One of the colleges near me just announced that it is considering nearly a 10 percent tuition hike. That’s a substantial hike — and they’re not the only ones, either. Colleges across the U.S. are having to raise tuition in order to make up for lagging budgets.

The end result is of course that bachelor’s degrees are pricing themselves out of many students’ reach. Students that can no longer afford four-year degrees turn to two-year degrees and licenses, such as mortgage training.

Shorter programs like these have many advantages over longer programs. Obviously, it costs less to go to school for a year or two as opposed to four years. Another advantage is that you finish your education sooner, and can get into the work force and start earning money sooner, too.

Besides, if tuition has priced itself out of your budget, and your choice is between a shorter program and NO program, I definitely think you should go with the shorter program. Some training or education is always better than no education, as it makes you qualified for more skilled jobs that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.

So I’m curious — what are tuition rates doing in your area? Are they going up there as quickly as they are in Colorado? What alternatives have you considered if you can no longer afford the tuition for a four-year program?

Technorati Tags: four-year degrees, mortgage training, tuition hike, two-year degrees

The time has come for me to make a career change. As I’ve begun the personal assessment process, there are two things that repeatedly surface for me: golf and cooking. Both are huge passions of mine. I could easily see getting into golf business management and learning to run the golf operations at a local course. Heck, I spend enough time and money at several of them in my area, that it would be a no brainer!

The great thing about so many career education offerings now days is that they come with bonafide certificates that hold their own weight. Just having a golf associate degree is enough to make me lean towards that route.

Of course, there are a number of culinary institutes that have similar offerings as well. In fact, for roughly the same amount of time I could get certified to be either a golf professional or a trained chef. Of course 2 years is not nearly enough to be a head chef or the lead golf pro. By opting to get secondary training and education, I would jump up the ladder much faster then many of those in their respective industries.

Either way, I believe now is a very exciting time to consider a career change.

Technorati Tags: golf associate degree, golf business management