The Rise of Colleges without Classes or Professors

[dfrecore]

I think the moral of the story is that there is value to many forms of education. A fresh out of high school person might find more value with CC or University. A driven highschool student might find more value with supplementing their HS education with online, DE or AP courses. A busy adult may find more value in a flexible self paced online program. Neither method is inherently better or worse than another because it comes down to what's the best fit for an individual.

I completely agree.  As an adult returning to get my degree 20+ years later, I found zero value sitting in a classroom with a bunch of 20yo's and some teacher spouting on about his/her views that I was never going to agree with.  Alternative credit was the perfect fit for me.

My 11th grader will probably get a lot out of CC, as she really needs more time to mature and experience life and all of that.  The 2-3 years after high school will probably be huge for her, and college is 1 aspect of that.

My 9th grader is planning out his life AFTER college, so school is just a means to an end for him.  He expects to enjoy those 4 years, but is very forward thinking (10, 20, 30 years out).  He is taking a bunch of AP so he can test out of a lot of college material, and then either have more space in his 4 college years for a minor, the ability to take fewer units, or he can throw in some fun electives (he's looking at ROTC, so no early graduation for him).

My husband is considering an IT degree at WGU.  He has 20 years of experience, so wants to get through everything as quickly as possible.

All this to say that just in my small family of 4, we will utilize ALL the forms of university learning, with each of us finding the best fit.  There is no one-size-fits-all, nor would we want there to be.