Online vs. On-Campus Education

A degree gets you your first job interview. After that, what's most important is what you learned in the School of Hard Knocks.

Certainly worked for my daughter. Shen was one of those people just not ready for higher education after high school. We gave her ten years of minimum wage jobs with no security. Then she was ready and did quite well. Got a job with normal hours and good pay within a few weeks of receiving her diploma. Only caveat is watch the billing. The school she attended online messed the billing up numerous times. I'm sure she ended up paying a bit more than she should have. You could call the billing office on consecutive days and get a totally different amount due quoted. I'm sure a Big Ten school that this is posted by would not have that problem - we hope.

It is not so popular in India. If it is introduced it will solve all the problems related to college admissions and heavy fees student's parents have to pay.But kids will miss the charm of the college fun and friends they develop during college days. Advantage will be they can also take up part time jobs to reduce burden on their parents.

Just a question; a couple of times you mention "reducing the burden on their parents". Why is it incumbent upon the parents to pay for their kids' education? As Thomas Paine said, "that which we gain too easily we esteem too lightly".

The faulty thinking in America, and maybe elsewhere in the world, is that kids graduate from high school and then they go to college right away. Why? Most of the kids don't have a clue what they want to do, what they're good at, or are mature enough to be out on their own, or can afford to pay for school. Let them work, save the money, mature more, find out what they like to do or are good at by working in various fields, etc. before going to college. Statistics say over 50% of people who graduate from college don't work in the field in which they have their degree. That's just dumb, and also a field-day for the colleges who suck the lifeblood out of people by putting them in debt. The largest debt load in the country is student loans, at something like $1.3 Trillion dollars.

Also, you make the comment that kids will "miss the charm of college fun and friends." College isn't about fun, it is about learning to be productive toward ones dream. They can make friends on the job, and get paid in the process.

It is different culture in India, here parents take responsibility of the kids till they have graduated from the professional colleges not just school. They have to bear their college fees and other expenses till they are employed. In U.S kids leave their homes after completing their schools. They start working and paying for their all expenses. I am not going to discuss the aspects of these two cultures as it is the choice of the two nations.

I do not have college experience at U.S but all of us here did enjoy our college days and they are memorials for us.