HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “At a time when many colleges are struggling with shrinking enrollment and tighter budgets, Southern New Hampshire is thriving on a grand scale, and it’s not alone. Liberty, Grand Canyon, and Western Governors Universities, along with a few other nonprofit institutions, have built huge online enrollments and national brands in recent years by subverting many of traditional higher education’s hallmarks. . . . These universities have clearly found a new way to play the game that many colleges are losing. With no end to their expansion in sight, they could one day lay claim to a significant share of the nation’s new college students. Much as Amazon and Walmart now stand as the templates for the retail business, mega-universities in many ways reflect a shift in what Americans seek in a college degree: something practical, convenient, and inexpensive.”

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

UPDATE: Reader William Stroock writes: “I went back to school online before it was cool, way back in, wait for it, 2001. Yes, I was on a dial up modem. I went to American Military University (now American Public University) and earned a degree in military history. When I finished I went back an earned an MA in the American Revolution. I turned almost every term paper into a military history magazine article which jump started my career. There is no reason to attend a traditional college and pay through the nose. 20 years on, going back to school online changed my life.”