I agree completely - the costs of college vs. the benefits don't line up anymore. It pisses me off to no end that young people mortgage their lives for a piece of paper that's worth very little. Employers have always cared more about actual productive skills, but the credential has been hard-coded into enough HR screens that it makes sense to check the box as quickly and inexpensively as possible. (Assuming you want a job, of course - if you're starting your own business, it doesn't matter at all.)

I'm in the midst of writing a series on my blog about getting college credentials as quickly / inexpensively as possible. Part 1 (http://personalmba.com/hacking-higher-education-clep/) covers testing out of college via CLEP examination. Part 2, which will be published tomorrow AM, covers how to graduate from Harvard without being accepted for ~25% the cost of a standard Harvard undergrad degree. Happy to post it on HN if anyone finds this stuff useful.

That was a very interesting article and brought up a couple of tools I wasn't aware of. I'm unsure of your intended audience, so take this with a grain of salt: your writing style tends to be verbose and you could do without much of the introduction.

That said, I'll be looking forward to part 2!

Thanks - glad you found it useful! The intro was there because writing about degrees is a departure from my normal topics. (I write predominately about business principles and self-education.) Didn't want my audience to think I went completely off the deep end. :-)

"20 years ago, it was a guaranteed way to get a high paying job"

On what planet was that? I was broke most of my 20s.