I'm glad the big picture is getting more press. I felt this article laid out a lot of the issues (obscure loan terms, diploma mills, college salary bloat and "gilding," government policies and lack of transparency). These comments also added some interesting perspectives, from foreign comparisons to local initiatives (Oregon's pay-it-forward), student maturity (or lack thereof), and failure of the school system to actually prepare people for college, responsible borrowing, and a career. I've been seeing and feeling a lot of these individual topics before, so it's nice when they all come together to really shine light on the situation.

I've got 2 links related to this:

- Ken Ilgunas wrote a book "Walden on Wheels" about living in a van to avoid graduate school debt (after working hard to pay off his undergraduate debt). I haven't read the book, but from his blog, he's a good writer and adventurer.

http://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054...

http://www.kenilgunas.com/

- Mr Money Mustache gets mentioned every now and then on HN, and his advice is to live frugally, avoid or pay off debt, save 50-75% of your earnings and retire early. For those that don't have 6-figure jobs in tech, he just wrote a 2-part series on jobs that could earn 50K without a degree. While some of it is unrealistic, it's also a good reminder that tradespeople and small-business owners are out there making a decent living by being creative and self-starting, and that you don't need a degree to deal with people in the real world.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/07/25/50-jobs-over-50000... http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/08/05/50-jobs-over-50000...

Read about this in 2009, [1, 2]. Anyways, looks like he has a new book out about his journey, called Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom [3]. If you search google for Ken Ilgunas looks like there is a full court press about it.

[1] http://www.salon.com/2009/12/07/living_in_a_van/

[2] http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/duke-grad-school-o...

[3] http://www.amazon.ca/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/0544...