Consumerist
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protests
California Students Protest, Riot Over Tuition Gouging
Responding to UC regents' efforts to slap students with a 32 percent tuition increase, groups at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA and other schools took to the streets, 1960s style, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. More » -
employment
College Student Needs Personal Assistant To Help Him Be College Student
Oh, college. Remember how busy you were, between classes, activities, part-time work, and a social life? Instead of adjusting his schedule accordingly, a busy student at Georgetown University (the #7 most expensive college in America) is hiring a personal assistant. More » -
tuition
What Are The Most Expensive Colleges In America?
College is expensive, but the some colleges are more expensive than others. Collegegrotto.com rounded up the top 100 most expensive colleges in the United States, based on just tuition and room and board. The winner? Sarah Lawrence College, north of New York City. More » -
above and beyond
Amazon Does A Solid For Student Who Suffered Bungled Textbook Orders
Robert ordered a defective textbook from Amazon, which let him return the book outside its 30-day return policy. Amazon let him do so without trouble, but that wasn't even the coolest thing the e-tailer did for him. When Robert received the next book, with the same defect — it too was missing codes he needed for his lab — he decided to go to the school bookstore to buy a copy with the codes he needed. The CSR told Robert he could keep the second book and gave him a full refund. He writes: More » -
take this poll
Are All Xbox 360s Doomed To Fail? Student Survey Aims To Find Out
Reader Ben Strauss is doing a cool project for his marketing class - he's surveying Xbox owners to find out how many have had failed Xboxes and/or know someone who does. So far he's interviewed 200 people and is seeing a 71% failure rate, with 85% of respondents saying they know someone with a failed Xbox. Ben writes: More » -
money
Retirement Savings Before College Savings
These days many parents are struggling with saving any amount of money. So imagine the difficulty of trying to tackle the seemingly insurmountable tasks of saving for college and retirement simultaneously. No question, it's a tall order. To give parents some options to consider, US News offers suggestions for dealing with this double-headed financial dragon as follows: More » -
personal finance
Financial Advice For College Students
The San Jose Mercury News has compiled a list of financial tips for people just entering college. These are the sorts of things that will help you avoid racking up huge debts or wasting money you don't have on fees and penalties—and of course they can apply to pretty much anyone, not just college students. More » -
college
More Unemployed Alumni Sue Their College
Everyone (including us) snickered when an unemployed woman sued the college she had graduated from only months before, but the news story did help bring to light the overly optimistic or outright misleading claims made by some for-profit educational institutions. Now, thirteen former students of Everest College's Dallas campus have sued the school, claiming that they were misled about the transferability of the school's credits and their prospects for employment. More » -
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textbooks
College Textbooks: Shop Around, Ask Your Professors, And Save
It's that magical time of year, when the bright, shining faces of college freshmen fall as they take their first look at modern textbook prices. Reader S., a manager at a college bookstore, read our post yesterday about custom college bookstore "packets" used to prevent students from purchasing their textbooks used. He sent us some tips about how to spot and avoid special profit-seeking textbook bundles, and how to actually save some money by...purchasing from the college bookstore? More » -
money saving tips
College Freshmen, Avoid These Money Traps
Personal finance blog Poorer Than You warns new college students to be on the lookout for money-sapping, credit-ruining traps. More » -
hassles
Want Help Getting A Student Visa? Call This $3-A-Minute 1-900 Number
Jon is headed to grad school in England and looking to nail down his student visa. Before he can hop the pond he's going through a grad-level course on absurd, pricely hassles. Turns out the U.K. may have outsourced its visa customer service to a contractor that takes calls at a pay 1-900 number. More » -
money saving tips
Students Can Use Internet To Rent Textbooks Rather Than Buy Them
The college textbook racket is a cruel exploitation of a captive market, and book prices seem to rise faster than Google stock. More » -
bad consumer
Jobless College Grad Sues To Get Tuition Back, Misspells "Tuition"
The job market is tough. No one seems to know it better than our nation's fresh-faced recent college graduates. They've discovered a harsh truth—despite hounding alumni for donations, colleges aren't able to find jobs for them. One recent college grad in New York City is fighting back, since she graduated three whole months ago and her alma mater hasn't found her a job yet. More » -
jobs
College Career Services Offices Can Help Mid-Career Professionals, Too
College career offices aren't just for students and recent alumni. They're also for mid-career professionals who want help with resume touchups, interview preparation, and meeting other alums. Best of all, the assistance is entirely free! More » -
money-saving tips
Students, That College I.D. Is A Universal Coupon
One great thing about being in college is everyone — including businesses — expects you to be poor. Thus, your student I.D. is good for a range of discounts, ranging from movies, restaurants, museums and sundry services. Wisconsin's WSAW 7 cobbled together a list of 10 such targets. More » -
miss one payment by one day, you're screwed
Nice Letter Gets 29.99% APR Down To 12.24%
David paid his credit card one day late, one time, and Chase immediately jacked his interest rate from 12.24% to the default rate of 29.99%. He called customer service and was told he need to pay on-time for 6 months before he could get it reduced. 6 months later he calls back and now they tell him it's 12 to 24 months. A supervisor confirmed this. Say what? That's what he said, and so he wrote Chase a letter, and it got some serious results: More » -
textbooks
Academic Publisher Pays Professors For Shill Amazon Reviews
This story is a little old, but was just brought to our attention this weekend. Elsevier, which is sort of the Death Star of academic publishing, was caught offering $25 Amazon gift cards to professors who gave the book five-star reviews on Amazon. More » -
Robert Bowman graduated from college and law school despite great adversity, and passed the New York bar exam on his fourth try. Now, the state bar association refuses to admit him because of his substantial student loan debt. You know, instead of letting him practice law so he can pay it off. Disturbing, and a cautionary tale: just because your student loan company isn't sending you letters, that doesn't mean they aren't charging you fees. [New York Times]
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college
New York, 7:56 PM
Sat Nov 21
16 posts in the last 24 hours
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