In today's fragile grasp for money do we have enough means to actually provide ourselves with a degree? There are multiple ways in which our government provides for our option to go to school, grants, financial aid and scholarships are almost not enough today for the in-debt graduate.
Through out my searching of with the almighty Google I've come across a non profits that are gearing towards self learning courses and provide a certification of completion online. Up until recently the only free online learning that can be received was through Google & Wikipedia (and we know how accurate the internet may be). And although my learning styles can still be quite comprehensive students don't have anything tangible to present to employers. This non profit is planning on changing that fact. And the online classes that are available don't come from a small island in the Cayman islands... the beauty of this non profit is that it is funded by two large colleges Harvard and MIT.
MIT and Harvard have been making a few of their classes available online for quite some time now. The issue is that it did not have a measurable outcome. After completion all you can do is pat yourself on the back and just hope that employers believe that you know your stuff during an interview. And even though there were classes available online I have only been aware of a person who had completed the entire computer science online curriculum. His ted talk video down below:
Scott Young put himself through a grueling process of self learning. All he needed to do was buy his own books according to the curriculum that he has found online and tested himself with his self paced learning. The cost of his entire completion was that of a fraction of the cost to attend MIT in a single year. There may be a few down sides to what Scott has done. Aside from needing the time to complete the courses he had no sustainable outcome. The video I posted is him speaking of his accomplishment (and I applaud you Scott!) but, it is still unfortunate that you do not have that piece of parchment saying you have had the simulated experience that college gives you.
Then there was an answer to all the hard work one needs to put into self learning:
edX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University that offers online learning to on-campus students and to millions of people around the world.
Take advantage of this organization. They are newly developed has have heard the cries of us needing an online platform in which all of us may be able to learn from. This organization will provide certifications of completion issues by edX under which ever the university the course originated (MITx, Harvardx, or BerkleyX). With these big names the certification may be able to hold ground along side with various certification vendors like Cisco or even CompTIA. For the time being they are provided this certificates for free upon completion but will eventually start going into a payment plan for them.
Will this finally be the answer to the non diploma holders? Or will a company scoff at this idea? I guess time will tell. It is true that most companies will still prefer to have a traditional degree rather than any other. But if not for the job opportunities, do it for yourself. Do it because you can, and that you want to kick your own ass with your own ideals of perfection. If this is what MIT teaches and you never thought you would be accepted into that college... well now you are.