Dear Brain Improvement and IQ Subscriber,
We all know that College and Continuing Education are two great
ways
to improve Your Brain, but College is incredibly expensive -- and
the
cost rises steadily every year.
The typical Ivy League university charges over 35,000 after-tax
dollars a year. The typical private college costs $25,000 a year.
The
typical state university charges over $9,000. With the typical
textbook
at $100, it's easy to understand how bills pile up.
And it's not a problem that concerns only your kids' education.
What
about you? Maybe you've hit a brick wall in your career. Maybe
your
employer's policy is to promote only college graduates.
Like everything else, if you do it the conventional way, you will
pay
"retail" for your college education.
And my friend Gary North firmly believes that you should never pay
retail for anything.
That's why I encourage to read Dr. North's letter below.
Sincerely,
David Riklan
Editor - Brain Improvement
Newsletter
Founder - SelfGrowth.com
From The Desk of Dr.
Gary North --
AVOID
THE HIGHEST-RISK INVESTMENT YOU WILL EVER MAKE, WHICH MOST
AMERICANS
FALL FOR . . . SOMETIMES MORE THAN ONCE.
Dear ETR reader,
I have a confession to make.
I used to be part of a gigantic scam that today extracts over a
quarter
of a trillion dollars from Americans every year. You read it
right:
trillion.
Charles Ponzi, the con man
who invented the first Ponzi scheme, was a piker compared to
these guys.
It pulls in far more money, and the promoters never get
prosecuted.
From the point of view of the
scammers, the great thing about the scam is this: it's all
perfectly
legal.
The politicians are in on the
deal.
You're probably one of the
victims. Your kids are going to be sucked in, too -- I guarantee
it.
Worse: you will probably pay for the privilege of helping them
get taken.
You, not they, will pay.
Let me remind you of a familiar
slogan: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on
me." Don't
get fooled twice. I know some people who have been fooled three
times.
This scam really works!
I have decided to "come clean."
I'm going to show you how you can beat the scammers at their own
game.
I was inside the system long enough to figure out how to beat
it.
SUCKED
IN
To immunize yourself, you first
need to recognize the scam's main features. It's not a Ponzi
scheme,
but it has the Ponzi scheme's chief characteristic: the victims
never
recognize it for what it is until it's way too late. Even if
they know
that every Ponzi scheme always goes belly-up, they still buy in.
The
scheme's individual story is so compelling that the victims
don't spot
its Ponzi-identifying features.
This story is even better than
a Ponzi scheme. It's more believable. Best of all, almost nobody
identifies
it for what it really is.
I want you to understand the
scam's features before I tell you what it is. This may help
protect
you. Then I'll tell you exactly what the scam is and how you can
beat
it.
Here are its main features.
It is an outrageously overpriced
commodity that two-thirds of all Americans begin buying on the
installment
plan. It costs $30,000 to $140,000 per person. Well over half
those
people who start paying for it never actually receive it.
You may be one of them. Statistically
speaking, you probably ARE one of them. Yet the courts say that
you
have no recourse.
The seller gets to keep your
money. "Tough bananas, suckers!"
Let's see how smart you are.
Maybe you went to college. You ought to be able to figure out
the commodity
I'm talking about.
* Most Americans want one.
* The experts say you ought
to have one.
* You want all of your kids
to have one.
* You want all of your grandkids
to have one.
* If you don't have one,
you get discriminated against.
* Most people pay retail
for one: $30,000 to $140,000.
* Everyone buys it on the
installment plan.
* The unpaid installment
balance rises 5% each year.
* Half the people who sign
up go into debt.
* Half of those who start
buying never get delivery.
* They still owe the money
they borrowed to buy it.
* Victims blame themselves
if they don't get delivery.
* Sellers cannot be taken
to court for non-delivery.
* It's most Americans' #2
expense after their homes... but at least they get delivery of
their
homes.
What is this universally desired
item? If it isn't obvious by now, then the sellers have done a
number
on you. You don't see what is right under your nose.
If you went to college and
still can't figure it out, then you are clearly one of the
victims.
I know this for sure. That's because the item that I am talking
about
-- the scam of the century -- is a bachelor's degree.
THE
SMARTER YOU ARE, THE MORE YOU PAY
Maybe you've seen the TV ad
for the mortgage re-finance service. It's a clever ad. A son
tells his
father that he just got accepted at an Ivy League college. "Ivy
League,"
his father says proudly. "Ivy League," he tells the pawnshop
owner,
as he pawns his valuables. Then he takes in a renter.
His wife has the answer: re-finance
the home! Well, they must live in Boston or the California
coast, because
re-financing the equity in most Americans' homes would not pay
for a
bachelor's degree at an Ivy League university.
Go to the websites of Harvard,
Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Pennsylvania. See what tuition
is. It's
close to $25,000 this year. Then there are the costs of room,
board,
textbooks ($100 each), wardrobe, travel, and all the rest of it.
Basically,
it's $35,000 a year and rising.
But it's worth it, isn't it?
Not if the student drops out before receiving a degree. Even
then, there
is a real question if the student doesn't go on to medical
school or
law school (another $100,000+). Here's why.
In a study conducted by the
United States Department of Education, we learn the increase in
yearly
earnings that results from a bachelor's degree from a selective
college
vs. a no-name state university. How much extra is the selective
school's
degree worth? Around 15%. Let me quote from a summary of the
study.
(The language is academic, but the conclusion is clear.)
Among the college characteristics
that mattered for men was attending a selective versus a
nonselective
institution. Obtaining a degree from a selective institution --
as measured
by the Cooperative Institutional Research Project rating for
colleges
and universities, based on standardized test scores of incoming
freshmen
-- was associated with an earnings increment of 11 to 16
percent. .
.
For women, a different kind
of institutional selectivity (measured by the ratio of
applicants to
admissions) was associated with higher earnings. A unit increase
in
this ratio was associated with about a 12 percent increase in
earnings.
Now, I'm not saying that an
extra 12% to 16% (before income taxes) isn't significant. But
the question
is this: Does the long-term benefit for the graduate match the
huge
short-term expense of the parents? What if the student could
earn a
bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university for
under
$12,000, or even under $10,000?
(Keep reading. There is no
"if" about it.)
What if the parents (you) took
half of the after-tax savings over what a selective university
would
charge and handed it over to the graduate as a graduation
present --
to make a down payment on a home or start a small business?
Wouldn't that make more sense?
The report concludes:
From this perspective, students
may choose to avail themselves of the least expensive
alternative that
provides the major in which they are interested.
But what if we're not talking
about an Ivy League school? What if we're talking about a
typical tax-funded
state university? How much will a bachelor's degree from this
school
cost?
It all depends on whether the
university that the student wants to attend is located in-state
or out
of state. All tax-funded universities charge out-of-state
students a
lot more money than in-state residents.
Georgia, for example, is compelled
by law to charge four times the in-state tuition to out-of-state
students.
Let's consider the cost of
attending an in-state university. The U.S. government has posted
these
figures.
Total costs usually run close
to $9,000 a year: tuition, room, board, and textbooks.
Now, if you're someone from
my generation (an old-timer), you've mentally computed the cost:
about
$40,000 ($9,000 x 4 years, plus $4,000 for inflation and
miscellaneous
expenses). Sorry. You lose. That's because you assumed that it
takes
four years to earn a bachelor's degree. Not these days.
A report issued in May, 2004,
by the non-profit Educational Trust reveals that of those
students who
enter as freshman in a four-year college or university, only 63%
receive
their degrees within six years. Six years, and still no degree
for 37%
of them!
It's worse than it sounds.
In some colleges, 25% of the freshmen flunk out or drop out in
the first
year.
But if you don't want to read
the entire report, here is a summary published on CNN's website:
A report published recently
by the Education Trust, an independent nonprofit organization,
found
that only 37 percent of first-time freshmen entering four-year
bachelor's-degree
programs actually complete their degrees within four years.
Another 26 percent take either
five or six years.
And the remaining 37 percent
either don't get their degrees at all or complete their
coursework in
more than six years.
Sometimes, colleges don't dismiss
near-failing students permanently. Why should they? Colleges get
paid
by the state and by parents to keep students enrolled. CNN
reports:
Then there's the issue of schools
that don't necessarily make an effort to keep students on track.
A school
may not do much, say, if a student is failing to make progress
toward
completing his major, Carey [the report's author] said.
Or, if a student has been flunking
courses, a school may impose a probationary period, but never
actually
kick the student out. So if the student continues to take
courses but
doesn't thrive academically, that can turn into "the academic
equivalent
of the money pit," said James A. Boyle, president of College
Parents
of America, an advocate for parents of college students.
And how deep this money pit
is! Parents start paying in year one and keep paying through
year five
or six, always hoping that things will turn around, always
hoping that
the growing pile of cancelled checks will pay off.
Hope springs eternal. But bills
are paid constantly.
But the cost is greatest for
those who never graduate. Forget the fact that you'll never get
a refund
for the credits you did take or that the debt you incurred won't
be
forgiven. The hit to your lifetime earnings is dramatic.
"Half of the credits you need
for a degree don't get you half of what a college degree gets
you in
the job market. ... It gets you very little," Carey said.
You get the picture. Anyway,
I hope you do. We are talking about the highest-risk economic
investment
in most Americans' lives, the one with the greatest odds against
it.
As CNN reported in 2001, over half of the students who enter a
four-year
college fail to graduate. Talk about a crap shoot in which the
dice
are loaded against you!
Less than 50 percent of U.S.
college students entering four-year colleges or universities
actually graduate, researchers at Council for Aid to Education
(CAE)
said in a report.
"And that's a conservative
estimate," said Richard Hersh who coauthored the report on the
quality
of higher education for the National Governors Association.
Backing up the CAE report,
figures from ACT, formerly the American College Testing Service,
show
the graduation rate at four-year public institutions fell to
41.9 percent
in 2000, while the rate at private schools was 55.1 percent. . .
"That's somewhat staggering
when you think about the amount of money invested in people who
don't
finish."
Somewhat staggering, my foot.
It's back-breaking, bank account-emptying, psychological
depression-producing
staggering. It is an economic disaster for parents and a
career-detour
for students.
WHY
DO PARENTS DO IT?
Maybe your parents funded your
college education. Or maybe you worked your way through. Or
maybe you
dropped out. Or maybe you never went to college. I don't know.
Here is what I do know: there
are ways around this system. Every system has loopholes, and
this is
as true of higher education as it is of any other system.
The colleges have created loopholes.
The colleges design them for one set of purposes, mainly to help
subsidize
minority students and poor students. But the best of these
loopholes
are known only to upper-income families -- and not many of them,
either.
The loopholes are there to
be used. I decided in 1968, when I saw one of the little-known
ones
at work, that my children were going to use them. And so they
did. I
determined early that I was not going to pay retail for college
ever
again.
I was a graduate student at
the time. I was paying my way by teaching freshmen students at
one of
America's better universities. I realized then that my parents
had paid
too much to send me through college as an undergraduate. They
had made
the mistake that most parents make. They had paid retail.
Never pay retail.
I earned my Ph.D. in 1972.
I thought about going into academia full time. I did teach
briefly at
a community college. Later, I taught for a semester at a
four-year college.
But I decided to go into business. The money was better and the
potential
for making a difference was greater, if I was successful. I have
not
regretted this decision. But for a time, I was part of the
system. I
recognized early that the system was stacked against students
and parents.
I began studying ways to beat the system.
I have found seven of them
-- six, if you're a high school graduate who plans to go back to
college.
THE
OTHER SCAM
I have talked about one version
of the scam, the one that says you have to earn a college degree
in
order to be successful. It's not true in most cases. Read Linda
Lee's
book, "Success Without College," if you doubt me.
The official scam relieves
the public of about $277 billion a year -- taxes, tuition,
textbooks,
and on-campus living expenses.
The unofficial scam doesn't
report what it takes in, but it's far less. This scam is the
"degree
by mail" scam.
Promoters sell degrees from
"colleges" that are sometimes nothing more than post office
boxes. The
official scammers have a name for these unofficial colleges:
diploma
mills.
You have seen offers in your
e-mail box for college diplomas. You don't have to attend
classes. You
don't have to read any books. You just let the "college" ding
your credit
card, and presto! You're a college graduate.
Like the scarecrow in "The
Wizard of Oz," you have a diploma.
This diploma is worth about
as much as the scarecrow's "Doctor of Thinkology" was.
Actually, it's worth less.
It's a liability. If you should happen to get a better job by
pretending
that your Bachelor of Thinkology degree is real, and if your
boss ever
finds out, he may fire you. He will probably tell future
prospective
employers that you tried to scam him -- the same way that the
diploma
mills scammed you.
THEN
WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?
The solution is to pay wholesale
for a degree issued by an accredited college.
There are eight regional accrediting
agencies in the United States. If you want a college degree that
will
not backfire, the school should be accredited by one of these
agencies.
The college catalogue will
identify the regional agency that accredited it. If it doesn't,
then
you had better investigate why not before signing any checks.
When I say "pay wholesale,"
I mean two things: financially and academically. There are
legitimate
ways around both. You can't earn a degree without performing
academically,
but there are ways to speed up the process dramatically.
My favorite example is Brad
V., who graduated from an accredited college in one semester for
$5,000.
He was 18 years old at the time.
He did not graduate from an
Ivy League university.
But his parents did not have
to mortgage their house, either.
He got into the labor market
as a college graduate at age 18 instead of 21 or 24 or 26. Think
of
how much head start money that's worth over a career.
The strategies (loopholes)
that I recommend can get a full-time student through college by
age
20 -- maybe younger.
An adult who works full time,
and who is determined to earn a college degree, can get through,
from
scratch, in four years -- what most students did in my day.
Here is the best part: the
student does not have to leave home, unless he is majoring in a
scientific
or technical subject. Even if he is majoring in science, he may
have
to move only for two years. (There is a loophole for that
strategy,
too.)
Here is another amazing loophole.
While most tax-funded state universities are compelled by law to
charge
out-of-state students triple or quadruple what they charge
in-state
residents, a handful of these state universities have a
subsidized rate
for out-of-state students who enroll in on-line or
distance-learning
degree programs.
This means that you can get
your degree without leaving town. You can benefit from taxes
paid by
residents in other states.
There are even private colleges
universities that offer degree programs at rates close to
tax-funded
colleges. But they do not advertise this fact. They can't afford
to.
You have to know which schools they are and know which programs
to ask
for.
I CAN
SAVE YOU AT LEAST $9,700
I don't care what college you
or your child or your grandchild has decided to attend. If you
follow
my program, you can save 9,700 after-tax dollars.
This is a low-ball estimate.
If you or the student is a full-time student, the time needed to
earn
a bachelor's degree should be under four years. If the student
works
four hours a day, then the degree might take four years.
If you don't live in a college
town, part-time jobs are more plentiful than they are in college
towns.
There is less competition.
A high school student who works
part time should be able to pay his way through college by using
my
program.
What would that be worth to
you as a parent?
That's why I know I can save
you at least $9,700. I can show you or your child how to make
enough
money after taxes, working only part time, to pay for the
degree. Room
and board are already being paid for anyway. Don't pay twice.
This alone
will knock $10,000 off any college budget, and more like
$20,000.
If you're personally thinking
about earning a bachelor's degree, what would it be worth for
you to
be able to stay at home, keep your job, earn the diploma in your
spare
time, and still graduate within five years -- as fast as most
full-time
college students do?
If I can save you $9,700, are
you willing to pay me $97 to find out how? In other words, are
you willing
to pay me $1 for every $100 that I save you? If not, then you're
not
college material. You can't think clearly.
But maybe I'm selling a bill
of goods. Maybe my loopholes won't work, at least not in your
case.
OK, what if I offer you a two-year, money-back guarantee? Try
out any
of my strategies. See if they work well enough to save you
$9,700. If
they don't, I'll refund your money.
But, as they say in those late-night
TV commercials, that's not all.
I have written two versions
of my report, one for high school students and one for adults
who are
thinking of earning a college diploma. The motivations of these
groups
are different. Also, there is one super strategy (loophole)
available
to high school students that isn't available to adults.
The report for high schoolers
is titled, "America's Lowest Cost Colleges: How to Earn an
Accredited
Bachelor's Degree for Pennies on the Dollar." The one for adults
who
are thinking about earning a degree is called, "America's Lowest
Cost
Distance-Learning Degree Programs: How to Earn an Accredited
Bachelor's
Degree at Home for Pennies on the Dollar."
If you buy one, you get the
other as a bonus.
Also, I make this additional
offer to high school students. I have written a 27-part,
one-month study
course that will enable a student to raise his or her grades by
half
a grade point in one semester, and by a full grade point within
one
year. I give it as a bonus to the high school student who reads
my college
report.
If you, your child, or your
grandchild is thinking about college, think clearly. Don't
expect college
catalogues to tell you what my report tells you. It would cost
them
a fortune in forfeited tuition and dormitory rental income.
Never ask a barber if you need
a haircut. Never ask a college administrator if there is a
cheaper way
to earn a bachelor's degree.
Click
Here to Order Now
Sincerely,
Gary North, Ph.D.
P.S. Consider making this offer
to your college-bound child. "Earn your degree Dr. North's way,
and
I'll give you half of the money you will save over the college
program
you've decided to enter. I'll pay this on the day you earn your
degree."
Now, that's a graduation present worth working for -- and you
will keep
half of the money you save.
Order
Now!
