Free College Education

by Donald Daniel, Apr 2008, revised May 2021

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The high cost of college attendance is beyond the means of many. From any college you can get the college catalog of courses and find out what courses are required for each degree. The college bookstore sells the textbooks for each course. Most courses do not cover much more than what is in the textbook. You could buy the books, preferably cheap used books, and educate yourself. If you cannot learn from a book and need a lecture, you have a problem. Even though you can read, you are functionally illiterate. It is like being able to swing a golf club but not really being a golfer. You might consider an adult education course in remedial reading, but reading several novels would probably work better.

More publicity should be given to the free college courses that are available from top universities and other sources online. You cannot get credit or a degree this way, but you can get a good education. A good place to start for basic courses is http://www.khanacademy.org. If you do not find what you need there, search the internet for "free college courses online". Other online education sources, some free, some not, are www.coursera.org/ , www.udacity.com, www.edx.org or www.udemy.com/. Another source of information is the book "DIY U" by Anya Kamenetz 2010.

If you decide that maybe you will go to college, first read the book "making college pay" by Beth Akers. Read it from cover to cover. If this seems like too much trouble, then you have your answer: you are not college material and should not go to college.

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