Finally! A Money Back Guarantee, but Not for Law School

Lansing Community College is offering what we've all been asking for, a money-back guarantee--but on a 6 week program to become call-center specialists, pharmacy technicians, quality inspectors and computer machinists. The total cost of the program? $2,400. Still, I admire their intention to do right by students. You know that schools like SeTTTon Hall would never offer such a program, because they would never want to put their money where their stats are, in the TTTrash.

This article, which was forwarded to me by Tiger, offers other insight (i.e. the shit we've been harping on for the last 9 months) such as this:

The real question that families, institutions of higher learning, and lawmakers will need to confront soon is this: Have we as a society dramatically oversold the financial benefits of higher education? It's hard to argue that that's not the case. Back in February, it was reported that the $800,000 increase in lifetime earnings that The College Board and other institutions claimed was associated with a bachelor's degree had been quietly reduced to just $450,000 based on further research. Yeah, sorry about that -- and don't even think about asking for a refund.

Meanwhile, student debt loads are exploding upward along with default rates and, as I reported Thursday on DailyFinance, during the first four months of 2009, fewer than half of college graduates under 25 were working at jobs that required a degree -- and that doesn't include the huge percentage of students who drop out. Marty Nemko of US News & World Report has noted that "among college freshmen who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high school class, 76 of 100 won't earn a diploma, even if given 8 1/2 years."

And this is without even mentioning graduate school. Today, I was passing a girl and her friend on the street and I heard her say, "Law School." I did a 180 and chased her down. I spent about 40 minutes telling her not to go. She was shocked to hear that lawyers weren't earning what she is making now. Spread the news far and wide. If college didn't set you up financially, the way you think it should have, then MORE school (or a glorified extended college education offered by Law School) will definitely take you from zero equity, to negative equity. You will be worse off if you just "try it" so that you can say you're a lawyer at the end of the day. It's not glamorous. It doesn't pay well. And it will leave you up to your neck in late payment notices.

It's simple math, kids! Zero is better than -$120K. Or, if you took out loans for college, -$50K is better than -$170K. Especially if the chances of making more than $40K/year are slim to nil.

So, back to this money back thing. I think it's a great idea for this sort of program, but I really won't be happy until Law School close due to lowered enrollment. That will make me happy. They will never offer these programs because there is no way to predict or help your alumnae find jobs where there are none.

So, I'll just hit the streets and continue to spread the news until my dream becomes reality. Oh yah, and I love this line from the article, which epitomizes the scam we've all bought into:

Can you think of any other product that is marketed as an investment for which people will shell out six figures with no guarantee of anything -- and absolutely no recourse if the product (education) does produce the intended result (a well-paying job)?

Nope. I can't.

See full article from DailyFinance: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/college-offers-some-students-a-money-back-guarantee/19432813/?icid=sphere_copyright

(written by Angel, posted by HardKnocks)