College Alternatives and Transcripts
Books About College Alternatives and Degrees
Arnall, Judy. Unschooling to University. Professional Parenting, 2018.
Self-Directed Learning: Documentation and Life Stories by Wes Beach
——. Forging Paths: Beyond Traditional Schooling. GHF Press, 2012.
Boles, Blake. Better than College: How To Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree, Tells Peak Press, June 2012
Bear, John. College Degrees by Mail and Internet. 10th edition. Ten Speed Press, 2005.
Careers Without College Series (Peterson's Guides)
Success Without College Series (Barron's Educational Series)
Carroll, James L. College Credit Without Classes: How to obtain academic credit for what you already know. J.G. Ferguson, 1999.
Cohen, Cafi. And What About College? How Homeschooling Leads to Admissions to the Best Colleges and Universities. Holt Associates, 2000.
——. Homeschoolers’ College Admissions Handbook: Preparing 12- to 18-year-olds for Success in the College of Their Choice. Prima, 2000.
Frost, Maya. The New Global Student: Skip the SAT, Save Thousands on Tuition, and Get a Truly International Education. Three Rivers Press, 2009.
Hayes, Charles. Proving You're Qualified. Autodidactic Press. 1995.
Heuer, Loretta. The Homeschoolers Guide to Portfolios and Transcripts. Arco, 2000.
Kamenetz, Anya. DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education. Chelsea Green, 2010.
Llewellyn, Grace. The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to quit school and get a real life and education. Lowry House, 1998. NOTE: If you can only afford to purchase one book on this topic this is the one I always recommend.—PF
Sheffer, Susannah. A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls. Heinemann/Boynton/Cook, 1995
Stephens, Dale. Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More Than Your Peers Ever Will. Penguin, 2013.
Alternatives to College
The ever-increasing expense of a four-year college degree, and questions about whether a college degree is still a good signal that someone is going to be a valuable employee or up-to-date with the latest technology, are making many delay or reconsider going to college. Many families that decide to use alternatives to K to 12 compulsory schooling eschew a standard college education for the same reasons. Just as there are good alternatives to high school, there are good alternatives to college.
Taking time away from attending school to find one’s direction and see if college is really a good next step, is one option. You may find that the traveling, apprenticeship, internship, and work opportunities that present themselves to you during this time can lead you to work worth doing without the need for a college degree. If you find you need a degree later, you might be in a better position to afford it since an employer may pay for some or all of your courses.
There are some employers, especially in the field of computers and technology, who are more concerned with your actual work output and what you are doing in life than they are concerned with your previous educational inputs and conventional school assessments. In addition, there are many free college courses you can take online, many from major universities. Though none will grant degrees, some will give you a certificate of completion.
There are also many books, programs, and online resources that explain how to create a do-it-yourself college program, how to earn college credit without classes, and how to get life-experience credits for college courses. These are all alternatives to college you can use right now, and there will be many more to come as the Internet and our economy continue to change.
If you decide that college is not right for you at this time or at all, in this section you will find alternatives to college degrees that don’t take as much time and money from you as 4-year degrees do. You will also find alternative ways to the training and credentials you need to pursue the career you are interested in.
Apprenticeships and Internships
“Learn by doing” is a tried-and-true method developed by humans, from stonemasons to philosophers, to transmit knowledge and skills over centuries. One was judged competent by how well one did the task at hand rather than by who trained them or where they studied. During the twentieth century independent learning alongside practitioners became much less common as educational attainment (degrees and other proof of school completion) became enshrined as a political goal and as a signal of individual competence to businesses seeking new employees. Some fields, such as plumbers, automobile technicians, and electricians, continue to use the apprenticeship model successfully, and the computer programming/hacking industry seems to be creating its own forms of apprenticeships.
Unlike apprenticeships, which often include a training wage and/or accommodations, internships tend to be unpaid positions. Further, many corporations and colleges have formed internship programs that benefit their mutual interests, but which often do not pay their interns nor give them valuable educational experience. A recent court decision about unpaid interns in the film industry indicates this unfair practice may be changing:
“The judge noted that these internships did not foster an educational environment and that the studio received the benefits of the work. The case could have broad implications. Young people have flocked to internships, especially against the backdrop of a weak job market.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/business/judge-rules-for-interns-who-sued-fox-searchlight.html)
A recent follow-up article notes the changing landscape for internships as a result of this case:
“In addition to filing lawsuits, interns are organizing beyond the courtroom, using some of the same strategies as fast-food workers, freelancers and various groups of part-time, temporary or guest workers. For example, two students at New York University recently created a petition demanding that the university stop advertising unpaid internships on campus; more than a thousand people signed in a matter of days. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/jobs/unpaid-interns-silent-no-more.html)
Establishing an internship through your personal network can be a rewarding experience, especially if you define clear terms and expectations for all parties in advance. However, as these articles indicate, internships through institutional programs can be less than satisfying if you are not careful.
Here are some resources to help you learn more about apprenticeships and internships.
Mark Oldman. The Best 109 Internships, 9th Edition
Ross Perrin. Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. Verso, 2012.
Princeton Review. The Internship Bible, 10th edition (2005)
Registered Apprenticeship
The US Department of Labor has state listings for registered apprenticeships. Their website notes, “The Registered Apprenticeship system provides the opportunity for workers seeking high-skilled, high- paying jobs and for employers seeking to build a qualified workforce. . . . The "Earn and Learn" training model of Registered Apprenticeship provides a unique combination of structured learning with on-the-job training from an assigned mentor.” You can search their program sponsor database here.
Grace Llewelyn. The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How To Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. Lowry House. Lowry House, 1998. Has a great chapter on apprenticeships.
Prove Your Knowledge and Earn College Credit
Thomas Edison State College "does not award credit for life experience. Rather, we provide our students the opportunity to earn credit by demonstrating that they possess college-level knowledge, and we have several methods to help students do just that." Read this NY Times article about Thomas Edison State College to learn more. To apply you must be:
● An adult 21 years of age or older (unless you are participating in a special college program).
● A high school graduate or have successfully passed a General Educational Development (GED) test.
Gap-Year Programs
Taking time off between high school and college is called a “gap year,” and many students find this time well spent. Of course, you may decide that there are things worth doing you can do without going college, so the gap can allow you to build a bridge to a new destination.
This is a page full of interesting resources about gap years:
College Reality Chat: Gap Year(s)
Blake writes about options to college and offers a variety of support to teenage learners.
Study.Com
Contains lists of online courses for college credit and information about high school, associates, college, and graduate school degrees.
Books and Articles That Are Critical of the Costs and Promises of Higher Education
Richard Arum. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. (University of Chicago Press, 2010). A main finding in this book is that “Forty-five percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college.”
Ivar Berg. Education and Jobs: The Great Training Robbery (Beacon Press, 1971). Berg was a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and this work is one of the first critiques of society’s belief in certified programs as evidence of competence. Out of print, but worth hunting down for its conclusions and data.
The National Center for Education Statistics notes,
"Specifically, average tuition and fees in 2021–22 were:
$9,700 for public institutions, which was 6 percent higher than $9,100 in 2010–11;
$17,800 for private for-profit institutions, which was 8 percent lower than $19,400 in 2010–11; and
$38,800 for private nonprofit institutions, which was 14 percent higher than $34,000 in 2010–11."
“Number of US Adults With College Degrees Hits Historic High” However, this article goes on to note, “in terms of future earnings, education level matters less these days than in previous generations, and field of study matters more.”
CNN report: “My Master’s wasn’t worth it” http://money.cnn.com/gallery/news/economy/2013/01/24/masters-degree-debt/4.html
“Eighty-four percent of employers rate college graduates as unprepared or only somewhat prepared for the job.” From Is College Worth It? By Bill Bennett and David Wilezol
More Books and Resources about Alternatives to College
Author Blake Boles explores reasons to go and not go to college, and presents the reader with many options for work worth doing without going to college first.
Careers Without College Series.
These books might be in your local high school or public library, too. Here are some of the titles in this book series, FYI:
Careers Without College—Cars
Careers Without College—Computers
Careers Without College—Fashion
Careers Without College—Health Care
Careers Without College—Building
Careers Without College—Emergencies
Careers Without College—Entertainment
Careers Without College—Fitness
Careers Without College—Kids
Careers Without College—Money
Careers Without College—Music
Careers Without College—Office
Careers Without College—Sports
Careers Without College—Travel
Career Bookstore has a similar series to the above and it is more up-to-date. However, it includes careers that require college degrees mixed in with ones that don’t, so be sure to choose your book carefully—they’re expensive. See if your public library has these books.
"Our goal is for RC to be an environment where you can thrive, push yourself, and do great work. RC is self-directed and built to give you as much control over your education as possible. We don’t have teachers or a curriculum, and there’s very little required structure. While here, you’ll pick the projects you work on, the people you work with, and you’ll create or opt into the structure you need to do your best work."
