A few years in the hallowed halls of a prestigious university is becoming increasingly expensive.

As summer winds to a close, recent high school graduates all over the country will pack their bags and load up the cars for their first year in college. A college education might be necessary in order to launch a successful professional career, but paying for one has become difficult. We rounded up some data in the form of these 10 infographics for all the bright-eyed, eager-to-study youngsters in your life.

Is College Still Worth It?: Some stats on whether or not someone should go to college at all.

The Higher Education Bubble: Tuition’s ever-spiraling prices are reminiscent of the housing market, before the collapse.

Bowl Game Economics: College football is a big industry.

Self Learning: The New Master’s Degree: College is too expensive…but there’s always the Internet.

The Unprepared Nation: Many high school graduates are unprepared for postsecondary education.

Going to School, Drowning in Debt: Americans now owe more in student loan debt than the entire GDP of Australia.

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before College: It’s not really a surprise that many people wish they hadn’t partied away four years of expensive education.

The Truth About College Drinking: A good way to save money is to not spend as much on alcohol.

An Export of Students: A growing number of wealthy Chinese are sending their children to the United States for college.

How Do High School Grads Perceive College?: Even if most high school grads don’t intend to go directly to college, earning a college degree remains a common long-term goal.

Image: rexhammock.

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Study up.

Last week, the education world was abuzz when changes to the federal student loan program went into effect, many with lasting implications for students and graduates grappling with college debt. Learn more about the issue with this series of education-related infographics, which tackle topics from debt, to digital media, to the disastrous effects of playing hooky. Don’t worry, you won’t be graded.

The Final Countdown: The federal student loan debate, demystified with an infographic by NerdWallet.

Education’s Effect on Income: Surprise, surprise – the more education you have, the more you’ll likely earn.

The Gamification of Education: A look at how games can make education more engaging… and hopefully lift graduation rates.

Components of a 21st Century Classroom: How technology has and will change the way that schools function.

The United States of Student Debt: A breakdown of who’s in debt and by how much, from Mint.com.

The State of Digital Education: The transformative power of technology and the Internet.

Applied Finance 101: A crash course in entering real life.

The True Cost of Skipping Class: Well now we just feel guilty.

Educating the Workforce of the Future: Looking forward, more jobs will require some form of higher education, states this infographic from GOOD, Hyperakt, and the University of Phoenix.

U.S. Education Vs. The World: The U.S. spends more than any other country on education. Do the results stack up?

ALSO CHECK OUT:

10 Political Infographics on Election 2012

10 Infographics on Energy

10 Infographics on Farming and Agriculture

Check out more infographics here.

Image: naosuke ii

The post 10 Infographics on Education in America appeared first on EcoSalon.

As Harvard seniors prepare to don those prestigious caps and gowns and hear the golden advice of class speaker, Christiane Amanpour, we recall this hopeful image from last year’s commencement when the class flashed a poignant sign of the times: “No Layoffs!” Poor brainiacs. They got duped like the rest of us.

We’ve created a society that assumes securing anything above menial labor requires a $100K degree from a credible school, and many of us have become depleted wage slaves trying to foot the bloated bill or pay back student loans. Yet the growing devaluation of a basic college degree among employers and demand for applicants with work experience spells rejection for hundreds of thousands of graduates entering a softer, less conventional market.

The $40 thousand-a-year college on that resume may look impressive when answering a Craigslist ad, but is no longer a must stop on the road to success. Pulverized financial recruiters like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, which aggressively went after Harvard students in the past, cannot promise a way to recoup that enormous college investment of blood, debt and beers. Besides, the finance sector, which ballooned in the 1980s and 90s, has seen the biggest decline in hiring, along with professional services like accounting and engineering.

The effect has been a decline in interest in these areas. Instead, working in a desired field while earning that degree or a strategic straight shot to grad school are the new directions young people are taking – rather than depending on that pricey degree to get a foot in the door. Others are taking advantage of online education options or cutting higher ed all together to secure the American dream. But can we change our thinking, too?

Rising Tuition and Softer Market

College tuition keeps rising and we keep pressuring students to pay the tab to get through, even weaker ones who might be better served finding other options. Why bother?

In 2008, nearly 70% of all high school students attended college and the total amount of cash loaned went up 18% from the previous year to $81 billion. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average tuition cost rose 6.5% in the fall of 2009 and two-thirds of students finish college with outstanding loans of which the average debt is $23,200.

While the tuition-loan debt rises, so does the unemployment rate for recent graduates which now stands at a record high of 10.6%. This has prompted more students to seek higher degrees to get started in their careers, figuring they need something extra to check off on an application to be attractive to employers now looking for more.

According to the Harvard Crimson’s Annual Survey, Harvard grads planning to go immediately to graduate school rose from 21 to 25% last year, and will probably rise higher in 2010. Obviously, it also helps if you can distinguish yourself with “real world” work experience you accrued while earning those degrees.

That worldly experience over a watered down degree also might make more sense for a world trying desperately to set the clock back to a greener time, living the way our grandparents lived by drastically reducing consumption and conserving resources.

Certainly, college degrees are necessary for careers in law, medicine and engineering and school offers a stimulating social and intellectual milieu for curious minds and passionate souls. And don’t forget those rites of passage like keg parties with vomiting over balconies and pulling all-nighters aided by Adderall to cram for exams.

But creative students’ time might be better spent on getting a foot in the door of a beneficial area of growth: Organic and bio dynamic farming and cooking; Creative and journalistic web writing and design; Development of renewable, alternative energy.

“You don’t learn that in college, but rather how to become good consumers and get lots of money,” says eco economist Brad Hoyt. “Employers who are employing people in complex, high consumer industries need to become dinosaurs. We need to accept that, and figure a way to do it peacefully and calmly, rather than in a panic once we wake up.”

The green issue surrounding college has us asking if our planet can continue with this system, where hundreds of thousands of people graduate colleges each year focused entirely on recouping investments, and that usually means serving the corporate complex in some way.

Why can’t we afford it? “We need three planets to produce the resources we are producing and there is no end in sight,” observes Hoyt. “The economic recovery is designed around one goal: Getting  people spending again, and the planet cannot afford it anymore.”

So what are the alternatives?

Conservationists point to food, water and energy as our main concerns, and argue young, passionate thinkers can help develop future sustainability methods in these areas, especially by joining research being done on how to move our resources around. We have used oil for the last century to expand our population worldwide. It has allowed us to produce cheap food, surviving with McDonald’s, and to make travel cheap, while locally grown and sustainable organic fare has come at a higher price.

We all know the stories of successful entrepreneurs like Ted Turner who circumvented the expensive college route after getting rejection letters. For our planet, stories like these are a blessing in disguise.

In the green fields, this can include new moving companies with sustainable packaging materials or food trucks delivering healthy fresh produce to dessert communities in large cities forced to feed on trans fats and factory beef. There are prefab house companies (Warren Buffet is investing in them now), fair trade companies to be founded in third world countries and green job recruiters for energy development throughout North America and overseas. There are solar and wind energy training programs to learn about the emerging alternative. The planet is begging for more of this, and students have the energy to devote to a new wave of innovation and industry.

In addition, education and health care are becoming more attractive fields than get-rich jobs, and you don’t need to spend $100k to get a good background in these fields and make yourself employable. Just ask those Harvard grads who spent a fortune or are buried in loans. A high percentage admitted if finances were not a concern “the arts” was a dream field, along with – crucially – public service and education.

Last year, the number of Harvard grads entering the health care field doubled, while a record number- 14 percent – received applications from Teach for America, which has a mission to enlist promising future leaders from all backgrounds to commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools in low-income communities.

Who qualifies for these opportunities?

Teach for America says in addition to college grads, many corps members have been coaches of athletic teams, directors of community organizations and team managers at their work. They show leadership in a variety of areas, not just in school.

While it is true many postings – even from Green Businesses – still say they require a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, it might make sense to seek a cost-effective education at a community college. If you feel you need to go on, you can transfer to a university that offers what you and employers are looking for.

Community colleges: a better deal

Businessweek tells us that while junior colleges once struggled to be viewed as offering other than a second-class education, the reality is that more business students are starting off there to save money while working towards their education and career goals. Some students taking advantage of the two-year jump start say it is such a good deal it is almost a scam to pay more for all four years.

It’s good, green logic when you know that at least half of all students who attend junior colleges do end up transferring to four-year-schools.  As long as society continues to view degrees as requirements, even for skills not cultivated in college, the money-saving approach makes a lot of sense. And when you do choose the four-year or graduate school, opt for one that is more experiential than academic so you can get that practical experience that will make you even more viable.

Images: Anne Oeldorfhirsch, Harvard Education, College View, Green for All

The post How Long Can the Planet Survive $100K College Educations? appeared first on EcoSalon.

It may have been published a couple of years ago, but Americans are now catching up to the message of Steve and Annette Economides and are eagerly plunking down their pennies for the hot home economics crash course.

The authors of America’s Cheapest Family have done remarkably well feeding their family of seven on just $350 per month, paying off their first house in nine years and purchasing a second, larger home, buying cars with cash, taking nice vacations, and yes, even socking away money in savings.

They’ve done so well, they are hitting the television news circuit including Inside Edition and receiving praised on numerous green websites to teach a fairly clueless nation the ABC’s of creating a comfortable, debt-free life. Forget the Joneses! It’s time to keep up with the Economides.

The couple, who live in Scottsdale, Arizona (a money-driven, rapidly built-up, energy-sucking environ), launched their popular bimonthly newsletter, The Home Economiser, in 2003 and have appeared in Good Housekeeping as well as on National Public Radio and Good Morning America.

Perhaps their message has been somewhat lost until the proverbial s–t hit the fan, sending many of us seeking advice from the successfully frugal among us, the ones who arrogantly yet wisely uttered I told you so as we maxed out our credit cards.

According to publishers marketing this new debtors’ bible:

“You don’t need to be a CPA or a math wizard to learn their revolutionary system, which will teach you:

– hundreds of ways to save money on everyday household expenses, including groceries, clothing, and health care
– how to save in advance for major purchases such as homes, cars, and vacations
– how to stop living paycheck to paycheck
– how to eliminate debt . . . forever!”

Oooh, that sounds good, real good to the masses choosing between lesser evils of selling their homes, getting night jobs that will take them away from their kids, and selling what they can from cars to gold and furniture – anything to stay afloat.

While the Economides’ disciplined road to penny pinching offers a way to avoid those evils, Nature Moms points out some of the methods may not sit well with the green among us, namely buying processed foods in bulk while forgoing more costly fresh fruits and veggies for the last two weeks of the month.

” I think families that eat lots of fresh, raw, whole foods would have a lot of adapting to do but the basic plan is a good one,” says the author of the site. “I would probably feel more comfortable doing bi-monthly shopping expeditions with weekly trips to farmers’ markets for fruits and veggies.”

One of the best chapters deals with clothes shopping and how buying stylish second-hand finds can help you stay within your budget and then some. And in terms of housing costs, they advise paying off your mortgage in less than 10 years.

For some of us the lessons have come a bit late, but not too late to try a new tack.

Images: Pink Sherbet, Amazon, Inside Edition

The post Cash Strapped Readers Spare a Dime for America’s Cheapest Family appeared first on EcoSalon.

No one growing up during the upbeat, Mattel-directed Sixties figures they’ll be worse off in middle age, forced to scrounge harder for work, buy less, live smaller.

Those Barbie songs my sister and I sang along to in our pink and green room constituted teenage visions of a supercalifragelistic future that we owned, co-starring Dick Van Dyke, four kids, a shiny Lincoln and full-service yacht.

“Here’s a cake, that you and I can make, I’ll share the recipe, if you say yes to me.”

But due to the recession and soaring costs of raising two girls in the city, I’m singing a different tune today on my birthday. Sure, I married Ken, but where are the other Camelot conquests I was guaranteed?

Gone is the wine country home, jaunts to spas on a whim, the black velvet boxes concealing gems he bought for me with cash from cases he settled.

Despite the unexpected Barbie plot twist, I can’t help but feel a deep sense of gratitude as I take inventory of what I do have.

For instance, I spotted a gold necklace on Fillmore Street with a round charm that that bore the words I am completely blessed. I didn’t dare buy the $600 trinket but I have kept the affirmation close to my heart.

So, I’ve decided to count my blessings today (my colleague Sarah Irani should know that quite a few of them came free!). Here are a whopping 50, plus one for good luck.

I am completely blessed because…

1. I birthed two healthy, spectacular daughters who teach me something new each day.

2. I married a great father.

3.  I follow my bliss every day that I write.

4. My girls are strapping amazons because God gave me super human breast milk.

5. I’m surrounded by friends who are like family.

6.   My mother is still around and down to just one biting criticism of me a day.

7. I am never hungry when I don’t want to be.

8. We live without war in the  streets of San Francisco.

9. I have not been killed by a truck like my brother.

10. My religious faith has connected me to a community of fellow yentas to grow old with.

11. My older sister is an exceptional auntie.

12. My older brother is keeping the family business afloat during rocky times.

13. My pug and cat think I’m their mommy and I am.

14. I married father nature.

15. I’m healthy and strong from exercise and can climb the fence when I get locked out.

16. The builder’s daughter has always had a roof over her head.

17. I have commercial-free TV.

18. I have art on my walls from friends who made it.

19. I have memorized dozens of bedtime songs.

20. My daughters sing the songs I have sung to them.

21. My children are known for being creative and kind.

22. My beloved camera almost always works.

23. My children can read and write and like to do both.

24. My children make me exquisite birthday presents and set a regal table with a tiara at my place.

25. I can walk to the movie theater on Saturday nights.

26. No one at the theater asks me if I want the senior discount.

27. My city has excellent public transportation.

28. I can still see very well when I wear magnified lenses.

29. My mom, who unloads much, has kept her box at the iconic Hollywood Bowl.

30. My children get to use the box at the Hollywood Bowl and hear live music.

31. No menopause yet.

32. Menopause will come sooner or later.

33. I think I’ve seen god.

34. I think god is the miracle of birth.

35. I have learned how to kayak.

36. I have learned Italian.

37. Henna makes me higher than jewelry.

38. I married a great teacher.

39. My husband rarely spends money. When he does, it is on books and candy.

40. I have kept my commitments.

41. I’m in a bad girls book club.

42. My book club is all about the food.

43. Decent chick flicks are still being made, i.e. Julie and Julia.

44. I can grow vegetables in my yard to make soup.

45. I can pick flowers in my yard for table bouquets.

46. I can find stylish Sixties-inspired fashion on sale.

47. My Weight Watchers Guru is a Stanford Nutritionist.

48. I have gained the wisdom to see my own culpability.

49. I was born a healthy female in a rich land.

50. I’m a survivor because my Polish grandparents were survivors.

51. Today is my 51st birthday.

Main image: Sparkleneeley

Second image: Luanne Bradley

This is the fourth in Luanne’s new lifestyle column, Life in the Green Lane.

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