Is College Really a Good Investment?

In an earlier post, I discussed some of the nightmares I experienced at a public college in Memphis. If I'd had the money at the time, I would have applied to a private college there. Ideally, I would have attended Rhodes College, one of the more elite schools in Memphis which has beautiful Gothic architecture with stained glass windows. I recently looked at Rhodes' website, and although it still seems like a very good school, the costs make me wonder if I really regret not going.

The tuition is $34,000 a year, meaning that a four-year degree at this college costs $136,000. If I had gone to this college, I'd now be wondering what other things I could have done with the money. If it was invested with a 10% return, it would produce $13,600 per year, and as a frugal person, I could live well on that. $136,000 is also enough money to buy a house outright, and would therefore mean not having a rent or mortgage payment each month. Being the single biggest expense in most households, getting rid of this expense is a giant leap towards financial independence.

There's also the question of whether or not it makes sense to pay all that money for an education when the contents of it are available cheaper elsewhere. For the past few months, I've been maintaining a list of free online textbooks on this website, and I'm frequently amazed at how much stuff is out there. If I attended a brick-and-mortar college at this point, I'd feel foolish for spending money on something that I know I can get for free. Not to mention the fact that it's easier to get information online at my own convenience rather than having to go to classes at a set time.

Last but not least, there's always the never-ending supply of college horror stories. My latest find is The Five Year Party, a blog written by a former journalism professor at one of the "party colleges," who gave up after a twelve-year teaching career. His blog is filled with horror stories, and he's also written a book about his experiences. It's well worth a visit if you're considering a brick-and-mortar college.

All in all, I'm glad to be doing college homeschool-style. Although I was never in the position to apply to a private college, I'm beginning to think that it was a blessing in disguise. Amongst other things, I probably wouldn't be writing this blog, and I always enjoy seeing what cheaper alternatives there are to the traditional college experience.

The Free Online College

As a college education is normally a major investment, it's interesting to see that it's possible to get one for free. The University of the People offers free online courses to the Associate's and Bachelor's levels in Business Administration and Computer Science. As the education is free, many people will wonder what the catch is. The University of the People isn't yet accredited, and therefore, can't yet award degrees.

Still, this college might be worth considering for some. Although the college isn't accredited, it's courses do offer valuable knowledge. Amongst their computer courses are offerings in software engineering, programming, and operating systems. It might be an idea to use this knowledge to take IT certification exams, which would be widely recognized. Also, the value of this education depends on what you want to do afterwards. If you wanted to list it on a resume while applying for a traditional job, most employers would probably be wary. It would also be difficult to transfer to an accredited institution to earn a graduate degree. However, you might have more success if you listed it as a qualification to work as a freelancer. If you were using the knowledge in your own business, the lack of accreditation wouldn't be a problem.

Personally, I'm taking a serious look at this option, as the computer science courses do look good, and you can't beat getting it for free. I still don't know what this college's policies are on taking transfer credit, or in letting people enroll for individual courses rather than the entire program. I'm thinking that it might be possible to transfer the UoP course credit to one of the Big Three distance colleges, and get an accredited degree from them. At the same time, the Big Three might also not recognize college credit from an unaccredited college.

Free textbooks

Here is a list of college textbooks which can be read online for free. I will be adding to this list as I find more of them.

Accounting

Principles of Accounting - This textbook offers an in-depth introduction to accounting and can be good preparation for the CLEP or DSST exams in accounting.

Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology

Art History

SmartHistory - Free online art history textbook.

Astronomy

General Astronomy - Wikibooks offers an online introduction to astronomy.

Biology

Biochemistry textbook

This Online Biology Book offers a good introduction to many areas of biology, including cell biology, anatomy, and eveolution.

An Ecology textbook is offered at this website.

Creation Science - Creationists might be interested in this online book which refutes the evolutionists' arguments in numerous areas of science.

Fundamentals of Microbiology - Introductory microbiology textbook from Washington State.

Human Genetics

Chemistry

Chem1 Virtual Textbook - This textbook covers the first two semesters of college-level chemistry.

Chemistry Books Online - General, Organic, and Biochemistry

Computers

Blender - User Manual and free download for Blender, an open-source computer animation software.

Computer Animation

Introduction

How to Design Programs: An Introduction to Computing and Programming.

Introduction to Computer Science

Java

Dick Baldwin's website offers a large assortment of instruction in various programming languages, including Java.

Fundamentals of Java - This online book presents Java programming in a simplified manner.

Introduction to Computer Science Using Java

Introduction to Programming in Java: An Interdisciplinary Approach - Free online textbook from Princeton.

Java programming is also offered in this online textbook.

Python

Invent Your Own Computer Games With Python might be of interest to people who want to become game designers.

Economics

About.com offers online textbooks in Macroeconomics and Microeconomics.

CyberEconomics - Introductory economics textbook.

Online Economics Textbooks - Extensive collection of economics textbooks for all levels.

English Composition

English Composition 1 Hypertextbook

English Literature

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

The Harvard Classics - 50 volumes of literature from all historical eras. This page also contains The Harvard Shelf of Fiction, which consists of 20 volumes of classic fiction.

Luminarium: An Anthology of English Literature - This free online textbook features extensive information on British authors from the 14th century to the 19th century.

Ethics

Online Ethics Textbook

History

Academic American History

Europe in Retrospect - Modern European history.

History of Western Art and Civilization

U.S. History from precolonization to the present.

World History from prehistory to the 20th century.

Languages

Digital Dialects - This site offers free lessons in over 50 languages, some of which I'd never heard of until I saw this site. Oroma?

French

Grimoire - French literature for intermediate and advanced students.

Liberte - Beginners' French textbook in PDF fromat.

Latin

Latin from Wikibooks.

Spanish

Spanish 1050 - Intermediate Spanish.

Spanish from Wikibooks.

Mathematics

A First Analysis Course

An introduction to Statistics can be found at this website.

An Online Calculus book is offered here in PDF format.

College Algebra in PDF format.

Electronic Statistics Textbook - This is a free online version of Statistics: Methods and Applications, which sells for $80 new at Amazon.

Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach

Multivariable Calculus in PDF format.

Statistics: Problems and Exercises

Music

Introduction to Music Theory

Understanding Basic Music Theory - A continuation of the introduction course.

Philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy

Physics

Essential Physics 1 is available for free online in PDF format.

Light and Matter offers an assortment of free physics textbooks online, both for non-physics majors and engineering students.

Psychology

Psychology: An Introduction


Public Speaking

Open Knowledge Guide to Public Speaking

Religion

Exploring Religions - Information about the major world religions.

Philosophy of Religion

Sacred Texts offers extensive information on many world religions, along with parapsychology, the supernatural, prophets, and related subjects.

Sociology

Introduction to Sociology from Wikibooks.

Technical Writing

Online Technical Writing Textbook


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Free Online Courses From an Ivy League School

The Internet offers a wealth of learning materials for independent learners. Last fall, I discovered Open Yale Courses, a website from Yale University, which offers online lectures of some of their courses for free. Although the school doesn't offer credit for these courses, it's an excellent way to get access to instruction that many people pay $120,000 over the course of four years to get. The lectures are offered in video format, but if you have a slow computer that "puffs" a lot like mine does, there are also transcripts of the lectures. I've read through the two religious studies courses, Introduction to the Old and New Testaments. One warning about these courses for conservative Christians: They do present the Bible through a secular lens, ie, they presume that the book of Daniel was written after the events he predicted had already taken place. However, they do present an interesting view of Biblical history and little-known facts about the world in which the Bible was written. One of the professors also teaches a course on the historical Jesus, and I'm hoping that it also is placed on this website. I'm currently studying the course on Financial Markets. As the world economy plays such a major role in the world, it would be good if more people had a good understanding of how the economy works. There are also courses offered in chemistry and physics which require a good knowledge of mathematics, along with courses in biology. Some of these courses would be a good aid in preparing for CLEP exams, and as they often put new ones online, it's well worth checking back periodically to see what's on offer.