Mitchell D. Weiss

New day, new post. Also, Twitter chat coming 5/21:

http://blog.credit.com/2013/05/the-big-profits-behind-student-loan-interest-rates/

New article, new venue: http://www.learnvest.com/2013/04/how-to-fix-the-student-loan-system-in-7-steps/

Follow up article published on Credit.com and Yahoo Finance this morning: 

http://blog.credit.com/2013/04/4-ways-to-deal-with-student-loan-collection-companies/

Follow up to the last article on higher ed and student loan disaster. Been getting emails from graduates looking for help. Here are a couple of their stories…

Good morning! New article that’s quickly making the rounds—- Credit.com to Yahoo!Finance to Huffington Post and others. Lots of comments posted—most of them surprisingly constructive. The subject matter is provocative. It attempts to connect the dots between two major problems facing young adults and their families—the high cost of higher education and the student debt crisis that has yet to be comprehensively addressed. Love to hear what you think. Incidentally, this article also happens to be an abridged version of the introduction to the book that will follow Business Happens.

http://blog.credit.com/2013/01/the-pitfalls-of-no-interest-financing/

So, the folks from AOL/Daily Finance paid a visit to my house a couple of weeks ago. We talked about credit card fraud and this is the clip they just posted on their site…

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/15/how-to-protect-yourself-from-credit-card-fraud-savings-experiment/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D257773

The Life Happens – Personal Finance course is now available online! Check out some of the sample videos on my YouTube channel as well as via the sites on which the course is being offered in full or in part. Access through the ‘video’ tab on my site:

http://mitchelldweiss.com/video.php

New article posted this morning: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/creditcom/6-loans-you-can-actually_b_2409549.html 

The price of college textbooks is appalling.

For one of the courses I teach, the updates seem to come every other year at a cost of more than $200 a pop. Digital versions of the book are available at roughly half the price, for a file that sits on the student’s hard drive until the end of the term—a dubious proposition at best.

With student loan debt at $1 trillion and kids moving back home after graduation, it’s no wonder why many are fighting back by not purchasing their books or splitting the cost with friends, if they can get away with it.

Most recently, Southern New Hampshire University jumped into the cost debate by announcing its decision to forego the commissions it once earned for the books that were sold through its campus bookstore and online, in favor of passing along the savings to the students. 

But what are we talking about here? $20? $30? Give me a break. The system needs reforming and each of the parties can help to bring this about by shifting the supply-demand curve.

Professors can help by encouraging collaboration because, after all, that’s what happens in real life. Give them permission to form groups to share texts and revise the manner in which individual work-product is assessed.

Authors and publishers can help by recognizing the enduring value of book that’s designed as a classic. I’ve yet to see an update that couldn’t have been handled in the form of a yearly or bi-yearly pronouncement.

As for the students, what you put into your work is what you’ll get out of it. Some view collaboration as cheating. I don’t. Just remember, if you’re relying on your buddy for the answers, you’ll get the grade you deserve when he’s wrong. Also, take a hard look at the book that’s been assigned for the course and determine if its value stands the test of time. If so, then buy it.

Mitchell D. Weiss is an experienced financial services industry executive and entrepreneur, adjunct professor of finance at the University of Hartford, a member of the board of the university’s Barney School of Business and co-founder of its Center for Personal Financial Responsibility. Mitch is also the author of College Happens: A Practical Handbook for Parents and Students and Life Happens: A Practical Guide to Personal Finance from College to Career-2^nd Edition. © 2012 M.D. Weiss LLC . All rights reserved.