Harvard (possible, but not likely). But students can save a tremendous amount of both time and money by getting general credits out of the way at a lower-cost institution (community college, state university or college abroad) and trading up. Of course, sometimes students switch from private schools to state universities, and that can work out very well, too.

The trick to getting things to go smoothly is not about expecting it to be hard but doing your homework and being persistent. Most students, when presenting their credits from a previous institution in the US or abroad simply accept whatever the admissions officer tells them they’re worth. They roll over without a fight. As Tara explains in her section of The New Global Student, colleges almost always low-ball it, and the pricier the school, the less likely it is to offer credits for previous courses. But you can get around that with the right attitude and the right strategy.

Just as it’s not true that moving during high school is necessarily detrimental to a student’s education and social life, it’s certainly not true that staying at one college for four (or five or six years) is necessarily more beneficial than “swirling”–earning a degree by attending more than one institution. The more flexibility and confidence students can develop during their undergraduate years, the more prepared they will be for an ever-changing global economy.

For students who seek a better fit and more challenging educational opportunities, a transfer can lead to greater things and a whole new world of possibilities–just like it did for Barack Obama.